*UUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH*
Suddenly, a long and mind-piercing wail cracks through the air, blaring into the ears and minds of everyone here.
Affected by the dying wail, everyone, including the people in the crowd, stopped all their movements like they were petrified. However, there is one man who's unaffected by the petrification, but yet, even though he managed to resist it, the other effects of the wail still affected him.
"Damn it, I need to regain control," Tali said to himself in a struggling voice, feeling his mind fade occasionally.
Luckily for the musicians that were under Tali's leadership, Tali managed to maintain their flight. But, because there are so many, Tali can't possibly move it himself when he's in this kind of state.
Unfortunately, even though Tali was still fully conscious, he couldn't get any of the musicians away from the Slette as it came.
*Uuuuuuugggggghhhhh*
A minute passed, and the Sky Whale's wail still hadn't died down. The worst thing is, during this time, the Slette had gotten dangerously close to some of the musicians in the air, and seconds later, misfortune struck, vanishing 2 musicians in its wake, leaving nothing behind.
As long as the wail remained, Tali's powers were practically nullified. Even though he has stronger resistance to it compared to Haze, unfortunately, the south side of Pertice City was where the head of the Sky Whale just so happened to be. Which, as a consequence, heightened the effects of the dying wail by at least 5 times.
"DAMNIT, WHAT EVEN IS THAT THING!?" Tali raised his voice in frustration as he glared at the monstrosity that caused this disaster.
Tali was forced to watch his teammates die one by one, unable to save a single one of them despite all the power he has.
At this point, not only has the Slette killed a whole squad of four musicians, it is encroaching dangerously close to Locce, one of the pillars of hope in this evacuation.
"Damn it!" Locce almost screamed as he looked terrifyingly at the tips of his right hand's fingers.
Although Locce came to his senses in time to not get completely consumed by the Slette, he didn't manage to react fast enough, causing his fingertip to get stuck in the Slette.
Responding quickly, Locce quickly retracted the other fingers before they got caught in the Slette and tried to pull his stuck fingers out of the Slette.
However, no matter how hard he pulled, there is no feasible way to pull it out unless... he cuts it off.
The sensation felt like having your hand stuck in a jar without the likelihood of pulling it out. You can still move it, but yet, it is only deeper as more seconds pass.
(LET GOOOOO!) Locce fearfully screams internally.
At this point, Locce couldn't restrain his emotions anymore. His eyes turned crazy, looking at his hand in fear as the Slette slowly got closer with each second, consuming more and more of his fingers and eventually his hand.
Locce knew that, after something gets caught in the Slette, it is impossible to pull it back out, but yet, now that Locce is in the situation himself. Because he still felt the sensation of his fingers and, to top that off with the effects of the dying wail, Locce felt deceptively confident that he could pull his finger out.
All of Locce's emotions were heightened, causing him to not be able to think rationally. At first his desire to pull out his finger wasn't as significant, but because he even tried in the first place, it inadvertently gave the Slette the opportunity to take all his fingers into its infinitely spanning void.
"Urggg!"
As seconds passed, Locce felt more and more reluctant to leave without his fingers, soon to be a hand. He kept pulling and pulling, but no matter what, the incomprehensible force that kept holding onto him was unrelenting and merciless. It is almost like the universe itself was backing it up, and pulling something out of the Slette is against the law of nature itself.
At some point, during Locce's pointless endeavor, part of his right shoe was caught by the Slette as well. However, due to his hyperfixation on the Slette, he was able to pull his foot out of his shoe in time before the Slette took his leg as well.
Suddenly, as Locce's dilemma got more and more intense, an unwarranted scorn took over him for a moment as he looked fearfully into the Slette.
"DAMNIT, WHY ARE YOU ALL SO WEAK?"
Consumed by rage, Locce senselessly spouted out a terrible sentence, directed at the people around him, demeaning them.
