Chương 87: Armageddon.

In front of me, the sky opens up. A gaping hole showing the dark blue sky. As if the cloud themselves took a punch and recoiled away in fear at the holder of such strength. Clouds. Rainy clouds far away, above the forest around the village. There were clouds there, rainy clouds. Like always. There isn't any clouds anymore. They left. They escaped, this, this gigantic, immense, monstrosity. The street around me was cold. The street around me was rainy, it was freezy, I am drenched like a wet dog. Soon, I won't be.

Because the rainwater sticking to my cloak is evaporating, I can hear the water sizzle on my cloak, I can feel the wet ground under my shoes getting hotter and hotter as it sizzles too, like the walls are sizzling, being cooked alive by the water that can't handle that much heat. Heat coming from... this. A... fireball? A... meteorite? A...

A gigantic ball of molten fire, of plasma, gigantic enough to reach me from kilometers away and dry me up, a giant fireball with a core of pure white bubbling plasma that must be dripping. molten lava on the ground beneath it, that must make the forest burn into cinders and singlehandedly commit an entire fucking genocide of the flora and the fauna I now know well. It's piercing through the heaven.

Pushing through the clouds and transforming the evening into night, my eyes hurt, it's burning, I'm blinking but my eyes still burn, I can see the sun whenever I close my eyes, but the sun descended to reach beneath the sky and greet everyone around the village. It keeps rising. and rising. I can hear the sound of hot air from this far, I can hear the whoosh of burning air from here, I can feel the warm air, almost comfortable, touching my body. It keeps rising. And rising.

Wondering what there is above the sky, and considering it's place in the world. It has the right to search for more above the sky. Like a supernova, it explodes. With a gentle and deaf muffled "pop" it explodes into a gigantic and magnificent explosion that carries warm hot air towards me and pushes me back an entire step. A sizzling cracky sound similar to fried eggs reaches my ears. Napalm rains down after this sound.

A burning rain of fire falling on the forest and falling close to the walls and falling on the fields close to my village and singlehandedly making the night sky light up with smoke and golden fires, pure pyres of destruction, it reaches the forest under it and lay to rest birds-eagles-wolves-deers-fishes-and anything that dares to stay under it's holy burning path. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. For one good minute. Nothing but an explosion.

It's as if the entire world decided to stop and give this explosion an entire full minute, making sure nobody has the right to move if it's not to observe it, to observe the sound, and the sky opening, and the napalm falling from said sky, and the devastation that have ensued after. Then. Silence. Pure and defeating silence.

"What?" My voice sounds so calm compared to the explosion. It sounds so calm compared to the footsteps behind me too. The thundering footsteps of a man clearing a street in less than a second, wind pushes my hair away into a mess as I see my grandfather back, sword in hand, sprinting faster than the rain straight toward the explosion, away from the village. Huh? What? There is nothing around me. Nothing but the vision of this divine retribution and this golden fiery light smothering the sky.

Nothing else in my vision. Even if the clouds are coming back, even if the rain is coming back, even if everything is coming back to normal and even if I can see the dark sky above me, only pierced by distant fires. Is that... a joke? Was this a nuke? Did someone threw a nuke at us? Someone passes me by on the street, running, but this time slower than my grandfather. He has a hand around his mouth and is screaming at all the streets he's passing by"FIELDS, FIELDS ON FIRE! COME TO THE FIELDS! PUT OUT THE FIRE!"

The... what are on fire? I start walking. Forward. One step after the other, remembering the sight. Remembering the warmth on my skin, remembering the shockwave that pushed me. Remembering everything, and walking straight toward the light and the smoke rising in the air. The more I walk, the more people I see, the more panicking people I see. Some are running straight into the fields, some are screaming at each others, almost fighting against each other before other people stop them from ripping themselves apart.

I notice the guy... who doesn't like me. The guard. The young guard who isn't an official guard. He's doing his best to stop two people from screaming at each other about the war and the end of the world. A mass of people is starting to build up at the north entrance. A lot of people are running in the field, some people with houses near the gate are getting water out to stop the fields from burning, even as more and more rain starts falling, faster, and faster, faster than normal, so fast it starts to hurt.

As if the world was punching back the fireball for daring to stop the rain, even if it was for a small minute Close to the mob near the gate, where people are jumping over the baby walls to help the farmers that were still on the field at this hour. I can see someone I know. Hatomo. Staring at the mob and walking away, just as shocked as me. I would greet him. But I'm busy remembering... This. So passing him by and entering the mob, I dodge two burly man carrying a big wooden tub toward the field and follow them.

Waving between the old people panicking, the ones helping, the ones staring, and the mediators. When I finally manage to get myself a path to a wooden wall, climb it as best as I can, and stand on the field. I see the extent of the damage. I won't be able to hunt anymore. I won't because in the field in front of me, I see it, between patches of fire getting crushed down by the efforts of dozens with water, and the rain getting more and more powerful, I can see it. The devastation.

The small dying forest where I enjoyed going to hunt and train my shooting skills is... gone? It's. Almost fully gone? I can see for kilometers till the horizon drops down now, there's almost no tree to stop the sight, the muddy ground is bubbling like lava and the rocks look like sandy obsidian materials digging into the volcanic... forest? Because it looks volcanic, as if a volcano exploded right here and there.

There's still smoke rising far away in the forest, the rain falling on the fire and making the mist bigger, obscuring the lucky surviving forest patches in the distance.... you know, if that's between napalm and the rain falling from the sky? I think I prefer the rain. I.... I need to get stronger.