Micro woke up to the sound of explosions. Not a few explosions, but a lot of explosions. It wasn’t until she heard a scream that she knew anything was wrong as explosions were common in the under city of Maelstrom. Any who’d lived there like herself, as specially as a youth, knew that explosions came with street born cultivators. A path she’d nearly walked herself, and felt lucky to have avoided.
This better not be any of the new recruits I wanted to bring to Arson.
Micro was on her feet, kicking Khalif's and Oscar’s feet. The two had aided her on her mission from Arson, so far, but she worried over both their experience levels.
Well, Khalif’s getting better, and the better he gets, the better the other one seems to become naturally from what I’ve seen so far…
She looked between the pair with a glance, Khalif on his feet, a tilted head as he listened to his surroundings, as Oscar rubbed his eyes still laying down.
“Why does every day with you all have something going on? You have me party all night and now instead of the lounging around day of peace like I was promised, I am handed what sounds to be the sky fa—“Oscar cut himself off when Micro opened the door and saw beyond the dirty room he was in. Micro's eyes were locked in on everything her eyes could take in. She broke the situation down mentally as Khalif and Oscar collected their gear.
There are a consistent line of breaches above, and that threshold is widening by the blink…
An entire building had fallen from the city’s upper layer. The structure was intact and had sheared through the opposing half of the apartment building they were in. The view of a large area of the Under-city was visible from their elevated positions, and Micro was lost as to how any of what she was seeing was possible.
Daylight poured into sections of the Under-city that hadn’t seen sun in eons. Buildings rained down from above, many broken and scorched from what Micro assumed to be explosions. While some skyscrapers built to survive nuclear based attacks and accidents, remained upright until their inevitable crash landings into the Under-city. Though those more defensive and sturdy structures did not crumble, the damage they caused by staying whole was far worse.
“We have to move!” Micro yelled as she noticed a section directly above them crumbling. A large fissure spread above until a 100-story building teetered toward them; the sounds of roots breaking booming like a glacier falling into the ocean just before the apex of the building fell top first from above like a dart aimed right at them.
Khalif was already on a nearby rooftop by the time she looked back to check that they’d moved, and after seeing Oscar well into the distance headed toward Khalif, she vanished.
Micro performed a back flip, curling into a ball mid air, but instead of catching herself and extending her limbs for the landing, she held herself that way. Her body rushing to the ground toward her own growing shadow, which she fell through with a whoop of excitement.
Far above them was the roof of the Under-city. A tremendous amount of roots weaved into runes, and the now skydiving Micro who wanted to get a better vantage point, and managed to push her shadow transference skill further than she ever had before.
She hooted, and wiped away the blood that ran free of her nose. The cost of pushing her skill, beyond her access to shadow mana and life energy, made what she’d just done incredibly dangerous.
So much in fact that she knew performing another attempt at an equivalent distance was a non-option. As was even a far shorter attempt.
This may be bad.
Micro: I’m falling need an extract, Lif!
Khalif: where the embers are you!?
Micro pulled a tool she’d assumed would be useless from her spacial inventory, the pockets of her clothing now connected to her bag. She both realized that she had a parachute in her bag, and that it would be perfect, but remembered that she couldn’t pull the large bag from the tight pocket of her clothing without ripping the enchantments, thus losing access to the spacial inventory completely.
“Thank the maiden this thing uses ambient mana!”
Micro fired shot after shot as her speed increased and the ground below became more and more visible.
Khalif: Think I saw one. You're a little far but I’m moving your way. Just do anything you can to slow down!
“Yeah of course you would say that!” Micro kept firing until she realized she had a full sheet that she could pull from her pocket. The silky black material enough to make her at least slow down slightly and maybe even give her access to another resource that was normally abundant in the Under-city, but grew more rare by the moment.
Her training with Arson and the rest of her former gang was enough to give her confidence that she wasn’t out of her mind for what she was about to try.
