Unknown-Time.
time itself had began to distort, multiple flashes of light passed by as Damian's units began to change shape and form, apart from his followers, Zenon, Lionard, Lios, Aster and finally Sanctus Malum, the five followers in service of Damian.
after some time Damian could finally make out where they are, some sort of warp portal, or, dimensional portal, in a place where they exist and don't exist simultaneously, at least that's what he thought at the moment, wherever they were, it led them somewhere, and that somewhere happens to be Earth, but a different one as they would soon realize.
a massive planet came into view before they were suddenly on it, except for Damian, who was still in his safe and secure home, drifting in unknown space, away from time and law, as well as anything harmful or anything existing, from there he watched from a bird's-eye-view as his new units finally formed right next to his followers, this time though, they looked different.
instead of the robotic and metallic soldiers of [ A.D.M.I.N. ] they were replaced with the [ Keep ] [ Defender ] units, they wore the standard body armor of the US military, but they didn't have any heavy equipment, just the standard handgun and an assault rifle, with the only anti-air units being the [ Patriot ] similar like the [ Defender ] but with a Stinger missile launcher.
funnily enough though, Damian could make out that there was indeed gender amongst his units, the slimmer and shorter soldier being the women while the taller and bigger ones were the males, though, only slightly taller.
and they all came in different sizes too, some of the women were even taller than the other men, but with that said Damian had overall about 40 Defender units and 20 Patriots, rather much smaller than his previous army, but that's what was given to him at the moment, and sadly, this time he started with nothing, not a resource to spend.
at this time he realized that the area that his followers and small group of units were placed in was Russia, due to the fact that there were destroyed Russian tanks everywhere and the iconic St. Petersburg Church, right in front of them.
however the winter snow of Russia became too severe, instead of a beautiful or at least intact roads and buildings that were in the city they were replaced with a sea of ice and snow, the chilling cold winds blowing violently, however clear or blinding, but the thing is, it's silent, dead silent, despite the harsh winds they produced no noise, not a single sound.
Defender: well ain't this a surprise... there's nothin' out 'ere boss!
just like what the Defender said there was nothing out here, nothing living or dead, not a single carcass or skeletal remain, not even the birds were seen flying, not a single one, there was no sign of life as far as the eye could see.
Damian raised an eyebrow as he moved his screen in search of life, zooming in and out to find any sort of hidden clue as to where the place he might be in, although he knew it was Russia, the real question was where.
even with the obvious hint of the St. Petersburg Church greatly hinting that they were in St. Petersburg the place didn't feel quite right, that was when Damian decided to zoom out entirely, and he got his answer.
he was indeed in Earth, but there were new continents, and one large continent that replaced the moon, as Damian would have probably guessed this was Heaven, and below that beautiful continent where red and flames were flickering must have been Hell, paradise on top and despair on the bottom, the rest looks like purgatory and an abandoned wasteland.
but there was still hope, upon closer inspection Damian could actually see decent civilization, although it appears only half of Asia and the whole of Americas was still fine, but the rest looks ravaged, war-torn.
those new continents though were looking fine, almost looking like it was untouched by civilization, but Damian knew better, this new continent definitely had civilization in it, Damian zoomed in to find, Azarduns.
the filth that he once eradicated were still squirming, clinging to life, unsurprisingly Damian knew that if they were here that meant that those elves or, as they were known as, the Shi-intari and Shenari, two similar races but of different empires, both fallen from glory, working together with their once and former nemesis, who would have thought it would be like this.
Damian focused on the other things that were new, for example the island chains and archipelagos next to the thing, but apart from that, at the new center of the very world, the North Atlantic Ocean, a massive chain of islands surround a humongous active volcano, with storms surrounding the islands and the volcano, and a massive statue at the center of said volcano.
overall, the world went insane and gave a big middle finger to nature, and in short, Australia no longer exists and was replaced with the new continent, Zephire, the land of the aliens, Korea, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Madagascar and New Zealand were replaced with the island chains simply known as Aetreia.
islands that stretched from the east to the west, and there were over millions of them, the largest ones being the closest to China and Zephire, and finally Heaven and Hell, they were right above north of Russia, roughly the size of Mongolia, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Finland combined, with a few smaller floating islands of its own.
the large continent was above the Barents Sea, and would rotate clockwise around the world, only a few 1,330,020 kilometers from the Earth's atmosphere, nearly half as far away as the original moon which also no longer exists, also, the Earth is about three percent bigger than it's original size, and there are now monsters under the water.
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with all that said Damian then looked around in space to find no debris, no old and abandoned satellites, but new and fresh ones instead, and oh look, the ISS AKA the International Space Station is slightly bigger than usual, new and improved, with point defense turrets placed all over the space station, and over a hundred occupants, wow.
well isn't this amazing... Damian thought to himself as he moved his screen or camera closer to one of the astronauts who was repairing the station, one with a Japanese flag printed on the shoulder and front as well as the back.
Astro-31: u-uh, Command this is Astro-31, I feel like something is watching me, can you get a drone to watch my back?
three dots appeared above the male astronaut when he talked, indicating speech.
but as Damian listens and closely watched the poor astronaut he could hear a response, probably the Command that the astronaut talked about, however this time it was in a cold and distorted voice, unrecognizable and inhuman.
ISS-Command: copy Astro-31, dispatching drones six and seven to your location.
the response was cold, though there was life in it, as if something living was on the other side, and as mentioned, two futuristic looking drones in white color and smooth design were rapidly approaching the astronaut, not knowing that the one watching was still very much there, right in front of them, though they do not see or sense.
ISS-Command: Astro-31, no sign of activity in the area, report to Astro-42 for medical checkup, Command out.
Astro-31 stopped his movements and immediately began to head towards the nearby blast doors before heading inside, all the while being escorted by the two drones assigned to him, but before the astronaut entered he looked at space for a moment before heading inside and report to Astro-42 who was waiting in the medical facility.
Astro-31: I swear I felt someone watching me...
once Damian finally heard what his curious mind wanted to hear he returned back to Russia where he left his followers and small group of infantry units he decided to explore, and more importantly, find a building or structure to capture.
Damian then selected all of his units and moved his screen while clicking from time to time as he explored the barren wasteland that was once St. Petersburg, unbeknownst to him though his actions didn't go unnoticed, multiple clicks and the sound of bones cracking and gurgling slowly approached the group as shadows rose from the snow.
slow like the undead these weren't actually zombies but rather an evolved version of it, a parasitic strain that turned anything living into an evolved but mindless version of anything living, be it large or small.
the Shadow Strain, made by a familiar creation of Damian, a certain resurrected godlike beings, the Shadow Strain kept their distance, for their weakness is right in front of them, a certain dark power that even gods fear, although they did not approach Damian's group they followed from afar, listening and watching.
and while they followed another party was also watching, from a tall pillar of ice a group of humans covered in what looks to be simply poorly woven cloth and stitched fur, and below all that clothing were armor, medieval armor to be precise, with daggers, potions and whatever you could find in a fairytale story.
and as the sun began to set while artificial stars lit up the sky and the Earth a new dawn may arise tomorrow, a dawn of war and deception, or perhaps something else entirely, no one could be more certain.