45.

Something was wrong. Santi could feel it in the air as they walked back towards Homebase. A tense feeling of electricity that filled the air, the way the gateguards looked away and refused to meet his eyes. There was a tenseness to them, a fear in their eyes and Santi could feel his heart beginning to beat faster as a tendril of anxiety festered in his chest. He picked up his pace, stretching his legs at that thin tendril bloomed into something horrific.

“Santi, slow down,” Hana muttered as she was forced into a jog to keep up with him. Santi didn’t listen though, his heart telling him something was wrong. The air was whispered that something foul had come to his home. As he got to the last set of roadblocks leading to Homebase he saw fresh blood marking the ground and he broke into a sprint heading straight toward his home.

People were clustered around the front of the house and he could see the wide eyed looks of horror as Santi flew past them. The stench of blood was fresh in the air and he could hear the sobs of grief echoing out from the house. Santi cleared the doorframe and froze in horror.

That mass of blood and ruined flesh couldn’t be his Dad. No, no, no, no. Something broke in him, a loud crack that reverberated through his chest as a strangled cry died in the back of his throat. Mom sat perched over his still corpse, a blank look on her face as she held a limp hand.

Bianca was sitting, rocking back and forth with her weapon in a white knuckled grip. Tears streamed down her face as her jaw clenched and bunched, muffled screams coming from deep in her chest. Cameron stood behind her, jaw slack as he cried silently.

Mom looked up as he staggered to a stop, knees folding to collapse over what had been his Dad. He…he…he couldn’t see his Dad anymore. The life, the smiles, the warmth, it was all gone. Beneath the blood and bent limbs, the thing that had made him, him. It was gone. Just flesh, that’s what was left. Flesh was all that remained.

“No…no…I saved him. I. Saved. Him.” Each word was a nail in the coffin of his dream.

“It was Abraham. He came and took the riftheart. And Yessenia,” Helena’s voice came from some distance away. Santi could feel his world tilting, spinning away from him. He couldn’t breath, his iron control slipping and the mana that he kept wrapped around him in his spell form slipping away to suffuse the air around him.

“Yesi?” Santi croaked, his voice sounding far away as he turned to look at Helena. She clung to the back wall, the whites of her eyes wide as she gently touched her throat. Santi’s power continued to unravel, filling the space around him as a pulsing ache pounded behind his eyes.

“We have multiple reports that she was carried out with Abraham and his men.”

“And you didn’t stop him?”

“I lost nine men trying to stop him. They cut them down like dogs in the street. There was nothing they could do,” Helena defended her people.

“How many were there?”

“Over a dozen,” Helena whispered.

Each pulse of his heart spread the rage that burned inside until he felt like he was on fire. His thoughts raged inside of his skull. These useless leeches! Living in the shadow of his deeds, feeding themselves off the scraps of his table. Yet, they held not an ounce of loyalty, of respect, of duty!

Helena grasped at her throat, her eyes bulging as she struggled to draw a breath. All around him he could hear people trying to breathe, their choking gasps filled the room as Santi trembled with rage. He couldn’t control it, the way his mana and willpower seeped into reality and forced the air to a standstill.

He wept blood as delicate vessels broke under the strain of his power. He stalked out of the house, his roaring emotions impossible to contain. The minute his boots cleared the steps of the house the wind died. The air stilled as he trembled to contain the swirling emotions in him, the black pit that was breaking in his gut.

Stolen novel; please report.

Birds fell from the sky as the updrafts froze, landing with thumps on the ground as gravity stole them from the heavens. People froze as they suddenly couldn’t breathe as the air refused to budge. His screams resounded in his chest as he tried to contain it all. Santi grasped and pulled, drawing forth his power from the world, twisting it inside of himself as he bound his emotions tighter and tighter, deeper and deeper.

Eyes turned to look at him, pleading, desperate, afraid. He could feel their hatred as he made them small and weak, as he stripped them of the most basic necessity in the world. A lifetime passed in a slow moment and finally he reeled back his power and the air returned to normal.

The collective gasps and gulping breaths filled the street as people scurried away from him. He could feel the hot red tears sliding down his face. Bianca came up behind him, her arms threading around his shoulders and pulling him into her chest as he let out a godawful sob. Tears mingled with blood and created a bloody smear down his face as he cried.

“I have you, I have you,” Bianca whispered into his ear, squeezing hard enough he could feel his ribs creaking.

“Where? Where did he take her?”

“I don’t know. Helena and her people are tracking him, I think.”

“I need to go and get her. I need to make sure she’s safe,” Santi said. The unspoken part was known. He would get his sister back and he would end Abraham and all his followers.

“Helena!” Santi cried out, not bothering to disentangle himself from his sister's hug.

The older woman came out of the house cautiously and when he looked at her he saw her flinch. Something whispered that was wrong and that voice sounded just like his Dad’s. But it couldn’t be. His Dad was a broken pile of flesh in the living room.

“Where?”

“Headed straight toward downtown. He must have gone around you as you returned.”

“Get everyone together. Have the dwarves shape armor and weapons for those who need it. After you get it all, come and meet up with me downtown,” Santi gave his orders as he pulled himself free of his sister.

“What the hell, Santi? You’re going to leave without me?” Bianca had a tremor in her voice as she struggled with the rampant thoughts and emotions.

“Yes. I’m getting Yesi back and I’m doing it now. You can’t keep up with me. Follow after with the rest of the team.” Santi pulled away, too cowardly to face his Mother as he started to run.

He didn’t hold back as he retraced his steps. Each step sent cracks through the soft asphalt as he pushed himself harder and harder. He blew past Hana and Daniel who were just trudging in through the gates. Their stupefied looks were just a flash as he sped by them.

[Air Manipulation] parted the air in front of him and each push off created a gust to propel him forward. He hadn’t run like this in years, combining the versatile spells forms to reduce air friction and give himself a boost. He ran like he could outrun the truth.

Dad was gone.

He had tried. He had won. He had him back. And now he was gone again. Watery tears slid down his face as he screamed, not caring who or what saw him as he practically flew through their town. What was the point of it all? He had built this for them. For his family. For his future.

And it had been robbed. Taken from him. By one man’s insecurity. By one pathetic bug’s jealousy. He’d kill him. Abraham had signed his death warrant the moment he laid a hand on Santi’s family. Him and everyone of his followers. There’d be no mercy. The thought was both balm and fuel, soothing his grief in the inferno of his hatred.

The world blurred around him as he continued to speed up. His body was screaming to stop, but there was no stopping. He wasn’t going to stop until he took this pain and brought it to those who had given it to him.

He leapt thirty feet up onto an overpass, using a suburban as a launch pad. The truck exploded beneath him but he cleared the edge of the wide concrete river and landed in stride. The long overpass led directly to the heart of the downtown region.

A half dozen skyscrapers glittered ahead, the glass shining in the afternoon light. Santi leapt to the top of the divider and stared down at the downtown region. They hadn’t come this way earlier today. They had gone around and taken a more subtle approach, heading towards an edge of the downtown to look at entrance vectors.

Standing here with the sun in his eyes, perched above it all was a direct challenge. He knew they were there, the Primus and his troop were in there somewhere. Abraham and the others were in that tangled mass of concrete and steel. Santi didn’t know why Abraham had raced towards the heavily infested area. Didn’t care either.

[Air Manipulation] and [Gust] sent a roaring wind down and off the overpass and into the downtown region. Dust and debris picked up and flew down the canyon streets in a howling gale. For a second, there was an emptiness in the world as all sound fled. Then they came. The hoots and howls as the Primus monsters began to appear.