Doomsday Pillars

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Gunshots were roaring as they neared Shelter D. As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, Christina, Nam, Maxine and Chicken jumped out of the vehicle and dashed toward the shelter. "Let\'s go! Hurry!"

Several residents with blood and dirt all over their clothes ran past them. Nam grabbed one of the fleeing people and said, "What\'s happening here?"

The middle-aged man covered his face shivering before recognizing it was another human before him. "M-M-Monsters! T-T-There are monsters!"

Christina looked around the running residents and some also had injuries. There were also people on the ground, struggling to get up, and some lie motionless with their guts ripped out of their bodies as if it was torn apart by animals. 

Nam wanted to ask the man further but he was cut off when a scream resounded and Christina ran over to where the cry of help was. 

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The raining of bullets once again resounded in the area and Christina arrived where the police and the army were at.. They were having a hard time hitting the dozens of fast moving black and round objects, which was as big as a basketball, that were rolling against the dead bodies of the residents with its sharp fur like a hedgehog. One of the same monsters was using its short arms and legs to devour a resident with its large mouth full of fangs, which almost stretched to its whole body. That monster finished its meal and when her eyes met with the monster\'s bloodshot eyes, her bracelet issued a message.

[Critters]

[Minion of the abyss]

"Wait, what?" Christina exclaimed with surprise.

The Doomsday Pillar\'s bracelet knew what this monster was. She tried to make sense of it and remembered that when the Doomsday Pillar fell from the sky, a giant crater formed in Hong Kong Island nearby where she was standing and its guard disappeared overnight.

Although all land access to Hong Kong Island had been cut off and its 20 shelters had been equipped with an adequate amount of defense personnel and machine guns, not all the guards were on peak stage mortal realm but they were experienced since the majority of them came from the army or police.

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The pistols and rifles seemed only capable of injuring it. Fortunately, high caliber shell of machine guns were able to stop the critter monsters in its tracks and were somehow able to injure them.

"!!!"

Hundreds of black balls of critters appeared jumping and rolling toward the firing squad. With their number, the guns weren\'t enough to kill all of them and once they arrived at point blank, the firearms of the soldiers and police became ineffective as the fast creatures bit the firearms and defense force alike. 

Christina, Maxine, Chicken and Nam. Jumped to try and save the soldiers before more casualties occured.

PA! PA! Swissshh! Splatt!

Christina and Chicken\'s slash attacks proved to be effective, especially Nam with his tier 2 glove. Only Maxine found it difficult to use the iron clubs against these small critters. So, Maxine helped the fallen soldiers instead by hitting the critters while they were about to devour a soldier.

Slasshh spalattt !!

"Be careful! These creatures aren\'t that difficult to kill but take care of yourselves to not get surrounded by its fast movements and sharp teeth!"

With each wave of Christina\'s slash, tens of critters died split in half and burnt. Still, she had to be extremely careful as she noticed one of the critters being able to bite Nam and leaving a bite mark despite his tough body and ability to strengthen his muscles. 

It didn\'t take a long time for reinforcements to arrive and fortunately, they were earth realm fighters from the police and army who were prepared for emergency assistance. Together with Christina, Nam, and Chicken, it wasn\'t long before the hundreds of monsters were successfully eliminated leaving only a few that were running away.

"Chicken!"

Chicken ran forward with his amazing speed and killed all the remaining monsters he could while Nam along with several soldiers got on a vehicle to join the chase. Christina, Maxine and the rest of the soldiers, on the other hand, went to the shelters to make sure there were no more left in the area. They couldn\'t risk even just letting one monster remain alive, which could kill ordinary citizens with ease. 

Aside from that, there was one more thing that Christina was focused on. The children living in this shelter. Christina ran through the street of the shelter. She witnessed the slaughter done by the critters as she ran. Pools of blood, torned, incomplete human bodies were everywhere. Her heart paced faster and hurried toward one of the smaller buildings, the residence of the orphans.

When she arrived, the building\'s front door was wide open. She went inside with heavy steps, walking on the ground filled with pools of blood. 

