Allio Gallio was a self-made multi-billionaire. He had a small family, living a surviving life. After he finished middle school, he dedicated ninety-five percent of his life to making money to help his parents. Wanting them to live an easy life, not worrying about next day's budget.
He made his first billion when he was just twenty-years-old. His first company was an asset managing company. From his profits, he started to branch out to more sectors. Real estate, franchise, hotel acquisitions, and more. After several events that affected his personal life, he established the BCC or the Beast Clean-up Crew. A non-profit organization. Creating several hundreds of clean-up crews that takes care of the mess sorcerers made after finishing a mission, like killing a beast or arresting a Mana Criminal—criminal sorcerer. They also recently—five years ago—established an insurance service to cover for damages done by sorcerers and/or beasts.
Allio was pacing back and forth in his office, at the top floor of Gallio Tower, the fortieth floor. The office was quite spacious. A giant wall of glass window behind his desk and several filing cabinets on the west side, and another long desk on the east side. He was waiting, distressfully, for a call from a potential investor company. He had several healing crystal mines, bringing around one ton of healing crystals every month. The inconvenient thing about healing crystals is that you need magic, specifically Light Core magic, to heal. The project was a simple yet a lengthy one. The investing company was a tech company. It was known to be able to implore magic through technology. Self-burning stoves was their first breakthrough.
The standard was a two-burner stove equipped with electronic lighting system. At the center of the burners are two tiny rocks that were imbued with Heat Core magic. Placed in a semi-large tube with a crown. Connected the tube and the rock was intricate technology that allowed it to control the amount of flames and even the temperature of the flames. The rocks would need to be switched out, but only every seven years. They're also really cheap, under four-thousand yen each.
Allio wanted to do something similar but with healing crystals. Erasing the majority need of surgery. Though healing crystals cannot regrow limbs, it can help heal something as devastating as paralysis. However, because of the reluctance of the sorcerer society, including the three sorcerer families, it was difficult to follow through with the plan. Something to do with petty pride.
"If I can find a sorcerer, a Light Core one at that, we'll be able to make revolutionary healing tech. It'll help a lot of people," he mutters to himself.
At that point, he stops thinking about profit, something this potential investor wouldn't want. After all, business is all about profit. He was worried that the potential investor would reject his deal due to his plan of selling the potential projects for cheap. At highest, affordable for the lower-class.
He walks around his long work desk and sits down on his chair. He leans back, rubbing his chin with his right hand. Despite the cooling from his air conditioners, he was sweating profusely. He thought about something to calm his nerves down. He leans forward to his office telephone and dials his secretary.
"Lilas?" He called.
"Yes, sir?" She answered immediately.
"Can you bring me some coffee?"
"Hot or cold?"
"Cold, please."
"On it, sir."
"Thank you."
He then leans back to his chair and expects the coffee to be delivered to his office in a few minutes.
He should be calling in like an hour. This is incredibly stressful. Please don't be greedy.
A few seconds later, there's a knock on his door. He expects it to be Lilas, his secretary. Allio reaches with his finger under his desk to press a button to unlock his doors. After ten seconds, no one came in.
The doors then flung forward towards him. Allio raised his hand as he got on his knees and got under his desk. The desk was pushed over to the giant glass window behind him. The window cracked from the impact, but they were incredibly strong windows, they were insulated ballistic glass. Essentially, bulletproof. It was due to a sniper bullet once brushing his hair and nearly killing him.
What the hell was that!? He panicked. He was trapped under the desk and between the window.
"Was that necessary?" Asked a loud reverbed voice.
"Very," said a young man's voice.
"Well, whatever. Just get him out."
"Yes, sir."
Then tentacles grew from his back. The young man then moved the doors away, rather just dropped them to the side and lifted the table up. All done easily by his black semi-liquid tentacles.
Revealing Allio, balling himself up. He slowly looked up to see two people. One with a peculiar mask, one with tentacles, holding a desk up in the air.
"Wh- who are you?" Asked Allio. His heart raced, fear ran through his body.
"Orera ga omae no yubiwa motomete koko ni iru."
"Yubiwa…" Allio tries to remember, "my ring?"
"Hai."
Orera ga omae no yubiwa motomete koko ni iru = We're here for your ring
Hai = yes
Allio raised his hand and took a look at his right hand, he wore a metallic green ring with a yellow tint and some small carvings. "Why…?" Allio questioned.
