Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 71: Eye in the Rift

Seeing the massive dot on his radar, Kane’s expression changed.

"Genos, pull the lever!" Kane shouted over the wind.

The tall, white-haired man gritted his teeth, wrapping his thick hands around a heavy lever attached to the side of the cannon.

With a loud grunt of effort, Genos yanked it downward.

The machinery screamed as it amplified the energy output, and its thick beam, shooting from the extractor, slowly shifted, transitioning from a dark red into a highly concentrated blue.

As the beam hit the dimensional tear, a glowing wall-like structure formed directly over the opening of the Red Gate.

It acted like a plug, physically blocking out the swirling dimensional waves and whatever was trying to force its way through.

"Sia, focus on the gate! Quick!" Kane ordered.

The pink-haired mage didn’t hesitate.

She dropped the protective dome shielding their team.

Her eyes glowed a bright, burning yellow as she raised her staff high into the air and cast a secondary, reinforcing barrier directly below the blue wall formed by the cannon, anchoring it in place.

The physical toll was immense.

Everyone poured their power into the machinery.

Even Kane, who rarely showed any signs of fatigue, started sweating as the gravity of his own plan pushed back against him.

Around the perimeter, a few desperate, surviving hunters who had weathered the initial shockwave tried to sneak up on Kane’s Vanguard.

They didn’t get far.

The dark-haired woman intercepted them, her hands sparking with electricity.

She sent brutal, targeted currents through the rubble, shocking the ambushers into unconsciousness before they could even draw their weapons.

Then, the sky went dark.

The surviving civilians and broken hunters looked up.

The blue beam from the cannon was blocking out the sun, but that wasn’t what cast the shadow.

It arrived.

Kane watched closely.

A single, monstrous eye, big enough to cover the surrounding skyscrapers. peered from the dark void behind the cannon’s barrier.

The giant pupil darted around before locking directly onto Kane.

Kane smirked at the sight. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The radar strapped to his wrist began beeping at a frantic pace.

"Don’t drop the cannon," Kane yelled.

Genos flexed his arms, his legs digging deep into the cracked ground as he tried his best not to let the machinery fail.

High above, the single eye narrowed.

It pressed against the dimensional tear, trying to break through the blue barrier. Small cracks formed along the glowing wall.

But then, the entity stopped.

The giant eye widened in a look that almost resembled surprise, and it slowly faded backwards, disappearing deep into the dimensional waves.

Kane let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

None of the surviving hunters or civilians knew what he was thinking.

They couldn’t see the eye, but every single awakened person in the district felt the crushing, terrifying presence of something incredibly powerful trying to break through.

Kane turned his back to the Red Gate and looked at his exhausted team.

"It’s done," he said.

Miles away, the unexpected wave had caused unprecedented damage to District 5.

Because Blaze and a large portion of the high-tier Guild masters had already started their scheduled journey to the island expedition, very few powerful hunters were left in the city to manage the fallout.

The streets were in ruins.

Inside the Association lobby, the dust was slowly settling.

Julien was slumped hard against a cracked

wall. Kiara lay by his side in a heavy daze, her glasses knocked askew.

She coughed, blinking her eyes open, and let out a sharp gasp.

Julien was bleeding.

A sharp piece of structural iron had impaled the side of his stomach during the blast.

"No, no. Julien, wake up." Kiara panicked, scrambling to her knees and clamping her hands over him.

Julien slowly fluttered his eyes open.

He looked down at the metal rod sticking out of his shirt and winced.

"It’s fine," he mumbled, trying to sound confident.

He attempted to shift his weight, but an ache shot through his abdomen.

"Kiara, pull this away," he grunted, grabbing her wrist.

"I can’t." Kiara cried, tears cutting tracks through the dust on her face.

"You will bleed to death!"

"Trust me."

Kiara hesitated, her hands shaking, but she grabbed the sharp iron and gave it a hard pull.

The metal slid free, and blood spilt rapidly, soaking Julien’s clothes and pooling on the floor.

He didn’t waste a second and quickly accessed his inventory, pulled out a premium health potion, and drank it all.

The magical effects were immediate.

Warm energy flooded his system, stitching his torn muscle and skin back together.

