-||-

“OH GODS’ SACRED! THE FLAMES! J-J-JU-JUST TAKE HIM! NOW! JUST TAKE HIM NOW! LEAVE ME AND JUMP!” so shouted and implored yet another mother, burned profusely, shoving her crying baby, somewhat burned themself, into the foreigner’s arms.

Flames. Regular, yet still…exceptionally potent, had utterly devoured this housing facility. It was almost impossible to climb, never mind enter properly. The flames were on the verge of devouring this room and them along with it. There was no time to save both.

The foreigner nodded; holding the infant tightly in her arms, close towards her chest, she leaped out and down…her back facing the ground as she fell, the mother’s horrific and torn screams of being eaten by the flames…heard by all around. She landed right into the hands of those congregated below, who swiftly set her down…now standing on her own boots.

“Gods’ sacred toilet! Where in all the thousand realms are the shitting GRIFFONS?! Harassed our ears all fucking week only to disappear when they are needed most!” a denizen lambasted in utter frustration; “how many more must become motherless before their sackless tails grow a chivalrous pair?!”

The denizens were frustrated. Despite the fact a young life had been saved, it felt incomplete…to have left the mother behind to die…in such a way. Yet, there was nothing that could be done. That building was toasted and utterly roasted; with nothing left to devour, the flames were now destined to wither on their own. All they could do now…was move on and continue their work, for indeed…there was still so much needing to be done.

The foreigner looked around…this infant of sorts still in her arms, she was looking for a far more…qualified individual to handle such…affairs. Such a strange, squishy, and…whiny thing, these infants were. She noticed a male denizen, however, one who was staring at her…or rather, the infant in arms…hmm…was he interested, perhaps?

She quickly headed for him; “Here take…this” she said upon approachment, handing the motherless infant to this more…suitable other, who promptly…accepted and gently took the baby into his own arms, attempting to calm them. “Do you know…where the other…erm…‘parent’, is?” she inquired.

“You mean ‘is father?” the denizen replied; “Yeah…I know ‘im…I lived ‘ere too, after all—ahem—yeah, but uhm…sure, yeah, I can…I mean, I know ‘im…so I can…I can…take ‘im, no problem” he said, staggered lament clearly in voice; “ ‘e’s not gonna be ‘appy…to ‘ear, she was a…she was a good woman…Gods’ sacred…least ‘is kid survived, thanks to you” he remarked.

The denizen began to depart off and away, still trying to sooth the crying infant as best he could; “Thanks again, seriously…”

The foreigner sighed as her attention disengaged, her own mind somewhat…unsatisfied with the outcome of this.

Though…she could not lament too much. No doubt, this sudden act of…offensive aggression…was some direct consequence of the denizens’ own…squabbles and other such…all too expected…denizen-doings. Truly, denizens were always ones so prone to bringing about horrors and catastrophes to themselves, and all for the sake of their own…abstractions and imagined concepts.

Though, such realities did not imply…that being in the presence of such affairs and happenings…did not sting. Indeed, she certainly hated being in a situation…where she had to pick between who to save and who to forsake; she detested being in such situations, in fact. Truly…such…really did sting so deeply down within.

Yet…at the least, here she was…helping—within the constraints of her allowances, regulations, and protocols, of course. Ten, maybe…twelve souls…she had directly saved from such burning fates so far. By this point…her arms, limbs, and skin had become rather burned; yet of course, wisping and flaking off of such burned and injured sites…was that ever-so barely visible cyanic dusty radiance; indeed, her skin would be, slowly but surely and only to a point, repaired like new in due time.

The denizens themselves hardly seemed to pay much attention to these…exotic quirks of hers—provided that they even noticed them. There was, of course, periodic staring…albeit not just because she was a rather exposed lady—the full-cloak was doing its job. Rather…indeed…her cyanic ignited eyes was what seemed to capture the attention of their own eyes’ glaring sight.

By now, the foreigner had become well aware that she had not donned her masquerade before dashing out into this burning city; her face and eyes were fully exposed for all eyes to see. But given the utter situation at hand, she could not provide a single irrumating fuck in regards to such a reality, to be quite frank; though, she certainly felt rather…uncomfortable being maskless—very much so, in fact.

