Dark energies gathered around a large creature of shadows standing on its two legs, its right clawed hand focusing its ominous powers into an orb of magic held in its tight grasp. After just a while, the clawed hand slammed the orb against the ground, not fazed by a thundering explosion that followed and a shock wave enveloped the monstrous figure along with everything around it. Huge structures all around crumbled or simply evaporated on the spot and when the apocalypse not dissimilar to a nuclear strike finally passed, it left only death and destruction behind.

The devilish shadow stood there alone, unmoved and intact.

"Yor-Jagdon, another research site destroyed." A blindingly bright figure appeared next to the shadow. With his extraordinary sight, he saw only a burning sing standing far in the distance where a big city had stood only a moment ago.

"They are too weak, we should have assaulted them earlier." The humanoid embodiment of light looked next to him at the one who had caused the monumental explosion, his voice containing a hint of regret.

"You are wrong Mikha'El, they simply do not fight back." Samma'El growled while clenching his fist, the tips of his claws producing a sharp scratching noise when they touched his skin, akin to knives grinding against steel plates.

"Dirty tricks, dammit!" He stomped his foot and tremors reverberated through the earth, causing a minor earthquake.

At first, Samma'El thought that the invasion was simply going well, but later he began to suspect that a large part of the Arcane Universe's forces adopted a daring strategy, a move which was their last option to overturn the result of the brutal war between the two universes. In direct confrontation between the Arcane Universe and the Divine Universe, they were losing and so some of them seemed to had come with a plan to purposefully get absorbed into the Fabled Universe that was currently madly devouring soul power, making amassing more souls, the very basis of the both universes' strength impossible. Throwing themselves into the Fabled Universe, the desperate losing forces hoped to gain control over it and then turn its nefarious properties against those of El, shifting the battle into a struggle of the Divine Universe against the Fabled Universe. Ir was a daring and smart mover, as it would be impossible to enter their turf without having one's souls devoured, providing the Fabled Universe with an excellent defensive mechanism.

"You think to be so smart, but it will not go smoothly." Samma'El whispered with venom in his voice, he considered highly suspicious that he knew of no case of anyone leaving the Fabled Universe and he had a hunch that the escape of their enemies would be a one way trip, at least for a time. With their retreat, their final battle was basically postponed, as he had no intention to follow after them, risking to lose their advantage.

"We will conquer what we can and fortify our positions. We got hold of many of their souls, the war was still to our benefit." Samma'El stated, his tone not allowing for any opposition.

"What about Gabri'El? Shouldn't we follow to crush them with his help in a pincer attack?" Mikha'El asked, slightly displeased by the fact that there was no one to balance out Samma'El's methods.

"No, he can take care of himself until the time comes." Samma'El refuted resolutely, ignoring the sharp glare of his companion.

* * * *

"Kokabelle, begin your day with a delicious mixture of fresh fruits melting on your tongue. Nine out of ten doctors agree that consuming Kokabelle daily will improve your health and. .. . . "

"Oh please, please! Not this again!" Kail began angrily pressing buttons of the remote control he held in his both hands to change the channel and escape from the ever present advertisement on yogurt. How much did the company pay for its advertisement that he even got it displayed? Most of the times the advertisement algorithms kept pushing other products down his throat like new games, chairs, electronics and porn of course, as porn had been going strong since the time a hoe had been invented, maybe even sooner.

Suddenly, the intrusive depictions of annoyingly healthy children jumping, running and rolling all around were interrupted by news and the reporters on the screen began immediately pushing on him their agenda for a change.

"No way! Have they no shame, or could really something serious happened?" Kail was not a fan of mass media, their news being usually biased or blatant lies, but even the corrupted government usually did not do something like this. For a second, he paid attention to the reporter and hoped that it was just some kind of a joke.

"Our planet is estimated to come under attack any moment, all citizens are advised to evacuate through the portals that have been opened on all major squares and train stations. Everyone will be evacuated to a safe location."

"What is this crap? Are they insane? Weren't we winning on all fronts just yesterday?" Kail happened to live at a higher location with a good view of the main square, he quickly glanced in its direction and after focusing his eyes on the crowded place, he could really see some sort of a circular distortion at its center.

"No way I am going to. .. " His rant had been interrupted by a flash of light and the following tremors that had been felt through the concrete walls made him almost feel sick.

Without another word, he immediately jumped off his chair and threw himself at a small bag that he used to carry to work. He began stuffing some basic clothes and other daily necessities like knives, spoon and lighter inside, but his frantic effort had been interrupted by yet another tremor that seemed to be closet than the last.

"Screw packing!" He shouted in a high pitch voice and dashed out of his apartment when he saw one of the streets at the edge of the city obliterated in a sea of blinding light. Outside the apartment, he quickly glanced up and saw a volley of beans of light bombarding not just the city, but as far as an eye could see. A chill ran through his spine when he understood that he became a part of a true armageddon. A notion that solidified when he observed one of the beams hit a small grocery store nearby, turning it into a blazing inferno, the sound of an explosion deafening him for a moment.

