There was a loud banging on the door. Zephyr woke with a start. It was still dark, but his eyes glowed blue, and he saw Lorenzo standing by the doorway like a ghost.
"Alright, what is it?" said Zephyr, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. The energy the skill consumed was too much for his weakened state, especially when used against Typi metal.
"What is it!" cried Lorenzo, sending one last, loud bang on the door. An ear-splitting sound echoed, but both men seemed unbothered by it.
I knew I should've picked another metal!
"It's already half past four, and the stadium has opened! We only have one and a half hours left before it begins!"
There was a loud thud inside, followed by Zephyr's muffled but somewhat pained and excited shout.
"Give me ten—no, five minutes to prepare!"
Although faint, he heard Lorenzo sigh and walk away. Zephyr sighed and limped to the closet—pain or not; he wasn't about to miss the broadcast and become a laughingstock across the universe.
Five minutes later, he locked the room and joined Lorenzo in the doorway.
Zephyr could hear his heart pounding as he opened the door. The wind whipped his face, causing an involuntary shiver. It was cold.
No way...
He turned his gaze west, where towering structures and walls should be.
But ahead lay a dark, vast, barren expanse packed with people, stretching to the horizon, with the once-smooth pavement of the city having given way to cracked, uneven ground.
Zephyr froze. His grasp loosening round the knob.
Scenes of a corpse-littered wasteland flashed. His eyes narrowed. The smell of blood permeated the air.
Seeing his face, Lorenzo immediately tried to console him.
"Hey, relax, the vice-governor isn't about to leave one of the wealthiest cities in ruins. I'm sure that by the time we return, it'll probably look like nothing ever happened."
Zephyr didn't respond. His gaze lingered on the crowded land. Slowly, though, a small smile tugged his lips.
"Yeah, you're right." His smile grew as he grasped thin air. "Come on now, you wouldn't want to miss the broadcast, would you—especially after that wake-up call?"
Zephyr lowered his hand and grasped a ticket. The ticket featured golden inlaid lines, with "Tethered" at its center.
Lorenzo stared at him for a moment before letting out a chuckle and waving his hand. When he stopped, his hand grasped an identical ticket.
They both smiled and joined the crowd. But even that was more difficult than they thought, for the uneven ground made it difficult to enter.
Around them, officers struggled to organize the crowd. There were too many species inside.
But when the officers finally did, they separated Zephyr from Lorenzo, and someone almost stole his ticket. Thankfully, he had swift reflexes.
Zephyr gazed upon the long line, trying to find Lorenzo among them. Although he boasted of having excellent eyesight, the line was too long. So all he saw were blurry figures standing in the distance.
Even when the sun broke through the clouds, Zephyr was still stuck in the same line—he'd only moved five feet.
He tapped his foot. Fidgeted with the ticket. Five feet in ninety minutes—hardly any progress. As time went by, his patience grew thin.
After waiting for more than one and a half hours, it was Zephyr's turn.
He handed in his ticket with a relieved smile. After a brief scan, the guards allowed him through.
His positron-forged leather boots—gifted to him by Kaijin — made little to no sound as he walked to the border of reality (or rather close to the portal) and vanished.
When he reappeared, a different space greeted him. It was as vast as Earth and designed as a stadium. But instead of seats, small orbs floated; each orb bore a name that ticket holders could have found beforehand.
He quickly found his orb, "Tethered," near the center.
No way...
When he entered, however, the space distorted and changed into a layout of a house.
However, that was not the reason for his surprise. The layout was identical to his home back at Multiverse 13542 and Universe 12365's Earth.
"Surprised?"
Only now did Zephyr notice the people sitting on the couch. On the left were Lorenzo and his mate, Chloe. On the right was his mate, Isadora.
"Y-yeah," he stammered. Even after countless years, her smile still hit him like the first time.
Isadora released a soft chuckle, making his heart flutter.
"Zephyr, take your seat. It's about to start," said Lorenzo.
Zephyr nodded. He sat on the couch beside her. A massive screen appeared before them, glowing with a blinding white light.
***
With a wave of his hand, a screen appeared. He turned around and faced his group.
"So, are you guys ready?" His voice reverberated around the galaxy-like area.
There was a moment of silence, followed by a thundering shout.
"Of course we are!" They all said in unison.
The man smiled, and his green eyes seemed to glow brighter as he said, "Glad to see you all sane even after what the War did to you all."
A few chuckles echoed from the group before a man with long, light blue hair and golden eyes said, "Well, we are one of the mightiest groups in the entire existence of reality and the mortal plane."
A woman whose features mirrored his—but with red eyes—nodded beside him. A few laughs echoed, while the rest smiled.
The man's smile grew. He chuckled, turned around, and with a snap of his fingers, the screen glowed, syncing perfectly with the others.
A moment later, it dimmed, and bold, gleaming words appeared on the screen. Behind it was a tower of tremendous height with a glowing orb placed at the top.
"Part 1: The Liberation of Earth: The Great War of the Second Phase."