5 Months earlier…

That which once was the powerful Federation of Dallenbale is now turned into a barren wasteland inhabited by wild beasts and a few brave ones that dare to live in that hostile deserted landscape.

Guarded by their surviving nations, the Empire of Esmalfania in the Northern Mountains, the Kingdom of Mudahash of the Great Lakes to the east, just passing the Eastern Desert that separates it from Esmalfania.

The authoritarian government of the Al Maghrib Commonwealth to the south; controlling the Southern Sea and its oil-filled lands and nearby islands; and finally the growing Kingdom of Landia, controlling the Ancient Platform of Rokudaira and all of its satellite cities and states.

All of these four countries, after the event only known as the “APB Incident” agreed to build a powerful alliance to keep Dallenbale under total control ensuring highly sophisticated cooperation between the armed forces and governments of all the four countries.

Dallenbale was completely devastated; the incident with the APB’s provoked something close to a mass extinction, which was successfully contained and restrained to the frontiers of this ancient country.

45 of its huge cities were devoid of all human life, remaining only the Four Bridges, massive structures that connect the frontiers of the four countries to the center of Dallenbale, where lies the place where it all started.

The Underground Prison of Madanbelle, a super-massive structure built entirely from the Rock of the Guardian, the strongest mineral in the planet, capable of blocking all communications, all magic and alchemy and even the most powerful modern weapons.

There, in the deep of this enormous prison, one of the guards of the last level was taking his night surveillance round upon the three only cells remaining in there.

The rest of the company of guards was outside the cell block, waiting for the report, and things were not that good that night.

Some minutes passed and eventually this man went out of the cell block, confused and somewhat scared for what he saw, and when his companions asked him about what happened in the cell block, he just asked permission for going and check recordings for the past days on one precise cell.

-…What is happening?! What happened down there? - One of the guards asked, but the man did not answer, he kept looking at the past days recordings until he found what he was looking for.

-…Something…- He tried to say. -…There is something wrong in the 000 Cell…- He completed as he kept watching some recordings.

Everyone looked at each other in total confusion, but the guard didn’t answer to anything else, the only thing he was watching in the recordings was the darkness of the cell, as if there was nothing in there.

-…In the past years that cell has been put into darkness, we know he is locked in there, but he showed no activity at all, not look at this…- The man said, at the time he played the recording for that night, where they could see it.

A couple of sharp red eyes glowing in the deep darkness of the 000 cell, they were blinking, and despite of being a recording, they all felt he was staring at them.

That creature, one of the most dangerous species ever created, millenniums ago they were believed to be extinct, but few specimens managed to remain after the Great War, where their species were driven away from their home territories and pushed off of their capital world.

This creature managed to cause the APB incident back in the time, which led the world to the war.

The four surviving countries managed to lock him down along with two of the remaining APB’s, which are not as powerful yet they can become a serious threat. Dallenbale and its prison were declared a huge neutral territory where brave people from the four countries were to live and work.

The presence of the four armies in that place was quite strong, by having thousands of men in many bases around the prison, which only held those three monsters and all the prisoners from the four countries; sent there by breaking the countries’ laws.

The majority of the prisoners were from Al Maghrib Commonwealth, a powerful totalitarianism, ruled by his Fürer; Andros Watherling Islands, who ruled his country with brutality, and had no hesitations by sending to Madanbelle anyone who questioned his rule.

Industrialization and forced militarization had made Al Maghrib to become a powerful state among all others; his army was growing in strength by every passing day, and its industry was little by little renowned by all other countries.

But one of the most important contributions to the world technology was the ability to manipulate energy which by the passing time had become something similar to magic, and this, along with its powerful technology, and with these means they were who controlled most of the wastelands.

Two divisions of his powerful army, the Impala 223 and the Northwing 004 were taking control of two of the closest cities to the important prison, while the other countries occupied some other places to a moderated distance from the facilities.

Joseph Dan Linuss, a young lieutenant from the 223 was watching through his binoculars to the huge bridge that linked them to their homeland, the bridge was heavily guarded by some other divisions from Al Maghrib’s army.

Linuss suddenly watched towards the prison, there was some movement in the outskirts of the facilities, controlled entirely by neutral personnel from the four countries; at first he thought it was a common exercise as usually happens in the prison to prepare the neutral army to any situation.

-No wonder they are terrified down there… After all, that is home to very powerful monsters…- He whispered to himself as he pulled out a cigarette out of his pocket and decided to check out his sniper rifle.

The weather from the wastelands was totally different to the one of his homeland, which is sunny most of the year, despite Dallenbale which was foggy most of the time and with powerful sandstorms, leading this to cold and sometimes rainy days.

Rainforests and swaps were now common spots all over the wastelands, so for Linuss it was okay that all other armies had to deal with that trash as well.

-What’s wrong with you now? - A voice behind him asked. Linuss did not move from his place, instead he just stared at Madanbelle with a suspicious look.

