The main city is bustling with murmurs and whispers.
The nosy citizens nearby have dropped whatever they were doing and gathered around the rift in a safe distance as several high-ranking Guides and Espers surround the apartment complex where the rift opened.
The rift, a black color mixed with purple hues, is a dead giveaway that it was a higher rank than the one they have in history records.
A SS-rank rift.
Hence why the three guilds have sent their strongest and trustworthy representatives to help with the clearing.
Among them is one of the S-class Espers, Raiden Stain, alias Raid. He's an elemental type Esper with amazing combat abilities, whether equipped with ranged or melee weapons.
The Paragon Alliance Guild has sent him as a representative to take care of an unclassified rift with the other representatives of the other guilds.
Yes, it was said by their fellow Espers and Guides that it's a SS-rank rift, but then again, it might just be an S-rank.
Just like him, other high-ranking Espers have gathered around the rift, sent by their guild director for confirmation whether the information they had heard was true or false.
"The rift won't let the Espers come in, right?" A no name B-class Guide whispered to his friend.
"From what I heard, yeah.. I mean, look at Raid, even he can't get inside the rift no matter how much he tries." Another no name B-class Guide responded.
They have been standing there for almost three hours since the rift first appeared, but it still hasn't opened nor let any monster escape. It was the first time that they encountered something like this.
A normal rift would have sent the first wave of monsters to wreak havoc around the area and the Espers would kill them before entering the rift to clear it.
That's how it normally goes.
"Look! The rift is changing color!" Someone screamed among the crowd of Espers and Guides, making everyone turn to the rift.
The rift's color changes depending on its rank and if it was cleared by a group of Espers, it would change from its ranking color to white which indicates that it was cleared.
However, seeing that the black rift had turned into a color of faded grey, the Espers and Guides grew stiff.
"Someone had cleared an SS-rank rift?" One of the representatives from Apex Vanguard Guild murmured and narrowed her eyes, "Did anyone see if there was anyone that got sucked into that thing?"
Her question hangs in the air, creating tension and making a palpable dark atmosphere loom over them.
If the first highest ranked rift got cleared when no one is looking then that means someone got sucked inside it and is newly awakened.
"I received a report that there was a single mother with twins living inside the apartment." A representative from Nexus Guardian Guild spoke up, "One of those three might have awakened."
"How old are the twins?" Another representative from Apex Vanguard Guild asked, "It's kind of impossible to awaken inside a high-ranking rift without being killed, who knows what kind of monsters that rift is housing."
"Miss Zubair, the twins are ranging from seven to eight years old." An employee from Nexus Guardian Guild, or NGG, said as he read the paper inside a pale yellow folder in his hand, "Rozia Vargas and Ruziel Vargas. Their mother's name is Ryuuko Maine Vargas."
Shingo Zubair, a S-class Guide from NGG, raised an eyebrow and turned to her assistant, "The woman who went viral because she didn't sue her ex-husband?"
"Sounds like you know the gossip." Lavanya Sharma, a S-class Guide from Paragon Alliance Guild or PAG, smiled with a teasing glint in her red eyes as she crossed her arms, the muscles in her lightly muscular arms flexed along her movement.
"Yes, Miss Zubair." The assistant confirmed his boss's suspicion, "Their apartment got sucked inside the rift completely."
"Those poor kids." Shingo Zubair's big brother, Shangria Zubair, commented with a depressed tone, "I can't imagine the shock they went through inside that rift. Hopefully, they are still alive. It's okay if the mother can't make it, I can take in more children in the orphanage I'm handling."
Shingo slapped her brother's arm, "That's not nice."
"Instead of chit-chatting among yourselves, why don't you guys start the preparation for the compensation for Ryuuko Maine Vargas?" Raid narrowed his pale irises to the male Zubair, not liking his previous statement about the mother.
"How can we be sure that the mother made it out alive?" Shangria raised an eyebrow at the S-rank Esper, adding more fuel to the scorching fire.
"Stop provoking him." Xavier Brown, a S-class Guide from PAG and the other representative sent by the Guild with Raid, stopped the fight before it could start, "There are too many eyes on us right now. Don't pick a fight, Sir Zubair."
