The city has fallen. This thought crashed into my head like a cannon shot, reverberating in my mind with unheard-of violence.
In an instant, everything was gone. The beauty of the night sky, the softness of the grass beneath my feet, even the memories of that man, all had evaporated in the haze of destruction. Nothing existed, nothing made sense.
All that remained was me and the devastated city.
My thoughts fell silent, swallowed up in a silent abyss.
A mixture of bile and blood burned my throat, the heat of the liquid devouring me from within. I swallowed hard before throwing myself forward.
I ran. With all my might.
My heart was racing, every pulse seemingly ready to explode under the pressure. Every breath was a torment, my lungs writhing in silent agony, my exhausted muscles threatening to betray me with every step.
But I didn't care.
I ran.
Until my body couldn't keep up.
My legs gave out and I collapsed. On all fours, short of breath, my hands trembling against the ground, I let myself succumb to exhaustion for a moment.
No.
I couldn't give up.
I couldn't give up now.
I retched, the acidity tearing at my throat, and my wounds flared with the liquid. Burning tears rolled down my cheeks, a grimace of pain contorting my face.
I gritted my teeth.
This was no time to weaken.
I straightened up, wobbling under the pain, and resumed my run. My legs wobbled, my limbs refused to obey, but I had no right to stop. I'd never forgive myself.
The gigantic walls of the city loomed before me. They had been so majestic a few days earlier, filled with a grandeur I'd never really understood. Now...
A twinge of sadness gripped my heart, but I had no time to lose myself in nostalgia.
As I made my way through the devastated streets, bitterness washed over me. Every alley, every corner of the city was a gaping wound, a broken vestige of my past.
The shopping streets my father cherished, where he loved to stroll between the stalls, were now overrun with bodies and blood. The cobblestones, a sea of crimson, stretched as far as the eye could see.
In the central square, the white roses, where my sister once rested listening to the wind, were stained scarlet, like an evil omen.
The fountain, adorned with the statue of my dead mother, was broken. The stagnant water floated a head, which seemed to float like an apparition in the mist of despair.
The air that filled my lungs was saturated with the metallic smell of blood, an unbearable perfume that seemed to mingle with terror and pain.
I walked along the streets where my father liked to get lost, past the stores my sister preferred, through every place my mother liked to visit... Until at last I found myself in front of my house.
The great gate was twisted, the walls cracked, and the garden, once verdant and cheerful, was now stained a sinister red. Dozens of bodies in armor lay among the withered flowers, their inert presence echoing the end of everything.
I refused to believe what I was seeing. I just couldn't.
My vision blurred, the world seemed to suspend around me, frozen in a moment of unreal horror.
But I couldn't give up.
I stepped through the broken doors, through the corridors strewn with rubble, shards of glass and the debris of a shattered life.
I gritted my teeth.
And I kept running.
***********************************************
After what seemed like an eternity of picking my way through the rubble of my home, I finally reached the courtroom door.
With heavy steps and a heavy heart, I made my way through the torn paintings, charred carpets and rubble strewn across the marbled, ash-covered floor. The room seemed frozen in time, like an image frozen in a bygone era. The silence was heavy, oppressive.
At the far end of the room, just below my father's imposing throne, his corpse lay inert.
He lay in a pool of blood, his golden armor shattered and his torso punctured by a partially melted iron bar, the sheen of the metal mingling with the life leaking from him.
His washed-out eyes stared at an invisible point, his face frozen in an expression of silent amazement. Blood had spread over the throne steps, tracing a red trail that led to a man standing a few meters away.
He was tall, draped in a dark cloak that floated lightly around him. His jet hair was neatly combed, and his features were icy, indifferent, as if the scene of carnage were a mere triviality.
"There you are at last." His voice rose into space, cold, poised, without the slightest trace of emotion.
I tensed, how dare he!
Rage bubbled up inside me, ready to boil over.
"I'm going to kill you!" I screamed, my fists clenched to shatter my fingernails, bubbling under my skin.
Part of me wanted to flee, to avoid this fight I knew was hopeless, but rage drove me to attack. I wanted to scream, to strike, to kill this man who stood there, motionless, before the destruction of everything I had loved.
I threw myself at him, my vision saturated with anger, but it was useless.
A wave of unbearable heat invaded the room.
Flames shot up from the floor, encircling me before assaulting me.The heat bit into my skin, but the worst thing was that he hadn't moved. He just stared at me, almost disdainfully.
"You see, I'm anchored to the fire attribute and a high-ranking adept," he said in a flat voice, as if to mock my incomprehension.
An anchor capable of manipulating his environment like that... It was too much for me.
I've got to get out of here.
No... I can't abandon them.
No they're dead, I have to survive...
I must find a way out.
The general had disappeared from my sight, and a fiery blur invaded space.
I had no time to react. A split second later, an iron fist gripped my shoulder, and a searing burn raced up my back.
I screamed in pain, my legs threatening to give way under the impact. The smell of burning flesh rose to my nose, unbearable, as I felt my life slipping away.
I tried to channel my essence, but I didn't have the strength. My body refused to respond.
I collapsed to my knees, panting, my face disfigured by pain.
He quietly spoke again, as if I were nothing but a nuisance : "You're nothing but a helpless child." He slowly withdrew his burning hand from my shoulder. "And yet, the leader of my city has claimed you alive. Consider yourself lucky."
The heat around me increased, the flames grew more intense, and the air grew thinner. My body no longer responded, and my essence remained mute.
I fell back into unconsciousness.
The last thing I saw was the shadow of the man who had taken everything from me dissipating into the darkness.