"What was that?" Minister Ma asked, looking around the place with a concerned face.

The escorts have all moved to surround their charge with mine also moving to gather at my sides.

I narrowed my eyes at the air, still feeling like something had changed around me but I have no idea what.

It feels like the energy around me was more... Stable?

Wait... It can’t be, right?

"How long has this rift been open?" I asked, turning to Minister Ma.

He hesitated, "I... I believe it first appeared about six months ago?"

That’s not too old but... I think it’s still long enough.

"I believe the rift has just stabilised itself... We are now in danger of a Rift Breakout," I announced.

The people around me sucked in a breath, clearly not at ease from hearing this piece of news.

Still, it wasn’t too big of a deal right now since we have already cleared the strongest Anomaly and captured the Gatekeeper at this point. We just need to speed up the mining process before it advances into a Rift Maelstrom.

Minister Ba looked at me, "Would we be alright?"

I hesitated, "I hope so... But this means that the Anomalies can now cross over to our World using this portal so there might be Anomalies moving towards the camp at the portal soon enough..."

"That’s bad, isn’t it?"

"It would be, but my Guardians and I have been spending the last few days clearing out the Anomalies around this area so we shouldn’t be in any immediate danger at the moment. Both this camp and the one at the portal are fortified enough to deal with individual Anomalies but I won’t count on the one at the portal being able to deal with a full assault force if one managed to gather."

The Thai minister furrowed his brows slightly, "Should we stop the mining and close the portal right now?"

I hesitated for a moment before answering, "The rift should not turn into a Rift Maelstrom immediately so we still have time... But we have to be fast. The time limit differs from rift to rift and I think the last one took a year or so before it became a Rift Maelstrom? So as long as you finish this up in the next few days, we should be fine."

The Thai minister gestured over one of the men in black suit and whispered something to him, prompting him to nod and move out of sight.

I assume he’s having that guy inform the rest of his colleagues about the changes here and to have them prepare for the worst.

He turned back to me, "I understand... In that case, I’ll give the order to speed up the mining process. In the meantime, could I trouble the Mortal God to help ensure that the portal is secure?"

"Of course. That was what I planned to do from the very star--"

I didn’t get to finish my words before the ground beneath our feet started to rumble again, this time escalating into an earthquake.

This was definitely not normal...

And as though agreeing with me, the ground a distance away from me suddenly exploded upwards, allowing a large worm shaped Anomaly to jump out of the ground.

All of us watched the entire creature that was as long as a train and as big as a skyscraper flying through the air, drawing a perfect arc before it crashed back down into the ground again to disappear back into the earth.

The rumbling continued and it appeared further away from us, making another jump before smashing back into the ground once again.

Even at that distance, the rumbling still reached us and everyone was just doing their best not to get knocked over onto the ground by the vibrations.

That was when I realised something...

"Where’s the direction of the portal?!" I cried out.

Leena immediately raised her hand to point in the direction of where the worm had disappeared to.

Fuck!

"Everyone, to me!!" I called out, focusing on creating the portal to teleport us there. "Ministers, inform the people there that there might be Anomalies coming!!"

One of the soldiers picked up his radio receiver, "Portal base, come in."

There was a moment of static before panicked cries came from the other end, "They came from underground!! Requesting back up immediately!! Look out!! Shit! They’re breaking through!! Wha... What the hell is tha- AAAHHHH!!!" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The line then went back to static.

The soldier’s face paled, "Portal base? Portal base, come in! Portal base?!"

No answer came.

"Escalate the alert levels, we might already have a Rift Breakout!" I ordered, right as the door appeared in front of me.

I ran towards the door and shoved it open, only to stop in my tracks as soon as I jumped through the doorway.

In front of me was a scene of carnage as corpses and blood littered all around me.

The entire camp had been overrun and while there were still a few people fighting, most of the forces stationed here had been killed.

I turned in the direction of the portal, only to see a giant hole nearby which must have been left by the worm when it jumped out to dive straight into the portal.

There were also Anomalies climbing out of it and all of them were rushing towards the portal, completely ignoring the people guarding it and only attacking those that got in their way.

Shit... They have already breached the portal... And the giant worm must be on the other side as well... Something that they were definitely not prepared to deal with...

I turned to my Guardians, "I need a few of you to stay here and stop any more Anomalies from getting through the portal and to protect the people here from transforming into Anomalies themselves. The rest of you will follow me through to clear out the Anomalies that have managed to pass through."

I can’t have all of them follow after me since the people left here still need my protection from the miasma to stop them from transforming into Anomalies. Thankfully, my Guardians is enough as a substitute to cover for me.

"I will guard this place for you, my Lord," Olivia volunteered immediately.

Jia Lian also stepped up, "I will help cover the people here as well, Mortal God."

Sergei gestured to himself, "I will hold this place for you, Mortal God. Fight freely."

I nodded, "Olivia, Sergei, guard the portal. Jia Lian, protect the mining camp and the two ministers."

Jia Lian nodded and hopped back through the portal while the other two rushed towards the hole in the ground to halt the stream of Anomalies.

I don’t expect those two to be able to completely stop a neverending stream of Anomalies to begin with which was why I flew up into the air and concentrated my will over the earth around the hole.

I felt the ground respond to my will and I dragged my hands together to clasp them in front of me.

The earth responded as the hole started closing up, dirt and rock flowing together like liquid to stitch the hole back together and burying the Anomalies that were too slow to climb out of there.

No more signs were left of the previously gaping hole, leaving only a few more Anomalies remaining that were still rushing towards the portal.

Trusting Olivia and Sergei to be able to handle that much, I dove back towards the ground and blew away the few Anomalies that had yet to pass through it with my floating arms, instantly killing them with a single blow.

With the path cleared, Kris, Ava and Leena followed behind me as we jumped back into the portal and returned back to Earth.

When we got through, I was once again reminded of a grim truth about our world now...

When I first arrived here a few days ago, this was supposed to be a national park that was surrounded with trees beside a lake and the location of the portal was in front of an administration building that was well maintained and clean.

Now...

Vast swathes of the forests had been crushed and the aforementioned building was nothing but a rubble on the ground.

Even the lake was not spared as the worm seemed to have jumped into it, the creature slithering through the ground to cut up a new waterway that changed the entire shape of the lake.

The soldiers that had been stationed here to watch the portal were also nothing more than just blood splatters on the ground as well. The ones who had been ’fortunate’ enough to have their bodies remain intact would have to be cremated quickly or else they would start transforming into Anomalies too.

The smell of smoke and fire filled the air which was only drowned out by the sounds of screams and explosions as the Anomalies were ravaging the lands around them.

This is what happens when Anomalies cross over...