A distress signal

At first, they ducked on the ground to escape from the fierce wind. About ten-twenty minutes later, the wind had died down. As they looked around, it stunned them.

A giant ball of blood was floating just above the stronghold. Before they could understand what had happened, the ground shook again, and the ground started burning.

"Its mana," explained Kevin. But it was hard to believe. It was their first time to see mana, which was not tied to any living being but moved as though it had a life of its own. Even if it was burning red over the snow, there was no heat. And it was spreading from the stronghold.

Constant quakes, powerful gusts of wind, and burning mana was making it harder for them to get close to the stronghold.

It was then a thick light beam shot up at the space in the distance, the falling stars crowded the sky. The wind picked up again, and they fell on the ground to escape from the strong wind. And it continued even after the ground stopped moving.

"How long should we stay like this?" Kevin asked first.

"This is not just wind, but it's a blizzard. Staying still will freeze us to death." Gerrard was the first one to stand up. "Elijah? We can move now, right?"

"WE should leave the planet as soon as possible." Elijah's answer remained the same.

Gerrard said nothing about it, "Let's return to the stronghold first."

Elijah wanted to say something but stopped. They knew the general direction, and even in the blizzard, they had no problem backtracking their footsteps.

"What happened here?" Looking at the ruins of the once glorious stronghold, Sara exclaimed. And she wasn't alone.

Only the remains of 10 meters high walls were lying around the ground. It was no wonder that the three tall buildings in the middle of the stronghold had also shattered. The smaller buildings were no exception.

"It looks like someone had turned the building upside down," Kevin said.

"No, that might not be the case. Look closely," Gerrard shook his head, pointing at the building in the distance. "That building had access to the underground facility. You can see the parts of it still buried in the ground."

"Are you telling me that someone had taken out 15-20 meters thick ice and snow?" Lyla frowned.

"That might be the case." Gerrard nodded before turning to Elijah, "I think you have some idea what had done it."

However, Elijah shook her head, "I didn't see what did it."

"Then what did you see?" Gerrard asked with a smile on his face, "now that everything is over, I don't think you will have any problem talking about it."

Elijah nodded, saying, "I say a giant burning circle on the planet. There was a pentagram inside it. And this stronghold was at one point of the pentagram."

"That is it!" Kevin frowned.

"All the blood squeed out of every living thing and created a blood ball above it."

"So, you knew everyone was going to die inside the stronghold." Kevin pointed at the stronghold and shouted, "There were over 15 thousand people in that place, and you let them die."

Elijah looked straight at his face and said, "Yes."

"There was no other way." Gerrard's sudden word attracted others' attention, "You won't be able to evacuate a stronghold in ten minutes. It would be chaos."

Before Kevin could say anything, Lyla added, "Elijah couldn't see more than 10 minutes in the future."

It didn't decrease the hostility in his eyes, but Kevin said nothing. However, Gerrard asked, "Is that the only thing you saw?"

Elijah shook her head, "There was a giant gate in the middle of the circle."

"The giant light pillar?"

She nodded, adding, "that gate let an army into the planet."

"Army?"

"I couldn't see clearly, but there were many. Some big flying monsters, some were giant beasts bigger than an elephant, there were thousands."

"I couldn't see their face, but there were many armored warriors. They numbered a few tens of thousands. They poured through the gate like a flood."

Her explanation drained the blood off their face, while the other two were having a hard time believing it.

"Let's go in the stronghold," Gerrard said as the other's eyes turned to him, "We need to contact with other."

He pointed upwards, adding, "the sky has no cloud, so we shouldn't have any problem in contacting others. Even if we want to get out of the planet, we need to go there. And I want to check the truth."

"Truth?" Kevin asked.

"Didn't she say something squeezed the blood out of every living thing? I need to check to believe it." and he jumped down.

Just before his feet were about to touch the ground, a dense layer of flame formed around his thighs and broke his fall.