"We want it, just hand it over. Or we'll kill ya!" He reached out with an open hand.
Allio quickly took off his ring and gave it to them. "What do you want with it?" He asked, trembling.
Terror handed the ring to Shujin. He inspects the ring, he was wondering aloud, "interesting, no mana flowing from it at all. Undetectable."
"That's just a normal ring," Allio said.
"To you, it is."
Shujin walks forward and crouches down to Allio. He then wears the ring in front of him. "I wonder why you would have it."
Allio fell silent, he doesn't want to answer. Shujin conjured a small dagger, a spell called Sever. He points the tip of the blade to Allio's neck.
"I- It was a gift."
"Dare kara?"
Dare kara = from who?
"My late father."
"Soudesuka…" He replied apathetically.
Soudesuka = Gotcha
Shujin stands back up and turns away, and started walking out. "Ikuyo," said Shujin. The two started walking out the office and Shujin teleported him and Terror to the roof of the building. "Shujin, naze wa koko ni iru?"
"Kore da," he pointed a small black rock-looking object. It was the size of a basketball, though it wasn't a perfect sphere. Shujin pulls out his blue book out of thin air and opens it to a specific page.
"Sore ga kami no namae… Hyurin."
"Dono kami?"
Ikuyo = Let's go
Naze wa koko ni iru = Why are we here?
Kore da = This
Sore ga kami no name = That god's name was
Dono kami = What god?
Shujin crouched down and held his hand on that rock. Waves of purple mana coursed around them. "Cosmic Resonance: Calamity Birth," Shujin muttered. The purple mana then was absorbed by the rock. Making the rock glow through a weird jagged pattern.
"Calamity Birth?" Terror uttered in confusion.
Once all the mana entered the rock, Shujin stood up and backed away. "We're done here," Shujin claims.
"Wait, what is that?"
"An egg."
"Egg? What egg?"
"Beasts are born from a single parent. A mother that constantly lay eggs. Her name is Hyurin."
"Okay… So, how do you have the egg?"
"I travelled over to their world and detached one of the eggs from the incubator and brought it back."
"Wait, you went to THEIR dimension!?"
"Yeah, I did."
"You can travel between worlds?"
"A story for another time. We're running out of time, the gate's almost open."
The two then vanished from the roof, leaving only the egg alone, anticipating its birth.
Three minutes ago
Dan, Laura, Sam, Volta, and Cathy had just arrived in front of Gallio Tower. The five gathered in a circle for a final quick brief before establishing the mission.
"Okay, you four, listen up."
The four focused up and were listening closely. "The police, paramedics, and the BCC are currently en route. You have two missions, tell me."
"Get the people out, prevent an outbreak, right?" Sam replied.
"Good, now get to it."
After their conversation ended, the four stormed in and started screaming everyone to get out. The lobby was large, they had to split up for everyone to hear and leave. For them to be heard, they had to first present themselves as sorcerers. Sam waved around his blades. Laura was carrying a katana inside a scabbard with the Crescent family cress—the people would know because of the simple design—but most people knew her affiliation due to her hair. Dan had Black Envelope circulating around him, ready to harden at any moment. Volta didn't really do anything to present herself as a sorcerer. She didn't try to evacuate people either.
Sirens could be heard coming from the outside, Dan ran to the entrance. Trying to fill them in. He saw a cop and several pedestrians sticking around and wondering. At the front of the glass doors, appeared a flash of light, then a man. He turned around to look at him. "Shujin…?" Dan recognizes.
He runs faster. As he was about to reach the entrance, Shujin lifted his hand, showing him the ring. "Yabai! He has it already!?"
Yabai = No way
Dan pushes the doors open and Shujin already vanished at that point. Then came mist surrounding him, appeared Cathy.
"Cathy! He has the ring!" Dan yelled out.
"Shit. We're late. You stay here, I'll chase after Shujin."
"Osu!"
Cathy then turns into mist again and left Dan there. Dan turns to the several cop cars parked out front. "Officer! We need help evacuating the building."
"What's going on?" Asked the officer in an urgent manner.
"There's a gate in the basement. We need to get everyone out."
"How many are you?"
"Four," Dan replied confidently.
"Shit, you're like a kid," the officer sighed.
"And you're like forty-seven," Dan replied sarcastically.
"Forty-five."
"You look good for your age...? Anyway, help us."
