Mira felt him before she saw him.

  She hurried from her office within the most central parts of the border defensive town

  The Watchers’ alert had been making its way through the upper strata for the past half day. Something had broken through the void outside of the planet and descended upon their planet. No other information was provided with that warning, no potential location or what it may be. Just to be ready and prepare for a calamitous war against a potential Demon Lord. Expect Breaches opening more frequently and carrying stronger forces.

  That alone was enough to make her set down her addiction to morning tea.

  Mira and the council worked hard to keep that information from spreading before they were ready with equipment and enough knowledge to answer basic questions.

  .

  She rushed through the gatherings of peoples and general daily crowds.

  In thirty-seven years of life in the Bounded Reach, she had never experienced an unclassifiable alert. The Watchers categorized everything. That was their function and purpose as the foundation upon which order rested. Predators, prey, weather fronts, geological shifts, everything received a designation or parameters that rested perfectly in the catalogue.

  Whatever had dropped into their planet had none of that.

  Then appeared out nowhere.

  They had been in silence until they heard a massive reverberation kilometers out. Surges of dungeon monsters escaping their bonds and rushing toward a central area trying to kill something. The exact opposite of what any Demon Lord should have caused. Yet, that was many kilometers out and only ten to fifteen minutes ago.

  She doubted this had any connection to that event.

  Or so she hoped.

  She pushed through the masses and broke out to see first sight of him.

  Her breath caught.

  He was massive. Not merely tall, she had seen tall men, strong men. Wardens with shoulders like carved stone. This was something else. Nearly three and a half meters in height, broader than any human had a right to be, his physique made the strongest labourers in the settlement look like children in oversized coats. Every line of him spoke of violence refined into function, of strength that existed beyond what flesh should contain.

  Bone plates that looked like crystals wrapped his body, she recognized them at once. Dungeon beast carapace of a high tier Dungeon Boss. The kind that turned aside a Warden blades. Shards of apex predator crystal, material that normally required a dozen hunters and acceptable casualties to obtain. Entire parties would need to be formed just to bring something like that down.

  He had killed the most dangerous creatures in the region.

  He had .

  Not as trophies, but as .

  That was a strange occurrence she could not exactly match with what she knew. Had the flash of light and tremor been the Demon Lord? Was he the Demon Lord?

  She had met no human that size.

  Giants maybe, but they were rare and extremely aggressive.

  He wore the armor the way a craftsman wore a leather apron. Casual. As if harvesting apex predators was something done between more pressing occupations.

  Between plates, his skin showed a black carapace without a single score. Yet, she could feel the heat of a burned victim underneath it all. The smell of mana within the air and flames greater than anything she had felt vibrated off him. Many would miss it, but her strong senses allowed her knowledge others missed frequently.

  Mira’s class screamed danger from him.

  The helm upon his shoulders was battered and carved with scores of blades and other weapons she could not identify. The large crack on his visor indicated massive pressure from a giant weapon. Or a fall from the sky if anything like that could survive it.

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  She gulped, but kept her face neutral.

  Mira surveyed the masses around him. Searching for potential information she could use.

  Through the shared perception, she tasted their reactions.

  Curiosity from scholars, quickly fraying into something closer to existential dread. Wariness from workers, sharpening into bone-deep fear. Protective urgency from parents, accompanied by frantic calculations of distance and timing, whether they could reach their children before could. Awe and wonder from the children, blunted and damped by the Watchers’ stabilizing fields.

  They think he might be a Warden or protective guardian.

  The eldest among them watched with suspicion. They had never seen anything like him.

  .

  Mira blinked as someone caught his attention.

  Anna. The orphan girl Widow Marsh had taken in after fever claimed the last of her bloodline. Anna did not act like the others did.

  She fought her foster mothers grip to get closer when everyone was moving away.

  Curiosity burning from her as vividly as the flames that had supposedly consumed the giant before her.

