Chapter 23: Destruction
As Abium ran madly, a loud booming sound came from the interior side of the Tower, causing him to almost fell on the stairs.
'Now what?!' He grasped the iron handrail in shock, searched for a window to see what was happening inside the Tower, and soon found one.
He then moved closer towards the window, peeked inside, and soon widened his eyes.
'Isn't that noise coming from that abandoned Elven city?'
He soon saw that the buildings in the abandoned Elven city started to crumble one by one and caused loud explosions!
No, he saw that the Palace Tower pillars were started exploding while sending flames in all directions.
'Did Azolla put some kind of magic bombs in those towers?' He couldn't help but mutter in a shocked tone.
Without any slight hesitation, he fastened his footsteps. He huffed and puffed as he climbed down and finally reached the ground floor in a few moments.
He breathed a heavy sigh as he opened the metallic entrance door from inside and ran out of the Star Tower.
Abium entered the empty outer yard and soon arrived near the three-meter tall Goddess Nyara's statue, completely covered in dust.
Although the goddess statue was still standing firmly, Abium knew this wouldn't last long.
'It's better to leave this area.'
He ran on the empty yard and soon reached the crumbling Tower Wall.
At that moment, he suddenly heard glass-breaking noises from above and got tensed up. Slowly, he looked up at the sky and saw the transparent glass-like protective layer was breaking.
At that moment, the Star Tower's core room area also exploded and sent broken concrete walls in all directions.
Along with a creaking and thump sound, a part of the bounder slowly fell on Nyara's statue and broke that beautiful figure into pieces.
BRRM! BRRM BRRM!
The next second, the Star Tower and the surrounding lands began to tremble like the entire earth was shivering in fear.
Abium also heard birds' chirping noises and multiple animals' panicking roars from afar and knew this was just the beginning.
Under the Star Tower's continuous shaking, small debris of stones from the Star Tower's top and walls began to fall. As he saw the debris falling from the sky like raindrops, he ducked and evaded those stones and quickly ran out of the Star Tower's outer stone wall.
He didn't stop there, though. Instead, he continued to move towards the right side grassland and only stopped after reaching more than 500 meters away from the stone wall.
'I think this should be a safer place for now!' He panted heavily, turned around, and stared warily at the crumbling Tower.
He never expected these changes in a short amount of time and got deeply startled inside.
The constant shaking continued for a while, and soon he noticed that the rocky wall completely fell first.
Meanwhile, the Tower barely stood there alone like a lone pillar.
The rune letters engraved on the Tower Wall began to flicker like fireflies and disappeared slowly.
Then, multiple cracks appeared all over the tower wall!
'Is the whole tower going to crumble soon?' Abium raised his eyes.
As he had guessed, the broken debris and stones fell more frequently and caused explosive sounds, creating dusty shockwaves from time to time.
When he thought of turning around and moving back towards the waterfall, his heart raced suddenly.
Bum! Brum! brrrumble!!!!
The next second, a terrible rumbling noise came from the deep belly of the earth, striking fear into every living being's heart.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!" He shouted out loud in shock and glanced vigilantly at the dusty surroundings.
A moment later, he sensed that the earth began to move like a wave on the sea, and the ancient Tower that had stood for millenniums finally started to break into pieces.
'Earthquake?' His face went pale.
'Thank Myxenta! I ran away as soon as I saw the tower core breaking.'
He thanked the goddess of luck and wiped the sweat on his forehead.
Now, earthquakes started to appear all around the surroundings, making Abium fall on the ground.
'Damn! I am losing my focus.' He slowly stood up but once again fell.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
He also heard booming sounds from the front, slowly shifted his eyes towards the Tower, and opened his mouth subconsciously in shock.
At that moment, there tall ancient Tower started to collapse slowly.
The Magic Tower had finally fallen!
At the same time, he heard panicking cries of animals, monsters, and birds from the nearby woods and frowned.
It was the direction where the eastern mountain and the waterfall were located.
He hurriedly shifted his gaze towards that direction and soon furrowed as he noticed the tall trees were blocking his sight.
But he knew that the eastern mountain was also affected by this earthquake and even heard rumbling sounds of rocks.
Slowly, the shaking of the earth went fiercer, making nearby surrounding areas fall into utter chaos. Tree branches broke continuously and crashed onto the nearby ones.
After nearly a minute of constant shaking, the earth finally began to calm down after venting its anger on the surroundings.
Huff!
Abium heaved a deep breath, stood up from the ground, and looked around warily.
The next instant, his face turned solemn as he heard a rippling sound.
'Water?' A bad feeling appeared in his heart.
He hurriedly moved towards the nearby woods, dashed towards the eastern mountain direction, and soon reached the area where the river was located.
He saw many fallen trees were floating in the river water, but there was no sign of waterfalls.
The mountain was utterly crumbled, and the previous earthquakes had completely ravaged all those nearby lands. What's more shocking was that the floodwater started flowing in every direction!
The waves were crashing against the rocks and trees and causing destruction everywhere.
'Is that underground tunnel still there?' He gazed at a particular area with some hope but only found crumbled rocks and broken trees.
'What to do now?' He knew that was an unexpected change and sighed heavily.
'Ha! I have no choice but to go through the borderland now.' Although he could get back to the mainland, there would be great danger in the upcoming journey.
'I need to move cautiously from now on.'
As he was thinking about the journey, he felt that the air in the surrounding atmosphere started to change.
'There is still more?' He was genuinely shocked inside.
At that moment, the dark clouds started to gather above his head and gave him an ominous feeling.
Winds grew even fiercer and smashed those half-standing trees to the ground.
Zzzzzzz- PANG!
Tiny sparks of electricity appeared in the dark clouds, followed by a bluish ray of lightning that hit the nearby tree and instantly disintegrated it.
The fog soon embraced every broken tree, and sheets of rain revived the grass, resounding and rippling.
The wind ran as if it had restrained for a time, and it was determined to outrun any chaser.
Then, a rumbling sound of thunder sound echoed, followed by another streak of lightning that fell only a few hundred meters away from where he stood.
'Damn! I need to get the hell out from this place soon.'
Abium understood that he would encounter more dangers if he stood near this crumbled Tower and hurriedly ran towards the Borderland direction.