The Author's POV

[Earth]

The blue sky above seemed to shimmer and vibrate. The clouds parted, and then suddenly the sky began to crack, like a fragile pane of glass that was subjected to too much stress.

C... crack―!

The first fracture appeared, jagged and rough-edged, and then another, and another, until the sky was a spiderweb of broken blue glass.

From within the cracks, shapes began to emerge, strange and distorted, like figures from another dimension breaking through into this one.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Figures materialized into the sky, one after another. Their faces were pallid and drawn, their eyes sunken and haunted. They stumbled out of the cracks, their bodies haggard and trembling.

"We're here!"

One of them cried out, a note of relief in his voice.

"We've made it."

Another echoed, sounding more exhausted than triumphant.

After their emergence, more and more figures began to materialize from the fissure in the sky, eventually filling the entirety of the sky with their respective numbers.

The sky above them had stopped cracking, but it remained a deep, unsettling shade of blue, like a bruise on the face of the world.

Swoosh!

As the last of the survivors emerged from the portal, they took stock of their surroundings.

They were standing on top of what appeared to be a city, albeit one with peculiar building styles. The buildings were long and rectangular in shape, and the majority of their surfaces were covered in glass.

Other than that, it was eerily silent.

There were no sounds of life or movement, no signs of civilization or activity.

"Are we in the right place?"

"This is Earth?"

The survivors gathered together, their faces etched with fatigue and anxiety.

They were well aware that they had cheated death by a razor's edge and that it was only a matter of time before it caught up with them; at the moment, they were merely attempting to cling onto their last hope with the remaining forces on earth.

Soon...

Soon, the demons were going to come, and only one ending crossed their minds.

The survivors could feel it in their bones—a deep, primal fear that made their hearts race and their palms sweat.

"What's going on here? Where are all the humans?"

One of the elven figures said. Their eyes swept the area around them, and as they extended their mana in an effort to detect the presence of any form of life, they were surprised to discover that there was nobody in the immediate area.

Confused and shocked, one of the elven elders voiced out their confusion.

"Why is it like this?"

"That's because I've made it like this."

A soft voice echoed, and everyone turned their heads to see a human with short black hair and deep blue eyes.

His gaze was calm and he appeared not far from where they were.

"Who are you?"

One of the dwarven representatives asked, her voice filled with caution. She was a short dwarven elder with dreadlocks.

"Shouldn't that be a question I'm supposed to ask?"

The human replied, his voice neither humble nor overbearing, but with a certain authority that made it difficult for them to rebut.

An elven elder stepped out.

He seemed rather amicable.

"We apologize for the inconvenience. We have heard that you humans have signed an alliance with our races, and we've come here as reinforcements."

The human's brow raised, and although his expression didn't change much, the way he looked at them made it seem as though he was seeing right through them. He didn't say anything after that and merely nodded his head.

"I see, so you're the reinforcements…"

He said with no sincerity in his words.

Perhaps there was, but his expression and voice were rather monotone. It was hard to get a good grasp on him.

"We're in a rush for time. The demons are coming. Where is everyone?"

An impatient orc suddenly opened his mouth and glared at the human who was standing off in the distance.

They had just escaped from the demon's clutches, and yet, the moment they arrived on Earth, they found out that there was no one and that they were being looked down upon by a single human.

His pride couldn't allow it!

"Listen up, human. You either tell us where the other humans and members are or―"

"Or what?"

A soft voice whispered behind his ear, and the orc's entire body turned stiff. He robotically turned his head, and his heart dropped at the sight of the human that had appeared without him even noticing.

"How?"

He stammered.

He wasn't the only one shocked. The other members of the three races were also in disbelief. No one was able to catch a glimpse of how the human had moved.

The human extended his hand and placed it on the orc's shoulder. His cold gaze fell on him, and for a short moment, he didn't say anything. Even so, for the orc, that one short moment felt like an eternity, and his entire body started to tremble.

"Quite unruly for a bunch of fugitives."

His words made the air tense as everyone looked at him with distorted expressions.

"You think I don't know you're not reinforcements? Look at yourselves. Do you look like reinforcements?"

His expression didn't change, but each one of his words struck the hearts of those present.

"Know your place."

He said, and those three words powerfully rang in the minds of the three races that had arrived.

The human no longer paid them any attention and turned his head away from them to stare at the sky.

"Do you seriously think you managed to escape because of your abilities?"

He suddenly asked, gathering the attention toward him once again.

"What do you mean?"

One of the dwarven delegates asked.

"We just barely managed to escape from the demons. In fact, a lot of our forces fell in order to let us escape. If there's one thing I'm sure about, it's that our escape was not a mere coincidence."

"Heh."

The human's eyes locked with the dwarven delegate's, his gaze heavy with what could only be described as pity. The dwarf furrowed his brows in response, sensing the disdain that was emanating from the human's every word.

The same went for the others.

Before any of them could utter a sound, the human spoke up.

"You're wrong on every level."

He stated, his voice cutting through the tense silence. The human shook his head, his eyes trained upwards as if looking for something.

"You didn't escape because of your own efforts."

He continued, his voice laced with indifference.

"You managed to escape because they let you."

"What did you say!?"

The delegates from the three races exchanged glances, their faces twisting in anger. His words left a bitter taste in their mouths.

If that wasn't bad enough, the human wasn't finished yet.

"I don't even need to look at you to understand why you've lost so miserably."

He spat out, his words sharp as a blade.

"You're a mess. Each and every one of you is selfish and prideful, and while you're trying your best to hide it, I can see that you all carry a certain contempt toward each other."

The delegates remained silent, but their eyes betrayed the frustration they felt.

It was true that there had been a clear divide between the three races, even before the war had broken out.

But they had always thought that they were united in their goal to defeat the demons.

The human's voice rose in pitch, his annoyance becoming more palpable by the second.

"Your commands are a mess, and everything about you is a mess. In short, you guys are nothing but a messy burden that will only lower our chances of survival. What gives you the right to come here, demanding anything?"

"How dare you!"

"Do you know what we've gone through the past few decades!? Do you know the only reason Earth is still here is because of us?"

The delegates were starting to lose their patience, but the human didn't seem to care.

"Na?ve."

He cut through their words, his words like a whip cracking through the air.

"Look at how easily they defeated you, do you really think you're the reason why Earth is still here? In the first place, the reason why you managed to escape is not because of you, but because the demons let you. And the sole reason for that is quite obvious. They want you to weaken us with your disorganization."

The human turned his head to the sky, a smirk forming on his lips.

"Isn't that right... Jezebeth?"

Rumble―! Rumble―!

A deep, thunderous rumble echoed through the air, and the mana around them began to shift and distort. The ground shook beneath their feet as an imposing figure emerged from the sky.

The being's figure seemed to blend in with the world around him, and his long white hair fluttered in the wind. His eyes glowed with an otherworldly light, and his presence alone was enough to make everyone tremble.

He was none other than Jezebeth.

The Demon King.

"Indeed.."

Jezebeth spoke, his voice like thunder.

"As expected of you… You saw right through my intentions."