Chương 58: Local Announcement

I was trying to wipe soot from my recliner while waiting for Shelly to find any recent videos about incursions. Although it was possible there would be nothing, I highly doubted it.

'Incursions incoming' could mean in the upcoming weeks, but I have the feeling it'll be much sooner, I thought, hoping I was wrong.

"Incursions," I muttered, dropping the rag.

"She can't just say monsters like a normal apocalypse system. It has to be incursions." I looked around my cabin. Soot covered everything. The windows we'd managed to board up temporarily. The fireplace sat dark and cold. We couldn't risk lighting it until we were sure the poison had been completely cleaned out. We'd barely survived one attack. We'd barely finished cleaning up the bodies and hadn't even had time to properly mourn. And now Gaia was announcing more problems. Perfect.

"If it's global, there should be news," Shelly said, still clicking to find videos. After not finding anything immediately, I started to be hopeful. Then the local programming was interrupted. After a brief introduction by the news anchor, a video was shown. It was a shaky phone video, clearly filmed by someone running. The caption read "LIVE: Minneapolis Mall - WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?!" We all stopped what we were doing and just stared. We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

The video was grainy, but there was no mistaking what we saw. Skeletons. Actual, honest-to-god, walking skeletons. They were wielding crude swords and shields. In the video, they were attacking shoppers in what looked like a mall food court. Their eye sockets glowed with a sickly green light.

"Stupid teens," I muttered. It had to be a teen. Maybe a twenty-something year old. Only they would be so fricking glued to the phones and be willing to livestream while they were running for their fucking lives.

"That's just insulting," Luke said, unable to help himself.

"They don't even have muscles. How are they moving? Where's the structural support?"

"Divine magic," Shelly said quietly.

"Or necromancy. The mana is animating them." Mall security was firing at the skeletons. Some shattered under the gunfire, but more kept appearing from... a big black hole hovering in the air. The video soon ended. Then the newscaster showed another video. This one showed zombies in Florida. Actual shambling, flesh-eating zombies attacking a retirement community. A grandson of one of the residents had been visiting and had started filming almost as soon as the gate opened.

I wanted to reach through and smack the kid. He was treating it like a video game. I couldn't believe how callous and numb he was to what was happening. Has our world really fallen to this? I wondered. I was disappointed with humanity, or at least this one specimen of humanity. Then there was footage from Japan. Something with too many legs and eyes was climbing the side of a building. People were screaming. Cars were crashing. We switched channels several times, but every channel was the same now.

Social media was exploding with videos. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through YouTube while Shelly clicked on different videos on the television.

"Goblin attack in Ohio"had a million views already. I clicked on it. The goblins were... wrong. Not Wild People who sort of looked goblin-ish. These were actual fantasy goblins. Green skin, pointed ears, yellow eyes that reflected light like an animal's. They wore crude leather armor and wielded rusty weapons. But it wasn't their appearance that made them wrong. It was something deeper.

"They're not from here," Tala said from my shoulder.

"Look at them. Really look." She was right. The Wild People, for all their savagery and corruption, still looked like they belonged on Earth. Mutated humans, twisted by dark magic, but fundamentally from this world. These goblins didn't belong. Neither did the skeletons, or the zombies, or whatever the hell that thing in New York was. I kept scrolling. I saw lizard creatures in Seattle, floating jellyfish things in London, and something with wings in Sydney.

Every video showed the same thing, creatures that fundamentally did not belong in this reality, appearing in places with low mana saturation. All of them were in the tertiary integration areas. This bothered me. Why? I wondered. Why don't they appear in the high mana areas?

"This is bad," Pierre said unnecessarily.

"This is really bad." I didn't even give him a glance. No shit, Sherlock, I thought.

"How many?" I asked.

"How many different types of creatures are we seeing?" I didn't explain why I asked, but I had a reason. Although I could be wrong, I assumed each different type of creature represented a different invading plane of existence. Each was a unique threat. Shelly was scrolling through recent postings, counting.

"At least twenty distinct species so far. Probably more. These are just the ones being filmed and uploaded."

"Are they coordinated?" Mort asked nervously.

"Like, are they working together?" I gave Mort an approving look. Good question. But from what I could see, it looked more like one of those Black Friday sales, where customers rampaged inside as soon as the doors opened. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Doesn't look like it," Shelly said, studying a video.

"Some are attacking humans. There's actually evidence that some are attacking each other. Some are just... wandering around confused." That tracked. If these things were from other planes of existence, suddenly appearing in an unfamiliar world might be disorienting. I had to wonder, though, How many of these incursions are intentional and how many are accidental? What also confused, and concerned me was the lack of an emergency alert. I'd assumed there'd be one.

Instead, the government wasn't making any announcements yet. Not even warning citizens not to go outside. That was when I heard something that made me look up from my phone. I looked back to the news on the television. A reporter was standing in front of what looked like a government building, interviewing someone in a suit.

"We are encouraging citizens to shelter in place. Local and state forces are responding to incursions as they occur. The National Guard has been activated in all fifty states. We are working with our international allies to coordinate…" We listened to the broadcast, but it was just typical governmental bullshit. It was full of sound and fury but signified nothing. Basically, they had a person go up and spout a lot of nonsense about 'Don't worry' and 'We're doing stuff' without actually giving much real information.

I quickly ignored it since it was a waste of time. Shelly realized this too and switched channels. It was a local channel.

