3rd POV
The dust slowly cleared from the earthquake that struck the town of Lexington like a bolt out of blue. Every building in the city had either shattered under the massive shaking or had at least sustained medium to high degree of cracking. Some people had their roofs fall onto their head, some had their entire houses fall on their faces while a lucky few were able to avoid the catastrophe entirely.
In the church however, there was a whole different situation. Out of the two hundred to three hundred people who were in the church, only a hundred or so remained, half of which were dead due to the stampede caused by the escapees. In fact, more people died due to the stampede than by getting crushed under the falling broken pieces of the ceiling. Luckily, both William and Caitlyn were safe due to Caitlyn's last-minute spell.
William looked horrified at the invisible wall of magic above them which protected them from the stampede. He tried to touch the wall but the moment he touched it, it burst like a bubble.
"Wha—"
"No time to gawk at these things, William!" Caitlyn's harsh voice shook William from his trance and he hurriedly moved away from her lap. Standing up on his shaky legs, William looked at the altar area where Aiden was supposed to be and the moment he saw Aiden sitting on his knees, head down and seemingly … asleep in the Baptism Bath, he heaved a sigh of relief. As for the silvery white flames which had initially covered him had vanished mysteriously in the middle of this chaos.
"We need to get your brother and you out of here as soon as possible." Caitlyn said, fright evident in her voice but along with that there was determination. William steeled his heart and tightened his legs to not fall on the ground due to the trauma of bracing an earthquake.
Bracing himself again, he jumped from his seat and rushed towards the altar area, trying his hardest to not look at the injured people who had their legs and hands broken due to the stampede and were crying for help. He tried to close his eyes but that was a grave idea because the moment he closed it and got distracted, he tripped over a limp body.
"Ahh!" he cried and fell face first but before he could get up and look, his shirt was pulled with a jerk and before he knew it, his face buried in her bosom.
"Don't look!" she said sternly but he had caught a glimpse of the corpse on which he tripped and what he saw shook hm to the core. Broken limps, smashed face was gross but thinkable but limbs bent at unimaginable angles, white rib bones jutting out of the chest, blood splattered all over like graffiti, head smashed to the ground with brain matter all over, it was a trauma in a whole different level.
"H-he-h-he…cait—"
"Don't say anything. Think about your brother, child." She said as she rushed towards the altar with the fastest speed possible, her agility would've made people gawk at her but all these people were lying broken in dead's bed.
Soon, they reached the altar where Aiden was sitting all so silently as if he was already dead but that possibility sent multiple shivers down William's spine.
"Hold it! Where do you think you're going?" cried one of the priests as he brandished his staff and pointed it towards them.
"We're the family of Aiden. Please let us through." Said William in a pleading tone but that priest only smiled wickedly at them.
"Family, they say, Your Excellency." He shouted to the Head Priest to which he only snarled and replied, "Fucking kill them!!"
Instantly, the staff head glowed with a greenish light but right then, another shake rocked the entire place.
Ggggrrruuuuu…
A deep growl like sound sounded out which momentarily stopped the spell-casting of the priest. All the priests, including the Head Priest, William and Caitlyn looked at the origin of the sound and was astonished to find that the origin was from a familiar person, Aiden and William's father Jonathan.
Jonathan and many like him who had luckily survived the ceiling collapse looked at the proceeding like dumb lambs. And when suddenly all of the attention was garnered over Jonathan, he looked flustered for a second before showing all of his teeth and laughing in a weird manner, "I-I-I don't have anything to do with that kid!!" he proclaimed like it was the truth.
Both William and Caitlyn looked horrified at him and when saw their piercing gaze, he pointed to them and said in his weird half-shaky half-laughter voice, "I-I-I a-also d-d-don't have anything to do with that lady and that kid."
There was a big silence in the room except for Johnathan's weird laugh. William had a shocked expression on his face for this level of idiocy of his father exceeded his estimation. But that wasn't the true reason for why he was so silent. No, the reason was everyone felt a deafening pressure and their inherent 6th sense was pulsating with a single message. DANGER!!!
None of them understood what or where the feeling of doom was coming but their answer came soon.
