Chapter 32: Return

There was absolutely no way for anyone to enter this area on such short notice. Not with the insane congregation of magic that was furiously swirling just outside of the ring of my now useless wooden beads.

Unless.

With how everything that had the guts to be alive back when the first disaster struck was now a fertilizer for the future vegetation of this area, only a single group of people could have any chance of approaching me right now.

A group of people that was close enough to watch the events unfolds, but far enough to steer clear from the touch of death that appeared here. And there was only one kind of people that could find themselves in such a situation.

People that were awaiting the results of the actions of their subordinates, now checking on just what the heck happened in here.

Recalling the distant memories of who I saw in this place, there were clearly two groups. The first one stopped in their tracks right after accomplishing the goal. It was this group that hid all the possible giveaways of their faction. After all, I would have to be stupid not to recognise the national military uniforms of the second force that appeared and swept the entire place.

Rustling.

Hearing it for the second time, I could now be sure. Someone really had the guts to approach this site. Even the magical storm that surrounded my direct proximity didn't seem to discourage that person. That alone earned them the right of a single glance from me.

But that glance was all it took.

Recognising the familiar face, now twisted in an utter shock, I could feel something weirdly twisting me from within. After all, there was no way, right?

I had my suspicions for what caused this entire tragic situation. I had a hunch that it was a series of events manipulated by many sides, each one knowing less than the one pulling the strings behind them. But seeing Martha's face right now was the nail, it was the proof that this unbelievable scenario actually occurred.

Knowing the reason behind it all wouldn't change the outcome that I had no choice but to face right now. But still, it was what broke the emotional shield that I put around myself when becoming a witch. When our eyes met, when that childhood friend of mine that turned out to be the traitor behind the death of both of my parents realised that I understood what happened, there was no fucking way for me to keep a strong hold over my emotions.

It didn't come with a bang. No explosion happened, no strange phenomena - outside of the raging storm of mana all around me - occurred. The one thing I could notice was that some kind of strange veil appeared before my eyes, dimming all the colours from my sight.

And then it just happened.

"FUCK YOU!"

An internal scream, so loud that it made me think that it could break the windows in the entire city, despite no sound coming out of my mouth.

"I HATE YOU!"

Another cloud dulling my senses appeared, turning the world around me to be even darker.

"YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!"

Now that I had no other choice but to accept my mother's death, I finally noticed how little I seemed to care for my lost father. In reality, it wasn't that I was cold-hearted towards him. My mind was just capable of a finite amount of care and emotions. Only now, with my mother out of the picture, I could nicely wrap them in the thick, dark clouds of an abyss that continued to surround me at a breakneck speed. Right now, my mother joined hands with my father on the list of deceased figures.

"IT HURTS!"

More and more feelings continued to grow on me. Not even bothering to pretend I had any control over them, I could only watch how those clouds of negative emotion encountered one another only to merge and turn even greater within my soul. What started with a convergence of many feelings, was quickly turning into a tangled mess of sheer hate.

And it was only then when the big thing happened. Even though all of that happened in a time shorter than it took for Martha to blink.

ROAR!

With my limits gone, this new, tangled mess of emotions influenced the magic around me. Unable to picture a single intent that I could use it for, I could only watch how the energy started to twist, as if multiple intents continued to overwrite each other on it, constantly changing its direction.

But those were the details. What desired more attention, was a huge magical shockwave that travelled away from me.

At first, it overloaded the wooden beads. Snapping out of existence one by one, this last barrier that held the two insane forces now eroded. And what happened later, was something that even I was amazed by.

The onslaught of the energy pulled by my tangled emotions clashed with the furious currents of the magic kept away from my position by the now disintegrated ring. Without any explosion, everything that happened to be within a meter of the ring's border simply disintegrated into dust. And then the energy bounced.

With the force of the storm sprung outwards, the entire neighbourhood was instantly covered with what could be only described as a maelstrom of magic, comparable only with the greatest hurricanes known to humanity.

On the other hand, the dark energy of my clogged feelings converged all back on me, only reinforcing the second wave of destruction that my emotions casted. And now, there was no other force to contain it.

Sinking deeper and deeper into the madness of that dark ball of an abyss, I couldn't see anything any longer. My eyes turned blind, my ears turned deaf and my mouth turned mute. Surrounded with nothing but the onslaught of hate, pain, regret, depression, desperation and all the other feelings that I kept away from myself to keep my sanity, I couldn't find anything that could connect me with the real world any longer.

The one thing that was left for me, was total and relentless destruction. Only by decaying this entire world, humanity could atone for what it did.

Rise.

With my body following this dangerous thought, I should be worried or scared, but I felt nothing. All my ability to experience was stolen by that black blob of darkness from my heart. It was now the sole governor of my mind.

The second wave came and went. With some kind of miracle, I could see Martha still breathing. Most likely one of the fancy tools that her rich parents bought for her on a whim. The parents that my own family pulled out from poverty and gave the tools to build their small fortune. The parents that had to order this attack on my home, resulting in the death of their benefactors and my own parents.

"Traitors."

Oh, something new. It seemed that this word somehow found a way out of my lips. But it didn't matter. Martha, the only being capable of thought in the proximity was long gone from the world of the conscious.

Feeling the surge of energy moving my hand around, I could feel the darkness suddenly starting to converge on my palm. As if sucking all the energy from my surroundings, this insane force once again appeared in my hold, perfectly ready to turn that traitorous bitch into a mess of separate atoms.

And then I felt a pull.

At first, it wasn't that strong. Something as if a mosquito missed its shot, breaking its sucking tube under my skin and now attempting to fly away, still lodged into my body.

Then the second tug. This time, as if some kind of child attempted to pull my attention.

The next one was heavier, reaching the realms of a friendly nudge.

The one after that was already painful.

Wait, that bitch opened her eyes…

For the briefest of moments, I could see how she was attempting to understand what was going on. For one second, her eyes latched on to me, just like when she would look out for me back when we were kids, trying to assess whether our play actually hurt me.

And then, the next pull nearly knocked me out of my feet.