However, as he heard his own words, Locce's eyes widened and his face turned stricken, biting his lip as he realized something.
Locce couldn't believe it, even though those words came straight from his own mouth and voice, he fervently denied it, as he had thought he buried that side of him a long long time ago.
Even though it is not the best time for Locce to find out that he still has emotional issues to work through, he is lucky that it triggered at this moment because it allowed him to regain some of his rationality.
"URGG, DAMNNNNNNNNIIIT!" Locce uncharacteristically swore.
Locce gritted his teeth as his body turned stiff, staring into the Slette as he finally put an end to the rigged game of tug-of-war against the Slette.
(I need to cut it off... I NEED TO CUT OFF MY ARM!)
It was like time was going ten times slower as Locce contemplated his thoughts.
Through the situation and sensation of his right arm that's already halfway consumed by the Slette, Locce felt like it was very possible to pull out his arm, even though his rationality told him that it is a hundred percent not possible; but in conclusion, if his thoughts continued to drag on like that, then it won't take very long at all for his situation to turn fatal.
"Heeeeeeeehhh..." Locce let out a very heavy breath.
As the Slette began to swallow past his elbow, Locce finally realized that he can't any longer; he needs to escape now.
*Bang dung*
Feeling a pressure press onto his chest, Locce swiftly and stiffly moved the fingers of his left hand, creating a short melody that subsequently manifested a rough podium-like structure right below his right arm.
*King kiiing ging*
As the podium fully formed, the short melody changed, and this time, it created a very sharp and blade-like slab of stone above the supposed podium.
*Shrrriiiing hiiiing hiing*
Once it was done, it became clear as day as to what Locce had made within the few seconds he was conducting.
In front of Locce, separating his sight from the Slette, was a small makeshift guillotine without any strings or other components a traditional guillotine may have.
"Damnit—" Locce muttered spikily in defeat and looked away.
Locce held onto the blade of the guillotine with his left hand, shaking in fear and unwillingness to part from it. However, knowing the results of what'll happen if he doesn't commit, his left hand got sturdy, and even before he knew it, he slammed down
*Shiiiiiiiiii*
Locce didn't feel anything, no pain or any irritation; he could even swear that he could still feel the fingers on his now departed right arm moving.
...
Right when he was freed from the Slette, Locce's brain went into preservation mode, causing his survival instincts to flare up and retard his pain receptors for a moment until he escaped.
"Haaah haah haaaah* Locce frantically let out breaths of panic.
Finally escaping the hold of the Slette, Locce flew back as far and fast as he could, almost bumping into some of the other musicians in the process.
It was only when he got halfway to the safe zone that he stopped and reluctantly turned to look back at the culprit that almost killed him.
*Uuuuuaaaaaaaahhh....*
Finally, the dying wail began to wear off, its remnants slowly fading until only a peep remained before nothingness.
With that gone, Locce finally let himself relax for a second, but then... his right arm, or at least what remained of it, began to feel a rush of bone-crushing pain surging and spreading throughout his body.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Urgh." Locce couldn't hold back his screech of pain, causing his usual professional and reserved image twisted into something more unsightly.
Heaves of blood poured from Locce's opened wound like an opened faucet, staining the solid earth platform sustaining flight.
Even through all the pain he felt, Locce knew exactly what to do when he was in this sort of situation.
He stayed calm and took advantage of the vest he wore; he tore off the buttons of the vest and quickly removed his good left arm from the sleeve. In the next moment, right before his vest falls onto the ground because he didn't have the right arm to pick it up, Locce maneuvered his left hand to catch the long end of the vest, pulling at it strongly while the sleeve stayed on the shoulder of his right arm like an anchor.
After that, Locce began to quickly pull and tightly restrain the blood flow to his right arm with his vest, taking advantage of the sleeve that still clung onto his right shoulder as an anchor to make it easier for him to perform vascular occlusion with only one hand.