The officer bows his head to his radio on his left shoulder, "we have a 10-Ocean-Boy." Several cops then came out of their vehicles and started rushing into the building.
Ocean-Boy refers to the abbreviation OB which means Outbreak.
Dan turned around to see inside the building, thinking of joining them in running inside. He sees Laura regroup with Sam and Volta. He'll just rejoin them instead. "It looks like they're going to the basement," Dan deduced.
About two dozen police officers stormed inside. As the cops all entered and were readying to run up to several floors up and find a way to relay the evacuation message to everyone, the floor of the lobby cracked and exploded outwards. Knocking the cops and his teammates aside. There was now a giant hole in the ground. Beasts came crawling out of the hole. They reached for the cops first. They start grabbing their limbs, gnawing on their flesh. Ripping them apart to feed.
Dan fell into shock and couldn't move a muscle. His eyes widen and his ears deafen as his heartbeat starts quaking his entire body. The flow of the beasts wasn't slowing down. It wasn't long until they diverted their attention to the door and start running towards the entrance. As the beasts burst through the glass door and catching people astray.
Dan watched as their bodies were consumed greedily. Dan couldn't feel a single thing. He couldn't find himself moving a muscle. A quick flash of light and a blade, Laura cuts all of the beast that managed to exit the building. She was covered in the beasts' blood, her arm hand was bleeding and her face cheek was scratched, blood was spilling slowly from the cut.
"You're… Hurt…" Dan realizes.
Laura was moving her lips, yelling at Dan. He couldn't hear a thing. He was frozen in place. Struck by fear, he couldn't gather the courage to run inside. Laura then runs up to him, she taps his shoulders. Calling his name.
Dan, what are you doing? Move! Jon yelled. They need your help! MOVE!
Jon then tweaked, dabbled in something that used to be his expertise when he was alive. It awoken Dan from his frozen state. His head then rotated to the right really quickly as he feels a burn on his face. Laura slapped him.
"Dan! Can you hear me?" She yelled, her voice barely managing through the cries and roar of man and beasts.
"Y- Yeah," he nods, slowly snapping out of his shock.
"Sorry for slapping you. We have to go!"
"R- Right!"
What the hell was that…? I froze… Why did I do that? He wondered to himself.
It's called fear. Welcome to being human! Jon answered. Hayaku!
Hayaku = hurry up!
Dan and Laura ran inside the building. Dan's breathing was pacing, his heart beats out of his chest. His hands started shivering as he looks around to see the dozens of corpses laid out on the floor. He clenched his fists and coursed mana through his body. Dark Gauntlets he cast to his hands. His eyes teared from fear, blurring his vision occasionally. He runs towards a group of beasts and launches his attack. A single punch from him was enough to annihilate each beast easily.
After he finishes off the small group of beasts, he fell forward. Kicked by Sam. He lands on one knee and turns around. Seeing his friend. He was covered in the beast's blood and his own. Right after he glanced at Sam, a stream of fire shot between them. Sam turns to the direction of the fire then clashed his blades together, creating a wave of repel. He then runs towards the beast who casted it.
They're all fighting. What the hell am I doing?
Dan got up quickly. He turns to the giant hole, he sees a quick traveling flash of blue light from the basement. He knew who it was and jumped down. He expels a large sum of mana to both his Dark Gauntlets, giving him a larger area of impact. He starts pummeling through giant groups of fodder beasts. Their numbers weren't thinning out. Too many beasts flooded from the gate.
Emerging from giant swarm of beasts was one larger one. It had a strong look about it. Dan focuses his mana sense on it, sensing unusual mana. He didn't understand what it was, he starts making his way to the large beast. Running a slaughter to the hundreds of beasts that stand between the two. The large beast quickly closed the gap between it and Dan. It grabbed his jacket and twirled him around the basement and through him to a supporting pillar.
That was fa- Before he could finish his thought, Dan had to tilt his body to the left as quick as he could. Where his head was, now a fist cratered in the pillar. Dan quickly grabbed the wrist of the beast, he rotated his body to the side and raised his right leg as high as he could and lands a side kick to the beast's stomach. Didn't budge…? Dan was confused for a second, oh, right! He remembered. He casts Dark Boots and repeats the kick and let go of the beast's wrist and sent it flying backwards. The beast slid on its knee and palms. It erected its body and readied itself. Dan quickly stands and prepares himself to fight. The beast was three feet taller than Dan. Its arms were proportionated to its height. Its head was peculiar in shape. Like a bird with shark teeth and small jagged spikes at the side of its head.
