Chapter 1: 1. Prologue – End of an Age 1

17th March, 3040 B.E.
The Last Day Of The 3rd Age of Reclamation 

A large caravan was traveling through a thick forest on a dirt road. The forest was extremely dark and eerily silent. It was nighttime and no moon could be seen. It was a moonless night and the light of the stars was not enough to illuminate it. But white flashes of light that occurred at a usual interval of once every two seconds kept illuminating the entire forest intermittently. The white flashes were very bright since it was nighttime.

No creaking of insects or roars of wild animals could be heard. It was as if the entire forest had become vacant of creatures somehow. The state of the forest was not normal. Something was extremely wrong with it. Usually, at night, night predators became active and their roars reverberated throughout the forest but tonight no such thing happened. The forest was totally silent.

Similarly, the condition of the caravan was also not normal just like the eerily silent forest. Some people were on foot while some were riding on horses. Some of the travelers were also sitting in the wagons and carriages that were being pulled by the horses.

The speed at which the caravan was moving was a  bit fast. The wagon and carriage drivers were trying to hurry their horses as best as they could while the horse riders kept pace with them. It was as if something was chasing them, something dangerous and terrifying. 

All the travelers had a haggard appearance. They had dirt on their faces and their bodies were smelly. They also had dark circles around their eyes as if they had not slept for days. All of them supported terrified and hopeless expressions on their faces. Without uttering anything to each other, they silently moved with the caravan.

The men on foot had the worst of it. They were running lightly in order to keep up with the rapidly advancing caravan. In addition to that, cries of the children and infants could be heard from the carriages as well as muffled shushing sounds. 

Once in a while, one of them fell and could not get up. The entire caravan stopped at that and the passed-out person was put on a wagon or a carriage while another person got out of them and replaced the passed-out one. It was as if they were taking turns walking on foot.

Bouts of vibrations could also be felt from the ground along with the white flashes of light. Sometimes the white flashes increased in intensity and sometimes, there was a significant pause between the two of them. Similarly, there was a tinge of red mixed with the white flashes occasionally but it was rare. 

The same could be said by the vibrations coming from the ground. Sometimes, they were intense while occasionally, there was a small pause between two normal episodes.

The haggard and tired caravan also came across other travelers along the way. Those travelers were also in the same condition as those in the caravan. In fact, some were in much worse condition than them. 

The caravan passed by without saying anything to them. Similarly, most of the travelers also remained silent as if they had tact and understanding while some begged the caravan for taking them along. The caravan ignored those beggars. All of them were traveling in the same direction, that was toward the west. It seemed like they were all running away from something located in the east.

Coincidentally, the source of those bright white flashes and vibrations was also present in the east.

In addition to the white flashes and vibrations, irregular sonic booms could be heard from above their heads. It was as if some kind of fast objects were constantly passing from above them. They were heading from the west to the east, opposite the direction the caravan was traveling in. The objects were so fast that they broke the sound barrier. It seemed like those supersonic objects were attracted by the source of the flashes and vibrations.

Whenever they passed above their heads, all the travelers whether they were part of the large caravan or not looked up as their expressions changed from desolation to slight hopeful. But a few minutes later, their hopeful expressions returned to their previous state. It was as if those supersonic objects could give them hope for a few minutes only.

At the head of the large caravan was a white-haired old man who was riding a high-breed white horse. His height was five feet ten inches and he had black eyes. His hair was long and white in color but some light blonde hair could also be seen. His clean-shaven face was full of wrinkles and age.

Periodically, he looked back toward the east with a fearful and worried expression. He was worried about someone very close to him.

"Son..." The old man muttered silently as he looked toward the east, his eyes a bit hopeful. He was expecting his son to appear in his vision whenever he looked back. Although he knew that it was not possible and that whatever he was imagining was pure nonsense, he could not help but hope for that illogical thing to happen by some miracle. This was his fatherly love for a son.

His son was out there, fighting with all his strength in order to give them some time to flee toward the west. He was giving away his life for them so that they could make some distance from those horrors in the east. 

The old man knew that his son would not come back. Those terrifying beings would also take his life away. But as a father, he still hoped to see his son. Tears started rolling down again on his already tear-stained aging face as he remembered the childhood face of his dear son.

He stopped looking after a few seconds when his son did not appear miraculously. He then looked up and stared at a slightly shining spot in the sky. His sorrowful expression twisted into an expression of hate and anger.

