After ten minutes of wandering Sam began questioning every decision that had led him to this point, to this place and time where he was just as strange as the Belua lurking in the shadows of baleful fires.

He hadn’t come across any of the creatures Alex reported were prowling and attacking defending DSF agents, but he’d heard them. Sometimes behind him, close enough that he’d snap his neck turning around to catch them sneaking up only to find black dust and the path he’d cut up closing up before his eyes.

The brambles lit themselves on fire as they grew behind him, sealing any and every obvious path out of the encroaching terror. There was no going back now, not that there ever was once he got on the plane, or when Alex asked if he wanted to save a country other than his own. After all, how could he say no? How could he be so selfish?

Could I have been? Sam genuinely wondered as another salvo of gunfire thundered somewhere in the mess of Manila’s apocalypse. He’d gotten used to the sound by now and set it as background noise to the environment. Ahead was Manila’s Doom Tower, peaking over everything in sight. It radiated an energy Sam was certain only he could feel, an energy that extended to every other strange occurrence.

The air was heavy with ash and some other dark particles, the kind left behind by the Belua he was sure was stalking him and disappeared every time he looked to see it. Floating on his tempered pane of glass with three others guarding his back and sides, Sam felt safe enough not to look over his shoulder at every point but still, for extra measure he reached out to the myriad of broken shards along the street.

Glass from sundered cars, destroyed offices and collapsed flowed into a jagged ball the size of a large beach ball. As of yet, this seemed to be the most glass Sam had commanded in one go, though most of the strain of his extended command came from the tempered glass Alex had provided, the ones he used as a saucer over broken terrain and a path maker.

The further Sam drifted into the city centre the more destruction and change he witnessed. Cars were hoisted upon massive tree branches like fruit and remnants of people— not their limbs or anything horrid— but clothes, bags and other everyday items a normal human would possess were littered across the many sinkholes filling up with sludge.

How could so many people leave behind their clothes?

Something wasn’t adding up clearly and Sam’s gut knew Belua had everything to do with it. He imagined the worse, the Belua perhaps whisking people straight out of their ripped jeans and devouring them without a trace.

But Sam had to trust the DSF agents assigned here were doing their jobs and evacuating the area; the Doom Tower itself had its own personal quarantine zone far from where Sam roamed now but the Tower Surge clearly disrespected any boundary they’d put up around it.

That then begged the question— Why aren’t the Belua attacking me? If Alex’s claims that merely being a descendant of past Regalia Wielder’s held any weight then it meant as a current Regalia Wielder he should be lit up like a beacon, drawing any and every Belua to rip out his throat or burn him like the fire sprites and two-tailed Jaguar and sought to.

Sam glanced over his shoulder, sensing a presence lurking behind him yet again. He bit his lip, not wanting to turn around only for whatever it was to disappear in a cloud of smoke. Instead, shards of glass thick enough to act as a mirror peeled off the jagged glass amalgamation he had floating in front of him. With bated breath he moved the makeshift mirror up until it reflected the view behind him.

Fuck… Sam’s heart caught in his throat at the baleful red glare of the ugly creatures behind him. Alex had described them aptly. There were two behind Sam, an unnatural horse headed man with an unsteady gait, one knee far below the other yet both legs were the same length. They were thin and muscular, the second crawled up against the ground, creeping ever close with its jaw salivating as it restrained itself from pouncing.

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As Sam blinked away from the mirror and met Nyx’s silent eyes, he was reminded for a split moment of cartoons and the ridiculousness the artists behind them could spawn. A human with a horse’s head was one such ridiculousness and yet, there were two stalking him now, skin pitch black as though covered in fur, eyes a murderous red.

“It’ll be alright Nyx,” Sam said, more for his own comfort as he looked back at the mirror and found a third horse-man watching from the convenient store rooftop he’d passed by a minute ago. They’ll only keep multiplying the further I go, they’ll corner me, overwhelm my glass once they have enough numbers.

Sam inhaled, exhaled and then sharply commanded his saucer to soar several feet in the air. He jerked from the sudden upward momentum, his back shield glass panes saving his life when he nearly fell off the saucer. As he climbed through the heights he unravelled the jagged ball of gathered glass as he flew higher. A terrible neighing rung after him, like a dying cry; a scorned predator.

He quickly gained altitude and the trees he flew over and their black flames grew in response, branches reached out and clawed. Sam ignored them all in favour of unleashing the rain of glass on the two that were nearest before he took off.

A large shard from Sam’s rain descended and stabbed the crawling horse-man’s hand, eliciting a scream like no other. Its companion lurched, uneven knees propelling it after Sam but two of his tempered glass shields barred it the chance, allowing it only wrathful scratches before it plummeted.

The wind grew cold and suffocating once he’d escaped the canopy of supernatural trees, only the tallest office buildings and the burning brambles curling all the way to their top were his equals in the sky.

Sam stopped, the sudden change of height dizzied him and though he kept deathly still and trusted his glass to his commands, it felt like his thumping heart and the howls of Belua carried by the sulphur scented winds would be enough to topple him from his glass saucer.

But…I did it! Sam thought, elated at his continued survival. He thanked Alex severally in his heart for her gift of foresight, the large, tempered glass panes had not only protected him but given him the ability to shift to higher ground. Sam doubted he could form a saucer with the varying shards of glass he’s used to form his jagged attack ball.

Pacing himself, Sam turned as he hovered. His escape to higher altitude now let him overlook the Belua that had been creeping and stalking since the moment he stepped through the boundary of the city centre. Below, his enemies were gathered.

The one he stabbed had already freed itself from his shard but was bleeding black, earth scalding ichor from the wound as it and its many companions glared up at Sam. There were more than he’d seen in the mirror, three more had materialized alongside the two that stalked him. There was another set of three atop the convenience store roof, two squatting and gnashing their teeth.

But Sam was safe, at least for the moment. Time to capitalize on the advantage. With a deep breath, Sam called on even more glass in the surrounding, pulling them out from the newly formed rivers that carved through the black flaming forest.

The horse-man Belua screeched as they watched his power rip out entire doors from their hinges, their broken glass fixtures and windows luring them into the air where Sam hovered with his set of tempered glass protecting him. As more glass rose to his command Sam readied himself to exterminate the Belua and fetched his Regalia from his backpack, ignoring Nyx’s soft meow as it read—

[Available RGP— 1880]

[Spend 100RGP to Bolster All Abilities?]

“Yes.”

[All Abilities Bolstered— Five Minutes Left]

Sam doubted he would ever get used to the rush of energy that coursed through his body as soon as he affirmed. His glass sense expanded, muscles bulged and the dark, burning world sharpened. The air even felt different on his skin and as blood pumped through his thumping heart, Sam dared to stand rather than sit on his saucer as he looked down upon the Belua that would soon become fuel to the addictive power he held.

The wind and smoke billowed the screeches and shrieks of his targets as they bounded forward, no longer sitting still as they seemed to sense his strength triple. They leaped from rooftop to rooftop, scaling the sides of buildings and some even climbing through the thicket of burning trees, flung and aided by the unnatural growths.

A second ago their scattering would have frightened him but now, he stood on high as a god among men and monsters. Glass from every inch of his expanded range answered his call, zooming into the sky while his eyes scanned and followed the closest of horse-men Belua.

With a lowering of his arms, the Crystal Rain began anew.