Gatanothor: They're Not Playing by the Script!

"What... what is that thing?"

Director Sawai's voice was dry. He had weathered countless storms in his life and had even faced threats from outer space.

But the monster on the screen, even seen only through an image, made him feel a primal shudder born from the instinct to survive.

That was not a monster.

Or rather, the word "monster" was utterly inadequate to convey the horror of that thing.

Director Yoshioka slumped into his chair. Before the true calamity brought about by the ambition he had tacitly allowed, his spirit completely collapsed.

At last, he understood the meaning behind Masaki Keigo's words. The "power" he spoke of had been a gift from the devil from the very beginning—

"Buy me some time. Please."

Masaki Keigo's voice rang out again, like a stone cast into the dead silence of despair.

Before his words had even faded, static flickered across every communications screen before they all cut out completely.

The darkness blanketing the globe had begun to devour the electromagnetic signals of human civilization.

"Time..."

Captain Iruma Megumi murmured the word. Then she abruptly raised her head, an unyielding fire reigniting in her eyes. "Yazumi, can we still contact Daigo?"

"No! Communications with GUTS Wing 1 and 2 have both been cut off! We... we've lost contact with the front lines!"

There was a trace of panic in Yazumi's voice.

"Then we'll fight in our own way!"

Iruma Megumi slammed her hand on the table and turned to Director Sawai. "Director, activate TPC's highest-level global emergency protocol! Evacuate all residents from coastal cities and move all non-combat personnel to inland shelters!

"Order every branch that can still act to stop those small monsters from making landfall at any cost!"

Even as TPC and the Earth Defense Force took action, a strangely