[Earth United News Agency: special emergency report.]
Before the camera, the anchor wore a professional smile, but a trace of lingering fright remained deep in her eyes:
"Good evening, viewers. Welcome to this special edition of 'Horizon.' Over the past twenty-four hours, the shadow of an alien fleet invasion looming over the globe must have terrified everyone. That torrent of steel blotting out the sky once triggered the highest-level red alert in our Near-Earth Orbit defense system."
The holographic screen behind her displayed footage of the Mechanical Legion's fleet provided by Earth's Joint Operations Command.
But it soon switched to the now-peaceful starry sky.
The metallic dust that had surrounded Earth, forming a planetary ring, had also vanished.
Confusion colored the anchor's voice:
"What we find incredible is that this seemingly catastrophic crisis quietly ended yet again."
"Yes, yet again," she emphasized.
She tapped a finger, bringing up footage of the floating giant beasts that had appeared during the Spirit Breath Race's invasion, and began explaining the situation at the time in depth.
After discussing the anomalous invasion-the Spirit Breath invasion-that had abruptly subsided, the anchor continued:
"As we have seen, invasions by outside factions are nothing new to the various races of the Earth Alliance. They occur several times almost every year, and small-scale conflicts are commonplace. We have gone from initial panic to taking them in stride. Even within the alliance, people now joke about a 'monthly invasion quota.'"
"But invasions are never a game. We are very fortunate to have escaped a catastrophe."
The footage switched to random street interviews.
A member of the Magic Ring Race whose hands resembled octopus tentacles spoke casually to the camera:
"Oh, you mean yesterday's descent crisis? Apparently, it was quite a spectacle, but I was watching Monster World livestreams the