Vex smiled cruelly as he gazed down at the destroyed town from his vantage point atop the abandoned mall. The chaos and suffering below thrilled him.
He had waited so long for the chance to finally visit his special brand of horror upon the mortal realm. And that blundering fool Damien had given him the perfect opportunity by accidentally tearing a rift between dimensions.
Those pathetic humans scrambling in the streets below thought the monsters were going to slaughter them all. But Vex had more subtle, insidious torments in store for any who survived the initial purge.
A flicker of movement caught Vex's eye. Zooming in, he spotted a small group of teenagers creeping through alleys, blasting back beasts with strange glowing powers.
Interesting...these ones had somehow gained access to the magical energy from his realm. They could prove more of a nuisance than the average human.
Vex stroked his chin, mind racing with ideas. Perhaps he could turn them against each other. Or lure them into his clutches by preying on their fears and insecurities.
The possibilities for corruption were endless. Vex chuckled softly at the thought.
"Enjoy this small victory, children," he murmured. "I will be watching you. And when you least expect it, your darkest nightmares will come creeping out of the shadows..."
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He would take particular pleasure in breaking the strong-willed ones like Mitch and Booker. Corrupting pure souls was an art form.
Patience was key. Vex had endured millennia imprisoned in the astral plane; he could wait a little longer while his new pawns drifted further into despair.
Soon, their giftes powers would belong to him. These fractured humans would become the instruments of their own destruction. And Vex would finally have his revenge
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General Arters gazed grimly at the map marking anomaly sites that were appearing across the country. The situation was spiraling out of control.
When the first portal had opened, dumping horrors into that small town, his superiors ordered a total lockdown. No word of these events was to reach the public. They didn't need mass panic making an already unstable situation worse.
But the portals kept coming, spewing more monstrosities into their world. His soldiers valiantly fought them back, but it was a losing battle.
And now Command wanted him to send a team into one of the portals to gather intel on the source. A potential suicide mission.
"Sir, Alpha team is prepped for the recon op," reported Lt. Cardoso.
General Arters sighed. "Very well Lieutenant. But I want our best men on this. And regular check-ins."
He turned to address Alpha team gathered in the hangar below. "Now listen up! You are our eyes and ears on the other side. Gather all the information you can, but your top priority is making it back in one piece with that intel. Understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!" they shouted in unison, snapping crisp salutes.
As the elite team filed out to the swirling portal contained behind fortified walls, General Arters rubbed his temples wearily. He disliked putting more good soldiers at risk.
But if they could discover the source of this madness, then maybe, just maybe, they stood a chance at stopping it before society itself tore apart at the seams.
"Stay sharp in there," he told Alpha team. "And good hunting."
He clasped hands with each soldier before they disappeared into the shimmering portal. Now all he could do was wait, pray, and continue directing containment efforts across the increasingly unstable nation.
They would get through this crisis somehow. Failure was not an option, with so many innocent lives hanging in the balance.