CHAPTER 520

SANCTUM’S END (VII)

Apocalypse.

Lino observed from the ether of the memories the carnage that followed in front of him. It was soul-stirring on many layers to the point that he felt a pang in his heart. It wasn't a battle, not really -- and it especially wasn't a war. It was a simple massacre of world-scale proportions. The angelic figures were annihilators, and the people of Adur were ants waiting to be annihilated.

Spears of light descended like the rain from the sky, each boring a massive hole into the behemoth of a planet. Thousands upon thousands of buildings crumbled into ash, dust and ruin each second, and hundreds of thousands of people died wretched deaths. The screams bounded the entire planet, so much so that they seemed ceaseless.

Blood ran everywhere, cascading, spraying upwardly, shooting left and right. All the while, the angelic figures remained expressionless, as though they were doing absolutely nothing.

Even though it was a memory, Lino was able to roughly calculate their strength. They were weaker than him. Considerably weaker, actually. By Noterra’s standards, none of the figures probably even reached Level 100,000. Had any of the prominent figures of Noterra been here, they would have easily dealt with them. But... all the people of Adur were, effectively, mortals. They had numerous war machines, yes, and even Augmentation, but the gap of such scale couldn’t be made up.

In that scenario, the only option was to roll over and die, ruefully accepting their dreadful fates.

Lino’s expression crumpled as he sighed. Ataxia didn’t know the reason why they attacked, and neither did he. If he dove into speculation, he could pry out hundreds of reasons. Boredom, resources, grudge... it was simply impossible to determine.

What he could determine, however, was that those spears of light that they used to shower the entire Adur with to the point it looked like a porcupine, were because of the items rather than their own innate arts. Eight identical spears existed, and their quality was beyond measure -- they were more powerful than anything Lino crafted so far. Even the Edge paled in comparison.

However, even with all eight spears accounted, he would still be able to make easy work of them. Will this really happen to Noterra as well if we sit idly by? He pondered inwardly. It’s not as though he didn’t trust Ataxia, but he was still doubtful as it was still just speculating on his part.

It never hurt to err on the side of the caution, however; when he returns, he will start preparing. He himself can stand up against Ella, perhaps even defeat her if he let go of his inhibitions, but what if someone even stronger accompanies her? No, what if she simply brings ten people similar to her in strength? Could they withstand that? No. Lino was certain.

Besides him, there were perhaps four other people on the entire Noterra that could stand up against her for a prolonged period of time. It would be possible to form groups, but that would just be delaying the inevitable.

In his heart, however, he desperately hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Ella was still his mother. Despite how he faced her the last time they met, he didn’t know whether he had it in him to outright attack with the intent to kill. And, if he were to fight her, that’s how he would have to fight.

“--items, I suppose, are the easiest way to make up for the gap,” Lino mumbled. He didn’t know anything about the outside forces; all his life was settled on Noterra. Rather, until recently, he didn’t even know of the existence of other life, though he at least suspected it. “But, the materials are finite. And nothing short of the Origin Items will do us any good. Is there even anyone besides Eggor who can craft them?” though he let his thoughts wander and seep out, he didn’t tear a part of his attention away from the ‘battle’. This, after all, was what made Ataxia who he was. Despite all the horrible things he’d done, Lino understood, in a way. Anyone who experienced this, lived through it, and got to see another day, would do anything to prevent it from happening again.

He himself, after all, had done many horrible things in the name of preventing much more horrible things from happening. Now, at the very least, he realized why Ataxia chose him of all people -- he could withstand it.

For better or worse, Lino was impervious to those changes -- in a way, he always has been. He took everything in stride, and Ataxia needed someone like that. Not someone like Eve who would break down and become consumed by the madness; not someone like Eshter who was unable to withstand the cracks in her heart; not even someone like Q’vil who attached himself elsewhere more so than to the Writ itself.

**

Eldon sat in desperation, gazing outside the window with flickering eyes. Alana sat crumpled behind him on the bed, covering her ears, wrapped tightly inside a blanket. It was over. Whatever little hope he held yesterday was gone. Nothing could stand up to those things. They tore through all their weapons as though they were made out of paper, and made their way over to Adur without even being stopped once.

