Rock and the middle-aged man were always among the first ones to come to work every day, as well as the last ones to leave. The man's wife was now 3 months due, meaning his child would soon be born, so this uncle had to work extra hard to make ends meet for both her and his unborn child.
Luckily, the man's expertise qualified him to get paid a lot more than an unskilled laborer like Rock, whose only merits were his youthful, albeit skinny body, and his hunger to put in the extra work.
Thus, knowing that the two of them would often finish their assignments on time, the construction manager barely bothered giving them any further instructions other than what he needed to get done by the end of the day.
Time flew by, and soon, noon arrived.
Rock was about to finish his assignment on the 5th floor and take a few minutes to rehydrate himself, since working under the scorching sun for hours was never a good thing, especially with a body as weak as his, when coincidentally the middle-aged uncle also stopped for a break. After glancing at each other and offering a nod and smile respectively, the two of them began descending the half-completed stairs that connected the 5th floor to the 4th, reaching the point where they had to cross a wooden plank that connected them to the other side of the stairs.
Of course, this was nothing special. This was a construction site and one that was still in its infant stages. The entire floor was basically full of these wooden planks that allowed the workers to get from one place to another.
While they were walking atop this plank though, a huge tremor unexpectedly shook the entire building, accompanied by the rumbling sound of the construction pipes that weren't connected to anything around them!
Who could expect an earthquake at the worst possible moment, and one of such magnitude that shook the entire structure of the building down to its foundations?
Rock saw the middle-aged uncle walk unsteadily across the plank, terrified of the earthquake that was taking place around him, but right before he could reach the other side his right foot suddenly slipped as he lost his balance!
''NO!''
It all happened in an instant, and for a moment it seemed as if time had almost stopped. Just as the man was about to fall down though, from the 4th floor directly to the ground, Rock suddenly rushed from behind and pushed him with all of his strength, sending him flying to the other side and saving his life.
The moment the man landed on the other side though, an even more intense rumbling came from the gap above Rock's head. A huge mass of debris followed before any of them could react, as the wildly shaking construction building finally collapsed from the inside.
The middle-aged man was standing in one of the few 'safe' spots, watching as the collapsing structure buried the youth who had just saved his life, under tons and tons of debris!
The man roared as tears of unwillingness, disbelief, and guilt slid down his face like a waterfall. As soon as the rumbling stopped, he rushed down as fast as he could and used his bare hands to remove the pieces of rock, glass, and concrete that buried Rock.
Still, it was pointless. The debris was practically a tower at this point, with half of the building having collapsed on top of each other! It was already a miracle the spot he was standing had stayed intact and hadn't collapsed too.
The middle-aged uncle was still crying, his hands bloodied from the pieces of glass stuck in his palms, but he was still removing the debris without stop. He felt so guilty that he was basically ignoring the pain at this point! Guilty that that kid had exchanged his life so he could get to the other side.
The uncle kept digging and digging, toaring through the rumble like a madman until the other workers finally rushed over and wrestled him away.
Rock had seen the debris fall on his head and understood exactly how unlucky he had been at that moment. This was practically certain death and yet he didn't regret his impulsive actions. The middle-aged man had been the only one who had shown any form of care to him his whole life, so stepping forward to push him to the other side had come so naturally, Rock hadn't even realized when he had lunged over.
Even after all this though, the only thought that went through his mind while he was being buried under the rocks was this: ''Ah, this is fine too. At least uncle lived.. Still, this is so unfair. I wanted to eat some real meat this month.''. The rumbling and the sound of screaming voices from the other side of the debris gradually died out and Rock's vision turned dark as he blacked out.
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It was unknown how much time had passed since then.
It felt like a moment, and yet also like much longer than that.
Rock tried to open his eyes as his mind began to clear the fog, slowly regaining its consciousness... only to discover that his head was about to split apart from the terrifying pain he was feeling. He started thrashing left and right, unable to feel anything other than the splitting headache that was trying to rip his head apart.
What Rock hadn't noticed was that his body wasn't buried under any rubble or debris this time, but that he was lying on the ground with his face up, on a patch of red grass, right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, with bolts of lightning striking the ground all around him.
The bones on both his arms and legs had been broken, his head bleeding from the back of his skull, and his clothes were tattered and full of blood. There was a huge wound on the left side of his chest, probably made by a sword or a saber judging from its size. Luckily for Rock, it was still a few inches away from his heart, by some kind of miracle.
Still, as the fog in his consciousness began to clear up, the soul-splitting headache only got worse and worse. It felt as if something was being forcefully stuffed into his brain but there was not enough room for that thing to fit, thus making his brain feel like it was about to burst.
Just as a bolt of lightning got too close and was about to strike his head though, ready to end his life for the second time today, a space tear suddenly appeared above him and the lightning was swallowed in a flash.
It seemed as if the lightning bolt had fallen into the depths of the void itself, vanishing without a trace!
At the same time, a stone slowly emerged from the space tear, and as soon as it appeared, heaven and earth seemed to have suddenly fallen silent as well.
A few miles away, the people of Blue Forest-city had all gone still, as if someone had imposed a curse on them. The pedestrians were frozen mid-walking, people inside the restaurants were frozen while they were chatting and laughing or eating, the stall owners haggling to sell their merchandise were immobilized, and even the fire in the taverns and the food the stall owners used to cook were all in a frozen-like state too.
Even the bolts of lightning all around Rock were stopped in place like a painting in the air, as if the very heavens themselves were afraid to move the moment this small stone appeared.
Unfortunately, this stone didn't seem to be afraid of anyone or anything, including the terrifying thunderstorm.
As soon as it appeared, the triangle-shaped stone released a blinding azure light that destroyed the black clouds and the bolts of lightning frozen mid-air around Rock, along with everything else in a radius of one-mile range.
Rock subconsciously felt the change in the environment around him and forced himself to open his eyes, forcibly suppressing the head-splitting pain he was feeling that was slowly starting to ease... only to see a blue-colored light from a small, triangle shaped stone right above the space between his eyebrows, plunging itself right inside his head.