-Nothing is wrong…- He answered quickly. –I’m just thinking no how those bastards are treating those prisoners…

-What do you mean? - The voice asked again. –They are doing all what they can…

Linuss finally started to where the voice was coming from.

-Isaacs; What the hell are you doing here? Didn’t you apply to the SS Bodyguard team? - He said with a clearly sarcastic tone.

-No, I don’t want to be close to him… He is somewhat spooky… *sighs* - Besides, we have a little more freedom here…

-Yes, I can agree to that; yet I don’t complain, but being near that prison makes me somewhat nervous…- Linuss smoked some right after he stopped talking.

Isaacs sat near Linuss, on the other side of a small fire in the cold floor from the surveillance outpost. The weather was disgusting and a huge sandstorm was about to strike Madanbelle.

-Three… Two… One… - Isaacs said. And right after the sound of the prison alarms. –I bet they are having a bad time down there…

-I don’t care about those traitors, if the APB’s escape they all will die… -Then he was interrupted.

-Are you aware that if those monsters escape WE ALL will die? – Isaacs asked again.

-Yeah, I guess so…

Both men stared at the huge prison, but their visibility soon became impossible due to the incoming sandstorm.

Back in Madanbelle, the high security personnel was called upon duty on the lower levels of the prison, after the report of one of the prisoners moving inside its cell, all heavy armored personnel was going down in a huge lone attempt to control the situation, moreover because the prisoner was one of the most dangerous of the world itself.

Linuss stared back at Isaacs and asked.

-What about us… Do you think He wants to wage war?

-The Fürer? He is not that mad, isn’t he? -Isaacs replied confused.

-Well, we both have been close to him, spooky as usual; let’s hope this won’t take a bad decision in the future…- Isaacs stood up and grabbed some food from a nearby table.

-One thing I hate from this place is the food… It’s gross and disgusting…- He said after having a chew.

Linuss replied. –What were you waiting for? We’re in a disgusting place… What about the commander of the battalion? Has he already sent the reports on the situation?

-Yes, he has already; He must be receiving it by now…

Madanbelle was in total chaos, or at least it was on its lower levels, where the guards managed to seal the prisoner again and restrict his movements on his cell, despite that he kept staring at all of them from the bottom of the dark cell.

The evil presence of that thing inside that cell altered the behavior not only of the guards, but also of the other creatures in the lower levels, as if it has some kind of dark aura that made everyone turn mad.

On another of the nearby cells, the guards that were aiming their weapons to the first cell saw how a huge, monstrous hand held from one of the gate’s bars, the cells were so dark that no one could see through the darkness, only what came out from it.

A dark blue human-like-hand with silver claws, the skin of that creature seemed to be scratched and work, as if it has seen battle long ago. The men could hear a deep breath coming from the darkness, and they stepped back to be at a safer distance.

One of the officers drew his gun out and shot to the iron bar of the biggest cell, and this was enough to make that huge creature pull his hand back to the darkness, but even this wasn’t enough to intimidate the other creature, the one with sharp red eyes that now was roaming around its cell.

The sound of heavy chains could be heard inside its cell, and suddenly one of those was tossed out of the cell.

It was cut, not broken; it was cleanly cut, with what appeared to be a clean, marvelous instrument, this did nothing but make soldiers’ fear to grow up; and as they pulled back they also aimed their weapons to the cell, waiting for the fire command.

Augustus Rubik, the youngest brother of Landia’s royal family was there, rebel and childish but certainly loyal and one of the strongest of his kingdom, prayed the commander not to give any stupid order.

After this, all the men saw that chain cut by half, the cut was so clean that they quickly thought the other part of it was just as sharp, and, with enough strength he could use it as a long range weapon.

Those sharp red eyes stared at the young prince, as if that creature had understood what he said, and did nothing else but to wait and see what the guards did.

Rubik turned around suddenly, and his eyes crossed up with the creature’s eyes, it lasted only a couple of seconds but that was enough to make him feel seasick for a moment.

-What was that? - He thought. He shook his head and got back into position with his squad, but the seasick feeling was still a thing, some of his companions noted it but said nothing about it.

The commissioned officer ordered the men to back down to a safe distance from both cells; and all of them now were aware that both creatures were looking at them, and as soon as they fell back the surveillance officers told the squads that both creatures had gone back to the bottom of their cells.

On the surveillance cameras it showed the shapes of both creatures standing still at the dark bottom of their places.

The guard squads retreated after the threat was somehow “contained” but actually the men knew that the monsters just chilled out there.

Some minutes later in the dismiss area…

Rubik and some of his squad companions dropped their weapons to the ground and sat there to try to calm themselves, although it had been short, that was a pretty terrifying experience, and despite all the time they had been there they didn’t even know how those creatures looked like.

-Anyone of you know about them? - Rubik asked while scratching his head. He was clearly scared as well as many others. –There are those times where I wish I never left the kingdom…

He lay down on the stone floor and stared at the wide ceiling from the dismiss hall. It was huge and it has capacity for holding something like 10 thousand men at a time, and at that time of the day and due to the storm all personnel was gathered in there…