Chapter 16: The Day of Calamity

July 1st, still before dawn—suddenly, it happened. A massive, direct-quake exceeding magnitude 8 struck multiple regions at once.

Not just Japan—this occurred simultaneously across countries worldwide. In Japan, many people were asleep, so buildings collapsed, causing countless casualties.

The quake inflicted severe damage on transportation and communication networks across nations.

But later, this event would come to be known not as a "great disaster," but as "Yakusai"—the Day of Calamity—because of what followed... something utterly unbelievable.

From the cracks opened in the earth by the quake, another land began to rise up, heaving itself skyward.

That land was a sickly blue-black color, its eerie contrast with the surrounding terrain giving off an unnatural, unsettling aura.

And from the holes and fissures in that blue-black land, unknown creatures—monsters, you could call them—began crawling out, attacking humans!

Naturally, armies from around the world—the Self-Defense Force in Japan—rushed to intercept them. But their weapons and ammunition had no effect.

No, not exactly—true, they could kill them. But it was inefficient, took too long, and some stronger individuals just shrugged it off.

Later, it was discovered that these creatures and the land raised by the quake were saturated with an unknown subatomic particle. A German research institute proposed the theory that it might be a form of "dark matter," but since dark matter itself remains only a hypothesis, the credibility of that claim was uncertain.

In Japan, this substance was temporarily dubbed "Maso." Weapons and ammunition not containing Maso couldn’t inflict fatal damage on the creatures—some even recovered within minutes.

Conversely, it’s been confirmed that when humans are injured by creatures containing magical essence, their wounds heal much slower.

These monsters vary by country of origin—some nations see massive “dragons” soaring through the skies, others witness “giants” striding across the land. In Japan, the monsters resemble rotting “zombies” straight out of a movie, attacking people.

After months of life-or-death crisis for humanity, the EU announced that certain patches of their bluish-black earth contained trace amounts of metal.

This was great news for military forces worldwide fighting the monsters. The metal contained vast quantities of magical essence, making it possible to craft weapons capable of countering the creatures.

However, since the metal is present only in minute amounts within rocks, and mining it safely proves extremely difficult, it becomes a rare resource.

While weapons like swords or blunt instruments could be made, turning it into bullets for mass consumption proved impractical—making it impossible to turn the tide of war.

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Air Self-Defense Force, Gifu Base—

“Any contact with Atsugi?”

“Negative. Communication’s been dead since yesterday… Did it get wiped out? We got a report just before that—something flying like a bird attacked the base.”

“Can’t count on U.S. military support… Heard Yokosuka’s completely destroyed.”

Captain Sakaki, First Class, at Gifu Base, grim-faced, was checking the current situation.

On “Day of Catastrophe,” Japan saw especially massive aberrations appear in Tokyo and Fukuoka. Tokyo, housing the capital’s core functions, was utterly destroyed—when that happened, the entire nation’s key systems shut down.

And just like that, the monster assault wiped out the U.S. base in Yokosuka and the Self-Defense Force bases around Kanto—gone before they even got a chance to fight! Japan lost most of its forces capable of standing against the monsters.

Now split in two by the Kanto region, coordination with bases like Chitose in Hokkaido is impossible.

From Fukuoka, hordes of creatures have spilled out, causing massive destruction.

The U.S. military in Okinawa is apparently advancing toward Kyushu and locked in battle, but communication’s a mess—information’s barely getting through. The higher the "mana" concentration, the worse the signal. Maybe mana itself actively disrupts communications?

The Prime Minister’s office has relocated its political functions to Osaka, trying to reestablish command—but reports say the monsters flooding out of Tokyo are moving this way too.

Evacuees from around Kanto are heading west toward Kansai. Seems like the monsters are following where people gather.

Right now, we’re coordinating with bases like this one in Gifu and the Ground Self-Defense Force base in Aichi, preparing to meet the monsters head-on as our final defense line from Tokyo.

If we lose this... Japan might be finished...