[6 hours after humanity's victory over the Giants]
Silence surrounded the interior of the Rift Management and Damage Control building.
As instructed, all personnel had vacated the premises, and only the people with the highest level of clearance were allowed to stay.
For what was about to follow, was a conversation regarding a matter of national security.
Rick Sullivan and James Hawk were standing at the opposite side of the two muscular figures of General George Collins and Sergeant Kim Rae Na.
The two had remained silent upon arriving and carried an upright posture befitting of battle-hardened and military-disciplined soldiers.
In an attempt to break the awkward silence, Branch Manager James Hawk was the first to take the initiative.
"It is an unusual sight to see you here General, especially now, after the army's outstanding victory against the Giants... Cheers!! You will definitely earn another medal from this spectacular achievement".
Hawk had failed to correctly analyze the situation and had resorted to his usual demeanor of flattering his superiors.
After all, this is how he lived by...always showing obedience towards the higher power, and sabotaging those who aimed for his position.
Alas, contrary to how most government officials responded to his flattery, he was met with the General's disappointed and furious gaze, who momentarily formed a fist, before calming his anger.
Kim Rae Na on the other hand did not respond well to the Branch Manager's comment, as she locked eyes with the Director and upon whispering some incomprehensible words, a sudden change started to appear in her body.
The color of her pupils turned into stellar white, and a frozen crystal appeared which began floating on the top of her forehead.
"What's wro-"
"!!!"
Before James Hawk had any time to react, his sentence was brought to an end by the feeling of his throat freezing at an alarming rate, the outcome of which was blocking any air from entering his airways, effectively suffocating him from within.
-WHAT IS SHE-!?
-Can't... breathe..
-Stop...
-..help...
-....p...please...
-..it's...c-cold..
No sound came from him...
His consciousness was slowly fading and at the center of his view, was the Sergeant's emotionless eyes.
"Gasp!!! Cough Cough!!"
The pressure in his throat suddenly disappeared and the woman's appearance returned to normal.
James Hawk fell on the ground and started gasping for air...daring not to even raise his head.
Confronted with death's cold touch, he tried to regain his posture but to no avail.
For it was the first time he was confronted with a foe who openly disregarded the notion of ranks.
An ideology on which he himself had based his entire existence.
-So this... this is a challenger
The best choice he had was to remain silent and hope that the torture would stop there.
"I cannot believe that someone like you is in charge of managing everything related to rifts", the woman scoffed at the man below her feet.
"General, is he really the one best suited for such a role?", she inquired at her superior.
"I understand your concerns, but you need to remember that these people are not like us. What the country needs right now is a person keen on handling public affairs, and I can assure you, he is the best for the job".
Silence set again, as the two waited for the man who was still gasping for air to stand up.
This time, it was the ambitious prince who took the initiative.
Having witnessed the absurd power of a challenger first hand, he was extremely fascinated by the new era that humanity was slowly heading into.
Although he was certain that they would never hurt a member of the Sullivan family, Rick was very keen on building new connections and as such, he tried not to touch any sensitive matter.
"General Collins, what is it that you wanted to discuss?", with an unwavering voice, Rick Sulivan skipped all unnecessary small talk and went straight to the point.
"Hm..yes straight to the point indeed, as expected of a royalty, you are not concerned by ranks or formalities".
"Let me ask you this, Mister Sullivan, what do you think about today's victory over the Giants?"
"..."
Instead of clearly giving his opinion on the matter, he started analyzing the facts he knew for certain in order to see any reaction from the General's facial expression.
"One the one side, the recent events, showed us how capable modern weaponry is against other lifeforms"
Starting by the obvious, he pointed out how much at a disadvantage the Giants were against the army.
Although bullets from standard-issued weapons were unable to pierce the Giant's skin, their large frame and few numbers made them a perfect target for heavy artillery.
That along with the constant air support and the appearance of a Rift in a non heavily populated area secured humanity's first victory against the alien invaders.
"But on the other side, it proved how defenseless we are against the unknown dangers from the Rifts".
With the possibility of a Rift suddenly appearing out of nowhere and the monsters within it invading Earth, one could easily see how other national security threats would pale in comparison.
"Hm, indeed, you have at the very least a basic idea of the situation... unlike the other fools"
Collins' expression became less dark as he started to untangle his concerns with the one person outside the military who could see the larger side of reality.
"As you can see, we were very lucky with our opponent this time but, the monsters prowling behind the Rifts are far more dangerous than you can imagine"
"Had there been a smaller monster type with greater numbers, the soldiers would not have been to create a defensive perimeter and chaos would spread throughout the city with the civilian casualties easily exceeding the thousands mark"
"Also, it's a detail that no normal human could have noticed, as even the strongest challengers only realized it after a substantial amount of time, but after the Rift erupted, the world's magi went into a state of disarray".
Upon finishing his sentence, the General's expression turned grim.
"What? Are you certain that the Rift breaking open had something to do with the change on Earth's magi?"
Rick's understanding of magi was still not very clear despite all the research papers he had read about it.
Alas, even he could come to the conclusion that since it was directly associated with the life of every living being, the consequences could be dire.
"I am currently waiting for the researchers to complete their geographical analysis, but if my theory is correct... the reason the rift close by itself despite us not intervening, is that the energy differential between the two worlds, was offset by the magi on Earth"
Rick was at a loss for words.
If the General's assumptions were correct, humanity's first victory would in reality be the start of their downfall.
''Then...what would happen if all the magi on Earth disappeared?"
The young royalty had asked the General all the right questions and, in the end, had arrived at the one question that he himself had been wondering ever since he felt the shift in magi.
"That..."
~SLAM!!!
The door to the main area slammed open, and a man wearing nothing but a sweaty shirt and athletic trousers interrupted their conversation.
"Pant, pant!!"
His eyes were showing obvious signs of sleep deprivation, and due to his irregular breathing, he could easily be mistaken for a runner who accidentally entered the wrong building.
"Sir this is a government facility, civilians are not allowed here", Rae Na was the first to respond to the situation as she calmly instructed the man to leave.
But something about this totally average civilian caught her attention.
-That's strange, why is his aura so weak yet at the same time so stable?
Kim Rae Na's curiosity was engaged on a phenomenon she had never previously witnessed upon earning the title of a challenger.
With her senses being above average, she often spent time analyzing other people's auras, and until now, no matter how strong of an aura a person had, there was one similarity between all of them that she had noticed after observing other soldiers training.
The density of the aura of a living being changed in relation to the body's vitality.
Therefore a question emerged in her head after seeing the exhausted civilian.
-How can his aura be so stable if he is that exhausted?
While trying to answer this inconsistency on her theory, her thoughts were cut off by the youngest son of the Sullivan family, who approached and greeted the man with the peculiar aura.
"Greetings Jay"
....