Mor and Orth, who finally overcame his stupor, rushed towards the infirmary. They ran past the destruction of the fallen tower and past mumbling students. While running, they noticed a teacher trying to get some shellshocked students to move to a secure area.

°STOOOP!° The human shouted, and Mor slithered to a halt, Orth crashing into the suddenly stopping Mor.

°What?° Mor asked.

°The teacher! Ask him what's up!° The human ordered

°Teacher?° Mor asked.

°Yeah. You just ran by him!° The human said, exasperated.

°I didn't notice! I was just concentrating on running!° Mor said.

°Thought as much. You were too fixated on your task to notice your surroundings. That's why I stopped you.° The human said, and Mor nodded.

"Why did we stop? We need to find someone who knows what's going on and get to the infirmary!" a heavy-breathing Orth asked.

"Yes! We just ran past a teacher." Mor told his friend, and they both backtracked.

The teacher was still trying to get the stunned students to move, but no matter what he said or tried, they would just stare at him uncomprehendingly.

"Come on! Stand up. You need to get to the gathering hall. It will be save there!" He tried without success. Shaking the staring student.

Mor and Orth walked up to the teacher, and as Orth was still out of breath, Mor would do the talking.

"Sir! Can you tell us what's going on?" He asked the frantic man.

"What are you two doing here? Get to the gathering hall!" the teacher shouted at them.

"No! We can help. Please tell us what is happening!" Mor said decisively.

"What's the status of the infirmary? What about the students who were in the tower?" Orth suddenly interjected, but the teacher only shook his head, tired and sad.

"We are trying to get everyone out, but many are badly hurt. I don't know about the infirmary. But something must have happened, as we couldn't get in contact with a single healing adept. Still, this is a concern for us teachers. You students should just get to safety. Leave this to the grown-ups." The teacher told them, but Mor shook his head.

"We can't do that. Orth and I will help. The most important thing for now is looking at the infirmary's status. We can do that while you can save more students," Mor said, and the teacher thought for a moment, looking at the surrounding destruction.

"Orth? The Obsidian boy?" He asked, and Orth nodded.

"Okay, I agree, but promise, get to the gathering hall if you see something you can't handle. For all we know, a monstrosity could run rampant," the teacher said, sighing.

"Then we will take a look at the infirmary," Mor said, and both boys took off again, this time with a slower pace.

"Do you think it is a monstrosity?" Orth asked as they jogged along.

"I don't know. I hope not, but what else could it be?" Mor said.

°I have a bad feeling about this.° Added the human.

..........

The headmaster was still trying to get a complete picture, but the information was sparse. Many students and teachers were missing, and they still had no information on the infirmary.

He cursed, and his thoughts went to the two teachers he had sent earlier to inspect the infirmary. "Why were they taking so long?" he wondered.

.........

The entity laughed, slowly walking after a scrambling person. It was happy to finally be free, to finally, after so much time, be able to follow its nature.

The running person stumbled, fell down, and started to cry. "Why?" The person asked, tears running down their dirty face. The entity smiled in ecstasy. It loved those faces. It slowly bent down, grabbing its victim's face between its thumb and forefinger. Their victim cried out in pain and struggled as their cheeks got burned from the heat. Then, the cry was suddenly silenced as the entity burnt its victim to a crisp. "Why?" It asked, grinning wider than anything had any right to do. "Because it's my nature."

The entity sauntered on, looking for a new victim to burn.

..........

Ranbor stumbled after his foot got caught at something. He fell, his hands crunching into something black and burnt on the ground. In shock, he slowly retracted his hands and looked at what he had just fallen into.

His look conveyed only confusion as he tried to get the dirt off his hands. The dirt from this strange lump of black something. He slowly got back up again and followed the bloody, smoldering footprints before him like in a trance, hoping they would lead him to safety.

..........

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Mor and Orth finally reached the infirmary and saw the destruction wrought.

°What happened here?!° The human exclaimed, while Mor just stared, and Orth gasped in shock.

"The tower. It crashed through the ceiling." Mor said, looking around.

"The adepts!" Orth shouted.

Both boys ran forward, trying to take a closer look, as they suddenly heard someone call out to them and a second voice sobbing hysterically.

"Hey, you boys! I need your help!" the first voice shouted, and the boys walked over.

The picture before them was a strange one, as they were met with two teachers, one of them holding the other. The teacher being held was wailing in horrific hysteria, while the other just looked helpless.

"What's going on here!" Orth demanded to know. "Why are you just sitting here?"

"Well," the calmer teacher said. "We were sent here by the headmaster to look at the situation, but just when we decided to remove the debris. Then suddenly, Kyn here acted out. I wanted to calm her, but nothing I said could get anything out of her, so I decided to clear up this mess myself, but every time I let go of her and tried to channel my magic, she would cling and wail. Completely destroying my concentration." She stroked the wailing woman's hair, trying fruitlessly to calm her down.

"Okay, what can we do?" Mor asked.

