"SCREEEEEECCCHHH!!"
The Pig Defenders and the Djinns all stand on the docks staring at the burning green sky in awe.
"What the hell is that?!" Kent's eyes widened as he and all the others gawked at the sight.
"I have no idea but, it looks like something happened at our client's base." Karic answered. The billowing tower of green flames continued to spew fire out of the lighthouse like a geyser.
The light was so bright that many of the citizens stopped their bedtime preparations because the green light shined as bright as Blaze in the midday. Even the pirates in the Port of Filth were awestruck from the sight.
"KENT! WHAT IN THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" Kent flinched as he heard that familiar angry shout. His head slowly turned to see Hedgie standing at the edge of the rubble of her tavern fuming! Kent quickly jumped up to his feet she as glared at him impatiently. "Answer me now, boy!" She said through gritted teeth.
"Hey, Hedge! Alright, I get how this looks bad but there's a reasonable explanation for the current situation." Kent felt sweat dripping down his back as he tried to explain himself to Hedgie. He didn't even care about the dense green smoke that was starting to descend across the city or that he could here screams of pain coming from somewhere.
Right now, Hedgie was the most terrifying thing that he had to deal with.
"Really? Then explain it Kent? Explain to me how I left to go drinking with some old friends with my tavern intact only for me to come back and find the splintered remains of my business and home!" Kent gulped deeply. He looked over to Karic, who was still completely entranced by the tower of fire, and smiled.
"It was that guy's fault!" Kent said while pointing at Karic. "Him and his entire crew! They took Alix's peccary, Trouler, so we fought them to get him back but then they came back here and made a big fuss causing a huge fight that ended with him getting really mad and blowing up the entire tavern!" Kent's said in a single breath.
"Wait, what's our fault?" Karic only now entered the conversation after hearing that he was being blamed for something. He turned to Kent but saw that he wasn't staring at him but instead at a large, olive skinned woman that was now glaring at Karic.
"So it was you?" Hedgie stomped over to Karic.
"W-wait, what was? What're you talking about?" Karic started to retreat back as he felt an intense pressure coming from the woman.
"Not only, were you the ones that made my girl Alix upset but then you come over here and destroy my TAVERN!!" Hedgie yelled and slammed her foot onto the planks shaking the entire dock.
"Oh, that? W-well, that was us but we were hired to do it! In fact, we didn't even take the pig our client just gave him to us!" Karic frantically explained. At any other time he wouldn't have been nearly as scared of this woman but he was almost completely out of energy right now and so was the rest of his group.
"And my tavern?" Hedgie interrogated with a grumble.
"R-right! The tavern! Th-that was just an...unfortunate accident."
"Karic." Leroy called out from the side.
"Kinda dealing with something here Leroy!"
"I can see that, but isn't that our client running over to us right now?" Karic looked over Hedgie's shoulder and saw a woman dressed in leather dashing over with a fish being squished from how tightly she held him in her arms.
"Djinns, we-Woah!" Francis came to a sliding stop. She scanned the rubble in the surrounding area and all of the injured people on the ground. "What happened here?"
Karic pushed past Hedgie and ran over to his employer. "Ma'am! What are you doing here? And why do you have Alix's fish?"
"Hmm? Oh right! Well, Alix fell into a trap of mine and I threw her and the bird into a cell then I started to drown them when she suddenly did this weird thing where she dug her nails into the tempered glass and carved something into it! That turned out to be her casting a spell that hit the bird then summoned all sorts of lights and cracked the space around us while simultaneous locking the two of them into some weird giant energy sphere thing that grew and grew then caught on fire and that's when I realized that I needed to get out of there so, I hopped on my escape boat and left the lighthouse that then set ablaze right after I got out!"
"...And the fish?"
"Oh, he's a demon beast so I just decided to keep him around!" Everyone sitting, standing and laying down within the vicinity went silent. They didn't know what to say to that large dump of information. Eric looked back over to the lighthouse, that all sounded pretty on brand for Alix to him, when he noticed something.
"Guys, I think the giant bird of flames is flapping?"
"What now?!" Everyone turned back to the lighthouse (All of this going back and forth was getting pretty annoying) to whatever Eric was talking about. Above the lighthouse that giant flaming symbol started to flapped ferociously. Each flap sent out more smoke to the city.