The foreigner, not wanting to linger doing nothing, started to follow along with a collection of denizens who were making way to a destination of sorts.

She began to cough somewhat, however, for this air…was so hard to breathe; that strange…weak and disorienting feeling in her only felt like it was becoming worse. Being around so much water, also, seemed to…enact some kind of…strange primeval…thing inside of her…which she so desperately tried to suppress and ignore; she had not any the time at all to deal with her own wildering…shenanigans.

BOOM.

Everyone froze in place from piercing surprise, many instinctively ducking. A large echoing boom suddenly detonated from far off and away, yet despite the distance…the shockwave, while not powerful, could still be somewhat felt. A colorful explosion and residual cloud rose from the origin site, alongside a myriad of lancing fireworks firing randomly into the air, exploding and detonating haphazardly.

“Trinity’s damnation! Another one?!” so loudly remarked a denizen.

“Gods’ sacred shit-bucket…if those firework depots are starting to blow, it’s only a short pass of time until…the armory and Company depot do as well…” another denizen remarked, eyes glaring in the direction of the inner-walls.

“I’m surprised those haven’t went kaboom already…but…keep focused, we’re in the outskirts, not the interior…so none of that’s our problem” so replied another.

Indeed…such has been a common occurrence over the past…however long or so she has been at this. Storage zones and depots containing fireworks, gunpowder, and other such concentrations of relevant boom-things…have been periodically chain-detonating in mass, fires having spread to their locations, creating a new wave of causalities along with…their own array of quirky flames—those arcane-imbued fireworks especially.

The denizens, having recollected their bearings, began to make way once again, the foreigner trailing close behind. Panting and coughing, many began to wear improvised face-coverings made from clothing or other cloths. Yet, nonetheless, they all still struggled to breathe this…putrid ashen air.

No matter how hard they struggled and tried, everything seemed to be getting worse and worse minute by minute, second by second.

The sky especially was almost as if it itself had been set ablaze; the wind was blowing all of the strange…charged smoke from the flames burning in absolute fury behind the inner-walls…carrying them into the outskirts; some of the smoke-turning-fireclouds were starting to emit lightning and thunder as their concentration increased.

Truly, such was a constant reminder to all those in the outskirts…that everything befalling them here…was even worse behind the inner-walls.

-|-

“Water! We need more water!”

“It’s no use!” This is…this is demon-fire, ain’t it? Nothing can extinguish it! We’ll just burn ourselves in steam!”

“ ‘Ave you tried piss!? I ‘eard that works for these sorts of fires!”

“YES! WE HAVE! BUT IT’S NO USE!”

“HWELL, KEEP TRYIN’ THEN!”

Shouts. So many frantic shouts echoed and bounced, such sounds being chased only by equally frantic coughs. Denizens hurled bucket after bucket of water into the…violently energized…nasty-red flames which were devouring away at a building—occupants presumed dead.

Yet all of the water hurled…sparked violently in the flames, turning into hot torched steam that would sometimes blow right back to those around.

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“HOLD, WE GOT MORE WATER AND ARMS!”

The foreigner and the others along whom she was closely trailing quickly made way, arriving to this scene at play. The others swiftly went into action, joining the rest in their futile quest to extinguish this strange fire.

The foreigner, however, halted in place…staring and inspecting, watching the denizens struggle; indeed, now that she was up close to these strange nasty-red flames…she was able to truly see…just how nasty-looking those they were—unlike anything naturally existent, most certainly.

These putrid flames sparked and crackled in reactive violence to the air and materials around, the smoke generated being reactive, charged, and atypically ionized—never mind full of scorched carcinogens. Though, the foreigner evaluated…coughing from the air around…her mind was weak, her body felt as though it were slowly shutting down…but she could still cogitate…and based from what she had seen so far, she could make some deductions and inferences.

She cleared her mind, focusing as she began to…analyze what she could.

Hmm…these nasty-red flames, the way they burned and…hmm…indeed, they were most likely the product of an extremely violent arcane combustion process—it was highly unlikely any of these primitives had the technical methods to produce such a thing beyond the arcane.

