The world ended quietly. One moment, life was normal. The next, terrifying black holes bloomed on the ground everywhere. They weren't holes you could see through; they were pure, hungry darkness. Anything they touched – pavement, cars, buildings, people – was silently sucked down and vanished. It happened so fast. Entire city blocks disappeared in seconds, leaving ragged edges and stunned silence behind. Then, as quickly as they appeared, the holes vanished. Earth felt broken.
Suddenly, the survivors weren't on Earth anymore. They stood in a vast, blindingly white space. There was no floor, no ceiling, no walls – just endless light. Around them, people blinked into existence, gasping and crying out. A hundred thousand terrified voices filled the strange emptiness. The sheer number was overwhelming.
Then, HE appeared. Floating just above the crowd was a short figure, barely four feet tall. He was impossible to ignore. One half of him glowed softly: smooth skin, a delicate white wing. The other half was shadowy: tougher skin, a dark, leathery wing like a bat. One eye was deep blue, the other burned like hot coal. A strange calm radiated from him.
"Silence." His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the panic, echoing in everyone's mind. The noise died to terrified whimpers.
"You stand between worlds," the being announced, his voice a mix of gentle song and rough growl. "Your world, Earth, and another world,Valoria, have failed. You both stopped producing enough Aether."
Confused murmurs spread through the crowd. Aether? Valoria?
"Aether is the life energy of reality," the messenger explained, his wings giving a slow, unsettling flap. "It powers everything. Both your worlds fell short of what the Constellations– the powers that shape existence – require. Their judgment is final. Failure means merging."
He paused, letting the awful truth sink in. "Earth and Valoria are being forced together. To make this happen, pieces of Earth are being sent to Valoria. You are the first piece. The first batch."
Horror washed over the crowd. Merged? Sent away? Pieces?
"Wait!" shouted a man near the front, his face pale. "You can't just take us! Who are these Constellations? What gives them the right?"
The messenger's blue eye seemed almost sad, while the coal eye flared. "The right," he stated flatly, "comes from power you cannot grasp. They keep everything balanced. Your worlds' dying Aether threatened everything. This merger saves something instead of nothing."
"Why people?" a woman screamed, clutching children close. "Why destroy our homes?"
"You weren't taken alone," the messenger corrected. "You were relocated with the piece of your world you were on. Buildings, land... they are part of what's being sent. Think of it as... survival. Brutal, but survival for some of you."
"Survival?" a young man yelled, his voice thick with anger. "You call this being dumped on some alien planet survival?"
"The rules are set," the messenger replied, his tone final. "The move starts now. Prepare. Valoria's laws are strong. Adapt or die. That is your only choice."
He raised his mismatched hands. Before anyone could ask more, the blinding white space vanished.
They weren't falling gently. They were hurled.
The quiet white was replaced by roaring wind, terrified screams, and the grinding sound of massive things breaking. People tumbled out of a dirty yellow sky streaked with purple clouds. Below was a wild, alien landscape: red rocks, giant glowing mushrooms... and chunks of Earth scattered everywhere. A piece of city street jutted out like a broken bone. Half an apartment building leaned dangerously. The shattered remains of a mall spilled debris.
Panic exploded. A hundred thousand humans plummeted towards the hard, red ground. There was no control.
CRUNCH!
The sound was sickening. A man, only meters from others hitting the dirt, simply vanished. A huge piece of building wall, ripped loose during the move, had fallen right on top of him. One moment he was screaming; the next, he was gone, crushed under tons of rubble. Blood sprayed the strange plants.
Pure terror took over.
"MOVE!" "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" "RUN!"
The sky wasn't just raining people; it was raining death. Chunks of brick, twisted metal pipes, shards of glass, car-sized rocks, even pieces of road – they all came crashing down. It was chaos. People scrambled, ducked, tripped, and shoved each other desperately. A woman threw herself behind a large, purple-streaked rock just as a chunk of granite smashed the spot she'd been standing. A group huddled under a half-crushed bus shelter, flinching as debris pounded the metal roof. Screams cut off suddenly. Awful thuds and crunches mixed with the cries of the living.
It lasted only ten minutes. But the alien valley was transformed. It became a graveyard mixed with junk. Dust and the sharp smell of blood filled the air. Finally, the deadly rain stopped. An eerie silence fell, broken only by moans and sobs.
The survivors slowly crawled out or picked themselves up. They looked around, dazed, faces dirty, eyes wide with shock. The destruction was massive. Bodies lay everywhere, crushed by pieces of their own world. The strange, glowing plants were splattered red.
As the silence stretched, heavy with grief and terror, a translucent blue rectangle materialized in the center of every survivor's vision. It pulsed once, cold and impersonal:
**First Fragment Integration Complete**
* Initial Human Population: 100,000
* Survivors of Translocation: 34,768
* Valorian Integration Protocol: Active
**Adapt or Perish.**
The numbers hung there, stark and undeniable. 34,768. Out of one hundred thousand people pulled from Earth, only that number had lived through the first ten minutes on Valoria. The notification vanished as silently as it appeared, leaving them standing in the wreckage of their old world and the terrifying new one, surrounded by the dead, under a strange sky. The messenger's words echoed in the silence, now underscored by the system's cold math: Adapt or perish. Their new life had begun, baptized in blood and rubble. The fight to survive started before they even knew how.