Everyone around the table unconsciously leaned forward and sharpened their ears. Their fingers crossed with curiosity.
"According to that female High-Orc who fainted from dehydration, the rifts appeared all of a sudden and fiends and spectres exited from it. With force, the brutes dragged the sturdy males away while the apparations possessed the females and walked them into the rift.
The old age and the little ones were left astounded and confused as the event ended before they could even comprehend. Taking the female orc's words into consideration, the empire calculated that the rift only existed for barely a minute."
Another tap and the screen changed.
Next came the harpys residing in the mountain caves in the Lumen Empire located at the north of the continent. There existed a unique fruit called 'Thenga' in that empire. It depended upon the harpy's powerful digestive enzymes to break down its hard outer shell and later germinate through its faeces. The abrupt decline in the growth of the fruit alerted the higher officials. A quick response team was dispatched and they returned after sensing something gravely amiss. Shortly after, the empire recognised the cause after interrogating a few injured harpys with the assistance of Beast-Tamer class adventurers.
The images shuffled and the picture of Minotaurs, Cockatrices, Goblins, Slimes and many more came up. With each report, the faces of those inside the chamber were turning paler than before.
"We now know the reason behind this bizarre event and have a hypothesis according to what we just saw. It is highly probable-" The ruler of Trunail couldn't complete his words as an abrupt knocking disrupted his sentence.
With a wave of his arm, the massive door was opened and one of his trusted subordinate entered.
"What is it?"
Looking at the emerald gem lying in the palms of the armoured individual who bowed down in front of him, the king asked.
"My lord, we found an anomaly in the forest from where the beasts exited."
At once, the king picked up the gem and imbued his mana into it. A series of images flashed on its surface and the king's demeanour changed.
Dismissing the subordinate with a nonchalant wave, the king kept silent until the door closed and the chamber became isolated with multiple barriers.
"We have new intel that the Catastrophe-tier Rift hasn't been closed entirely."
The elf tossed the emerald toward the square diamond which merged with the latter. At once, new images began to appear.
The latest set of pictures revealed that the forest has turned back to its normal complexion without a hitch. But as the surveillance drone moved further ahead, it caught the sight of something flickering among the woods. It pulsated with regular yet faint illuminations. Due to the dense canopy of vegetation surrounding it, there was no way the ground units could have detected this anomaly.
As tall as an adult mortal, the figure reminiscent of a fissure frequently vibrated. as the drone captured the images.
"I'm not entirely sure of what it is, but I remember reading about something just like this in the archives."
An old man who's definitely at the brink of his death was sitting amongst the chosen participants seated around the table. His sunken eyes narrowed as he muttered with uncertainty.
His feeble voice wasn't as loud as the ruler of Trunail but it sure rang in the ears of those gathered in the chamber.
"Great Saint Lazarus, please enlighten us."
The ruler of Bezoth and Amegoth requested in unison and the old man nodded with a smile. Rising from his chair, he coughed and cleared his throat to speak up.
"If I'm not wrong, this is the consequence of tampering with the fabric of space."
Some faces instantly warped while some displayed astonishment and confusion. Recognising this myriad of expressions, the old man continued.
"Some of you don't know anything about space and time, so let me explain ."
Saying so, the old man raised his palm and condensed some mana. Within a short time, the area inside his palm began to distort like a mirage. An invisible vortex materialised around his palm and the mana in the surrounding space began to draw in madly.
The rulers and their advisor council sitting behind them were in awe at this sight.
"What you see is the distortion of space. Even with my MP exceeding thousands coupled with the forceful channelling of the mana in the atmosphere, I can barely distort this enigmatic fabric for a few seconds."
Halfway through the narration, blood began to ooze from the corners of his mouth and he swayed with discomfort and disorientation as the spell dissipated into nothing. Karina immediately extended her hands to support him but the old man gestured that he's fine.
"It is already a miracle that a Great Saint like me can touch and manipulate the spatial fabric. Even if there were a hundred more Great Saints, their combined effort could only keep distorting the reality for almost ten minutes."
After a short pause to regulate his breath, he added. "And what we are seeing in these images is the deed of someone or something so powerful that they tore down the fabric of space!" The alert regarding an overpowerful threat was evident in those words.
The revelation seeped into the hearts of the kings like a bolt of intimidating lightning. Their faces warped and darkened as they verbalised their concerns.
"Well...I can't tell anything about that spatial tear without taking a closer look." the old man shrugged and conveyed the lack of information to process and arrive at a conclusion.
"Then let's depart." Ruler of Trunail was excited about two reasons. One, he could witness the Great Saint Lazarus exhibiting his prowess. Two, the sight of the unyielding fabric of reality torn apart to almost the size of a human could be experienced first-hand.
The elf immediately took out a crystal from his storage ring and wrote something on it. A second later, the stone lit up and his face lit up too.
"Our transportation is ready. Please follow me."
The two kings and the four saints left the chamber and proceeded under the guidance of the elf ruler. The advisors were dismissed to return to the nations and take care of the miscellaneous activities.
Taking a few turns, the crowd reached an open space. There were about ten mechanical aerial transportation vessels neatly arranged and ready for departure.
As soon as they stepped into the area, seven mechanical birds stepped forward and floated toward them. Effortlessly, they mounted on those birds and took off into the distance.
Within a few minutes, the crowd has already covered three-fourth of the distance. While they sat comfortably on the contraption, they didn't encounter any sort of discomfort or resistance from the high-speed gliding.
"The fissure is right ahead of us." The elf's voice rang in their ears and the crowd turned their heads to see the ruler of Trunail shuttling his eyes between the forest beneath them and a stone in his hand. At a glance alone, it was clear that the stone was projecting the map of the jungle and the location of the tear.
Slowly, the mechanical birds began to descend.
As the devices dove, the bizarre entity came into their sight. Quickly, the crowd stepped on the ground.
Humm~
A strange buzz could be perceived as the kings and the saints walked towards the location. Shortly after a few steps through the thick population of trees, their eyes discovered the reason for their visit.
At the centre of a circular clearing with a radius of about seven or eight metres, there existed something reminiscent of an old fabric torn in the middle. The severed reality standing almost two metres tall had the vibrancy of bright colours flickering inside it. Gazing at that mesmerising sight proved alluring. The enticement of the cleaved space unconsciously asked themselves to walk towards the tear and into it.
"I ask the rulers to retreat into the forest. Standing inside the clearing will be dangerous to those who don't have the necessary skills."
Two bottles of thick viscous green liquid were emptied into the mouth of the old man as he concluded his warning. Shortly, he conveyed something to the fellow saints in sign language and they nodded before walking to certain positions.
"As soon as the portal is established, withdraw from the clearing."
One final warning escaped the old man's lips before he began to chant something in an unknown script.
Rumble~
A fierce suction force took the shape of a vortex above the four saints as a massive amount of mana was drawn towards them. About several kilometres of land around them was sapped dry of vitality. Some plants thriving entirely on this natural energy shrivelled up instantly.
As the area around the spatial tear began to tremble and distort like a snake dancing to the tunes of a snake charmer, a smile of content could be seen on the lips of the Great Saint Lazarus.