Heaven's Darkness (Book 2)

Chapter 15 - Terra

 "There's nothing like a good workout to make you feel better in the morning," I sighed, stretching my arms over my head.

The past day was incredibly productive for me. I practiced efficient spellcasting and building upon the spells I favored. I even learned a few new tricks, but that's something I want to keep under wraps for a little bit longer. I don't need anybody exposing my secrets before I have a chance to surprise someone with them.

I felt a little guilty for leaving Jeriah all by himself at the guild hall, but our deal was to train and better ourselves for the future, and I fully intended on doing that. Considering the situation we were in, the government seemed incredibly unstable and volatile. With all those higher-ups in such a position, we were all at risk. We needed to prepare our defenses.

That was why I journeyed over to Luster Town. It was a peaceful little place, small population, few wizards. I could focus on myself without any distractions and not have to worry about running into anybody dangerous. Luster Town was the kind of place nobody would ever suspect. It was innocent and pure. Unlike the rest of our country.

Before I knew it, I found myself back at Forthbrook, a million times stronger and a thousand times happier. I was excited to see everyone again. After all that's happened, having an in-depth discussion with Virdigo or even slapping Jeriah across the face seemed like home, something I hadn't had for awhile now. I missed those idiots, even if they were a little much at times.

As I entered the city, I was caught off-guard at the lack of pedestrians.

"What the heck?" I muttered, furrowing my brow. "Where is everyone?"

This was the emptiest I had ever seen the city in my entire time of living here. It was like a ghost town. The lack of people was unsettling, spooky, even. I peered down dark alleyways and knocked on the creaking doors of different stores to see if anybody would respond. Despite the beaming sunshine, the darkness behind shattered windows gave me an ominous feeling. There was something very wrong here.

That was when I heard the screams.

I saw a flash of black light. It came from the direction of the guild hall.

I bolted in that direction, preparing myself for the battle that awaited.

As I made my way over, I saw more and more people in the streets, all with mortified looks on their faces. They were panicking and running away from the Heaven's Light guild hall, terror in their eyes. If I didn't know better, I would guess they had seen a dragon. I watched one particularly hobbled lady scoop up her child and bolt past me, tears streaming down her face in fear. An elderly woman rushed as fast as she could with a hunched back and creaky wooden cane. A little boy without any supervision nearly collided with the elder, yelling apologies as he nimbly dodged everyone around him. It seemed like a golden dog with shaggy hair trailed behind him loyally with as much agility as the little boy. I hadn't seen such a wide variety of people in such sheer number ever gather in this town.

I snapped out of my stupor and turned the last corner. I was frozen in my tracks.

"I can't believe this," a familiar black figure choked, falling to his knees in defeat.

There were shadowy remains everywhere. Darkness encompassed maybe half of the entire block, black, smoky tendrils curling up from the figure shaking on the ground. What was once recognizable yesterday was no longer the same today, and would never be the same again.

As I took a few more steps forward into the destruction, I saw the real damage. The destruction that could never be undone.

The guild hall was vaporized.