It was a sudden day. TreeTree started screaming in their heads that something was happening, and they had to be prepared.

“What’s going on?” One of the Valthorns asked Lausanne. “Why do we all hear Aeon’s voice?”

“Something bad is coming! Let’s go, let’s go.” Lausanne snapped. They’ve never had Aeon suddenly warn them in this manner. Not... ever. “To the woods!”

Everyone fled, but it was a mess. The planned underground bunkers were not good places, but not everyone got the message, so some of them still ran for the bunkers. Some wondered whether it was a false alarm, like that time when the demon supercannon attacked.

Some just shrugged it off. “Nothing to worry about, Aeon will take care of it.”

For the first time, sadly, Aeon’s powers were not enough.

The sky darkened almost instantly, as the ‘shockwave’ of the demon king’s corrupting mana flooded the distant skies. The first wave came, and they felt the entirety of the valley shake like never before. Roots started popping out of the floor, and so did cracks.

It’s as if the roots were fighting the earth itself, trying to hold the ground together despite the earth trying to break apart.

Then came the flames. The cracks started to spit out weird, blackish things that spawned strange demon-like creatures.

“Demons!” It was a battle now, but the ground was shaking uncontrollably.

“Where’d they come from?”

Roots started emerging to impale the demons, and often swallowing them altogether.

No one was free to answer.

Lausanne activated her special familiar, and used the vine whips to quickly move, avoiding the cracking earth below. Luckily, her mom was usually found in the [secret hideout], so she figured her mom was safe.

The ground shook, and they saw the skies turn red, and then black. Black flames filled the distant skies, and the trees in the horizon burned.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that the demon king did something. But they can only hope to survive it.

Another crack, this time, right across New Freeka, and a jet of black flames shot out, burning through multiple houses and people. The fires emitted were unnatural, a mix of black and red. People burned, and Lausanne had never seen so much death in her life.

But she didn’t panic. Somehow, somewhere, something drove her to run, using her vines to pull as many as she could out to safety.

Buildings started collapsing, the outer walls fell. Houses burned.

Another crack.

A streak of fire emerged.

They ran for the woods.

Another massive crack appeared in the ground, and black fires emerged from the gap. Roots appeared to try and pull the cracks back together, but the roots too got burned. Still, more roots appeared to take it’s place.

All she could hear was shouts, screams and cries for help. She tried. Beetles appeared, and they moved on their own, carrying as many as they could towards the deep forests.

“Lady Lausanne, I’m glad you’re safe.” Madeus appeared, he levitated in the air using some kind of magic. He created shields and they worked somewhat to redirect the flames.

“What’s Aeon doing?”

“I’m sure it’s fighting this demonic energy.” Throughout the valley there were many cracks and also many roots appearing. “We don’t have much time, the area closest to Aeon is the safest. We must go quickly.” He levitated and also attempted to carry a few others with him, dodging jets of fire that emerged.

“Did you see Uncle Jura?”

“I’m afraid not, but I think he should be fine.” Madeus said. “I must go.”

Lausanne nodded, and sidestepped a fire jet. She created a wood shield to block a black fire. The shield disintegrated almost instantly, but it did block it.

People were running, but the cracks were getting bigger, especially in New Freeka’s outer districts. Even the Valtrian Order’s headquarters were not spared, as everything just went up in flames. The hotel was partially burning too.

Few things lasted long against the flames, but Lausanne noticed quite a number of trees that seemed to resist the fire a lot better.

*kraaaaaaaaaaark* Another rift appeared from another direction, and then they noticed it. The valley was starting to sink, and New Freeka was torn apart.

So many fled. A part of the dirt started to move, turning into a kind of sludge that swept through New Freeka. It was as if the land around the valley turned into a mudslide, and the roots appeared, attempting to hold the mudslide back. So, the mud moved upwards, and the roots followed.

“What...” Lausanne ran. Whatever this was, this wasn’t something for them.

It was then, she saw it.

Six massive streaks of dark energy appeared, as if pulled by something towards... Aeon. The streaks torched all the trees in it’s path, but left those out of it’s way untouched.

It broke the illusion that hid Aeon from everyone’s view, and they saw it, a massive, towering tree that almost pierced the sky go up in flames. Multiple black fire danced and raged, hopping from branch to branch. Aeon’s [Camouflage] had broken.

Those six streaks turned into rivers of dark energy, they seemed to flow towards Aeon’s now revealed position, and Aeon’s body burned, but it did not crumble.

The cracking.... Stopped. Aeon had drawn in the energy to itself, and instead, a massive black pyre emerged like a tornado, and it surrounded Aeon’s main body, cutting it off from everyone.

“Uh.” Lausanne stopped, not sure whether to go towards Aeon, or not. The black flame is clearly some kind of demonic energy, and it didn’t look safe.

They were now... trapped. The sludge had somehow formed into a cocoon that wrapped the entire valley, held back by massive walls of roots. There was a very small hole at the top, at let in some light, but it was right above the pyre, because the wall of roots were clearly centered around Aeon.

New Freeka... was gone. Those who managed to fled and somehow gotten to an area where there’s no... dark mana, temporarily survived. But things looked bleak. What about food?

Lausanne looked around. She still had her familiar, that meant she could still create fruits and use some plant-growth abilities. Maybe it won’t be that bad.

“TreeTree.” She tried to mentally call out.

Nothing. She looked around. This... wasn’t going to end soon. The sludge is still struggling against the roots, but at least the roots looked like they will hold.

The tremors stopped, and there were no new big rifts, just smaller cracks here and there. The survivors gathered into groups, only about 5,000 left from what was a city of almost 100,000. Most of the Valtrian order and Valthorns died today.

So few, and because of how the circumstances favored those with levels, it is indeed the higher leveled that survived, mostly. Jura, Madeus, Yvon, herself all made it. Mom too, who happened to be somewhere near uncle Jura.

“What now?” The survivors gathered, some of them naturally approached Lausanne as a contact point.

“I can’t reach Aeon.” Lausanne looked at the 5,000 survivors. It was too sudden, too abrupt. A mud-tsunami and a firestorm later, here they are. What’s left. The survivors could walk abit now, the tremors mostly stopped.

“[Message] is down.” A surviving mage complained. “The tower’s been destroyed.” The mud-sludge and firestorm took down the heroes’ communication tower.

The sky’s dark. Everything’s dark. Their source of light now, was that little hole right on top, or the dancing black flames that enveloped Aeon’s body. “How do we get out?”

“Should we even get out?”

“Aeon’s holding this place together, I doubt outside.... Will be any better.”

Lausanne ran, and saw a few others. “MOM!” Lausanne and Laufen had a hug.

“Glad you’re safe.”

“Yeah...”

Jura was next to her. He looked like he was covered in dust and ash. “Well... Aeon’s not responding, we’re trapped here, and we have some food from our familiars. Not that bad.”

“Not that bad. Let’s get organised and see whether we can salvage any of the houses! Aeon’s hideouts are all inaccessible.”