After saluting, Liese walked to the side and bowed towards the audience.

The audience clapped with enthusiasm, almost like they did with Leda Portia.

But on the students' side, their eyes glowed with admiration as they stared at the figure in the middle of the stage.

Their hands didn't stop clapping even when Leda walked towards Liese and stood by her side.

Back at the stage, Leda took an exquisite box that a Protector brought over and gave it to Liese.

Opening it, Liese retrieved a Matter Manipulator that was different from most of the others.

The Matter Manipulator they should receive was made in a very simplistic way and colored in orange, but the one Liese got was carefully crafted and painted in white.

This Matter Manipulator represents her status as some that stood on the top of her class from the beginning to the end of the course.

Liese thanked Leda and bowed towards her before both of them shook hands while smiling towards the audience and the cameras.

After Liese finished with her part, she found herself a place within the stage. She stood there while Leda immediately called the next one, the 2nd in the overall rankings.

Each student was rewarded with a Matter Manipulator and give a 5 minutes speech before giving space to the next person.

The moment they get their Matter Manipulator, they would then walk to the back, and stood side by side with those that already got have gone up.

When was John's turn, he walked up towards the stage and stood before the entire audience.

He didn't waste much time after Leda gave the Matter Manipulator to him. He only made a short, standard, and straightforward speech, nothing much unusual that barely caught the attention of those in the audience.

John didn't seem bothered and swiftly found his place right beside the 35th rank.

It went for about 2 hours before it finally ended the ceremony of graduation.

Leda walked towards the microphone and cleared her throat before speaking, "With this, concludes the graduation ceremony, but before we can properly end, I have an announcement to make for those that are present here, and those that are watching around the universe."

"All you might have the rumors already. Yes, it is true, most of it. My fellow citizens... Our collective worlds face a threat, unlike any we've seen before. Five major Terrene Protectorate hubs have been destroyed in the last days."

With those words, the audience exploded in whispering and chattering as they talked with each other.

Leda waved her hand, and as such, it became silent again. She continued, "It's time to take action. We must join forces to repel this strange new enemy and stop fighting against ourselves over petty nonsense, lest we face unparalleled danger."

Some in the crowd nodded; others just suspiciously stared at Leda, not at all convinced of the danger.

"If we do not engage immediately, we risk total annihilation! We cannot whatever this...thing, organization, or person...tear our great republic apart, our hard-earned peace!"

"To combat the threat, our scientists developed a toxin derived from Aether. With it, we can weaponize our greatest tool, the Matter Manipulator!"

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The ones that knew the threat that the enemy poses to them immediately stood up from their seats and clapped with all their might.

"Now, I'll demonstrate this new-"

Leda was about to continue her speech when she felt something wasn't right.

Her sharp senses were tingling and warning about the impending danger all around her.

"Security." Leda called out, "Could you take a-"

Leda didn't have time to finish her orders when the ground beneath them started to rumble and quake.

The sudden shaking caused some of the students and staff to lose their footing and almost fall, but as they received extensive training, it didn't take long before they stabilized themselves.

"What's happening!?" Feeling the tremors growing stronger, Leda Portia exclaimed, "Earthquake? No, impossible!"

The ground suddenly quaked even harder.

*BOOOOOOM*

The whole auditorium exploded all of a sudden.

Dust was sent up in the air, those that survived the initial explosion, were soon squashed by the falling debris of the ceiling.

There were blood, limbs, and corpses everywhere.

Few survived the explosion and falling debris, they groaned in pain as they struggled to stand up and recover from the dizziness and shock.

John dug himself out from some debris that fell on top of him.

Blood drenched half of his face after something fell on his head and wounded him.

He coughed to expel the dust, entering his lungs.

With blurry vision, he scanned his surroundings.

At his side, he saw some students standing up and others that disappeared beneath the rocks, and all that was left was a pool of blood.

John's ears were buzzing and eyes blurry, he stumbled his way towards one of the debris and tried to lift and save someone.

Even after trying to lift it up with the remaining strength of his, it was a failure in the end.

Despite being surrounded by a nightmarish sight, there wasn't a single change in John's expression.

Seeing he couldn't save people around him, he turned towards the audience seats.

There he saw with the little remaining sight he had, Leda wielding a gun and a sword slashing at red tentacles that burst from the ground.

John squinted his eyes and tried to take a better look.

Sensing someone else behind her, Leda turned just in time to meet John's eyes.

"John! Are you alright!?" She worriedly shouted.

John opened his mouth to say something, but no words managed to leave his lips.

Leda gave one more slash at the tentacle, cutting it in half and approached John.

She scanned his injuries and saw the deep cut in his head.

"This is bad." She said when she realized the situation John was.

John's unfocused eyes drifted to the side, and he spotted a few more students that survived.

Leda took John to the other students and said to all of them, "The Terrene Protectorate must survive. Now, go! Leave this planet. You are the future of this organization, doesn't matter which race you are, as long as you survive the Terrene Protectorate will survive."

After she gave the order, Leda turned around and charged toward the closest tentacle to save some civilians.

The students saluted and obeyed her orders, they swiftly dispersed from the auditorium while dodging the tentacles coming from the ground.

Some had better reflexes and athletics that other and so they were able to go through the tentacles while the other one was ripped apart by those red menaces.

John didn't know how he got there. Still, when he finally recovered full conscience, he was already inside a spaceship and was about to leave the atmosphere.

He endured the headache and clicked at the Navigation Console in front of him, and switched the camera mode to see the situation beneath him.

What he saw shocked him to the core.

John watched as the planet he much loved crumbled I'm the face of those red tentacles that destroyed everything in their path and surroundings.

As giant red tentacles burst out from the ground, the whole planet trembled. The tentacles appeared out of nowhere with no forewarning, destroying anything on its path

Red tentacles streamed about, crushing towering skyscrapers and flipping the shuttles trying to escape out of the sky.

Earth. The home of humanity, the capital of United Earth Government, the birthplace of the Terrene Protectorate, was falling and burning right before John's eyes.

Looking at the situation just beneath him, John witnessed as the towering building of the Terran Protectorate was split in half by a single thrust of a tentacle.

The symbol of peace, prosperity, and order was no more.

By luck, a few spaceships were able to escape the tentacles' onslaught. A few of those ships had the logo of the Terran Protectorate, they were escaping right beside John while there was some on his front and back.

He saw a few of those ships crashing down after it was barely touched by one of the giant tentacles.

John activated the FTL Engine, and just when his ship was about to perform the Warp Jump, a tentacle came out of nowhere and hit his spaceship.

One metal plate came out from the cockpit's ceiling and knocked John unconscious...