Auralis Empire

owd where the rich kid stood.

It seemed no one else noticed the light. All eyes were focused on the central confrontation, completely ignoring the nearly invisible "pillar." Normally, I wouldn’t have noticed something so subtle either, but for some reason, I could clearly see the trail left by the “flowing light.”

Then I saw it—a small, dark red hole had appeared on the cobblestone pavement where the light disappeared. The molten surface slowly dripped into the vaporized hole.

What was this? A supernatural phenomenon? A paranormal event? First contact with aliens? Leaking fuel from a passing spaceship? Or maybe a celestial deity spilling water from heaven?

A series of bizarre explanations raced through my mind. I have a bad habit of overthinking, never giving my brain a rest, but none of these wild theories made any sense. So, I concluded that what I saw must have been some sort of hallucination.

But then, the subsequent events confirmed that everything I witnessed was all too real.

The arrogant young man stepped forward, ready to strike. As his foot landed, it fell squarely on the molten ground.

Seconds later, a blood-curdling scream filled the air, like the wail of a pig being slaughtered: “AAAAHHH!!”

Clothes catch fire easily, and the molten ground far exceeded the ignition point of fabric. Before long, his pants were ablaze, and the fire quickly spread up his leg. Chaos erupted. People rushed to help, while others pulled out their phones, filming and posting to social media: “OMG, I just saw someone spontaneously combust outside school!”

But in that moment, I couldn’t focus on the unfolding chaos.

The voice in my mind had started to terrify me.

“Test fire complete... Recalculating parameters... Switching to full-force mode... Primary weapon array charging... Secondary weapon array charging... All systems ready. Orbital strike commencing in 10 seconds...”

One thing was certain: this was bad news.

A test fire had burned a hole in the ground; if it went full force, the best-case scenario was our school making national news as the site of a catastrophic fire or explosion.

“Stop!” I screamed internally, but no matter how hard I tried, the strange state I’d entered earlier wouldn’t return. The countdown continued, slow but steady, as cold sweat dripped down my face.

“Six, five...”

I started trembling.

“Four, three...”

“Tina!” I suddenly shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the edge of the crowd. I knew we wouldn’t be able to outrun whatever was about to happen, but I couldn’t let Tina get hurt because of me.

“Blair, what are you—?!” Tina cried, startled by my sudden action.

“Two, one...”

A wave of dizziness struck me. Everything went black.

Tina’s panicked voice echoed in the distance.

“Critical system error... External command set anomaly... Highest-level permissions lost... Zenith Orbital Strike System shutting down...”

What the hell? D*mn, that hurts!

That was my last coherent thought before I passed out.