Rise To The Top! [Finished]

Chapter 19: The Truth

It felt like he crossed an endless tunnel at a speed very close to that of infinity. He flew past the space filled with nothing but darkness; the light seeping into this space from such a long distance away slammed into him in an instant. After the blinding by the light dissipated away, Brian was greeted by the immense spectacle laid out before his eyes - no, below him - and spat out a shocked gasp in his mind. An army consisting solely of innumerable monsters stretched far beyond the scope of vision below him. From where he was, all the way to beyond the horizon. Countless monsters completely covered up the ground until there was no uncovered patch left. In all honesty, that was one hell of a terrifying sight to behold. If this many monsters jumped out of a Gate all at once, humanity wouldn't have a chance in hell at winning against them.
Just from seeing this, he felt his innards tighten as if he was having indigestion.

This isn't earth ~(Brian)

Indeed it wasn't. He could see thin, tall, and bizarre looking rocky outcroppings jutting out from here and there on this reddish-brown, dried up plains where not even a single blade of grass grew. This was a completely foreign landscape that he had never seen before. His eyes could catch the sight of the reddish-brown ground, those strange rock formations, and then, the great army of monsters standing on top of said ground. Vandana shifted his gaze over to these monsters. He spotted weaklings commonly seen in low ranked dungeons, all the way to the powerful monsters that could only be seen in much higher-ranked dungeons, such as High Orcs, White Walkers, and even Giants. This disparate gathering of monsters that ignored their ranks and species were busy looking up and waiting for something to happen.

They're looking at a portal ~(Brian)

He followed after their gazes and raised his head to the sky above. A jet-black lake, quietly floating high up in the sky. Rather it being a lake, it was more of a Gate. A Gate so big that he couldn't even begin to guess its size. And it was silently looking down on the ground. This black 'hole' was blocking up the purple sky beyond it. Seeing the colour of the sky that should not exist, he became doubly sure that this was not Earth anymore. In a world that was clearly not Earth, something major was about to happen between the monsters and that Gate. He unconsciously swallowed his saliva. Trapped within this eerie silence, his nervousness also increased as the time wore on. Just what would come out from that Gate? Brian began wondering if he'd get to see the weapons of humanity or the armies of humans stepping out of that huge Gate, just like how monsters would step onto Earth through those portals. What came out of the cracked-open Gate's mouth was soldiers decked out in silver armour, with wings attached to their backs. These silver-armoured soldiers poured out of the Gate like agitated bees rushing out of the disturbed beehive. While monsters covered up the entirety of the ground, these soldiers in turn utterly blotted out the sky. It was truly a spectacular sight. Vandana couldn't stop admiring this incredible view. However, the monsters must've thought rather differently. They began howling at the top of their lungs upon seeing the silver-armoured soldiers covering the sky and began bucking around in agitation.

Ashborn's army ~(Brian)

He didn't even have to be a genius to figure out what would happen next. It was war. The flying soldiers became silver drops of light and descended to the ground below. As it turned out, there was more than one Gate in the sky. There were several of them, and silver soldiers poured out of them one after the other.
Monsters on the ground versus the soldiers of the sky! Two groups, clearly burning with hostile intentions against each other, soon collided just above the ground. And a battle of an indescribable scale and proportion unfolded next. The beastly roars of the monsters shook the land below, and horns being blown by the silver-armoured soldiers thunderously resounded out. Weapons collided with other weapons; the sounds of armours shattering noisily rang out. The beastly roars soon morphed into screams and pained groans. The ground below was steadily being dyed the colour of blood. The superiority in this battle was established very quickly. The silver-armoured soldiers were very powerful. These guys easily sliced off the necks of the monsters that were strong enough to rip high-ranked Hunters apart with their bare hands. Such powerful beings had formed a massive invading group, so perhaps it was only inevitable that the monsters were being swept away. The balance was tilting noticeably now to their favour. Even then, silver-armoured soldiers continued to pour out from the Gates non-stop. The waves upon waves of the silver soldiers crashing forward like the incoming tide erased all traces of living monsters off the dried plains in no time at all. The war began as a fierce clash between two forces, but now, it descended into a blood-soaked massacre, instead just like how Vandana was with his foes, the swords and spears of the silver soldiers knew no mercy. Because of that, the number of monsters decreased quite rapidly. Brian watched this scene of the horrifying monsters being killed off with little to no resistance and was overcome with a puzzling mixture of emotions.