Come on, Micro, move faster!
It was hard getting the sheet tied behind herself to her wrists and ankles as the wind rustled violently during her entire descent. She managed it a few thousand feet from the ground, and felt a slight relief when the large silk sheet opened up, her entire body yanked slightly upward with the updraft.
Come on, Micro, you got this!
Khalif: I don’t see the shots anymore, where are you?!
Shadows pooled at Micro's back while the sunlight above her was blocked by her makeshift parachute. She spread her arms and legs wide, and begun to manifest constructs. Dozens of miniaturized dragons created, flapping their wings violently underneath the sheet to the point that she rose rather than fell.
“Woohoo!!!”
…
Just before the first explosion…
Queen Amorra felt as if her plan was going to fail. Her last plan to attack Maelstrom had gone badly. Now she sat in the captain’s seat of her ship, waiting for a tribulation to strike her from the sky. Yet nothing ever came to stop her.
She’d roamed one of the outermost sectioned off rings within the CityNation, dropping her people within the boundaries of the halo, and let them work.
“Why were we detected so quickly by a a barely defended wasteland, but not inside the city limits,” asked Amorra more to herself.
“I suspect that you were misled on many accounts, Lady Amorra, and if I may speak plainly…?” Amorra gave her lead attendant a nod and the man continued to speak.
“Though this plan seems to be working so far, I think we may paint far too large a target on our backs. Though we seemed to have found a few flaws in their infrastructure, the areas that we couldn’t penetrate seem far too advanced for this lowly realm, my Queen.” Amorra nodded to herself in confirmation of a thought she knew now was reflected in the mind of one of the wisest person she’d ever spent time with, and to show that same man her agreement.
“There has been something off about this entire realm since we got here, but I agree. I’m moving this slowly, and with such drastic measures because of how I feel. I should no longer assume that lower equates to weak when dealing with this realm,” said Amorra. Her attendant smiled, and Amorra thanked the man. His service and reasonability was the only thing that kept her mind stable for the task at hand.
“Let's begin.” Queen Amorra rose from her chair, its majesty as regal as a cathedra of old from her realm.
With a wave, the air above her crew was filled with dozens and dozens of holograms which displayed Maelstrom from many different angles. All the cameras focused on random individuals, all trained from birth for this exact purpose. A reluctant family of women and men devoted only to destruction and the purest sacrifice.
No, these individuals weren’t mere bombers willing to give their lives for anarchy, but they were terrorists that were capable of entering a society, and leaving before the measure of their actions could be realized.
Amorra’s people had been constructing a bomb for days within the CityNation of Maelstrom. Troops dropped down to precise locations from incredible heights; all with the same mission. Plant a high powered mana stone next to a runic poster designed to look like ads or propaganda. The simple sheets holding countless runic formations embedded within the immensely fine pieces of paper.
Once triggered the formations would engage, and an attack with untold power would descend, the entire weapon made to mimic the weight of a Tribulation, or Heaven’s Breath.
There were only a few saboteurs left to plant their portions of the formation grid being used, when something Amorra never believed would happen, happened.
Amorra wiped away the screens that blocked her view of Maelstrom below. A dizzying gallery of footage disappearing to reveal a place beautiful enough that Amorra contemplated disengaging with completely, and maybe making the realm her new home.
The massive planet below her felt like a waterpark from her own homeland, only massively blown out of proportion, and potentially in need of some architectural regulations to create a sense of order.
This place could rival the majesty of the Mana Monarch Kingdom.
A device held loosely in her off hand, resembling the handle to a custom sword. A set of buttons triggered with a clenched grip, outlined in a soft light blue light, now connected to the lives of billions.
Her hand began to shake, and she got the report that if and when she was ready, she could pull the trigger on the bomb's deployment. Her attendant stepping away from her as he forced many who wanted to approach the queen while she was in thought. Yet the man knew this was a moment for silent contemplation. A break from the pressures of her people's expectations that he hoped would allow for her to change her mind. Meanwhile she hoped he would outright advise her not to follow through, or say no, and outright demand her to stop.
