A distant friend?

*ROAR!*

The ear-shattering, world-trembling roar bellowed through the peaceful slice of nature suddenly. The world itself quaked in the next moment as a violent explosion shook the realm far and wide.

The top of Greytop Mountain literally exploded, sending debris everywhere, tearing apart both the landscape and mother nature in equal measure. Even the not-too-far city that neighboured the forest suffered the nature's tantric violence. Walls crumbled as the projectile rubble crashed through several buildings, wrecked cars and traffic as well.

Though the destruction wasn't overly excessive, the city was definitely caught unprepared for such a sudden event, making the emergency service team's reaction lag just a bit behind what would have been preferable.

Minutes later, looking at the smoking destruction of the nearest section of the city, one could only imagine and hope that the casualties wouldn't spike too high.

In the first, standing right at the center of all this historical event, Jake, Jay, and Myra were gazing at the sky. Where once were white-puffy clouds covering a lonely peak reaching hopelessly towards the stars, only a large trail of dark smoke could be seen.

The once calm mountain range roared with violent fervor, making the teenagers terrified. They felt as if the very fabric of their reality, the world itself trembled under this overwhelming might.

Standing right at the epicenter of all this disastrous commotion the teens were simply frozen stiff. With looks of absolute terror, they couldn't even properly process what was happening.

Jay was looking pale as a sheet of paper. His eyes were looking hollow, matching the lifeless, listless look of his face, his mind was under the duress of a chaotic storm. Trembling, shivering like a leaf, he slowly lifted his right arm, looking at the primordial carnage that was happening above them.

"W-w-what is t-that?" He squeals amidst the heavy stutter due to his mind being incapable of catching up with everything that was happening.

Myra like Jay were shocked and mostly scarred as she followed her friend's gaze. Heavy beads of tears swelled up at the corner of her eyes, she was unable to hold back the sobbing, fearful of their most likely hopeless fate.

"I-I…" She looked up, her head hurting from all the heavy, dark thoughts crossing through her mind.

Slowly, as if realizing something important, her gaze, however, slowly wandered off from the terrifying disaster and was slowly wandering lower and lower, eventually resting on the lean, thin figure of their friend and leader of their little 3-person club. She gazed at her wild, unfettered short black hair, his deep, azure blue eyes were unlike them. It showed less and less fear, but genuine wonder and intrigue as it continued gazing at the disastrous events above.

His growing, settling calm, made Myra grow more and more perplexed and at the time interested in the matter. How could he be so calm, knowing that if a volcano had erupted, they, in particular, stood absolutely no chance at survival?

Not even them, but the entire city.. no, the entire surrounding region was doomed. Even if not the molten lava wouldn't finish them off, the subsequent toxic fumes that would cover the lands would do them in.

"J-jake…" Unable to comprehend the boy's reaction, Myra couldn't stop herself from asking out. Yet, after uttering the name of the very person, her heart secretly was thumping, beating so fiercely for, she found herself unable to utter the words.

Yet, despite her lack of comprehensive speech and cohesive words, Jake seemed to understand what she was thinking about. His gaze slowly formed two crescents as he squinted, his lips parted as he muttered the words.

"It's incredible…" He sighed, taking several long breaths to let his words settle in.

Still, Myra found herself falling deeper and deeper into the proverbial rabbit hole as she kept on staring at the profile of the young man, feeling a growing heat, that was coming from deep her body, rather than the supposed volcano.

Eventually, after like a minute, Jake's eyes squinted harder as his curious nature seemed to spot something… something unexpected. His right index finger slowly sailed the air pointing at the thick dark smoke.

"There…" He pointed in a particular direction. "What is that? Doesn't it look…" His words trailed off, as she scrutinized the object with all his available focus.

"Huh?" Caught unprepared for the strange question, instead of a response to her non-verbal question, Myra was once again stunned for a brief instant before she could turn towards the appointed direction.

As soon as she did so, her eyes went wide with another round of shock. She turned speechless once more, yet this time, it wasn't due to the sheer terror, the fear of death that broke her mind momentarily, but instead the distinct object… nay, the humanoid-shaped figure that seemed to steadily grow closer and clearer with each passing instant.

Yes, in the thick of it, at the very center of the dark looming smoke, Jake then Myra as well, definitely spotted the shape of what they felt like belonged to a human.

However, they couldn't accept the scene at all. They couldn't believe their eyes, their brains refused to acknowledge the seemingly impossible fact. How could they? How could a living, breathing figure emerge from that explosion? How could someone just fly out, like the fictional superheroes of the many cartoons and comics, and recently, movies that were out there…

No, they must be already delirious due to the heavy air, maybe the toxicity has already started playing illusions with their minds. They must be going crazy, they have all felt.

They just stood there, at the foot of the mountain, gazing at what they felt would be their gradually approaching end. Neither of them felt regret for their decision to venture out, only felt an overwhelming sadness that they had to experience such an unexpected disaster…

—

'I need to spend a bit more time slowly getting used to my new strength, I guess…' Aziel frowned as he slowly lifted off the rubble that was his abode for gods' know how long.

He couldn't deny he wasn't expecting such a violent reaction from a single flick of his finger. The entire mountain top was blown apart, him causing destruction on such a scale and level… so effortlessly…

He pondered, was this the strength of someone merely being at the peak of the Earth Realm?

No, Aziel was certain that this wasn't the case. It felt several levels higher. Based on his one and a half thousand year of cultivation experience from Nova, his current strength felt somewhat close to the King Realm rather than the measly peak stages of the Earth.

Yet, he was certain, absolutely sure that he hadn't even made a breakthrough yet. What was going on then?

As he slowly, mindlessly floated, levitated, not even realizing that even this action of his was something he shouldn't have been able to do with his own, prehistoric abilities only, he was lost inspecting his own hands and palms.

"Something is not right... Is this new energy, this [Aether]... so overwhelmingly potent? [Mana] seems like some diluted mixture of lesser energies compared to this... vastly superior one!" He muttered to himself.

Deep in thought, he slowly levitated away, downwards following the mountain slope. Still deep in the thickness of his actions, his evolved, sharp gaze didn't scan around. Aziel remained oblivious of the commotion he had caused, or of the strangeness of the era altogether.

As he wandered away, however, he finally noticed the presence of three presences. One of them, in particular, made him finally break his reverie, and turn his attention downwards on the ground.

His eyes went wide, a barely perceptible curve began to settle in on the edges of his lips.

Looking down at the distant shapes of what seemed like three humanoid figures, his eyes turned glossy at the distant memories...

"Dinah?"