"Urrrrrk" Locce rubbed his right shoulder, clearly still bothered by the intense pain of his amputated arm.
Without Locce realizing, a mythical-looking human figure wandered behind him, reaching out his bright, glowing, light brown hand onto Locce's healthy shoulder.
"Locce, you should leave now..." Tali quietly said as his hand that lay on Locce's shoulder began to admit force.
Surprised by Tali's sudden arrival, Locce frantically shifted his head to the left slightly and accidentally showed his friend a face that he would never want anyone to see.
Realizing his mistake, Locce panicked and tried to quickly cover his face with both of his hands. However, since his wound was still fresh, he didn't realize that half of his face was still visible.
"I can't, not yet!" Locce gritted his teeth as he aggressively voiced his opposition.
*Brruk brrruk bruk*
Suddenly, without any warning, Locce was forcefully encased in a circular shell made from pure earth, immobilizing him.
"You are only going to cause problems for us if you return with the state you're in right now," Tali sternly rebuked, not expecting a reply.
Frowning, Tali looked at the ball of pure earth he trapped his friend in for one last time before he commanded that ball of earth to fly out of here.
".....Plus, your kid is still waiting, isn't he?" Tali tried to negotiate.
Following that, Tali turned his body and looked at the Slette for a moment before sighing as he proceeded with his next action with determination.
"Haaaahhh, I'm definitely going to be MIA for at least a whole week." Tali sighed and regretfully stated to himself as he braced himself for the drawbacks that will eventually occur after he executes his plan.
As he'd recovered, Tali quickly retracted all the floating platforms he created to him, gathering all the musicians he could. Without wasting a second, Tali briefly explained his plan and commanded them to split up evenly around the hyperbole edge of the crowd.
A minute later, a variety of walls made from different materials rose up from the ground and entrapped all hundreds of thousands of people.
This action caused a lot of commotion, justifiably so though, because even the exit was blocked, which no doubt caused even more distress.
*WHAT DID YOU DOOOO? LET US OUT! I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE!* People screamed and yelled louder than before.
As the news about the exit being blocked reached the ears of those who were further back, the powerful musicians in the crowd couldn't stay passive anymore.
They flared up their Node, but right before they wreaked mayhem, a strong opposing Node frequency cancelled theirs out, and moments later, the entirety of the musicians' bottom halves were encased in basic solid earth, enough to immobilize all their constant movement.
Soon after that, all of the civilians were immobilized by the encasement of solid earth as well, and now with their Node activation disabled, most people wouldn't be able to break through, and those that did manage to escape aren't too big of a deal since there aren't that many of them.
During all of that, Tali sweated profusely, and he also continuously drained the Node canisters he had on his body one after another, like he was chugging cups of water. So by the time he finally finished immobilizing and disabling every evacuee, all the glowing brown Node canisters that he had left could all be counted on one hand.
With all the preparations done, Tali thought of a sequence in his head, and without even moving his fingers, the melody of that sequence gradually manifested, creating a brief melody that sounded distant, and moments later, creating a curved, rounded metallic slab that faced away from Tali with dozens of dull, needle-like protrusions forming all around it.
As the melody ended, signifying the conclusion of the sequence, Tali leaned in close to the result of his sequence and opened his mouth.
"EVERYONE, RETREAT NOW!"
Tali articulated his words loudly, but yet, no sounds were audible past a certain point.
Suddenly, the protruding needles of the conjured metallic object began vibrating. Inside the protrusions were dozens of round but rough-looking metal pieces, which were the cause of the vibrations as well as the lack of sound that escaped Tali's vicinity.
In the next moment, another melody played, and subsequently, the object that captured Tali's voice spun around him and shot out all of the small metal pellets, heading straight toward the musicians that were under his command.
Flying toward the musicians, the pellets quickly attached themselves onto the heads of the musicians, transferring Tali's voice by capturing the vibrations of his voice and sending it out via the same vibrations.