Piercing alarms rang across the city, filling every corner of Spring City.

A ruined truck shook off layers of dust and transformed into a gigantic beast. Swiftly, it smashed through a wall, trampled everything in its path, and savagely devoured the blood and bones beneath its feet. Even if they were torn apart in the counterattack a moment later, the blood-red lights embedded in their twisted wreckage continued to flicker stubbornly.

Grotesque constructs cobbled together from fused scraps of metal spread steel wings like birds and soared into the sky, gathering in great numbers until, at last, they formed a storm of ash-gray and black. Wherever they passed, nothing remained amid the rust but ruins.

The earth shook. Cracks tore rapidly across the ground as a corrupted, aberrant train burst from the tunnel. Its maw opened wide as it crashed into the sanctuary, rampaging through it before coiling itself around the holy statue and wrenching at it. 

That wasn’t all; more creatures emerged. Rustling and scraping noises came from ventilation ducts, sewers, and shadowed corners. Countless tiny monsters, pieced together from parts and wreckage no one could identify, rushed through the city in swarms.

Each one was no bigger than a palm, yet when they gathered, they...