Crack-crack-crack
Shoo—shooooooooooooooo
All of a sudden, the marbled floor under Johnathan's feet started to crack before dissolving into a fine sand which in turn started to rotate in a vertical downward conical shape. And just like a quicksand, slowly he and many like him who stood there baffled like lambs started to get sunk in.
Horror spread on their faces when they finally understood what was happening and instantly, they started to wriggle out of the area like mad men. Johnathan even extended a hand in William's direction and shouted in a desperate voice, "Save me, William!!!" he shouted and for a moment William was compelled to go there and save him. He was family after all, but this time Caitlyn clutched his arm and said in stern tone, "You don't need a father like him."
Johnathan clearly heard this and he looked shocked but only for a moment.
Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
An ear-piercing scream rang out from underground and like a fountain ejecting our water, a large jet of sand was ejected out covering everyone in a few meters' radius. The sand even covered Johnathan and soon came his scream.
"NNNOOOOOO!!!!!"
William and Caitlyn and everyone else instinctively moved away from the large jet of sand, avoiding any large pile of sand like death itself. They didn't know what had come out from underground but their curiosity was soon answered.
"Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!" another ear-splitting scream rocked the whole building and welcomed the new player in the party. A gigantic centipede with black plates over its body, a gigantic mouth with rows and rows of teeth and guarded by two great forcipules, or mandibles but for centipedes. It's hundred tiny or in this case, half-a-human length legs wiggled madly in the air while the eyes on it's head glared at puny humans infront of it.
Thud!
All of a sudden, a seemingly insignificant object fell infront of them but the moment the people looked at it, their faces went pale white. It was a hand and to William and Caitlyn, it was very familiar. It was Johnathan's.
"K-kill it! Fire everything you got!!!" shouted the Head Priest towards his underlings and they immediately changed their target from Caitlyn and William to the giant centipede. The previously selected greenish spells fired once again and shot towards the giant centipede like missiles but on striking against the black armor of the giant centipede, it did nothing other than giving it a little green paint. There was a little sizzle but then nothing.
"The fuck!" cursed a few priests as they backed away in fear. The centipede which too seemed shocked at the meagre amount of damage dealt to it, gave a creepy cry before diving it's head towards a certain area. And that area was none other than the Baptism Bath where Aiden was.
Shock and horror splattered over William's face but before he could do anything, a white speck of light flashed across the room along with an ear-splitting sound.
Zooooooommm!!
The sound shook William's and everyone's mind like a hammer striking metal and when they finally got out of the ringing sensation, they saw the centipede also frozen like a statue. Shock was evident over it's arthropod face before a thin line started forming over its head.
The line expanded rapidly and soon a yellowish-green liquid started oozing out from the line. A moment later, the head of the centipede fell down in cubes infront of the astonished eyes of several priests and people.
"Look!"
No one knew who said it but turning around, everyone saw another strange phenomenon. A longsword had magically materialized a bit above the sleeping Aiden. It hovered lightly like a treasure waiting to be claimed and the Head Priest walked over it with greed splashed over his face.
"Bug off, pest!" cried a gruff voice before the longsword slashed downward with another flash. A second later, under the Head Priest's astonished eyes his body was dissected into two vertically. The two halves fell onto the floor like two pieces of meat.
"Hehe. Weak." Cried the same gruff voice and looking around, they saw the silent body of Aiden started twitching. The other priests of the Church of Craven pointed their staffs towards him but by now, their hands were shaking in fear.
Thump! Thump!
Two ethereal thumps rung out as Aiden slowly stood up on his legs, his back started straightening up and he looked a lot taller than usual. His already pale white body looked as if had been washed clean in the baptism and was replaced by a milky white color with a faint pinkish hue.
They waited in their heated breath for him to turn around but in their astonished gaze they saw Aiden slowly being lifted up in the air by some mysterious force, a long white robe started to cover his body as he was being lifted up.
He slowly turned around and his new golden colored shoulder length hair flowed majestically in the still air of the church. Two massive white wings with a hue of gold spread from his back and spread wide to show its magnificence along with a blinding white-orange halo that glowed behind him.
"Whoa…" William cried shocked at the Aiden infront of him. This Aiden looked nothing short of an angel and that's what he was but he didn't know.
The golden eyes of this 'angelic' Aiden glanced across everyone who was present here and after doing a full building scan he said in his gruff tone, "Followers of Devils, for the sin you committed, you shall pay with fire."