The fatal wound closed, leaving only a dull, lingering pain.

He let out a long breath, pulled a second potion from his coat, and handed it to Kiara to heal her scrapes.

Julien stood up and looked out the front doors.

The Association building looked like a half-eaten burger; only the back half of the structure was still intact.

He looked around, trying to find Ignis, but he was nowhere to be seen.

They stepped out into the ruined streets.

As Julien looked at the collapsed storefronts and burning cars, a dark thought crossed his mind.

It felt just like District 9. It seemed that no matter where he went, this destruction would follow him.

"We need to find Chris and Alice," Julien said, forcing himself to focus.

Kiara nodded, her breathing shallow.

She was on the verge of a panic attack, terrified of what might have happened to her mother in the hospital.

They hurried through the ruins.

As they walked, they found people pinned under collapsed walls and trapped in crushed vehicles.

Julien didn’t hesitate.

He pulled health drafts from his inventory and handed them out, spending his hard-earned stock to keep strangers from dying.

A few blocks down, they spotted them.

Chris was leaning heavily against a flipped concrete pillar, breathing hard. His blonde hair was caked in white dust.

Alice stood next to him, her usual dress torn at the hem, her pale skin marked with shallow cuts.

Julien let out a sigh of relief, a huge weight lifting off his chest.

He jogged over and handed them each a potion.

The core team was alive.

"To the hospital," Kiara urged, tugging on Julien’s sleeve.

They ran the rest of the way.

When they reached the medical district, Kiara stopped dead in her tracks.

The hospital was a disaster zone.

Half of the main building had simply disappeared, sheared off by the kinetic wave.

Kiara screamed, sprinting into the rubble, frantically searching for her mother.

Chris and Julien checked the perimeter while Alice stayed right by Kiara’s side to clear heavy pieces with her spectral power.

Then, they heard voices.

Deep in the broken wing of the building, multiple patients were huddled together.

A massive, heavy concrete wall had collapsed inward, but it hadn’t crushed them.

It was propped up at a sharp angle, creating a safe, hollow pocket.

Standing underneath the slab, his muscles bulging as he physically held the concrete roof up, was Kyle.

The A-Rank giant grunted under the weight, directing a few other surviving hunters to carefully pull the patients out of the gap one by one.

Kiara spotted her mother wrapped in a blanket among the survivors.

She ran forward, throwing her arms around her crying mother.

Julien quickly moved through the crowd, offering his remaining stock of potions to the injured patients.

He walked up to Kyle and held out a glowing vial.

The giant hunter had deep, nasty wounds running down his thick arms, but he just shook his head, refusing the magical potion.

He was sticking to his own advice.

Julien didn’t press the issue.

He put the bottle away and stared up at the strange, bruised sky.

"Why did this suddenly happen?" Chris asked, his bright eyes scanning the ruined skyline.

He clearly didn’t understand the complex mechanics of gate breaks.

"We don’t know," one of the older hunters working alongside Kyle replied, wiping sweat from his brow.

"There hasn’t been a happening like this before. Ever since the gates appeared, the Guild always known exactly when the waves are supposed to hit."

Julien stood quietly, his mind racing.

He remembered the system warning that flashed right before the blast.

External forces.

He mumbled the words under his breath.

Did someone intentionally mess with the gate? But why would they want to cause damage like this?

"At least the second wave passed," a hunter with a thick beard said, leaning against a pile of rubble to catch his breath.

"Now the Guild can go in and clear the Red Gate properly."

Julien frowned slightly.

If the second wave already hit, why is my system still pinging?

Suddenly, his Streetwise skill came to life as it shot a spike of pain through his head.

Julien stumbled back, his face turning an unhealthy shade of pale.

He stood up straight, his eyes wide.

Chris noticed the shift immediately.

Kyle also turned his heavy gaze toward the merchant.

"What’s the matter?" Kyle asked, his deep voice serious.

Julien didn’t look at them.

He was staring at the red system text floating directly in his line of sight.

[Red Gate Boss: Polyphemus, a Malevolent Entity, is appearing.]

Before Julien could even speak, a horrific, ear-piercing screech echoed across the city from the direction of the Red Gate.