"You're no fun, Xavi~" The smug expression on Shangria's face got replaced with an upset one, tucking his bottom lip out and puckering them, making his handsome face shine for his fans.
"KYAAAA!"
"Shanshan is so handsomeeee!"
Raid's nose scrunched up in disgust, "This fool is handsome? What a joke. They need to get their eyes checked."
"Just tell me if you're jealous of my pretty face." Shangria smirked, putting his hand on his slim waist.
Before the S-class Esper could utter a rebuttal, the rift released a strong gust of wind, making the Espers, Guides, and employees of the Guilds stumble back from the unexpected series of unleased strong currents of wind.
"Fuck!" Shangria cussed out, the bottom of his black shoes scrapping and digging on the pavement below him.
"What's happening?!" Lavanya screamed, asking no one in particular as she raised her arms in front of her face to shield her eyes from the dust.
The pavement below them rumbled, shaking and making them stagger in their footings as the rift released another strong gust of wind, knocking them off from their feet.
Shangria barely had the time to turn to his sister, wrapping his arm around her head before they fell to the pavement, protecting the back of her head.
"Shit.."
"What the heck..?"
"Why did the rift do that?"
Murmurs and whispers filled the air, the civilians watched as the Guides and Espers got thrown on their back by an invisible force caused by the rift.
They all muttered a quiet prayer, thanking the heavens above for giving the other humans special abilities.
The Espers were quick on their feet, standing up as soon as they got knocked down.
"What's up with that rift? It releases two consecutive forces—"
As if to mock their situation, another strong gust of wind escaped the rift, much more powerful and stronger than the last, breaking the pavement as it approached the civilians position at an incredible speed.
"Take cover!" An A-class Esper screamed, raising her hands in the air as she manipulated the pavement in front of the civilians, a sturdy looking wall erupted from the floor, protecting them from the impact.
Another Esper assisted her, raising his hands in the air and using his telekinesis to stop the debris from falling on their heads when the wall got crushed under the force of the wind.
"Zubair, guide me!" The Esper with telekinesis called out to the siblings.
Shangria was quick to go to the Esper, extending his hand on the Esper's neck and doing an immediate guiding.
"You better treat me to a beer later, John!"
"Just do your job, idiot!" John growled out, stopping the debris and throwing it away from the civilians.
"What the fuck are they doing here in the first place?" His eyebrows furrowed as he continued to assist his friend, the female A-class Esper named Elah, "This is not a damn circus!"
"Whine about it later!" Elah exclaimed, manipulating the pavement once again to stop another force from reaching them.
The two of them are the only ones who can use their abilities as a defense, the other Espers are more of an offensive type than defensive so protecting the civilians naturally fell to their hands.
The limiter on John's wrist changed from blue to red, indicating that he's gathering corruption faster than he hoped.
"Shingo, a little help here!" Shangria called his sister, his guidance alone is not enough for John since he's actively using his ability.
Shingo wordlessly touched John, burying her face on the man's shoulder and placing her palm against John's chest where his heart is located for more effective guidance.
Lavanya and Xavier moved to Elah, their hands touching an appropriate part of her body to suck away the accumulated corruption. The red color on her limited shining brightly indicates that Elah might not last longer.
Another series of strong gusts of winds escaped through the rift, creating more cracks that soon turned into dents, around the rift.
Everyone wondered what the cause of those forces was. The color of the rift had already turned fully white a minute ago, but the wave of those strong winds didn't stop.
It took a while for the rift to let out another sound, the edges of the rift turned green, indicating that they can go inside.
"Oh my god.. Finally." Elah sighed out, relief evident in her voice.
"That seems to be the last shockwave." Raid commented, patting the dust off his clothes.
"Should we risk it and go inside?" Xavier kept his hand on Elah's, guiding her with Lavanya, he raised his voice a little so his co-worker would hear his question.
"I can go first." Raid said, earning a bewildered look from the special humans around him.
However, his plan was thrown out of the window when the rift started to vibrate, a whistling sound reaching their ears.
Their eyes went wide when a little girl peaked her head out.