"We're switching now to a special address," the anchor interrupted.

"A figure who's been posting videos online about the Gaia System has requested airtime. We want to warn viewers that we cannot verify the claims being made, but given the current crisis, we felt it was important to provide any information that might explain what is happening." The screen changed and showed a familiar face. I stopped breathing. Because there, on my television, was my body. My old body. My human body.

Seventy-three years old, wearing the tactical vest I'd died in, sitting in what looked like a comfortable study somewhere. Raven. He was smiling. That bastard was smiling with my face.

"Hello, everyone," Raven said, his voice warm and reassuring. My voice.

"I know you're all scared right now. I know what you're seeing seems impossible. But I'm here to help you understand what's happening."

"That son of a…" Pierre started.

"Shh!" I cut him off.

"I need to hear this." I didn't want to, but I needed to. Raven leaned forward, looking sincere. Looking trustworthy. Using my face, my weathered, prepper face that people associated with preparation and survival, to sell whatever he was about to say.

"The creatures you're seeing aren't from Earth," Raven continued.

"They're from other planes of existence. Other dimensions, if you prefer that terminology. And they're here because of mana." He held up a hand, and a small flame appeared in his palm. Parlor trick magic, but effective for TV.

"Mana is the energy that powers magic. Our world used to have almost none when the mana tide was low. Now the mana is returning. This mana has awakened the Gaia System." He paused here, as if to let the information seep in. Then Raven gave a comparison to help viewers better understand.

"Think about it this way. Your computer needs electricity to run. The same is true for the Gaia System. It needs magic to work. Now that magic has returned, the system is waking up." Raven then gave people time to think about what he had said before continuing.

"Unfortunately, this has dangers. The invaders, at least some of them, know that Gaia's systems aren't at full power yet, at least in the low mana regions." Ahh, I thought, realizing he had answered my earlier question about why the incursions were in low mana areas. Although I hated admitting it, Raven was actually being useful, the fucker.

"Now, with this third integration, even low-mana areas and people are being integrated. However, these areas are still in a state of flux. Gaia's protections… think about it as firewalls to keep out hackers… haven't been booted up in these areas yet." I glanced at the others to see how they were reacting. Most of them were standing there, slackjawed taking in what was being said. I had to wonder, though, What isn't Raven telling us? Raven never stopped talking though.

"For creatures made of magic, beings that are fundamentally magical in nature, mana is like oxygen. Without it, they can't survive. But now? Now there's enough mana even in previously low-concentration areas for these creatures to exist here. At least the less powerful creatures."

"That's not good," Mort said, which was the understatement of the year. However, since it was Mort and not Pierre saying it, I decided to let it slide.

"These incursions are real. The creatures are dangerous. But they're also confused and disoriented. Most of them didn't choose to come here. They were pulled through thin spots in reality or summoned by people experimenting with magic they don't understand." That sounded typical to me. I could easily imagine some nerd who suddenly gained a magic power from their class trying to experiment with their new powers. Maybe they'd asked for more power from some extradimensional being.

"The barriers between worlds are weak right now. Certain rituals, certain places of power, can act as doorways. Some people are opening those doors intentionally. Others are doing it accidentally." Raven's expression turned grave.

"Either way, we need to close those doors and defend against the creatures that have already come through." Raven paused here for a second. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then it did.

"The true threats haven't arrived yet. The true threats will be planar invasions by actual armies of supernatural beings. The most powerful beings will be blocked, but they can send their minions."

"Damn," Pierre muttered. Shelly glanced at him as if to say 'language' but then said nothing. On screen, Raven was wrapping up.

"The most important thing to understand is this, the mana isn't going away. These creatures aren't going away. This is permanent. Earth is now part of the greater magical universe. We need to adapt if we want to survive." He looked directly into the camera, and for just a second, I swear he was looking at me.

"The old world is gone. Welcome to the new one." The screen cut back to the anchor, who looked shaken.

"That was... well. We'll try to get official confirmation on these claims. In the meantime, we're going back to our field reporters for updates on the incursion situations across the country." Shelly turned off the TV. Pierre looked like he wanted to object. Instead, he took one look at her face and instead pulled his phone out of his fanny pack and started scrolling videos on it.

The cabin was silent except for Mort's nervous fidgeting and the distant sounds of animals outside, still on edge from the earlier battle. Part of me was still amazed Mort was conscious. I guess being a god has helped him, I thought. That was when a notification appeared. I also felt it through the threads of the Web of Wisdom, DANGER. GAIA SYSTEM ACTIVATED. Local Announcement. Extraplanar Invasion Imminent Threat Assessment: High Mana Level Creature MESSAGE FROM GAIA. It slipped through.

"That can't be right," Shelly said, panicked.

"We're in a high-mana area. The incursions are supposed to be targeting low-mana zones."

"Maybe it's tough enough to push through Gaia's defenses," Pierre said, already moving toward the window. I felt it even before it arrived. It was something big and powerful. The ley lines were humming, resonating with massive amounts of magical energy. Then came the roar. Not a howl. Not a shriek. A roar. Deep, primal, resonant. The kind of sound that bypassed the brain entirely and went straight to the lizard-brain survival instincts that screamed Predator. Run. The cabin shook.

Dust and soot fell from the ceiling. Outside, I heard birds taking flight in a massive, panicked exodus. Small animals fleeing in every direction. God dammit, I thought.