Kyla dove for cover as a searing beam of unlight erupted from the alien device, scorching the stone where he stood only a moment before. The mind-warping energy it unleashed could have driven a mortal man insane just by looking at its indigo glare.
But Kyla was no ordinary man. He was Realm Lord, guardian of the planet itself, with magic rooted deep in Earth's primal forces. And he needed every ounce of that power now to turn back this surprise invasion before all humanity was put at risk.
Kyla peered out from behind his sheltered boulder, blood turning cold at the nightmarish sight unfolding down in the fiery valley. Inhuman assailants continued crawling forth from the wreckage - not mere dozens as he first feared, but hundreds, perhaps thousands. Worse still, they were excavating strange organic machinery from the alien vessel to fortify their position, almost resembling gigantic insect hives glistening with vile secretions.
Once these otherworldly invaders finished rooting themselves, they would become nearly impossible to extract without inflicting catastrophic damage. Kyla knew his only hope was an overwhelming preemptive strike - now, before their spreading corruption sank deeper across Earth's surface.
Gripping his engraved Runestones, Kyla steeled himself for a particularly dangerous but devastating incantation. The syllables took shape on his tongue, channeling forces potent enough to unmake worlds. Raw power cascaded through his body as he unleashed the spell with a thunderous roar...
"KRAGGADOR MALAGOR!!!"
A blinding rift tore open in reality itself above the valley, revealing a dark cosmic vista swirling with alien constellations. From its yawning abyss dropped a 50-foot meteor wreathed in Applied multi dollars, slamming like a colossal hammer into the center of the invasion force with earthquaking force.
Kyla watched as the chain reaction of detonations ripped through the chaotic valley, decimating the heart of the beachhead's fortifications and purging hundreds of the otherworldly invaders in an instant. Yet his hope quickly turned to dread once more as an awful realization sank in...
The spell was devastating, but the alien swarm descending from the mothership still vastly outnumbered him. And he sensed fury rising from their undulating ranks, thirsting now not just for conquest - but revenge.
As scorching beams sizzled the stone around him, Kyla knew tapping so deeply into Earth's primal magic had given his presence away. The full force of the alien swarm was now bent on wiping Realm Lord from existence forever.
Kyla's spells may have weakened the invaders, but their technology still far outpaced anything mankind possessed. What drove it seemed almost like blasphemous sorcery rather than science - violating the very laws of reality when activated. And even now he could see the offworlders configuring devices fueld by that unearthly technology, readying a combined blast that would surely vaporize his hilltop sanctum and him with it.
In mere moments the stygian ray would fire, spelling certain doom. In desperation Kyla opened his satchel hoping for anything - an herb, a sigiled token - some forgotten trinket to possibly reverse the tide.
Instead his fingers closed around the leather binding of his ancestral prophecy tome, gifted from his grandfather. The very book foretelling this invasion in cryptic verses decades ago. In his rush to battle the aliens, Kyla had nearly forgotten bringing it along at all. There had been no time yet to study its worn pages again for guidance.
But now, with oblivion racing toward him, he frantically flipped through the codex seeking answers. Ancient ink spoke of mythic shields, cosmic messengers, keys that open bloodlines to nuova dimensions of understanding...yet no clear message availed itself.
Kyla was ready to pitch the useless tome aside in frustration when something fell from its pages - a loose sheaf covered in spidery writing generations older than the rest. His eyes desperately scanned the crumbling text for anything of use, finding one odd stanza repeated over and over:
"Iam period finis venit. The End draws nigh and all Earth falls to Saragulor. Only caelum in manu per salutem. Hold sky in hand for salvation."
Kyla's mind reeled trying to decode the riddle before death found him. Hold sky in hand? All Earth falls to this "Saragulor"? He gazed up at the orb of flickering purple unlight coalescing above as his doom took shape. Could the cryptic phrase somehow be the key to stopping...
Wait...a orb...holding an orb...
In a flash Kyla understood. The ancient poetry was literal! He had to grip the sky itself - the pulsing orb amassing alien energy - and metaphorically hold that power in his hand via Applied Achiev multi dollar...transmuting its cosmic might like mystical clay to be molded anew!