Her best guess was that the…catalyst of this combustion ignition…was likely a slow and violent so-called ‘transmutation’ process involving a highly reactive arcane-sourced compound converting with ‘regular’ carbon-based materials, such as the wood of these buildings, leaving behind more ‘exotic’ or ‘exotified’ residual substances and compounds…and energy, both of which likely only further fueled this strange arcane fire—which would make it almost self-fueling, oddly enough.

Such could potentially explain not only the exotic and ‘charged’ or ‘energized’ properties of this fire, but also the sheer…heat radiating from it.

Indeed, even at the distance she was standing at…she could feel the torched heat; the denizens themselves who were closest looked as though their skin was being slowly cooked overtime. Well…on the bright side, at least this reactive process was not generating dangerous radiation—something she would be able to vaguely tell if existent, even without proper equipment.

Hmm…yet regardless, due to the chemical and ‘transmutative’ nature of this violent reaction at play generating these nasty-red flames…the direct spread and growth of this strange fire…should be rather slow compared to ‘regular’ or ‘normal’ fires—at least initially.

These nasty-red arcane flames themselves were likely being driven by the initial igniting agent combusting into a fire which facilitated this violent transmutative conversion with the ‘regular’ materials around, creating exotified byproducts that further reacted with said materials, thus further fueling it. This direct spread was contingent on the spread of the reactive byproducts of this transmutation reaction, which was a slow…even if violent…process; otherwise, it would simply lose its exotic properties as it spread, devolving into a more ‘normal’ fire.

However, the more residual byproducts were created, the more transmutation reactions would take place…meaning that…the longer these exotic flames burned, the more extreme they would become and the faster they would grow.

Yet despite that, the immediate problem with these exotic flames so far, at least from her observations, was not really the flames directly as much as…the fact that they sparked and crackled all over the place…the strange smoke generated being full of energized, reactive, and toxic particles, and was about as hot as the flames themselves. The simple presence of this nasty-red fire…was enough to ignite more regular fires all over and around its periphery.

Likewise, judging from the futility of these denizens’ efforts, ordinary fire containment methods were also very ineffective. Indeed…some serious stuff would be needed to contain this—stuff that these denizens clearly did not have.

Hmm…yet, however ‘exotic’ and ‘arcane’ these flames may be, they were still flames—fire was still fire; thus, even this exotified nasty-red fire still operated under the typical defining properties.

Fire, ultimately, was a chain reaction involving three essential factors: fuel, heat, and an oxidizing agent—such as, say, the oxygen in the air around. Disrupt any of these and the fire cannot sustain its existence and the chain reaction would be extinguished.

Hmm…she began to cogitate…as she observed the denizens’ struggle ever-more.

If there was no way to directly inhibit the arcane-imbued reactive compounds driving this entire process…and if the heat was too intense for water or other related means to dissipate easily, then the other alternative would be…removing or denying the oxidizing agent…that being the…very oxygen in the air. Clearly easier ordered than executed. After all, there was no simple magical way to just materialize an entire vacuum-containment field around these flames to either…

Wait…magic…

“Mages…are there any of the mages here?” the foreigner suddenly blurted out, rather audibly too.

“Huh?” a denizen—one who seemed to have taken the initiative in pointing and telling others what to do—snapped his attention to the foreigner, glaring; “What’s a lady doing out here?! You need to get out of this city!” thus he lambasted, stomping his way to the foreigner, stressed and irritated; “ ‘Do we have mages?’, you ask stupidly woman! If we had mages, they’d be using their fancy magic to extinguish this Demon-shit already!”

The hooded foreigner turned and stared, glaring at the denizen who stompingly approached, which immediately caused him to pause frozen in place, his eyes staring into her ignited own.

“W…what the…?” he mumbled out, tilting his head as he simply stared…before snapping out of it, shaking his head. He approached closer; “…sorry, uhm…I didn’t mean to be so…rude there” he…said, somewhat timidly; “but, and I say this with…respect, but you’ve got them fancier divine caster-eyes, right? Don’t you have any…Gods-given powers that can make this shit less shit?” he inquired, somewhat awkwardly.

The foreigner’s cyanic eyes…evaded down and away somewhat, before glaring back at him; “If I did…I would have already…used them; I do not have any of these ‘powers’ that can save so easily, only cause more of the problems” she replied…somewhat flatly but also somewhat sincerely.

