Omega's Rebirth-Chapter 192: Not West...But South ()

"Awaken the blood pillars, let the Earth heed my command."

" Days become nights... mountains and rivers collide, the cardinal gates subdued in darkness. What once stood... stands no more..." The masked man whispered.

The pitter patter sound of dripping blood echoed in an unusually loud manner just as the voice of the masked man rang out.

In a slow motion, every drop of blood that dripped to the ground elicited a resounding echo and Estelle could only watch... unable to understand or comprehend what played out before her eyes.

The change began with a slight shift in the air, a shift so subtle it could be barely noticed but slowly grew more apparent as the atmosphere was charged with an unknown force.

Estelle’s hairs stood on end and a chilling feeling of terror ran down her spine,

For a moment, Estelle glanced down at her skin and she could see the cold sweat forming.

Somehow, Estelle’s instincts alerted her to the fact that something terrible was about to happen... something that would change the course of events in the Asvarian stronghold.

And Estelle could do nothing about it, nothing but just watch with wide eyes and slow breathing to conceal her presence.

What came next was tremor, right beneath Estelle’s feet and everywhere else it seemed.

The earth shook ever so slightly, like it would at the beginnings of an earthquake and then that tremor graduated to violent trembling.

’What is this?... what is happening?!’ Estelle thought in horror.

The shriek of dark magic pierced the quiet night and Estelle’s hand shot up to cover her ears, her eyes fluttering closed against her will.

A pounding ache tore through Estelle’s head and she bit down on her lip harshly to hold in a scream of pain.

Estelle felt as though her head was being torn apart and she could not even dare scream or the dark sorcerers would be alerted.

Just when it felt like she would lose consciousness from the pain, a pair of arms encircled Estelle from behind and pulled her back into the warmth of his chest.

Estelle glanced up to find Dante staring down at her, a finger poised over his lips to keep her from making a sound.

The pain quickly faded away at Dante’s touch, as though Dante himself was a protective armor and Estelle could only stare up at him in confusion.

’Dark sorcery...’ Dante mouthed to Estelle and then Estelle understood it.

Dark sorcery preyed on all life around it when it was cast, drawing it’s strength from the life force of living beings against their will.

Being in such close proximity to a spell being cast was deadly, yet there was an exception to this,

A specie who was not entirely impervious but had great resistance to all forms of magic... dragons.

If being in close proximity to the origin of a spell of dark sorcery affected Estelle so, the effect on a true dragon would only be mild.

Estelle noticed that Dante’s brows were slightly furrowed, she could tell he felt it all, just not as severely as she had a moment ago.

Yet encased in Dante’s arms, it warded off the effects of the spell from Estelle also.

Estelle let out a slow breath as she clung to Dante for dear life while she returned her attention to the scene before her.

And what Estelle witnessed in this moment, she would never be able to explain or forget...

Right before their eyes, the towering and imposing walls of Fort Blazed and all that it protected was gone.

Just like that, as it was told of the lost isle...

An entire fortress of the Asvarian stronghold, the 10th of the twelve great fortresses, Fort Blazed of the East... disappeared.

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"It’s gone..." Estelle croaked out, visibly trembling as she sat by a tree, staring ahead of her in a daze.

"The city... the beacon...my people...my father... the entire fort is gone Dante... just gone..." Estelle stuttered out in a shaky tone, tears streaming down her cheeks.

At this point, Dante also sat, his back was leaned against a tree,

His gaze was fixed in the direction Fort Blazed had stood a moment ago, a vast territory that had now become just a wide expanse of unending land.

Dante’s expression could not be deciphered.

"And we just watched it... disappear. We did nothing! We did nothing, Dante!" Estelle sobbed out.

"Elle... Elle, calm yourself..." Dante was snapped out of his daze by Estelle’s outburst and he moved over to her, crouching down before her.

"How can you ask me to be calm?! How can you even be calm?!" Estelle was just a moment away from becoming hysterical.

What she had just witnessed was something that could not even be possible yet it happened right before her eyes.

A city... and thousands of lives within it had all disappeared in the blink of an eye, like it had never even existed.

And within that city was everyone Estelle knew and loved, her entire family...her whole world.

"Listen Elle...there is no possibility that one sorcerer can completely destroy a Fort of our stronghold with a single spell..."

"We are dragons! The true power of Asvar! It is not possible." Dante asserted with certainty.

"Then what happened here, Dante? Where is everyone?!" Estelle sobbed out.

"Taken...yes. And where? That is what we must find out." Dante said firmly, placing his hands on Estelle’s shoulders.

"How?! Did you not hear the sorcerer? A barrier was set West...we cannot get past them to find Uncle Ranjor and the blazed dragons!" Estelle exclaimed.

"There is no one to help us... no one!" Estelle sobbed, her shoulders trembling as she clutched tightly to the satchel.

Dante shook his head in denial, his gaze narrowed in determination.

"If we cannot go West... then we must go South!" Dante hissed firmly.

"South...south..." Estelle mumbled as her eyes widened in realization.

"South...to Keep Skies!" Estelle exclaimed.

"To Keep Skies." Dante affirmed.