24. Cricket(?)

He who thought to never compare the genders, it seems, had never seen the Betas as equal, for him... the true nobles had always been the Alpha and Omega...

Before he could start reflecting on what he could do better as a parent, he felt a sudden chill and immediately asked the soldier-cum-driver to stop the car.

Yuki too woke up with a jolt, followed by Aki who still had bleary eyes, he wanted to ask what was wrong, but he felt the soft palm of his Onee-chan over his mouth, he looked up only to see her pale face with furrowed eyebrows, even Aki knew that something was wrong, he heard his Papa, " Don't come out. I'll take care of it. I leave him to you," the last line was said to Yuki who gave him a simple nod, the Duke gave her a look before taking out his Rapier.

Though the sun was not out yet, it was not very dark outside, it will be morning soon...

The Demonic zergs warped from thin air, according to old tales, they lived in a separate dimension and came to this world when there was a disturbance between these parallel dimensions.

For reasons unknown, they mainly came out in places without human habitation like the borderlands of the empires, according to the ancestors, it was them wanting to attack the human populace from the last place they would expect, Yuki would like to differ, but that's for another time.

Anyway, this made for the nobles to guard their borders, due to which the borderlands all over the world was isolated, only soldiers liked to patrol around those areas.

But it seems, this phenomenon was not universal, as of late, the demonic zergs are warping almost randomly all over the world, which has become a huge a great headache for all the empires.

The warping of demonic zergs follow the same rule, the air will cool down to a great extent and it will thin down too, both created a pressure on any normal person as it will be difficult to breathe and the decrease in temperature made them suffocated and chilled to the bone. Moments later a gap, a 'crack' to be more accurate will appear in thin air, following it will be the crack leading to a passage being form between the two dimensions and the demonic zergs liked to enter from this place.

There was a reason the Duke was the strongest and a war legend, he could instinctively feel this small change in the air and became ready to war against them, he was indeed sensitive to this spontaneous change that happened in a passage of fewer than 5 seconds!!

As Yuki saw the back of the Duke, it overlapped with an image of a woman in uniform with an Excalibur in hand as her silver-white hair danced in the wind, Yuki again felt that pain in her head, she didn't know why, but even she had felt that change in the air and the next moment the headache had come back which increased when she saw his back, the buzzing continued as she saw the Duke taking long leaps towards the crack, she could see the silver aura surrounding his body and sword, she reckoned to be his magic, but that was it, the next second, the buzzing pain became unbearable and her breathing became heavier.

Aki was already scared, to begin with, he didn't know why they had stopped, nor did he understand why his Papa went out with his sword, but the worst part was when he saw his Onee-chan he pain he couldn't hold back anymore, his emotions became a bit chaotic as huge drops of tear fell down his doe-eyes, "Onee-chan? What happened? Aki is scared... Onee-chan.. tell me. Are you in pain?", his voice was trembling, it was indeed hard for a child his age.

Yuki who had closed her eyes due to the sheer pain she was feeling, felt the sudden outburst of magic from Aki, she immediately but her tongue, the pain brought her rationality back. As the Duke had said, indeed the core was something that they possessed from birth which could be strengthened with effort and other conditions over the year, but that meant that it could be broken too.

Children were mainly not aware of it and couldn't hold their magic inside, as a result, when their mental state became abnormal, this magic gushed out like chaotic waves. As an omega, Aki happened to have the power of healing and such, but now that he was young and couldn't control it, it could easily break him as well as the person he was using them on, it wasn't his fault, just that he wasn't ready yet.

Yuki felt it and took Aki into her embrace, she was going through so much pain that she could cough blood, her headache, her intentional bite and the chaotic waves Aki was radiating unconsciously still, she had to calm him down first, if he used his magic haphazardly, his core will break!

She spoke to his ears, " Aki, calm down. Everything is fine. Take deep breaths. I'm fine. Come on, take deep breathes... no need to cry. Your Papa will take care of everything and I'll be with you to protect you so, Aki... stop crying. Everything is going to just fine...", as she spoke, she kept patting his back to calm his nerves.

Aki was in his Onee-chan's embrace and felt very safe, listening to her soft and soothing voice at this close range, he immediately calmed down... her warmth made him feel protected and gradually his magic that was running rampant calmed down to become a soft breeze as he hugged his Onee-chan back and took in her light smell, he was very comfortable with this scent, he felt warm and safe...

Yuki knew that he had calmed down once the buzzing pain stopped, Aki had again used his magic to help her, she tightened her grip on him, she will protect this innocent child at any cost!!

Yuki saw the Duke fighting at the distance.

The demonic zerg was similar to a huge cricket, but like every other zerg, it was hideously dark looking.

As with every other cricket zerg, its hind appendages were sharper than it's forearms which helped it to protect itself from rear attacks, these zergs were among the classified C-minus level.

These demonic zergs were classified into the level from F-minus to A++, with F-minus given to the eggs laid by zergs which could be destroyed even by normal soldiers without magic and A++ to the Queens of the different zerg races.

With a C-minus level, it was of mid-tire difficulty, for the strongest man in the empire as of now, it was indeed easy. Still, the Duke was on the defence as he had to protect the children in the car.