Devastation.
Only one word can express how the young dragon is feeling at the moment.
His heart is pounding.
Each wave hits him like a sledgehammer.
Each thought weighed on him like boulders.
Looking around, eyes pinpointed with despair, all he can see is annihilation.
'D-Did I… Do this?'
Egan kept running the same words through his head. His thoughts ricocheted over and over again through his brain, screaming at him that he was a failure. Every cell in his body began to scream out in anger. If his body could act on its own, it surely would have killed Egan.
As he kneels there, he looks down at his hands. They're bloody and mangled. Not just from himself, but from the cloaked figures he had slaughtered moments earlier. Remembering the little boy in the orphanage, his eyes went pinpoint.
'What if all the cloaked figures… were like him?'
That idea crushed him, sending him into an even deeper spiral than he already was. The dust began to clear, and the entire area around him completely disintegrated. Each house was reduced to ash, and the bits that were left were hanging on to their foundations. The dirt around him left a crater of destruction. He was no better than the monsters he was so desperate to defeat. He couldn't even save one small girl—the only person to have related to him physically since getting here slipped through his fingers.
'Why… Why… Why…!'
He clutched his head, squeezing it with the force to shatter a steel bar. He kept chanting while images flashed of all the people he saw die right before his eyes. The little girl with a pole ran through her chest, as she lay limp on his lap. Her parents watch in horror as their daughter dies. The shocked expressions of a father's children as they see him get crushed under a falling house. The images kept flashing.
Over and over
Repeating.
Faster and faster, these visions of horror were swallowing Egan. He was just born a couple of weeks ago. For all intents and purposes, he is a newborn with very emotional and physical intellect. He never wanted to hurt anyone. But looking around at the destruction his resonance caused, he can't help but think somebody was a casualty.
It was getting harder for him to breathe. Each gasp of air felt like pushing an elephant through a pipe drain. Each swallow of oxygen burned his throat as though he were swallowing lava. He wanted to cry. But how could he? What right does he have to do something as human as cry? What abomination like him deserves to have such human emotions?
'I can't… I can't…'
He began to slam his head into the ground.
Thud.
Thud.
Splat.
Each one slicing his face open, and then immediately healing. Faster and harder, he wanted these thoughts to stop. So, like a child, he threw a tantrum. Smashing his head into the ground harder and harder. The earth around him began to crack, and the houses that were already crumbling began falling apart even faster. The quiet dust of the once-beautiful street dance in his peripheral as he slams his face on the destroyed pavement. The feeling of wind on his skinned face is a pale reminder of how weak his form truly is.
Before he could think, he leaned back. He began to charge essence into his body.
Resonate
He wasn't thinking. Each of his regenerated eyes rolled to the back of his head, his regenerated jaw opening wider. His teeth began to sharpen to those of a dragon, long and ferocious. The aura around him began to thicken as the air became warmer. Waves of heat surround him as he aims his mouth at the moon above.
[The air around Egan becomes warmer]
With a rip, his claws tear through his chest, while he lets out an earth-shattering scream. One so loud that the entire city began to shake violently. The very heavens themselves quaked as the young dragon wailed. Each decibel sends waves of essence shattering across the entire city. The earth was shaking with the force of an earthquake. The rubble that Egan had caused around him began to float in the air, the thick essence condensing the very atmosphere he resided in. His roar was one of pure desperation, hatred, and sorrow. The entire town felt his pain, even Sarah.
***
[The cries of a dragon shatter throughout the town]
Sarah, Liz, and Ser were all separated from each other. Each one of them did the best they could with the limited resources they had. Because of the size of Northern Vanitinova, the casualties were immense. To minimize the pain and suffering caused by the disaster, they decided it would be best for them to split.
But no matter how distant the trio was, all of them could feel the pressure coming from Egan's howl.
[The density of the atmosphere hinders the movements of everyone in the city]
Sarah was the first to react. She knew exactly where Egan was. The yell was heard from every corner of the city. Nobody could escape the intensity of his sorrow.
Sarah felt that scream, she knew it wasn't one of malice. She thought she knew Egan, and from what she learned, she could tell when he wasn't truly angry. With a twist of her staff, she launches herself into the air, using the condensed essence around her for wind magic, allowing her to soar even further than she already could. With her eyes screaming determination, she uses an ice path to glide herself further towards the bellow. Each wave of essence made it harder for her to move further.
The townspeople all knelt, covering their ears as the scream persisted. For them, this was the cause of the destruction. Aftermath declaring 'Victory!'. So, for most, this was a message of doom.
'Come on… Get there!'
Sarah was determined to find him, for in some self-righteous way, she felt like she was the only one who could save him. The lone wolf, Sarah Chatsworth, had deemed herself responsible for this man.
