As Markus was busy changing into new clothes in his motel room and wondering what was happening, it is no surprise that he was unaware of what was happening in the wider world. Throughout much of the world, it was just a regular day. People went to their jobs, children went to school, and governments did their business. Yet unbeknownst to the majority of the global population, pockets of unusual and unsettling events were beginning to surface.
The first incident to catch people’s attention was the admittance of a certain Helmut Adlerband to the Stuttgart General Hospital. Helmut was a hunter who frequently hunted in the Black Forest alongside his brothers, Arthur and Wolfgang. At 8:21 AM, Helmut was admitted and rushed to the ER after he was found on the side of a road covered in wounds and burns. Hospital staff, initially puzzled by the nature of Helmut's injuries, soon found themselves facing a medical mystery. Helmut mumbled incoherently about "otherworldly flames" and “demons" as medical professionals worked tirelessly to treat his wounds. Although they worked as hard as they could, Helmut could not be saved and at 9:33 AM, he would be declared dead.
The chaotic scene at the Stuttgart General Hospital left medical professionals and emergency responders bewildered. As patients were admitted one after another, all sharing eerily similar accounts of otherworldly flames and demonic encounters, a sense of unease permeated the medical staff. At 12:11 PM, the hospital's emergency response system was flooded with distress calls reporting a fire within the facility. Firefighters rushed to the scene, expecting a routine fire response. However, what awaited them was far from ordinary. The moment they entered the hospital, they were met with a sight that would send shivers down their spines.
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Wandering the hallways were the patients but unlike the somewhat stable condition they were in when they were admitted, they were now entirely engulfed in bright red flames. The firefighters watched in horror as the patient's skin blackened and was burnt to ash as a horde of skeletons wreathed in flames stared at them in silence.
One thousand miles away in the Soviet Union, however, the scene they faced was vastly different. the sound of gunfire echoed around the area of the Volgansk military base as hordes of blue-skinned humanoids assaulted the base. Artillery boomed, rockets screeched, and the gunfire crackled as they tore into thousands of the creatures as they sprinted across the frozen earth, their blue blood staining the snow.
In Japan, horned demons and creatures thought to be from legend stood amongst the burning remains of villages and towns as mysterious figures watched the world from their shrines.
In Italy, legions of dog-headed men and other monsters marched in formation as they made their way to Rome, burning and killing anything that dared to stand in their path.
The number of incidents grew in size and severity and before long, the whole world was facing some kind of crisis. Reports flooded in from every corner of the globe, detailing encounters with unknown beings and flora, unexplained phenomena like cards appearing in front of panicked citizens, and the breakdown of society.
In the heart of major cities, skirmishes erupted between humans and creatures once thought to exist only in myths and nightmares. Governments struggled to maintain order as military forces proved ineffective against the size and number of battles going on. The skies above darkened with ominous clouds as if nature itself bore witness to the chaos below.
This, as would be called by later scholars and governments, would be the “Spark” that would light the roots of the world aflame.