  Mira continued to watch and study everyone and everything. Especially the giant, expecting him to grow restless and provide information.

  He did not shift even slightly as he waited for her. He simply stood there as patient as stone and death.

  Mira could feel him evaluate her, weighing her against criteria she could not see.

  Every instinct told her he could kill her before she finished drawing breath. That he already had the information he needed. That her movement and the very settlement were all variables in a calculus he had long ago learned to solve. That, for now, he had decided killing was unnecessary.

  Somehow, that was worse.

  .

  What kind of existence forged something like this? What kind of world needed warriors who could look at an organized society and show no reaction at all? What had he been fighting, out there in whatever hell birthed him, that had refined him to this edge?

  Mira did not want the answers to her questions.

  She halted at what instinct told her was proper distance, close enough for speech, far enough to react if he moved.

  Then allowed herself an attempt at [Analyzing] him.

  System Error…

  [Analyze] failed…

  Reattempting Process -

  Error… Error…

  Anomaly cannot be [Analyzed] through conventional means…

  Up close, his scale was worse. She stood at 1.7 meters, unremarkable among the Bounded Reach’s women. He towered almost a double her height meter and that was with his posture held in, as if he were consciously reducing his presence. If he chose to extend fully, to move with intent. The crystal weapons at his sides caught the light. They did not fit him or his persona.

  She cleared her throat. “Welcome stranger to our town of StreamWalk. Breach Defensive Line 188. Were you sent by the Watchers, or are you what they’ve been waiting for?”

  The question was more honest than diplomatic.

  He did not answer at once. His gaze, cold and analytical, weighed the question. Mira could almost feel him sorting through possibilities, choosing what to reveal, what to withhold.

  Before he could respond, the world shifted again.

  A Watcher’s message slammed into her mind with more urgency and intent than she was prepared for.

  Breach Detected! All Units Prepare for Battle!

  Breach Containment Projected Failure - 4.3 hours

  Demonic Signature Intensity Rising

  Destruction Priority - Critical

  Threat Assessment - C+ Rank

  Proceed with due caution and strategic planning!

  She ran a hand through her black and pepper hair, cut short to under her shoulders. “It seems introductions will have to wait. The Breach has woken.”

  The giant war machine in the shape of a man hummed once.

  Everyone member of StreamWalk Town shifted into action.

  The crowd startled into motion and practiced movements they had been training every week for years now. No one shouted or panicked.

  Designated members of the guards pulled out the caches of armor, weapons, and other items they would need for battle and begun handing them out to everyone. Villagers, orphans, the strong, and even the weakest members of their society. Except the elderly ladies and youngest children. Mainly spears and shields for standardization purposes and collective defense.

  Mira was proud of their system. Her spine straightened. “You arrived at an interesting time. The Watchers have been restless recently. More so in the last few hours than any time before that. Something arrived onto our world. Likely a Demon Lord that will allow the Breaches to become stronger. We must prepare for another calamitous war–”

  The giant nodded silently, but otherwise said nothing at all.

  “We do not have much time,” Mira continued. Her voice remained level; only the tightening at the edges of her eyes betrayed mounting urgency. “The Demons are drawn to civilization. They will soon charge us.”

  The war machine rumbled as though he was an engine. His first words chilled her instantly. “Let them come.” Voice deep and measured, reverberating in her chest with every syllable. “They will not find succor here.”

  Mira knew well enough that if he was actually the thing that fell from the sky that the Watchers were searching for then they were likely all dead soon enough. There was not chance that they could fight something that survived such a meteoric descent from the heavens. This test would only prove to everyone that he was no direct threat to humanity if he ended up healing them quell the Breach Rift beside their location.

  And if he ends up killing them all…

  At least they did their duty and collected data on him and his strength, as minimal as that was. Having a potential location was more than enough.

  “You have two choices, stranger. Come with us, to where our defenses are strongest. Or stay here and face the Demons alone. Either way, you must decide quickly.”