Disaster, More Disaster

Whooolooooshhhh- PLOOPP- BAAAANG!! Whoosh whoosh- whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh. Boom, bang, paaam...

"!!!" Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have any chance to react as the structure before him was cleaved into two. The windy, shapeless figure above it, growing several kilometers each second, suddenly went to the ground and destroyed the building. Strong, gigantic, and long-lasting wind blasts descended and spread everywhere, immediately turning the City's center into a flat desert with any structure nearby flown away in smaller debris. Students, civilians, and even Heian Ciemnosc and his Concealed Ornament Team faced this very same predicament, and so up close.

Pshift- WHOOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSHH… Heian Ciemnosc immediately sent his dark Power Energy to the right. His Vocón Link was also summoned to increase the speed it could go. He wasn’t a Spirit Formation realm cultivator yet, so he could only let his dark Power Energy fly as much as he could run on the ground. His dark Power Energy traveled fast. It quickly touched and spread through his COs before doing the same to his team members.

It first reached Esteban, whose eyes shockingly looked to his left as the dark Power Energy covered around his eyes and whole head. Passing around him, it connected with Fengli and Sakura. Their upper back was traced by the dark Power Energy as it continued forwards. Violet was reached, her left hand semi-opened, and her arm extended to welcome it. But her face was startled and hopeless even. Aleksander ran towards the dark Power Energy as it enveloped Oleg and Victor. When the dark Power Energy hooked Aleksander, who tightly held onto Gloria, it instantly shot towards the rest of the team members and spread farther away. The other teams and groups weren’t even attempting to be held by the dark Power Energy.

PLAAAKKK- Whoosh-whoosh whoosh WHIISTLEEEE~!! Whistle, whoosh… thu-...

And just as Heian Ciemnosc covered the last 80th Concealed Ornament Team member besides the COs and himself, he felt his unprotected body receive the blast, another, and many more as he was flung backwards. Heian Ciemnosc could see, with his Spirit Sense, everything that happened as the disaster unfolded from the City center to its walls.

Everything around him before, but now before him, was leveled to the ground, and even the sand grains hidden under buildings were pulled into the skies. Everything behind him was also being continuously destroyed. Each wind blast was hundreds of meters wide and dozens of kilometers long. There were thousands all over the City and going everywhere!

Heian Ciemnosc was struck by several with each passing second. His body, even as mighty and durable as it was and could grow to be, began cracking and convulsing from the inside as dark blood churned everywhere, even beneath his skin. As he flew backwards, the back of his head leading the trajectory as his body was brutally beaten in midair, he could see a few more substantial but smaller wind blasts pass through several different directions on the streets.

Wheeeeesh- PLAMMM!! WHOOSH, CRACKK- FWUOOOSHH- BAM BAM BAM!

They flew and lunged at the walls, destroying them at once the moment they were reached, splattering humongous debris and chunks of its structure into the sky before being consumed by more wind blasts. Even the City wall facing Heian Ciemnosc’s back was pulverized with a single peculiar wind blast, decimating many lives hiding or showing around there, leaving not even the wall’s foundations intact and erasing them from the ground.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have to spend much time flying backwards and being hit. He was only bashed through the air for several tens of kilometers before being struck down by another round of wind blasts as they came from the sky to the ground, directly striking the entire City for several minutes without end. For a time, not so long but definitely not short, the sounds of the earth suffering the hammering of this Disaster’s havoc went on to everyone’s despair.

… Heian Ciemnosc had fallen onto the ground and lost consciousness as soon as he did, the back of his head, torso, legs, and feet breaking apart a good portion of the land, previously known as streets. But he never let go of the connection between himself and the dark Power Energy sent to his Concealed Ornament Team. He tried doing his best to keep it up. He couldn't tell if it was still working as he tightened his fists.

