Chapter 48: Something dark had awakened
Soon, the police, firefighters, ambulances, and emergency response teams all arrived at the scene within a matter of minutes.
Merlin High School was already reduced to a smouldering, crumbling ruin. Thick smoke still rose into the air, staining the sky a dirty grey as the last flames licked at the collapsed remains of the building.
Firefighters unleashed high-pressure streams of water in an attempt to extinguish the stubborn embers. The ground sizzled beneath them, steam hissing up like whispers from the dead. As the blaze finally weakened and began to die out, the search for bodies commenced.
But what they found shocked everyone.
Instead of charred corpses buried under rubble, four motionless bodies were discovered lying outside the collapsed structure, near the edge of the empty schoolyard under a large, shadowy tree.
"We found survivors!"
One of the rescuers yelled, disbelief thick in his voice.
Paramedics rushed forward and carefully lifted the unconscious bodies onto stretchers. Their skin was burned and bruised, clothes torn, yet somehow—they were alive.
The ambulance took off toward Merlin Hospital, sirens slicing through the tension.
While chaos and questions exploded among the authorities and onlookers at the scene, elsewhere—hidden from sight—
Valra stood at the base of a mountain, cloaked in silence. A white-hooded figure stood beside her. The two remained completely still, blending into the shadows of the rocky slope, watching the unfolding disaster from a distance, their expressions unreadable.