A Distant Reverie

Chapter 26

For a moment, everyone froze. The loud, blaring overtones of the Prosperia bell continued to ring with a frantic urgency, trying to warn its residents of the looming dangers. A split second passed before the realization sunk in. Despair and fear then spread like wildfire, worming themselves onto the soldiers' faces as they dropped their shovels and hammers in disbelief.

The horde was spotted.

"T-this is a mistake, right? Someone tell me this is a mistake!"

The silence was deafening. When no one could refute the lone soldier's question, all hell broke loose. The eastern gates descended into a chaotic frenzy as news of the horde's early arrival shattered the soldiers' morale. There was an attempt at order from the few able officers on premise, but their commands fell on deaf ears against the overwhelming surge of panic.

"Where's the Knight Commander?!" someone yelled over the commotion. A few of the soldiers with their sanity still intact rushed to the garrison. Someone last saw the Knight Commander in her office, finishing up the remaining administrative work to inform the Empire of the impeding crisis. Surely, she would have already heard the obnoxious warnings of the bell.

As the group of soldiers neared the garrison entrance, a massive explosion suddenly erupted from the premise. The shockwaves sent the soldiers to the ground, rocking the earth with massive tremors. When they finally subsided, the soldiers glanced up, only to find a cloud of azure smoke rising from the garrison walls.

"What the hell is going on...?" one of them muttered in disbelief. When they finally got to their feet, they found the garrisons in ruins. The training grounds was shrouded in a cloud of dust—the empty fields sullied by the rubble and wreckage. Sitting across the fields was where the Knight Commander's office once stood, destroyed beyond recognition beneath layers of debris and stone.

"Commander...?"

"Commander Shirogane!"

The soldiers desperately called out, hoping that their leader would come out unscathed. Their words, however, remained unheard. Some of the soldiers ran towards the wreckage, frantically clawing at the stones in a futile attempt to find their commander. The rest dropped to their knees, their eyes hollow with despair.

Noel Shirogane, the hero of humanity, might be dead.

And just beyond the walls, the screech of monsters shook the air.

-----

That can't be good.

Marine was at the southern gates with Vesper and Suisei, waiting for the merchants to load their wares onto their caravans, until the bells began to ring. Those urgent tones and the subsequent explosion that occurred shortly after had drawn everyone's attention.

"What was that?"

"What just happened?"

The confused murmurs spread along the merchants, who stared blankly in the direction of the explosion. Their inaction was impeding progress, depleting the little time they had left to escape the city. Marine narrowed her eyes, displeased with the merchants' apparent lack of urgency.

In the distance, the cloudy remnants of the explosion lingered in the air, the azure smoke blooming slowly into rainy skies.

...It had to have come from the garrisons.

Marine was sure of it. And likely the only one that was in the garrison was Noel. It hadn't been long since the three of them had their meeting with the Knight Commander. The implication of the explosion was not lost on her—this was probably an attempt on Noel's life.