The moment they appeared, they began shooting strange flickers of light that tore through everything in their path, blowing up Adur inside out. Everything cracked. How many people have died in the mere few hours? Eldon didn’t even dare estimate. His heart already bled profusely, why would he want to worsen the condition of it?

Pulling back the curtain, he retreated and sat onto the bed. It was only a matter of time before those flickers of light reached here. No; perhaps the entire planet might blow up first. There was no escape. He didn’t care much for himself, but glancing sideways caused his heart to tighten. She was too young. What did she do to deserve this?

He clasped his hands together, lowering his head in shame. He couldn’t save her. What kind of a father couldn’t save his own daughter? Unknowingly, he began crying. Tears flickered out one after another, his entire body beginning to shake.

Soon after, he was jolted awake by a pair of arms tangling tightly around his waist. Alana leaned on his back, her shivering body matching his. Eldon reached down and grabbed those tightly hands, holding them. No. There had to be a way. He couldn’t just sit back and let her die.

“Come on, let’s go.” he said, getting up all of a sudden, surprising Alana.

“A-ah?! Go where?” she asked.

“I’ll find a way to get you out of this safely, I swear.” he exclaimed strongly, walking over to the closet of clothes and rumbling through it for a moment before pulling out a gun.

“Ugh, where did that come from?!” Alana exclaimed. “I thought you told me you sold it!”

“I lied,” he shrugged. “Come on, get up. We don’t have much time.”

“Where are we even going?” Alana asked as they left the apartment. “Do you have a plan or are we just going to blindly roam around?”

“I remembered there’s a research facility nearby,” Eldon said. “Tasked with developing new spaceships. If we’re lucky, there might a functional one there.”

“Can you even operate it?” she rolled her eyes in disbelief.

“I’ll figure it out.”

“What about those things? You think they’ll just let us pass?”

“We’ll sneak away somehow.” I said, sounding less and less convincing as she continued her questioning.

“Sounds to me awfully lot like a gamble.”

“... is there any other option?” Eldon said, glancing at her as they left the building. Everything around them was a mess; good half of the city in the distance couldn’t even be seen, having already been vaporized into nothingness. The other half was well on fire, crumbling as they spoke.

“...” Alana remained silent. A gamble, indeed, sounded rather good at the moment.

The earth beneath them quaked repeatedly, making it terribly difficult to actually move at a high speed. They stumbled and fell often, bruising themselves in the process, but endured. It took them nearly half an hour to reach the end of the compound, during which the other half of the city was also vaporized into the nothingness. The moment they left the compound, Eldon spun and picked Alana up, pulling her head into his chest. The young girl cried out, startled, trying to shake him off but to no avail.

“W-what are you doing?! Let me go!” her muffled voice reached his ears.

“No,” he said, pale-faced, looking at the horrid sight in front of him -- hundreds, no, thousands upon thousands of corpses lay littering the streets like decorations. Though he felt like bending over and letting his innards go, he couldn’t. He had to endure. “You don’t need to see this.”

“See what?!”

“Hush,” he said, slowly beginning to walk again; with the added weight of the little girl, he found himself less stable, but endured. “Don’t peak.”

Though the stench was also present, due to the ever-blowing winds of the countless explosions happening all the time, it wasn’t as bad.

He somehow made his way in-between the corpses, doing the best he could not to look down. The research facility, ordinarily, was about an hour away on foot; however, at their pace, it would be lucky if they got there in five or six hours. They didn’t have that long. If not the flickers of light, the ground beneath them might give in and pull them into the abyss.

Just as he began feeling his lungs giving in, a screeching sound startled him as an old-fashioned vehicle spun from the side street and onto his own, rotating twice on the axis before coming to a stop. It was relatively large, dyed black, six-wheeler that was older than Eldon’s grandparents. The side doors spun open right after, a familiar face breaking through.

“Finally found you!” Reli shouted. “Hurry up! Get in!!”