He took out a body from his storage. As it lifelessly collided against the floor multiple flames flew after it, exploding mid-air. Instantly chaos appeared within other cells but the noise was drowned by the explosion that took place, one after another as the flames exploded.

He focused on all the triggers that were present in his mind, eyes closed to focus. After a few seconds, he mentally yanked the triggers at the same time. The sound of blasts overcame everything. They were small individually and he had set them up in such a way that they made more noise compared to the damage they caused. He jumped away, Arshad being dragged behind. After gaining some distance he turned, his palm pushed forwards.

‘Inferno’

Like a flamethrower, a massive burst of fire exploded out, slamming into the prison wall, invading the cell, it enveloped the corpse. It did not stop, continuing onwards. A prisoner could not even scream when he was dead. He turned, those few seconds having exhausted him more than everything beforehand. This spell constantly drained him for the duration it was kept up.

With the orange-colored light illuminating the night he rushed towards the wall. Unlike what he had expected things were different. The guards, along with their hunting dogs were running around. It seemed like they did not even see the fires that were going on all over the prison.

Barking fills the air. Arshad was not covered with mud. His eyes moved about as he considered what to do. The sounds closed on him from all sides, the wall still far away. He jumped, grabbing the metallic frame sealing the window. Once again he heaved himself up and quickly he was on the roof. He waited there for some time, his head peeking out occasionally to keep an eye on what was happening.

Unable to find the cause, guards were forced to run towards the fire that was quickly spreading. They left the dogs free before they left.

He kept running, the dogs unable to gain upon him as he ran with full power within the concrete jungle, Arshad now in a princess carry. He quickly was out of the buildings and into open ground, the wall still far away.

The dogs had been unable to gain any distance before but quickly closed in. He cared not for them, he had been afraid of the firearms rather than the dogs and those were distracted.

A spherical barrier came into existence and the dog howled in pain, its mouth burnt, and its fur on fire. After another two victims, the dogs did not attack instead they kept following him while barking.

He charged at the wall, hammer appeared, smashing towards the slightly melted area. Despite his best effort, the effect of heat had still seeped through Thankfully it was night thus difficult to spot from far away. The dogs now surrounded him but they all maintained the distance growling at him. 

The wall was ripped apart like paper. He rushed through, the dogs after him still but just as he crossed to the other side, an explosion ripped the wall apart. As the wall above caved a few dogs got buried underneath. He quickly killed them, putting them out of misery, and ran into the forest.

The forest seemed to take him back to the familiar place. His ears heightened in sense, his eyeballs constantly moving, his fingers twitching. It took him a while to remember he was outside. This place felt so similar. Maybe because no light was unable to bypass through the canopy.

Crossing the road, he jumped into the cluster on the other side, next to the building. Rushing out, he ran from one cluster to another, using the trees in the fields to hide both of them. The tension loosed when they sat inside the car.

Seeing Mamun, and Abdul Matin Arshad quietly sat inside the car. He appeared to still be trying to wrap his head around what had appeared.

Mamun pushed on the accelerator and the car picked the speed, but it quickly got off the road and then got on another track after a minute.

“The racing tracks? Are they not used at night anymore?”

“These days no one is using them. Those who can pay for 300 per liter fuel don’t come here.”

“300!? What the heck.”

Both he and Arshad exclaimed. 

The car sped past the obstacles and they quickly ran away. 

***

The sun slowly got out when they neared their meet-up palace. All of them were huddled together watching something.

“We have come with our last member.”

The faces turned towards them, and emotions overcame them all. It felt different than when he had met them. It had been Arshad that had been leading them, after all. In this difficult period, he had been jailed and in a way, he had gotten out the easy way. There was not a lot that could happen to him in the jail but they had been weathering through the storm and the one that had been leading the helm had been Arshad.

They all gathered up, hugging the old man one after another. After the pleasantries, Arshad turned toward him.

“Who are you?”

“Guess?”

He could barely contain his excitement within. This person had been his teacher despite being ranked under him. Throughout the years he had learned a lot from him. He had always considered him a better leader than himself. Unfortunately, he did not belong to a powerful family and his honesty with his work left him with not many friends in high places.

“So you were alive, a relief.”

Arshad exhaled a big breath and sat down.

“Why? Did you guys think me dead?”

Mamun replied as he looked around.

“They were not allowing any access to some of the prisoners, not even their families. We had been afraid they had finally decided to get rid of you.”

“At the start, we did think you guys too had been caught up in the towers but considering the survival rate of black towers, it could be considered the same as death.”

Most sat down while some went out to get some food. While they were waiting for it they started conversating with one another.

‘Not all of them had a bad time.’

