Chapter 44 War

The SOUL officer took out an hourglass-shaped crystal, which contained all the magic power concentrated in his body throughout his life. It had all his life force. It was his ultimate weapon.

"No. What are you doing? You can't." Realising, what it was and the havoc it could cause, Valenthia tried to stop, but it was already too late.

The officer activated the hourglass. A wide array of light came out from it haphazardly, enough to blind someone. The glass rose and rays from it attacked the dragon. The dragon was further infuriated to see the hourglass. He headed straight for the glass. The collision threw everyone off, including Valenthia.

"No. You cannot. If you kill him, this planet will be destroyed. The hell's gate will open."

It was too late. The dragon soon fell powerless. The officer that threw the hourglass had died. Others were severely injured as Valenthia looked at the ruins with a battered body. Everything was over.

'No. Not yet. I have to do everything I could.' Valenthia got up and vanished from the place. Aarav heard her last sentence. He did not know what was hell's gate. But it was likely nothing good.

Soon after the dragon died, there were tremors. The earth was shaking and rumbling continuously. Its intensity was only increasing with every tremor.

Everything was already in chaos. It added to the cause. Valenthia's last sentence also reached the higher authorities as orders for evacuation were announced. All those who could still walk were asked to reach the hangar.

Very soon a lot of airships were seen leaving the atmosphere. Aarav got on his feet to go back home. He was looking at the corpse of the dragon. The dragon was kind and never hurt anyone. His last image contradicted with the all-mighty being he had spent a few days. If he knew they would meet again like this, he wished he had never made that wish. He had lost a lot of comrades in his short life, Shula was also added in that list.

Everbody was escaping, they also had to evacuate. He was about to send a message to Kiara when he got a message from Alize.

'I'm coming to take you. Pack up everything.'

Alize must have made arrangements for them. Zorian was not in the condition to fly. He got hurt from the explosion. So, he had to walk. A man and a pegasus, both trudged back home. Everything was on fire, things were falling from the constant tremors. It was very difficult to walk.

After a few hours, they finally managed to reach home. Alize had also reached by then.

"Where's Kiara?"

"She left after getting a message. She said she was going to the institute," Ian responded.

"When did she leave?"

"Just after you went out."

Aarav tried to remember all the destroyed places in the area. He couldn't remember if the institute was alright.

"I'm going to find her."

Aarav tried to contact her in her communicator. The connection failed. He tried calling the institute. There was a long ring but nobody was picking up. He tried again and got no response. Feeling a premonition, he walked out.

"Wait. Where are you going in your condition? Just Get in the AirCar. We will check on the way."

They got on the flying car. Ian had already packed up everything as soon as he heard the announcement to evacuate. He also packed Aarav and Kiara's things too.

They went to the institute.

They had not reached the area when they saw the destruction. The institute was burning, and there were no people in sight.

"No. Kiara must be in there."

Aarav could not believe his eyes as he saw the ruin in front of his eyes. He ran in.

Alize was slow to stop him. Ian and Alize ran after him. Ian created a shield out of ice over their heads. Because of his power, they could step into the place without getting burnt. Everything was burning. It was hard to see. They called out Kiara's name. They found someone in the backside. A woman had died. But the cause of her death wasn't fire. There was a hole drilled in her brain.

They found Rigaro closeby. He was breathing faintly.

"Rigaro. Hey, wake up. What happened here. Where is Kiara?"

"… Cough… They took her… I'm sorry."

Rigaro said in a faint voice. He was breathing raggedly.

"Who did? Tell me."

"They found out. I cannot save her."

"I asked who took her away."

"Dorden..."

After saying the name, Rigaro breathed his last. He died.

"Let's go out. He is dead."

Aarav was bending over Rigaro. He was shaken.

"I cannot maintain this any longer," Ian said in a gruntled voice. He was sweating profusely.

They moved out of the building. They checked around the area in case Kiara had run away from her captors. Aarav tried calling her on her communicator.

"They must have already taken her out of the city. Communicators are still working. It could only mean that she is out of the coverage area."

The communicators only worked inside the city. Call outside the city were not possible without connection to Starlink.

"We will track her citizen card when we reach the port," Alize said to assure Aarav.

There were a lot of families in the port. There were not enough airships to take everyone, and few aristocrats had already left with their ships and a lot of vacant seats.

Alize did as he promised. He tracked Kiara's i-card. The last location shown was outside the planet four hours ago. She was not on the planet. She was probably on a different planet by now.

Aarav gave up finding Kiara for the time being. He had no clue who those people were. Just a name.

Alize's father Alanzo Elios was having a hard time consoling people and making arrangements. He wasn't the mayor yet. But he had to assume the work as the current mayor ran away. He was the first to run off followed by several congressmen and bureaucrats. They didn't just run off but took off many spaceships.

"We can't leave like this. People will die. We have to wait for more airships to come from nearby planets. I have asked them for help. They will very soon send help."

"Mr Elios. We can't wait. Please look outside."

"What are you talking? Aren't we evacuating because of the situation outside."

Alanzo looked out. Not getting the clue, his secretary told him, "It's pitch black outside. According to the prophecy, when the nights turn black and the earth trembles, the whole planet will be engulfed in black mist, and people will start suffocating. Then doom will come."

Alanzo remembered the prophecy he read in the old texts.

The current situation was the same. The outside sky was black. The nights in Taiba were always blue. It was very dark.

As they were running out of time, Alanzo had to take a hard decision. He cannot save everyone. There were millions of people waiting in the port. The help will take at least four to five hours to come, and another hour to send off people. They were not even sure if they can send all the people in the arriving spaceships. They could send people in batches, but now it was impossible.

"Send other people first. I and my family will leave when at least this many people are evacuated."

Alanzo cannot save everyone. At least he can try to save the ones in front of his eyes. He looked back at his family. His family nodded at him showing approval of his decision. There were few aristocrats left who were truly noble. They respected his decision. These aristocrats had taken out their private spaceships small and big and send off many people. Most spaceships were overly filled. Humanity was still alive.