The Beginning of the Great Collapse

After a few weeks, Veil plans to gather information and learn about the outside world.

This is the most sunlight and air she witnessed since she was brought to this world.

She travelled from different places to another, learning about the city of Cillis and that its neighboring cities are beginning to collapse.

The reason for other cities' collapse is the invasion of dangerous species that originated from the Middle Realm.

The Middle Realm is invisible layers of land spread throughout the planet, and through the inhabitants' magic circuits can one see through the floating lands.

Finding all about this information, Veil sets out to Plevo, the nearest city to Cillis, and the rumored one to be the next target of the invasion.

Veil travelled via the train powered by humanity's great engineering.

The trains run through layers of magical rails generated by magic crystals, however, the technology is still not advanced, so the crystals are not optimized to generate accurate railways.

The travel time is volatile due to the crystals' accuracy.

Veil calms down her rush to get to Plevo.

After a while, the captain announced they are arriving at Plevo, in which Veil immediately readied to set out.

Before everyone exits the train, numerous people are seen rushing out of the city towards the train station in order to evacuate.

Great timing enough, an unidentified class of species are setting the Plevo infrastructures on fire and wreaking havoc.

Veil slowly marched towards the center of the city.

Thud.

She bumped into two people running away from the commotion. Veil felt a sudden burst of emotion that gave her a spark that she has a connection to those two.

However, the latter just continued running after standing up from their fall, not minding who they bumped in to.

Veil watched the two run away and from there, she walked towards the enemies.

As she arrives in the city hall, the center of Plevo, she saw terrifying winged creatures swarming from the buildings, each carrying their own victims.

In the sight of this, Veil summons her longsword and coat. She dashed towards the monsters to attack.

Swing!

Sensing Veil's attack, the monsters flew towards Veil to counter her.

Slash slash slash! Boom.

After the exchange, the two winged monsters fell down after their limbs were cut by Veil.

Now, the larger winged monster charged Veil, as she prepares to counter, flames appeared out of the monster's mouth.

Vuahhhh!

'A flame breath attack!' Veil, not expecting this, summoned a big shield which did not last long, but this gave her a window to reposition.

A dangerous enemy appeared. Qualitatively stronger than trained fighters such as Morrow and Wulve.

This terrifying occurrence reminded Veil that the outside world is much more dangerous and darker than her prison cell underground the orphanage.

As Veil thinks of a plan to attack the big monster, someone from her peripheral vision signaled her to come.

Veil, running out of time before the big monster fires another breath attack, blinked towards the signal.

Woosh!

After feeling like she bumped into an invisible barrier, she got pulled out to a different place, looking like a tavern.

There, she meets the Adventurer party called Daybreak.

They are an independent party consisting of different Adventurer classes from a different country; they travelled to this country tasked to intercept the invasion from the Middle Realm, before it reaches neighboring countries.

The pieces are coming together inside Veil's head, learning more about this invasion.

The Daybreak recognized Veil's skill, so they pulled her into a magical space created by their magician.

The Daybreak has five members, with its leader being Marco, a knight, followed by Stix, an archer, Willow, a swordswoman, Lurk, assassin who uses dual blades and Silvia, the magician who erected this barrier that has a magical space separate from the outside world.

The Daybreak gave Veil more information about the invasion, learning that the monsters they are fighting now are just few of the magical beasts that reside within the Middle Realm, the real danger is from the species known as the Gaia.

The Gaias possess intelligence similar to humans, and they even boast seven senses where they can read the minds of their enemies.

'How could humanity repel such dangerous species?'

Veil tightens her grip in the longsword; she prepares to go outside to kill the magical beasts.

However, when she got out, the magical barrier has been squished flat in the city hall, blood spread everywhere.

Standing in the middle is a Gaia squadron commander named Vax'taya.

He greeted everyone who came out of the barrier, smirking, he swiped his right hand, the city hall crumbling.

Bang!

As the dust settles, Vax'taya did not wait for Veil to regain her senses and immediately charged with his massive sword.

Veil, still processing what happened to Daybreak, belatedly sensed the danger.

Swipe!

Her shoulder got severely destroyed by Vax'taya.

"Aukkk!"

Vax'taya did not stop his mad attacks, slashing Veil left and right.

Boom!

Vax'taya, satisfied with his attacks, sent a roundhouse kick to Veil's side, sending her like a cannonball away from the city hall.

"Let's go! These humans are weak as hell!" Vax'taya ordered his squadron.

However, just as the Gaias are preparing to fly, they saw a shadow moving very fast towards one of their comrade who is eating one of the human victims.

Splatter!

That Gaia's head just exploded.

"What?!"

