WIlt P.O.V

They fell slowly to the city. It wasn’t actually slow, but it felt like it as horror filled him. It felt like the world had come to a halt as the flames finally reached the city. A second later, a light flashed, and everything went white. He flinched away from the light, his eyes burning from staring at it. He automatically started to rub his eyes aggressively, unable to stop the stinging situation. The light was followed by a booming sound that rivaled even thunder. It seemed to make his whole body vibrate and he was far above the city. The heat seemed to cut through the chill air, singe his skin. It truly felt like he was thrown into hell.

He forced his eyes open and saw the result of the attack. The city was gone, even a part of the mountain was just gone. Most of the snow near the city had melted too, leaving the stone bare. The destruction wasn’t perfect though, and he saw scattered bits of debris and metal extending out from where the fireball had landed. Images of the bustling city passed through his mind, and he found himself unable to hold back some tears. They had started from the searing light, but now they fell freely.

His mind tried to understand what he had just seen, trying to rationalize the destruction. It had to be an illusion, a cruel joke of some kind. Seeing the drained expressions on the two councilors, he knew that it was nothing so generous. He couldn’t keep quiet and spoke loudly. Yelling the words unnecessarily.

“Why? What about all the people?”

He couldn’t understand why they would go to such an extent. Even if the enemy had taken the city, what about the other people? Plus, not all of the people were fighters. There would be healers, scribes, and other normal people among the army. The indiscriminate action terrified him, and he had to know why.

“They were enemies. The city was always designed to be a lure for invading forces. Why do you think it exploded like it did?”

Janette turned to him, explaining the situation like she would with any lecture. The complete calm and utter ambivalence in her speech, made his palms sweat. The unflinching confidence with which she spoke startled him. Her words hit him a second later.

The city had been designed for this purpose. What about the chanters who had been captured? Were they just used as bait? To make it seem like they actually wanted to protect the city. All the people he had seen on the streets, were those all Larkin’s troops then? Pali didn’t look bothered either, or Wilt remembered the true nature of the council.

After spending so much time with two he had forgotten that the council was built from their strength in battle. For beating Larkin and pushing them into a small corner of the land. They were teachers out of necessity, but above even that, they were killers. They were powerful chanters even without his boost, and he could only imagine how many people each of them had killed. It was something he should’ve known, but he could only believe it after seeing it for himself.

He shivered, turning back to the scene below. Cold air and snow rushed to fill the space made from the explosion. Then he noticed that they were descending slowly, and he turned to Pali in a panic. Why were they going down? He didn’t want to see this.

“We need to check for survivors and take prisoners if needed. Be prepared, me and Janette are quite drained despite the Ein you provided. You will need to handle any fighting.”

Cedric P.O.V

The world came back to him. it had gone white, and he had heard thunder. His eardrums had felt like they exploded, and he crushed his eyes as he rubbed them. As his body healed, he thought that he had actually smashed his eyes and then healed after. His first reaction was to look around, and he saw nothing. Wasn’t he in a city? Where had the snow gone?

The questions passed through his mind. The sight eventually caught up with his mind and his head snapped back and forth. His first thought wasn’t for the battle or city, but for Brigid. One of his few friends. Looking around he didn’t see anything, and he pushed himself to his feet. His clothes were gone, and his sword had been sent flying. It wasn’t even on his list of concerns. He was surprised to feel a metal canister in his hands. Sir L had given it to him, telling him to use it in case of an emergency. He was surprised to see that it had remained intact, and even more surprised to realize that he had held onto it.

He trusted Sir L and quickly popped open the canister. He drank from it quickly, chugging the entire thing. It was only as large as his hand, but he knew what it was as soon as it entered his body. The elixir and an extremely pure version of it. His body burned, forcing him to do something. Pain shooting through his body like his insides were lit on fire. He clutched his chest falling backward and looking into the air. There he saw three figures descending from the sky like gods. They were monsters though, and he could see the warping aura of chanters around them.

The heat that had been burning his insides turned to anger. He swallowed the pain, using it to fuel his anger, and he pushed himself to his feet. He grabbed handfuls of stone as he pushed himself up. Fingernails dug into the stone, tearing up uneven pieces. He didn’t care about accuracy, needing to use the heat and energy that was swarming his body.

With nothing but anger fueling his actions, he chucked the rocks with all his strength. He didn’t hold back in the slightest, imagining the rocks tearing through the sky itself. he saw a splash of red and threw another handful. His wild aim made most of the rocks miss, but he knew that it would only take one to kill them. They fell suddenly but started moving away soon after. He started running towards them, his anger growing denser as he moved. As water fell from his eyes, they boiled from the heat building in him.

