The world was silent by the time Veronica hit the ground. With confusion, she rolled a few meters, then jumped to her feet with both of her weapons drawn out.
Nobody moved to attack. Every single person in the room stared at the brazier in terror.
The brown flames had taken a monstrous shape, but with the chanting stopped, it was turning more erratic.
The fire decreased in size for a second, then pulsed and grew bigger. It repeated did each time became smaller, then turning more gigantic. After a few seconds, it almost reached the ceiling.
Veronica looked around with confusion. The room was still silent, but the cultists were mouthing something to each other, and judging by the leader's face, this was something that wasn't supposed to happen.
The flame grown even higher, and at one point the church's ceiling exploded, raining rubble down on everyone's head.
With quick moves Veronica dodge each with ease, but her eyes stayed glued to the roof.
As the ceiling broke, she saw dark clouds appearing in the sky. It was pure black, and as it obscured the sun, the streets near the church got plunged into darkness.
The people all over Hammon looked outside towards the sky with terrified expressions. It felt like the entire world had come to its end.
...
Michael looked out towards the Church of Time. His heart beat heavier than ever, and he was fighting with the idea of going there.
He kept looking between the Material Box and the dark clouds. A war was fought inside him. Heart versus mind. Love versus duty.
There was no way to make such an important decision, in so little time, but as the saying goes: If you don't decide, someone else will!
Michael stood in the window with the box in his hand, when she heard a strange sound... Humming.
It was a beautiful melody, which calmed his nerves within moments. His mind and heart were suddenly in perfect harmony.
Without control, Michael's legs moved. He opened the door to the recreational room and looked outside. There she saw the most beautiful woman he had laid his eyes upon.
She was slender but also curvaceous in all the right places. Her each movement seemed to be perfect, and even her clothes brushing each other was like an elegant symphony.
Her long blond hair shined under the light of the corridor, and behind her right ear, an orange flower rested.
Next to her stood Rob, Billie's husband. He couldn't look away from her; he was mesmerized.
"So, this is the basement?" asked the woman, her voice sending shivers down Michael's body.
"Yes, Madam June... Now that I helped... Could I listen to your singing... Just once, please..."
Rob seemed to look away, like his request was shameful, but June just smiled down at him. She touched his jaw with one gloved hand, and brought the man's attention back to herself.
With a cunning smile, she leaned in and kissed Rob furiously. The man didn't know what to do, and was melting down in her arms.
June's cunning smile remained, and she moved a few centimeters away from Rob. Her mouth opened, and she sang a short rhyme.
"The Sun shines yellow, the rose blooms red.
You explode to pieces, and now you are dead!"
As the last words left her mouth, Rob's whole body inflated, then in the next second, it thoroughly exploded. The corridor turned bloody, but somehow not a single drop of blood landed on June.
Seeing the destruction, she giggled to herself and stood in front of the basement door. But Michael didn't see that.
When she sang those lines, the box in his hand started to scorch his palm. The pain brought clarity, and without a second thought, he turned back into the room.
He sprinted towards the window and jumped out without care. A few glass shards cut his skin open, but they soon healed themselves.
Behind, he heard June's singing voice, but he ignored it as best as he could and he just sprinted towards the dark church.
...
At a random cafe, two people sat at a table. The place was empty except for them. One was a man, the other a woman.
Both of them had tanned skins, which was a signature of the Dracon Empire's citizens.
Their kind wasn't unusual around a port city like Hammon, but these two were different. They dressed much more elegant, and they sipped on their tea, like they were some kind of noble couple.
Neither said anything for a long time, but after a few hours, the woman seemed to have enough of the silence.
"You sure that is the place?" she asked while bobbing her head towards the large building at the crossroad. The man didn't even glance at it, he just grunted and nodded.
"That's where the Director gave us as an address, anyway. We will figure out soon enough. Just be patient."
They have said nothing else to each other, and about half an hour later the sky turned dark above the Church of Time.
Both of them felt a horrible suffocating feeling, and without saying a word, they stood up and walked outside. They then approached their target and went into the alley next to it.
As they approached, they saw a blond middle-aged woman stare out the window towards the sky. Her blue eyes were full of worry as she stared outside.
...
Back at the church, everyone watched the brazier in terror and confusion.
The flames turned black and went in a circle, like a tornado. The flame wasn't hot, and it felt wrong, profane.
A wind was starting to pick up inside the hall, and the tornado widened. It sent the cultists flying.
Some of them hit the walls and pillars, they crumpled to the ground, dead. The lucky few managed to land on the stone floor, and they immediately turned and bolted in panic.
Veronica only let herself watch all this for a second, then her eyes went back to the ever-growing form of the Being inside the black flames.
The bubble of silence was still active, but suddenly a giant roar shook reality. It sent the entire roof and parts of the walls flying away, landing on top of the surrounding houses, or even in the sea.