As the rest of the squadron who are slow enough to notice what's wrong and are still assessing the situation.

The real Veil used the power of darkness to merge with the shadows and increase the speed of her movements.

Slashing left and right with her shadow sword, she harvested the lives of the Gaia.

It seemed that the Veil and magic barrier earlier were just one of the illusions casted as a trap by the magician, Silvia.

While the rest of the Daybreak is making use of their underground tunnels through the city, Vax'taya noticed something amiss with his troops.

"What is wrong with all of you? Start moving!"

One of Vax'taya's guards informed him of the situation.

"Hnggg, so they still have a way of retaliating against me the great Vax'taya?!" Vax'taya sneered.

He flew towards the city hall again after learning the situation, he moved like a bullet and sparing no effort.

As he landed, the shockwaves were sent to the whole city, crumbling the tunnel network created by Daybreak.

Marco abandoned the idea of using the underground system now because at any moment, they could be buried underground.

They then charged towards a hole from a collapsed road to monitor the current situation.

Stix, noticing the Gaia footmen marching towards them, immediately fired his magic arrows.

Skill: Wind Surge!

Shoo, shoo, shoo!

Arrows rained on the footmen, massacring the large part of the army who could not move in time.

Willow and Lurk then unsheathed their weapons and charged to engage the Gaia gunners in a melee combat, seeing that the other melee warriors of Gaia are in a state of chaos caused by Veil.

Cling. Swipe. Boom. Crack. Splatter. Rumble.

Sounds of weapons clashing, explosions and arrows raining fill up the now-ruined city of Plevo.

Silvia, who is still in the middle of creating magic arrays to weaken and trap the Gaias, spotted a creature charging towards her.

Vax'taya, who finally found his target who keeps making troubles for his army, charged towards the confused magician.

Swing!

Silvia, startled by the attack, immediately casted spells one after another to protect herself and repel Vax'taya.

Instantaneous Triple Casting!

Skill: Ice Wall!

Skill: Protection Blessing!

Skill: Flame Spears!

Vax'taya countered by leaping to avoid the ice walls and using a breath attack to cancel out the spears.

Silvia ran away as soon as she barely finished the last magic array.

Spotting a hidden spot to activate the arrays spread through the city, she begins channeling her mana into the surroundings.

Mana Expansion: Mana Brilliance!

Vuooooong!

As the magic arrays illuminate the whole city, swirling magic circuits and healing energy embraced the air.

Daybreak members then cheered as soon as they feel the buffs of Silvia's magic barrier.

The Gaias trapped inside immediately turned sluggish and felt uncomfortable inside the barrier due to the rampant mana that works totally different from their evil energies.

Vax'taya screeched loudly when he found out that the fly he is chasing down still gets to activate the arrays.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

As he tried destroying the barrier by constantly punching it, Veil saw the opportunity to get rid of Vax'taya's guards.

She blended in with the shadows and sent slashes towards the heads of the guards.

Splatter. Break!

One of the guards' head exploded, while the other barely blocked with his blade arm.

As Veil and the remaining guard continued in their combat, Marco remained focused and searched in the vicinity for potential survivors.

Lurk's body then become translucent and sneaked his way towards the origin gate the Gaias opened to invade the city.

Skill: Stealth!

Willow who finished her last Gaia footmen, kneeled down and casted a buffing skill to assist Veil before joining the fray.

Skill: Judgement Sword!

As both Veil's sword and Willow's sword glow with more mana, the guard's arm started cracking from the two women's assault.

With no choice left, the guard opened his mouth and fired a black smoke in the air before falling.

Vax'taya, attacking the barrier restlessly on the North side of the city, noticed the black smoke and immediately understood the signal.

He flew as fast as he can towards his guard.

Having the vantage to monitor the surroundings, Vax'taya saw the remains of his previous strong army reduced to corpses.

Vax'taya raged and charged towards Marco who is currently digging up a collapsed house for his rescue mission.

Marco, busy lifting the wall, shivered and feels cold on his back.

Turning his head so watch behind him, he found himself spinning away before blacking out.

"Commander!!!" Willow cried out in desperation as she keeps running towards Marco and Vax'taya, holding Marco's dilapidated body.

Skill: Holy Sword!

Skill: Charge!

Skill: Blade Dance!

Willow reappeared behind Vax'taya with her strongest skills and sent 15 violent slashes in quick succession.

Wung wung wung wung.

As her holy sword lost its rampant mana, the glow in her sword wanes.

Vax'taya on the receiving end of the attacks, laughed loudly.

"FUHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAAA!"

He received mere scratches all over his body from Willow's strongest combo.

He then threw Marco's body towards Willow.

Marco's bones pierced Willow's chest as she bled out.