Two
1462 Words
The moment Ray reached the office building, an odd uneasiness tugged at him. It sat low in his stomach like a warning he couldn’t decipher. He paused at the entrance, scanning the surroundings with a faint frown.
Something wasn’t right.
“I don’t know what this feeling is… it’s not the air,” he murmured, rubbing his arm as if the skin there sensed something his mind couldn’t grasp. “It’s different.”
The rain had stopped, but the sky stayed heavy with thick, unmoving clouds, dark and swollen as if hoarding more storms. The streets were unusually empty; no one had left their homes yet after the intense downpour. At first glance, the city looked unchanged—but Ray couldn’t shake the sensation crawling over his skin. It wasn’t dread exactly, nor fear. It was something stranger, like the world was holding its breath.
Or maybe, in some bizarre way… everything was about to make sense?
He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “It’s probably just the meds messing with me…”
“Someone—please! Help! Help!!”
A woman’s panicked scream split the quiet before he could finish the thought.
Ray jerked toward the sound. In front of the burger shop next to his office, a young woman crouched on the pavement, clinging desperately to a man sprawled at her feet. Her boyfriend, most likely. His body jerked wildly, limbs thrashing in uncontrolled spasms like he was trapped in a violent seizure.
“Help! Somebody help us!” she cried, voice cracking with terror.
Ray swallowed hard. “I want to help, but… I can barely stand upright myself…” His whispered admission felt pathetic, but it was true. His fragile body wasn’t capable of assisting anyone.
And calling for help was impossible. For more than a week, all wireless communication had collapsed—phones, internet, everything. No emergency lines worked. They were all trapped in silence.
That eerie sensation from earlier pulsed through Ray again, stronger this time. It swept over him like an invisible wave, shifting the atmosphere. A cold gust whipped past him, followed immediately by a warm draft, almost like the weather couldn’t decide what season it belonged to.
His heartbeat spiked, pounding rapidly against his ribs, fast, erratic, almost painful.
Then it appeared.
A translucent blue display blinked to life right in front of him, floating in empty air.
Ray froze.
[A solar system with a viable star and planets has been identified in the Milky Way galaxy, Sector Omega-8.]
[Searching for lifeforms capable of awakening evolutionary traits…]
[Two planets hosting such lifeforms have been found.]
[Registering solar system with central database. Star designation: ‘Sun.’]
[Initiating planetary awakening. Releasing otherworldly essences into the atmospheric layers…]
Ray stared, wide-eyed, his breath trapped in his throat. He didn’t dare blink. The messages kept scrolling like lines of code in some cosmic machine.
Then the world around him shifted again.
From the ground—through cracks in the pavement, through the soil itself—thin waves of colored mist began rising. Purple, red, green, black, gold, and shades he couldn’t even name bled into the air like shimmering smoke. They surged upward in enormous columns, sweeping across the sky before fading completely.
Gone in an instant.
But the effect remained.
The air in the city thickened as those energies mingled with the atmosphere and sank into every living being. Humans, animals—everything. The same phenomenon spread across Earth… and another red planet Ray had never heard of.
A strange sensation coursed through Ray’s body. A chill crawled over his skin while a subtle warmth radiated through his bones. Not painful, not pleasant, just alien, indescribable and profoundly wrong.
Before he could process it, the ground bucked violently.
A powerful tremor ripped through the city.
People screamed. Car alarms went off. Streetlights shook, threatening to topple.
“What—what is happening?!”
“It’s an earthquake!”
“Oh God, I’m going to die—!”
Ray clutched his throbbing chest, barely able to breathe. Panic clawed at his lungs. He didn’t have the strength to help anyone—not even himself.
Instinct, pure and desperate, took over.
He turned away from the office door and sprinted—or as close to sprinting as his weak body allowed—toward an open area free from buildings and parked cars. The last thing he needed was a collapsing structure burying him alive.