In Veronica's left hand, Silent Whisper began to glow, and it suddenly exploded. Parts of the rainbow blade landed penetrated her side, but she wasn't paying attention to that.
The roar was so strong it not only shattered the bubble of silence and the walls, but it actively started to Corrupt everyone.
Veronica screamed in pain as her skin was pierced by few centimeter long thorns. Her dress, shoes, hands, face, every part of her body welled with blood from the thousands of tiny needles.
On the other side, Gerald felt to his knees as his body burned with white flames. Every clothing item turned to ash, and even his revolver melted. The only intact Item was the cufflink in his hand.
Using it, he kept onto his sanity and didn't turn into a Corrupted.
Next to him, Cory wasn't as lucky. His body turned ghost-like, and as the Corruption started, he lost control of his body for a moment.
The spirit inside the mask moved his limbs and placed the mask on his face.
Cory slowly climbed to his feet and looked over himself. He then laughed with madness, causing Gerald to look at him.
His eyes focused and widened... "Brother... What... What have you done?"
The spirit inside the mask moved his head to the side. The face on the mask changed from mad to curious and giddy.
"Brother?" he said, like he was sounding out a word he hadn't heard in a long time. "Brother?... Brother gone!"
He said to Gerald, then walked out through the broken wall of the church, never looking back.
Gerald tried to stand up, but he was way too weak and he fell to his knees. His face was terrified and tear stained, he kept repeating the same word... "Brother..."
Back on the other side, Veronica groaned, and she tried to open her eyes, but all she could see was red from the blood. She felt the thorns retreating, which was a great relief.
Through her exhaustion, she barely held onto consciousness. In her side, the rainbow blade was still embedded, but compared to the pain she felt a few seconds ago, it was like a bee sting.
Slowly, her brain was getting back on track and she remembered where she was.
This clarity spun her body in action, and she pushed herself into a sitting position. Her vision swam for a moment, and the sides darkened, but a few seconds later, it returned to normal.
The brazier was covered by the darkness, which was ever increasing in size. It was already close to connect with the similarly dark sky.
The wind has also picked up. It was powerful enough to lift the small pieces of rubble, turning them into deadly projectiles.
With slow movements and the help of a nearby broken debris, Veronica climbed to her feet. In that moment, she felt the piercing pain in her side, but even that couldn't take her attention away from the black tornado.
She was frozen in horror, and even though she tried to think of a way to stop the tornado from consuming Hammon, there was nothing she could do... But someone else wasn't so hopeless.
Suddenly, Ted walked in front of her and touched her right shoulder. Her eyes moved away from the ever consuming blackness and landed on the pale man's calm face.
He didn't say a word, just handed a closed letter to Veronica. His eyes looked behind her then, and she turned around to see Michael running their way, still holding the Material Box.
Veronica's eyes turned teary and a few sobs shook her body. Michael didn't even look up at their inevitable doom. He just swept Veronica up, giving her a warm hug.
Ted watched the two of them for a moment, then snatched the box away, and opened the lock with no keyhole.
Both Michael and Veronica turned his way with confused and curious expressions. They watched with great interest as the lock clicked open and Ted grabbed the Item inside.
The moment the object left its container, the surroundings changed. The air turned warmer, like a nice summer day, and the terror that was creeping in on their hearts got elevated.
The Item was a simple-looking hand. It looked scorched, and it seemed to push back the encroaching darkness.
Ted dropped the box, then pulled out his revolver and tossed it to Michael, who caught it with ease.
Still, he didn't say a word. Ted looked at Michael and Veronica, then they both witnessed one of the saddest events of their lives.
In that flickering moment, at the end of their world, the impassive man with a pale skin, who never showed the slightest of emotions... Smiled.
It looked awkward and ridiculous on his usually bored face, but seeing it made both of them feel unbearably sad.
There was so much hidden pain, regret, melancholy, and exhaustion in that smile.
He said no words. In the last of his moments, Ted didn't speak. He nodded towards Michael and Veronica, then pointed at the closed letter in her hand.
Without a word, he looked down at the scorched hand once, then turned away and headed straight for the darkness.
It parted in front of the hand's warmth, and let him inside. Once far enough in, the wall of darkness closed, causing Ted to disappear.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Veronica was sobbing. She never knew Ted well, but he was still a good person. Michael was still in shock, and he just stood next to his fiancé.
They still stared at the darkness when they spotted a speck of light deep within its depths. It grow every moment in size until it finally had enough and exploded.
The dark tornado was about to connect with the sky when a pillar of light came crashing down. The skies above Hammon and its surrounding area turned pure white and blinding.
It only lasted for a few moments, and by the time it ended, the darkness had disappeared and the gray clouds were broken.
A bridge of light from the sun landed on the destroyed Church of Time, where only a lone hand remained.