"Demons..."
This was the first conclusion Dream came to as he saw the advancing hordes. After all, there was only one race that had an invasive nature like this. There could be nothing else in his mind that would act as they do.
However, the sheer scale of this movement had him baffled. Just from what they were seeing now, on each continent, there were already 500 million, and they weren't even done pouring out. This meant there were easily a billion, and they were launching their attacks on two fronts at the same time.
The destination of the waves of demons were clear too. From both sides of the human continent, demons poured from the ocean and immediately advanced towards the Sword School and Spire who were nearest to the coasts. As of now, there were 200 million going toward each Empire. As for the Animal continent, the demons were heading straight for the United Empire and Elven Tree that occupied the center of the continent.
In only 20 minutes, the day had gone from a relaxed Sunday afternoon to an apocalyptic doomsday scenario.
"Hm? Dream?"
Detecting the wild changes in his mood, both Luna and Iris looked over curiously.
"The demons are back..."
"What? The demons?"
"They're invading. I can't believe they're actually coming from the fucking ocean. Since when does anything happen in the ocean?!"
"Hold on, what's going on?"
"Check this out."
Dream had Sophia send both of them the data as he quickly got up from the couch. Soon, they were both freaking out just like him.
"There's so many! Over a billion?! That's nearly double their total amount from before!"
"They're heading straight for the Empires. That's enough to wipe them all out. Dream, you need to do something. This is enough to wipe out every Empire on the planet."
"I know... Sophia."
[Yes?]
After taking only a second to ponder, Dream gave some orders.
"Alert them. Everyone. Everyone who has a bracelet on both continents. Let them know exactly what's going on. Transmit all the data to them. Tell them to prepare for war."
[Sounding alarms now.]
"...And activate every soldier we have. Send some soldiers down to alert the Empires further. Scatter the gunships. All construction bots are to go into wartime productions... And arm the railguns. Prepare to fire."
[Understood.]
"...You two. Go get your parents and bring them straight to the factory. Do not attack the armies. The amount of class 4's in any given area is probably too high for you guys alone."
"O-okay. What about you?"
"I'm also going to the factory. Come on. We need to hurry."
Saying that, the three shot out of the cabin and into the skies, heading in two separate directions.
...........
Meanwhile, in every Empire on the planet, alarms were blaring in the minds of millions. It was like an emergency alert system as it repeated its apocalyptic warnings over and over again. The voice and alarming sound instilled fear into everyone's hearts by design.
This was especially true for all the class 4's and 3's. While everyone with a bracelet was being told about the situation, they were getting more of a gist. They could see live feeds in their vision and visuals on the growing number of demons.
Regardless of who though, everyone felt chills go down their spine. The sheer number, the fact that they were surrounded, and the rapid situation change shook them all. And after a few class 4's from different Empires went to go personally verify, they found that it was all correct, further sending them into a state of alertness.
Immediately, all upper echelons scrambled their people and every Empire was sent into a wartime state. Armies were assembled, defenses were activated, and citizens were made aware of everything. Soon, the world civilizations were thrown into chaos.
This all took time though, and by the time they had reacted, the demons were already well into their advancement. In fact, several kingdoms along the coastal regions of the continents had already been obliterated, killing everyone in them and leaving no survivors.
Everyone with a bracelet of course saw this, and it drove them further into madness. Generals, politicians, and kings alike were trying to figure out how to get through this approaching disaster. By the estimations, the demons would only take a week at most to sweep through the entire continent from all sides. They couldn't escape to anywhere, except for two places.
Both the human and animal continent had an Empire stationed to their north. Empires that were surrounded by mountains. They were the Dwarven Empires and the Enchanted Mountain respectively, and in this time of crisis, everyone was considering moving their peoples there.
The demons were advancing from the east, west, and south. But the north, not so much. That's because the northern regions were filled with mountains. It was much harder to traverse, especially with so many people. This meant the demons coming from those directions were sparse, and nearly all were coming from everywhere else.