The sword slowly came closer to his hand and he grasped it lightly. Pointing the tip of the sword downward, he uttered a single spell. "
Fwwoooosshhhhhh!!!
Like a dragon's mouth, silvery white flames erupted from the tip of the sword and flooded the entire building.
"Noooo!!"
"AAhhhhhh!!"
"Looooorddddd!!!"
Most people weren't able to utter more than a single word before being burnt to crisp. I say most because for some people, the fire engulfed them but instead of burning them to charcoal, it only surrounded them like a cocoon. Well, none of them opened their eyes to look at the strange yet beautiful phenomenon due to shock and fear.
But from a bird's eye view, something altogether different was happening. The silver fire that flowed endlessly from the tip of Aiden's sword moved like water in the building, burning any 'targets' in a matter of milli-seconds while for others, it made a cocoon of fire. But that was only the simple, easier things. When one looked more minutely, the fire looked as if they were alive.
The fire snaked around the building like real snakes checking for intruders before vanishing into the cracks and crevices of the church floor. As for the big hole left by the giant centipede, the flames entered that hole like mad. Other than that, the flames also melted the weak parts of the ceiling and joined cracks and broken parts like a professional welder, solidifying the entire structure into one.
After a while, Aiden flicked the sword and it stopped spouting out fire. After that, he pointed the tip towards the sky and a small fireball erupted from the sword and flew up towards the sky like a flare.
After doing all that, a small smile appeared on his face and he said in a light but gruffy tone, "I did all that I could, child. Now, I can only hope that my other juniors could respond in time and I hope that we could meet soon."
Thump!
The moment he finished, all the halo, the wings and pressure vanished and Aiden fell back into the Baptism Bath, unconscious.
…
After a while, the fire died down, leaving only the flaming cocoons.
Inside, William looked at the strange flames which was revolving around him with curiosity and after gathering all of his will and praying to all the Gods and Goddesses he knew of, he extended his arm and touched the flames lightly.
Tearrrrr
With a loud tearing sound, the ball was torn open into small bits of pieces before evaporating. William looked baffled at the familiar yet unfamiliar place he was. True, he was still in the church but it looked like someone had washed it with a lava-spitting hose. There was still a small chance of roof collapsing on him but he was more shocked by the scenery infront of him.
Infront of him were a dozen or so flaming cocoons standing silently like decorative pieces but then one tore open, just like him. And then another and another. Soon, all of them burst open and nearly twenty people were present alive in the church. Most of them were children and too shocked and had collapsed on the ground, their legs nothing more than jelly after this tremendous trauma they had experienced. A few adults were also present but they were no different.
"Caitlyn, what just happened?" William asked unconsciously but there was no answer. A terrible feeling crept inside him and turning around, he saw nothing but charcoal black dust. All of a sudden, his world turned silent as he slowly digested what had happened.
'She died…. But why? Caitlyn died but why?' he screamed inside his head for answer but then something struck him. Turning towards the altar, he saw Aiden lying unconscious again.
"Brother!" he cried and dashed towards him.
…
Author's Thought
Hello guys, I hope your holidays are going as fine as mine. Now, I would like to mention a small thing. And that is, just like you all, I'm a guy and I'm troubled by day to day life.
I'm no professional and therefore, I only do this because I like it and because I want to share my characters and story to the greater world.
Unfortunately, I'm a university student now. This means that the current release rate is only temporary.
I can only push through at such as fast rate because this holidays and I have nothing else to do.
Which also means that starting January(Colleges in India resume in January as we don't get a big winter vacation) and thus, I wont be able to continue this release rate.
I wont make fake promises of 'maybe' continuing this rate. If I'm lucky, I definitely will but hope for the worst (It will drop because we have midsems in Feb and Endsem at April). I made such promises in my previous books and then couldn't continue because of the various aspects like depression, peer pressure and whatnot.
I hope I will be able to continue this book long enough so that I fall in love with it and don't stop it in the middle.
And for that reason, I need constructive criticisms from you, my benevolent readers.
Please read my story and tell me my mistakes so that I can correct them and make it a better experience for other readers. I don't hope for much but do vote if you want and review if you like it. Thank you and a (Advance) Happy New Year!!!