Black Cataclysm

Magnum ran desperately down the clay road, heading towards the warehouses near the entrance to the plantation. As soon as they made first contact, the three children naturally split up into those who were the most important...

Just ten meters from where they were standing, Magnum found his wounded father at the edge of the plantation with his leg trapped under a planting vehicle. Anton couldn't feel his lower body, but at least he could move.

The boy quickly became desperate and, instead of crying or trying to help his father move the cabin (something impossible), he decided to run to get Ethan, who was in the warehouses.

However, the first explosions originated in those same warehouses...

'Duke Ethan... Be well, please!' Magnum begged in his thoughts, running even though he was out of breath.

Arriving at the warehouse, Magnum was wary of the repeated debris and the cloud of smoke covering the room. Coughing with dry lungs, he covered his face and continued exploring.

Arriving near the entrance, he shouted: "Duke Ethan!"

There was no response.

He kept fending off the smoke with his arm and trying to get a wide field of vision, but was unsuccessful. Trying to get close to a wooden box at the bottom, Magnum was quickly interrupted by a bolt of black lightning that shot out in front of him.

Startled, Magnum backed away, but was surrounded by dozens of beams moving widely through the ruined shed.

Gradually, a vibration spread a sharp, directionless sound, but with a single origin; meters in front of the boy, a sphere of white energy emitted a black light and abruptly imploded.

Before the explosion, Ethan stood in front of Magnum, his left arm outstretched and motionless; the Duke had a piece of metal stuck in his shoulder, blood dripping down to his fingertips.

With his right arm, Ethan created a blast of fire that suspended the energy sphere, slowed the expansion of the smoke and, in a matter of seconds, turned the warehouses to dust with a single flaming wave. Controlling the direction of the destruction, Ethan raised an explosion into the sky, sweeping away everything harmful.

A mushroom cloud appeared that morning.

His attention momentarily taken, Theo looked behind him, where the mushroom cloud was emitting light and a wave of vibration. A strong wind slammed into his back and almost carried him forward; luckily, Ethan managed to control that blast and kept her isolated, even with the overwhelming result.

Nevertheless, Theo continued to run through the devastated and grief"stricken fields.

The smoke towers had the field of vision as the cries of pain and pleas for help spread from the Young Master's perspective.

However, there was something begging for his attention: a few meters ahead, one of those towers of smoke appeared over the terrain. Theo despaired, because he knew that his intuition was guaranteeing a catastrophe...

Deviants can sense the presence of humans, even if they have no control over their own chakras. Theo was sure of the one in front of him... He was weak, almost on his last breaths, but it was reality...

To his left, a damaged chopping block with the knives smashed was lying in the plantation. 

Theo kept his wits about him to keep running, even though he slipped on the traces of the incidents along the way. When he reached the base of the smoke, he ran to the right, where the cab of one of the machines was lying.

Further into the plantation, a metal plate was leaning over the body of a man...

A straw hat was lost in all this.

Theo's body froze. His eyes processed it, but his mind denied it without any chance for intervention. He couldn't believe it...

The man crushed by the metal plate was Michel, who was still fighting for his life trying to push that massive metal structure, but failing because he was a mere human.

Because he was aware of Liam Mason, Theo understood what was happening. Something he shouldn't have been witnessing, but he was. His memories oscillated between his old life and his new one.

As Theo stood looking at Michel, the sound of a heartbeat monitor machine beeped, signalling the patient's death.

Liam was standing in front of a glass window, watching the doctors come to his mother's aid. But the meter was beeping simultaneously with the recording of the heartbeat, demonstrating that medical care and professional desperation had not saved Mavie Müller's life.

Unlike Theo, that sudden death information made no sense to Liam. Because of this, because he now knew what it meant, Theo's body moved on its own to meet Michel.

However... Halfway there, the Young Master came across the face of a man with no regrets. Liam Mason stood with his arms crossed, leaning on the machine Michel was dying in, maintaining a serene expression that made no sense in the current situation.

Theo just ignored it and kept running towards Michel, expressing the true desperation on his face.

His amber eyes collided with his heavenly blue eyes; Liam, a man with no regrets and the strength to exert help, and Theo, a child with a conscience and no strength to even consider helping...

Slipping through the mud and falling next to Michel, Theo quickly recovered and tried to push the metal plate. However, he was intentionally pushed back.

