Anathema Chapter 4 – Massacre

Faced with the Space Master's predatory gaze, the entire battlefield was petrified. No one dared breathe loudly or make any unnecessary movements.

The silence was deafening, and as the seconds turned into minutes, everyone was sweating profusely until Khaled's voice cut through the tension:

"There is not much to say, except to clarify facts. You are all already dead, but I will give a chance only to the one who knows who ordered the death of my wife. Whoever tells me will be spared and will be under my protection; the rest will die here."

The absurdity of his words left everyone speechless. Master or not, Khaled was declaring his challenge not only to two armies but to all the kingdoms of the central continent and all the free nations of the south! A single man, powerful but still a man, challenged two continents without blinking.

Pulled from their stupor by the absurdity of the declaration, the soldiers of both armies firmly gripped their weapons. Swords were drawn, shields raised, and a feeling of ferocity began to take over everyone. The cornered beast is always the most dangerous, and they were willing to prove that point.

"Oh, you will really resist? Impressive. In respect for your bravery, I will exterminate you without pain," Khaled declared, surprised and resolute. He raised his right hand above his head. Dark gray tendrils emerged from the abyss, drawn to their master's raised hand. At astonishing speed, a sphere of spatial energy took shape in the sky of the battlefield.

The sensation coming from the sphere was like a still lake, exuding tranquility. But with the movement of Khaled's hand, the sphere rippled, distorting the space around it. A dimensional corridor was opened, and faster than the blink of an eye, the sphere reached the middle of the meeting point of the two armies. Bodies from the carnage of a few minutes ago, which were still lying on the ground, were instantly swallowed up along with the soldiers who were caught off guard.

The sphere distorted tissues, bones, flesh, and living soldiers in a terrifying silence. Until it exploded at high speed, without any sound, distorting not only the remaining soldiers at the epicenter of the explosion but everyone who had the misfortune to find themselves in the path of the wave of destruction. The power of the attack was so intense that, in the area of effect, the fabric of space-time reality was distorted and twisted.

An extremely dark and chaotic gray zone took shape. Everyone who was on the periphery of the attack was sweating profusely, some throwing up everything they had eaten. Others relieved themselves right there, unable to hold their fragile nerves.

A membrane of red energy protected the rest of the soldiers of the free nations of the south, along with the command tent. While a membrane of yellow energy protected the peripheral soldiers of the central kingdoms as well as their generals and commanders.

The barriers undulated dangerously, threatening to break and expose everyone to the horror of absolute nothingness created by the explosion of the sphere.

"Well, well, what do we have here? The most worthy Masters of Fire and Earth not only honor us with their presence but also display their abilities before someone as poor as me," Khaled mocked, looking at the two masters who saved what was left of the two armies and were forced to manifest themselves at the edges of the valley.

"You've gone too far, Khaled! We understand your pain, but if you think that the council of masters and Migdal will sit idly by while you massacre innocent people, you are very wrong!" Elyahu, the master of fire, known for being an attentive and patient gentleman, vociferated. But today, his posture was that of a beast ready for slaughter.

"I have only one thing to ask you, you decrepit old man. Where was the council when my wife needed it? Where were Migdal and his Grand Masters when she died like a dog in the mud of the battlefield?! There is only one explanation for such silence on the part of all of you at the moment she needed to be saved... You planned everything, and Migdal gave the green light! Do you deny it?" Khaled trembled with rage while he screamed his suspicions.

"There is nothing to deny. Since everything you said is correct," shrugging and smiling, Adamah, the master of earth, confessed on the other side of the battlefield, terrifying everyone. Soldiers, commanders, and generals found themselves thrown before a plot of gods. Suddenly, the void in the center of the battlefield was no longer so frightening... not as much as a mortal duel of masters.