Explosive Proximity

BOOM!

The ceiling up above rumbled violently, and dust fell onto the three Sins still in a state of confusion.

"Are those the people Ian was talking about?" Veronica coughed.

"No…" Gian-Luca lifted his head from the ground. "These rumbles sound much more violent and aggressive." He was brought back a memory of the time they were scouting Jenzaya District before its extinction. The rumbling got louder, and it was getting closer too.

"When Ian made his minions stomp, it didn't even sound close to this. This sounds like there's destruction going on outside…" Venus looked up at the ceiling lights that flickered immensely. He could sense that something immense was coming.

BOOM—!!!

An explosion of calamity resonated in the ground nearby. Shockwaves could be felt waving over the surface in pursuit. The pure disturbance in energy suddenly caused everything to go black.

"What—?!?"

All the lights in the hideout shut off in an instant, and the sound of electric leaving the circuits could be heard in a descending tone. The three Sins now stood in shrouded darkness, lost and confused at how the consecutive events spiraled in disaster.

"What is happening?!" Venus shouted. He felt worried for Veronica and Gian-Luca. "Hey! Are you guys okay?!"

"Yeah!" Veronica bumped into something hunched over on the ground. "Is that you, Gian-Luca?"

"Yeah… Sorry, it's hard to get up without being able to use my hands…"

Some grunts could be heard, followed by some steadying footsteps. Gian-Luca was back up on his feet guided by Veronica.

"What the hell has Ian done…? Could it be that he's still behind all of this?"

The other two had no response for Gian-Luca. They could only sit in the dark and wait for what came next. Their wait wouldn't be long though, as in a brutally abrupt instance, the ceiling up above was torn apart by a large-scale explosion of some sort.

BOOM—!!!

"Shit—!!!" Gian-Luca watched as a massive chunk of debris from above was on its way to crush both him and Veronica.

"NO!!!" Venus yelled. His hands raised on impulse, and from his palms he felt energy radiate forwards without his control. His ability in that moment was subconsciously activated, sent towards the direction of Gian-Luca and Veronica.

"W-Woah—!" Veronica felt her feet sweep-out from beneath. Her body was thrown in a separate direction alongside Gian-Luca, as the two narrowly avoided the chunk of cement that would have crushed them both to death. On the far side of the room, the two Sins landed aggressively. They both looked up at Venus, surprised to see him having activated his ability after not using it in so long.

"You saved us!" Veronica helped Gian-Luca to his feet. "We need to get out of here!"

A bright ray of light then caved into the crater that was now formed in their hideout. The three Sins looked up, towards the destructive hole that exposed their location underground.

"Holy shit…"

Dismembered bodies of Ian's one-hundred-man army were slowly falling into the crater, while others hung over the edges. Blood was spilling, but most notable of all was the deep orange color that filled the sky past the violence present. Smoke filled the air, coming from various ruined structures that were set aflame by its destruction alone.

The world was burning.

BOOM—!!!

The crater was widened with a rigorous blast of some sort, shaking the ground and walls around the three Sins. They stood paralyzed, even though their darkness was now broken by the burning rays of light that shone inside of their cavern.

"WE NEED TO GET OUT!!!" It was Venus who broke their silence.

The other two were quick to react to the suggestion, and all their feet were soon nimble across the rugged and crackled floors of their hideout, nearly tripping over stones and small debris as they made a quick dash for the stairs and ladder to exit. Rounding the corner through the door, they came upon their main exit only for it to be blocked with chunks of cement.

"Over there!" Venus yelled towards the other direction. He pointed at a massive part of the road from above that fell into their hideout, forming an unsturdy slant to the surface like a ramp. They made a bolt for it, afraid to get caught in the next bombardment of destruction. Within a struggling matter of seconds, the three Sins finally reached the surface, terrified by the sight they'd sought. Like the burning orange of the sky, every building surrounding them on the street was caught in darkened flames. The foundations of every structure were all soon to crumble, and the ground beneath them was lined with cracks that severed the roads completely. The view was all too familiar to that of the Jenzaya Extinction.

"W-What happened?!!" Veronica's eyes widened in shock. She couldn't believe what she saw. From the last time she'd been on the surface, the sight of the streets in Sansti District were somewhat nostalgic. Now, only remnants remained from what was left after the destruction.

BOOM—!!!

The recurring sound of an explosion suddenly echoed from a mile away, and a building could be seen collapsing in the distance. It crumbled from bottom to top before hitting the ground and dissipating into mounds of debris, producing a wave of dust and smoke to shoot off in all directions.

"W-W-What do we do?!?" Venus looked around unknowingly. The Sins were at a loss for words and action. They couldn't begin to gather their minds together to come up with a way to survive. Everything was happening too quickly, too suddenly, and too unexpectedly. It had always been the Sins' forte to induce the element of surprise in secret. But for the first time ever, the Sins were the ones being taken by surprise. And it's what came next that would most definitely do so.

"ARGHHHHH!!!" A raspy shout roared in an approaching velocity. The voice flew over the Sins' heads, and in the mere instant, the three could see a shredded male soaring across the sky from above. It was a figure that'd jumped from the roof of one building to another, causing both to collapse with the mere pressure of his landings.

This was the one causing havoc, and his resemblance was uncanny.

"Reed?!?" Gian-Luca was hit with a wall of realization. The Sin of Wrath they'd presumed dead in the tournament for the last two weeks was currently destroying the district they sought shelter in.

"No way… Why would he be here?! I thought he was dead!" Veronica watched as the embodiment of wrath wrecked each and every structure he touched. Now they knew what had caused this ongoing calamity in Sansti District. The reemergence of the Sin of Wrath—the very last thing they could have ever imagined. The question was how?

PHWOOM—!

A sleek figure suddenly zoomed overhead the three Sins, which they observed was not Reed. Reed was barging through more of the district's structures further ahead, while the newly-distinguished figure could be seen flying in the same direction at a high top-speed.

"What was that…?" Venus squinted his eyes. He could barely track the unknown figure, as it soared at an untraceable speed. It was white, and it spread-out horizontally with a wing-like frame. He assumed it must have been a plane. That was until the figure aimed downwards and dove straight into a segment of the district, eradicating its entirety with one fell swoop—a massive explosion being the catastrophic result.

BOOM—!!!

The Sins now understood where the distinct recurring sound was coming from.

"Why did that plane just…?" Gian-Luca paused. What he thought was an aircraft that'd just suicidally crashed into the ground, now rose back up into the sky at an inexplicable speed. It twirled as it gained height, into the clouds it touched, before looping around and falling into a soar back towards the direction of the Sins.

"Wait, wait, wait…"

"What…?"

"Huh?!?"

Gian-Luca, Venus, and Veronica all saw it. With the figure now flying directly towards them, they could see it now clearly.

The figure was not a plane. It was an Overseer.