Mark’s eyes struggled to stay open as the ground approached through fuzzy vision. The air whipping past his charred tender skin felt strangely good and was the only reason he didn’t pass out. He was dimly aware that they were in danger but everything from his chest to his fingertips protested his wakfulness.
“-ARK! Sam! Guys you need to wake up, I can’t control group jumps yet!”
Cara’s distressed face hovered in front of Mark like a disembodied head. It took a moment to realize this was real, they were alive.
That snapped Mark out of it and into their current situation.
They were falling right back down into the flames below. From here Mark could only just begin to see the destruction the bomb had wrought. It had done exactly what Lisa had said it would. Cutting a hole directly into the city. It was still too soon to see the extent of the damage but they had certainly made a mess. Cracks spread down to the adjacent streets weakening and in most case causing the infrastructure to collapse altogether. The buildings were still in the process of collapsing into the growing ditch in the ground, flames spluttered over the landscape trying the claim whatever they could.
Turning his head Mark tried to take in their conditions. Jonathan was the first person Mark saw. His eyes were open and he had maintained his charred grip on Sam and Chloe. Daphne was at his side clutching him by the chest. Both Sam and Daphne looked to be out for the count, while Chloe was breathing irregularly.
Mark saw Nathan and Lieutenant Bix free-falling beside them but he couldn’t tell if either of them were even alive.
“Someone! We are about to go splat! I can’t move this many people again!” Cara cried as she tried to wake Sam by titling a crimson vial into her mouth.
Mark dimly recognized Jana’s bandolier of vials around Cara’s form, she must have gone back there to retrieve them at some point.
Half of the pink liquid scattered as they continued their free-fall, but the other half went into Sam’s mouth.
Mark checked his ring and saw he had around 20 Prana left, so using the others as a medium Mark sent Prana through them to Sam. A pulse of [Invigourate] was all it took to wake Sam up. Her eyes shot open and she took and breath, taking the scene in around them.
Cara pulled a second vial off the belt, this one was transparent with a slight blue tinge.
“Drink and stop us!”
Mark saw they were getting very close to the ground now, when Sam’s wind magic pushed up from beneath them. Acting like a massive cushion, arresting their falls slowly.
The trip down to the ground took less than ten seconds with Sam’s assistance. Showing them how close they had been to hitting the ground. Mark wasn’t sure about Jonathan, but Mark was pretty sure without his Prana, he would not have survived the fall.
The ground was hot to the touch but Mark couldn’t care less at the moment. His mind was battered and his body was burned and broken. This was the most comfortable he’d felt in minutes.
Sam was breathing heavily and clutching Cara with a vice-like grip, her shoulder easing in a way that Mark had not seen, since Chloe had told them she had left.
Jonathan was the only one on his feet, and while he looked drained, he still limped to the edge to look down into the glowing crater.
The reality of their situation hit Mark at that point and he pushed himself into a sitting position. He couldn't see anything from where he was due to the smoke but the destruction that the bomb had wrought could only mean their people down below were dead. They had taken three hundred souls down into that hell hole. Three hundred people came because they called. Three hundred people stayed behind even when they had left. That was not counting the thousands of other people who had been unable to get out in time. Guilt lanced its way through Mark, coming to rest like a hot poker in his solar plexus.
He could see it in all their faces, they had failed to stop Oscar and even though it had not gone according to his plan, he still got what he wanted. The destruction had been so complete that Mark was not even sure the bodyguard had been able to survive that destruction, if he had then that was a powerful item. At the very least Oscar would no longer darken the city’s walkways.
Cara cleared her throat and pulled another vial from the bandolier, handing it off to Sam and then one to Jonathan.
“I’m sorry I left like I did everyone, I hope you can forgive me.”
She came over to Mark offering him an unsure smile and holding out two vials, one for himself and one from Daphne.
Mark returned her smile as best he could in the situation.
“As long as you made it back safely, I’m happy.”
She smiled and tried to avoid eye contact with Sam who had changed her expression from relief to that of a stink eye, boring into Cara’s back.
“I found my folks though, so there’s that…”
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Sam’s scowl morphed into surprise and then into an easy smile filled with happiness for the girl.
Cara risked a peak back at Sam and couldn’t help breaking out into a smile when she saw Sam’s face.
Mark took Cara's good news as the only silver lining to this otherwise horrible day, knocking back the vial of purple syrup. It was thick and tasted like grape concentrate, a tooth-achingly sweet aftertaste filling his mouth. But at the same time, it began to refill his Prana and a small amount of Mana.
He wished he had been able to talk to Jana more so he could have understood what she did to make such incredible potions.
Using the potion on Daphne in conjunction with [Prana pulse] Mark got a better idea of the damage.
All of them were hurt in so many ways that Mark would need a clipboard to keep track of them all, but Cara just kept handing out potions until the belt was empty and then she pulled a couple out of her inventory.