‘!!’ Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc woke up and opened his eyes. Its white sclera were bloody, and the veins around it looked dismal. Heian Ciemnosc stood up as soon as he realized he could move but immediately noticed that… he wasn’t awake…

Looking around, he saw himself in a desert with only hills and dunes filled with desert and nothing more. Not even earth or solid, flat ground. There was no life. However, there were many images flashing and glowing beside him that, at the same time, looked so far away he could never reach them. Heian Ciemnosc began walking through this ‘place’ as he looked to his left and right, turning his head with his back slouched.

The images around him didn’t have a sound. But with his Spirit Sense and enhancing it, Heian Ciemnosc could understand what they were saying, feeling, and hearing. Some of these were tinted under a blue hue and were all from civilians, seemingly suffering. Heian Ciemnosc could tell some of them were from the recent events, as the hidden forces, the Academy’s enemy, let them rot in cells and small rooms in their own residences. Slowly dying and even forcing a few to cannibalize over their own families or strangers before also dying.

Most cultivators weren’t aware these things happened. They simply let the civilians chosen to suffer and die next in their respective ‘cells’ until a month later to retrieve the bones and put another group there. For whatever reason, never was a person who started killing and eating others from the beginning, ensuring he had enough breathing space and ‘food’ to sustain themselves. The cultivators always found bones and decomposing corpses, mostly from adults and teenagers, never from children or pre-teens.

But some other scenes from the same hue were from the distant past. Strangely, another portion of them was the same as these ones. But they were either more brutal or straight-up public denigration of life. The last cut of these images, tinted under a sad blue, was that of souls… These weren’t the Souls any living being can automatically gain when breaking into the Spirit Rebirth realm, reminding Heian Ciemnosc of the times he met ghosts.

They grieved, wondered, were hurt, and begged for justice to no one but themselves in the void of all life. When Heian Ciemnosc finished comprehending all this, his steps going under the sand and his instep almost covered by the sand around them, he stopped and looked at the front with his body slightly bending forwards. With his left hand slowly, softly clasping at his left chest, a thought penetrated his mind. ‘Why is this… Did something happen to… the world? The… reinc… agh, it hurts… I don’t know!’

After feeling his chest’s unexplainable pain, Heian Ciemnosc continued trekking forwards, his feet sinking into the sand a millimeter whenever he kept looking around.

The following images attracting his attention had a red hue but appeared somewhat pink and exotic. Heian Ciemnosc initially halted his steps to take a better look at the respective tinge on these images before resuming his walk, with his heart feeling twinges of pain every time he felt his feet sink further into the sand. These weren’t from civilians, but they contained citizens in addition to cultivators. Each represented a death, a falling cultivator or citizen under their guns, or a vehicle.

Heian Ciemnosc first watched as many faces he recognized from the initial 200,000 in his army died around him nonstop. Then, newer faces appeared from the 430,000 and the last batch of student troops the Academy sent them along with resources. After these came to be, Heian Ciemnosc yet again saw the deaths of other student troops. These weren’t from his time, nor from the 10 year war. The reason Heian Ciemnosc knew this… was because these images were still from the Blackotia Kingdom with his Spirit Sense.

He saw countless prodigies and even a few Academy Geniuses falling one after the other, each taking their time to fall and become wasted flesh and shit for the soil underneath. But also nutrients to the pure energy environment. The uniform was always of the same style, but not completely identical, and most of the gray robbed members always had a toll for tens of millions of deaths to even a couple hundred in the worst situations.

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Heian Ciemnosc’s face relaxed, but his eyebrows lowered, and his eyes were curious but suspicious as well.

The twinges of pain increased, forcing Heian Ciemnosc to clutch his left chest with his left hand as his right-handed fingertips tried stabbing his abdomen from the pain. So far, this was the unique, first, and only time he felt this much pain, forcing Heian Ciemnosc to instinctively inflict more pain on himself to endure it. His body bent so much he almost looked to be crouching on the sand, his shins already engulfed by the sand, but he continued trekking forwards.

After the red, exotic pink, and the sad blue hue images were the light, pale green scenes. These 3 types of images were all over the place, not following a patron, simply disordered in the skies and around Heian Ciemnosc. These had no more living people within them, nor any structure of a City, warring vehicle, or the emotions of the many deaths and souls of the felled. It only consisted of… nature.

