Chapter 4 The Line That Held

The arrival of the 5th Squad did not come with speeches or hesitation. Soldiers spread across the fractured streets with practiced precision, 

Their boots striking ground that no longer felt stable. Commands were exchanged in short, sharp phrases, each one understood instantly, as if they had trained for this exact moment.

Minyi watched from a distance, her breath caught somewhere between disbelief and fear. These weren’t civilians running in panic. 

They moved with purpose, eyes forward, swords already drawn as if the world breaking around them was something they had seen before.

The sky remained torn open above them, the other dimensional city hovering partially merged with the ruins below. 

Buildings that did not belong cast shadows over streets that still remembered their original shape. 

The air itself felt wrong, thick and resistant, as if every breath required effort.Then, as one, the squad members raised their hands.

Their swords lowered, tips touching the ground, while their free hands lifted toward the fractured sky. 

Words left their mouths in unison, a chant spoken calmly and without urgency. 

Minyi couldn’t understand the language, but she felt it resonate through her chest, vibrating against her ribs.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the wind came. It burst from their hands in thin streams, sharp and fast but almost harmless at a glance. 

Loose debris shifted, dust lifted from the ground, and scraps of broken paper spun into the air. It felt like nothing more than strong gusts, the kind that passed during storms.

Then another soldier joined in. Then another. Within seconds, the wind thickened, weaving together as more squad members completed the chant. 

The air roared louder, pressure building rapidly as the streams collided and spiraled. What had begun as scattered gusts fused into a single, violent current.

The wind storm expanded outward. Minyi shielded her face as the force slammed into the warped city ahead. 

Alien structures groaned under the pressure, their surfaces cracking as if carved by invisible blades. 

Towers bent unnaturally before collapsing, fragments tearing free and vanishing into the storm.

The other dimensional city began to break apart. Walls peeled away, streets folded inward, and unfamiliar buildings were reduced to dust and scattered light. 

The wind did not simply push against the structures. It erased them, stripping them down layer by layer as if rejecting their existence.

For the first time since the sky had cracked, people shouted in relief.

It looked like it was working. The squad advanced carefully behind the storm, formation tight as they pressed forward. 

Each step reclaimed ground that had been lost, stabilizing sections of the city long enough for evacuation routes to reopen. 

Minyi felt a spark of hope rise in her chest, fragile but real. Then the wind faltered. It didn’t stop suddenly. It thinned, 

Resistance creeping in like something pushing back from the other side. The chant continued, voices straining slightly as the storm lost its edge. 

The remaining fragments of the other city trembled, but they no longer broke apart. Above them, the entities moved.

They descended slowly, their forms becoming clearer as they crossed the boundary between sky and ground. 

No aggression marked their movement. No rush. Just inevitability, as if gravity itself had finally decided to acknowledge them.

The wind storm collapsed entirely. Silence fell heavy and abrupt. The first entity touched the ground.

The moment its form made contact, the surface beneath it darkened instantly. Black substance spread outward like liquid shadow, 

Flowing unnaturally fast across stone and broken asphalt. It did not splash or ripple. It consumed.

A soldier took one step back too late. His boot touched the blackened ground, and the reaction was immediate. 

The material climbed his leg, corroding armor as if it were nothing. His scream barely lasted a second before his body collapsed inward, 

Flesh rotting and breaking apart in horrifying silence.Panic exploded through the formation.“Pull back!”

“Don’t touch the ground!” “Get off the surface!” Orders clashed as soldiers scrambled, some leaping onto debris, others retreating too slowly. 

The black substance surged forward relentlessly, spreading with each step the entities took.

Another entity landed. The black tide expanded again.Two soldiers tried to lift a fallen comrade, their hands brushing the corrupted surface. 

Their skin blackened instantly, veins collapsing as they screamed and fell together. Their bodies disintegrated where they lay, leaving nothing behind.

Minyi felt her stomach twist violently. She couldn’t look away. Fyumi grabbed her arm, pulling her back instinctively, but Minyi barely felt it. 

Her eyes were fixed on the battlefield as the squad tried desperately to adapt. Some soldiers jumped between floating debris, others used bursts of wind to keep distance, but it wasn’t enough.

The entities continued to descend. They did not attack. They did not chase.They simply walked.

Each step they took claimed more ground, turning the city into a spreading grave. 

Soldiers misjudged distances, slipped, or hesitated for a fraction of a second too long. Every mistake was fatal.

Half the squad was gone within moments. Blades clattered uselessly to the ground as their wielders vanished. 

The once-coordinated formation shattered, replaced by survival instinct and desperate retreat. Commands dissolved into screams and static-filled communications.

A soldier near the front turned just long enough to lock eyes with one of the entities. There was no hatred there. No recognition.

Only indifference. He backed away slowly, then stumbled. The black substance swallowed him before he could recover, his body collapsing into nothing as if he had never existed.

The remaining soldiers pulled back as far as they could, regrouping on unstable ground that barely held together. 

Their breathing was heavy, voices shaking as they tried to understand what had just happened.

Minyi’s legs finally gave out, and she dropped to her knees.

This wasn’t a battle.This was an execution.The entities stopped moving, standing silently amidst the ruined city and spreading black ground. 

Above them, the crack in the sky loomed larger than ever, its edges glowing faintly as if more was waiting to cross through.

No one spoke. No one moved.The world had fought back. And it had failed. To be continue....