As the doors to the dining room swung open with a loud crash, the heavy footsteps of a Ruham echoed across the room, followed by the rapid strides of two human scientists. Their faces were pale with urgency, a stark contrast to the ominous atmosphere that had settled over the room. The air crackled with tension, the weight of something catastrophic looming.
"Commander Asher, we have a massive prob—" The words stuck in the scientist's throat as their eyes fell upon the Commander. He was pinned in a deadly chokehold, barely able to breathe, let alone command. Andre's grip was unrelenting.
"Speak," Commander Asher rasped, the command slipping out between strained breaths.
The scientist hesitated but forced himself to continue, "Sir, Rika Zero... it's collapsing from within. The entire planet—it's fading at an alarming rate."
Commander Asher's eyes widened in disbelief. "What?" His voice wavered, a rare moment of vulnerability. He had expected the worst, but this... this was something beyond even his grim expectations. "How long do we have before it reaches us?" His mind raced through the worst-case scenarios, praying that fate would be merciful. Surely, a planet couldn't fall in mere minutes.
There had to be time to evacuate, to brief the mission team, to salvage something.
But fate was not so kind.
The scientist swallowed hard before delivering the brutal reality. "Fifteen minutes, sir. No more."
The words were a death sentence.
Andre's grip loosened, his hand falling from Asher's neck as he backed away. "You'd better make your decisions quickly, Commander," he warned, his voice a low growl. "I'll do what I can to help control the Hunters, but they're not in good shape. You won't have much time."
Commander Asher's mind whirled. _Fifteen minutes? No... that can't be possible._ He could feel the weight of the entire facility on his shoulders, the hundreds of lives at stake. There wasn't enough time to evacuate even a fraction of them. _The portal would take at least thirty minutes to stabilize, and we only have ten to prepare the ship.
***
Far from the chaos of the facility, a being of immeasurable power hovered high in the darkened sky, its form barely visible amidst the swirling vortex of destruction it had summoned. Its arms spread wide as if embracing the very destruction it orchestrated.
Rika Zero crumbled beneath its overwhelming presence—beasts, forests, and oceans dissolving into streams of pure darkness, all of it absorbed into the being's core.
The Voidwalker's soul reveled in the destruction. It drank in the life force of the planet with an insatiable hunger, its very essence vibrating with power as the planet died beneath it. The Voidwalker's senses stretched across Rika Zero, hunting, searching for every last drop of energy, every aura that dared to exist in its domain.
And it saved the most tantalizing aura for last.
The facility. The one beacon of life left on this dying world. The Voidwalker could sense the fragile beings inside, their energy unique, intoxicating.
"Hate... such delicious hate," the Voidwalker murmured, its voice a low, guttural hiss that reverberated through the empty air. "These creatures... they're different. They're like planets in motion, filled with a raw, untapped core."
Its dark eyes glittered with malice. "There has to be more of them. So much more. And when we absorb their essence... we will find them."
The Voidwalker's twisted smile widened as its gaze locked onto the distant facility. "Their energy signatures are all the same... and they're all mine."
***
Please support me with anything. As an Author who lives to write I know you might not possess the time or resources tp support but i appreciate you so far.
God bless.