"You need to take her to the gathering hall. She's not fit to help anymore, and I don't know what her problem is. We need to get her to safety. Then I can get rid of all that junk." The teacher explained.

The boys looked at each other for a second, then at the wailing Kyn, and nodded in silent agreement.

"You take her. You teachers can move faster than us. We can get rid of the debris. I'm an Earth affinity mage. We can do this." Orth said, but the teacher disagreed.

"This is no job for students. Do as I say!" She ordered, trying to untangle herself from the crying mess that her colleague was.

°I don't think she quite gets the situation. This Kyn teacher will keep clinging until she has calmed down,° the human said.

°Well, we could force her. She is probably a lot weaker than us.° Mor said.

°Yeah. Probably, but do you really want to deal with someone hysterical who can summon a fireball or something else? The best thing is to just let her.° The human layed out, and Mor winced.

The teacher finally freed herself from Kyn's grasp. She tried to get her to go with the boys, but Kyn would just cry and shout in hysteria, conjuring up a duststorm as soon as she was let go. Orth tried to intervene and moved to calm the woman, anchoring himself to the ground, but she wouldn't listen.

With a desperate shove, Mor pushed the other women to the crying Kyn, under loud protest, mind you, but that did the trick. As Kyn could hold on to the other teacher, the dust storm receded, and calmness settled in.

°Good thinking.° The human praised.

°It was a gamble.° Mor answered.

"You take her. We will look into what's going on with the infirmary," Mor ordered, and finally, the teacher nodded, defeated.

"Be safe, boys. I will be back as soon as possible or send help." She said, dragging the wailing woman away from the destruction to a more intact space. With a silent "pop," she was gone.

"Let's get to work. We need to free the entrance!" Mor said, and they got to work, shifting away debris and, in Orth's case, crushing bricks to powder. Mor was still saving as much energy as possible, only using some when shifting a wooden beam.

..........

Amber was cursing her luck. She and the other adepts were fine, but the door wouldn't open, and the rumbling had cracked the masonry. In addition, they could not leave by teleport, as the supporting runic circles were "cracked." It might still be possible, but she deemed it too dangerous to try it. Still, if no one came soon, they might have to take the risk.

"Why is no one coming?" She asked, and another Adept shrugged, trying not to panic.

"Amber! We need to teleport right now! There could be hurt students outside!" Another added.

"I told you no! Your safety is also important. If you get hurt by this, you can't help anyone!" She chided.

"I don't care! I want out of here!" The other said, and before Amber could stop the idiot youth, he finished his incantation and was gone with a sickening crunch instead of the usual "pop" or even the less controlled "whump."

"Do you think he did it?" The other Adept asked Amber, who looked concerned.

"I honestly don't know. I hope so." Amber sighed.

..........

Just as Mor shifted another beam, a crunching sound occurred, and the human called out in alarm.

°DODGE!° The human ordered, and Mor threw himself aside just in time to evade a bloody ball of crunched something.

"What is that?" Mor asked, and Orth looked in shock.

"I don't know?" He answered.

°You also don't want to.° The human stated, just as it dawned on the boys.

Mor grew pale and retreated to a corner, emptying his stomach at the realization. Orth didn't get that far. He just turned around, trying to hold back the bile with his hand and ending up puking through the gaps of his fingers.

After a few moments of calming themselves and trying to ignore the bloody clump, they returned to work. They worked more frantic, unable to concentrate on any spells but doing anything to prevent their attention from returning to the crushed body. Finally, they could see the door, blocked by the debris. They made only a small gap in all the rubble, just enough to let someone climb over and out, but they were now standing in front of another problem.

"How do we open this up?" Mor asked, shaken.

"I don't know. It opens outward." Orth answered likewise.

"Can't you just destroy it with your earth magic?" Mor answered, but Orth shook his head.

"Can't concentrate right now. Every time I close my eyes, I..." Orth answered, forcing down another raising of bile.

°How about you?° The human asked.

°Same as Orth, the second I concentrate, the pictures flood my brain, and my concentration is gone.° Mor answered, getting slightly greenfaced.

°Then no choice! Let's kick it with your strength!° The human ordered.

°How can you stay so calm?!° Mor shouted.

°Don't know? But remember, I'm probably also dead, so something like this doesn't seem to shake me,° The human said.

°I can't.° Mor whimpered.

°It's fine. I will do it,° The human said, and using Mors's body, they kicked with everything that lean body had to offer.

Amber looked up as loud bangs came from the door and walked over quickly.

"Who's there?!" She shouted.

"Amber?" Came the response of a familiar voice.

"Mor?" She asked back.

"We can't remove all the rubble. Can you somehow destroy the door?" The boy shouted back.

Amber almost scolded herself because she hadn't thought of that.

"Yes, get away!" She ordered, and the boys scrambled away.

Amber concentrated on her magic and let the door fall out of its frame. She only had to remove the holdings from the wall. Amber could make out the dirty and scraped-up forms of two pale and shaken boys as the door fell inwards. Still, she was delighted to see them.