Demonic Pornstar System

Kaiden’s thumb clicked the remote, cutting off the laugh track of the comedy show, and the television shifted to live broadcasts. The lighthearted atmosphere in the room evaporated in an instant.

A shaking camera filled the screen first. Smoke and fire clawed toward the sky above what was once a sprawling city. The reporter’s voice was breathless and panicked.

"This... this is Manila, ladies and gentlemen! The death toll is climbing by the second! Dungeons have opened in the heart of the city, and there are simply too many monsters for the local forces to handle. We... we’re hearing reports of entire districts being wiped off the map. People are being eaten alive in the streets! Military reinforcements are on their way, but they are not expected to arrive in time!"

The feed was cut to another location.

"This is Lagos!" another reporter shouted, his voice nearly drowned out by the roar of distant monsters and the screams of dying civilians. Behind him, colossal beasts trampled through shattered streets. "The government is urging everyone to flee, but highways are blocked with abandoned vehicles! We can’t..." The man’s voice faltered as the camera caught sight of a creature snatching up three fleeing people in one claw. The screen jolted wildly, then the feed cut to black.

Another network took over immediately. A woman’s face filled the screen, pale and drawn. She was trying to maintain composure, but her voice trembled. "New Delhi has lost contact with several districts. Early estimates suggest tens of millions dead or dying. Entire neighborhoods have been swallowed by dungeon breaches. We and our awakened were not prepared for this scale of monster outbreaks..."

The screen switched again. Now it was South America, the Amazon jungle burning as winged abominations blackened the sky. "Brazil is collapsing under the assault! Entire towns are overrun, communications are failing, and the awakened forces are scattered! The president has issued a global call for aid!"

Kaiden’s grip on the remote tightened. He could hear the shaking in every reporter’s voice, could see the fear in their eyes. These were not calm, professional broadcasts. These were desperate human beings trying to speak to the world while their own cities fell apart around them. While the people they grew up with were being eaten alive in utter agony.

The crawl at the bottom of the screen displayed bold red text:

[Humanity in Crisis: Hundreds of Millions Dead. Entire Nations on the Brink. Global State of Emergency Declared.]

Then the anchor’s voice, strained and brittle, returned to unify the chaos. "These horrific scenes match the words spoken by the unknown woman whose voice reached the world earlier today. She called it the end of the grace period... and judging by what we are seeing, this is no mere warning. Humanity is in mourning. Humanity is bleeding. The grace period, whatever it was, seems to be truly over."

The screen filled with montage after montage. Streets littered with censored corpses, people crying over lost family, governments deploying what little forces they could muster. The sheer scope of the disaster left no room for denial.