"Calm down! Everyone, please calm down!" With a crowd of hundreds of frantic townspeople at the front gates of the Manor, Sasha Balfour was having trouble just trying to maintaining order.
It had only been about a quarter hour since the cataclysm in the Great Western Forest occurred, but while the initial shock had passed, the panic which accompanied it hadn't lessened in the slightest.
If anything, more and more people were growing increasingly anxious as they swarmed to the Town Lord's Manor, looking for both safety and answers.
Sasha had over a decade of experience under her belt dealing with unexpected situations in Redwood Town and the Newton Barony as a whole.
During her tenure as Town Lady and Baroness, there had been a number of serious incidents like deadly floods, terrible windstorms, rampaging beasts, and even raiding bandits; but, each time, she had been able to pull through none the worse for wear.
This time, however, was different.
This time, Sasha truly felt helpless. Nothing in her past experiences could possibly have prepared her for the crisis which had just descended upon her home.
The Balfour Marquess Family placed a heavy emphasis on martial ability and educated its youth in line with this philosophy; as such, when Sasha was young, she had been able to witness the power of True Cultivators numerous times.
One memory which stood out in particular was when Sasha, and all the other members of the Balfour Family's younger generation, had been given a demonstration by the Matriarch herself. Sasha still vividly remembered that day, where under the blazing sun, her grandmother had performed numerous seemingly impossible feats.
The image of a valiant woman in shining battle armour splitting a 20 metres-wide pond in half with a single sweep of her spear, hitting a coin-sized target with an arrow from 1,000 metres away, and shattering a boulder more than twice her size with just one punch were all ingrained in Sasha's mind.
That day had even inspired the impressionable young girl to strike out on her own, leaving her family behind to seek a life of thrills and adventure.
It was no exaggeration to say that, aside from Farah, no one in Redwood Town had a better understanding of just how powerful the top masters of the kingdom were than Sasha, which was also why she felt so daunted by what had just happened.
Whatever the cause of the explosion in the Great Western Forest was, Sasha understood logically and instinctually that it was many orders of magnitude more powerful than anyone, or anything in the Rockwell Kingdom.
A disaster beyond her ability to comprehend had occurred right outside her doorstep, and now Sasha had to deal with it, knowing she was way out of her depth.
If even Sasha was feeling helpless and couldn't fathom what was going on, then nothing more needed to be said about the simple folk of Redwood Town, most of whom had never even left the Newton Barony before.
To make matters even more complicated, Charles, the actual Town Lord, was out, leaving Sasha to deal with this mess all on her own.
There were, of course, a few staff still at the Manor who were doing their best to help their Lady, but as it had been approaching evening, most everyone had already gone home for the night.
After somehow forcing down her own worries and anxiety, Sasha barely had enough time to order the two guards who were on late night duty today to run out and gather the rest of the Town Guard before the first frightened townsfolk began showing up.
Now, all of the Town Lady's time and energy were being consumed with simply trying to keep the people calm.
The worst part of it all was that Sasha wanted to know what was going on as much as everyone else did, but was unfortunately just as in the dark as they were.
Sasha also couldn't help worrying about her immediate family, who she knew were out on the western outskirts of the town.
Her head kept telling her that the source of this disaster was far, far off into the Great Western Forest and couldn't possibly have done any harm to them, but just the fact that Charles, Eris, and Lucas were somewhere near the forest was enough to fray her nerves.
"Lady Sasha! How are we supposed to calm down when disaster is coming for all of us!?" One old man shouted.
"That's right! What will happen to us if the Heavens' wrath descends upon us again?!" A young mother cried out.
"Please, there must be something that can be done!" A middle-aged man yelled.
The cries for answers and action were growing louder, and there was nothing Sasha could honestly offer as comfort. She could only repeatedly ask for calm while hoping that help would soon arrive.
Fortunately, the members of the Town Guard were slowly beginning to assemble.
Although Anna, the Guard Captain, was out of town, that did little to affect the efficiency of the force itself. This wasn't because the Redwood Town Guard was an elite group of highly skilled and trained masters, of course, but rather the exact opposite.
There were a few former knights and soldiers among the Town Guard who had some basic military training, but for the most part, they were just a simple militia formed from the stronger townsfolk.
These people were basically volunteers who had taken up responsibility for the safety of the town, so their level of responsiveness was as average as could be, regardless of who was leading them at any given moment.
With more and more Town Guard showing up, though, the crowd was gradually calmed down through an odd mix of comfort and fear; comfort at the fact that those in charge of protecting Redwood Town were gathering together, and fear of provoking the Town Guard and finding themselves on the other end of a fist.
This was by no means an ideal solution, but Sasha was willing to take it for now if it gave her a moment to think.
Of course, the members of the Town Guard were also in a frazzled state as they too were residents of Redwood Town, but for the time being, most of those who had rushed over after receiving the call for help were willing to trust in Sasha's judgement and leadership.
At least for now.
Things finally seemed to be settling down when, all of a sudden, and odd sound reached everyone's ears. At first it was like a dull rumbling, but it soon grew louder and louder, catching everyone's attention. For the second time that day, all eyes turned west, just in time to see what looked like a billowing fog rapidly surging towards them.
The next instant, a wall of wind and dust smacked into the crowd, crashing over them with enough force that many stumbled or even fell over when they were struck.
Fits of coughing from those who had accidentally inhaled some of the dust, as well as grunts and groans from those who had been knocked off their feet, were heard all around.
Everyone was dumbstruck, and many were left wondering what just happened.
Gradually, the crowd began to associate this strange phenomenon with the one from earlier; after all, with both seemingly originating in the west, it was too much to simply write everything off as pure coincidence.
However, it was still difficult for many to understand how a giant fireball far off on the horizon, and a powerful gust of wind, were related. It wasn't that the people of Redwood Town were stupid, just that their lived experiences were so far removed from such things that they found it impossible to puzzle through what the connection might be.
The only exception in the crowd was Sasha, who once again had her vastly different upbringing to thank for her broader knowledge base.
Knowing what had just transpired didn't bring Sasha any comfort, however. Instead, she only became more anxious and agitated, to the point where her fear and nervousness were now faintly showing through her façade of calm.
That was a shockwave… from the explosion from before... It's the only possible explanation. But… how is that possible? That explosion must have occurred many days' travel from here!
The fact that the fallout from the explosion had managed to reach all the way here from wherever it originated, and still had enough force behind it to rattle fences and knock people to the ground, was a testament to just how devastating the blast had been.
This only confirmed in Sasha' mind just how terrifying whatever the cause of this catastrophe was. Forget about Redwood Town, Sasha was convinced that this was a calamity that would drag in the entire Rockwell Kingdom, and it was happening here, of all places.
Had she been even a bit fainter of heart, Sasha might have passed out then and there from the stress.