Chapter 10

The Blue Eyes

Hot wind blew past everyone’s cold expressions. Wind from the fire, still burning passionately. 

Lying on a field of grass were Nick, Thora, and Emily. They were doing the only thing they could do at this very moment-watch, watch as the endless onslaught continues taking more and more lives of innocents. You could see the fear in everyone’s eyes as they witnessed the astonishing, deadly beauty of the flames and lightning, smoke, and thunder. Soldiers that were once marching with pride are now dying in the flames of their own passion.

Up behind our heroes was the commander, who came up to them and started speaking in a storytelling voice.

‘‘This isn’t the first time they’ve attacked this city, you know. This is why a part of the army is always on standby near the city. The first time they attacked I witnessed it firsthand. It was 30 years ago but I remember it like yesterday. I was on vacation with my wife here in Locu. It was a wonderful place, the beaches were of the likes you would see in works of art. We were calm, just relaxing on the beach when lightning struck. Cultists fell from the sky like raindrops, murdering everyone they fell on. Seeing that slaughter I immediately grabbed my wife and started running away with her. People were screaming, people which I ignored for my own safety, running down the crowded streets seemed to be going well for us until…’’

He grabbed onto his head as if he was experiencing immense pain. He crouched as if he was getting stabbed in the stomach.

‘‘A-are you okay? Do you need medical attention?’’

‘‘No I’m fine Nick, it’s just… recalling it pains me, but I’ll have to give you the info. It was going well until a massive object impacted a house in front of us. That massive object was an alien-like creature, three times bigger than an average human. It had silver skin and huge blue eyes. I watched as it stood up and turned around, I was on the ground from the impact along with my wife, it started laughing and said with a distorted voice ‘‘Where is the jewel of power?’’ I told it I had no idea, but it didn’t seem to believe me. ‘‘Do you think I am a fool? Maybe this will convince you to talk.’’. He grabbed my wife and… and ate her in front of me.’’

The commander was trying to hold his tears, hold his pain.

‘‘I couldn’t talk, I was weak, I couldn’t do anything but it let me go. It let me run away. Why? Why didn’t it kill me just then and there?’’

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Witnessing his mental breakdown Emily felt like she couldn’t just sit there and watch so she started calming him down.

‘‘Don’t push yourself now, you’ve told us enough.’’

What seemed to be an officer came to them.

‘‘He saw the leader of the cult of the Rising. We call him the Blue Eyes. His name casts fear in every soldier. He is an alien-like creature with alien-like powers. We suspect he may come to this attack and if that happens you will be evacuated immediately, we cannot risk any lives.’’  

‘‘What about the soldiers?’’

Asked Nick from curiosity only to get a harsh answer from the officer.

‘‘They have signed up for the army knowing they might die. It is a risk they took. A lot of them may be able to escape, but most of them will inevitably die. But this is theoretically talking. The Blue Eyes might not come at all. If he does do not, I repeat, do NOT try to fight him. For now, we seem to be pushing the cultists out of the city.’’

Faced with the raw truth our heroes couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

‘‘Commander, let’s take you to a bed to relax.’’

Said the officer only to be met by:

‘‘I’ll kill them all. I’ll slaughter every last one of them’’

The commander disregarded anything and everything and launched towards the front. Had he gone out of his mind?

‘‘Commander!’’

He was followed by the officer.

An explosion followed soon after. Looks like they are on the battlefield.

‘‘Hey, do you think they’ll be able to push them back?’’

A question from Emily answered by Nick.

‘‘I think they will, but judging by what has happened so far the cost will be high.’’

And it indeed will be. A thousand people have already died.

Smoke was covering half of the city and anything in it was barely visible. Only magic could be seen through these thick layers of darkness. Nick spotted an opening in the smoke from which they saw the commander murdering cultists like he was crazy. With a huge smile on his face, it was truly horrific.

As their hoodies fell you could see they were actual humans. The reason they joined remains and will probably remain unclear. In fact, anything about the cult of the Rising is unclear.

Suddenly, a victory scream enchanted the fields. Looks like a large part of the cultists have retreated. Though it seemed strange. Why would they retreat? Maybe reinforcements will come later. Maybe another full-blown attack.

However, it seemed like the commander and officer were coming back.

A strange chill ran down the spines of the soldiers, a victory long awaited. Most of them trembling at the site of the destroyed city, a plethora of mixed emotions and feelings.

They fired into the air, happily returning with victory when…

The sky lit up as a mysterious figure launched at the commander with the speed of light. Bringing him to the ground and on impact flattening everything in a radius of about half a kilometer.

Large rocks, houses were sent flying in the air as if they were little stones. The shockwave knocked everyone on the ground as the sound almost ruptured eardrums. Even more smoke has arisen. Now covering the whole city. A black figure could be seen through it.

It let out a distorted, otherworldly laugh.

Nick regained consciousness and could make out a color. A color he was told to be wary of, a color of life, a color of death. One color to define a whole personality.

The color blue…