Through the grand city, a large swathe of destruction was being cut in a straight line. From the monument that the Machine Lord had been sealed in straight to the royal palace of the Tullens royal family. Large buildings constructed of various parts and many different enchantments were falling like dominos, the steel plates comprising their walls were falling apart and shaking the concrete off. Glass shattered and rained from the sky, and smoke filled the air.

 

From all around the Machine Lord various parts and pieces were rattling towards him, David could see screws, nuts, bolts, and various enchanted parts. They would then start to surge together like water filling a pond, and form machines of various shapes and construction. An entire army was forming from the pieces of the city around him.

 

The man raised his arms and several drone-like creations took flight that was made from the flying vehicles that littered the city. Various weapons that were taken from the wall and the various soldiers were built into their beetle-like bodies, and a series of propelling enchantments made them dart around like bees. They fired their guns at any flying vehicles or floating buildings that were in range, all in sync with the Machine Lord’s hand movements.

 

Along with the drones countless humanoid golems were also created, they had weapons fit anywhere that did not hamper their movement. They looked humanoid for the most part and were mainly made from the armor of the soldiers and the various golems in the city. These creations stormed out and began killing off the various citizens and guards in the city and dragging back any useful equipment to the Machine Lord.

 

These were only a small part of the various creations that were raised when he raised and lowered his hands. All kinds of miscellaneous machines that looked like ants with turrets on their backs, four-legged dogs with weapons for heads, and various bladed golems were also made. These also proceeded to charge out and commit atrocities in the city.

 

Throughout all of this, the Machine Lord continued to hum with his eyes closed as he moved his hands like a maestro. All around him smoke, flames, and cries of death surrounded him. He killed every single person he came across, if not directly through one of the various machines he was controlling then he was doing it with their own technology.

 

“STOP!!!” A man’s voice roared.

 

The Machine Lord was annoyed as he turned his attention to the source of the voice. Suddenly he began to laugh maniacally as if he was a kid who had gotten what he wanted for Christmas.

 

“A Tullens! Finally!” He struggled to get these words out through his laughter, it sounded like there were so many emotions contained within it.

 

“Edgar Crowe, I can understand your anger! I have long worked to root out the very problems that caused your false sealing!” The man with pink hair roared out trying to reason with the Machine Lord.

 

“If you know what happened that day then you know why I am here. I don’t care if she is dead or not, I will not rest until I have taken back everything that I have given you people!” The Machine Lord announced with finality.

 

“You were the greatest artificer to have ever existed! Please, reconsider! It isn’t too late yet!” The man with pink hair cried out in sorrow. “I don’t want to have to seal you away again.”

 

“I have had over one hundred years to learn how to hate humanity, the elves, the dwarves, all of them.” The Machine Lord said emotionlessly. “I sat in that pillar the entire time, fully aware of everyone who passed by. Not once did anyone think of releasing me from my suffering. I also learn from my mistakes, what worked once will never work again.”

 

Suddenly from the ocean of parts that surrounded him, a giant creation began to come together. It looked like a statue of a woman, and it rose behind the Machine Lord like a guardian angel with feathered wings. A look of sorrow was etched on its metal face.

 

“I will leave this here as my last creation to you all, I will name it after the Tullens who betrayed me.” The Machine Lord said as he patted the angelic statue of the woman. “I will call it ‘The Angel of Death, Ryela Tullens’. How does that sound?”

 

“You’ve gone mad! My great-grandmother has been dead for a long time! We have already begun trying to correct the mistakes that were made back then!” The man attempted again. 

 

The Machine Lord began laughing when he heard those words.

 

“There are some debts that can never be paid with money. Some debts can only be paid with an ocean of blood, and a mountain of corpses.” The Machine Lord stated this as if it was obvious. “Descendant of the Tullens, today your great grandmother will send you all to hell!”

 

The Machine Lord snapped his fingers and the tear-streaked eyes of the statue opened showing blank orbs behind it. The mouth opened up like a nutcracker showing a clear rectangular lot with teeth included in the mouth. Many magic stones began to roll up the body of this tall 30 foot(~9M) statue. The wings on the back began to slowly extend, and the dull gray metal that colored its entire body began to shine as it took in more magic stones.

 

The man with pink hair sighed sadly as he stepped off the flying machine he rode in on. It looked like a chariot that was pulled by a rocket-shaped machine. Several runes seemed to flash into life under the man’s feet and allowed him to float to the ground. He had short pink hair and clean white clothes that resembled a modern suit without the buttons. The ground seemed to undulate under his cloth shoes like water, and he was much taller than the Machine Lord.

