I had heard a lot about how the precarious relationship between mages and non-mages had been damaged after the spark. I had read the articles, saw the news, and heard the stories from my friends about protests that broke out into violent rebellions all around the world. I had heard how they ended in thousands of dollars of property damage and the fact that they ended with hundreds of people getting hurt on both sides.
Even so, I could never truly understand the severity of these things through secondhand experience. Pictures and videos, no matter how detailed, could not give you a true picture of how bad something was. In order to understand that, you would have to see it yourself, with your own eyes. To experience it firsthand yourself, that was the only way to truly understand something.
And that was what happened to me now, as I watched the rebellion that occurred below with wide eyes and slack jaw. There was an uncountable amount of people gathered around the outside of the hospital. It was a sea. My room was three floors up, and even from here I couldn't truly see the extent to which this crowd reached. It was so large that it spilled over into the street and intersection, causing build-ups.
The mob itself was raging and alive; that much was very clear. There were people bustling about, pushing each other in a surge wave of human bodies that pressed closer and closer to the barricades the police and the mages association had put up. Even the stronger barriers fortified with mana were being bent, and it was clear that they wouldn't hold under the pressure of so many people.
Within the crowd, people were shouting and holding up large signs. Strengthening my eyes with mana, I could see that many of the signs read list of names. Names of people,. Names of destroyed areas and buildings. Names of destroyed monuments and others. Many of the signs read, "You destroyed us!" "Monsters!" "Mage's Massacre Men!" Some signs even had the logo of the Fangless Python.
It was very clear that this was an anti-mage protest. Birthed from everything lost in "The Spark." During that whole attack, magicians had been accused of being responsible for a majority of the damages caused to civilians and residential areas. It should have been a completely outlandish idea; however, all over, the signs show that the damage could only have been caused by magicians.
The newly emerged organization, Fangless Python, and their leader, Prometheus, who had revealed themselves to the world after the attacks, capitalized on this, pressing up on the anti-mage sentiment sparking up all throughout the world. With their swift actions before the mage's association could respond, the situation had ended up like this. This protest is a direct result of their actions.
Along with signs, many people in the massive crowd of people held weapons. Pitchforks, scythes, machetes, s. Many people had flare guns and firecrackers and massive torches. The entire mob was armed to the teeth, and they were over hundreds deep.
How the hell had this situation developed in the time I had been asleep? I thought to myself, as I slowly opened the window to get a gist of the sound of outside.
The sound reflected how the situation looked. Pure chaos. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were gathered outside, all of them chanting, shouting, and screaming. They were deafeningly loud. Along with the loud voices, they brandished their weapons, popped firecrackers, and honked the horns of cars, creating a disgusting cacophony of noise that could drive a deaf person insane.
Drowned out by the noise of the mob were the desperate attempts of the authorities down below to try and get control of things. Even with megaphones, their voices were lost in the graveyard of noise that they were in, only coming out in broken chunks.
"Step...back.....take......back!.....we don't.....r.esort.....to violence!"
Their attempts were to no avail, as the mob just got louder, and they pressed forward even more. It would only be seconds now until they were on top of the officers, and this whole thing devolved into an even more bloody conflict. Noticing this, many officers began to raise guns, tasers, and batons. The knights from the mages association began to channel mana, and I could read that they were planning to use strictly defensive spells in order to restrain the movement of the mob. In fact, when I thought about it, they could probably contain the entire mob with a large-scale barrier spell. It would prevent any violence; however, there was no telling what the effects of the crowd crush would do to the mob. There were sure to be casualties no matter what they tried to do.
I stood in my own hospital room, staring in shock at everything that was going on. And then, I caught wind of something. In the massive sea of movement, I took notice of one movement in particular. A hooded man near the front of the mob reached into the pocket of his hood. From there, he pulled out a pistol. I didn't even need an extra second to realize what he was going to do with that weapon.
He pulled the gun, stretching it out in front of him in plain view of everybody else. But no one batted an eye. That was the first suspicious thing to happen. After he pulled the gun, he aimed it directly at a person who was in the front row of the mob. A woman who was being especially vocal about her thoughts, screaming through a megaphone at the line of wary authorities.
