Kyrain was in the ruins of the guild hall waiting for information like everyone else. He pulled up his new notifications and smiled at what he saw.

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill: Disintegrate(a) - Fire a beam of pure antimatter that changes matter at the fundamental level by draining all energy from it. Objects and flesh hit will continuously be drained and decay until nothing remains. Reduces to lead powder. Requires large amounts of aether to block.

Congratulations!

You have achieved Tier 8!

Congratulations!

You have achieved Tier 9!

Blessing recieved!

Name: *redacted*

Status: Inert

Effects: *redacted*

Note: Will be activated when appropriate conditions are met.

Kyrain was extremely pleased and mystified.

He recieved an extremely powerful offensive skill and shot up two whole tiers of power. Then he recieved a blessing, something he had never once heard of in the system from anywhere.

"Your attention please! If you are Tier 7 and higher report to training room four for a bried. Those in the program of all levels are required by order of the grandmaster." A guild attendant said.

Kyrain and Nyx looked at eachother then made their way to the room.

After a few moments Kyrain saw his uncle step out on the stage.

He pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. A massive projector screen came down and after a second press and a few minutes a slideshow was projected.

"We just recieved word from Hawaii with their long range aether scanner, that a MASSIVE aether signature has been picked up moving quickly over Japan. The Tidecaller and his guilds are moving out on an intercept path to identify target and turn away if not destroy it. Defense lines are being set up all along the west coast.

We are going to shift our Defense line to reinforce the Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas line. If for whatever reason it makes it passed the first few lines. We are the line that keeps whatever that is away from the biggest rifts in the nation. I am confident however, that Kody will be more than enough. He has yet to lose to any mortal opponent." Mitch said in introduction.

He clicked the remote and a bar graph appeared. The graph shown here is what the scanners detected. It's strange as this thing has all known types of aether maxed out for what the scanner can detect which is saying something as the last known person to do this is the Sage. Others will max out one or two of the bars and we have their signatures registered.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He clicked the remote again and an extremely blurry image appeared of what looked to be humanoid. "We suspect one of the other nations have managed to cultivate a super user somehow and now are using this as a means to shatter our defenses and shake us as a country." Mitch continued.

"What is the official government response?!" A question was shouted out from the crowd.

Mitch turned. "Nothing from the president. In fact we haven't heard anything from the president since the thrall and lesser vampires turned the heat up and this attack here as we assume was an attempt to take the rifts. Congress on the other hand is the reason for this unified proclamation and call for all forces to converge and defend the nation." He said.

Mitch turned back to the screen and pressed for the next slide.

"If the Tidecaller fails to deal with this threat, we are projecting between 12 and 16 hours uninhibited to reach us here. We do hope for some leeway on the time as at the very least Kody will slow this thing down and the San Diego line will slow it further." Mitch clicked the button one more time causing the screen to go black with the end of the presentation.

"If there are questions, please see me after. If you do not have a question for me, a link up point has been sent to each of you based on path, strength, and other considerations to spread us out evenly. If contact is made, we converge on target using your emergency beacon. Dismissed." Mitch said beginning to reset the room and people began leaving the room.

Kyrain was on his way out when he saw his mother leaving ahead of him.

"Mom!" He shouted.

She turned and smiled at him. "I was hoping to talk to you before you left. She pulled a few pictures up on her phone of a street view near a hospital. "They have asked me to report to this hospital to prepare for casualties should the threat make it this far inward and was hoping you could help a girl out?" She asked as she waved to Nyx.

"No. Absolutely not mom." Kyrain said with a smirk causing his mom to squint her eyes at him.

"Yes of course. There is no way I'd deny you." Kyrain then said as he began to study the pictures. After a minute, he closed his eyes then tore open a rift. He opened his eyes and checked the rift, making sure it was good and where it needed to be. He walked through followed by his mother then Nyx.

"Be safe. If it gets too bad, there is no shame in falling back to regroup and re-engage from a better position." Brittanie said hugging both him and Nyx before hurrying off to the hospital to ensure it was ready in case of of the worst.

Kyrain pulled his phone for their link up spot.

"You ready?" He asked looking at Nyx.

"No, but do we have a choice?" She responded as he tore open a rift.

On the other side was a then a massive body of water that the map called the Canadian River for some reason. There were many users meandering around with nobody they recognized at a glance.

"Ky!" A voice cut through the droning of the crowd.

Kyrain and Nyx turned to see Sebastian and Tobias hurried toward him with Elijah not far behind.

"What's up dudes!" Kyrain said giving each of them a hug.

"Crazy stuff right?!" Tobias said as he stepped back.

"Yeah no kidding." Kyrain replied.

"Who is this?" Sebastian said almost gawking at Nyx.

"Fellas, this is Nyx. She's my girlfriend." Kyrain said as he couldn't help but stand a little taller.

Nyx, for her part, just waved.

"These two knuckle heads." Kyrain said pointing to Sebastian and Tobias. "Are my cousins and this..." Kyrain said pointing at Elijah. "Is Elijah. Bro! Tell her what you do!" Kyrain said happily.

"I'm a Harmacist. The harder I punch someone the more I heal them." He said with a smile, amused at how happy it made Kyrain.

Nyx raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" She asked.

"Yeah....I found out the hard way." Kyrain said with a laugh.

The group sat down on the ground where they were and caught up as they waiting for any sort of news. Eventually a couple of them laid back and began to take a nap. Around an hour passed until alert tones went off from everyone's phone.

Kyrain looked.

"Tidecaller forces defeated. Catastrophic casualty rates expected. Target appears to be a physical based path user with full body armor. Uses swords.

Identity and nationality unknown.

Target location assumed approaching San Diego line."

Kyrain's blood ran cold out of concern for his Uncle Kody. There is no way he could have been killed, he fought Leviathan and survived.

Kyrain looked up and saw his cousins just as pale with red rimmed eyes.

Sebastian was the first to speak.

"Do you think Uncle Kody made it?" He asked.

Tobias grabbed his shoulder. "Uncle Kody is unkillable. He definitely made it. He is smart enough to fall back if he needs to." He said not completely convinced by what he was saying.

Kyrain couldn't stop staring at the attached picture of the target. It was a humanoid in full armor in black and red clothing.