*Cough* *Cough*
Kent held his throat as he felt something burning within causing him to cough. "I can't keep saying what the hell, but what the hell is this smoke?!" The others also began to cough, some more intensely than others. It was also really hot all of a sudden, like all of the water mana in the air was being taken out by something and all that was left was fire!
"SCRAAAAWWWW!!" The giant flaming bird sounded out, almost like a courtesy call because the moment it finished it took flight away from the lighthouse and barreled toward the mainland! As it flew overhead the group of criminals, students and pirates alike felt a powerful wave of wind push upon them.
Kent fell back to the ground as he was still weak from his damage. He gently rubbed his sore bottom as he stood back up when something fell in front of his face. It was big, about the size of a desk lamp, and as green as the flames from the lighthouse. It was slowly falling in front of him. It was a large feather?
And that wasn't the only one as several more feathers fell from the sky after the firebird flew past. People all over town saw them and stared at them with confusion. Kent felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the feathers floated closer to the ground. "Everyone get down NOW!!" He screamed and dove to the side.
Eric, Alisa and Hedgie did as they were instructed while Karic, Leroy, Narie and Francis just stood still. A mistake they would come to regret as the moment the feathers touched the dock they exploded into large green flames and smoke. The force of the explosion knocked them back and scorched them slightly.
All of Pesinwok, from below sea-level to above, became bathed in green flames as these feathers exploded everywhere. Each explosion caused more carnage and horror terrifying the all of the citizens. So when the bird circled back and dove over for a second round, everyone in the streets and their homes immediately panicked and ran for cover.
"SCRAAAWWW!!" The firebird cawed loud enough for the entire city to hear. Kent stood up from the ground and took in the sight of the Port of Filth in flames.
"This is hell." He said as he stared at the hellscape before him. He could even hear distant screams, likely from the terrified citizens of the ci-
"Kent..." A feminine voice called Kent's name. He turned around but saw no one. "Kent!" The voice called out again, louder this time but Kent still couldn't find the source. He felt annoyed because he swore that he knew that voice.
"Why did you leave us?" A deeper voice questioned.
"Hello!?" Kent called but got no response.
"Why did you abandon us, Captain?" A new voice questioned. It was at that moment that Kent's face shifted. He realized who these voices belonged to.
"H-How can this be? Y-you all-I-I-I mean!? You're all-"
"Dead?" Kent shook as those words were spoken clearly behind him. He slowly turned around to see a flame burning there. A flame that was in a humanoid shape and was staring at Kent.
"We're dead captain, isn't that what you wanted to say? We're all dead..." The flaming being held its hands out to its sides while the young man stood with his pupils shaking in confusion and terror. "And you're the one that killed us!" The figure lunged at Kent, embracing him in a hug of flames. As the flaming arms wrapped around Kent he felt intense pain all over his body.
His skin sizzled as the flaming figure hugged him tightly! Kent wanted to push him off but every time he tried touch the fire his hands went through.
"No no, cap. Not this time!" The flames of the being burned stronger making Kent unable to hold back a scream of pain. "This pain that you feel is from the torment that you caused us. Become ash as you burn away in the flames of the torment that you brought!"
"GRAAAAHHH!!"
"Tyrant!" Alisa called out to Kent as he was standing in the flames screaming. "Tyrant get out of there!!" Her words seemed to have no affect on the boy. Alisa didn't know what to do so she turned back to Eric. "Holiday! Tyrant's-ERIC!!" Alisa's flew into a panic as she turned to Eric only to see that the boy was also captured by the flames but his flames were far stronger and more entwined with him than Kent's.
"AAAaaAAaAAHHH!!" Eric literally cried in pain as tears fell from his eyes but evaporated in the flames. "It's my fault! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!!" Eric shouted in between his screams. Alisa didn't know what to do. She turned over to Nasak and Denver who seemed to be fine but the Djinns were also being consumed by the flames.
The weirdest thing was that the flames didn't seem to be burning the docks.
"That's very interesting." Alisa heard the woman in leather speak. It was then that the girl put the pieces together as to who this woman was. "This seems to be an evolved form of Nuka's flames and poison? Very interesting indeed." Francis was crouched in front of a flame, holding her arm within it when she noticed that Alisa was staring at her.
"Is there something that I can help you with, child?" Francis stood and and turned to completely face Alisa.
"You're Francis Aeouli, aren't you?" Alisa spoke with a shaky voice.
"That would be I, yes. It is interesting that you knew that despite my face being hidden beneath this mask. Tell me girl, are you a fan of mine?"