Could he have made a mistake? Could he have misunderstood his friend? The world had a strange method of showing him the errors of his ways. But he had planned it all perfectly. How could he have been wrong? He was never wrong. Not him, not the man of greatness he had become.
No.
It could not have been him. All would have been well if not for the earth splitting apart. Tyral would have appreciated his brilliance as soon as he saw his family alive and well. No, it was not his fault. He could not have planned for this. There was only one to blame. One man. His sworn enemy, the man that had mistreated him more than any other, the man that he wanted dead the most.
‘Vennoss,’ Kobin whispered to himself, ‘you will pay for your crimes, old man.’
With an oath to avenge his friend’s death and all the others that he loved, he sat quietly, listening to the sounds of destruction from behind him in the valley.
Alone again, the world would soon know the power of his wrath.
* * *
Jaden raced along the side of the valley, half-heartedly shouting for everyone to evacuate. He had managed to dodge past the soldiers and get into the village, but the scene before him was beginning to overwhelm him. He had been running on pure emotion, but now the lack of energy was finally taking its toll. Everything that had happened over the past days was coming to the surface; the hollowness of the feelings inside, the dreams, the sickness, his loss of time with Alyssa, continual fights with Ardim and even winning the wrong tennagen match. It felt as though the entire world was coming down upon him, and now seeing the homes of his fellow Callibrians on fire was making him question if it was even worth fighting to save.
A sudden roar in the sky and a flicker of gray made him lose his balance and trip over a rock. He was sent spinning down the slope, coming to a stop only when he landed in some bushes. He had to cover his ears as he looked up to the sky, where a group of fighter jets was flying low across the valley. Just as the previous strike he had seen from outside of the village, they were turning back before letting their bombs fly, and the panic started all over again.
A single moment seemed frozen in time as all eyes were fixed on the dark shapes that flew over them, wondering at who would be unfortunate enough to be hit by the bombs. They had to run. They had to get away. But it was too late. As if a giant hammer had struck the earth with a tremendous blow, the ground shook furiously from the first impact and what was once a house became a mess of fiery rubble and ash within seconds. Dust and debris of houses was then sent hurtling into the atmosphere, as the rest of the bombs rained down upon them, men, women and children all screaming at the tops of their lungs. They tried to run in every direction, but were met with more explosions each way they turned. It seemed nowhere in the village was safe. The fighter jets were systematically destroying each structure in sight, and closing off every way out of the heart of the village.
The roar above faded as the fighter jets left, and Jaden stood up again. Where only hours ago he had known paradise, there was a scene from the most horrific of wars, of the most brutal attacks. Ruin was left in place of beauty, the jets leaving the land broken, as a battlefield in which the bloody and dying walked among the fires that had come alight. Some were searching for shelter and aid, while others ran frantically about, trying to escape, or help whomever they could.
Smoke and ash was pouring into the sky in great columns, the low visibility of dusk made worse with each. Jaden could hardly see ahead of him anymore, both from shock and the poisoned air, but knew something more devastating had come. In the west, between the Gates, the military unit he had passed on his way in had stationed itself. He could see little of it, but enough to know what would follow. Missiles and random gunfire would be aimed into the village, just as his grandfather had told him in the stories from around the world. They would kill as many as they could while they awaited the arrival of the rest of their force.
He had to warn his people of the new threat.
Without regard for his own safety, he raced into the village, shouting for them all to flee to the mountains in the east. They had to distance themselves as much as possible from the military unit in the west. There was no other chance of survival.
He was halted by a loud hum. It was so low it felt sickening in the pit of his stomach, a vibration so deep he had to drop to one knee to contain the nausea it produced. The sound was followed by a crunching noise, of stone being crushed under immense weight. Jaden looked to the west where it had come from and saw people beginning to run toward him. At first he was confused by the sight, unable to make sense of the silhouettes in the sunset, just strange shapes, dark mountainous figures, nothing tangible. He saw it then, over the buildings, the reason his people ran this way. The giant machines, those bigger than houses were ploughing into the village, pushing entire buildings out of the way and leaving little more than dust and rubble behind them. Soldiers filtered through the buildings ahead of these enormous machines, cutting down the villagers with their large weaponry at merciless rates. The attack had come into full effect.