Chapter 72: Chapter 72: System's Temporary Hole - 2

Soldier Taron adjusted his posture, his eyes scanning the horizon with the tired gaze of someone who has seen the same landscape for two decades.

The sea of monsters stretched as far as the eye could see, an undulating mass of chitin and fury that never seemed to diminish. The sight, once terrifying, had become a grim constant in his life.

Twenty years. Twenty years looking at that living nightmare, first as a frightened young recruit, then as a hardened veteran. Ten years of mandatory conscription had turned into another ten of voluntary service.

The extra ten mana points per day were a difficult incentive to ignore, even with the increase in attacks in recent months.

Taron suppressed a yawn, the weariness of countless watches weighing heavily on him. The start of the shift was always the hardest. His eyes scanned the barrier once more, searching for any sign of a breach.

The city, his home, his family... everything depended on the constant vigilance of people like him. The responsibility was a constant pressure, a weight he had learned to bear over the years.

Suddenly, something caught his attention. A strange movement in the sea of monsters, a few dozen meters from the base of the wall. Taron narrowed his eyes, trying to focus better.

"What the hell...?" he murmured, leaning over the parapet. His heart rate quickened, a mixture of curiosity and apprehension coursing through him.

The Locus, those insectoid beasts that normally moved in a constant frenzy towards the city, seemed to be... sinking?

At a specific point, the monsters were descending as if the ground beneath them was swallowing them up. The sight was surreal, defying everything Taron thought he knew about the relentless horde.

He blinked several times, sure his eyes were playing tricks on him. But no, the phenomenon continued. More than that, it seemed to be expanding.

With each passing second, the affected area grew larger, the implications becoming more and more alarming.

"Captain!" Taron shouted, not taking his eyes off the surreal scene. "I need you to see this!" His voice carried an urgency that he hadn't felt in years, the monotony of his duty shattered by this inexplicable event.

She had heard the rumors, the exclamations of awe, and something deep within her screamed that this had to do with Elio.

Finally, she reached the edge of the wall. Her hands gripped the parapet so tightly her fingers turned white. Her eyes, still moist from shed tears, fixed on the phenomenon developing below.

What she saw stole her breath away.

"Impossible," Zara murmured, her gaze locked on the spectacle before her. The word felt inadequate to describe the sheer magnitude of what she was witnessing.

Just below her, mere meters from the wall, an enormous depression was forming in the sea of monsters. It was no longer a complete cone, but rather half of an inverted cone, with one of its sides pressed against the city wall.

The deepest part was right next to the base, extending outward and upward in an irregular slope.

The sight was both terrifying and mesmerizing, a testament to the unpredictable nature of their world.

What had begun as a small depression now spanned hundreds of meters in diameter. The edges were chaos incarnate, Locus fighting against the force dragging them towards the center. Their legs and arms flailed frantically, climbing over each other in a desperate attempt to stay as close as possible to the top of the wall.

The cacophony of their screeches and the sound of chitinous bodies scraping against each other filled the air.

"What's happening?" someone near her asked, their voice tinged with awe and fear. The question hung in the air, unanswered and perhaps unanswerable.

Zara also had no response. Her eyes scanned the edge of the depression, trying to comprehend the magnitude of what she was witnessing. The sheer scale of it defied logic, challenging everything she thought she knew about their world and the monsters that threatened it.

Hours passed, and the depression continued to grow. Now it encompassed almost a tenth of the wall's circumference, and its depth was impossible to calculate from Zara's position.

The bottom, right next to the wall, was an impenetrable darkness, an abyss that seemed to have no end. It was as if a piece of the night sky had fallen to earth, a void that swallowed light and hope alike.

"Elio," Zara whispered, her voice barely audible over the roar of the monsters. "You're still down there, aren't you?" The words were part question, part prayer, carried away by the wind before they could reach the depths below.