“Aura huh,” Macey handed him an energy drink. “I knew some monsters could use it, but not humans,” she stated.

  “Do you know anything about it?”

  Macey shook her head. “There are mages with physical combat styles, but they still wield mana,” she mentioned. “I think you’ll have better luck asking the top ten in the continental rankings. All of them wield two types of energy cultivation after all. One of them is bound to know about aura.”

  “I don’t plan on meeting any of them soon,” Lucas replied.

  The people who stood at the top of the continental rankings were beasts that even the empire has trouble controlling. The only reason they abide by the rules of the empire was because direct conflict would result in too much damage on either side, leaving them vulnerable to the others.

  Macey shrugged. “You never know. I’ll be heading to the mana vein,” Macey kissed him on the cheek before leaving. “Make sure to stop by.”

  “I will,” Lucas nodded as he watched Macey enter the elevator.

  “Three perfect circles. You’ve done well,” Perci spoke once Macey was gone.

  “Thanks,” Lucas replied.

  With his third aura circle completed and refined, Lucas was strong enough to contend with a viscount-ranked mage. Creating a fourth circle without external help would take him years, so Lucas placed a low priority for his growth.

  He didn’t consider it much of a lost since Lucas considered himself as a crafter. “Any hints on how to get the vitality attribute?”

  “Head to the northeastern sectors and look for trolls,” Perci answered. “They’re monsters that use aura with the vitality attribute.”

  Lucas sighed. “I guess I’ll be keeping an ear out for when an opportunity to head there arrives.”

  Their conversation was interrupted by Lucas’s phone ringing with an unknown number. He answered it and heard a slightly familiar voice. “Lucas Atican. This is Samira from the CDA.”

  “What is it?” Lucas replied.

  “There’s a situation that you might want to get involved with,” Samira stated, making Lucas a bit anxious. “Multiple dimensional rifts are going to be forced open. A full-scale invasion from Severium.”

  “Severium?”

  “The humanoid snake species that you faced in the past,” Samira clarified. “We detected multiple readings of rifts being forced open coming from their side.”

  “What the hell do you expect me to do then?”

  “One of them is going to open near Floral academy. They've been informed and would take action themselves, but I thought you’d want a heads up.”

  Lucas dropped the call and sprinted across the training field and leaped over the railing. “Ragnar!”

  The golem materialized and caught Lucas before rushing to Floral academy. The academy was a two-hour drive from the company, but with Ragnar’s speed, he could cut it to half an hour.

  “The academy is in full lockdown! All students are to remain in their classrooms,” the intercom announced.

  “What’s going on?” Rose asked Hanna as they watched a barricade cover the classroom’s windows.

  “I think there’s an attack happening near the school,” Hanna replied.

  With the class interrupted and the message from the intercom, the students quickly fished out their phones to find out what was going on. It didn’t take long for one of them to find out what’s going on.

  “A dimensional rift opened near the school!”

  The students began anxiously discussing with each other, while the teacher tried to assure them that everything was going to be fine. Rose couldn’t blame them. They were the class that recently got attacked and almost kidnapped, so another situation like this was just too much.

  “You think your brother is going to show up?” Hanna asked.

  “Maybe? I don’t think he’ll come directly,” Rose answered.

  “Well, looks like you’re wrong,” Hanna showed Rose her phone.

  When Lucas arrived at the scene, it was already chaos. The severiumites were marching out of the rifts with their army, overwhelming the enforcers and the mages from Floral academy that came to support.

  The severiumites came with upgraded armors, technology, and even monsters that came from their dimension. Nagas, snakes with wings, giant snakes with multiple heads, and one that stood out the most.

  A naga with a thin body and white scales. It had the head of a cobra and had blood red eyes. Blood red symbols covered its body, but it barely mattered when the monster seemed to disappear in the battlefield.

  Once Lucas got off Ragnar, he immediately called out all the golems he had in his spatial core. Two dozen of the Iris: Gun slinger materialized and began firing at the invaders. Ragnar and Percival also charged ahead, taking down a large number of enemies with their first attacks.

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  But the invaders were no pushovers. Their tanks fired a green beam that struck one of the Iris: Gun slingers, corroding half of its body. “Take out the tanks!”

  Ragnar blitzed through the invaders, targeting the tanks and other heavy weaponry, while Percival assisted in establishing a guard line to prevent the invaders from advancing. The severiumites were very aggressive. They blindly charged with no regard for their lives. No matter how many were cut down, the rest continued to charge.

  Thanks to Lucas’s golems, the tide of the battle began to shift in their favor. The golems provided cover for the mages and enforcers to attack more freely. The biggest problem was the monsters. Although they indiscriminately attacked both sides, they still favored targeting the humans.

  But the main issue was still the white naga. It tore apart one of Lucas’s shield golems and tossed another one through a building. It swung its tail through another building, causing it to collapse. The fallen building created a massive cloud of smoke that made the battlefield even more chaotic. But it greatly aided the enemy as they had thermal vision from their snake senses.

  Lucas’s eyes widened in realization.

  “We need fire!”