 

The runes disappeared without a supply of mana, this was only possible at the second layer and above. You needed your mana to be dense enough to be able to form solid shapes and draw your runes right into the air. Runes in general were an invention of Edgar Crowe, it was something that completely revolutionized spell casting in Edea.

 

“I, Richard Tullens did not want to have to fight you, but I will stop your rampage!” The man with pink hair announced.

 

“You don’t have it in you, I can tell you that now.” The Machine Lord said plainly. 

 

“Do not look down on me!” Richard called out in rage.

 

Suddenly countless gun barrels all turned on him, and a wave of light appeared as countless mana cannons fired at him. Richard reacted calmly by stomping his foot on the ground and causing ripples to flow through the concrete. These ripples soon formed a multilayer barrier around him like an onion, it was reinforced with steel.

 

“Another turtle… Okay, we can play.” He said bored, as he made a sharp hand gesture.

 

The various blasts of mana began ripping sections of his defense to pieces, and his hand gesture caused several drones to pass over the shell and dropped various metal canisters. They tumbled and turned as they fell through the air. When they made contact with the shell a large explosion occurred.

 

BOOOOOM!

 

A large burning crater was all that remained, the Machine Lord watched this from the back with his arms crossed. Suddenly the concrete behind him began to undulate and a hand reached out and dragged him violently into the concrete like it was water. The Machine Lord was weak and didn’t even have time to struggle. A few moments later a pink-haired man slowly climbed out of the ground, a tired expression on his face.

 

“It is done…” Richard said with a sad smile, as he looked at all of the destruction around him. Looking towards where he started the large army of machines was still aiming at where he had previously been.

 

Bang!

 

A gunshot went off behind him, and he heard it hit what sounded like meat, looking down he saw a red blossom at his stomach. Richard was shocked as he turned in the direction it came from, what he saw was another Machine Lord climbing out of a Golem that was still an armored suit.

 

“You must have read the records of our fight from all those years ago. Ryela got away with that trick because I trusted her.” The Machine lord said with some regret. “I also didn’t know she could use that ability to come out of the ground like that. That was the first time she had ever shown it to me.”

 

Suddenly several of the armored golems opened and many more copies of the Machine Lord appeared stepping out of the armor. They all had the same shredded pants on and the same filth covering their bodies. This caused Richard's blood to run cold as he didn’t have the mana to move through the ground again as he had just done.

 

“Some espers like you can use both magic and their abilities. I have never done human experimentation before, but there must be a first time for everything.” The Machine Lord’s said in unison. “I am excited to figure out why you can when others cannot. Well, that is if your body can survive this.”

 

In response to the words of all of the Machine Lords, a change happened to the giant statue of the female angel. It had finished consuming magic stones and the feathers of its wings were glowing with a rainbow of light. Suddenly the air began to violently vibrate before a wave of sound that was too high for the human ear to make out was released. This wave of sound caused everything organic to shatter and vibrate apart and it spread through the entire city.

 

The various creations of the Machine Lord and all of his clothes were fine, but all of the people, animals, and plants were ripped apart. Richard didn’t even have time to react before he was turned into a fine blood mist, this caused the Machine Lord some genuine shock when he was recombined by his curse. The true Machine Lord looked around at the lifeless city, then at the giant angel, he had created.

 

“How sad, I won’t be able to figure out what was different about his esper ability.” The Machine Lord Lamented. “I will need to find one of his descendants or family members. I have plenty of time though.”

 

The Machine Lord began to laugh as he was the last human left in the city.

 

-

 

David slowly opened his eyes, the first thing that he felt was a deep pain in his left arm. Reaching towards it with his right arm he was able to feel thick bandages and slowly opened his eyes and tried to look at it. The first thing he realized was that he was wrapped in blankets, and he had to move some of them out of the way. His arm was bound tightly in bandages and smelled of ointment.

 

Sitting up he found himself lying inside of a bed, and this caused him to look around the room. What he found was a plain white room with a small window that was boarded over. David slowly tried to sit up, but he felt a deep pain in his chest when he tried to bend his body. Lifting his shirt he found deep bruising that he assumed had come from the strap he had tied around himself on the helicopter. 

