Chapter 29: Not an Earthquake

Chapter 29: Not an Earthquake

I was in the black, smoky in-between space. It was so sudden, I didn’t even know what happened. One second, I was running down the street with Erani, fleeing from some sort of earthquake, and the next second, I was dead.

I felt a wave of panic wash over me. How would I prevent my death? How could I prevent something if I didn’t even know how it happened in the first place? Was there an explosion? A magical bomb planted on me? Did someone shoot me with a Spell?N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Before I could reconcile my panic, make a plan, or even really process what was going on, I felt myself fading, the in-between space threatening me to leave soon.

I hurriedly picked the furthest-back option I had – six minutes.

That’d have to do.

And then I was back, browsing the store with Erani. I got my bearings. This was after my conversation with the other group of adventurers, but before the earthquake had started.

Erani looked over at me suspiciously. “Hey, you look afraid. Is something–”

I grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door, sprinting down the road and weaving through foot traffic as we went.

“What’s going on?” She gasped.

“We need to run!” I yelled to her as I dragged her by the hand down the busy streets.

“Why?”

“No idea! But for some reason, six minutes from now, we’re all gonna die.”

Wha– how?!”

“I’m not sure. There was an earthquake, and it kept getting worse and worse until something happened – an explosion, maybe – and it all went black.”

“What should we do?”

“No idea. I was pretty much just thinking we should at least get out of the city. It happened here last time.”

“If that’s the best we can do. The nearest exit is that way,” she pointed, and I changed my course accordingly.

We dashed through the city streets, weaving and shoving our way through any crowds we encountered. We got some shouts and strange looks, but thankfully nobody tried to chase after us. I’d been keeping rough track of time, and we should have had about four more minutes until the explosion. Not enough. We were still much too close to the place It’d happened before.

I quickened my pace, and Erani followed suit, sensing my urgency.

After a couple more stressful minutes of running – we now had two remaining – we arrived at one of the exit gates embedded into the city’s outer wall. However, snaking out from the wall was a long line of people calmly waiting to leave. There was a post at the gate, checking people out in the same way they checked us in when we entered the city.

We ran past the line, drawing glares from the people waiting, and up to the guards. I tried to shove my way through, but one of the armored men pushed me back.

“Hey!” he said in a gruff voice. “There’s a line. Can’t skip. Get in the back and wait your turn like everyone else.”

That finally seemed to break people out of their stunned silence, and screams began to rise up from the city, filling the previously dead air with chaos. Fires and smaller explosions also began erupting around the market square – or, rather, the hole that used to be the market square. I couldn’t see what was going on or what was causing the fires, but I wasn’t about to stay around and watch.

Citizens swarmed out of the city, the guards having long since abandoned their posts. The fleeing people stopped once they got a decent distance from the city walls, seeming to want to watch the disaster unfold. Not that I could blame them, of course; most of them probably had houses or families in Carth, so they’d understandably want to see what happened.

Erani and I, however, fled all the way to the edge of the forest line.

“Shit,” I panted once we got there. “What do we do? Where do we go?”

“I... I don’t know,” she replied, her jaw slack and a thousand-pace stare on her face.

I glanced around, trying to figure out our next step. Just then, I spotted beings flooding out of the gates after the people. Not Humans, but red-skinned, Humanoid monsters. Demons. These Demons were huge, hulking creatures, almost twice the height of most of the Humans there, and with muscles so bulging that it looked completely grotesque. Their sunken eyes scanned the crowd of people as they rounded them up, containing them in a circle and examining each one, looking at their faces as though they were trying to find a specific individual.

“We need to get away,” I muttered to Erani, thankful we had fled so far as to not be caught up with the crowd.

We stumbled back and into the forest, running until the city of Carth was completely out of sight. We could still hear the screams, though, as houses continued to burn and people were no doubt killed by Demons. Judging by the show of power with the Supreme Hellion combined with that army that flooded the city, there was no possible way I could do anything to help those people. I kept going over the situation in my head as we ran, trying to find some way I could have done something. Maybe if I was firmer with the guard when asking him to let us go, or encouraged the people to flee further when they got out of the walls...

But my thoughts were interrupted by a sound. This one wasn’t an explosion or a scream – it was a voice.

“Hello, citizens and visitors of Carth.” The voice was incredibly loud, and sounded like it was being projected all the way from the city. It must have been magically amplified. “On the behalf of the Underworld, I apologize for the inconvenience as we enact this hostile takeover of your city.”

Erani and I stared at each other in fear and bewilderment as we slowed to a stop so we could listen. The voice was understated and monotone, as if the person speaking was disinterestedly reading from a script.

“As I speak, our Infernals will begin corralling the population of your city into waiting chambers. Please do not panic or resist. Those who do combat the Infernals will be found guilty of Code 17: Law Enforcement, Section 19: Resisting Arrest, and Code 17: Law Enforcement, Section 3: Assaulting an Officer. Those of you who have fled the city, please return immediately. Those who continue to flee or hide will be guilty of Code 17, Section 19 as well. The infraction of any Code for any reason is immediately punishable by death.”

We looked at each other, looked back at the city, and wordlessly agreed that we weren’t going back there, codes and sections be damned.

The magically amplified voice continued to speak in its bored tone. “Please do be aware that we do not plan to occupy this city for long. Rather, we will be simply checking the identities of each citizen against our Criminal, Deviant, and Fugitive Database – hereafter referred to as CDFD. Those found with their names within the CDFD will be executed. However, do not fear, as we believe that there is only one such individual currently residing within Carth. This individual is guilty of Code 9: Underworld Property, Section 1a: Destruction of Underworld Property; Code 9: Underworld Property, Section 2: Theft of Underworld Property; Code 17: Law Enforcement, Section 19: Resisting Arrest...”

As the voice continued to rattle off a series of crimes, I turned to Erani. “What the fuck is going on? What are those Demons? Infernals, the voice called them? We need to get further away. C’mon, let’s run.”

She just stared ahead, looking dazed.

“Erani,” I gently grabbed her, trying to get her attention. “We need to focus on survival. Please.”

She blinked, breathing heavily. “I... Okay.”

We started moving, the voice continuing with its seemingly endless list of charges.

Erani eventually spoke. “The Demons that the voice was talking about, the Infernals, they’re a powerful race of Demons. They’re used by summoners that take contracts with them. Not smart, but incredibly physically powerful. And in numbers like that... we’d have no hope of fighting them off. Until Carth receives reinforcements from more powerful Classers, I doubt the city will have any hope of defending themselves, either.”

As she spoke, the voice seemed to be finishing his list. “...Code 131: Dangerous Beings, Section 56d: Killing of a Dangerous Being; and Code 237: Chain of Command, Section 11: Perversion of Hierarchy. This individual is considered to be highly dangerous, and if any person within this city has any information on this individual, you are compelled to tell the nearest Infernal immediately. The Infernals will be passing out portraits of the individual. His name is Arlan Nota. Again, if you have any information...”

My head snapped toward Erani as she looked toward me.

“Fuck.”