The light throughout the whole street suddenly got dimmer, like it was being shrouded by shadow.
...
Looking at the building behind Rekka, Ren felt exasperated. At first, he thought it was just a pet shop, but upon a second inspection, he realized that it was a restaurant and finally connected the lines between what Rekka said and the restaurant he sees in front of him.
As Ren kept looking at the building, his eyes eventually reached the top and, subsequently, the sky.
Like a deer caught in headlights, When Ren's eyes laid upon the Sky, he froze.
Ren felt every part of his body stiffen as his stayed glued to sky, petrified by what he saw
...
Ren's face and body turned pale, and cold sweat ran down his back. His arms gave in and involuntarily dropped the plushie he was holding.
*Plufff* The plushie made a minuscule sound as it hit the ground.
"Huh? What's wrong, Ren..." Rekka asked in concern.
Following her question, Rekka squatted down to pick up her fallen plushie. Not noticing that her brother was on the verge of a panic attack
(Jeez, why do the streets have to be so dirty?) Rekka thought to herself as she dusted off the dirt from his plushie with an annoyed face.
Standing up, Rekka's intuition suddenly flared, feeling a strong and menacing current of fear surge all throughout her body. Causing her face switched from annoyed to pale and even terrified In an instant
Cold sweat ran down Rekka's back as her eyes widened; she didn't know why, but her senses suddenly heightened all of a sudden.
(Why is it so dark suddenly...) Rekka observed and shivered.
A sense of foreboding came over her, screaming danger in her mind. Unconsciously she hugged her plushie to regain some sort of ground
*URRRRRRRHHHHH* A beastly wail reverberated and rang, shaking the air of the whole city.
Snapping out of her petrification, Rekka tilted her head upwards, following instincts and saw a sight that she will and can never forget for the rest of her life.
In the sky, Shrouded in pieces of cloud, a titanic creature made its presence known to the whole city.
The creature had rough skin, textured similarly to a rock and It's body was shaped like an oval with some additional details hidden, shrouded by clouds like it's part of it's body.
From the perspective of the people below it, it looked like a natural rock formation that escaped the confines of nature, defying the laws of physics.
However, from a bird's-eye view, the true form of the creature can be seen, and what it is couldn't be as far off as what everyone thought it was. That was until it swung its tail.
*Swuuuuuung*
With its fan-like tail, tempestuous amounts of air were displaced, producing a blast of wind as strong as a category 2 tornado. Luckily for the people below it, the blasts of wind that the creature caused only blew apart the clouds in the way and never made it down to them.
With the appearance of its tail revealed, accompanied by the wail everyone heard, the creature was revealed to be a whale.
...
Without any warning, a pillar of darkness with no end or start suddenly appeared out of nowhere, piercing right through the middle of the sky whale with its infinite length, pinning it down so it couldn't
*Hhhhuuuuuuuaggggghhh* The Sky Whale gave off a pained wail. Opening its mouth wide to reveal an interior filled with light green crystals
As if paralyzed, everyone within the city froze and said nothing at that moment, but in the next, chaos broke, and everyone began running and yelling for their lives.
*SLETTE! IT'S A SLED RUN FOR YOUR LIVES* Dozens of people yelled at the same time, trying their best to warn the people who were indoors
Ever since both of them looked up, neither Ren nor Rekka had moved a single muscle. Until they saw the pillar of darkness expanding
"Damn it!" Ren uncharacteristically swore.
Both Ren and Rekka snapped out of it slower than everyone else, but when they did, both of their demeanors changed.
Ren's eyes turned sharp, and without any warning he grabbed his sister's wrist before she got swept away by the crowd.
"We need to get Mom and Dad!" Rekka yelled in a panic as she instinctively flared up her node, causing her hands to glow brown.
Without answering Rekka, Ren's left hand glowed light green, and before Rekka knew what was happening, Ren's fingers moved frantically, and a gust of wind launched both of them upwards and across the crowd into an alleyway as Ren confused a nullifying burst of wind to stop them before they slammed into a wall.
"Re-" Before Rekka could say anything, she was interrupted.
"I'll go save Mom and Dad; use earth to climb from roof to roof to get out of here," Ren commanded as he looked his sister in the eyes, showing his seriousness.
"I'll come get you later if you haven't made it out yet; let's meet at our favorite park." Ren continued in quick succession without taking a breath.
Finished with what he had to say, Ren wasted no time and flare up his second resonance path, causing his right hand to glow orange.
"Hold on!" Rekka yelled and tried to grab her brother's hand but she missed.
...
(I don't care, I'm coming too!) Steeling herself, Rekka clenched her fist and ran after her brother.