Mark consumed all the ones that gave back some Prana pretty quickly, but there were still a few that restored Mana. Of course, he noted that none of them really had any other function than to restore lost resources, but they were often a mix of two energies.
The damage was too extensive across everyone to heal with what he had left, but Mark could stave off the worst of the injuries. He woke up Chloe too, but he could see she was suffering from overusing her prophetic capabilities, probably smarting just as much as Mark was right now, or more.
When he got to Nathan he managed to wake the guy up, but his wounds made it difficult to do anything more than keep his eyes open and speak.
When he did, they all froze.
“Where is everybody? Our faction’s reinforcements should be here by now. They were instructed to keep back until it was safe.”
Mark could argue, that even now they weren’t exactly safe. What with the dark collum of smoke rising on the horizon, and still crumbling road, but it was strange that they had not seen anyone yet. Minutes had passed while they had gathered themselves, people should be here by now. Healers preferably.
At that point, Jonathan cocked his head and held up his fist for silence. He was listening for something and Mark tried to listen too, but the rumble of cooling concrete drowned out anything of consequence.
When he opened his eyes a troubled look had entered his eyes.
“The outer walls have either been breached or are about to be. The city sirens are going off. The loyalists are calling any, and all, fighters to their aid.”
Mark’s throat died up, if the Loyalists were calling for aid from the public, then things must be bad. NAS must have already responded to the call, causing the lack of people.
Sam’s eyes widened and she tried to stand up only to fall back on her ass.
“We need to get back to base, find out what is going on, and work from there. Mark, can you still activate the way stone?”
When Cara arrived Mark realized the reason Chloe had told him to activate the amulet was so that Cara could find them. It acted as an anchor of sorts, but when she had teleported them into the air, Mark had been unable to keep the item active, even though it used so little concentration. That meant that when he checked it now, he saw it was only missing a small amount of Mana.
“A little recharge, and it’s good to go, but someone else is going to have to do it because I don’t have enough.”
Cara smiled smugly as she walked over and took hold of the amulet. Pouring Mana into it until it was full again.
As she channeled the Mana, Mark saw tattoos become visible, climbing up her neck and surrounding her face. When she was done they receded into her hairline.
There was only one thing that could mean and Mark’s eyes flickered over to Jonathan. Cara’s unintentional display was caught by all three of them, and Sam's face fell into despair.
Mark didn’t say anything because she couldn’t have known the dangers, but from the looks of it, Cara had absorbed the crest.
Worry punctuated Sam’s next words.
“Cara we need to leave, but when we get back I need to speak to you…”
Cara cocked her head at Sam’s tone but nodded.
By now the smoke near the center of the crater was dissipating and Mark had gotten everyone on their feet, except Nathan who was being carried by Jonathan. He wanted to stay and look for Lisa but they agreed he needed to come with them, the guy was barely alive as is, and they needed to get him a healer that wasn’t running on fumes. Lieutenant Bix had woken up and taken in the surrounding destruction, gloom settling over his shoulders when he heard about Nole. He would also be regrouping with them back at their base because his wounds needed immediate attention.
Because they had so many injured among their number, and, the Waystone was only capable of taking five people. They decided that two least injured of them would stay behind and make their way back on foot.
Taking passengers still threw Chloe's precision off, so she could only really carry herself. If she’d been able to control it, they wouldn’t have ended up in the sky. It was a blessing she could control the general direction, or they could have ended right back in the blast radius.
They were just trying to decide who would stay when Chloe stopped them and turned to look at the crater.
“Wait, there's something still alive down there.”
Everyone froze, and Mark turned to look over the edge of the crater. The smoke and burning fire were low to the ground by now, so Mark could just make out movement thrashing amongst the rubble.
He was only able to catch glimpses of it through the screen, but slowly the heart came into view.
It had survived the destructive force of the blast and was trying to regenerate itself.
The guardian was alive and well, by the looks of things it was already the size of a first-story house. It had taken on a more roundish shape and glowed with pulsing purple hues. Its speed of regeneration was nothing compared to what it had been earlier, slowly trying to close its ichor-stained tears and burns.
Right now it looked incredibly weak but it was recovering. Its mold was already spreading over the upturned earth, searching to reconnect with the surrounding network of ichor. If they link up it would have all the energy it needed to rebuild itself within a couple of hours.
Jonathan stepped forward, they were all running low on power, but Cara’s potions had eased the burden a bunch.
They had to kill this thing right now, while they still had a chance.
Mark got shakily to his feet to follow after Jonathan, but Chloe stepped in front of them.
“Guys, we can’t afford to all go down there right now.”
Sam was on her feet but paused.
“What do mean, all of this was to kill that thing, so let's kill it. Our people died for this, we’re ending this abomination's life.”
Chloe glanced over her shoulder into the pit and then stared back at their confused expressions.
“I’m not saying that we won’t end it, but we can’t all afford to go. The base is about to be attacked.”