Green.

What a curious sight, that everything was so awfully green. Unlike other planets they have been too this one seemed to be an almost completely green marble.

Using their vast psychic powers the Swarm had detected signs of life in this distant galaxy.

It was a strange region of space. A single sun. A single planet within thousands of light years orbited by a pair of moons. There was a curious aura surrounding the planet, naked to the visible eye but not to their senses.

A barrier of some sort?

Observing it showed that it did not stop physical objects, for meteor and other objects passed through unimpeded. No, it was more metaphysical than anything else. It seemed to lock the world in place. There was a... Denseness to the atmosphere.

How curious.

They wonder how it would taste?

Would it be Chewy? or Perhaps Crunchy?

The swarm buzzed in excitement.

Whatever it was would surely prove to be most delicious

The Swarm has arrived... and they Hunger

----------------------------------------

"Dragon's Heart, Heavenly Stone, First Morning's Dew, Everlasting Ice..."

A cloaked figure read out loud from an incredibly long list of materials whose length reached pass his ankles and he was not a short figure by any means. Standing at just over six feet he quickly went through the list, and although his face was concealed one could tell it would've been pale from the slight tremble of his hands. It was with good cause too, for the ingredients used in the ritual were simply too mind-boggling!

Each and every one was worth a fortune. To call them a king's ransom would be the highest of praise to that king. That any single man could be equaled in value to any of them.

Their great empire prided itself upon its ancient history and longevity, but even he could barely believe what was on the list. Some of them came from monsters long extinct, others he didn't know existed! They were of Myths and Legends!

Yet the Queen had ordered them to bring out such vast wealth?

A small bead of sweat dripped down his brows at the thought of the other lesser kingdoms ever finding out about this. Although they were powerful, not even he was arrogant enough to think they would be able to fight against the world by themselves. Especially when the Demon filth were sharpening their claws.

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How many legendary elixirs could the Great Alchemist Ragur make with these?

Still, it was not his place to question the Queen. He would simply do as he was told.

After helping the others place the artifacts he got into position.

8 figures on 8 tall stone pillars aligned with the 8 stars of Light and Creation. The holy symbol of Luxalis, the Sun God. Runic words carved deep within the floor circling each pillar and connecting to each other in a decagon with a star in the center of them all.

Within the star was a small twig. It may have seemed pitiful in comparison to the items around it sitting at the base of the pillars, but it was, in fact, one of the rarest of the materials here.

A branch of The World Tree- Yggdrasil.

After all, what better to be a catalyze of a dimensional gate, than for something which can bypass the boundaries of the realms?

And so for 8 days the 8 strongest mages of the Elvan Empire chanted and channeled their battery. Non-stop without any breaks, they acted as living batteries to power one of the most obscenely powerful and complicated spell in the history of the world.

To go past the limits of the world, to fight against the wall of spall and flow of time, to call forth a soul from the great beyond.

The brightest minds had gathered together, spending countless time and sleepless nights researching and perfecting their ancestor's ancient spell. Calculations after calculations were made to ensure absolutely no error could be found.

Yet, nobody could've foreseen the sudden arrival of invaders from a distant galaxy. They showed without warning, their own strange power permeated the world as soon as they made contact with the atmosphere. The sinister aura was hunger and madness given form, it reached out everywhere it could and perverted the forces of the world, twisting it and mutating it.

Unfortunately, their ritual wasn't spared.

Across the world, a sudden sense of sheer dread filled every being to their core, even in the distant Demon Lands on the other side of the planet were not spared. Those maniacs who gladly laughed at the loss of a limb, who went into battle with naught a care, even they who were lost in their bloodlust and insanity felt a foreign sensation take hold. One they had not known since almost the beginning of creation itself.

Fear.

And yet as sudden as it came so too did it went

In fact many weren't even sure that it had even existed at all and gone back to their daily lives, unaware that had fate been just the slightest bit more fickle, things would've taken a most disastrous result.

"..."

Yet how could the greatest 8 of the mighty empire fail to notice such a disturbing phenomenon? Even drained and tired as they were, they were far from stupid and unaware. However, they could no longer sense whatever had caused it and their main focus was now on the ritual.

Or rather the failed ritual.

There was no explosion thankfully, but the disappointment was clear on everyone's face. The beautifully engraved runes which had taken a hundred master craftsmen were cracked and charred. The materials all gone, having been converted to Mana during the course of the ritual. All that was left was the twig. Except now there was not even a single hint of mana left in it, nor any life force. Indeed it appeared to have turned into a simple ordinary twig and no manner of scans over it produced any other results. The only difference it seemed, was that it had gained a purple hue.

Frustration and regret filled everyone there.

All that work, all that time and resources, and there was nothing to show for it.