The hooded figure pointed their gun at that woman, and that's when the second thing to catch my attention happened. I could sense mana swirling around the man's gun. In an instant, I honed my mana sense, and I picked up the fact that the man in the hood was, in fact, a magician. He had been concealing his mana this entire time, and very well. That explained why nobody batted an eye at the fact he had literally pulled a gun. He had used a concealment spell to hide it. Reading the spell that he was using around his gun, I noticed it was a flame spell. I tried to cancel it, hoping I could foil the man's plan in some way; however, I was too late.
BANG!
He fired.
Despite the large amount of noise going on, everything went dead silent, making the sound of the bullet stand out like red on a white wall. The bullet struck the woman clean in the head, literally blowing her brains out. But that wasn't it; the flame spell engulfed her body in an instant, creating a horrifying popping and sizzling sound as it burned her body.
Every single person gathered around watched in horror. I saw mouths open, but no sound came out. It was a clear sign that someone had used magic to seal off the sound in the area. All except for the gunshot.
And as soon as the sound was returned, all hell broke loose.
Screams and shots erupted as people closest to her rushed to get out of the way, pushing against the crowd that was pushing up against them. Within seconds, the police began to fire off shots, thinking that their lives were in danger. Multiple people were hit by stray bullets, and in seconds, absolute carnage ensued.
The mechanics of the large crowd, which was now in a state of complete shock and panic, activated, and a massive wave of people descended upon the police and mages association knights. Immediately, the knights tried to set up a barrier spell; however, they were shocked to find that their mana was being blocked. Sealed by some third party. And in seconds, the mob was on them, and it turned into a massive physical brawl. Screams and shouts and weapons clanging and bullets being fired filled the air in seconds, as everything devolved into mindless conflict.
In just seconds everything devolved into carnage. People were shot, trampled, stabbed, and beaten to death. All because one person in the crowd, a magician, had decided to incite the mob from within, killing someone in such a way that it looked like the mages' association and police moved first. The still-flaming body of the woman who started it all was in the center of everything, her presence parting the sea of people like Moses did the Red Sea. She was still standing as well, serving as a flaming, headless martyr.
I dragged my eyes across the crowd before finally seeing the figure of the hooded man making a break for the alleyway. That was the magician who was responsible for starting this tragedy. I couldn't just let him leave. If I could stop him, I could maybe get answers. What kind of answers, I didn't know, but anything was better than nothing. And this guy was a criminal anyway, so stopping him was something I was obligated to do anyway.
BLARE!!!! BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!BLARE!!!!!!!!!
Behind me, alarms in the hospital began to blare, and a red light filled my room. A voice came over the intercom saying that the hospital was going under emergency lockdown and evacuation procedures and for nurses to assist patients in gathering up on the highest floor. I ignored that warning completely. Pushing my window wide open, I pulled one of the rubber bands off of my arm and imbued it with mana before aiming it just a bit ahead of the man who was running into the alley.
It's now or never, Raiden. I thought to myself.
Charging up, I let the rubber band go, and it flew at insane speeds. As soon as it reached its destination, I activated mana switching, appearing right in front of the man, who was in the midst of his mad dash. He froze, staring at me with shock. Immediately coming to a slide stop, he changed directions, and I chased after him. He cut between two buildings, attempting to fire spells that I dodged. I chased him between the buildings, pursuing him through the fire escapes.
As he tried to pull off a jump down in the alleyway, I grabbed onto him, and we slammed into the ground, leaving a crater.
Instantly activating my mana and using a spell to restrain the man, I flipped him over and came face to face with the culprit.
I was met with something that shocked me. The man had the regular features of a person, all aside from his glowing red eyes and the black tattoos that covered his face.
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I rushed through the hall along with a few other nurses and Homura at my side. We burst into the next room we could find, immediately helping up the patients who struggled to walk and helping them into wheelchairs that nurses had prepared. The nurses then wheeled these wheelchairs quickly into the spacious elevators that began their course to the top floor.
We continued throughout the floor, entering rooms, helping patients either physically or by instructing them on where to go to get to the top floor the very quickest. Everything had happened in such a hurry. At first, when I and Homura had arrived at the hospital to make our visits in the morning, we were pulled aside by magic knights and taken through a back entrance because of the massive protest that had built up.