He observed some of them who appeared better than the rest, much more relaxed and radiant unlike most of the people within the room. There was one thing that was absent within most of them, they did not have that drive from before. At least he could not feel it.

"There are few like Mamun. With their wives and children waiting back home they don't dare to go against the flow. They know it won’t end well if they try."

He turned to Arshad. Now nearly all of his head was filled with graying hair and the skin wrinkled. Mamun interrupted him.

"What is wrong is going with the flow. It’s us who are idiots for putting ourselves in danger for nothing. All we are going to get when we get killed are crocodiles and useless press from the politicians, and maybe not even that. Who will care for our families? None. Rather it will be a blessing if they don’t attack them instead."

As he looked at him who despite his self-deprecating talk was still not fazed. It was like the kidnapping of his son had not affected him one bit. It made him feel guilty looking at them both, Mamun and Arshad. Both still seemed to be running towards that goal while he had his priority shifted.

'But does it matter? What I want and what they want to achieve coincide.'

The thought wormed its way into his mind and he could not deny it. He would get his revenge and they would get what they wanted while also making it better for the normal people.

'And it's not like I am turning away from that goal. rather both our goals will be achieved the same way.'

He watched quietly as they talked among themselves and even though they tried to involve him in the discussion these seven years had created a chasm between them. He was changed now, someone else, someone they no longer knew just like he did not know anything about them. They had not been part of his memories just like he had not been part of theirs.

He looked at the middle-aged men sitting around, most of them no longer had that flame and even those that did had chains stopping them from truly achieving anything; families, friends, work, etc. Very many things bouged them down just like they had bogged him down once. Now his wife was in God knows what condition and his mind were filled with malice but he finally had power.

He closed his eyes, bright and dim connections were shining in his senses.

Now he was different than before. He had power, not some social power, not some economic power, not the conventional military power. But it would change the world, he was sure of that. What he had experienced was hell but in return for it, he got this power. It was not something that could be taken away from him, at least no human could take it away from him.

He blinked his eye, today was marking the end of the second day since he had come out, and only now was he starting to get the desire for sleep. It was light for now so he decided to stay.

He watched silently as they mingled with each other and here he found some that in addition to Arshad and Mamun still had that flame within him.

“How is it? Did something new happen with those towers?”

His ears perked up on that.

“Nothing new.”

“No one came out?”

“None after that first one.”

“How is that person now? Still in the rehabilitation center?”

“She is showing signs of becoming better but she still does not talk.”

They still had not asked him about his experience. But that also made him wonder why but then he remembered how afraid Mamun had become when he had seen his face maybe that was why. As he looked around he found most of them avoiding him just as he had been avoiding them. Their eyes would wander over snapping back instantly after lingering for a few seconds.

He clenched and unclenched his hands. From the tip of his fingers to every visible part, there were the marks of the burning, the stabbings, the bitings, the slashes. His fingers unbuttoned his sleeve and they slowly rolled up. He could see the eyes all around, they focused upon him. Just like his hands his arms too were filled with the scars, telling the tales of his brutal experience.

The silence made the room uncomfortable but to him, it mattered little now. It had been difficult to control himself at every step since he came out. There were too many people all around him constantly. It spooked him. It was a challenge in itself to stop himself from attacking without any regard similar to what he had been doing in the tower. In some ways, he again affirmed, the tower was much easier to be in.

“What happened to you, uncle.”

Afzal broke the ice and he started telling the tail. Once he started, he continued more for himself than the others. It was a wonder how he had survived up until this point. He had faced off thousands upon thousands of monsters and somehow come out on the top. And with his mind intact. He wondered what that said about himself, whether he was wrong in his head beforehand or he had somewhere along the way changed without him knowing it. It was not normal to go throw such an experience without losing something. He did not care to search deeper.

‘Certainly, at least the ‘me’ from before did not think like this. At least he would have tried to find a legal way to bring them to justice.’

Justice was a hallow word to him now even more than ever before. It had always been like that in his experience. It was much easier to get the type of justice you wanted when you had money and power compared to when you don’t. Now he did not care. What he cared for he would start doing. 

While he was telling his story, his mind at the same time was considering how he should start. Take out the smaller and move to a bigger bunch or the opposite?

Unrefined resource buffer filled. None/ minimum refining tacking place. Emptying the buffers.

The connection suddenly snapped into place and instantly he got a bad feeling. Then a bright green light erupted, penetrating the glass windows. He ran outside, quickly climbing to the roof. In the distance was a green tower but this time it was covered with a thick, blinding green light that made it impossible to see the towers. Then he saw the dust clouds erupt. He jumped from roof to roof, full speed rushing towards the tower.