Meanwhile, Philip Jeffrey and Mateo had become acrobats in surviving the earth's disaster.
Philip turned to Jeffrey when they finally stopped jumping over buildings to catch their breath. "What do you keep glaring at me, this is exercise"
"You two still look so carefree in this kind of situation..." Mateo frowned.
"We're running are we not, you want us to scream like morons?" Philip panted.
Mateo did not reply and they started moving again. Along the way, they bumped into five people that also seemed to be surviving just fine. Philip recognized the five but only one was among the main characters.
Cassandra...she died in the end, protecting Tobi. Remembering the scene, Philip could not help but shake his head. The Girl was nice even to the end and if he remembered correctly they would be meeting Tobi in the disaster before the last.
After two hours, the earthquake stopped but there were no feathers this time and without any warning, lightning flashed across the sky and everywhere turned blue.
"Oh shit!" Mateo exclaimed, even the rest had grim expressions on their faces since this was a tribulation they could neither hide nor run from...seeing sizzling thunder chasing after people like snakes in the air, the already from faces turned pale.
Among the group, two boys were struck by lightning and every the usually carefree Philip wore a serious expression.
He had stopped viewing these people as just ordinary characters and so seeing someone die so close was a first for him.
This was not even a game, where the NPCs were life-like because he often felt that Matei had his own thoughts even if everything was done according to the storyline.
"We can still go back..." Jeffrey said nonchalantly.
Philip rolled his eyes. "At least make an effort"
* * *
Meanwhile staying with Zakhir was truly a blessing for Evie and when the disaster of lightning appeared then even though he acted as if he would leave her at any moment...he protected her very well.
Evie also came to discover that he wasn't just an ordinary dragon but he even had abilities...for one redirecting the lightning was easy for him and so he did not stress much about this disaster.
After the lightning, what came next was darkness. Complete darkness where you couldn't even see your palm let alone the person standing next to you.
They could only remain stationary and every once in a while they would hear screams, shrill screams of someone being devoured by the darkness itself.
This was worse than having to run from earthquakes or trying to avoid being thrown in the air occasionally by the wind.
Philip felt like he might die of high blood pressure before the darkness even killed him.
Every time he heard a scream, his hands and feet would turn cold and he was simply too scared to even call out to Jeffrey.
After painstakingly waiting for two hours, light once again appeared outside but abnormally the light was simply too bright.
While Mateo, Philip, Jeffrey and the remaining few watched from their hiding place they were how the people who came out were instantly burnt by the sun's light.
It was like how vampires were known to be tortured by sunlight if they walked out in are daytime, these people disappeared too fast and honestly, no one was curious about how they died.
The smart ones remained in hiding without moving a muscle. 'Those who fight and run away live to fight another day'
It was already a miracle that they were able to survive this long, they did not want to waste that mercy by foolishly throwing their lives away.
After that disaster ended, they were finally given some breathing space, only then did they realize they had not eaten for a long time.
Philip walked up to Jeffrey who was standing beside the window. "How did I do?"
"Except the part where you temporarily forgot how to breath...you did good" Jeffrey replied while staring at him indifferently.
"Spearme man, your the only one who is not feeling all of this...aren't you bored"
"Not really. I'm exploring a whole new way of writing a book, you must have realized it too, Evie can make her characters come to life, each one has their own consciousness...I wonder how she achieved something like that" Jeffrey said thoughtfully.
"You can just go ahead and ask her" Philip shrugged.
"She might not understand where I'm coming from" Jeffrey said but the next moment he raised an eyebrow.
He walked closer to the window and squinted his eyes. "Is that a dragon?" he turned to Philip who also came I see for himself and after verifying it they turned to each other with the same thought in their minds.
'Zakhir'
* * *
Moments after the lightning disaster ended, with the emergence of the darkness they took shelter for the time being since even after covering himself in flames, Evie was still unable to see.
The darkness soon passed and the light of destruction came. Since the bodies of those who survived had already been tainted by the darkness, after stepping into the sunlight they would burn as the sun was unable to accept their existence.
Then that disaster ended and Zakhir took to the sky with Evie, flying faster than before he at least wanted to be with Jeffrey and Philip.
After searching for a while, Zakhir once again stopped. He had no idea what the next disaster would be so it was better to keep his guard up.
When they landed he transformed into his human form. Then he was two silhouettes hurrying in their direction. "Isn't that...Jeffrey and Philip?"
Evie heard what he said and focused on the direction he was staring at and then she saw them.