Tearha: Titan War

Chapter Thirty-Nine: 48 Seconds

It was chaos on the streets. But not the kind that descends into madness or anarchy. It was an organised chaos. It reminded Adelle of the dark elves, so used to fighting that war blinked by their lives without turning heads. The island that crushed the market district had kicked up enough dust to clog the air even though they were far enough to not see any direct damage. No doubt part of the atmosphere was now made of the pulverised particles of people killed there. Those brave enough to wander the streets for supplies were greeted with rubble churned right in the middle of the roadway. An arm stuck out from under the stone pile of a collapsed side of a house yet no one bothered to stop. They would have time to retrieve the bodies later, after things had settled down.

Adelle staggered through the streets, one arm around Josh for support. The wound where she was stabbed ached with each step. Yet no one turned to look. Why would they? They passed by over a dozen injured in their short 10 minutes of travel from the fort. Even that short distance, away, the damages were wrenching, and they could only imagine the destruction closer to the sites that were hit by the falling landmasses thrown as easily as pebbles across water.

An old human man sat on a crate, cradling a crying elf baby.

The sound of cart wheels followed a call to hand out supplies.

Somewhere out there, a long, painful scream cut the atmosphere.

They continued walking, ignoring the cries for help. A few times, Josh hesitated to continue, turning halfway to any sound of distress. But Adelle physically nudged him on. This was bigger than the city in flame, literally. A swarm the size of a continent was flying towards Citi, ready to pulverise anything smaller than a mountain. As much as they didn't like to think about it, the two of them, a powerless human and an injured, non-magical elf, were perhaps part of what's left of those capable of stopping it. But they needed information first, a way to contact Eca's network.

The clattering of horses' hoofs echoed behind them. "Josh!"

"Adelle!"

They turned to the familiar voices. Arnold and Talia rode to them on two grey steeds. Civilians parted way for the beasts to trample through. The two "whoa"ed their rides to a stop.

A relieved Arnold proclaimed, "You're alive!"

"Yeah," Adelle replied. "But we failed."

Talia admitted, "We didn't do so well either." She looked around sadly at the devastation.

Josh asked, "What now?"

Talia instructed, "Eca's running search and rescue. He'll have something for us to do."

"No," Adelle insisted. "What do we do to stop Exodus?"

Arnold looked down. "I want to stop that thing as much as you guys. But it's moving too fast for us to catch up. The best thing we can do is organise a rescue party from here and just hope Shou's side can do something."

Adelle huffed. She hated how right he sounded. With Josh's help, she climbed onto Talia's horse while Josh rode with Arnold.

At the forefront of her mind, Adelle was already thinking of ways to catch-up to Exodus. "Take us to Eca."

The four of them rode for half an hour towards the destroyed market district at full gallop. The closer they were to the area, the worse the devastation got. The weaker structured buildings - especially those made of clay - were blown apart from the sheer displacement of wind from the dropped landmass. The grown had cracked in many places, swallowing streets whole, with the fracture only widening the nearer they got. They had to circle a few sinkholes that had formed and fires continued to break out, spitting balls of flames into the air as sparks and heat caught the dust and exploded. As the mount came over the city line, Adelle finally got a clearer estimation of its size.