The desert wind howled violently, carrying grains of sand that pricked the skin like tiny needles. The sun hung low above the horizon, casting a crimson-gold glow across the endless sea of dunes.
In the middle of that vast wasteland, the roar of engines thundered through the air. Several military jeeps sped across the desert, their tires crushing the sand beneath them and leaving trails that were quickly swallowed by the storm.
Four soldiers occupied each vehicle, gripping their rifles tightly. Sweat mixed with dust clung to the portions of their faces visible beneath the white cloth wrapped around their heads. Yet their eyes remained sharp, fixed straight ahead.
"Movement detected beneath the sand!"
Without warning, the desert floor trembled.
The sand ahead of them began to churn violently, as though something beneath the surface was boiling. Grains burst upward into the air.
Then hands emerged.
Dry. Rotting. Wrapped in decayed burial cloths that fluttered in the wind. Flesh hung loosely from exposed bones as more arms clawed their way out of the earth.
One.
Two.
Then dozens.
Within seconds, hundreds of mummies rose from beneath the desert, their hollow eyes staring directly at the soldiers. Their movements were stiff, unnatural—yet unstoppable.
"Graghhh!"
"Fire!!"
Gunfire shattered the silence of the wasteland. Muzzle flashes erupted from the jeeps as bullets tore through the undead horde. Several mummies exploded apart and collapsed back into the sand.
Some were successfully brought down. Their fallen bodies quickly dissolved into dust, vanishing like drops of water beneath the merciless desert heat.
But like a curse that refused to end, the sand stirred once more.
More hands emerged.
More bodies rose.
The jeeps swerved desperately to maintain distance. One soldier stood in the rear of a vehicle, unloading a heavy machine gun without pause while hot shell casings rained onto the metal floor.
"Their numbers keep increasing! We can't keep wasting ammunition like this!"
The wind grew stronger. A sandstorm slowly formed, obscuring their vision.
And beyond that storm, a massive silhouette appeared.
Far in the distance stood a motionless figure.
Its body was enormous, half-buried beneath swirling sands. Its expression remained calm, but those eyes… those eyes gazed upon the battlefield like a king observing his army.
The Sphinx.
The ancient creature did not attack.
Nor did it move.
Yet every gust of wind, every shifting current of sand, gave birth to even more mummies. It was as though the desert itself obeyed its command.
One soldier stared toward the figure, his breathing unsteady.
"What… what is that thing?"
Gunfire erupted again through trembling hands. The jeeps continued speeding forward, attempting to escape the grasping arms rising endlessly from beneath the dunes.
The desert was no longer empty land.
It had become a graveyard that refused to remain silent.
On the other side of the world, only endless white remained—a brutal contrast to the golden deserts far away.
Snow blanketed the pine forests beneath a suffocating silence. Cold winds drifted through the frozen wilderness, carrying glittering fragments of ice like shattered glass.
Within that frozen landscape, a military platoon advanced cautiously.
Their white uniforms blended perfectly into the snow, nearly invisible among the trees.
Night vision goggles glowed dimly atop their helmets, green lenses scanning every movement. Their breaths formed faint clouds that vanished instantly into the freezing air.
"Whooshhh…"
The sound of cold wind accompanied their careful footsteps.
"Polar Wolf Squad is sweeping the southern area. We'll continue updating scans every few minutes," one commander whispered through the radio.
"Understood."
Rifles shifted with every movement of their gaze. Their eyes scanned the spaces between towering pine trees.
Because they knew one thing:
What they were hunting would never be seen until it was too late.
Then, somewhere in the distance—
A branch snapped.
All ten soldiers froze instantly.
Fingers tightened around triggers.
Night vision lenses turned toward the sound.
Nothing.
Only trees. Snow. Shadows.
Then—
Something moved.
Fast.
Far too fast.
One soldier turned his head just in time to glimpse a tall, thin figure darting between the trees. Its movements were unnatural, like a starving body forced to keep running long after death.
"Contact! On the le—!"
His sentence was cut short.
The others turned toward the unfinished direction.
But the figure was already gone.
Only long footprints remained in the snow… along with claw marks slashed across the body armor of the soldier at the rear.
Heartbeats became uneven.
Breathing grew heavier.
"Wendigo…" someone muttered under his breath.
The wind suddenly changed direction.
Colder.
Sharper.
The temperature dropped even further.
From behind trees…
From above the branches…
From within the shadows…
They began surrounding the squad.
Tall silhouettes emerged with protruding bones, dim eyes reflecting through the night vision lenses, and jerking movements that were both broken and terrifyingly fast.
Gunfire erupted instantly. Muzzle flashes lit the snowfield like fireworks against the darkness.
The creatures adapted.
They leapt between trees. Vanished. Reappeared from different angles. Toying with fear itself.
Then suddenly—
A voice cut through the radio, forcing the gunfire to stop.
Silence crept in immediately, accompanied only by the whisper of the freezing wind.
Another voice entered the channel.
Calmer.
Farther away.
A sniper.
"This is Eagle-1. I have visual confirmation from above."
Every soldier held their breath.
"The targets aren't alone, Commander!"
A pause followed. Several soldiers instinctively scanned the shifting bushes around them.