"No, no no. Oh my god. Don\'t please. No. Not them. No…"

Dozens of small children were lying motionless, torn apart with horrified faces, all of whom she was familiar with. Her heart broke as tears dripped down her cheeks. 

She stared at the frightened faces of the poor orphans while remembering their smiles, their naughtiness, their bad jokes. Her chest tightened, her breath shortened. These children reminded her a lot of her daughter Kelly and son Caleb. She cared for these little kids. 

"I\'m sorry. I\'m sorry..."

Her chest felt even more constricted and the spirit energy suddenly flared up. Christina vomited fresh blood as she knelt on the ground.

"Sis, sis, control yourself, sis. Please, don\'t blame yourself."

Christina fell silent while thinking of their smiles. These children didn\'t deserve this. They didn\'t deserve to die and be slaughtered like animals! They already didn\'t have any parents, and now they are like this? If there was a God in this world, you would be the cruelest of all!

She walked in silence, approaching the end of the room. There she found the person she was looking for. A little girl with a ponytail. 

"Mei Ling..." she muttered.

Suddenly Christina heard a shout from outside the door.

"Let me in! Let me in! Mei Ling! Mei Ling!"

Christina recognized that voice. She turned around and saw the big brother of this little girl struggling to break free from the soldier guarding the door, Ma Sing.

"Let go of me! Mei Ling! Ge ge is back! Mei Ling!!!"

Ma Sing slipped underneath the soldier and ran to where Christina and Mei Ling were. And as soon as he arrived, he froze. 

"Mei... Ling?" Ma Sing\'s voice broke. "Hey, M-M-Mei Ling... please... Please don\'t..."

He walked with trembling steps, his voice was shaking, his eyes were welling. "Mei Ling! No!!! Aaaahhh!!!"

Ma Sing\'s scream filled the whole building. He knelt on the ground. Christina walked up to him and hugged him tightly.

"Auntie... Auntie... Mei Ling! She, she\'s! I\'m sorry! Ge ge was naughty again today. Mei Ling, please move! I\'ll be good now! Please scold your ge ge. Please..."

Christina could only imagine what he was going through. She didn\'t want him to see the horrible sight anymore, so she picked him up and tried to carry him outside the room.

"Let me go! Mei Ling! Mei Ling!"

As Ma Sing struggled hard, the pain in his heart made Christina unable to stand it and they both fell just in front of the old building. Ma Sing wanted to go back inside to see his sister, But his body was unable to move, he only dared to look from the outside...

The other soldiers started coming in and out to pick up the dead bodies. Both Ma Sing and Chirstina just stand there both in silence.

An hour later, Nam and Chicken returned to the shelter.

Nam approached Christina. "It looked like they came from the sinkhole that happened last week. The Hong Kong army and police have deployed more guards there. It will not happen again"

Christina looked at the sky and sighed. "Nam, before all of this happened, did you hear on the news about the people who predicted the doomsday?"

"I\'ve heard about it but didn\'t watch it. If I\'m not mistaken the person who pushed all of that was a professor from Oxford and a person named Alex?"

"Yes. Everything they\'ve said is coming true. The guy named Alex also mentioned that this is only a start and things will get worse as time passes."

"..."

"Nam, those guards won\'t be enough. We have to get stronger."

Nam now finally understood what Christina meant when she muttered that the Doomsday Pillars were what we need.. 

Hearing what Christina talk about, Ma Sing decided to speak. 

"Auntie..."

"Yes, Ma Sing?"

"I also want to be strong... I\'m alone now... Can you teach me how to be strong?"

"Okay, Ma Sing. And also, you\'re not alone. Auntie is here for you."

Christina hugged Ma Sing again. The boy who always tried to look tough cried so hard in her arms again. 

On this night, everyone who had died was buried together in a mass grave. Four months had already passed, but these events were still a common occurrence. But that wasn\'t an excuse for Christina nor anyone, this was a reminder for her to become stronger

The next day, Christina took Ma Sing to the Doomsday Pillar.