POV: The Mother Below

The missile struck exactly where the humans calculated. I felt the nuclear fire bloom, consuming everything in its radius. The compound. The land. The air itself burned.

My children, the anchors, were still there. Holding the gateway open until the final second. Dying as I'd warned them they would.

But I'd called them my champions. And I didn't lie about such things. I reached through dimensions, grabbed the five souls burning themselves out for others, and ...