7 Warning from Above (1/2)
Dark Lord of Tartarus
***
A town full of smiles and feelings of safety. A middle aged man with black hair and brown eyes wearing a military uniform was walking on the streets, he is a man with a high ranking position. Citizens of the town was giving their utmost respect as the man was walking pass them. Eyes of young teenagers and children were shining with admiration when they saw this person deserving of great respect. The young ones wanted to be like that man.
Certain sounds are heard coming from the corner. The man strode to the direction of the sound and there he saw two soldiers guarding the gate. When the soldiers turned their eyes and saw the person approaching, they instantly stood straight. When the man was nearing them, the soldiers greeted him.
”General Jonas Hender, sir!” both the soldiers said and saluted together.
Jonas saluted back at the soldiers.
”Good day soldiers. Are you all well today?”
”Y-Yes sir! We are totally well.”
”Everything's good here sir!”
”Good then. I'll be looking at the recruits and the ones training here. So keep up the good work.”
”Sir Yes sir!” both the soldiers replied.
The soldiers opened the gate and Jonas entered.
Jonas walked around the training area. He saw young soldiers doing pushups, jogging, shooting and more.
The area was large enough to allow hundreds of people to enter and train here.
Jonas looked around and had an impressed look on his face. After that he walked to the shooting range, there he saw a young woman wielding a sniper rifle and had her eye on the scope.
Then a very loud bang rang out.
Jonas looked at where the young girl shot at. After seeing the aftermath of the shot, he smiled. In a distance the dummy target's head was nowhere to be found, the bullet must have shattered the head.
”Impressive as always, Ana.”
When the girl heard the voice, she shrugged in surprise and quickly turned her head. The girl's eyes widened, she quickly stood up straight while leaving the sniper rifle supported by its bipod on the work surface.
The young girl is Private First Class Ana Bellross, she has black hair and orange eyes. At this moment she's wearing a military uniform. She's one of the youngest to join the army in the current year.
”General Jonas Hender, sir!”
The girl saluted to Jonas and he saluted back.
”You always train when you have the chance, I suppose you already beat the sniping skills of the high rankers than you.”
”R-Really sir? I think I still have a long way to go.”
Jonas smiled.
”You think so? Well for me I think you're already pretty good.”
”Ah, thank you sir.”
Jonas walked near Ana and looked to the sniper rifle.
”So, how's the Barrett M82?”
”It's incredible sir! With this weapon I can do a lot of damage to anything.”
”With this weapon and your gift, I believe you can do a lot more.”
”Thank you, sir. I will use this weapon as best as I can to help the people of this town.”
”I'm sure you will. Oh, also, not for long this town will no longer be called a town. This place is already big and highly developed, so this town will soon be called a city.”
Ana's eyes widened in surprised.
”Oh! That's wonderful! Turning into a city means this town has already reached that far. The city of Yusorga, that just sounds amazing, right sir?
”Yes it is Ana.”
Jonas smiled warmly at Ana after what she said.
”This also means that this place will also greatly improve after it becomes a city, and everyone will be safer than ever, no one will ever have to worry.”
Jonas looked at Ana's eyes. Her eyes were filled with excitement and were shining brightly. Seeing this made Jonas happy. Happy about knowing what people like her feels and this warmed Jonas' heart.
”Yes. Also as long as we are here, we the army will protect this land. We will fight off any danger which may co—.”
Jonas' words were interrupted when suddenly the surroundings turned dark. It was just not the training grounds but the darkness was quickly spreading further. For a few seconds, the whole town was now already covered in darkness. It was darkness like when the sun was covered by thick clouds of a storm blocking its majestic light.
Surprised by the sudden and odd change of the surroundings, Jonas quickly moved out from under the shooting range's roof blocking the sky from his sight.
What he saw caused his eyes to widen. The clouds were not like the clouds of a typical storm. The clouds were pitch black and so thick that no trace of light from the sun on the top sky can be seen. There was not even a small gap to at least show a bit of the sun or the blue sky.
”W-What's going on? This is not normal…” Ana worriedly said.
Jonas glanced at Ana and quickly looked back to the sky. Jonas didn't answer to Ana's question because he himself doesn't know what's going on.
He also heard a lot of murmurs around him and saw some people pointing to the sky and people coming out of their working place.
Then thick white smoke descended from the center area of the pitch black clouds. The white smoke looked a bit beautiful with the black clouds around it, but Jonas thought that this is not something to be impressed with. The fact that white smoke just suddenly came down from the odd pitch black clouds is not something good and normal.
Jonas tried to think what could cause this strange event. It could be the because of magic. Then, something of this scale sure has required a vast and powerful power source. Probably this became possible because of some ritual by a number of people.
Then the thick white smoke broke apart and separated from each other. The trail of smokes flew and spread across the entire town. There were roughly a hundred of these trails of white smokes circling around the entire town. Faces appeared on the front edge of every smoke, the faces were not very clear but they were shifting and changing appearance every second.
”What the hell are those?”
Jonas quietly said.
Ana beside Jonas heard what he said and she glanced at him. Then Ana felt something, she felt cold, she felt like cold wind was passing through her.
She looked at her hand. The hairs on her hand were standing on end. She raised her other hand and she held her hand together, trying to at least warm up a little.
She looked at the smokes. As she looked at the faces on one of the smokes, she felt a chill up on her spine. She felt like the faces were going to eat her, she felt afraid. It was though like the faces were emanating a fearful aura, and it was creeping through her.
Then a hoarse voice rang out – no, there were more than one voice.
”Hear us inhabitants of this area!”
Each smoke that was flying near her and the others voiced out. The voices were like several people suffering and shouting while in agony. Just hearing these unknown beings' voices made Ana shiver. She tried to release a bit of her voice to say the word 'what', but she couldn't, all she could do was watch and hear the flying faces.
”We have been sent by the Peerless One as heralds!”
Peerless One?
Ana in her thoughts asked.
”Death comes for you!”
Upon hearing those, Ana was confused.
What do they mean death? Why is it coming?
She asked in her thoughts.
”Your days are now numbered. The Peerless One has mobilized his formidable army to exterminate you. However, the Peerless One has given you a chance to fight for your lives, even though it is futile. Seven days from now, this town's assured demise will begin.”
Ana began to shakily breathe. She felt her heart pounded more than before.
”Please do fight with all your power and might. Entertain the Peerless One with your pathetic effort of resistance.”
Each white smoke began to ascend back to the dark clouds and merged once again.
”Do not dare to forget. Seven days!”
The merged group of smoke ascended into the clouds until they were gone from everyone's sight. After that, in a flash the pitch black clouds disappeared into nothingness.
The instant change of the sky caused Ana and the others to instantly cover their eyes in reflex. They were all looking to the sky and the sun was at its peak, the instant change of lighting requires their eyes to adapt to the brightness.
”W-what was that? S-sir do you know what that was?”
One of the rookies asked Jonas.
”How should I know what that was?”
After the rookie heard Jonas' reply, he closed his mouth and lowered his head.
”This will have negative effects on the civilians. I need to talk with the officers about this so I'll be going now. See you kids later.”