Earth. June. 2022. CE.
Tesilim snapped out of his shock-fueled trance and erupted into motion, heading rapidly towards the roof’s exit door. There, he hastily opened it and proceeded to bolt down the stairs. He guessed the shockwave would be upon him in less than a minute, meaning he needed to find a more survivable spot beside the roof.
As he bolted down the stairs, he remembered that the emergency stairs he was currently on also led further down than the ground floor. Hopefully, they led him to a basement where he could take refuge.
He quickly descended to the second floor and soon enough reached the main floor. From there, he kept running down as the sounds of destruction got closer.
As he neared the end of the stairs, he saw a door blocking his path and, without hesitation, slammed into it with all his gathered momentum. The door slammed open, and he continued past, only to smash against a wall. The wall halted his progress, allowing him to quickly take in the small maintenance closet he now found himself in.
As Tesilim stood there with his back to the wall, he could feel his heart beating rapidly as if it was trying to leap out from his chest. His breaths also came in ragged gasps as his body caught up with his reckless dash through the stairs. Meanwhile, his adrenaline only climbed higher and higher as he felt the ground shake.
His terror also grew as he heard the cracking of trees and the sounds of blaring car alarms. He could only imagine the destruction taking place outside as buildings were ripped from the ground or completely toppled over. Then, as he stood frozen in mortified shock, the ground shook again, and he felt the building above collapse. By instinct, he reacted and slammed the closet door shut. Soon after closing the door, he felt the tremble through the ground as the stairs caved in. Then, with a last shutter, and as his closet filled with dust, the sounds of ruin ended just as fast as they had begun.
Seeing he was still alive, Tesilim slowly dropped to the ground, using the wall as support. His heart slowly calmed, and he came down from the adrenaline rush. However, it was too much. First, the aberration had quite literally mentally assaulted him. Then the warlock had transformed, and he had come face to face with a devil. An actual Devil!
Finally, he had almost died by the destruction of what he could only assume was the godly aberration breaching Earth’s barrier.
So he sat there and curled up into a ball for an hour, slowly processing the mental trauma and danger he had just experienced.
After some time, Tesilim also came to realize what the shockwave truly meant and spent another hour trying to fully accept and work through the confirmation of reality he had just personally witnessed.
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He had been told by the remnants of the Earth Alliance about the truth that had been kept from the masses when the war first started. The truth that the aliens weren’t there to conquer Earth and rule it. They were actually there to destroy Earth.
Of course, at first, Tesilim had found the idea ridiculous. After all, a planet was massive. Sure, you could remove all life on it and turn it into a wasteland of barren rock. But to truly destroy a planet, something with real power needed to exist. Something like a moon-sized asteroid slamming into Earth or maybe a black hole appearing nearby.
However, he had been told that for most planets, that was true and that many of the barren rocks in the universe could be shattered by other powerful and natural forces.
The thing was that Earth wasn’t like most planets. According to what the Earth Alliance soldiers had told him, Earth was protected by a barrier. This wasn’t some made-up thing, either. They had been given this information by the Monarchs of the Realms.
The Earth Alliance had been told that even if Earth slammed into a planet like Mars, the Earth and all life on it would actually be fine. They told Tesilim that this barrier around Earth would simply shatter Mars, and at most, the Earth would gain another moon. They had also said that the barrier wasn’t foolproof. It seemed that if the Earth came too close to the Sun or a planet like Jupiter, then everything living on Earth would die either by burning to a crisp or as the gas giant's gasses made their way into Earth in overwhelming amounts. However, even then, other non-living materials on Earth would just go through restructuring and change into other materials or chemicals.
Then, as the collision continued, two things would happen to the Sun or the gas giant. The first being the barrier effectively bouncing off the Sun or the gas giant. Meanwhile, the second possibility was the Earth going through the celestial bodies. However, the second interaction would depend on how fast the Earth and, therefore its barrier was hurtling through space.
Another way the barrier could be overcome was due to the fact that it did not entirely stop most living things from entering the planet. The barrier would and could slow down an entity's progress by warping reality around said entity, but most entities could still go through with enough time.
Tesilim had been told this flaw was how the aberrations could enter a planet. This, of course, had made Tesilim even more skeptical, but as he was confronted with actual magic, like his magitech rifle or the fact the sky was covered in clouds, he had to accept the possibility of it. After all, the motto of magic was that anything was possible.
The explanation continued by introducing entities with enough power to legitimately shatter this virtually unbreakable barrier around Earth. At the very least, they could only do so when presented with the right circumstances.
Now, Tesilim had somewhat accepted this theory of an entity existing that was so powerful that it could accomplish this. This acceptance came from two things. One, there had been information gathered from the aberrations that pointed at them serving another being who, according to them, was floating in the vacuum of space.
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Many on Earth were, of course, doubtful as no real evidence had been found to prove this. However, once again, with the Monarch's confirmation and the possibility that magic could really do anything, the information was reluctantly accepted by most of humanity.
The other reason for this acceptance came from the fact that humans currently and technically served and got their powers from other beings. This reason was even harder to ignore, as empowered warlocks could easily break through steel. So the argument was that if warlocks could accomplish such feats with only trickles of a Monarch's mana, what were the Monarchs capable of?
However, with time, humanity's reluctance to accept the fact that there was actually something powerful enough to destroy a planet changed into a complete and fearful acceptance. This change came to pass when the remnants of the Earth Alliance disbanded in January 2022.