A black mist leaked out of the collapsing core, causing a strange feeling in Theo's heart. The boy coughed up blood...

" No... "Michel begged with his last strength.

Ignoring the elder's request, Theo tried to pull on the metal plate with all his might, but he was failing even to grasp the material. The temperature prevented the Young Master from touching the metal without burning himself.

Instantly, Ethan appeared at his son's side and tried to lift the plaque. However, with one of his arms completely injured, and his movements limited, the Duke could do nothing but try.

Michel put his hand on Ethan's arm and, with his last ounce of strength, the old man held on tightly to the Duke's wrist. He had understood the message...

The pain in Michel's eyes could not be described. That was why Theo was fighting. However, Ethan realized that this pain was not going to let the old man live any longer.

Her son's life was worth more...

A monotonous vibration escaped from the energy core beneath the plate, creating reverberations and indescribable thermal sensations.

Regret would catch in Ethan's throat, with his selfishness being the source of the confusion.

Noticing the impure sensation that was impossible to ignore, Ethan grabbed Theo by the stomach and launched himself away from the machine. However... the core supporting the engine exploded, this time releasing all its energy and causing a loud impact.

Unable to react and run fast enough, Ethan and Theo were dragged away by the impact and force of the explosion.

Subsequently, all the machines resonated with the energy released by the exploding cores, thus resulting in the mass destruction of all the machines near the plantation.

The fields of Midian were filled with constant explosions, vibrations and the bitter taste of the unknown... Above all, the pain of mourning.

☽✪☾

"Duke Lawrence!" Exclaimed an officer, rushing down from the carriage.

Ethan was sitting by the side of the road, where Theo was being attended to by paramedics. The boy was stretched out on a stretcher, being constantly plastered and certified that he was having no difficulty breathing.

In the courtyard of what remained of the sheds, countless injured people were seeking help, as new wounded people emerged from the plantations.

"Officer Hart…" said Ethan, with his left arm bandaged.

"Sorry for the delay!" Hart was panting from the race he had run to reach the Duke. "All the machines that ran on an energy core had been destroyed in the capital. We had to secure it there first…"

"Ah... So it wasn't just here…"

"Yeah... I'm sorry, but did I hear disappointment in your voice?"

Ethan remained serious, reflecting on the situation. His eyes wandered slowly around the room, watching people crawl around with their limbs bruised, stained with their own blood and in agony from the pain.

"When I felt an external resonance in the sheds, I quickly deduced that it might be a faulty machine. When I arrived, I noticed the core completely collapsed, unable to support its own energy... It exploded first. Then the other machines exploded one after the other, leaving no trace as to why…"

Hart jumped back in disbelief.

The Duke, however, placed his right hand on his solar plexus and silently agonized over the pinprick"like pain.

"Do you think... this was the work of a terrorist attack?!"

Ethan nodded. 

"Organize the troops and take care of the wounded. If it's an attack, not only the capital and Midian, but the whole territory may need help" Ethan ordered "Work to avoid many deaths."

"Yes, sir! Men, send a squad to rescue anyone still in the middle of the fields! Arrange for carriages to take the rescued to the nearest post! Take care!"

In silence, Ethan observed his son's condition from a reasonable distance. Although Theo showed signs of life, such as consistent breathing and unconsciously moving fingers, the Duke remained concerned at all times.

Putting his right arm over his forehead, leaving only a gap for his eye to watch Theo, the Duke of Lawrence took up his lamentations.

As a renowned lieutenant of, not just Romerian, but the entire continent, he was used to such situations. Lives being taken for some reason was the reason he prized security so highly in Loureto.

In the meantime... 

"Not to me…" he replied. "To me, you're just idiots who have learned how to use the energy in your body to perform spells and great things. But you're not gods, heroes, saviors... I don't believe in any of these false messengers of peace."

"So I'm a nobody to you?"

"No... You're a very strong guy. The strongest my peasant eyes have ever touched... But you're the guy who puts money in my pocket. You're not a hero to me, you know?"

"Even if... I save your life?"

"I'll be grateful, but nothing more."

A knife struck Ethan in the heart. Gritting his teeth and grunting with pain and anger, he thought:

'I'm sorry... I didn't even have your gratitude...'