His body trembled.
With sheer disbelief.
With shock.
His gaze darted around.
Slid, frantic,
across the scene.
His mouth twisted.
As he stepped back.
Shock contorting his face.
"How,"
he whispered,
"Why."
He wanted to call out.
Take a step forward.
But then everything was devoured.
Masses of fire.
Eating through stone.
The air unbearably hot.
The explosion.
It swallowed everything.
Flames climbed up Uhra.
Consumed him.
Tore him apart.
But Ruigh's eyes rested only on him.
Aren.
He ran.
Sprinted across the hard stone floor.
Breathing heavily.
His breath rattling.
Behind him the blaze.
He reached a window.
And leapt.
Sailed through the air.
With a terrible scream.
That made Ruigh's bones tremble.
Aren vanished.
And the flames tore through the window.
Roaring their fury.
The fire turned.
And rushed at him.
Ruigh stared into the wave.
His body trembling.
Refusing to move.
With eyes wide open.
In them mirrored death.
He stared back.
At the fiery death.
His thoughts swirled.
Each one more unclear than the last.
Twisted and bizarre.
His hand twitched.
"Move,"
he whispered.
He forced his whole will.
Commanded his arms to move.
Slowly closed his eyes.
Forgot the fire that would soon devour him.
Focused only on one thing.
On himself.
His leg jerked.
His hand again.
A shoulder lifted.
Before him it grew ever hotter.
The inferno roared toward him.
Would consume him.
He screamed.
Inside the stillness.
As he fought within.
Waged his war.
And then it happened.
A tremor ran through him.
And the paralysis broke.
With a scream.
Loud, tearing.
He leapt.
The fire shot past him.
Burned its path.
Like a god.
It raged.
Tore the walls apart.
All around Ruigh it roared.
The fire lashed out.
Tore everything down.
He closed his eyes.
And fell.
Through the floor.
Into nothingness.
As everything burned.
Collapsed.
He fell.
Slowly he drifted down.
All was white.
All was empty.
Only him.
Slowly singing.
Peace filled him.
As his muscles relaxed.
His eyes opened.
Slow and deliberate.
He looked into the white.
Into infinity.
And onward he floated.
Filled with lightness.
No thought within him.
Only emptiness.
Slowly his eyes closed.
And the world faded.
And as everything faded.
Fell into nothingness.
He felt it.
A mighty presence laid itself over him.
Over everything.
Took it all.
Let nothing go.
The white bent.
As it vanished.
Distorted.
The air seemed to thicken.
To vibrate.
Ruigh froze.
His eyes closed.
But he felt it.
The presence lay over him.
And blinded all else.
"What is this," he thought.
"What kind of power."
His body began to tremble.
His skin prickled.
And his breath came in gasps.
And yet it was silent.
A gentle silence that embraced all.
That stroked softly.
Like a mother her child.
Suddenly the presence seemed to come closer.
It forced its way through.
Through the silence.
Through everything.
Ruigh froze.
His muscles tightened.
He cramped.
He flailed with arms and legs.
Tried to escape the presence.
This foreign power.
Before which he was nothing.
Something wrapped around his arm.
Not a hand.
But it was a grip.
He jerked.
His skin.
That which lay caught in the grip.
Began to burn.
And it spread.
Up his body.
Slowly it ate its way along his arm.
He groaned.
Trembled helplessly.
Struck with his fist.
But found no target.
It reached his shoulder.
Poured hot over him.
Across his body.
Crawled under his flesh.
Touched his bones.
He groaned.
Twisted from the heat.
But there was something there.
It did not hurt.
It was a woolly warmth.
His muscles relaxed.
Gentle security overcame him.
His right cheek began to pulse.
A soft caress.
Of a hand.
"You're welcome,"
it whispered.
Only a breath.
Quiet and soft.
And then all dissolved.
The presence.
The white.
Everything spun.
Turned gray.
Then black.
He was in darkness.
All black.
Tried to move.
But he stayed rigid.
He tried to see.
But there was only darkness.
No body.
No limbs.
But suddenly it split.
The darkness.
He tore his eyes open.
Jerked upright.
His distraught gaze swept around.
Over the old wood of the dresser.
Over the withered plant.
That stood there.
And over the note.
His eyes fixed on it. Slowly.
With trembling fingers.
He grabbed it.
Brought it up before his eyes.
As he read, his face darkened. Word by word.
He read:
*"Hey Ruigh, it's Uhra here. We and the others—the Noble Knights who call themselves killers—are in Karuka City to take a closer look at the base that exploded.
Bye.
PS: If Aren finally shows up again, tell him where the rest of us are. You can do whatever you want."*
His mouth twisted.
His gaze rested,
dark,
on the message.
"Damn," he growled.
"Why of all times—"
A creak,
cutting loudly through the silence,
interrupted him.
He spun around.
Before him stood Aren.
He looked at him.
"Oh, you're awake."
A smile pulled across his lips.
A tense smile.
Forced.
His body tight.
His eye twitching imperceptibly.
The smile,
forced wide,
grew wider.
His gaze fixed on Ruigh.
"Everything okay?"
he asked.