PROLOGUE

“Mr. President, do you really think it wise to actually increase the military budget in the middle of such troubling times with Russia and China?”

Adam Ross sighed in his hearth and asked himself, not for the first time, why me! For the thousand time in the past 2 years, why couldn’t he just stay happy as a retired sergeant, no he had to run for president, worse he actually won.

“First I would like to point out there is no tension between Russia, China and the US, in fact Nickolov, Lei Chen and I just had a friendly conference last week”, yeah they had conferences every week anyway, with 56 other national leaders but no need to tell them that, “the military expending are a necessity, more than 13% of equipment we have are obsolete and a big part of our personnel is retiring in 2 years, we need the money” also not technically a lye as a great deal of personnel retire every year and 13% of weapons really are obsolete as swords and shields were out of use for hundreds of years now.

“Mr. president” said another reporter as he got up “What about the nation wide, mandatory lessons for policemen about big predators, it is clearly a waste of money and shows signs of corruption”.

“The Alonor project was a tried and approved project signed by my predecessor and deemed necessary by both me and the senate.” When Adam’s aid whispered into his ear it was time he sighed in relief “We are finished here gentlemen, thank you for your time”.

Leaving the public conference Adam took of his necktie and breathed deeply “Jackson I need a coffee” getting to his office, not the oval one but the comfortable unofficial one, and drank his coffee laying his head back he rested for exactly 1 hour and 22 minutes before being called by his assistant, it was time.

Adam sat on the top of a long rectangular table, at both sides of it were the most important man and woman of the country, the chief of intelligence, marshals various generals in charge of important projects, senators, all parts of the government were present, waiting.

Perhaps the most out of place people on the table were the two small skinny men on civilian clothes, one was an employee of ‘Mages of the coast’ an RPG gamer and developer, the other a fantasy and Scy-fi writer.

“Everything is ready Mr. President” lifting his head Adam replied “Very well connect us Jonathan”, 58 monitors lighted up with 58 faces of important chiefs of state from all over the world, from Russia and Japan to Brazil, Argentina and South Africa, undoubtedly each one surrounded by their own staff.

English had been chosen as the default language and each gave their greetings one at a time before silence fell on the conference, breaking the silence the Portuguese representative started “So, this is it gentlemen.” They all just nodded their heads and became quiet again, finally another one couldn’t stop himself “What if it doesn’t happen?” “If it doesn’t happen” said the serious Japanese prime minister “I will be throwing the biggest party Japan has ever seen that’s what” many of them smiled while sharing the thought.

“how much longer?” one of the nervous staff asked outside the camera “ 7… 6 … 5… any time from… now!” nothing happened for a few seconds and many released breaths of relief but Adam knew better as he had been briefed constantly about the event, “we now have a 2 hours window for the event to happen gentlemen” time to wait in terror.

“Tell me again, how are we to enforce the law after it happens?” of course he knew all about it but asked anyway as a way to relieve his staff tension, as they started explaining and discussing the subject he tuned them out thinking about his son, he had really fucked up there.

BOM!

A massive impact shook the entire floor snapping him out of his thinking in time to see panic, fear, excitement or sadness in the faces of many of his fellow rulers “It has begun”.

SYSTEM WARNINGYour world is being invaded!

SYSTEM WARNINGA joining of dimensions has caused cracks to appear between your world and an alien one, creatures may invade from it beware

[Congratulations! Adam Ross has been successfully integrated into the system]

“status” He called out loud and a blue screen appeared in front of him.