Far ahead of his sister, Ren encountered a dead end. However, ever after seeing that a wall was in path, Ren did stop running, he moved his glowing orange fingers frantically but precisely, creating a large accumulation of flame around his hand.
*Fung, fung*
Before Ren splattered himself on the wall, the fingers on Ren's orange glowing right hand stopped moving and formed into a fist, ready to deliver a brutal burst of flame
Swinging his right fist forward, the flames around Ren's hand suddenly grew 4 times more intense, and within milliseconds, right before his fist made contact with the wall, all the excessive flame suddenly blazed and permeated into the wall, bringing it to its melting point in milliseconds
"Kazzz, kazzz, kazz," the melting stone wall crackled.
Before his fist touched the red-hot wall, he quickly pulled back and wound up a different impact, as his other hand that was glowing light green curled into a fist as well.
During the process of melting the wall, Ren's other hand didn't stay idle. It twisted and turned its finger just like his right hand, and right when he finished, a concentrated blast of wind projected forward along with his fist. Scattering molten stone everywhere
*Blu Blu Blu, BANG!* Ren's left fist sank into the molten wall before blasting it apart.
Without even waiting for the debris to fully scatter, Ren ran straight through the broken wall, burning parts of his clothes and skin in the process.
(I need to get there no matter what!)
Ren's mind was surprisingly calm during this ordeal; it was like he wasn't thinking at all. His body just moved on its own, mind becoming body and body becoming mind. Both working together in tandem for a singular purpose
As he repeatedly melted and blew away any obstacles that were in his way, his fingers got faster and faster. Blowing through buildings and walls like a train
*Hooooareeeeeee* A powerful and suppressive wail shook the air.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Ren suddenly screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
As a consequence of the sky whale's petrifying wail, Ren was shook out of his state of mind. Causing all the pain that he had been unconsciously suppressing to hit him all at once
*Huffff hufff huff" Ren began hyperventilating.
"DAMN.... huuff huff... I need to get there!" Ren said to himself in anger as he tried to pick himself back up.
With the pain and the horror of the sky whale's wail, Ren wanted to barf, but he held it in and did his best to stand upright.
*Erch* Ren grunted in pain.
When he was getting up, Ren felt a stinging pain when he used his hands to lift himself back up. Looking at his hands, Ren realized that they had turned back to normal during his momentary loss of control. his hands were also bloodied and burnt, and he felt every part of it.
For a second, after seeing his own hands, Ren temporarily turned back to his shy and cowardly persona for a moment. He even debated with himself, if he should go back or not, looking behind himself as he contemplated, but when he saw what he did, just to get here, he steeled his resolve again, but this time, he was fully conscious.
Going into stance, Ren flared up both of his resonance paths again, and without waiting a second, the fingers on both of his hands continued to move, causing two individual elements to engulf each of his hands.
...
"How did he even fit through these holes?" Rekka argued to herself as she did her best to keep up with her brother.
Whenever Rekka encounters a wall, she'll use her earth resonance path to get over it since it's faster. But whenever she encouraged a building, she had no choice but to go through the barely human-sized hole he made.
(Please be alright, Mom... Dad...) Rekka thought as unintentional tears left her eyes.
She felt like she knew the results already, especially after looking into the sky to see how much the Slette had expanded. But she was in denial and refused to believe in anything other than a happy ending.
...
*Bluum bluuuum, BANG!*
Molten rock scattered throughout an empty street as a familiar red-orange-haired figure dove through a barely human-sized hole in the wall that is glowing red and dripping molten stone.
*Hah haaaf huuuf* large heap of breath left Ren's esophagus as he kneeled on the side of the road, his vision slowly darkening.
Tilting his head upwards, Ren couldn't see where he was, because of his vision. Even so, he knew where he was and stood up quickly.
Even without his vision, Ren speed-walked toward his home.
*Tack, tack, tack* Ren's footsteps rang throughout the silent streets.
The edges of Ren's vision began to return.
On the edges of his vision, Ren saw the black road beneath his feet; he even saw a very familiar sign spelling out the name of the area he's in.
*Tack... tack... tack…* Ren's footsteps slowed down their pace.
Ren stopped...
His breath hitched...
And his eyes widened...
...
In front of Ren... was nothing but darkness. His vision returned, but yet he still couldn't understand what he was seeing in front of his eyes.
...
In the place where his home was, now lay a daunting curtain of darkness that reached infinitely into the sky.
Ren's legs trembled, his instincts telling him to run away, but the scene in front overloaded even his instincts.
He stepped back, 1 step... 2 steps... 3 steps... But before he could make his fourth, he fell to his knees.
"FUUUUUCCCCKKKKK YOOOOUUU!" Ren screamed in frustration, staring into the sky at the Sky Whale with teary eyes.