Why does he look so pleased with himself? Arin wondered as he watched the man step out of the portal. He did not have the slightest intention of waiting around to hear the man's story or discover what kind of evil plan he might have prepared. Instead, Arin had already fired four arrows, each one aimed carefully at one of the man's joints. If everything went according to plan, the man would be completely incapacitated before he could take another step.
Once the man was unable to move, they could find out exactly what he had been planning. Perhaps he had some terrible scheme involving the secret realm, or perhaps he was simply an innocent person who had somehow been mistaken for a threat. Arin considered the second possibility, but he had to admit that it seemed rather unlikely given the circumstances. Someone walking out of a darkening secret realm while looking pleased with himself was not exactly giving off the impression of an innocent victim.
The man, however, no longer looked quite so pleased with himself as he fully stepped out of the portal. The first thing he heard was the deafening sound of the air siren, which was already echoing through the forest and announcing his arrival to everyone nearby. For the briefest moment, he simply stood there as if he could not understand why a normal forest would have an alarm system waiting for him. Then he blinked twice, and that was when he finally noticed something flying toward him from the trees.
The arrow struck him before he had any chance to react. Three more arrows followed almost immediately, hitting his limbs with such precision that his body simply stopped cooperating with him. He was so shocked by what had happened that he did not even properly register the pain at first. One moment he had been stepping out of the portal with confidence, and the next he was lying on the ground, staring up at the trees while wondering how everything had gone so catastrophically wrong.
"Right, someone shoot a rope arrow and tow the fool over here!" Arin yelled. Nobody was going anywhere near the portal itself at the moment, especially after seeing what had happened to the man who had just emerged from it. The recruits understood the order immediately and prepared another arrow specifically for the task. A rope was attached, and the projectile was fired toward the incapacitated man lying defeated on the ground.
The arrow found its mark, and the recruits began pulling. The man offered no meaningful resistance, partly because he was injured and partly because he was still far too stunned by what had happened to properly react. As they dragged him toward the tree line, he began mumbling under his breath. Arin could not hear every word, but several phrases were clear enough to understand that the man had not expected any of this.
"It should not have been this way," the man muttered repeatedly. He also seemed to be talking about information he had received, claiming that he had been told this was just a normal forest and that nobody would be watching this particular portal. The more Arin heard, the more suspicious the entire situation became. Whatever information the man had been given, it had clearly been wrong, and the Sonnenbergs had just proven exactly how badly wrong it had been.
Roughly five minutes later, the mumbling man had finally been dragged down from the hill. By that point, he looked considerably worse for wear, his earlier confidence completely gone. The Sonnenbergs had not needed to hurt him further than necessary, but being dragged across the ground after being struck by four arrows was hardly a pleasant experience. Before anyone could question him properly, however, the portal changed again.
A wave of corrupted creatures suddenly burst out of the secret realm. This time, there was an immediate difference in their strength, and the Sonnenbergs could tell that the creatures emerging from the portal were considerably more dangerous than before. There were roughly five Stage One creatures in the first wave alone. That number was enough to make the situation serious, even if it was not enough to overwhelm the Sonnenbergs defending the portal.
Fortunately, the Sonnenbergs were more than capable of weathering the storm. They had five Stage One humans present specifically to deal with creatures of this level, and the family had spent years developing its archery to a level that most other factions could barely imagine. Still, Arin and the others could not help but think that this was going to become troublesome if the secret realm continued sending out creatures at this strength. Five Stage One creatures in the first wave alone was a very unpleasant sign of what might be waiting behind the portal.
Ultimately, every piece of filth inside that secret realm would have to be washed clean from the world. If there really were that many Stage One creatures inside, the battle could become extremely nasty once the entire population began emerging. Stage One creatures could still be killed by what would amount to children under normal circumstances, but that did not mean killing them was easy. Even a creature that could be defeated by a weaker human could require an enormous number of attacks before it finally went down.
The Sonnenberg family and their guild had solved part of that problem through overwhelming speed and accuracy. Their archers could fire so quickly that they were capable of putting ten arrows into the head of an eagle within a single second. Against weaker creatures, that kind of concentrated fire could end a fight almost instantly. Other armies and factions, however, had not yet seen enough proof to understand just how effective the Sonnenberg method could be against large numbers of powerful enemies.
