Steel and Mana

Chapter 361.5 – Bloody Hell

The air was warm, thick with the scent of summer, something that was now tainted by the stench of smoke and flowing blood. The sun, which should be out and glowing radiantly, was hidden behind dark clouds, rising from the burning ground, darkening everything. The massive walls of the city were streaked with soot and gore, the carvings on it destroyed in many places, and long sections of it reduced to nothing but rubble.

Worse, this was Avalon's wall... which, if breached, meant that the Pass had already fallen.

Mikan, Sasha, Yuri, and Luna stood within the crumbling palace, their hearts pounding in unison with the tremors that shook the earth. What should have been a day of quiet leisure while Leon was away at the Summit had become a waking nightmare...

The first tremor that alerted them was subtle, barely a faint shudder beneath their feet. At first, neither of them paid any attention to it. But it kept repeating and growing. It soon bloated into a violent convulsion that sent books cascading from shelves in Luna's office, shattered stained glass windows in Mirian's room, and chandeliers swinging like nooses in the wind above Sasha and Yuri's heads. Sasha's breath was caught in her throat as her connection to magic suddenly screamed in her mind, a primal, gut-wrenching warning. Something was wrong—horribly, irrevocably wrong.

But it was also late...

By then came the faraway explosion, a guttural groan that rose towards the sky. By the time they reacted, the castle, Leon's old home, along with a thousand soldiers, his father and mother, was gone. In its place was burning rubble and the pouring tide of countless monsters.

The guards on the walls of Avalon shouted in alarm, their voices drowned by the blaring of horns and warning sirens all around the city. But it was already too late. The Pass had fallen... and they couldn't even warn them in time.

Mikan stood on the highest balcony of their palace, her eyes widening in horror as the first of the gigantic monstrosities emerged. It was towering over everything else, almost fifty meters in height, with grotesque abominations of limbs growing out of its torso. The worst part was that it wasn't alone, as dozens of others followed suit. Their hulking forms were a patchwork of writhing sinew, exposed to the elements with jagged bone protrusions and oozing flesh, a creation of some kind of... Mad God.

Their roars shook the heavens, the war horn of rage and hunger sending a chill down even Avalon's soldiers' backs. All around them surged a tide of grotesque creatures, twisted, malformed beasts that crawled, slithered, and bounded with whatever appendages they had. They were a wave of death, a relentless and ravenous tide, heading straight for Avalon.

Yuri was the first to move, her voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.

"We need to evacuate the city! Now! To the mountains!" But her words were swallowed by the deafening roar of the horde. The walls of Avalon were already under attack, and they crumbled like sand beneath the giants' limbs, even if they exploded in magical retaliation. The city's defenses, no matter how valiant and disciplined they were, the sheer numbers of beasts tore them apart as if they were nothing more than toys in the hands of children.

Then... came the death of the citizens. Blood flowed on the streets, and the air was filled with the screams of the dying people of Avalon.

Sasha tried to gain time for them as she led the charge at the main gates, her fiery spells burning bright. She moved like a flaming tempest, her every strike swathing whole streets in crimson fire. But for every creature she burnt away, a dozen more surged forward, their eyes gleaming with hunger. She fought with the desperation of a mother who knew there was no victory, only the will to buy time for her children to escape.

She wasn't the only one.

Yuri's scream tore through the chaos, sitting in her mech in the middle of the chaos, but there was no chance... she knew it. The city had fallen, and her machine was being scratched at by creatures of all sizes, trying to bring it down and tear it apart just the same. She turned, searching the others, and saw Sasha amidst the flames, her staff raised high. She saw the crimson light crackling around her as she summoned another storm of fire, the heat so intense it scorched the air itself. The beasts howled as they were consumed, but... Not enough.

A grotesque creature, its body a writhing mass of eyes and teeth, broke through the flames. It lunged at her, its maw stretching impossibly wide. Yuri tried to throw her spear, but it was intercepted by a dozen others, and she only heard Sasha's gurgling scream being cut short as it swallowed her whole. Her staff clattered to the ground, its light extinguished... just the same way as Yuri's mech tumbled down into the beast tide, disappearing under it.

Mikan was already frozen in place; her breath caught in her throat, but the searing pain in her abdomen brought her back to reality. A claw had torn through her, its serrated edge ripping flesh and bone alike while she was trying her best to stay back and cover Morgan and Galahad's escape with Luna. She staggered, her legs buckling beneath her as darkness crept into her vision. She failed... that was all she could think of as she fell; her last sight was the blood-streaked ruins of Avalon's palace, the home she finally could call her own... the one she had sworn herself to protect.

At the end of the city, Luna, battered and bleeding, dragged herself through the rubble, her hand reaching out to a dagger she just found, trying to make as much noise as possible to draw the ire of the beasts who got this far already.

"Here...! You bastards!" she moaned, her voice choked with blood and despair.

She had already sent the kids away, telling them to keep running... But they caught up with them. So, she tried leading the stupid monsters from their route. She tried... that was what she thought, before a shadow from above a ruined building leaped down on her, jaws wide open, biting down on her head.

Following Avlaon's very first aqueduct up to the mountains outside of the collapsing city, Galahad and Morgan, Leon's youngest children, ran as fast as they could. Their hands clutched tightly together as they weaved through the ruins of their home and previous lives, their bodies trembling with fear. They had kept safe because of their parents' sacrifice, but now there was nowhere else to run. The world was falling apart around them.

"Morgan, keep running!" Galahad urged, tears streaking his blood-covered face. He could hear the roars behind them, the dying screams of people trying to escape towards the same place. They had to escape. Otherwise... their parents died for nothing. They had to find somewhere safe. But where? Where could they go when the world itself was being devoured right before their eyes?

Then, Morgan tripped, her foot catching on the debris of the collapsing aqueduct. Something was trying to pull it down the mountain, shaking it apart right around them. Galahad was pulling on her, grabbing her arm, but the momentary delay cost them. A shadow appeared over them, massive and snarling. One of the beasts had flashy wings and landed on a close rock, its grotesque maw dripping with the blood of the people it had already eaten, and stared down at them with hollow, empty eyes.

Galahad knew... There was no escape. It was... all over.

And you thought I wouldn't fuck with you on April 1st? Pft, Think again.

APRIL'S FOOLS!