He sprinted to a nearby square and noticed that all public transportation halted, unable to proceed without mowing down countless people that were rushing in the same direction as him. Like in a dream, he passed a mall where he usually went shopping, its transparent front heavily damaged by shock waves and unintentionally stepped on a person that was unfortunate enough to fall down and was slowly getting trampled to death by the mob of people that poured in the direction of the nearest portal.

Originally, he wanted to inspect the portal before throwing himself inside, but the people around him would simply trample him if he attempted to change direction ot hesitate even for a second, thus he was squeezed inside.

After he regained his faculties, even more chaos welcomed him on the other side of the portal, with monstrous creatures and blood everywhere. He saw many humans with pointy ears running in all directions, chased by strange purplish creatures that hunted them without mercy.

In panic, he sprinted in a direction with the least amount of the horrid creatures, but he was soon out of breath.

"No, what is this nightmare? This is supposed to be a safe place?! This is a massacre not an evacuation!" All sorts of thoughts ran through his mind when he entered a shop with a wrecked door to hide, but he noticed that one of the smaller creatures was following him.

"NO!" He looked around in panic, luckily there were stairs that led down to a cellar, providing him with an escape route.

He hesitated no longer and entered a tunnel that led into a cellar. He was relieved when he saw that there was a group of men that might help him to beat back the creature. Yet, before he was able to mobilize them, he felt intense pain in his side and grabbed at his wound. He realized that the hot, sticky liquid that flowed through his fingers was his own blood and his head started to spin.

He could no longer hold himself on his feet and fell to the ground.

* * * *

Frei sat in a corner of a cellar with vine bottles all around him. There were times when he would have been happy for such a setup, but he was currently not in a mood, just watching a group of heavily armored men that used the occasion to its full potential, as if the situation outside did not matter to them. The tunnel leading to the cellar was long and twisted, the abominations outside could not enter due to their larger frame and chose to chase after targets that were easier to reach.

Frei had currently no thoughts about fighting, elves of the city outnumbered the intruders and it was highly probable for them to manage the situation without the help of anyone present.

So, Frei waited along with the knights that drank the vine that was not theirs, all of them hoping that the commotion outside would cease after some time.. Certainly not the most honorable action, but the most logical one.

"Hey you! You are an eyesore, pick up a bottle already! There will be no somber man here!" One of them shouted in Frei's direction.

"Why not, " Frei whispered and grabbed the least dusty bottle from behind his back and opened it, then gestured in the direction of the armed men, lifting the bottle lightly while making eye contact with the group.

"Cheers!" most of them lifted glasses and bottles of their own and shouted, encouraging Frei to drink up.

The wine was not half-bad and Frei soon found himself holding an empty bottle. The warm feeling kept spreading through his body and his head felt lighter, his worries slowly fading away. He looked at the empty bottle and saw the reflection of his human face.

"What? A human face?" Frei hiccuped, startled by his reflection in the bottle. He was probably already drunk to see his pointy ears as round.

He belatedly lifted his head, when he heard screams from the direction of the armed man, the desperation contained within their shouts not matching the relaxed atmosphere in the wine cellar from just a second ago. He realized that the cellar had another two visitors. One was an unarmed young elf that was breathing heavily while holding his side, his addition to their party not rising any concerns, but the second was a swiftly moving creature the features of which were hard to describe, as it was erratically moving among the drunken men opposite him.

He could see clearly what it was only when most of the men were on the ground, lying in their own blood. The creature had the same color as an aberration, it looked like a levitating head in the center of which there was a huge eye, three serpent-like bodies attached to it. The three tails had bladed protrusions that were the main cause of the pools of blood that were slowly seeping into the ground. The creature was looking at him for only a few seconds, before it accelerated in his direction, its body levitating without touching the floor.

Frei glanced at Evelin, who was sitting motionless next to him with two empty bottles lying near her and immediately understood that he could not expect any kind of help from her. When he returned his eyes back to the attacking creature, its eye was already in front of him, the speed of the creature taking him by surprise.

He reflexively swung the empy bottle he still held in his hand and cut the creature in half, its dead body falling to the ground. twitching.

"Huh?" Frei looked at the bottle in his hand in shock only to find out that he was holding a long sword, a dashing weapon with a single blade that reflected its surroundings on top of its bluish surface, as if it had been polished for a presentation in an auction house.

"You are welcome, Frei." The blade vibrated and he heard a steely voice that could not come from any other than the blade itself, as everyone else was dead or a sleeping drunkard in Evelyn's case.

"What?" Frei jumped to his feet while throwing the sword away, only to lose balance and fall back down on his butt.

"I have to thank you for emptying the vine, I could not think straight while it was still inside me." The sword did not care about his confusion and continued to talk. "We should get out of here."

"Yes, yes. We should leave." Frei picked up the talking sword again and headed to the entrance. Confused and drunk, his head was more empty than ever before.

Was this a dream? Had he gone crazy?

He exited the wine cellar that was clearly no longer safe and made his way out of the elven capital.