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nI quickly rushed out of the empty cafe and down the street.

nIn the distance, there was a long trail of smoke that seemingly scraped the sky as it pierced the clouds and darkened the surrounding area.

nThe light warmth of a flame came from right in front of me, and after running down the street, just to where the exit for the city was… I saw it.

n“Fuck… I should’ve expected this to happen. Of course, this would happen,” I muttered through gritted teeth.

nThe government or one of the main families had cut off all escape from the city, forcing them into becoming slave-like soldiers that would fight for their cause.

nBut before I could try and dig any deeper, I had to make sure my friends were okay.

nAfter a few quick calls, I found out that Aisa, Findir, and Cy, who was with Findir, were okay.

nOf course, he wouldn’t want to answer my calls right now, but I didn’t really care, as long as he was still alive.

nWe quickly met up just outside of the chaotic explosion’s blast zone, where tons of families cried and mourned for their families that had just died right before their very eyes.

nAs soon as everybody had arrived, I noticed they were all a bit shaken… especially Aisa, who looked as if she was about to throw up.

n“Where are your parents? Also, what happened, Aisa?” I asked.

n“O-Our parents went to go help the injured. None of us were part of the main attack, but- oomf,”

nSuddenly, Aisa threw up all over the ground while leaking fat tears from her eyes, stifling her breathing and stuffing her nose.

nShe wasn’t sniffling before, but now it just sounded like she was gasping for air and was having a panic attack.

n“Hey, it’s all good. What happened?” I asked as I tried to extract more information, but Findir soon realized what I was doing and stepped in.

n“Leave her alone, dude. She’s already suffering enough… I’ll show you, so follow me,” He announced.

nWe walked down the bloody street, and from what I had noticed, it seemed the explosion wasn’t directly at the entrance but a few yards away from it, causing the back of the line to end up taking the brunt of the force.

nAnd, all of a sudden, I had a realization of what had happened… and yes, I felt my face slightly pale.

n“Looks like they cleared them… but they should still be in here,” Findir muttered as he opened the curtain to an emergency tent which blocked out most of the screaming and cries from outside.

nMy eyes turned cold, and the sight before me only poured more reality down onto me…

n“Hey, y’know I heard them last night… They were talking about getting married and **. I know that was far in the future, but hearing them dream about a future together was nice,” I sighed as I walked towards the bloody and burnt corpses side by side.

nTheir bodies had melted together from the blast, displaying their hug that had lasted even until their death.

nEverybody was dying…

n“Where are the parents?” I asked one of the doctors trying to heal the two despite knowing it was already too late.

n“They had saved the two by shielding them from the brunt of the blast,”

n“They disintegrated, huh… how brutal and nauseating,” I muttered before walking out of the tent and scanning the battlefield.

nI smell it… the lingering scent of blood wafting through the wind… This is a battlefield.

n“Προσευχές για τους πεσόντες,”

n“We should get back to the two. Aisa is most likely reuniting with her grandpa now, but he should’ve stayed with them the entire time. Aisa is pretty unstable….”

n“But it’s a good point of growth… or am I wrong?” I asked Findir, who was strangely calm.

n“You’re not wrong, buddy. I feel kind of bad manipulating parts of them so they can grow stronger, but to survive in this world, you have to be stronger than everybody else. The kids nowadays are sheltered,” He said.

n“You sound like a wise old grandpa,” I chuckled, and Findir just smiled as we walked back to the two kids.

n“I’m just… A kid who was forced to grow up faster. Faster than anybody else so he could survive in this world,”

n…

nWe were all currently resting at an emergency base camp that helped the survivors, and what do you know, this was all part of an elaborate scheme.

nThe plan was to not only cut off the only main exit and entrance for this city but also look like a saint as they came to help them and most likely try and gain a favor…

nWe met up with Aisa’s grandpa, but Findir’s parents, who we’ve never even seen before, were not in sight.

nHe kept making up excuses, but we all had a gist as to what was happening.

n“It’s fine to tell us that you came here by yourself. We won’t care,” Aisa muttered as her grandpa hugged her tightly.

n“Alright, we gotta leave before they start recruiting people. We don’t want to be on somebody’s radar immediately,” I muttered.

nPlus, I had other ** to do apart from mingling down here in the city.

nMy plans were being shifted and manipulated by tons of other people… it was as if we were a bunch of spiders trying to make our side of a single web the stickiest.

nOur biggest catch would help us survive this war… but instead of bugs, it’s human resources.

n“Genius, you can go ahead. We’re just gonna rest here for a bit more,” Cy said while not even giving me a glance.

n“Yeah, we know you have some sort of elaborate evil plan, so go and make that happen. Just don’t go and die on us,” Findir said, and after giving them all fist bumps, I headed off with a joyous smile.

nI’m so excited as to what will come…

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