NAMEAdam RossRACEHumanTITLESPresident of US, Sergeant, Terrible FatherSTATUSFatigued (-30% stamina)LEVEL1HEALTH100%STAMINA52%MANA[LOCKED]STR6SPD5END7DEX5WIS6INT5AbilitiesN/aSkillsN/a

STR ( Strength)Level of muscle in the body, maximum human level = 10 current level = 6. Strong

SPD(speed)level of reaction and fast movement, maximum human level = 10 current level = 5. Above average

END(endurance)how much physical trauma a body can take, how much pain one can withstand, how hard it is to hurt, how fast stamina drains, maximum human level=10 current level= 7 Very though

WIS(Wisdom)Capability of making correct decisions based on prior knowledge or infer information from possibilities, maximum human level = 10 current level = 6. Wise

INT(intelligence)Capability of remembering, learning or creating information, maximum human level = 10 current level=5. Above average

DEX(dexterity)dictate coordination, maximum human level = 10 current level=5. Above average

All across the planet mankind heard the disembodied voice of the at the same time, many ignored it, some praised it as the word of God, some panicked thinking they were crazy and some became excited in a whole it was a marking moment for humanity but not especially worrying, until the sun started to turn black that is.

Jonathan called for his attention outside the camera showing him images in the holographic table, in it a small circle of red appeared in the center of the sun and slowly spreading to cover it’s entire length like corruption, when it was finally completely taken over a gigantic eye appeared on the center of it looking down on the planet with dispassion as if looking at an ant, for a few seconds it searched the planets but founding nothing interesting and moved on.

The sun rift started to close slowly but no one relaxed, all their eyes glued to the image until the end, his aid used the zoom on the image when the rift became too small showing it’s last moments, just as it was about to completely close a mass of tentacles squeezed it’s way out nearly unnoticeable at the distance.

“Shit! Fuck I want somebody monitoring that… creature right now!” Two of the generals on the table jumped up and ran out of the room while Adam wiped the sweat out of his forehead.

Touching the table he changed the image to that of the 5 selected arrival points, one of them only showed images of wrecked twisted metal, fire and blood, no survivors could be seen, thankfully 2 of the other points were already exterminated one showed tired troops dragging the bodies of giant spiders and throwing them into a huge piles to be burned while the other showed 4 house sized cats dead from countless bullets and grenades.

The last 2 locations were still in the middle of heavy fighting, one with an army of small humanoid creatures, Adam had been briefed into the most common races to expect so he recognized them as goblins, tanks and grenades crossed fireballs and thunder strikes, bullets crossed rains of arrows as goblin warriors madly dashed towards the soldiers trampling their already dead brethren. The US soldiers had a great advantage, superior weapons, discipline and lack of surprise allowed them to slay goblins by the hundreds but the little monsters were endless and there were a few bigger elite who could slay several soldiers by themselves.

On the last site there was only one enemy, an enormous hybrid of man and bird nearly 30m high spewing flame and sending blades of air flying everywhere, it was already wounded, missing an arm and with it’s face a mass of burned flesh, many holes were opened in it’s wing and body, it clearly would not live much longer but seemed dead set on taking out as many enemies it could before death having destroyed 8 tanks and left only 1 helicopter still on the air, many soldiers holding missile launchers were still attacking it from the ground.

Adam did not need to ask about the losses, he knew they were crippling but he was curious about the first site “what happened on the place we lost?” “it was an elemental creature Mr. President, something made of smoke and thunder, immune to physical attacks there was nothing we could do” he sighed “We knew there was a possibility such creatures would transition, did it seek more victims?” “No, it appears to have detected the many nuclear devices surrounding it and is hiding in the location” thanking god for small favors he considered detonating the nukes but, as long as it was contained there was always hope they found a way to kill it without destroying half the country, turning towards his staff again he asked the question he didn’t want answered.

“Did it work?” “Mostly, the national holyday avoided most huge crowds thus no unstoppable treat was spawned in any of the cities we are monitoring but many individual creatures still appeared, the police preparations seems to be working but… frankly civilian losses will still be staggering and we won’t know how many cities we can keep until at least tomorrow night”

Laying his head back on the chair Adam closed his eyes and rested for a full minute, when he opened them again most of his fellow leaders had also recovered from the shock however the screens showing Afghanistan, England and India were dark, no way to know what happened yet.

“Gentlemen, I believe you will all agree?” said Nickolov from Russia, they all nodded their heads “Very well , for now it is every country for itself, I hope to see you all again in 7 days when our internal troubles are settled” turning off his own camera Adam turned to one particular general “It’s time to activate project Ragnarok”.