 

Slowly getting to his feet, he began to carefully make his way to the door of the small room. There were pictures on the wells and various items that probably had significance, but nothing familiar to David. Pushing the door open, he could see a small hallway and he could smell food cooking. 

 

Slowly following his nose and passing several closed doors, he came to a small kitchen that the Princess was used to heat some meat and eggs. David slowly made his way to the kitchen and when he just stepped on the linoleum, he saw the blonde woman turn towards him and show a look of shock. He waved with his unbandaged arm and took a seat at a large kitchen table.

 

“You’re awake.” She said quietly.

 

Her voice was soft and it caught David by surprise, he then recalled she tried to yell at him before he lost consciousness. David tried to put his jumbled thoughts together, then he recalled everything that happened. Looking at the blonde woman in front of him, he tried questioning her to see what happened.

 

“What happened to the helicopter?” He asked.

 

“It crashed.” She said.

 

“It crashed? Did it crash far from here?” David asked.

 

“It is only a few minutes walk from here, we barely made it to a place called Castle Rock, I saw one of those traffic signs before we ran out of fuel.” The woman said.

 

David had already assumed that the snake-like monster had to have died for him to live. He just wanted to know what the situation was like and if he could rest for a while. Looking up to the blonde woman, he gave her a grateful smile.

 

“Thank you for helping me,” David said awkwardly. 

 

“You helped me first.” She replied.

 

David chuckled a few times when he heard this.

 

“You shouldn’t help people with the assumption that they will help you back.” David told her. “My family said that feels like that should only come from the heart.”

 

“What good parents.” She said this with an odd light in her eyes, but David decided to ignore it.

 

Thinking of all that she had been through in the mental hospital, he thought it was a miracle that she was this well put together at the moment.

 

“Are there people here?” David asked her.

 

“I haven’t checked the other buildings, but this was the first house I found and it was abandoned.” She said.

 

“Have you seen anything abnormal?” He asked.

 

“I took care of your wounds then boarded up the windows. I haven’t had time to do much else but make food.” She said.

 

“How long was I out?” He asked.

 

“It has only been a day.” She said.

 

“It’s only been a day?” David said with some shock.

 

Remembering his arm bursting into flames made him think that he was going to be unconscious for at least a week or more. Then he recalled that the excess mana stored in the limb would also increase the speed of his healing. While the spell he used to move the bomb had cost an incredible amount of mana for a first layer, that was because direct manipulation was much more expensive than using a rune.  

 

I tried to cut down a tree with my bare hand…

 

David looked at the heavily bandaged appendage and tried to move his fingers while he was at the table. He sighed in relief when he realized he could still move them, but he had lost a lot of the feeling in his fingers when he touched them. Hearing a plate being set on the table in front of him, he looked up and saw frozen meat and eggs, there were even vegetables.

 

“Where did you get this?” David asked.

 

“There were chickens outside, and meat in the freezer. It looked like they only grabbed clothes and left, even the doors were still open.” She said with some hesitation. “We are outside of the city, we landed near a patch of trees less than 150 feet(~45M) from here.”

 

“How was the freezer running, was their power?” He asked.

 

“It is in the basement so it was already naturally cold, they also threw a ton of ice in there.” She said.

 

“Is there power?” He asked.

 

“No, just gas, they have a tank outside that is half-full.” She said.

 

Why did they leave? This thought appeared at the forefront of his mind, as he started to look around the house he was in. There were pictures on the wall showing a family of four with a husband, a wife, and two daughters. He could see several awards, some trophies and certificates, and even some hunting trophies.

 

David looked up and noticed the blonde woman was fidgeting, he suddenly realized something he had forgotten. This caused him to start laughing, as he forgot about the eerie feeling of the town. Looking up at the blond woman as he looked at the food in front of him he introduced himself.

 

“I’m David, I didn’t think you were able to talk so I forgot to say.” David said as he scratched the back of his head shyly. “It just seemed weird telling someone who couldn’t talk my name, I guess that was kind of rude though. 

 

The blonde woman looked at him with confusion for a moment, before her eyes lit up like two stars. A bright smile spread across her face, and it was almost magnetic. When David saw this smile a thought went through his mind.

 

She is quite beautiful.

 

“My name is Yelena.” She said.

 

That is a strange name…

 

“Can I call you Lena?” He asked.

 

She looked at him for a few moments with a blank look, before it turned into a bright smile and she nodded bashfully. 

 

“That is fine…” She said.

 

“Alright, well, I will be counting on you in the future then, Lena.” He said.