CHAPTER 1020: DISASTER

It looks as though the world was split apart when the two of the attacks met each other.

Arty’s four elements roared in a single overwhelming surge, crashing into Renard’s storm of lightning with a cataclysmic force that shook the battlefield.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Wind shrieked like blades tearing through the air and became a spiraling hurricane that shredded soil and stone.

Fire erupted in an expanding wave scorching the ground into molten glass. Its heat was so fierce that the air warped and screamed around it.

The earth heaved upward in jagged spires, hurling boulders and stone like cannon fire, the land breaking apart beneath her will.

Water exploded outward in tidal waves while the water was seemingly coming from nowhere, surging with relentless weight, crushing and sweeping everything in its path.

And Renard answered with lightning. His lighting was huge, furious, and almost unstoppable.

His body became a conduit of destructive power of the lightning. Bolts lashing out in blinding arcs and striking and cracking like powerful thunder.

His storm struck against Arty’s elements, the clash igniting the battlefield into a battlefield of chaos once again but this time it was greater than before.

The ground buckled. Trees toppled and vaporized. Shockwaves blasted outward, flattening everything within reach.

The clash painted the world in blinding light and deafening sound, as if two gods had descended to war.

Renard screamed against it, veins bursting, his eyes wide and bloodshot.

"RAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!"

He planted his feet deep into the ground, lightning spewing from every pore of his body, his aura raging.

For a moment, his lightning storm actually held in place. His bolts tearing through fire, blasting apart the stones, and evaporating torrents of water. The raw ferocity of his berserk state resisted the impossible tide Arty had unleashed.

But it didn’t last for too long.

The storm of four elements pressed harder and heavier, more merciless.

The hurricane winds twisted his bolts back on themselves. The fire consumed the oxygen he needed to breathe, burning hotter and higher until it wrapped itself around his body in a cage of flame.

The earth surged beneath him, crushing his stance, breaking apart his footing. The waves of water swallowed him whole, their weight dragging his storm downward, drowning it in their relentless flood.

Renard’s roar broke into a strangled cry.

His lightning sputtered and fractured then shattered entirely.

His body convulsed under the combined weight of earth and flame, the suffocating pressure of water, and the slicing edge of wind.

Then the wave finally overtook him.

With one deafening blast, Arty’s elemental fury swept him away, hurling his body like a ragdoll through the maelstrom. His lightning vanished into sparks, swallowed by the sheer enormity of her attack.

When the explosion cleared, only destruction remained in the forest.

The earth was split and scorched, rivers of steam rising from boiling water, chunks of land torn and scattered.

And Renard was gone from sight, swallowed by the devastation. He becomes a broken figure lost within the wake of Arty’s wrath.

—

Hund landed lightly on the branch of a tall tree. His boots sank slightly into the bark as he steadied himself.

His sharp eyes scanned the scene ahead and his face twisted in shock and worry.

Below him the battlefield looked less like a place where people fought and more like a place the world itself had been torn apart by natural disaster.

Trees were gone, their remains either scorched black or turned to ash. The ground had split in jagged chasms, steam rising from molten streaks of glass where earth had been burned into liquid.

Water pooled unnaturally, boiling and steaming, while broken boulders lay scattered in heaps.

It really looked like a natural disaster had struck, but Hund knew better.

His gut sank. If he had to guess, there was only one person capable of such devastation. It was Arty.

He narrowed his eyes. Something about this wasn’t right. Her power was terrifying but there was a feeling beneath it, something that gnawed at him. His instincts screamed at him.

Down below, Kale emerged from the rubble, coughing dust as he clawed his way free.

He spat out grit and staggered to his feet, his body aching from being tossed. He hadn’t been quick enough to leap away like Hund so he had been caught in the blast and swept along but he was alive.

Raising his head, his eyes fixed on the same direction Hund was staring, and the pit in his stomach grew heavier.

He could feel Renard’s power in the storm of lightning that had raged so violently before but now it was gone.

It was like a candle flame snuffed out in a storm.

Kale clenched his teeth, his jaw tight.

"That girl... she’s actually this strong..." he muttered under his breath. His hands curled into fists, a cold shiver sliding down his spine.

His mind raced, replaying his choices and a bitter taste filled his mouth. He regretted ever agreeing to take this task.

—

Far away, on the opposite side of the destruction, Esther braced herself against the trunk of a tree.

She had felt the shockwave hit even from this distance, the violent pressure shaking her bones, but their position had spared her from being swept away like the others.

Her eyes turned toward the ruin in the distance, a knot of unease curling in her chest. That kind of power, even with all her knowledge of Magic and battle, made her feel unsettled.

Ilvera lay sprawled across the ground unconscious. Her summoned eagle had vanished when she blacked out and her gloved hands were bare. The runed gloves now rested in Esther’s possession.

Esther glanced at the unconscious girl, then back toward the scarred horizon.

A bad feeling gnawed at her. The same one Hund has been feeling right now.

This wasn’t over. It was only getting worse.

—

Arty remained standing against the devastated landscape. Her shoulders sagged slightly but her body was still. Her face pale and her eyes hollow and staring blankly at nothing.

The four elements that had raged around her moments ago had vanished.

But the emptiness in her gaze was far more frightening than the storm she had unleashed.

Jan crept forward slowly, every instinct telling him to be cautious. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he watched her from behind.

Her small body was almost trembling. His hand hovered uncertainly in the air, halfway reaching for her shoulder.

Was it safe to approach Arty right now?

Doubt gnawed at him as his mind replayed the sight of what she had just done.

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