"Do we have enough arrows here?" Johnny asked one of the recruits overseeing the portal's defenses. The recruit was one of the older members of the group, a middle-aged man in his forties who had once carried a slight beer belly. That belly had long since disappeared because being overweight was simply not practical for the Sonnenberg profession. When climbing trees, moving between branches, crouching for long periods, and rapidly changing positions were all normal parts of combat, being slender made an enormous difference.
"It should do," the recruit replied with a grunt as he tried to remember exactly how many arrows they had stored nearby. "But if there are going to be this many Stage One creatures, then we might need more. The amount of arrows they take before we can be sure they are actually dead is quite a bit." He was not exaggerating, either, because the problem was not merely hitting the creatures. They had to keep firing until the target was unquestionably dead, and powerful creatures could survive punishment that would kill ordinary enemies several times over.
"Good. Keep an eye on things," Johnny said. He glanced toward the portal before looking down at the injured man they had captured. "I am going to take this piece of work to Grandpa." Johnny grabbed hold of the prisoner and began dragging him away from the defensive position. He headed into the woods in the direction where he suspected his grandfather would be, knowing that Karl was likely already moving toward whatever part of the forest required his attention.
"Grandpa, this man stepped out of the portal," Johnny said when he finally reached Karl. He pushed the captured man forward so that Karl could get a proper look at him. "Arin is guarding the portal at the moment, but the creatures coming out of it have gotten quite a bit stronger." The situation was serious enough that Johnny did not bother dressing up the report with unnecessary details.
"Good," Karl said simply. He immediately opened a pocket sewn into his cloak and reached inside. From it, he pulled out a large rectangular piece of crystal, holding it carefully in his hand as he poured mana into it. Once the crystal had received enough mana, Karl broke it cleanly in half. The action was simple, but the moment he did so, something far away noticed the signal.
"Oh, what have they found?" Gaia wondered as she felt the pull from the other side of the globe. She immediately recognized the sensation as coming from the token she had given the head of the Sonnenbergs after their previous encounter with corrupted humans attempting to sneak into their forest. The token was specifically meant to call her when something sufficiently serious required her attention. Whatever the Sonnenbergs had encountered, Karl clearly believed it was important enough to use it.
Gaia descended into the forest through one of her avatars, but she was immediately informed by her subconscious that something far larger was happening. Secret realms were beginning to open all over the world. That revelation surprised her because she had not believed it was time for the secret realms to begin opening yet. She quickly reviewed more of the information reaching her, and the expression on her avatar's face gradually became much more serious.
"Good. I know why you have called me, and thank you for doing that," Gaia said as she manifested in front of the Sonnenbergs. The family immediately bowed before her, because to them she was nature personified. Her appearance was not simply that of another powerful individual; she represented the very force they had spent generations protecting and living alongside. Even Karl, who was usually difficult to intimidate, treated Gaia with the respect appropriate for what she represented.
"Karl, I need your family's help, and that of the other Trade Families," Gaia said. She knew the Sonnenbergs alone did not have enough people to handle what was happening. The number of secret realms opening across the world meant that this was no longer a problem that one family, one guild, or even one country could easily contain. She needed experienced people who already understood secret realms and had the strength to deal with what might emerge from them.
"We are at your service. What do you need from us?" Karl asked, clearly confused about how exactly his family could help with such a large-scale problem. He had expected Gaia to provide information about the portal or perhaps explain what was happening. Instead, she was asking the Sonnenbergs to become directly involved, which suggested that the situation was considerably more serious than they had initially assumed.
"No problem. I need to borrow half of your recruits and family members to help contain the various secret realms that have burst open," Gaia said with a grave expression. "You are not the only ones who have experience with people inside their secret realms." She had already warned people through China about the possibility of corrupted humans hiding inside these realms, but there were far more of them than she had expected. And beyond the corrupted humans, there were other problems emerging from the secret realms that were already making her extremely angry.
Gaia knew that the Sonnenbergs did not have enough people to solve everything alone, which was why she was asking for only half of their available forces rather than demanding the entire family. She also needed the other Trade Families to contribute what they could. The situation was spreading too quickly for her to simply deal with each secret realm individually, and the scale of the problem had already exceeded what she had originally anticipated. Even worse, Gaia still needed a proper outlet for the frustration caused by the situation and by that elf jerk.