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It was another morning for the chairman of the hunter association. After the disaster that almost destroyed New York, the hunter association has been very busy dealing with all the aftermath, from the wild monsters having become increasingly violent to the new appearance of undead creatures, not the same as the army, but that emerged out of the leftover nether that the undead monsters left behind over the surrounding landscape.
Because of this, the hunting of undead monsters has become a rather urgent matter. And underground caves that people started to call "tombs" began to appear, dungeon-like areas on Earth that harbored a large concentration of Undead creatures, usually led by a strong boss-type Undead monster.
However, the Hunter Association of America was well organized, and although these new events were tiring, they were nothing compared to the disaster that could have happened if the entire city had been destroyed by the Raid of the Black Gates, as the people of Earth began to call this incident.
After that whole incident, Nicholas took a small break back home, deciding to leave the paperwork and other things to the people who didn't participate in the battle to begin with. After having almost died, he had grown rather exhausted.
He wanted to be with his daughters and appreciate life for a moment, to take a breather and relax. It's not as if the world hasn't been terrible already, but at the very least, some time ago, he believed he had found some time of respite from time to time.
However, since Bing Xue's arrival, things have been escalating out of proportion rapidly. He didn't know if it was her fault or something, and he didn't really want to blame her after she saved everyone, but something was lingering in his mind.
"Daddy, daddy, look!"
"Hm?"
Nicholas glanced at his dear daughter, who was wearing a colorful dress like those magical girls would do, lifting a small plastic staff with a pink heart on top. The pink and colorful dress contrasted adorably with her black skin, making her look even cuter.
"I'll heal you from all the exhaustion! Pinky Light!"
The little toy in her hands glowed brightly as Nicholas' youngest daughter tried to cheer up her father with her "magic." She had barely reached 7 years of age just a few days ago, and her bright blue eyes were full of innocence and purity. It made her father instantly smile.
"Hahaha, maybe you just healed me with that!" He laughed, the burly man gently hugging his little princess and kissing her forehead. "Somehow I feel all healed now; what's this?"
"It worked then! See? I am going to become a magical girl when I grow up!" His daughter giggled.
She was a bundle of joy and cuteness, and her exhausted father smiled as he gently patted her little head with his big hands.
"I'm sure you will, my little Mary." He sighed. "And your mom would be proud, of course."
"I've heard that in the Tower there's a floor that's heaven! Is that true? Can we meet Mommy if we go there?" Mary suddenly asked.
Nicholas felt a bit shocked after that question; his strong-looking eyes suddenly felt slightly emotional as he resisted tears from flowing from his eyes.
The innocence of his girl moved his heart; she was still holding on to the belief that she could meet her mother again.
"M-Maybe… Haha, your daddy will do his best to become the strongest, so we can meet your mom one day." He smiled, feeding his daughter with lies. "Maybe…"
"I will grow strong too! I will become the strongest magical girl!" Mary giggled.
As she giggled and kissed her father's cheek to cheer him up, Nicholas' second daughter stepped out of her room. She seemed ready to go out.
"Hey, Clarisse, where are you going? Weren't we going to spend the day together?" He asked her.
Her daughter looked at him with a condescending smile. "Dad, I told you yesterday I was going to meet with my besties. We're going to the mall to hang out for a bit. I'm all grown up already; I can go on my own~"
"You're only fifteen! That's not grown up at all to me." Her father protested.
"What? Why not? Come on, New York is the safest city in the country!" Clarisse protested, her long black hair reaching her shoulders and waving as she made an annoyed gesture.
"Maybe from monsters, but not from people. Clarisse, there are still some criminals on the loose around the city. Bing Xue is not our eternal protector either. She'll only act when it is completely necessary." Sighed Nicholas.
Around the internet, there have already been rumors about Bing Xue being some sort of eternal protector. This created a false sense of security in people, making them believe she would just come to save anybody. At least amongst the youngsters of New York. But that was far from the truth.