  The mages were already using fire magic to attack, but they needed a wide area attack to spread fire. Lucas began running around the edge of the battlefield, looking for anything they could use.

  That's when Lucas saw an oil truck. He got into the truck and drove it towards the battlefield. “Let me through!” Lucas yelled as he drove the truck with full speed, aiming it towards the dimensional rift before jumping out.

  One of their tanks shot the truck, but it only made it worse as the truck created a fiery explosion that spread through the ground. Lucas got the results he wanted with the severiumites reacting negatively to the flames.

  “Ragnar, core break!”

  The golem roared as it grew in size and red lightning began violently sparking through its body like a raging storm.

  “For my master!” Ragnar roared as it charged with a giant sabretooth tiger made of electricity surrounding it.

  Ragnar tore through the invaders and collided with the white Naga. The monster was sent crashing against a row of enemy tanks.

  Lucas could already feel the strain of using core break, but it was still manageable. Despite everything, there was still no end to the invaders coming out of the rift. There was already a mountain of bodies, yet there was seemingly no end to them.

  “We need to close that rift,” Lucas muttered.

  “Need any help?!” Lucas looked up to see Marge crash into the battlefield like a ball of flame. “Time to feast!” the crowd watched in horror as all the invaders’ corpses on the battlefield withered as if something was drained out of them.

  “We need to close the rift!” Lucas yelled.

  “With pleasure!” Marge shouted back as a giant ball of black fire was conjured over her head. “Die bitches!”

  Marge launched the fire ball towards the dimensional rift. It went inside of the rift, causing them to just stare it for a few seconds. After a bit, a blast of flames erupted from the other side of the rift before it closed.

  With the rift gone, all that’s left was the invaders that came through.

  “Time to have some fun!” Marge dashed towards the nearest enemy and ripping their head off with a swipe and throwing it through the chest of another.

  Marge proved to be a demon in the battlefield.

  Samira wiped the snake blood of her gauntlets as they cleared out the dimensional rift that opened in a neutral zone.

  “How many casualties?” Samira asked.

  “47 casualties, commander,” an agent replied.

  Samira gritted her teeth. Even though they thoroughly prepared for the invasion, they still lost a lot of agents in the attack.

  “How are the other areas?”

  “6 out of 13 dimensional rifts have been closed,” the agent answered.

  Samira nodded. “Those who wants to, can come with me to provide backup, follow me to the carriers.”

  Lucas scrolled through the news to check on the situation. All the remaining rifts were in other sectors, so even if Lucas wanted to help, he was too far away.

  “Thank you for your help.”

  Lucas turned to see the Floral academy councilor approaching him. “You’re welcome.”

  Lucas only came because of his sister, but that would be too rude to say to someone that just fought off an invasion for her students.

  “I see that the potential to be heroes runs in the family.”

  Lucas didn’t respond to that and just sat on a piece of rubble. He was far too selfish to be a hero.

  With a sigh, he looked around the destroyed city. Thankfully, they managed to evacuate most of the civilians, but a few people were still caught in the conflict and lost their lives. A lot of people also lost their homes, their jobs, and many more.

  It’ll be a while until all this damage could be restored, and there were still other places under attack.

  After a few seconds of sitting there, Percival approached him with a stone in hand. The golem opened its palm to reveal a monster core with the emblem of a cobra head.

  Lucas would admit that the naga was powerful, but it wasn’t to the extent that he would consider it on the level of a monster lord. Either way, Lucas obtained a new potential golem.

  “Is there anything else we’re waiting for?” Marge asked.

  Lucas shook his head. “Let’s head back,” Lucas stood up from the rubble.

  A week.

  The war with the severiumites lasted another week before all the dimensional rifts were closed. Even with the empire taking action, thousands of people died, countless more lost their homes.

  The continental defense agency was an organization that protects the empire from such threats. But even such a powerful organization had its limits, a war was one of them.

  “Status on anymore rifts?” Augustus Shieldheart, the director of the continental defense agency questioned as he entered the observation room.

  “All rifts have been closed sir, but we can detect three more rifts being forced open in the central sector.”

  “Prepare to intercept,” Augustus replied. “Anything else?”

  “A universal rift sir,” another agent answered. “One entity has crossed over, but there’s no reports of damage done.”

  “We’ll deal with that later then. Focus on those damn snakes and prepare to launch a nuke through those rifts.”

  As his agents got to work, Augustus’s mind went towards the news he just heard. A universal rift wasn’t as much as a concern as a dimensional one, but the threat was still there.

  There were three types of rifts that could appear. A dimensional rift opens a gate to another part of the universe, closing a distance that was impossible to travel normally.

  Next was a world rift, a gate that opens a path to a whole different world. A world that holds a significant difference to our own world. It could be a world with or without magic, monsters, or different races. A world with completely different people living within it.

  Lastly, a universal rift, a gate through an identical world with only minor differences to our own. Different versions of ourselves live within them. Living different lives that came to be through different circumstances. You could have been born to different parents, have a different birthday, a different gender, and many more. A lot of similarities and differences at the same time.

  Augustus hoped whoever crossed through that gate wasn’t a threat.