Martha was the first to get off the city. sliding down the long black slide made by Donna. Jhin followed right after, before an injured Kai. The three alighted, making Valerie deactivate her buff. She fell to the ground, being helped up by Kanon.
"You ok?" Kyler asked Kai. Kai nodded, tying up his injured arm to stop further loss of blood.
"I will be."
"The daemons have stopped coming." Diego said.
"Yeah, but we weren't able to destroy the cores." Jhin said.
"How many were left?"
"Two. They disappeared before we could get close."
"Disappeared how?" Donna asked.
"Dunno." Kai said, "It just wasn't there anymore."
Diego shook his head, covering his eyes. "The daemon is far more evolved than we thought it'd be. We really underestimated it."
"But so far we've dealt some decent blows on it, right?" Kanon said, "We took down three of its cores and an army of daemons."
"The entire city is full of daemon, Kanon." Diego said, "Every speck of dust, every single block you see up there is a daemon without a core. This isn't like any other phantom. This is producing daemon."
"So we have to take down the core." Martha said, "We shouldn't have jumped off."
"Don't be rash, Martha." Donna said, "It's aura was spiking rapidly as you guys were on it."
"But if we don't take it down fast, who knows the destruction it will cause!"
"We are not risking our lives to kill that daemon, Martha! If need be we will call for backup but under no circumstances should we attack it without a plan!"
"We are the backup!" Martha cried, "The strongest inquisitors are right here, who are we expecting to come save our asses."
"GUYS!" Diego called. The two turned to him and looked in the direction he was pointing, towards the white city.
Spike had began to protrude from the edges of the city, extending outwards. On each surface of the spike, the visage of numerous daemons could be seen bursting out, their mouths hanging open as if screaming. Dead center of the city, replacing the former outlet was a gigantic eye with two pupils; one smaller than the other, its gaze fixed on them.
The eye closed, and ominously opened again, glowing bright blue.
"Run, NOW!" Diego ordered. The group obeyed, Jhin, on Kyler's back as they moved as far away as possible from the city. But they should have left long a ago. One of the pupils collapsed inwardly, allowing the bigger pupil to dominate the space. A black hue covered the iris and a set of teeth emerged from the darkness, as it began to suck the very earth underneath it.
Light poles, trash bins, sewer covers, any and everything light began to go in the opposite direction of the group as the sheer force pulled them towards it. The group was not spared as they had to try as much as possible to avoid the objects and at the same time move forward. As if to add to their bad luck, the daemon on the spikes began to shoot out, flying towards them as if unaffected by the pull. One of them crash landed next to Martha and instantly exploded, sending her flying off. She managed to gain her composure, although hit back by quite a distance.
"THE DAEMONS ARE DOING A KAMIKAZE!" Kyler cried.
"We can see that." Kai said. He jumped out of the way of one of them, rolling back onto his feet and hitting another away with the pole of his spear, saving Kyler and Jhin. The group made it into a building, watching onward as the entire city was bombarded with explosive daemon and the debris sucked back into the city.
"What now?" Valerie asked.
"I say we call for backup." Donna said.
"I second." Kai agreed.
"But from who?" Martha asked. "We don't even know what other inquisitors are facing. Heck if this one was here all this while, what other things could be waiting for them?"
"I agree with Martha," Kyler said.
"Of course, lover boy." Kai groaned.
"No, Martha's right." Diego said, sitting down. The explosions intensified as the building they were in shook. "Most of the prime would be preoccupied. The closest would be Oz, but he's in Russia."
"And Edgar?" Donna asked. "He's a fast one. Plus he has..."
"Still not quick enough. We can't delay it for long, seeing what its doing now, who knows what else its hiding."
"Then we fight it head on." Kanon exclaimed. Kai looked at her and groaned again.
"What's the plan?" Martha asked.
"We need a distraction." Diego said.
"Me?" Jhin asked.
"No." Diego said. "You, Martha and Kyler are to be the vanguard this time. Kai, Kanon will protect Donna and I. Valerie, apply the buff on only Donna."
"Sure, but why?"
Diego said nothing. "Lets move out shall we?"
Deep within the white city, pure unadulterated anger began to well up, rising and rising as the seconds passed.
Deep within the white fortress, two pairs of eyes flickered open, tears rolling down its eyes like the rain, filled with nothing but rage.
Deep with the city of Wrath, Gaia awakened.