Chapter 395 — You Owe Me

[The Hell Portal Entrance]

The Hell Portal stretched wide and tall, large enough for battalions to march through side by side.

Soldiers in black military uniforms stood guard along the reinforced perimeter, weapons held at rest, eyes tracking the portal’s surface.

They had been watching it for years, with nothing surprising happening.

But today, something strange happened as the portal suddenly rippled.

Buzz

A sergeant, who was standing close, straightened, his grip tightening on his weapon.

The air began to hum, building into a frequency that made teeth ache and bones vibrate.

"Sir–"

The space around the portal’s edges warped inward, bending like reality was being sucked toward a drain.

"SIR!"

Crack

The sound of space fracturing echoed across the area, sharp and wrong, like glass breaking in slow motion.

The portal’s surface convulsed violently, colors exploding outward in waves that distorted everything they touched.

Then the shockwave hit.

BOOOM

Soldiers flew backward, their bodies lifted off the ground and thrown several meters away by the force of unstable dimensions exploding outward.

The sergeant slammed into the concrete wall behind him, his weapon clattering to the ground as he gasped for air.

When he looked up, the portal entrance was a nightmare of fractured space.

Dimensional rifts covered the entire opening, each one crackling with energy that made the air scream.

A soldier tried to stand and move closer to check the portal, but the rifts pulsed.

BAM

The soldier was thrown backward again before he got within ten meters, the dimensional turbulence rejecting his presence with physical force.

"Stay back! Nobody approach the entrance!" The sergeant forced himself to his feet, grabbing his radio with shaking hands.

"Command, this is Hell Portal Entrance Alpha! We have a critical situation! The portal entrance is filled with dimensional rifts. Entry and exit impossible! The entire area around the portal is inaccessible! Repeat, portal entrance is completely inaccessible!"

The radio crackled back with urgent demands for information.

Around him, soldiers were picking themselves up from where they had been thrown, staring at the rifts with wide eyes and pale faces.

Because the Giant Annihilation Field Army was on the other side. Thousands of soldiers, dozens of high level awakeners and multiple S rank Generals.

All trapped behind a barrier of fractured space that would tear apart anyone who tried to approach it.

The air pressure changed suddenly.

Whoosh

An old man appeared several meters from the portal entrance, as close as anyone could get without being thrown back by the dimensional rifts.

White hair cropped military short, face carved with scars, eyes that had seen too many battles. His uniform bore the insignia of a Senior General.

Thud

Every soldier snapped to attention despite their injuries.

The general stared at the dimensional rifts covering the portal entrance, his expression grave and his jaw clenched.

"Did anyone notice anything unusual before this happened?"

The scarred sergeant limped forward, one hand pressed against his ribs.

"No sir! Portal activity was normal... There were no energy spikes and no visual anomalies before the collapse."

The general closed his eyes and breathed out slowly through his nose.

"Red sky phenomenon... Aura levels have been increasing for weeks and probably destabilized the portal. Or worse, the portal’s rank is increasing."

Sharp inhales came from multiple soldiers.

"How many Military Police inquisitors entered before the rifts formed?"

A young soldier scrambled for the logbook that had been thrown across the ground during the shockwave.

"Sir! One Arch Inquisitor entered earlier, accompanied by multiple Chief Inquisitors and standard MP officers."

The general’s expression hardened further.

’One Arch Inquisitor. If order broke down inside that portal, one would not be enough.’

The soldier looked up suddenly, his face going pale as he read further down the log.

"Sir, there are more recent entries from just before the collapse–"

The general waved his hand dismissively.

"Doesn’t matter, support personnel do not change the overall situation. The Field Army either survives or it does not–"

"Sir."

The interruption made the general stop completely and turn to look at the young soldier.

The soldier’s eyes were locked on the logbook, burning hot with hope.

"What is it?"

"Sir, it is..." The soldier swallowed hard. "It is the Twin Terrors."