The images represented scenes and landscapes. Some were so beautiful they entrapped Heian Ciemnosc’s attention for a while. But others were vastly desolate and lifeless without an ounce of meaning. In every single light, pale green image, a mix of wills assembled into a single one but without any form or shape. After glancing in the direction of these for a good while, Heian Ciemnosc stopped the sand up to his knees and wore a magnified expression.

‘Was the Disaster called upon… by the Blackotia Kingdom’s residents themselves?!’ Heian Ciemnosc thought. But just as he did, his heart started crazily hurting, forcing him to his knees as half his waist was buried under the sand. But Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes were bloodshot, and he kept clasping his left chest… until his left-handed fingertips stabbed into his own body!

… In a desertic land, flat and without any structure in a couple hundred kilometers radius, sandy dust floated up and down in waves and everywhere. It wasn’t like waves, but as if levitating through waves. This gigantic sandy cloud misty wasn’t obstructing the sight, and even a civilian could see through until the Kingdom’s curvature. However, it would get into one’s mouth if one was not careful. It was strange.

Pat, thud- tutum, swish.

“Gaaasp!” Heian Ciemnosc felt his back tapped by someone’s hand before being pulled up. His semi-tattered cloak lifted him a little, and as if his body was so heavy that his lungs were flattened simply by resting upside down, he gasped air into his lungs as his bloodshot eyes opened. He first crossed his arms on his chest before pressing himself against the ground, raising to his feet and expelling the ton of sand previously covering his body.

Step, thud- thud, step. Heian Ciemnosc almost failed to regain balance, but his feet were sunken instead of tripping over. He looked down as his body almost lost balance and recomposed himself, his heart hurting and his head dizzy like never before. After gaining a foothold, he placed dark Power Energy under his soles before finally stabilizing himself on the extensive pile of sand. Looking around, Heian Ciemnosc found his ‘savior’ to be a ragged Cari with muddy stains on his body mixed with dried blood.

“My team,” Heian Ciemnosc said, his face becoming cold and somewhat ragged. Cari looked at the teenager with some loss before looking to his left. Heian Ciemnosc followed his gaze and looked to the right, where he could see many surviving civilians and student troops carrying other Wrath Nihility Academy’s soldier units. Some were all his 7 COs, Gloria, and 80 team members. Heian Ciemnosc became relieved after seeing this, but only he knew about his feelings.

“What happened?” Heian Ciemnosc looked back into Cari’s eyes and semi-commanded, startling Cari a little before returning to feeling down. Cari’s voice was as stable as always but seemed dispirited. However, Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t care as he listened, “It was a Disaster; it was wind-based but conflicted with the Endless Desert Division’s strong Earth element. We had… just killed the enemy’s leader. Commander Lionel even took 2 mortal wounds to his body before cutting off his head.”

“... Commander Lionel perished. I’ve alerted the Academy about this, and they said…” Cari spoke, but his gaze immediately lowered. Heian Ciemnosc looked at Cari before slowly opening his mouth to speak. However, his words were sharp and cut Cari off. “We need to return. How much time has passed since the Disaster struck?”

“...” Cari looked up at Heian Ciemnosc. He felt this teenager suddenly became different and was no longer as bullyable as before. And also somewhat commanding. Cari nodded and said, “Just 20 minutes. It lasted about 13 minutes, and another 4 transporting ships became useless. The wind divided them into several slices. The others are incoming. We’re leaving a considerable of garrisoned units behind even though… they are not needed anymore.”

“There’s one coming. Are the others picking up people around the place?” Heian Ciemnosc looked into the sky, where a transporting ship was flying towards them at top speed. He asked Cari without looking at him, but Cari felt compelled to answer with a nod. “Some were flow outside the City and others even farther, several tens of thousand to be exact. Most were fine. The wind was too substantial and carried lots of pure energy. It must have felt like a soft pillow when they landed. But others don’t have a body like yours and perished upon colliding somewhere.”

