The Earth That Gave Birth to Monsters
Forty years ago.
Without any warning, they had appeared on Earth.
At first they were ominous whirlpools rising into the city skies.
Called gates, these phenomena short-circuited electronics and unleashed a curse-like vibration that seemed to whisper directly into human ears.
And when a gate opened, the things that emerged from it were a menagerie of grotesque, unrelated monsters.
Some had bodies the size of mountains, others swarmed in packs no larger than rats.
They flew, they swam, they slithered across the ground.
Though their forms and behaviors varied wildly, there was only one common thread.
Humans were nothing more than prey to them.
The initial shock had been apocalyptic in its sheer scale.
New York became a nest for a colossal avian monster, while Tokyo turned into dozens of breeding grounds in a single day.
Cairo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro… the cities that had defined humanity fell one after another.
The world map was redrawn in an instant.
Borders became meaningless, and millions of refugees poured out.
Amid the chaos, humanity realized the truth with bone-deep clarity.
“This isn’t just a natural disaster. This is a new kind of war.”
Fortunately, humanity had already survived countless wars.
Through centuries of mass slaughter and brutal lessons learned, we had mastered tactics, data, and modern firepower.
Thanks to that, we couldn’t wipe out the monsters right away, but we could at least build a defensive line.
But hope stopped there.
Nations with the latest tactics held on by a thread, while most countries that lacked even basic firearms disappeared from the map within days.
By 2020, two-thirds of Earth had become monster territory.
Yet humanity did not perish.
Ignoring national interests and ethnic grudges, we joined forces purely for survival.
This alliance was named the Aegis Union.
Adopting the name of an ancient shield, the organization positioned itself as humanity’s last line of defense.
Sharing data and tactics across nations, analyzing monster weaknesses, and pouring every resource into capture, extermination, and containment, the Aegis Union fought on every front.
Though stained with countless blood and defeats, humanity learned again from within its ranks.
Wherever the union’s flag flew, humanity still claimed the land.
***
In the underground command bunker of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, walls were plastered with real-time satellite feeds and drone overlays.
Red alarm lights rotated across the ceiling, painting it blood-red, as officers clutching their rifles poured out reports in unison.
“Gate detected over Mapo-gu, Seoul! Diameter 3.2 kilometers, wave energy level 7! Classification code… estimated at Disaster Class!”
The operation officer’s shout painted the holographic map on the command table crimson.
As the central district of Mapo lit up as a danger zone, the faces of the staffers hardened.
“Gate epicenter is a civilian-dense area! Evacuation orders are being prepared, but… chaos has already spread at the site!”
“Estimated time to emergence: T-90 seconds! Video feed, monster silhouette confirmed!”
The communications soldier gripped his headset and shouted.
“17th Division, 52nd Division, urgent insertion contact! …Affirmative, comms delay! Radio interference is severe!”
“Damn it… electronic warfare too?”
The operations staffer gritted his teeth.
From the side of the bunker, an officer from a civilian agency continued his report.
“Seoul City Hall control room connected! Evacuation broadcast priority secured! Transmission in T-30 seconds!”
The overall commander rose from his seat and issued a firm order.
“Good. Immediately establish joint military-civilian control line! Use of heavy firepower inside the city limits is approved only under minimum civilian casualty criteria!”
“Current estimated civilian population: over 30,000! Roads and subway all jammed!”
As the reports continued, the central screen’s vortex twisted even larger.
Purple and black waves erupted, and something vast began lifting its head from within.
“…Damn it, a Disaster Class right in the heart of the city.”
The commander’s low growl was met instantly by a roar that exploded like a bomb from inside the screen.
KWEAAAAAK——!
For a moment, the entire bunker froze.
The reporting officers’ hands stilled, and even the alarm sound seemed to cut off briefly.
That silence was shattered the next instant.
In the Seoul downtown.
The deathly wind that whipped through the streets struck the skin far more brutally than any monitor could convey.