Those mountainous regions were immediately seen as the perfect defensible positions. It would suit this situation perfectly. However, not everyone could be moved. The populations of the Empires were massive, and to stuff everyone into one area was impossible. But considering how the situation suddenly became so dire, the people in charge had to weigh the pros and cons.
On one hand, they could hold their ground and attempt to fight it out. This would end with an uncountable amount of deaths and possibly even the eradication of their Empire. Or, they could retreat and set up defensive positions in the mountainous regions while only taking portions of their populations. This would also lead to uncountable deaths through the dooming of most of the populous, but it would give them a better chance to survive.
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It was a hard choice, and not one that could be made quickly. The only thing they could find solace in was the fact that there was a lot of ground and a lot of people in between the demons and the Empires. It would ensure lots of time before they were forced to decide, albeit it didn't make the decision any easier.
...........
As the Empires were scrambling, Dream was up in the factory. The family was up there as well, and they were all waiting around anxiously.
Inside the factory was a warehouse. The warehouse was massive, and over time, had been expanded continuously. By now, it was as big as the rest of the factory, which said a lot considering the factory was nearly 30 miles long and wide after its operations had been so dramatically developed.
Dream was inside this warehouse, as was the family, and they overlooked all the things within it. There were bots, ships, supplies, and they extended as far as the eye could see.
"...How many?"
[The bots number about 350 million, none of which have combat power lower than a class 2. Inside this warehouse there are about 50 million bots. The other 300 million are floating out in space inside other warehouses.]
"Mm. Looks like continuously building them for over a year came in handy after all. Luckily I never decided to stop."
Dream smirked as he thought about the whole thing. Things had been peaceful for a long time, and one of the only reasons he had continued building combat bots was that he was a little bit paranoid and so that he could have fun building something other than the particle collider. Also, having so many bots at his command was cool. It made him giddy every time he thought about it, so he just let some construction bots continue building and stockpiling them.
In actuality, the number would be much higher had he devoted more construction bots. But he didn't, so he would just have to make do with only this much.
As he overlooked the crowds of bots and ships, he was also paying attention to the demons. After a few hours, they continued to pour from the ocean, and their estimated numbers were at nearly 1.7 billion total. The amount that was coming from the ocean dwindled at this point though, and he assumed there wouldn't be much more than that.
That didn't make 1.7 billion any less despair-inducing though. It was a population that probably surpassed the planet's native population. All of them were at least class 1 too, and if he didn't do anything, it was enough to wipe out all life on the planet.
Luckily, he had his plans. First, he had already fired off plenty of bombs, 30 in total. However, that was only able to kill so many. The demons were spread out along the coast and weren't very close together. So he decided to wait. He wanted to allow the demons to converge and build up. That way, he would get the most kills when he dropped his bombs and wouldn't waste them all. He didn't have that many at his disposal.
However, to his dismay, the demons didn't do as he expected. As they moved through and invaded the continents, they maintained a very wide spread, much unlike how they used to do. Because of that, he was never able to ensure more than a few million kills.
"Could they... have learned about my bombs? Is this seriously a countermeasure against them?"
[Regardless of whether it is or not, it's working. Even if we were to use every bomb in our arsenal, it might barely be enough to wipe out a quarter of their total number.]
"...That's frustrating. And even as they're spread out, they're still making their way toward the Empires, just in a roundabout way. If they get too close then I won't be able to use the bombs... However, because they're more spread out it'll make it a bit easier for us to personally fight them. The soldiers won't be at as much of a risk to get attacked by class 4's... Here's how we'll do this. Launch half the soldiers to each continent and organize them into clusters. They can spread out like the demons and strike in squads. That way, should a class 4 fight them, we'll be able to minimize our losses since they won't be grouped up."
Dream quickly decided what to do with utmost seriousness. He could already feel the pressure building in his mind, and even while giving out orders, he was wondering how they were going to get around this.