Before Dan could move, the head of the beast fell to the ground after a traveling trail of light. "Volta…" He figured. He couldn't put his pride before himself after he froze up. He didn't mind the assist. He had a bigger battle to fight.
Dan figured Sam and Laura were thinning out the numbers of the beast on the ground floor, Volta was keeping control of the stream fairly well. I'll help Volta. He runs to the crowd of beast with Dark Gauntlets and Dark Boots casted. As Dan and Volta started to slow down the stream of beasts, the worst possible person showed up. He held Dan's arm, stopping him in his tracks. "You think I'd make this easy for you?" Shujin himself spoke.
Dan pivots and turns his shoulder, bringing his other arm to land a hit on Shujin. Shujin starts laughing as he grabbed Dan's jacket and flew upwards. Using Dan to take the impact, they hit the ceiling and burst through the next floor, he does it over and over and over. He leaves Dan staggered on the seventeenth floor. He then drops down through the holes he made. He stops on the ground floor. Sam and Laura noticed him and were stopped, confused. He goes for Sam first. He lands a knife-hand strike to Sam's temple, staggering him. Then drops his hand to land a palm strike to his abdomen, knocking the wind out of him.
Laura came up behind Shujin, she turned, and swinging her blade down diagonally, it was meant to cut his neck. It was like hitting cement with a bat. No budge. Shujin drops to the floor while swiping his leg in three-hundred-sixty degrees and trips both of them. His hand with the ring touched the floor, everything connected to the floor is now his to bend. He creates two stone pillars and sent them upwards, Laura hardened her body with amplification and went through the ceiling. She went all the way to the tenth floor. Sam was pinned against the ceiling. He screams a battle cry and was able to break the pillar of stone with his hands.
"Omae wa dare!?" Sam screamed angrily.
Omae wa dare!? = Who the fuck are you!?
"HAHAHAHA!" Shujin laughs maniacally, stays on the ground and raised the ground at the entrance and sealed it off with the floor. He then rushes forward at Sam, and lands a knife-hand strike to Sam's left-side chest. Breaking his rib and lightly puncturing his lung. Shujin then grabbed the back of Sam's collar and threw him upwards through the hole Laura went through. He landed on the seventh floor.
Shujin walked down the hole and entered the basement. He sees Volta fending everything off by herself. She's the strongest one here…
Shujin dashed at her and lands a kick right to her face. She flies to a wall and crashes into it. Who was that? Volta wondered.
Shujin walked to the gate and grabbed the side of the gate. Sever, he casted. He enlarges the gate and more beasts swarm at a faster rate. The beast ignored him as if he was an inanimate object. They climbed out of the basement and onto the lobby. Starting to look for a different floor. Shujin then dashed to Volta.
"Omae ga tsuyoi darou ne…"
"Anta dare?"
"Shujin. Omae?"
"Volta."
Omae ga tsuyoi darou ne = You're strong, aren't ya?
Anta dare = Who are you?"
Shujin analyzes her mana, he feels a depressing presence. That presence was so suppressed he barely noticed it. Shujin had trained his mana sense to be able to detect the subtlest of presence. This was different, it wasn't a conscious thing she did. Creepy.
"Volta… Ganbaro," he gave her a thumbs-up. His mouth reaching the sides of his mask to a obnoxious grin. He then vanished to light. Nearly a hundred-beast shifted their focus to Volta in an instant.
Ganbaro = Good luck
Volta got up and casts Bolt Amplification. She pressed her right foot on the wall behind her. She focused her breathing and her amplification to her feet. She pushes off the wall and launches forward. Opening her hand and bringing her fingers together, a shuto—knife hand. She swings her hands around like they're sharp blades.
How long is this gate going to stay open? That man made the gate bigger. Maybe I should tell the others. Can't risk more getting out.
Dan starts to gather himself and get himself to stand on his two feet. His back was covered in red bruises. It agonized him to straighten his back. "Where's Shujin?" He asked. As he starts to focus, he hears loud sounds of nasty growling and fighting from the lower floors. People gathered around him, looking terrified and worried at the same time.
His right pant pocket started vibrating. He dives his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. It looked perfectly fine. It was a call from Sam. Dan picked it up immediately.
"DAN!!!" Sam's distorted voice screamed through the speaker.
"What?"
"The bottom floor is sealed! No one can get out!"