(If only it had not come. It was so beautiful. We even took it as a good omen and celebrated that beautiful scene. But alas, we didn't know the horrors it brought with it. How happy we were before it.) The old man reminisced inwardly as he thought about the happy days before the calamity befell them.

He stopped looking toward the bright spot in the sky and started looking forward. The anger and hate slowly vanished from his face as he started thinking about his son who he would never be able to see again in the future.

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But suddenly, he was interrupted by a bright red-tinged white flash. The old man's expression instantly turned fearful. He quickly tightened his hold on the reins of his horse as he prepared for something. 

He became nervous and started counting from one. With each passing second, his nervousness increased and his hold on the reins tightened more and more so much so that his knuckles turned white. In the meantime, normal flashes kept ensuing.

Just as his count was about to reach the one-minute mark, intense vibrations traveled through the ground below them. The old man's horse jumped in surprise and he almost fell from it. 

His horse was not the only one who got spooked. All the horses in the caravan were disturbed. The horse riders and carriage drivers tried their best to calm their rides down but some failed and fell from their horses. Some of the fallen were also injured. The caravan came to a halt and the injured were treated.

The old man looked toward the east with a horrified expression. He had realized something just now. The intensity of the flashes and the vibrations were increasing rapidly. Coincidentally, another intense red-tinged flash occurred right then and the old man caught sight of some distant giant dusty mushroom cloud on the horizon. 

The old man showed a surprised expression at that. He was not surprised at the mushroom clouds but at the intense abnormal bright flash that happened again within a minute after the last one.

"PREPARE YOURSELVES!!" The old man shouted toward his caravan with a voice full of fear. The people prepared themselves and hold on to their recently calmed hoses tightly. Another intense vibration passed by and the horses were spooked again.

Fortunately, nobody fell down this time and they calmed their horses easily. The caravan immediately started moving after that. But not two minutes had passed before another great white flash was seen and they repeated the thing with their horses. 

Whenever a great vibration passed by, children in the carriages broke into crying loudly. The adults were not in a good state either. All of them were terrified and desolate.

The caravan could not move after that. The intense red-tinged flashes kept increasing in frequency and the normal flashes kept decreasing. The travelers had to bind their horses to the nearby trees because they got tired after a few times trying to calm their highly disturbed rides. 

Females also came out of the wagons and carriages, carrying the still-crying infants or holding the hands of their children. Tears could be seen on their frightened faces as they tried to soothe their crying children. It was a scene of desolation and bleakness.

After about fifteen minutes, the frequency increased so much that a red-tinged flash happened after only ten seconds. Intense vibrations passed by them after every few seconds. 

Many vomited and horses continued being restless as mothers kept trying to console their innocent children. All of them kept looking at the old man in order to console themselves and derive some kind of mental support from him. He was their sole pillar of support during this time of hopelessness and desolation.

The old man was sitting with his back supported by a tree. He was facing east and had a hopeless expression on his face. He was aware of the glances that were being passed on him. But he could not help them today. He was helpless.

Two days ago, they were happily living their lives when a messenger from the sects arrived at their city on a large tamed eagle, bearing the news of the apocalypse. Horrors had appeared in the east, near the border. The human armies in the east had already fallen by the time the messenger set out of the sect on the fastest ride possible.

The sects were next in turn after the fall of armies. As the messenger was setting out, the sects had already mobilized all their manpower in order to rescue the army remnants and hold the demons as long as they could in order to give populations enough time to escape toward the west. The old man's son was also among them.

They were ordered by the messenger to vacate the city. By the time he had reached their city, he had already informed all the populations in the east. On asking the cause of this calamity, he only did one thing. He pointed toward a shining spot in the sky and everyone understood. Nothing more was needed to be said.

The old man was quick to order his clan to pack up and leave the city. While many citizens were still in denial, they were already out of the city. They were among the first ones who left the city and set for the capital in the west. They had already been traveling for about two days. This was their second night.

They had not slept the first night to widen the distance between them and the demons. But today, they could not sleep at all. Not them, not their children, no one could sleep. Whenever they closed their eyes, they would start having terrifying nightmares. Either they were being devoured by those horrors or their children in those nightmares.

It all started about seven hours ago. There were no flashes or vibrations seven hours ago. Seven hours ago, just after the afternoon, they felt small vibrations from the ground. They were surprised at that and quickly looked around to find the source of those. 

They quickly caught sight of a dusty mushroom cloud rising on the horizon in the far east. It looked small but all of them knew that it was located more than four hundred kilometers away. They all quickly realized how big it must be since it could  be seen from hundreds of kilometers away.

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