Ivory Chronicles

Act IV - Apex Rebellion Part 3

Cornered by Fate

With a desperate effort, I raised my left hand towards the clones surrounding Charles. A surge of icy mist surrounded them, freezing them instantly, encased in a thick layer of frost that halted them mid-movement.

Without pausing, I turned and sprinted towards Annabella, every fiber of my being focused on reaching her in time. But as I closed the distance, my heart sank. A massive shadow loomed overhead—a mass of debris, levitated by one of Mateos' clones, positioned directly above where Annabella was held.

"NO!" I shouted as the debris crashed down with thunderous force. The ground shook, and a cloud of dust and debris billowed up, obscuring my view.

I was thrown backward by the shockwave, my body slamming into the broken concrete. Dazed, I struggled to my feet, my ears ringing, and my vision blurred with tears and dust. "Annie!" My voice cracked as I screamed her name, fear and desperation tearing at my throat.

Scrambling through the debris, I pushed aside chunks of concrete and twisted rebar, my hands shaking, my breath ragged. The thought that I might be too late—that I might have failed to save her—was unbearable. Each moment felt like an eternity as I cleared the last of the rubble.

Charles rushed to my side to help. Our hands worked in unison, tossing aside anything in our way with desperate urgency. Just as despair threatened to overwhelm me, a section of debris shifted unexpectedly. My heart leaped as Annabella's hand suddenly emerged, followed by the rest of her, covered in dirt and gasping for air.

Relief flooded through me like a raging river. I grabbed her, pulling her into a tight embrace, the warmth of her alive and breathing body grounding me in the reality that she was safe. "Annie, how did you survive?" I asked, pulling back to look at her, making sure she was completely intact.

Breathing heavily, Annabella shook her head, her voice shaky. "I—I don't know. I was so scared, I thought I was going to die. I just put my hands up..." Her eyes widened as she recalled the moment. "It felt like something held the rocks back, kept them from crushing me. They just... fell around me instead. When I put my hands down, I realized I was trapped under all the debris, with just small pieces falling on me."

Could this be due to her awakened powers? Before we could revel in the miracle any longer, a chilling voice cut through our brief moment of relief. "How cute, that little moment of hope," Mateos called out mockingly from behind us. We turned to see him—or rather, them—a horde of clones, each one with massive debris floating ominously above them. With a sinister grin, one of the clones snapped his fingers, and like a deadly rain, the debris hurtled towards us.

Reacting instantly, Charles conjured his volatile explosions, but he quickly fell to the ground. I shot up an ice wall to block the oncoming debris. I knew it wouldn't hold, but it would give us time to think of a plan to escape. As my barrier rose, a massive, translucent force field suddenly surged from the ground, enveloping and extending beyond my ice wall, dwarfing it in both size and thickness.

Stunned, I turned around to find Annabella, her face still etched with fear but her hands raised high, emanating a power I had never seen her wield before. The force field shimmered around us, the debris crashing against it and disintegrating into fragments.

For a moment, I could only stare at her in awe. Not only could she sense the threat in others, but she now could conjure a very strong force field. This must be how she survived being crushed before. Such distinctive powers—could they be influenced by her emotions?

As the last of the debris clattered harmlessly against Annie's shimmering force field, I realized she was more than my sister anymore; she was a member of The Sunspears. A question flickered through my mind—how had Ivory not sensed Annie's powers? But there was no time to dwell on these thoughts.