Sector Seven was an industrial district filled with abandoned factories and rusted warehouses. The C Rank spatial fracture had opened inside a massive empty shipping depot.

By the time The Ironclad arrived the local Association police had already established a perimeter. Yellow barricade tape surrounded the warehouse and heavily armed officers stood behind armored vehicles their weapons aimed at the shimmering blue portal.

Captain Gideon Cross stepped out of the guild transport vehicle his heavy platinum armor clanking with every step. Elena Finn Flint and Declan followed closely behind him their expressions deadly serious. The celebratory mood from the Neon Lotus was completely gone.

A terrified police lieutenant ran up to Gideon wiping sweat from his forehead. "Captain Cross. Thank god you are here. The Valor Guild dispatch said you were the closest A Rank team."

"Give me the sitrep Lieutenant" Gideon demanded looking past the man at the glowing blue gate.

"It is a standard C Rank Goblin Cave" the lieutenant explained his voice shaking. "Two local C Rank teams went in three hours ago to clear it. Standard procedure. But twenty minutes ago the ambient mana readings spiked off the charts. The monitoring equipment registered a massive spatial anomaly inside the gate. We lost all communication with the teams."

"Did anything come out?" Finn asked spinning his curved dagger.

"Nothing" the lieutenant swallowed hard. "But the mana signature... it does not match a dungeon break. It matches the signature from the Gate Hub incident. The media is calling it the Ghost of Valor."

Gideon narrowed his eyes. "Lock down the perimeter. Do not let anyone else near this warehouse. We are going in to extract the survivors and secure the gate."

"Captain" Declan muttered adjusting his medical bag. "If that thing is really in there those C Rank teams are already dead."

"Then we bring back their bodies" Gideon said his voice leaving no room for argument. "Ironclad formation. Elena stay in the center. Twins take the flanks. Declan watch our backs. We move fast and we do not take any chances."

The team nodded drawing their weapons. They walked past the barricades and stepped into the shimmering blue portal.

The transition was instantaneous.

They expected to step into a damp noisy cavern filled with the screeching of goblins and the smell of wet earth. Instead they stepped into a nightmare.

The cavern was completely silent.

The glowing blue moss that usually illuminated goblin caves was dead turned a sickly rotting gray. The air was freezing cold so cold that Elena could see her breath pluming in the darkness. There was no sound of dripping water. There was no sound of monsters. There was only a heavy suffocating pressure that pressed down on their lungs.

"Declan" Gideon whispered raising his massive tower shield. "Give us some light."

Declan raised his hand casting a glowing orb of green healing magic into the air. The soft light illuminated the cavern floor.

Elena gasped taking a step backward.

The floor was covered in gray ash. But it was not just random debris. The ash was piled in the distinct shapes of bodies. Hundreds of them. The entire goblin horde had been eradicated. There were no monster cores left behind. There was no blood. Everything had simply withered and died.

"What kind of magic does this?" Flint whispered his usual joking demeanor completely erased. He knelt down and touched one of the ash piles. The moment his finger brushed the gray dust it crumbled into nothingness. "It is like their life force was just... drained."

"Captain" Finn called out from the right flank his voice tight. "Over here."

Gideon and the rest of the team moved toward the cavern wall.

Lying in the dirt were the remains of the two C Rank teams. There were ten Hunters in total. Or at least there used to be. Their bodies were completely desiccated looking like mummies that had been buried for a thousand years. Their armor was rusted and brittle. Their weapons had turned to dust.

Declan knelt beside one of the bodies running a diagnostic scan with his healing magic. The green light flickered and died the moment it touched the corpse.

"I cannot read anything" Declan said his hands shaking. "There is no residual mana. There is no physical trauma. No cuts no burns no blunt force. It appears as though their spiritual cores were just... erased."

Elena stared at the withered faces of the dead Hunters. She felt a cold knot of pure terror forming in her stomach. She was an A Rank Mage. She had fought towering dragons and massive golems. But this was different. This was not a monster. This was a plague.

"We are leaving" Gideon ordered his voice echoing loudly in the silent cavern. "This is not a rescue mission anymore. This is an extinction level threat. We need to report this to Guild Master Elias immediately."

The team did not argue. They turned around and sprinted back toward the blue portal at the entrance of the cavern.

They were fifty feet away when the blue light began to flicker.

"No" Elena whispered her eyes widening in horror.

The shimmering blue portal violently pulsed. The color shifted rapidly turning a deep sickly purple and then finally solidifying into a jagged crystalline structure glowing with a terrifying blood red light.

The exit was sealed.

"Red Gate" Finn cursed gripping his daggers.

The temperature in the cavern dropped even further. The green orb of light floating above Declan’s head flickered and died consumed by the oppressive darkness.

Footsteps echoed from the deep shadows of the cavern.

They were slow deliberate and perfectly rhythmic.

"Formation!" Gideon roared slamming his tower shield into the ground. "Titan’s Wall!"

The brilliant golden dome of hard light erupted from his shield covering the five Hunters. It was an A Rank defense skill capable of withstanding a direct hit from a meteor. It had never failed them.

A figure stepped out of the shadows and into the dim red light of the sealed gate.

It was a man wearing the gray uniform of a Valor Guild logistics manager. He had greasy hair and a thick beard. He looked exactly like Duncan Carmichael.

But his eyes were empty silver voids.

"A shield" The Wanderer spoke his voice echoing directly into their minds. It was a voice devoid of all emotion. "How quaint. You build fences of light and pretend the dark cannot reach you."