Destroyed Anomaly

George walked out of the mansion with a metal medieval key in his hand, carrying the unconscious Hester on his shoulder. He had returned to normal.

"I just wanted the key. Why did they have to make a fuss about it?" George muttered this as he walked out the front entrance which was half destroyed.

The statue in the middle of the fountain had collapsed and water was no longer combing out. The cobblestone road had cracks everywhere and half the trimmed trees had collapsed. Pieces of glass were trying to move together to reform windows.

The anomaly was exhausted to the point it was struggling to repair itself.

"Well, I got back on time. Eh? Why is it so dark outside?"

George looked around in confusion, noticing the air outside was black and filled with smoke. The side facing the entrance of the mansion was covered in a layer of rock that reached halfway up.

He squinted and noticed the three party members near the edge of the prairie inside the interference field. With a frown, he quickly rushed over.

"Hey! I got the key! What's going on?"

When George got close, he noticed all the members had numbed fearful expressions like they were high on adrenaline.

Emma's face was a little pale but she seemed the most composed. Abe and Bernice looked a little shell shocked as if they had been in trench warfare.

"What's going on Emma? What happened outside?" George asked the natural question as he dropped Hester onto the ground.

"Oh, it's you." Emma snapped out of her thoughts and glanced over at him a little absentminded.

"Are you alright? Oi. Snap out of it." George grabbed a water bottle from his backpack and splashed some water on her face. This seemed to be effective as her mind cleared up.

"O-Oh, sorry. I'm a little high on adrenaline."

"What the hell happened?"

"I don't know." She shook her head and collected her thoughts. "The entire anomaly and area shook as if a massive earthquake happened. Massive landslides and avalanches fell from the mountains. One of them seemed to be from a dormant volcano which exploded. I had no choice but to toss them in here to escape."

'That happened? Was that me? No, it couldn't be. It's not like I released that much [Aura]. I wonder if me disrupting their plans caused something like this to happen.'

George was absolutely certain his [Aura] was not the culprit based on previous experience. He could sense something nefarious was going on, but he had no idea of who or what was doing this.

'Still, it is indirectly my fault. This would of not happened if I had not gone overboard. I made things worse as always. Now we'll definitely be behind.'

"Are any of you injured?"

"I'm pretty sure just me. I got hit by a fist-sized rock in the stomach." Emma lifted up her shirt to reveal a massive growing bruise on the left side of her stomach.

"I don't feel any pain at the moment probably because of the adrenaline."

"As long as you can move. Snap Bernice out of it." George walked over to Abe and hoisted him up, causing him to snap out of his trance.

"Snap out of it Abe. We have work to do." To make sure, George even slapped him a few times lightly. Clarity returned to his eyes a little as his collected his thoughts.

"O-Okay."

"W-What the hell just happened?!" Bernice screamed as Emma tried to snap her out of it.

"You alright?" Emma asked.

"I think so." Bernice suddenly had a massive headache as she stood up. She rubbed her temples which helped a little. Too much had happened for her to properly process the current situation.

"Oi! Get up Hester!" George slapped him hard, creating an audible *smack* sound.

"Mnnn... ouch... what happened?" Hester made mumbling sounds as he regained consciousness.

George poured cold water on his face, instantly sobering him up.

"What the hell man?! That's cold!" Hester quickly got up with a massive headache from the concussion he received hitting the way earlier. However, he was already sober.

"We're already out? Why is everyone inside the field?" Hester looked around and noticed the chaotic scene surrounding him.

"Eh?! What happened?! Why is the sky dark and smoky?! What is all that rock?!"

Hester noticing the poor state of their members while George gave him a short explanation of what Emma had said. His face turned to shock not knowing what to do.

"Hey Emma." George calmly walked over to her, who was still trying to comfort Bernice.

"Y-Yes?" Her voice ended up coming out a little raspy.

"I have the key to leave, so it'll be best if we leave now. You can cast a shield right?"

"Um, yeah. Why?"

"Cast it around us while we are walking so we don't have to inhale the smoke and ash. I know the generation direction of the path so you just follow behind me with everyone."

"C-Can't we just have a break after all this happened?"

"No can do. We're running out of time. We need to move pronto." He said impatiently.

"I understand you have a schedule, but can't you see the state of our team?" Emma was becoming irritated. It was like he prioritized his time over their well being.

"Just take some painkillers. If we don't get moving I'll force you to move whether you like it or not."

"George!" Emma became angry and suddenly had the urge to punch him. "Do you not have empathy? Can't you see the mental state of our team?!"

"Now is not the time for empathy or mental state." George raised his voice and pointed at the mansion. "You see that blue flame above the mansion?"

Emma looked over and saw a large blue flame burning above the castle like it was on fire. Sparkles of light were escaping the flames and dissipating.

"That's the core of the anomaly burning right now. This place is going to turn to a dead ruin in less than a minute. I'm not gonna watch you get smothered by a giant wall of rock or suffocate by breathing in ash."

Emma looked at the giant wall of rock being blocked by the interference field. The invisible field was glowing and visible because the rocks were pressing against it. The field was dimming and ripples on the surface were growing at a visible pace.

Her face turned grim again and her anger dissipated.

"R-Right, sorry for doubting you."

"Apologizes can come later. Hurry up now!"

"Yes. [Shield]." She chanted and a small shield encased their group. She brought everyone together and shrunk the shield.

"W-What are we doing?"

"What's going on?"

"The anomaly is about to die. We need to get out of here before the rocks crush us or we die of ash and smoke inhalation. Follow behind me."

George and them quickly walked along the edge of the perimeter to the left. The large rock wall quickly shrank until it was at feet level.

With the key in his hand, George inserted it into the field and part of it disappeared. The field glowed as a hole was opened up. They walked through the hole and the key disappeared while the hole rapidly closed up.

They walked into the dark smoke, protected by a thin barrier around them.

"How long can you maintain the shield?" George asked.

"For a few hours at most."

*glass cracking sounds*

They turned around to see cracks rapidly growing across the dome-like interference field. Large ripples enveloped the field as it rapidly dimmed.

Like glass, it abruptly shattered into many pieces that disintegrated into sparkles of light.

The giant wall of rock dirt and debris that was leaning against one side of the barrier collapsed onto the prairie grass at about the halfway distance from the edge of the field to the castle. Smoke and ash rushed into the clean air surrounding the mansion.

The castle mansion became engulfed in darkness as the blue flame rapidly dissipated and shrunk.

Like that, an anomaly had been destroyed.

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Somewhere far away... In an unknown underground chamber.

"Sir, one of the nodes was destroyed."

"What?! Impossible! What happened?!"

"We don't know..."

"Investigate immediately!"