In the morning, it was a small but vocal group, but by the time that 9 rolled around, it had transformed into a genuine mob, the size of crowds that you'd see attending a massive music concert. Things had gotten so bad that they had surrounded the hospital, making it completely impossible for anyone to enter or leave. And not much later, the sound of gunshots was heard, and everything developed into chaos. The front entrance of the hospital was barricaded, and a lockdown procedure was initiated.
We were currently assisting where help was needed while making our way towards the safety zone ourselves. We had just emerged onto the third floor when Homura asked me,
"Kami, isn't the floor where your brother is being held?" I didn't like the tone in her voice. It seemed like Homura had developed a significant crush on my brother, and she was doing nothing to hide it anymore.
"Ew. And you know that he's probably already moved and is heading towards the top floor, right?" I said the words; however, there was a not-so-small part of me that was horrified by the not-so-small possibility Raiden had done something stupid. That fact was clear in how I picked up the pace in my steps as we got closer and closer to his room.
And as soon as I opened his door, I was met with the one sight I prayed I wouldn't have to see. My heart dropped. Raiden's room was empty, and his window was swinging wide open.
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I stared at the man pinned down below me in shock for a long moment. Mostly, I was shocked at the fact that the man had perfect red eyes. Even the pupils were red. It was an unsettling, deep red like the color of blood, and something inside of me knew that a regular person couldn't be naturally born with eyes like these. It just wasn't possible. Was the man wearing contacts?
And that didn't even address the web of intricate tattoos he had on his body. The black lines and designs interweaved together, forming patterns that I couldn't begin to understand. However, I didn't have time to worry about the eccentric parts of this man. Tightening my grip on him, I immediately dove into my questions.
"Why the hell did you start that riot!" The man just stared up at me, his red eyes not exactly focused, as if he wasn't looking at me but instead at something behind me. I didn't turn around, though, not planning on falling for the oldest trick in the book. I tightened my grip even further, exerting more mana to strengthen the restraints I had created, letting the man know there was now no escape. After a few more moments, the man breathed a sigh of relief.
"So this was part of the plan." His voice was deep and gravelly, and it didn't fit his figure. I stared at him in brief confusion.
Was he communicating with someone? And a plan?
"Starting this whole riot was a part of your plan? Are you with the Fangless Python?"
At that question, he laughed from under me. "Fangless Python? Not at all."
He wasn't making much sense, and it was clear that his main goal with his responses was to confuse me. However, there was real fear in his eyes when I first caught him. Clearly, whoever his higher-up is wouldn't normally have wanted him to get caught like this.
"Then why'd you pull that trigger! Do you see what's going on right now? People are dying! In conflict for no reason!"
I yelled out as I grabbed his collar roughly. The man only shook his head. "It's only to maintain balance."
Balance? What the hell was this guy talking about?
"You should know better than anyone the light of heaven. You were created to maintain balance."
I froze as he called me the title that only Ariel and the Witch had used before. As soon as I froze, he released a dark energy from his arm that was different from mana. It was more sinister and had a heavy prescience to it. Pulling hard, he snapped out of his restraints before kicking me back into the wall. His kick wasn't hard, but it was imbued with that sinister aura that left me on my knees gasping for breath.
He turned around and began to walk away, the reddish-black dark aura trailing from behind him. I reached out a hand as I writhed on the floor in pain. "Wait! W-who are you?" I shouted out, wondering what the hell was happening to my body.
The man simply smiled. "We are the ones who maintain balance. Peacekeepers." With that, he faded in a flash of red.
I lay on the floor, my body feeling horrible. It hurt to breathe, and it felt like my insides were collapsing.
As I turned my head to face the sun, I saw a figure looking down at me.
Just like Ariel and the Witch of Vainglory, she had white hair. She was tall. She was dressed paladin-style in a full suit of white armor that covered her head to toe. The only break in her armor was the portion from which her long white hair flowed out. She was sitting atop an all-white majestic steed. I stared up at her in complete awe and shock.
She began to remove her helmet, but before I got a look at her face, everything went black.