Chapter 16 - 16

It suddenly occurred in the middle of the night on July 1st. An earthquake of over magnitude 8 shook numerous places.

It didn't only occur in Japan. It happened simultaneously in several countries throughout the world. Since it happened in the middle of the night, numerous people were still asleep and couldn't leave their houses on time. This, in turn, led to a lot of casualties.

Due to the earthquake, the transportation and communication networks in several countries were left in dire states.

However, the reason why the accident wasn't named the "The Great Disaster", but rather "The Calamity", was because of the unbelievable thing that happened afterwards.

A huge crack appeared in the ground. From that crack an unknown, vast land appeared.

The new land was darkish blue in color and had a distinct contrast from everything else, giving it an eerie feeling.

And from the cracks of that darkish blue land, unknown beings or monsters, as they would later be called, started popping up and assaulting people!

Naturally, the Self-Defense Forces of each country tried to intervene, however, the weapons and bullets didn't have any effect on the monsters.

No, it would be best to say that they couldn't kill them. The effect was low and the time it took to take care of them was enormous. On top of that, there were even cases in which the weapons wouldn't work on some monsters.

Later, it would be found that the living beings, as well as, the earthquake had certain "unknown particles" mixed into their composition. Certain German Laboratories came up with theories that this new type of particle might actually be a type of "Dark Matter". However, the whole concept of Dark Matter was an uncertainty of its own.

In Japan, it was decided that this new type of particle would be called "Magic Particles". Ammunition that didn't have Magic Particles embedded into it couldn't kill the monsters. There were even cases in which the monsters would recover completely in a short amount of time.

On the other hand, if a person was wounded by a monster, that wound would be harder to heal than normal ones.

There were different kinds of monsters in each country. In some countries, enormous Dragons flew through the skies. In others, Giants could be seen roaming the lands. In Japan, the monsters that attacked people were the so-called Zombies that we usually see in movies.

Several months after the huge blow to humanity, the EU discovered a minuscule amount of a type of metal embedded into a part of the darkish blue land.

This would be the ray of light that would allow the countries to fight the monsters. The metal contained a huge amount of Magic Particles. This meant that weapons forged from it could be used to fight the monsters. 

However, it was embedded deep into the rocks so there wasn't a safe way to mine it. Furthermore, it was really scarce.

Leaving aside swords and blunt weapons, making disposable ammunition out of it was impossible. So in the end it didn't end up turning the scales of the fight.

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Air Self-Defense Forces / Gifu Airbase

"Did you manage to get in touch with Atsugi?"

"No.Communications have been down since yesterday. Were they really wiped out?  After all, there was the report that a flying monster had attacked them."

"Those US Armed Forces are useless. I also heard that Yokosuka was wiped out as well."

At the Gifu, Airbase Colonel Sakamoto had a stiff expression on his face.

The places where the enormous unknown land appeared during the day of the "The Calamity" in Japan were Tokyo and Fukuoka. Due to most of Japan's more important facilities being stationed in Tokyo, when the calamity happened, most of the country's facilities were stopped.

Furthermore due to the sudden monster attacks at the American Military Base in Yokosuka, and the Self-Defense Force Base around the Kantou region, both bases were annihilated without a chance to fight back. And with that, Japan had lost a huge asset in its power to fight off the monsters.

Using the Kantou region as a border, the country was divided into East and West, which also led to losing contact with the Chitose Air Base in Hokkaido.

A huge number of monsters were appearing in Fukuoka as well, which in turn led to disastrous damages.

The US Armed Forces in Okinawa were apparently currently moving towards Kyushu in order to join in the fight. Due to the state of the connections it was impossible to get reliable information.

The higher the cluster of Magic Particles there, the harder it gets for communication to get through. It's still uncertain but it's speculated that Magic Particles may also have the property to block transmissions.

The Prime Minister's Official Residence was also doing it's best to move all of the necessary government facilities and establish a command line in Osaka. According to reports, however, the monsters from Tokyo had started moving towards there as well.

Apparently, most of the refugees from around Kantou had started evacuating towards Kansai, so it's speculated that the monsters were aiming for them.

Currently, this Gifu Airbase and Aichi Prefecture's Ground Self-Defense Force's Base were seen as the last line of defense against the monsters coming from Tokyo.

If by some chance, the monsters manage to break through them, that will signal the downfall of Japan as a whole.