Gerrard snapped his finger, and a thick layer of fire appeared on the ground. He said, "jump down one by one."

They did as he told him. Before their body could touch the flame, a hot gust of wind kept them floating. As soon as all of them came down on the ground, the edge of the cliff crumbled.

The enormous chunk continued to gather and formed bodies more than 10 meters tall.

"Oh! They even set up a welcome here." Gerrard smirked, "But I don't think I had seen in the database. Elijah, do you remember seeing them?"

Elijah shook her head, "It might be hiding here for a long time." Gerrard turned to Kevin, asking, "It looks like made of ice. Do you want to go first?"

It wasn't just one or two, at least five of them were already standing on their feet, and three more were in the process of forming.

"Sure." As Kevin responded, the body of the ice golem had completed. In the next moment, he appeared in front of the ice golem and *bang*

The leg Kevin punched shattered. However, even before it could fall, Kevin broke the other leg, making the legless body fell.

He wanted to continue his assault, but an enormous ice club came down on his head. He had no intention of meeting it head-on, moved out of the spot before attacking its leg.

It wasn't like he was trying to attack his leg. He was two meters tall even then, yet compared to the ten meters giant, he was tiny. He could only attack its legs. However, he was quite efficient at it.

It didn't even take a minute before all ice golems were crawling on the ground. However, Gerrard spoke, "they aren't dead yet." Kevin turned back only to see that they were regenerating their legs.

As he was about to take care of the problems, Gerrard said, "Let me take care of them." And snapped his finger.

In a flash, all the ice bodies went into flames. Yet the ice golems acted like it wasn't much of a problem to them. Even with their body engulfed in flame, they stood up.

"And they said that ice mana is weak against fire." Gerrard shook his head as the red flame on their body turned orange.

With the change in the color of the flame, they could see parts of the golem's body were melting. However, it didn't affect their movement too much.

"They are very resilient, I would say." Again the color of the flame change into bright white. And the rate of their melting far exceeded the speed of their regeneration.

However, in a minute or two, other than a few cracked crystal balls, nothing remained.

"Oh! There is something on it." Kevin spoke. Yet, before he could take a better look at it, it crumbled in his hand. His second try yielded the same result.

"Hey! Kevin, don't waste your time here. Let's go." Gerrard led others to the stronghold, mumbling, "Those giants were too weak."

"It is you who is too strong." Lyla frowned, "Do you think just anybody could produce a flame over 1500 centigrade and keep it burning for two minutes. You must be the only fifth-grade mage on this entire planet."

"Fifth-grade?" Asher exclaimed but felt a little confident about their survival, knowing that such a powerful person is with them.

They walked through the broken ruins of the wall and entered the stronghold. The first building they checked was lying on its side. From the looks of it, they understood it was a communication center.

"Ahhhhh." Sara screamed as soon as he entered the building. "What is that?"

She was the one who attracted other attention towards the mummified remains of someone. Without an ounce of water, the skin had already curled up and exposed the bones and teeth.

"No matter how you look at it, it is not a pleasant way to die." Gerrard took a look at the multiple, mummified remains and nodded, "At least now we know Elijah is speaking the truth."

Elijah stared at him for a moment but didn't dare to say anything. Gerrard spoke again, "So Elijah, what should we do now?"

Elijah frowned, replying, "I think getting out of the planet is our best option."

"Getting off the planet?" Gerrard shook his head, "That will be hard."

Kevin, on the other hand, check and confirmed that the Global Communication Network system was offline. Communication with other stronghold is also impossible.

"So we can't talk to the planet Will or others on the planet. We don't even know if the spaceport is okay. In one word, we are stranded here with no backups."

It wasn't good news, and the silence that followed made it more unbearable. They could hear each other's breathing, but neither of them dared to speak.

It was Gerrard who talked again, "Wasn't the supply ship 'Torrter' scheduled to arrive today?" Getting Kevin's nod, Gerrard added, "Let's sent a distress signal."