‼️ ROYAL EMERGENCY NOTICE – BY DECREE OF KING EDORAS ‼️
Effective immediately:
The Grand Continental Tournament is SUSPENDED.
All Power Schools, including Red Spire Academy, Blue Cross Institute, and all affiliated orders, are commanded to assemble at the Eastern Border Fortresses. Prepare for potential engagement.
All civilians within the Bolt kingdom are to proceed to their nearest Royal-designated Emergency Bunker. Failure to comply is punishable by conscription.
S Class-Ω Threat (Colossal) has been sighted within Eiran territory. Eiran Kingdom is confirmed lost. The creature is moving east. All forces are to prepare for containment or evacuation.
By Royal Seal and Blood.
Edoras, King of Bolt Kingdom.
Gasps rippled through the crowd as students read and re‑read the notice.
Someone shouted, "It's true! They flattened Eiran! My uncle was stationed there!"
Another yelled, "We're going to war?"
Instructors started barking orders.
"Elite Class, gather your gear! NOW!"
"Mid-tiers, report to the drill-square, MOVE!"
Myra clenched the paper in her fist, wind whipping around her.
"They are sending us to the border?" she whispered.
Elias let out a low breath.
"This isn't training anymore..."
Cid stood still in the middle of the storm, the notice crumpling in his hand.
His blind eyes turned toward the distant horizon, where the Colossal might be coming.
West District, Near Emergency Bunker.
Sirens wailed across the city. The carved stone streets shook with hurried footsteps. Families clutched children, dragging carts and bags, pushing toward the wide iron‑gated tunnel entrances beneath the Capital Zareth.
Cid, Elias, and Yuri stood at the choke point with a team of instructors, trying to direct the chaos.
"Keep moving! Don't stop in the middle!" Elias shouted, voice hoarse.
"This way, ma'am, your son goes first, you follow after!" Yuri said, calming panicked stragglers as best as he could."
Cid stayed silent at first, standing just behind them, head tilted, listening to every footstep, every sob. His senses stretched outward, painting the frantic movement in his mind. He guided people with gestures.
Inside The Tunnel Entrance.
The crush of bodies grew worse. A wagon overturned, spilling crates, slowing everyone. A man shoved past a crying woman, tearing the sheet of bread from her arms.
"Hey! Stop pushing!" someone yelled.
The crowd surged. Someone screamed. A child was nearly trampled until Elias leapt in, scooping the boy up, holding him above the press.
Cid's head jerked toward another sound, harsh and low. He turned his blind eyes toward it.
Down the left-hand side of the tunnel, a group of merchants had cornered two terrified refugees. One merchant drew a short blade, snarling:
"Your token or your life. We're not all getting in."
Cid froze.
He heard the blade flick out. Heard the ragged breath of the woman shielding her daughter. Heard the daughter's sobs choke in terror.
Something cracked inside him.
"Even now? When this kingdom is about to be crushed... they are still doing this?"
A flashback of his sister being killed by gangsters in his past life hit him like a truck.
He remembered seeing Marla's body, and he saw her smile as blood was dripping from her eyes.
His hand trembled on the hilt of his dagger.
"Why... why do we even fight for them?"
"Maybe humanity deserves the Colossal."
"Cid!" Elias barked, breaking through the crowd, eyes wide.
"Don't you dare. Don't go dark on me now."
Yuri appeared on his other side. His voice was quiet, steady, reaching deep.
"They're scared. Scared animals do ugly things. That's not humanity. That's fear."
Cid's fist clenched. He trembled, caught between rage and despair.
Elias grabbed his shoulder hard.
"You've seen the worst, yeah. But look at the..."
He pointed at a young father lifting strangers onto the platform, an old woman giving her bread to a crying child, guards risking their own lives to hold back the press.
"...that's why we fight. For them."
Yuri's voice followed, firmer now.
"Cid. If you give up now, you prove the worst ones right. We're better than that. You're better than that."
Cid sucked in a breath, shaky.
The dagger lowered.
He forced himself to listen, not to the merchants' snarls, but to the dozens of grateful cries, the footsteps of innocents escaping.
"Tch.."
He stayed silent.
He strode forward.
The merchants barely had time to react before Cid's blade flashed to slice clean through the stolen token and send the thugs sprawling with the blunt of his pommel.
"Get out," Cid said coldly, pointing to the streets.
"They're getting in. You're not."
The crowd erupted in murmurs as guards took the men away. The woman sobbed in relief, hugging her daughter.
Cid returned to the tunnel mouth. Elias met him with a smirk and a bloody knuckle.
Yuri smiled faintly, hand on Cid's shoulder.
"You fight for them even when they don't deserve it. That's strength."
Cid didn't smile back, but he felt the weight in his chest loosen, just a little.
"...Alright. Lets get the rest inside."
And so, deep beneath the city, the evacuation continued.
Hours Later.
The evacuation tunnels had gone quiet. The last of the civilians were already far below, guided deeper into the bunker levels.
Above ground, horns still wailed in the distance.
Cid sat alone on a bench near the armory lockers, his cloak draped over his shoulders, still torn and stained from the arena. His dagger lay across his knees.
He ran a thumb along the blade's edge, feeling every nick and dent.
"So many people to protect... so many who don't deserve it."
The earlier scene kept replaying in his mind, the merchants threatening a child even as the Colossal marched closer.
"Is this what we're worth?"
He exhaled through his nose, leaning his head back against the cold stone wall.
Then Elias's words came to him.
And Yuri's.
"You fight for them. Even when they don't deserve it. That's strength."
Slowly, he stood.
He slid the blade into its sheath and flexed his fingers.
The thought came unbidden: "What if i wrapped my fists in it...? What would happen?"
But he pushed it aside for now. One step at a time.
Cid closed his sightless eyes, tilting his head as if speaking to someone unseen.
"...Old Marla. You watching? I'm not done yet."