CH289 Iberu’s Perspective
byWe really should have tried to plan this better. Iberu thought to himself as he tried to push through the chaos of the streets around craftsman’s tower to get to the gate.
He’d been fulfilling his role as head of the craftsman’s guild as he always had, taking meetings, approving the buying and sales of different supplies and rare materials, and just as importantly, browsing the latest published works, or at least the ones his assistants had already gone through and deemed to be the most valuable. There was too much information produced across the world for one man to be able to view it all, all the more being made ever since the Greys had revealed themselves and offered their aid, but it was important that he at least try to stay up to date on just what was being discovered.
It was as he was going through different project funding proposals though that he’d been alerted to what was happening, the first signs of the invasion beginning, a warning to the world that was more legend to its inhabitants than anything else that pulled him from his office to see panic descend the streets, a scene that would be playing out all over the world, or at least any location close enough to one of the invasion points for people to become immediately aware of it, and the reactions were instantaneous.
Rioting and looting as people lost control of their base instincts, some individuals and families hiding away while others tried to go through the gate to get to wherever they needed to be.
The gate itself was large, as was the space within that people had to walk through to travel between areas, but for the first time in his life, Iberu saw it packed. The crowd of people pushed up against each other in a constant fight and struggle, each in someone else’s way. He was one of the few not experiencing any difficulty getting through. He had a large frame, and even before he’d first awakened a skill, he had an unusually high level of strength thanks to his parent races, the bonuses that came with awakening pushing it all the higher and making it easy to shove people to the side to get to his destination, a smaller mixed city by the name off Elgoth, its population being low enough to keep it from being an invasion point which helped keep things comparatively calmer.
He could see the panic on people’s faces, the worst of them having been outsiders like him, seeing the beams of light rise into the sky and spelling their downfall, but he ignored all of that. At least for a few days he expected the chaos to continue, he wanted to reach his destination and be done with before the streets became too much to rush through.
Walking for a bit, he found an unassuming building out of the way and took out a key, letting himself into what was nothing more than a meeting room. It was private and out of the way though, with the only people who knew about it being the nine that were already there, seated and waiting.
“It looks like I’m late,” He said with a laugh as he took his seat, getting a shake of his head from a hooded mage off to the side.
“I’ve told you again and again you’d regret having your office so far from the gate once things commenced Iberu, anyone could have predicted the reactions.”
“I couldn’t very well move the entire guild headquarters, could I? I still say that we should have arranged this meeting for a week after instead of everyone having to rush here once the sign came down.”
“And what would we do if some of the gates were closed down?” The siren among them asked. “There was word some were thinking about it to contain any panic, depending on how fast anyone implements it some of us might not even be able to make it home after this.”
A different person of a race Iberu was never able to identify shook their head. “There’s bigger things going on, even if a city wanted to, they’d never have the chance to block off their gate right away. They’ll be better off trying to keep any panic and destruction to a minimum.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Of course we have people destroying their own lands now,” Another laughed. “Why wait for the demons to do it for us when we can get a head start?”
“Enough,” The mage said, silencing them all. “We aren’t here for this, we’re here to discuss our progress on each project. Now more than ever it’s important. I know that we were all hoping for more time, but we need to work with what we have available. First of all, we need to be honest and allocate resources appropriately. Who here would say that given the time frame, their work is completely non-viable?”
Three of them raised their hands, each looking annoyed to have to admit such a thing. If they’d had another decade then things would be different, but the time frame they were on had simply become far too tight.




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