It started as a tremor.
Not the destructive type that had broken stone or scared citizens running, but more of an imperceptible tremble, which ran through the streets of the city of Varinthus like a collective held breath. Cups clattered on tables. Hanging lanterns swayed, then ceased.
A person laughed and said that it was all because of the flow of mana.
"Then someone screamed," said
The sky split apart above Varinthus.
It tore like fabric ripped by unseen hands. A serrated gash appeared on the steel-blue skies, and things precipitated from it, burning with no fire. The abyssal meteors hit the outer quarters first. The towers collapse in on themselves like gigantic, iron skeletons tumbling down. Roads buckled and caved in. Black mist poured out of the points of contact, flowing on the ground like a living thing.
Mana's alarms wailed, but their melody twisted in mid-air, degenerating into static screams.
Lucifer was already moving.
"Evacuation routes B and D!" he shouted, his voice ringing out with a sense of imperative over the din of confusion.
"Fall back to the inner rings! Do not engage alone!"
The city replied to him, not in words, but in action. Soldiers rushed. Citizens scrambled down into tunnels. Mages sought to erect barriers, but their magic faltered in mid-cast, going gray and crumbling to ash.
"The Abyss had come."
Out of the fog came the initial terrors. Giants of saint rank consisting of knitted bone and darkness smashed against the walls, shattering steel as if it were moist paper. Six-winged worms fell from the sky, burrowing into flesh and exploding just as suddenly. Giant worms as broad as city streets burrowed beneath the city, decimating neighborhood after neighborhood through devouring the mana pipes.
Lucifer fought at the front, his movements swift and precise. Black chains struck out, ensnaring horrors just long enough for others to flee. He did not call on all of the powers of the damned. A delay was all that was required.
By his side, Caelyra stood like an unbroken line. Her arrows shone bright with silver. Every launch was measured. Where they struck, the decay flared hot, then recoiled. Blood dripped down her arm. She did not falter.
"West district is gone!" someone screamed.
Lucifer turned in time to see it vanish, engulfed in black flame.
"The forge quarter. "
The blacksmith's home."
He didn't stop. He couldn't stop.
An apprentice healer ran past him, using her own body as cover for three children as the shadow beast charged. Light burst. When the brightness died, there was only charred rock and wailing children.
"Lucifer! Lucifer!", shouted one of the young mercenaries, no more than a lad, attacking the abyssal giant. The giant crushed the youth with a careless blow of its fist. The body never touched the ground.
Surrounding him, his friends started to fall apart.
One dropped down on their knees, sick. Another stood frozen, empty-eyed, with sword falling from numb fingers. A third let out a wild cry and charged blindly into the fog, never to be seen again.
All of it pressed against his chest like a weight. The year of shared meals. Of laughter. Of training. Of hope gone.
The final message from the Defense Council could be heard throughout the city. The city continued, the tone was calm,
"All units. Final protocol authorized."
"Red Crystal Dragon!"
Lucifer knew what was coming next.
Everyone ceased their sprinting.
Soldiers turned and saluted each other. Civilians hugged, whispered goodbyes. Old men smiled as if they had always known they would see this day.
Mana cores ignited.
The first blast converted a street into light. Then a second. Then a third. The bodies in Varinthus moved in a chain reaction, people turning to stars, their sacrifices ripping into the Abyss.
Lucifer extended his hand for a woman pressing a detonator. She took his hand, smiled at him kindly, and shook her head.
"What comes next," she said.
And then she was gone.
The ground turned into fire. The sky turned white.
Above all that, the floating shrine broke apart.
A roar echoed through the ruins, an ancient, mournful sound.
The Crystal Dragon Demigod stood up.
His wings unfolded like blazing constellations.
He gazed out at the city, at the millions who had chosen death rather than corruption.
He did not rage.
His wings did not spread and take him soaring into safety.
"Oh, Gatien"
He raised his head to the holey sky.
And lit his divine spark.
The blast killed half the abyssal host. The skies shattered. The dungeon itself screamed.
As the light dwindled, Varinthus was ashen.
Lucifer stood among the carnage, dripping blood from the wound in his arm and the tatters of his coat clinging to him. Caelyra stood with him, the bow snapped in half in her hand and a dry, steady gaze in her eyes.
Why they didn't perish?
There was nothing left.
This was RISE of Sacrifice of the Red Crystal of the Elysium Cluster: Citadel of Varinthus.