Knowing there was no time to spare with the ray nearly ready to fire, Kyla locked his eyes on target high overhead. Reaching out both hands as a focal point, he funneled all concentration and poured every last ounce of his magic into one final incantation:
"ORBIS...REFLECTUS!!!"
Reality rippled. Space time stretched. Like opposing poles of a magnet, Kyla's outstretched palms exerted invisible force upon the orb. The violet anti light flickered...wavered...and suddenly inverted back upon itself in ablinding flash.
A colossal reflected beam of energy erupted from the orb, racing back down toward its masters in a purple torrent of firepower. Aliens shrieked in alarm mere seconds before their own weaponized apex technology vaporized the entire valley in a thundering explosion, rapidly engulfing the entire invasion force in purifying luminance.
Kyla turned his face from the burning blast winds as the light rapidly swept outward. Moments later, an eerie silence settled across the smoldering valley. He slowly rose to survey the aftermath, praying his desperate gambit had saved Earth from conquest.
In the clearing smoke below, no aliens stirred anymore amidst the fading violet fires. By the skin of his teeth, with brain and magic fused in harmony at last second...Kyla and managed to turn back the surprise attack using their own planet-busting weapon against them.
Yet bits of glowing debris in the rubble revealed the invaders' technology survived even if its wielders had not. Meaning more could already be on the way.
Kyla knew the next wave would show no mercy now that Earth repelled their initial gambit so forcefully. Standing upon his overlook, he planted his staff firmly, runes aglow, to strengthen the wards guarding Earth's dimensional barriers...bolstering planetary defenses for the wars still to come.
Because this victory only represented the opening salvo in an epic conflict that would decide humanity's fate.
Kyla scanned the stars nightly following the failed alien invasion, vigilant for signs of their return. But months stretched on with no craft breaching Earth's atmosphere, no vanguard of strange beings stepping forth. Perhaps using their own world-eating weapon against them had given the interlopers pause about this newly fortified planet.
Still Kyla remained wary, knowing threats still lurked in the cosmic darkness. Perhaps the invaders watched even now, hiding in shadows as they adjusted plans for conquest. Meanwhile he worked tirelessly to enhance Earth's protections however possible. Imbuing stone circles at key Ley line convergence points to strengthen dimensional firewalls. Weaving networks of arcane wards into the very landscape to help sense approaching hostility. Even forging interstellar communication runes attuned specifically to distant signals or spacecraft, whether friendly or hostile.
Yet as ages slipped by, Kyla started to feel Earth had weathered the worst calamity. No invading armies blackened the skies anymore. The upheaval became a memory, then passed into legend, while Kyla himself faded from general awareness as new societies rose and fell. Guarding duty became routine, keeping well-hidden watch while strengthening old magical barriers. He took comfort mankind now had room to reach its full potential without alien interference - knowing he helped secure that peace unseen.
Until late one morning as Kyla recited old incantations over a misty dolmen site, his alert runes suddenly blazed to life for the first time in generations. Similar wards lit up at sacred sites across the globe in unified warning: contact imminent...a mega class vessel just entered their solar system.
Kyla froze in dread. Whatever approached must be a mothership thousands of times larger than the previous incursion if his globe spanning runes were igniteing all at once. Within hours this titanic craft was in visual range even without scanners - a metallic moon looming closer, then taking up half the sky.
Kyla fully expected another punishing first strike. Surprisingly the mammoth ship paused placidly in Mars orbit, as if mildly intrigued by quaint Earth nearby. A comical scene given even one of its protruding gun turrets looked large enough blast their world apart in seconds.
Then a alien transmission beamed directly into Kyla's psychic emanations - oddly warm, almost jovial in tone for such massive threat:
"Greetings, Planetary Guardian! We represent the Galactic Consortium on a mission of diplomacy and cultural exchange. Our scans show you repelled a Gorgrath attack fleet some epochs ago. Impressive work! We have tried negotiating with those conquest driven militants as well to no avail."
Kyla stood dumbstruck processing this cheerful greeting after generations of solitary vigil against nameless external threats. The robes and armor suddenly felt outdated, even absurd, clinging to old fears and conflicts long faded to myths. For eons he had guarded Earth alone, facing the universe when no one else could comprehend its threats.