The denizen nodded his head; “Yeah…exactly” he mumbled in reply…both being in realization of the rather…silliness of the questions asked.

Ugh, truly…she hated feeling so utterly…ineffective and useless. What could she even do to alleviate this situation? Search and rescue…right…right, let the denizens handle the fires, her priority was extracting any who were still trapped.

“Keep watering! I think it’s shrinking!”

“WHERE ARE THE NEW BUCKETS AT!”

“I can’t breathe in this shit! Gods’ sacred toilet…”

“IGNORE THE DEMON-FIRE! IT’S USELESS! TRY SNUBBING THE OTHERS BEING CAUSED!”

Thus, the shouting persisted, yet suddenly…a noise. They all froze and paused, staring. They all knew…that specific sound.

“OH DEMON-KING’S FLAMES! IT’S COMING DOWN! EVERYONE BACK, NOW!” a denizen frantically shouted.

They all scrambled to withdraw as fast as possible. The foreigner, realizing in kind, snapped out of her thoughts as she too began to withdraw along with the rest.

The enflamed building crumbled and collapsed, spewing and flaring nasty-red flamed debris all over and around; a cloud of torrid carcinogenic dust and ash flowed through the streets and paths around as if it were a wave; yet the nasty-red flames continued to burn the pile of rubble left behind…having not even been extinguished by the building’s own collapse.

Coughing and vomiting, the denizens caught in the cloud-dusty wave of toxic ash and scorched dust clenched their ravaged throats, choking as if their lungs were burning, some passing out…others perishing—suffocated and torched from the burning putrid cloud.

New fires, both regular and putridly arcane…began to combust into ignited fury due to the flaring debris and clouded heat. The denizens, covering their noses and mouths as best they could, scrambled to put them out before they could grow and spread and feast.

The foreigner, having been left unaffected…largely, halted and stared back. She coughed from all of the added…stuff…now in the air; she was dizzy and lethargic, extremely so. None of this felt proper at all; she felt too dizzy, too fatigued, too incapable…and it was not simply due to the air around. She was…starting to perhaps vaguely tell…something was wrong with her.

“Hey you!” a denizen abruptly called out with a hailing wave; “I’ve seen you climb, you won’t be useful here! There are some people trapped in a building a few blocks down! This way!” he shouted with a waving hand.

The foreigner immediately nodded and headed straight for him. Arriving, he began to swiftly make way; she followed next and near…trailing along many others as they made way.

The denizen glanced as she followed next to, albeit slightly behind, him. “Thanks for all the help you’ve been, don’t know what…God you’re the spawn of…if any at all, stranger, but uhm…you’ve got our thanks” he said in thanks; “most of time, you divinely endowed bunch always ignore us mortals” he remarked.

The foreigner’s deeply bagged eyes glanced in kind; “I am just doing…what is my…duty” she replied frankly, her breaths…somewhat tired.

The denizen, struggling to breathe the air but still persevering, tilted his head; “You don’t look too well…you alright?” he inquired, observingly.

“Of course…do not worry for me” the foreigner bluntly replied.

The denizen simply nodded away, not too interested in questioning her. Yet, as he looked at her…his eyes could not help but find themselves drifting astray…as they ended up glaring at more…exposed areas of her figure. “Huh…whoa, that’s a……yeah, I can see why you’re so good at climbing now…and moving about…wow, aren’t you a…huh” his thoughts escaped his mind.

« … » the foreigner simply stared at him, dead blank and flat affect in all ways.

Realizing, the denizen froze in mind…before stumbling, nearly tripping, as the grandest of all flustered blushes suddenly intruded upon his face. “Wow! My mouth just ran on its own right there! Didn’t mean to—you know, no disrespect, of course! I was simply admiring your—a-and I don’t mean to be implying—” he was trying to frantically clarify…but “This does not matter to me, let us continue to move” the foreigner interjected bluntly, unaffected.

To be so stunned and flustered by a half-bare figure of their own species, truly, denizens were so very bizarre in such incomprehensible ways; yet she still wanted to save as many as she could, nevertheless; such had been…after all…one of the points for everything…all those many ancients long ago…

Though, I wonder…Remnant trooper, can you truly help others,

When you have neglected yourself so?

After all, grand collections of rotting corpses

Always seemed to fail

In bringing salvation to the living