"I think you're exaggerating. I'll be FINE. Anyway, give me some money; maybe I can go with an Uber, so you don't get upset?" Sighed his daughter, resting her hand on her hips.
"Big sister, you shouldn't be mean to Daddy! Also, Daddy is on vacation; let's spend the day together instead!" Mary said, pointing her staff at her sister. "Or else… Pinky Light will punish you in the name of justice!"
"Hmm? Is that so? Maybe I'm the villain then, haha!" Clarisse stole the staff from her sister. "Hehehe! I stole your precious weapon now; whatchu gonna do now?"
"Hey! You thief! Take this! Super pinky kick!" Mary responded by kicking her big sister in the knee.
"OUCH! Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?! Oww! Dad, she hit me out of nowhere!" Clarisse cried.
"Hahh…" Nicholas sighed. He finally remembered that having two daughters was quite a monumental task by itself without a wife to help him take care of a part of the burden. "Well, there you go; I transferred you some bucks. Take care and use Ubers to move if the places you go are too far away, okay? Mary, stop hitting your sister."
"But daddy, she is insulting the justice of pinky light, and-"
RUMBLE!
However, the chaotic yet harmonious family time was broken as a sudden tremor made the entire city shake. Nicholas panicked as he ran towards his daughters and hugged them with his big arms. The tremor continued for a few seconds, making them both panic.
"W-What's going on?!" Clarisse screamed.
"Daddy, I'm scared! Buaaaah!" And Mary broke out into tears right away.
"Calm down; Dad is here! Stay still…" Nicholas said, hugging his daughters and waiting for the tremor to end.
Thankfully, the building didn't fall apart or anything. Quietness returned to the city, and as he looked at his daughters, they were fine.
"I-It's over?" Clarisse asked.
"Sniff… Was it a big monster?" Mary wondered.
"I-I don't know," Nicholas said. "But it came from outside the city. Something so big and strong that it made the whole city tremble... W-What in the world?"
And just at that moment, he heard his phone ringing. He quickly answered the call.
"Yes?"
"Nicholas! Oh my god, are you okay?!"
John, the guild master of the Justice Guild, called him.
"John! Yes, yes, I am alright. My daughters, too. What's going on? Did you see something?"
"Didn't you?! Just look outside the window, man!"
"What…?"
As Nicholas was told that, his daughters suddenly fell silent.
They were blankly staring through the window of their apartment building.
Across the near-invisible barrier that covered the city.
There was something—a distortion in space, gray energy pouring out, creating a psychedelic view.
And from that gate, something started coming out—a massive, gigantic, scaled thing.
"Daddy… What's… that?" Mary asked.
"It looks like... some big lizard?" Clarisse wondered.
"That's a brachiosaurus." Nicholas couldn't forget such a shape.
Before the apocalypse began, he was rather fascinated with paleontology and studied a lot of that through his young years. He was particularly fascinated with dinosaur fossils and the ways dinosaurs were all shaped.
He knew Brachiosaurus were gigantic dinosaurs, the largest to have ever stepped on Earth. Yet the one that came out of the gate was bigger than all the found fossils.
Yes, it was so massive that it easily dwarfed most of the buildings in New York!
At least a hundred meters tall!
"GROOOOHHHH!"
It gave a loud groan as more of these absolutely gigantic dinosaurs, which looked very accurate to scientific depictions, started pouring out one after another.
They didn't look to have any elemental powers or something; they were just titanic-sized dinosaurs!
A large horde of at least fifty brachiosauruses started rushing towards New York's barrier.
And smashing it, constantly hitting it.
The tremors the entire city felt were because of these giants trying to break in!
"There's no fucking way… Are they S Rank? No, even higher?" Nicholas asked John.
"We don't know, but we're already mobilizing the hunters outside!" John said. "But this isn't even the biggest problem; this is pretty new!"
"What? Has something been happening?" Nicholas, who hadn't answered his phone for a while, suddenly gasped.