"There's something supporting them from behind."
The sniper's scope zoomed further through the forming snowstorm.
In the distance stood a woman.
Completely still.
Her gown blended into the blizzard itself, while her hair drifted in winds that touched nothing else. One hand slowly rose into the air.
And with every movement she made, the snow around her began moving as though alive.
"She's controlling the snow!"
The sniper pulled the trigger.
The bullet tore through the storm like a tiny meteor cutting through the atmosphere.
But midway through its flight, frost rapidly formed around it.
Within seconds, the bullet froze solid.
Then fell helplessly into the snow.
Silence.
The radio crackled once more, this time with a much heavier tone.
"This is no ordinary target…"
A long pause followed.
"We need full military reinforcement from central command. Repeat—we need full-scale support immediately."
And beneath the frozen forest canopy, the soldiers finally realized one horrifying truth.
They were not the hunters.
They were the hunted.
The skies above the island nations darkened.
Not because of nightfall—
But because something enormous was moving beneath the ocean surface.
The sea trembled unnaturally. Waves rose and fell like the chest of something gasping for breath deep below.
Warning sirens echoed throughout the coastline.
Civilians fled in panic. Some turned back with pale faces, watching the ocean descend into madness. Children cried while adults gripped the hands of their loved ones as though they were the last remaining pieces of a collapsing world.
Then, in the distance—
The ocean split apart.
A colossal shadow slowly rose from beneath the sea, accompanied by a deep rumbling that did not come from the sky.
Water surged upward around it.
Then it emerged.
The Leviathan.
Dozens of meters tall.
Its massive body towered above the sea, drenched in torrents of water cascading from its scales like rainfall. Every movement generated enormous waves that smashed against nearby ships.
Its roar echoed across the heavens—deep, heavy, primal enough to shake the hearts of everyone who heard it.
"Visual confirmation on target!"
Military forces were already prepared along the coast. Armored vehicles lined the roads while missile launchers aimed toward the sea.
"Lock target!"
Indicator lights flashed.
Seconds later, missiles launched.
Explosions tore across the sky as streaks of fire shot toward the creature. The heavens became filled with blazing trails converging on a single point.
The impacts struck the monster directly. Water and smoke erupted upward, creating a burning mist above the ocean.
The creature roared again like a war trumpet echoing through the clouds, shattering windows along the coastline.
BYURRRR!!
The Leviathan collapsed into the sea, generating a massive tsunami that surged toward land and swept everything in its path away.
At an evacuation line, one soldier knelt before a crying child. His hands trembled violently, yet he forced himself to smile.
"It's okay… we're here. You'll be alright."
Behind him, the sky lit up once again from another barrage of missiles.
Elsewhere, a commander stared at the radar with a hardened jaw.
"Keep firing! Don't give it any opening, even if the target appears weakened!"
But deep inside, he already knew.
This was not an enemy that could be defeated through firepower alone.
Sirens continued screaming.
The monster's roars echoed endlessly beneath the sea.
Then—
The Pacific Ocean trembled.
Waves spiraled violently into a colossal vortex while the sky itself cracked apart with unnatural light. A massive ring of energy slowly opened between the heavens and the sea.
The portal born from the Helios Project's catastrophic mistake had appeared.
Energy pulsed from within it, forcing the surrounding waters to retreat as though even the ocean feared what was coming.
Satellites.
Military drones.
Live broadcasts from every nation on Earth.
All focused on that single point.
The world held its breath.
Then—
Something stepped out.
Massive.
Its body resembled that of a muscular human, yet its head bore the sharp beak of a divine bird while deadly talons replaced its wrists.
Like Garuda reborn into living flesh.
Golden armor covered its chest, reflecting the rising morning sun. From its back extended enormous golden wings so vast they cast shadows across the horizon like an eclipse swallowing the sky itself.
Each flap of those wings made the ocean tremble.
Inside news stations, anchors spoke with trembling voices.
In military command centers, generals stood frozen before their screens.
Inside underground bunkers, civilians gathered around radios in terrified silence.
And there, above the Pacific Ocean, the being finally spoke.
Its voice did not merely echo through the air.
It resonated directly inside the minds of every human on Earth.
"I am… The Ancient One."
Silence answered him.
No one dared speak.
"This world… was never meant to be shared by two civilizations."
The waves rolled gently beneath him as though even the ocean listened.
"Ancient knowledge and modern technology once existed in balance."
"But your greed for knowledge tore apart the veil separating your world… from ours."
The shadow of his wings consumed part of the sunlight.
"For decades, this war has shown no sign of ending."
His voice was neither angry nor gentle.
It was absolute.
"If this endless conflict continues… it will destroy a world far too beautiful to vanish beneath meaningless ambition."
The entire planet fell silent.
And for the first time since the chaos began, humanity felt something new.
Hope.
Or perhaps a deeper fear.
The Ancient One slowly lifted his head, as though gazing upon the entire Earth at once.
"Send your representatives."
"Come before me."
"I offer a proposal… that may yet save your world."
The wind ceased.
The ocean grew silent once more.
But the world understood one thing.
After this—
Nothing would ever be the same again.