TBATE Rogue

Chapter 16

Tessia Eraltih POV

Everything around me happened way too fast to comprehend and my mind was blocked, trying to process things at a much slower pace than normal I do.

My eyes were unfocused and my head was in so much pain that I genuinely thought it would explode, just like the museum. All I could see for a short moment was just a bright and white light. Nothing more. For the moment, I feared that I was blinded but soon, the white light faded and slowly I could muster images, very distorted ones. My thoughts were all over my brain like a violent storm entering my head and splashing in all directions.

I was thrown maybe a good 20-30 meters away from where I was initially standing, no in fact where was I originally standing? My back hurt, my legs were weak and numb, and my arms were slightly burned. It took every ounce of my control and will to not puke. I tried to stand up or to lift myself from the ground, only to see a sight detached from a true nightmare.

The Museum of Dicathen, Unity, was a building raised with the whole purpose of uniting all three races of the continent such as elves, humans, and dwarves together, marking the end era of the once Dicathen divided between the three kingdoms and starting a new one. Now, it was all in flames, caused by a huge yet so unordinary explosion. Despite being built with hard and resistant materials like rocks and concrete, its impressive walls were now crumbling in dust. It also had many components, much of it for decorative reasons made of wood and other inflammable materials.

Its design was more like a combination of cathedral and castle, a true piece of architecture. Now was burning like a torch. The main tower, where you could climb up to watch the academy and the rest of the city from above was now engulfed in fire and soon, two more smaller towers were ready to also burn and fall. In the roof, a huge hole was made due to the explosion. Some debris that was part of the roof, either collapsed and fell in the museum's interior or flew high in the sky and landed outside.

After some time, my senses came back except the hearing, and the first thing that hit me was the pain of burns coming from my arms, and then thighs. My survival instincts kicked in and quickly I began to take off some of my clothes, like the jacket, and rip off my stockings, extinguishing the little flames with my palms. When the hearing from my ears started to come back, that's when the reality and the true gravity of the situation hit me.

A black cloud of smoke, poisonous like toxic gas rose from all this mess. If you add up the screams of the students caught in action, some true fear, some of in utter shock or incredible pain, you could mistake this scene and believe you wake up in the middle of an ongoing war and not in the center of a city, one as big and populate like Xyrus, nonetheless where peace was at its peak. Or so I thought, perhaps.

Both students and professors were trying to extinguish the flames, using whatever spells they could use. The ones with an affinity for water or wind occupied the first line of action, coordinated by some professors or some experienced student seniors. The ones with an affinity for earth cloaked themselves in thick, solid armor and adventured inside the museum. I was taken aback by this aspect. Why would someone ever go there when-

"That's right..." I stopped myself, realizing the answer. They were going to save the ones inside.

Forget about the museum, we could rebuild once again and even better anytime we want. But the ones that were inside at that moment. How many were there? How many of them had died? And how many are trapped inside that inferno, screaming for help?

These were the questions occupying my mind but now, the hardest one popped out: This act of going inside, in order to save the little and potential survivors, is indeed a noble and heroic gesture or a dumb, pointless, and suicidal one? I didn't have an answer for this one.