-- Unknown --

"Why haven't they come?" I stared out into the empty border, it had been a full week since the last monster had come through. The migration was always preceded by a flood of monsters, yet now there was nothing.

"I don't know and it is worrying me." My friend and faithful assistance Hawthorn said. He had come to the last city fifty-four years ago, and unlike most who come out here, he was looking for a challenge, not unlike most who just wanted to be left alone. It was something I needed in an assistant.

"How long was the last static burst?" I asked him hoping I had counted wrong.

"Three days."

Why? The longest I've ever seen before the migration was a day and they came immediately and there were thousands upon thousands. This was the third static burst in the weak and each one was getting longer. "Any external effects?"

"Nothing visible but the density is increasing. Lights are brighter, spells are more potent, and simpler to cast. The siphon filters are sucking up as much as they can but every static burst is more then they can handle.

"Rot! Can we estimate how many are coming?" I was hoping that someone smarter then me had been doing the math or had seen something.

"We haven't seen a single monster, since the static began. So it's hard to estimate or even count." Hawthorn said defeated.

"That cant be good. What of the towers?"

"Without a single monster coming through they hesitate to confirm anything. But they are sending someone over to give us more information."

"At least thats something. What of the scouts?" We've been sending teams of scouts to the edge of the static in case there was a change.

Hawthorn let out a long sigh, "They've all returned, but couldn't get within a mile of the crack itself. We have a rotating schedule as they constantly are reporting back."

That wasn't normal. We usually could at least get close, "Thoughts?"

"Nothing conclusive." The way he said that worried me.

"No, your opinion. What do you think?"

I could feel his hesitation. "Edelweiss...It's going to be bad."

Hearing him mirror my own worries, only confirmed it for me, "What of the messengers we sent to the cities?" Maybe we could get some back up. They don't want a flood of monsters head towards the central cities.

"You know how it is they think we are exaggerating or they just don't care. I feel as though they have forgotten us, and what we are really here for." He said tiredly.

There was no more beating around the bush time to plan for the worst case scenario, "Fine we are officially on our own."

Hawthorn and I began to go over our options for the next hour or so before there was a knock on the door.

"Enter." I yelled expecting the tower representative.

In walked a women in long open robe black robe, with a velvet vest with intricate, almost magical designs, a professional blouse and pants underneath. Her mid-length brown hair looked frazzled. I think she ran all the way over from the tower. Seeing her like this was another in a long line of bad signs.

She practically fell into one of the chairs in my office. I let out a tired "Sit" to Hawthorn as I grabbed a chair myself. I looked towards Galan, "Please tell me it's good news." I knew I was reaching but hoped for something.

She answered with a "Ehhh" scrunching up her face.

"That bad?"

She shrugged uncertainly, "We have identified the reason for the increase."

"What is it?" That at least was good news.

"The siphon towers are slowing down." She dropped a bomb like nothing.

"Are they failing?!" I asked in a panic.

"We don't believe so."

"Then what?" Just get to the point.

"We believe they are preparing for a purge." She said pulling out a little book from her robe.

"A purge? What is that?" Hawthorn asked what I was wondering.

"We believe they are about full and need to purge the power." She said reading something from the little book.

"This hasn't happened before." I stated. I had been here for over three hundred years, and had never seen anything like that.

"It has it's just been..." She looked at her little book again, "five-hundred years."

"Five-hundred years," That number seemed to ring a bell, " Why does that sound familiar?"

"The was when there was a sudden increase in leveling and the rapid rise of monsters." Galan answered.

"You mean?"

"Yes and we believe the purge fixes the crack but also floods the world with excess mana. Leading to stronger monsters, but also faster leveling."

"What about the monsters from the cracks?"

"Records show during the last purge they were stronger and larger then anything inside."

I found my face in my hands when I said, "Give me good news."

"Once the purge starts the crack will seal and the migration will stop for about a hundred. And the stronger monsters will slowly die not having the power to sustain them. We are speculating that the hundred year is to give us time to clean up the monsters that made it through."

"How long would it take for the stronger ones to die?"

"They will feel an immediate feedback becoming weakened but it could take years. If they just don't adapt." How can she be so calm about this.

I focused on what I could control, "How long before the purge?"

"We don't know."

I stared hard at her, "Guess."

She shook her head, "We don't know? We are running the numbers and"

"Answer." I demanded

"Either a couple days or two weeks." She looked frazzled and tired as she answered. She must have been working on this for a while.

"Fuck!" Then something occurred to me, "That doesn't explain the lack of monsters."

She looked lost, but I could see she was struggling to answer.

I raised an eyebrow, "Well?"

"Ideas are being thrown around and none of them good."

"Go ahead." I encouraged.

"It could be there just aren't any monsters waiting to come in."

Hawthorn let out a snort, "Fat chance. They come every eighteen years like clockwork. When the crack opens"

She gave him an annoyed look, "Another idea was it was something that needs a heavy saturation of power, and is waiting for it to reach that point."

That didn't sound good, "Like what?"

"We don't know. A dragon, a titan, we just don't know, but it would have to be something strong enough to hold back others."

It couldn't be that simple, "What else?"

She looked at her little book again, "A smart monster gathering a bunch of smaller ready to overwhelm."

"What's worst case?" I braced myself got an answer.

"Combination of giant monster and smart little ones, or A smart giant leading others."

"What were the ones that came through last time, I remember the phase hounds and razor vines." I asked remembering the canines that jumped through walls, and the tricky vine creatures slicing through anyone who came close..

"Um..." Galan looked to be going through her little book looking for the answer, not finding it.

Hawthorn answered, "I believe it was also cloud hawks, with there fluffy feathers and annoying tendency to turn into clouds. And those dinosaur things, that looked kind like giant birds. Not to mention those monkeys."

I thought of the strange star like monkeys that teleported all around causing havoc, "Yeah those things were annoying. did we ever figure out how they teleported?"

"No idea."

I had all the information I was going to get right now so I decided to plan, "Let's go worst case scenario. Prepare for giants and small fry. Set up choke points to funnel the in and pits for the Titans slow then down." The meeting went on as plans were put into motion.