No one will save you from this Amorra. You must stop the plague that is Ikarus, and save his soul.
Though she had the thought to continue on, the boiling inner drive that told her that her actions weren’t large enough, even as they were now rose violently to the surface of her mind, and the detonation switch grew heavier and heavier in her hand. She lifted the device to see the uncontrolled tremble that took root there and grew alongside her apprehension.
The sight of the lives her people had walked passed had shown a brilliant blend of courage within poverty, happiness within environments without access to many common natural resources, as well as the inescapable touch of tyranny that could be found in any polluted populous.
I’m sorry for your loss, but the will of the heavens must be protected.
Amorra closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The trigger compressed easily in her hand, and Amorra braced herself for the worst to come.
Maiden forgive me…
Only nothing happened. A nearly unbearable silence was all she was left with, until she opened her eyes and looked back at at her attendant who already looked her direction.
“You’ve made a beautiful decision, my queen. Shall I prepare to gather materials for our journey home,” said the man making many assumptions, up until Amorra raised her hand and showed that she pressed the button, clenching her fist repeatedly. Her attendants features drained of color, and then one of the many crew members below yelled in alarm.
“Something is hacking our system. Remote triggering has been initiated. I don’t think I can stop this!”
Amorra looked into the eyes of her attendant once more before she tossed aside the trigger and cursed. An emergency broadcast signal being sent out to every viable machine or magical system that could receive it. A large hologram surfacing from thin air directly in front of Amorra and on every screen held on the captain’s deck.
“We are here for your Sovereignty. We are here for the plague held within your lands. We are here,” said Amorra. A video she’d pre-made for the attack now being used to paint the target her attendant had talked to her about only moments prior.
Originally she’d been digitally altered to be wearing a living mask that was made to mirror a mask she’d seen Arson wearing once. Yet in the video, no such alterations had taken place, nor was her voice changed to fit the ambiguous figure she’d tried to present herself as, instead, the words repeated endlessly, not even showing the entire video, which detailed her demands more thoroughly, leaving less room for panic to ensue.
“We need to move now!” Amorra got a bad feeling and looked around the vast view before herself, as air started to vibrate with an ever-growing intensity, and a purple light pooled in a massive ring above the city.
“Incoming!” The queen’s breath caught in her throat. Her heart beat so quickly she could feel it in her chest as her eyes locked in on the bomb known as Sanction 17 completed itself.
From their vantage point well above the city, so much could be seen. The twisting platforms that moved like flying tectonic plates which formed the planets surface. The incredible piece of land that seemed to be the Dump, enclosed by endless forests on each side. The platforms there either one complete body, or unable to separate or move far from each other. As well as the ring of condensed energy that would disintegrate anything it came in contact with.
The ring began to descend and though Amorra felt she watched it do so in slow motion, the entire outcome only took a few breaths; her heart racing faster than she could even blink.
The bomb meant to evaporate mana, and matter alike, ate everything it touched, storing power as the ring ate every bit of energy and material it crushed. The lighter the ring became as it fell was proof of the volatility they would soon all experience.
Buildings gone. Parks, and factories gone. Millions of lives lost, with much more devastation to come.
Once settled at its lowest point, an explosion shook the CityNation of Maelstrom from coast to coast. An entire planet shaken from exterior to core by a single well-placed attack.
A circular wave of devastation created a trench with toppled and scattered buildings in a breath; a once polished area, though impoverished, had been turned to ruins of their former restricted glory.
Enough screams were cast from the area below Amorra’s ship that they could be heard thousands if not tens of thousands of feet above the CityNation below. The cacophony of anguish enough to turn her stomach, and though she may not have caused the attack directly, she knew she was the cause of this, no matter who pulled the trigger.
“Prepare for war!”