"Yeah, this morning they found a group of hunters massacred inside one of those Undead Tombs, but not by Undead; the Undead Monsters were all slain already!" John said. "There are reports of huge men, of humans the size of orcs, if not twice as big, walking through the road towards the city."
"Humans?!" Nicholas wondered. "Wait, how did they look?"
"Kind of... ape-like? They looked like... ancient human ancestors." John spoke, incapable of believing his own words.
"Australopithecus?!" Nicholas readjusted his glasses as sweat started pouring out of his bald head.
"I just got a call that a huge group of like a hundred of those ape-men started attacking more hunters that were hunting around the city!" Said John. "They just started a few minutes before the dinosaurs appeared out of thin air!"
"Just what the hell is going on? This isn't like anything we've ever faced! It's not like they're coming from another world… Right?"
"Yeah… It feels like they're coming from... like our past? But a very exaggerated one."
"Do we even know if our past was like we believe it was, anyway?"
As Nicholas calmed down, he took off his shirt, revealing his big, muscular torso.
"Girls let's go to the shelter below the building," Nicholas said. "I have something to take care of."
He quickly led his daughters to the underground shelter, secured with the highest magic technology protection devices.
"Daddy! Are you coming soon?" Mary asked as she was being held by her big sister.
"Yeah, don't worry!" Nicholas smiled. "Clarisse, take care of your sister… Please."
"O-Okay." Clarisse nodded.
"And… And if I don't come back…" Nicholas muttered, making her oldest daughter's eyes widen. "Please make sure she grows up to be a nice girl, okay?"
"D-Dad…" Clarisse's eyes started crying. "Stop saying sh*t like that, dad! You're not dying! You're S Rank!"
"Hah, yeah… I used to think like that…" Nicholas sighed. "I'm going."
.
.
.
"UNGA! BONGA! GRAAAH!"
A furious pack of monstrous ape-men roared. Their bodies resembling the apex physique that the body a human could achieve combined with the burliness of a gorilla and the flexibility of an ape, and further enhanced with wild, primal force and strength. With a furious roar, they rushed toward the hunters who had been hunting horned wolves just a couple of minutes ago.
"Shit, shit, they're catching up!"
"What the heck are those things?!"
"They look like us, but not?!"
"Fuck, they killed Roslier!"
BAAAM!
However, before the party of four could escape, something suddenly jumped from the skies, landing right in front of them.
It was another of those "things"—another of those ancient humans—that provoked such a strange sense of fear within the genetic memory of all humans.
"OOOHH…"
Its giant body of over three meters in height dwarfed all the hunters in front of him. His giant, log-like arms rushed towards them.
A simple punch.
CRAAASH!
The tank that put himself in front saw his powerful Mithril Shield shatter into pieces in mere seconds; his armor broke, and so did his ribs.
"Guuaagh!"
He vomited blood as he felt his crushed innards almost coming out of his own mouth; his lifeless body quickly fell over the ground, splattering blood and flesh everywhere.
"Uuaaagh!"
His party members all screamed in utter horror at the scene.
Their bodies felt paralyzed as the giant humans approached.
One of them grabbed the corpse of their friend and started munching on it.
Mana and essence began flowing into their bodies as he ate the corpse, bite after bite.
"Oooggh! Oga! Bunga, bungaaahaha!" It laughed happily as it gained a power it didn't have before.
"Ooohoho…" The other quickly extended its arms towards them, licking its lips.
They were not even enemies.
These hunters, these humans.
They were nothing but prey!
"S-Someone… Someone help!"
"Heeeelp!"
As they were about to be crushed...
FLASH!
A bright amount of light surged from the skies.
And a sword of light pierced the caveman's back.
Yet it didn't die!
"Guuuaaggh! Bungaaagghh!"
The caveman screamed in agony, though, blood flowing out of the large wound.
"Oh? You didn't die from that?"
The figure of a woman made entirely out of golden light surged from the skies.
"You guys… Are quite tough."
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