Blind arrogance
It took a little time, but she managed to find him. She was soaring in the air before gliding down towards the ground. Looking out towards the massive crater, at least two blocks wide, she notices Egan. Who was still kneeling, eyes bloodshot in the back of his head, and blood running down his chest.
She tried to step closer but couldn't. The people who surrounded the crater all cowered in the scarce blockades they could find, desperate for this nightmare to end. She tried to take another step but failed. Each wave of heat scorched hotter and hotter as she tried to inch her way toward Egan. Each wave of her staff that tried to quell the fire was immediately put out in a cloud of steam.
She tried everything. A different angle, different essence control, she even tried to use resonance. Nothing worked. Everything was overpowered. The sheer pressure that Egan was emitting felt as though Terranova's gravity had increased 10-fold.
Each weight of her small steps forced her down closer and closer to the ground.
Using a protective layer of essence with highly concentrated water, she was able to very slowly make herself inch closer. Barely. Slowly.
With each step, the gravity increases.
She was still at least 100 feet away, but she trod on, confident in her essence control. For she, too, recognized that something within her had changed. For her essence, control had evolved.
***
-A couple of hours prior-
Ser looked down at the device, still looking at the screen.
[Unique display ~ Model: T-53, Soul translator prototype]
[Talents: Innate = 2 {See details…} ~ Evolved = 1{See details…}]
[Talent summary:
Innate sense - Sensing essence (minor)
Essence manipulation (high) -> EVOLVED ->
Essence Conceptualization -
***
'Visualize the essence around you (Intermediate).'
'Sarah Chatsworth'
'You are ever the prodigy I thought you to be'
***
Sarah continues to wrap herself in essence. Trying to visualize a shield to protect her from the intense waves of heat and pressure scorching the ground around her. Each small, insignificant step forced her further into the ground.
The waves of heat blasted her skin.
Her arms began to blister.
Her legs are slowly charring as her skin cracks off her face.
She is determined; no amount of pain will stop her.
Looking around, the town guards began to swarm the dragon. Egan was now slamming his hands into the ground, shockwaves emitting from each smash.
The guards, with their combined forces, began to advance faster than Sarah. Pushing back the essence as fast as they could.
Egan stopped. Taking a deep breath.
The guards close in further, screaming at him to surrender.
Egan couldn't hear them. He was still trapped in his little world. Clawing at his back, his eyes still rolled into the back of his head. Looking up, he ripped the flesh on his back.
He lets out an even louder bellow. One that would put the strength of a nuclear bomb to shame.
It launched the guards back, shooting them all in different directions. Including Sarah.
She's forced onto her back.
Her skin was charred and burned.
She looks up, gazing upon Egan.
'What in the world did he see?'
She couldn't help but feel sorry.
She wanted to help, but couldn't. She wanted to see what he saw. Experience what he experienced. Fight what he fought. But she couldn't.
She started to cry silent tears, each one evaporating before they could reach her chin.
How was she going to stop him?
***
[The sound of channeling essence is heard in the distance]
[A green flash slams into the ground Egan is kneeling on]
It was fast. Too fast.
As Sarah sat there, looking out at the desolate wasteland Egan had made, looking beyond at the litter of fallen houses. Her vision is blinded by a massive dust cloud.
Within an instant, something flew down towards Egan, blowing straight through the wall of intense heat surrounding him. It shook the earth, and the blow caused cracks to form from within the crater. The dust cloud was big, shrouding the young mage's view as she lay there, helpless.
The guards all go silent, deathly silent. The wave of intense heat is gone.
Sarah felt it too. The increase in gravity had dissipated, no longer holding her down and no longer torching her skin. To most, it would be a relief, but to her, it wasn't. It meant that whatever happened in that dust cloud, Egan had stopped his rampage.
***
As the dust settled, what lay there was Egan, face lying on the floor, foam frothing at the mouth. Blood now pouring off of his face, which was steaming, as it slowly regenerated.
Standing atop the unconscious dragon. Was a man that Sarah Chatsworth never wanted to see again. His forest green eyes pierced the darkness. His flowing blonde hair danced elegantly in the waves of wind caused by the blast. His shining rapier pointed at the young dragon's neck; his foot planted on Egan's head.
The mystery 'Savior' was now in full view.
Hadrian S. Vanitinova was now standing over Egan, A large smirk plastered on his face.
The guards erupt into cheers, their swords flying in the air in triumph.
But Sarah did not see this as a victory; her face twisted into a disgusted and shocked expression.
Hadrian looks out towards Sarah, his face twisted into a crooked smile. Looking back down towards Egan. He states both to the crowd and the young dragon beneath him.
'I should have put down this disgusting animal when I had the chance'
***
"This wild tyrant bringing destruction to our city…
Will harm you no longer!"