"!!!"

Absolute silence fell over the assembled soldiers.

The general crossed the distance in long strides and looked at the entry himself.

Entry Time: One day ago

Identities: Alaric Valcor, Lyandra Valcor

Purpose: Unknown

Authorization: Military Police Priority Clearance

The general stared at those names for a long moment.

Then he closed the logbook with a soft thud.

Nobody asked what he was thinking.

****

[The Capitol]

The atmosphere in the private chamber was suffocating.

Chairman stood alone with his hands clasped behind his back, his posture perfect and his face completely emotionless.

Gia had just finished reporting the Hell Portal situation.

The silence that followed pressed down like a physical weight.

Chairman’s jaw clenched fractionally as his mind worked through the implications.

’The Field Army has multiple S rank Generals trapped inside... If they fall...’

His fingers tightened behind his back.

’And the Twin Terrors are in there with them.’

"Military command has requested immediate reinforcement deployment. Current SS rank awakener availability is insufficient for containment operations if portal breach occurs."

Gia’s voice filled the chamber and the chairman let out a long breath through his nose.

"I’ll talk with the Imperials... It seems the Royce Patriarch has recently come out of seclusion."

Before Chairman could continue, Gia’s voice cut in again.

"There is another situation that requires immediate attention."

The chairman’s eyes shifted slightly, his attention sharpening.

"Dark elf diplomatic delegation has reported Major General Kethran as killed in action. Multiple B+ rank warriors also confirmed dead."

She paused.

"Princess Serath’ana has provided testimony. According to her account, the perpetrator was a demon who infiltrated human territories. The demon wore a white mask and consumed the bodies of the fallen elves."

"..."

Silence filled the chambers.

The chairman stood perfectly still, his face giving away nothing, but his mind had gone into overdrive.

After some time he spoke, his voice carefully neutral.

"Gia... If it isn’t a demon... Then you know who it is, don’t you?"

The question hung in the air.

Gia’s response came after a small pause that carried something almost like hesitation.

"...Whether it’s him or a demon, Chairman, we cannot admit it was a human."

Her voice had shifted, carrying an edge that sounded almost human for the first time in this conversation.

"Sage has spent months building diplomatic relations with the elves. If we confirm a human killed their delegation, the peace negotiations collapse immediately. The elves would demand retaliation and war becomes inevitable. We cannot afford that complication."

The chairman’s lips twitched fractionally.

"Complications, huh..."

His voice came out flat, almost amused in a dark way.

The silence stretched for another moment as he processed Gia’s assessment.

Then his expression hardened completely.

"We blame it on the demons."

"Understood. I will confirm the princess’s testimony as accurate and implement information control protocols immediately."

The chairman turned slightly toward the window overlooking the Capitol, his hands still clasped behind his back.

"Gia."

"Yes, Chairman?"

"You owe me one for this."

Gia’s response came extremely fast.

"Correction, Chairman. It is Damian Valcor who owes you, not myself. I am merely an information management system."

Chairman’s lips twitched fractionally, almost forming a smile before his control reasserted itself.

’This damn AI has too much personality when that kid is involved.’

His expression hardened again, his reflection in the glass showed nothing as he stared out at the city.

"About the giants."

"Yes, Chairman?"

"If the portal’s rank is increasing, if the Field Army falls, we need contingency plans. Evacuation protocols for the northern region, defensive lines at the midland borders and resource allocation for refugee management."

He paused, his jaw clenching.

"Run the projections... Best case, worst case, and everything in between."

"Processing now."

The hologram shifted, data streams multiplying as Gia began calculating scenarios.

Numbers appeared in the air, each one representing thousands of lives that might need to be sacrificed to keep the Federation from collapsing.

The chairman watched them scroll past, his face remaining perfectly emotionless.

But somewhere deep inside, where nobody could see, the weight of every decision pressed down like a mountain he would carry alone.