He dropped into a cross-legged position on the trembling ground, hands clamped over his ears. The world around him roared with crashing sounds, shattering objects, and terrified shrieks. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to make himself smaller as the earth shook beneath him with relentless force.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity the tremor faded.
Ray opened his eyes.
And froze.
“What… what is that?”
In the heart of the city, an enormous cylindrical tower now loomed tall enough to disappear into the darkened clouds. It hadn’t been there moments ago. No construction noise, no explosion, nothing. It had simply… appeared.
Dark shadows spread across the sky, turning day to dusk.
“What the hell…?” Ray whispered.
Around him, voices rose in frightened confusion.
“What is that thing?”
“Where did it come from?!”
“Is this some kind of attack?”
The tower stood silent, ancient, and ominous—an object that did not belong to Earth.
And it wasn’t alone.
All over the globe, identical towers materialized. Every hundred kilometers, another one stood—on land, in oceans, even in remote wildernesses untouched by civilization.
For the first time in history, the entire population of Earth, every continent, every nation stared at the same impossibility.
Then a new message appeared in Ray’s vision.
In everyone’s vision.
[The System has arrived on your habitable planet, designated ‘Earth.’ Through forced metamorphosis, all inhabitants have gained the right to evolve.]
[In five seconds, monsters from countless realms will invade Earth.]
[Remaining Time: 5 seconds.]
Gasps erupted around him.
“Monsters?!”
“This has to be a prank! It has to be!”
“Someone tell me what’s going on!”
But the messages didn’t stop.
[You may now view your attributes, talents, abilities, and skills by thinking about them.]
[Remaining Time: 3 seconds.]
Ray’s breathing sped up. His chest tightened painfully. His vision blurred at the edges.
The world felt unreal—too vivid and too distorted at once.
“Monsters…?” he whispered, the word barely reaching his own ears.
A strange familiarity tingled deep inside him—an echo he couldn’t explain.
[Remaining Time: 1 second.]
“W-What is that?” a man beside him choked out, pointing toward the street.
Ray followed the trembling finger.
A massive green circle—glowing, crackling with sparks—materialized mid-air. Its edges rippled like liquid energy, forming a portal that pulsed with a sinister rhythm.
“This… this is bad,” Ray muttered under his breath.
[Remaining Time: 0 seconds.]
[Monster invasion has begun. Good luck.]
The moment the final message appeared, Ray felt his stomach drop.
The convulsing man from earlier was no longer on the ground.
He was standing—completely still.
And utterly transformed.
His skin had deepened to a dark, blood-red shade. His fingernails had lengthened into talon-like claws. His eyes—once human—were now pitch black, bleeding at the edges, empty and soulless.
A guttural growl rumbled from his throat.
Then came the portal.
Massive beasts poured out—hulking creatures shaped like wolves but standing upright on two legs. Their yellow fangs glinted wickedly, their claws curved and enormous. They growled as they surveyed the humans around them with hungry, predatory focus.
Beside Ray, the woman who had been holding her boyfriend earlier sobbed uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her face as she reached toward the creature he had become, as if she could somehow pull the humanity back into him.
The monster lunged.
His jaws clamped down on her neck, tearing out a huge chunk of flesh. Blood sprayed violently as he swallowed the piece whole.
Her body collapsed.
Ray jolted back, horrified—but it wasn’t over.
The woman’s corpse began to twitch.
Her limbs contorted. Her skin darkened. Her nails sharpened. Her eyes rolled open—black, empty, monstrous.
She rose.
What followed was nothing short of hell.
Across the city, across the entire planet rather, humans and animals alike twisted into grotesque abominations, attacking everything around them. From the portals, new horrors emerged, creatures born from realms never meant to touch Earth.
Screams filled the streets.
Blood painted the ground.
Humanity, as it had existed moments ago, vanished.
Earth was no longer just a world.
It had become a battlefield.
- Writer