Asphalt cracked from the monster’s shockwave, and glass shattered in chains, raining down like snow.
“Damn it… why isn’t that monster chasing us?!”
Captain Ha Min-ah, leading the charge, clenched her jaw.
Her uniform carried red marking gear.
The official designation was P-Type Pheromone Emitter — a device that sprayed instinct-triggering special pheromones to provoke monsters.
In other words, she commanded a special unit, the Decoy Unit, whose sole purpose was to lure monsters away from civilian areas.
Following her were soldiers arranged in combat formation.
Each had their equipment output cranked to maximum, their mission to draw the monster away from crowded zones to a firepower concentration point.
The unit was called “decoy,” but the true job was “not to die while luring.”
Countless accusations of immorality had been leveled at them, yet choosing a handful of soldiers to risk their lives to pull monsters away was the only tactic the union could accept.
But something felt off today.
“Squad leader! The monster isn’t reacting!”
“It’s in view, but… the bastard isn’t descending!”
Fear laced the soldiers’ voices.
Normally it would have already dived to smash the buildings with its wings and pursued them.
This time the giant bird was different.
Its three eyes had clearly swept past them, yet it never fixed its gaze.
As if they weren’t even worth targeting.
A chill ran down Captain Ha Min-ah’s spine.
This wasn’t the monster’s usual instinct. It was a movement with another purpose entirely.
“Squad leader! It’s completely ignoring us and flying off in the opposite direction!”
“…What?”
Ha Min-ah bit down hard.
“Kugh… then we switch to Plan B.”
The soldiers swallowed hard.
Plan B, per the manual, meant “squad leader direct pursuit.”
Ha Min-ah lifted her head and stared at the grotesque wings thrashing far away from the gate.
“Anomalous sign detected. From now on, I will pursue the monster alone. As for the bait… I’ll handle it myself.”
The soldiers shouted in unison.
“Squad leader, that’s suicide!”
But Ha Min-ah’s hand had already flicked off the pistol’s safety catch.
Her heart hammered, yet her eyes remained steady.
With a gaze flickering between duty and fear, she tracked the bird’s trajectory to the end.
There… it was heading toward civilian housing.
In the middle of Seoul’s downtown, the vast apartment complexes where tens of thousands lived.
A concrete jungle stretching endlessly — to humans a home, to this bird a perfect nesting structure.
[Was it planning to use that side as its nest…?]
Captain Ha Min-ah recalled the report from her old training.
Avian monsters, especially females, instinctively secured the safest breeding ground first.
They found a safe burrow before hunting prey.
High-rise apartments and buildings offered exactly what they needed: open sightlines and stable altitude.
If this monster was female — if it intended to lay its eggs right in the heart of the city and establish a breeding ground.
That wasn’t just a threat. It was a scenario of the city rotting from the inside out — an end-times prophecy.
Ha Min-ah clenched her jaw.
The biggest weakness of the bird monster was simple.
Right before birth, the moment it laid its eggs.
At that instant, its body released all energy, and its defenses dropped sharply.
The union manual therefore listed “intercept immediately after hatching” as the top priority tactic.
“I have to figure out the pattern. I’ll do it myself…!”
Ha Min-ah pushed her body to the limit, lungs burning, and closed the distance.
She pursued the monster’s movements with everything she had.
But.
KWEAAAAAK!!
The bird’s roar tore through the air.
And the next moment, her expectation shattered into pieces.
KWAANG!
“…Huh?”
Ha Min-ah’s pupils shook.
She had expected the monster to land on the high-rise rooftop and build its nest.
Instead, its colossal body dove straight down, slamming into one of the apartment towers with terrifying force.
In an instant, the outer wall of a twenty-story building burst open, echoing with an explosion.
Glass and concrete shattered, exploding into flames and dust that shot into the sky.
As if the monster had been obsessively targeting something inside, its three eyes flashed.