Beyond the Apocalypse

The Levithan forces in the Jerar Country had been gravely affected by the gray fog containing the Levithan Virus. Countless drones had perished under its power, their forms collapsing into lifeless husks scattered across the desolated landscape. The aerial units and insect-humanoid warriors were now weakened, their wings torn and limbs trembling beneath the weight of infection and exhaustion. In the heart of this country stood a shattered city.

Within this ruined city, a swarm of mosquitoes hovered in the stagnant air. They drifted down onto the surviving Levithan units, piercing their chitinous hides and injecting a substance that caused the creatures to regain a portion of their lost vigor. The insect-humanoid hybrids and the aerial units, which had been on the brink of death, began to recover. Even as they regained some strength, their collective gaze fell upon the millions of drones that had succumbed to the virus. There was no way to bring back the dead. Yet, the hive mind would not surrender its advantage so easily.

Soon, faint echoes drifted into the city: the distant scraping of pincers. A swarm of drones, already immunized against the virus, approached the broken city’s borders. They intended to consume the corpses of their deceased kin so that the obsidian obelisk could reuse the biomass. This cunning strategy would bolster their numbers once more.

But fate had other plans. As the immunized drones neared the center of the ruined city, positioning themselves amidst the countless Levithan corpses and ready to eat their kind, a radiant burst of flames, wrapped in lashing currents of lightning, tore open the sky. All the Levithan units turned their gaze heavenward, fury and killing intent burning in their eyes. The hive mind recognized the presence of the young man even before he appeared. Yet recognition could not halt what came next.

Vlad descended from above, hurtling downward with overwhelming power. His impact upon the broken city was colossal, releasing a shockwave of dust, debris, and blazing light. The fallen structures, already weakened by previous battles, shattered further. Fractured masonry, twisted beams of metal, and scorched rubble exploded outward as if flung from the epicenter of some unholy tempest. The ground trembled as tongues of flame and arcs of lightning surged outward in all directions.

The roaring burst of energy engulfed the Leviathan corpses strewn about, incinerating them in an instant. Those drones that had ventured too close were caught in the inferno. Their shells cracked open under the assault, fluids and ash mixing into the scorching air. Yet, as the blinding flash waned, it became clear that the swarm was vast. Many Levithan units still lived, their eyes fixated on the center of the explosion. Despite their losses, they remained numerous and deadly, their instincts guided by the hive mind’s relentless hunger and rage.

This fixation on the explosion’s center proved fatal. Not even five seconds had passed since the incendiary impact when hundreds of thousands of human forces poured into the shattered and burning city. They arrived like a tide of flesh and steel, their faces drawn with exhaustion and grime. For three and a half days, they had been running, fighting, never pausing to rest. They had pushed their bodies beyond mortal limits, aided by alchemical drugs that forced their muscles and nerves to obey long past the point of natural collapse. Still, within their eyes burned a fierce determination as they made their Force explode.