Now, to understand why the disbanding of the Earth Alliance was the deal breaker for humanity, some history must be disclosed.
You see, the Earth Alliance originally fractured in 2020. However, even after this fracturing, there were still enough people in the Earth Alliance who held on to hope.
There were enough of these believers that the Earth Alliance was still considered a semi-global force even after breaking apart.
These members were those who helplessly attempted to fight back against the aberrations. They fought with the belief that death was better than destruction or at least enslavement. Of course, this belief was somewhat erroneous because if they died near a powerful enough aberration, their souls would be captured and probably transformed into new and loyal aberration.
Naturally, those who served in the alliance did not listen to rational thought, considering they still fought back instead of enjoying their last year on Earth. Either way, Tesilim had mingled with them for some time and was there when the whole thing fell apart as they genuinely accepted the reality of life.
He remembered when the United States Branch had been sent mind-breaking information about some events that had occurred overseas. Apparently, over in what was Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the alliance had been fighting against the aberrations in an attempt to stop one of their rituals.
Disastrously, the alliance had failed to stop the ritual, and the consequences of this failure had been immense and had sealed any possibility of Earth surviving its current disaster.
In short, an area running from the Persian Gulf across the Middle East and the entirety of Northern Africa in width, which then went up past the Mediterranean Sea, consuming all of Europe on the way North and only stopping when it reached across half of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, had been destroyed.
In fact, destroyed was putting it simply. The entire region was literally shattered. Space itself had broken down, shattering reality in the process. The whole area had also been consumed in a dark and fog-like smoke that stopped right at the boundary where the shattered reality met the more stable space presented by the rest of the planet.
In this region, space and time seemed to be of no consequence. Apparently, as the area was investigated by scouting groups, they found nothing stood where it once was. The whole area's space and time was in fluctuation.
They could enter through modern northern Europe and find themselves in a land filled with dinosaurs, then leave and find themselves exiting in Africa.
Though terrible, this tragedy wasn’t enough to completely deter the Earth Alliance. To them, it was just another reason to keep fighting. What finally convinced them to essentially give up was yet another confirmation by the Monarchs.
This time, the information given was how a typical invasion by the aberrations went. It started with gathering information and the building of a strong foundation. Once this was accomplished and depending on the planet, it would move to either recruitment or the infiltration of forces, both of which would eventually end with combat. This would then continue until the aberrations could set up a ritual in a large enough area. The ritual was used to shatter space and, by extension, weaken a large enough area of the barrier protecting a planet.
Once this area was shattered, the Eldritch God would begin amassing power. Then, once enough power was gathered, the god would unleash it at the weakened area. This would, of course, take time to punch through the barrier. However, once the barrier broke, the Eldritch God would quickly enter the planet since the breach could eventually seal itself back up. Sadly, with the god inside, the planet was all but doomed. When inside, the god would begin burrowing into the planet's core, causing massive earthquakes and tremors. Once it reached the core, it would consume that which powered the Ethereal Barrier, effectively dooming the world.
Tesilim knew what the shockwave meant, and even though he had been hoping for death all this time, it had all felt so detached. He knew Earth was all but doomed, but it never really felt one hundred percent real. He also did not honestly believe the information the Monarchs provided. After all, many of them enjoyed the suffering of others and even their own kind.
Tesilim had been skeptical and thought that they only provided the information to cause suffering, but after what he had just experienced, there was no more denying reality.
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Finally, after spending a few hours in lonely seclusion, Tesilim decided it was time to leave the dark closet. After all, he did not want to spend the last few hours of his life stuck in a dark hole. So he got up and went to open the door, only to be greeted by the large chunks of debris from the collapsed building.
Luckily, the debris had left significant gaps that Tesilim could slowly but surely squeeze through.
It took him around another hour or so to make his way through the dangerous maze of cement chunks. This delay was mainly caused by the fact some areas were smushed together, and Tesilim had to be careful when melting through the rock with blasts from his rifle.
Eventually, however, he did make his way up to the surface, where he was greeted by a scene of pure destruction.
The entire town had been leveled. It was as if a category five hurricane had passed through, except much worse. Whole brick and cement-reinforced buildings were toppled, while less sturdy architecture was utterly gone. There were also trees everywhere, though they were all in different states of destruction. Some were completely whole, while others were cracked and scattered. Tesilim could also see cars and other appliances strewn about the town. All of this was also not even mentioning other minor things that could be found in houses and offices, such as books, computers, printers, and toilet paper. There were also more prominent things, like entire roofs or walls at odd angles.
Shocked by the destruction, Tesilim stood amidst everything for some time, taking it all in. When he finally shook off his shock, he began scavenging for any valuable supplies he could get. After all, he wanted to spend his last few hours on Earth indulging himself.
After about an hour of hunting for supplies, Tesilim headed off into the forest to a nearby creek he passed on his way to the town.
He set up an incredibly nice camp there with some relatively clean pillows and bed sheets he had found. He also set up to prepare a feast with some proper cooking pots. Finally, he heated up some water using a bucket he found and properly cleaned himself.
After an hour of setting up his camp and cooking, Tesilim found himself lying on a soft mound of pillows and blankets while eating some delicious canned goods.
Finally, with a full belly, he began reading an interesting book he had spotted earlier and just waited for the end of the world.