Heian Ciemnosc looked around as Cari explained. His visage was expressionless but not indifferent or uncaring. He saw the City’s walls were mostly tumbled down and their structures long gone, probably having become part of the sand that piled up here and there. Most of the City was turned into a strange circular village surrounding the center of nothing. It was absolutely desolate to think there used to be people’s history here.

“Since you’re in charge, hurry and place everyone in the transporting ships. If even my team and I are getting into a vessel with our situation, then nobody will want to be left behind. Gather as many as possible. This war should be soon over, and most of our enemies should have been relocated somewhere. Leave enough to keep security so the civilians will feel safe. No time to waste.” Heian Ciemnosc left with a calm voice that would be otherwise cold if Cari didn’t understand a little about him.

Step, step, step, step… Cari looked at Heian Ciemnosc’s back for some time before looking into the distance. He seemed lonely and without anything or anyone around him, almost as desolated as the City, with more than half its inhabitants dying during the Disaster. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc walked to his team members. He went to each of them and ignored the civilians as he made their medallions heat up. He wouldn’t reveal information in front of civilians, much less now.

As Heian Ciemnosc reunited with his team, he walked them to the landing zone, which couldn’t be anywhere else in the middle, to wait for the transporting ship to arrive. It didn’t even take more than fifteen minutes for 300,000 student troops to form up, mostly injured but not grievously. However, even the severely injured ones were there and being treated as they waited for the transporting ship.

As the first transporting ship arrived, Heian Ciemnosc and his team were the first ones to board it, with Cari right behind them. He followed them close-by, intending to show the worried soldier units the importance of returning now. The latter didn’t disappoint as they immediately filled the transporting ship. However, not everyone could fill in, so only about 5 sub-commanders’ groups entered the first vessel.

A few minutes later, another transporting ship appeared in the skies before arriving at the desolate City. It landed and received the remaining student troops in the City before flying up to rush, side by side, back to the Academy’s territory with the first vessel.

Although the matter was urgent, the first transporting ship didn’t depart immediately, hovering 50 kilometers above the ground level, waiting for the second one to show up and line up to return at the same time. With Heian Ciemnosc’s inquiries and ‘advice’ to Cari, which were more like a command for the latter, all transporting ships were ready to meet up somewhere at the end of the Car Sub Division, where they first entered this war.

Once the 2 transporting ships were full of soldier units and the rest in the City became garrisoned units, they flew at immediate maximum speed, leaving harsh tremors on the ground even after soaring to heights over 100 kilometers above the ground. The civilians looked up only to see the transporting ships were no longer visible. And if looking in the direction they were facing, only the tiniest pair of dots could be seen by a cultivator’s eyes.

From the Endless Desert Division, transporting ships flew and picked up a few thousand or tens of thousands of garrisoned and soldier units before meeting at the southernmost side. After reuniting, all 6 transporting ships left the Endless Desert Division, leaving one behind in case of emergency and the likes of it.

This time, as the Division had been thoroughly come under the army’s hands, nobody was worried about them attacking or coming over to fight for freedom. The civilians looked up into the sky only to see a streaking group of blurry figures. But all they saw was the smallish engines’ contrails. The Academy’s win wasn’t spread throughout the Division yet. But it would soar the hearts and spirits of its inhabitants as soon as it did.

In just 20 hours after meeting up at the southernmost border of the Endless Desert Division, its Academy’s army arrived before the Academy’s territory. Without delay and according to procedures, even in the most extreme periods, the transporting ships were stationed more than 1,000 km away from the large Cities before they formed 10 groups with 90,000 student troops each.

Slowly but surely, they advanced towards the Cities and the evident massacre that occurred beyond its walls. Even though Heian Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense was only 16 kilometers in range, his eyes could already see the sea of corpses outside their walls. His group advanced to the Northern Lights City, the one north of the Academy’s territory, focused on trade, acknowledged as the ‘Store City’ by all.

…