When Ramona finally opened her eyes, she found herself in the rubble of a collapsed home. Her entire body ached, and she could barely move. A fierce ache hammered her brain. The stench of burnt wood and flesh still assaulted her nose, but strangely she could no longer smell any sulfur in the air.
She could remember fighting the Prophet of Truth. Then that d**mned van Brakke did something which caused an explosion. What happened to her team? To her goddaughter? Despite her desperation, Ramona could barely lift a finger.
Ramona forced herself to her knees after almost an hour and crawled out of the ruins. She saw a completely devastated city. A few of her colleagues were nearby. Some were still breathing. Many weren't. Aayla was nowhere among any of the people and corpses nearby.
Between waves of pain, Ramona forced herself to follow the path of destruction to find the epicenter of the blast. She would check on the situation and start her search there. To her horror, nothing was left of the magic formation except for a large crater flooded with contaminated mana.
She found Chris and Jacki tucked away. Drag marks on the ground revealed where they had been previously. They had been moved by someone. Hoping that the same person who took care of them also helped Aayla and Daren, Ramona searched for more tracks.
None existed. Ramona slowly realized Aayla and Daren must have been caught up in whatever happened to close the portal. Not a single trace of them remained. All she could find was the remains of the broken summoning formation and land blasted with a high density of mana.
When the military finally arrived, they found Ramona Heston sobbing next to the crater where everything came to a close.
**********
The pivotal battle in Sarrasak had finally concluded, but the cleanup continued. The core of the True Order had been heavily damaged. However, the Prophet of Truth and the Prophet of Terra were missing, along with several other key members, such as Jerome Foryl. Parts of the nation were still in chaos.
Sarrasak, the once glorious capital city, was in shambles, and the country was on the verge of collapse. Most of the residents of the capital could only relocate until the city was rebuilt. They had lost everything, and the smarter ones realized that Sarrasak was probably finished.
In contrast, though heavily damaged Halcyon City pulled itself through the war and stubbornly began to rebuild. The city became intensely strained after refugees from Sarrasak started to arrive.
The others they could tolerate, but these people they utterly despised. Despite their boasting and arrogant claims of being the nation's ruling class, Sarrasak and the federal government had failed to stop the True Order with disastrous results.
Now, after decades of degrading the other cities and treating them like second-class citizens, the people of Sarrasak came begging for their help. Rather than begging and apologizing, many Sarrasakians still made outrageous demands and didn't acknowledge reality.
Deep disgust and loathing were the obvious results all over the country. Many places, mostly those with the power to resist, refused to let in any refugees from Sarrasak or the traitor city Landrienne. Halcyon had the most severe reaction to these refugees.
Oddly enough, the Halcyon City Lord still allowed many of the refugees from Sarrasak. Pushing through the widespread protests of his people, the Forolans personally let in the Federal President, Prime Minister, and their families.
Many refugees arrogantly thought that this was natural without noticing the hidden danger. How could a City Lord be a pushover? If the refugees behaved themselves, they were largely left alone to form their own camps outside the city walls. If they didn't behave, then they would suddenly find their riches confiscated, their families evicted and themselves blacklisted from the city in the middle of the night.
The refugees with some sense of shame could only blush in shame at the antics of their compatriots. After most of the troublemakers were dealt with, the federal government officially established a temporary presence in Halcyon two weeks after the final battle.
**********
The sounds from the construction effort resounded outside. Stones sliding into place. Hammers nailing timber together. Workers directing loads of materials. Not even once did the construction ever stop. There was too much to do. It had only been two weeks since the federal government was reestablished.
Ramona closed the window and placed another silence spell. With that, the racket outside became much more bearable. Sarrasak still lay mostly in ruins. With the lavish requirements of many residents, the construction would continue for years at least. Perhaps even decades.
With her lips creeping up into a wry smile, Ramona wondered if Sarrasak would even be relevant as a capital city in a decade. People would have already placed down roots in their new homes. Would they even want to move back? That's not even mentioning the power grab among the other cities right now.
She continued to read the documents piled high on her desk. Having a powerful backer was such a pleasant experience. Innello had pulled some strings to make sure that she got every report on the True Order's demon summoning.
Ramona poured over those documents day and night. Perhaps she needed more sleep or coffee, but sometimes the data seemed strange. There appeared to be a couple of small, illogical choices made by the designers of the summoning formation.
After reading through the documents several times, Ramona could only conclude that these choices must have been made by the True Order researchers after trial and error during the testing phase. A small sigh escaped her lips as she put down one stack of papers only to pick up the latest one put on her desk.
Carefully picking apart the data, Ramona wrote her own notes as she went. Many points needed to be checked again. She clicked her tongue. The arrogance of the government's investigators was undeserved. They still dared to boast and refuse her help with this quality of work? Bah. Those incompetent leeches.
Rather than this report of processed information, it would be better to get the raw data. She would make better sense of it anyways. Ramona had no idea why the investigators were being so stubborn. They should've been happy to offload any extra work onto her. After all, Daren and Aayla were already considered dead by most. To them, this work was pointless.
Just as she was about to put the report down, a pattern emerged in the data. Ramona looked over the data again. She was certain now. She had seen this pattern before. The only question was where and when.
With a wave of her hand, the files in her room began to reorganize themselves. The useless ones were shoved aside, while the relevant ones were neatly filed away. Ramona began pulling boxes out of her spatial artifact. They contained stacks of her research results over the years.
Fortunately, some of her work had been saved when Nafriton University was evacuated months ago. There was no way the pattern she saw was in the investigator's reports. She began to reread all of her research.
Her frustration mounted when the pattern didn't emerge in her work. These reports were mostly summaries. She would have to return to Nafriton. From what Ramona recalled, her main laboratory was locked down when the military left. What she needed should be in there.
**********
One month later in the southern city of Halcyon. Honoring the dead and funerals were completed weeks ago. Only one was left. After weeks of investigation, the missing Daren Forolan and Aayla Glowery were officially declared dead.
The refugees had brought along another host of problems for the City Lord, but it all paled in comparison to his heartbreak. After a month of investigating and searching, his nephew was officially declared dead. He had loved Daren like his own child for many years. He and many others were devastated.
Though the exact events of the final hours of the battle were kept a secret, three things could not. The first was the reappearance of the demons. The second was that several key members of the True Order were still on the run. The third was the disappearance of the heir of the Halcyon City Lord and the goddaughter of Ramona Heston.
In desperation, Innello had agreed to let in the refugees and politicians from Sarrasak on two main conditions. The first was to support rebuilding Halcyon. The second was to help search for his nephew. Tragically, nothing could be found. Various experts all agreed that he, Aayla Glowery, and the Prophet of Terra were dead.
Eager for some good news, the federal government declared both of them heroes and gave them the highest honors that they could bestow. The official cause of death was that the pair interfered with the demon summoning, but this caused a backlash that killed everyone nearby.
Foreign nations and entities were stunned by the events in the Chinebar Republic. A deadly new threat had appeared. Cities could be destroyed overnight. Any thoughts of invasion had disappeared. Much had to be investigated first. What if they brought the disaster to their doorstep?!
Ironically, the Prophet of Truth's trump card to destroy the republican government played a key role in saving it.