NOVEL NEXT Chapter 37: Explosion
"What the fuck…"
Those were the only words that I was capable of uttering when I realised what happened. This sudden summoning back to earth left me lying on the floor, stark naked. After all, all my clothes were left somewhere on the floor in the room I was staying with Ayda!
Thankfully, all the preparations I did way in the past were paying off right now. Standing up, I quickly ran to what was left of my huge drawer, salvaging whatever clothes I could find there first. After all, if I was dressed in some stupid way, then I could make myself both memorable and impossible to recognise to whoever dared to infringe on the sanctity of my house. And that wouldn't be the case if I were to run out in my birthday suit!
But in reality, I did all of that only to keep myself busy. While the first thing that I did over moving back to earth was confirming that Ayda's world was still frozen in regards of the passage of time, the fact that I could still help her and potentially save her from the attackers was only capable of calming down my worries.
But not my heart at all.
I couldn't just go and calm down after almost taking part in a potentially deadly fight! In fact, I still had troubles to come to terms with that new reality of mine, where everything that I strived to protect was now gone!
Yet, I couldn't just sit down and whine. Not with my system forcefully bringing me back to earth. Not with the single thing that could still change my life and let me get my revenge being threatened by some random person entering the premises of what used to be the residence of my family!
Shaking my head to get rid of all the spare thoughts, I quickly dressed up in a bizarre outfit made out of several pieces of clothes that were supposed to fit together with their other respective parts. Now prepared to at least conceal my identity, I pulled the hood of my hoodie tightly on my head before making my way towards the doors of the basement.
"Come on, Krist, you can do it."
To say that I was worried would be a gross understatement. I still have yet to learn how to properly use all my powers, but now I was supposed to put them to a test? Or what was my current mission to begin with?
All I knew was that someone was threatening to discover the existence of my system. The only simple way for it to happen that I could figure out on the spot would be noticing how seemingly untouched the basement was amidst all the chaos and devastation that once used to be my home.
But I couldn't do anything from within the safe confines of this special place of mine either. If I wanted to achieve something, I had no choice but to get out.
I slowly pushed the doors open, using just a tiny bit of my repulsion to push aside all the rubble that could make a sound.
"... before I find him!"
For some reason, the simple, cheap doors that my parents installed in the basement were capable of totally enclosing the insides from whatever was happening outside. That's why I twitched in surprise when as soon as I opened the doors, a familiar voice of Martha reached my ears.
"My lady, it's still not safe here! Who knows whether the gas tanks and other applicancies were already destroyed or not. I might be stronger than many others, but in the face of a huge fuel tank exploding, even I will be powerless!"
Given my position at the stairs to the basement, I was unable to see who else was on the surface level of the ruins. But it didn't matter all that much either. For now, I managed to learn that it was truly Martha's family that was involved in this personal tragedy of mine. As for exactly which bodyguard was speaking with someone I once considered to by my friend and crush, it didn't matter at all.
"I'm responsible for everything that happened here. I'm responsible for our people dying. I'm responsible for Krist…"
With Martha's voice breaking, I confirmed one guess that relentlessly appeared in my head for a while right now. Because it was hard to believe that this girl would be cold-hearted enough to sell me to the military. I knew her for way too long to be capable of believing in such kind of bullshit.
While one could argue that a year in this new, post-apocalypse world would be enough to change her or her circumstances to force this kind of decision on her, I firmly believed that while she was indeed at fault for everything that happened here, I just couldn't shake the notion that in reality, she never meant for anything bad to happen.
But did that excuse her for what she caused?
"My lady, it's not your fault. You only wanted to protect him and his family. Who could've known that those bastards from the governor's office would strike us here… Well, speaking from the point of view of family, we got that bastard to expose himself for almost no cost at all."
Once those words were uttered, a deadly silence hung over the entire area. Hearing those devious words, I could feel my entire emotions going amok. Low cost my price. Even if I could forgive the man who said those words disregarding the lives of his own people that laid down their heads in the disaster here, the same couldn't be said about how he disregarded the lives of my entire family!
"Begone, you trash."
Hearing those words said with a deadly cold voice of Martha, my assumptions about her role in this entire situation clarified even more.
"My lady, but that's the truth! I can even see your father commending you for such a great success!"
For the change, the voice of that damned bodyguard turned from confident and happy to a relatively surprised and worried. This might also be the reason why he moved from the clearly dangerous topic of my fate to the possible benefits that Martha could get out of the entirety of the situation.
"Didn't you hear me? Get lost. You are no longer a part of the family."
"My lady, I'm worried that you do not have the authorisation to give such orders. And you, Mark. Be a good boy and make yourself scarce."
A new voice entered the fray. From how it was completely devoid of any emotions that could hint at the state of mind of whoever was speaking, I could tell that the true powerhouse entered the scene. And that also meant that my time was running out.
"My lady. The one thing that Mark said was right. We do not know when something…"
Catching up on what the man was going to say, I realised that this was my chance to at least temporarily get rid of them from this place. In a flash, I scoured my entire mind to come up with some kind of viable way of forcing them out of the place that could extend to another legend I would have to create later on to keep everyone away from this place.
And just by noticing a broken piece of DVD disc that somehow found itself lying right before my eyes, I managed to connect the dots and come up with a way to kill a few birds with just a single stone.
But like any good legend, it had to start with a huge boom.
The worries of Martha's bodyguards were actually right. As far as I knew, my family was pretty paranoic when it came to the matter of natural disasters, making my father put all the volatile parts of our formerly existing house, deep underground. With only a concrete, dry well connecting the surface to the technical part of the house that kept us all warm through the winter, didn't the fuel tank hidden at the very bottom of it resemble a loaded bullet at the bottom of a makeshift barrel?
Struck by this idea, I instantly went into action. With how all the devastation that killed my life on earth only happened on the surface, I could tell that the fuel tank hidden deeply underground could still be unaffected by it. After all, its explosions would be otherwise pretty visible.
"... dangerous will happen here. We do not know when the military will return to check on their missing people. We need to get out of this place as soon as…"
Waiting for just the right moment to not make the explosion seem suspiciously timed to the man's words, I used the only emotion I was pretty fluent at to wreak havoc in the technical room underground. Repulsion.
Even though I couldn't see it at all, I could still feel how all sorts of equipment was pulled from its usual place under the influence of my witchcraft. And that was way more than enough to metaphorically put a wrench in the wheel of the fuel generator!
CRACKABOOM!
Even hiding in the stairways to the basement didn't make me immune to the effects of the explosion.
All at once, a huge chunk of the ground itself seemed to lift, before its cover was ruptured, releasing a dense ball of flames that instantly covered everything in its path and range. Daring to take only a glance at what the other party was doing, I could see bodyguards jumping at Martha, only to instantly pull her away from the scene. By the time the pieces of rubble carried to the skies by the explosion started raining down on the surface, there was no more any signs of the human presence in the entire area.
"The question for now is… Should I fake being a high priest of Boruta or Svarog?"