He chucked dozens of rocks toward them as he ran. The stone crunched beneath his feet as his footfalls became harder. It was justice when he saw another rock hit, and they fell from the sky, this time not bracing their fall. He ran towards where they fell, determined to finish the job. Hatred pushing aside any sympathy and mercy.

Wilt P.O.V

As Pali finished speaking, Wilt noticed something from the corner of his eyes. At first, he was relieved to see that they hadn’t killed everyone. That quickly fell apart, as a sharp stone slammed into Pali. It went straight through him, tearing through his body by the shoulder. It had moved impossibly fast, far more than any chanter could accomplish. The flight chant collapsed, and they were sent into a free fall. That actually let him dodge another stone as it passed in the air above him. It sounded like the wind was being torn apart above him, and he knew that it would’ve killed him.

He turned his head in a panic and heard Janette chanting from beside them. His eyes were aimed downwards trying to find where the projectile had been thrown from. There was a figure moving in the rubble. Wilt couldn’t make out details, and he didn’t understand how someone could hit them with rocks from so far away. The speed of the rocks too. Janette’s chant finished, catching them mid-fall. Without hesitation, they started moving away. Wilt’s eyes were still focused on the moving man, and he instinctively used his Ein.

AIR!

He didn’t care about costs just needed something to stop the rocks. Yelling the only word, he could think of, he forced the air to form into a wall. Rocks crashed into it and went through. His eyes went wide as rock collided with his arm. Unconsciously he had raised his arm to block his face and was grateful for it now. Even with his wall taking most of the force, the rock slammed into his arm hard. It hurt, and stinging pain lanced through his entire arm.

In the past, he had broken a finger and this pain was several times worse than that. He let out a guttural half scream, and his barrier collapsed as he lost focus from the pain. His chants had fallen apart which meant that Janette lost his steady stream of Ein. The flight chant broke, and they started falling again. This time no one caught them, though an Item on Janette glowed and lessened their fall as they crashed into the snow.

Still squirming from the pain, Wilt clutched his broken arm. His eyes were wet, and his throat was pained from screaming. Janette walked over stabbing a metal needle into his arm. The pain vanished, and the entire arm went numb instantly.

“Ein! Now, we need to move. Whatever that thing was it's a lot faster than we can move!”

Her words were loud and firm shaking him from his confusion. Too many things had happened and he spoke the chant dumbly. His words came out quickly but dumbly too.

Purify my Ein and Pass it to another.

Even without the full chant, he managed to give her some Ein. Several more items glowed, and she threw them towards the man. Rather than flying again, she started to melt the snow around them and started drawing a large circle with some chalk. He recognized the teleportation circle that she had used when they first met. It took a few seconds to set up, but it was enough. The space around him warped, and everything shifted. The last thing he heard was a loud booming sound, that made him flinch in fear.

Cedric P.O.V

He leaped into the air straight towards where they had fallen. A glimpse of three people was all he caught before they vanished in white light. He saw them though, a woman who had been looking back at him with cruelty and hatred. A pathetic-looking man was clutching a broken arm like a child. A final man who laid motionless.

He screamed into the air as he landed. Something exploded as he landed but he ignored it. Only one! He only managed to get one! The failure made him angier, images flashing through his mind as he screamed pointlessly. The faces of the three flashed between what he had seen in the city. The families he had helped. Brigid had charged into battle with him. She was strong and would be alive, and he would find her. He could save her too. He turned running back to the city. Tears continued to stream from his eyes. The pain from the elixir mixed with the despair that was filling him. He wanted to just collapse, to sit there, and succumb to the pain. No, he had to find survivors and Brigid.

The run back towards the city was meaningless. There was nothing there for him to find. He ran across the crater where the city had once been. The only thing he saw was small insignificant pieces of bodies. Most of the people had been turned to dust along with the city. He doubted that anyone who wasn’t chosen or ascended would even leave remains. How close had Brigid been to the explosion?

She had been near the wall, right? He ran towards where the wall had once been but was disappointed by the sight. Nothing was there, and he continued to walk outwards trying to find a person. Running he almost missed it but caught it from the edge of his vision. When it had passed by, his mind seemed to focus on it. Frozen by the sight. He stumbled over, his breaths coming shorter as he slowed down. He knew it was Brigid, even if most of her body was charred. Her hand was clenched around her weapon. Her torso was separated from the rest of her body. Only one arm was attached, and she was missing both her legs. Her other arm and a section of her chest was missing.

None of that seemed like it would be enough to kill her. It was the caved-in skull that looked like it had been stomped that told him that there was no hope. Even still, Cedric moved out of desperation more than anything else. He poured whatever drops of the elixir he could get into her broken mouth. Tearing his own skin to let his blood fall into it as well. It didn’t do anything, and he slumped to the ground beside her, screaming into the stone ground. His head pressed against the rubble as reality settled on him.