[What about gunships?]
"...Have them do high speed sweeps and flybys, making sure they don't get caught. We have about 200 thousand, so split them too. *sigh* Those are gonna burn through ammo."
[And what about the smaller railgun platforms?]
"Have those target class 4's alongside the soldiers. It'll be their only high class defense. How many of those do we got?"
[About 1000.]
"Good. That'll help a lot. Now, have all of them booted up?"
[Just about.]
"Okay..."
Dream sighed and nodded as he overlooked the soldiers. There were many who were driven by miniature reactors, and they would charge the ones that weren't. Since all the soldiers had been dormant, Dream needed to take time to let them start up.
But this process didn't take long. Once the last batch of bots had been booted, he gave the order.
"Disperse."
With a word, the entire floor of the warehouse was opened in the form of two massive doors, revealing the big blue planet below them. All the soldiers who were either in squads or loaded into ships dropped down and accelerated into deorbital flight paths.
The same thing happened in the space above different parts of the planet. Many metal boxes storing millions of soldiers suddenly opened up and let out swarms of bots. There were also gunships and flying platforms carrying railguns that made their way down, half and half, to the two continents.
As this happened, the family was there watching it all happen. They were stunned at the number of soldiers and how they could be deployed with a word to the planet. As far as they were concerned, Dream was more of a threat to the Empires than the demons were.
"Now, time for the second part of the plan. Luna. Iris."
Turning around, Dream faced the girls. They snapped out of their reverie at his voice.
"Ya?"
"We're gonna go down and fight. I don't know how well my soldiers are gonna do, so we'll need to help out by killing some class 4's."
"Hehe, okay! We finally get to go and fight something!" (Iris)
"Didn't you say it was dangerous, Boy?" (Riddick)
"I had thought that because I assumed they were going to group up, but that never happened. They're spread out enough, and we can always run away if there's ever like 100."
"Hmm, I think I should go with you."
"Actually I have a job for you. I need you to go to the Spire and Sword School and give them some orders. They need to pack up their people and start making their way towards the Mountain. It's not going to be long before the demons arrive, and when they do, there's only going to be so much I can do."
"...Everyone? Those places have huge populations. They won't all fit in a place like the Mountain."
"I don't care. They'll need to if they want to survive. Look, I've got several thousand cargo ships. Herding people and food and stuff should be easy with that. They'll also have around a week or two to organize things. I just need you to go there and talk to them personally. Selene can help with that. Sophia will also help with the details."
"...Alright, but don't expect much. Even with your ships, entire cities and kingdoms aren't easily uprooted. I'll be sure to get from the class 4's what they plan to do, see if we can't cooperate. You just be careful down there."
"Of course. And hey, worst comes to worst, us few can live up here in the factory where the demons can't reach. I can summon whatever food I want, so we could live up here forever."
"...That situation is much darker than you make it out to be."
"And it's good that you can understand that fact. And since we understand, we need to make sure it doesn't come to pass. Part of that is getting people to where they need to go, and as you go to move people to a new holy land, I will try to make sure that there is a sanctuary waiting for their arrival. Does that work for you?"
As he asked, Dream walked over and placed his hand down on Riddick's shoulder, looking into his eyes. Within them was a little uncertainty and fear, and everyone could see how stressed he was getting.
Riddick went quiet for a second before nodding.
"...I'll do my best."
"Good! But don't stress too much. It's bad for your health. Now, we should get going ladies. We've got demons to fight and a world to save."
Saying that, Dream walked off with quick steps towards the massive warehouse doors that dropped to the planet. Jumping through, he disappeared from everyone's sights.
"...*sigh* We should go."
Turning away worriedly, Luna spoke to her parents. Selene went over to her and gave her a hug.
"Be careful."
"We will."
After saying bye to their parents, the girls backed away and activated their ability, disappearing from the factory. Riddick and Selene also boarded a ship and left, heading down to the Spire.