Union Year 23 was truly a long year.
Life passed as usual amid the toasted aroma of pancakes and the jingle of the convenience store’s doorbell.
Lance Blue tried to bury those chaotic thoughts about influence and its cost deep inside his heart.
Maybe it was all just a coincidence. Maybe he was being too sensitive.
After all, he was only ten years old.
After all, the number on his wrist was only 124.
What could it possibly influence?
.........
The late-autumn sky was a vast, crystal-clear blue.
The sunlight was no longer scorching, carrying just the right amount of warmth.
That morning, Lance Blue did not go to the park.
Elliot had asked him at the last minute to help organize a batch of newly arrived children’s books at the community center.
It was not difficult—just sort the books, put labels on them, and arrange them on the shelves.
As payment, in addition to the usual snacks, Elliot had promised to take him later to get a library card at the newly opened public library nearby.
Lance Blue worked very diligently.
As his fingers brushed over the brightly colored covers of picture books and storybooks, a small thrill rose in his heart.
These were things that belonged to the world of normal children, a world that had once been far away from him. Now, it seemed he could touch it a little too.
The clock hanging in the community center pointed to 9:24 in the morning.
The street outside was still peaceful.
There were not many people in front of Mrs. Carter’s pancake stall. She was sitting down and picking vegetables, preparing ingredients for the dinner rush.
Jake was dozing inside the convenience store, his head bobbing up and down.
On the balcony of an apartment building farther away, Grandma Liu’s pot of jasmine swayed gently in the breeze.
Everything was peaceful to the point of laziness.
Then, calamity descended in a manner beyond anyone’s imagination or comprehension.
At first, there was sound.
A dull roar of thunder seemed to roll in from the depths of the high and distant heavens. It did not sound like natural thunder, but more like the roar of some immense energy violently tearing through the air.
This was followed by the shriek of twisting metal, sharp enough to pierce eardrums, and muffled explosions.
But the source of those sounds was in the sky.
Everyone in the community center froze, raising their heads or rushing toward the windows.
Holding a stack of books, Lance Blue looked up as well. Through the enormous glass window, he saw a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life:
Against the vast blue sky, a silver-white civilian airliner trailed an ominous plume of black and orange-red smoke as it slanted across the horizon like a wounded bird.
Farther behind it, two tiny points of light radiating terrifying fluctuations of energy clashed fiercely and separated. Every collision sent out visible circular ripples that warped the air, accompanied by that same deafening rumble of thunder.
The tornado wreathed in black energy carried an aura of despair.
Lance Blue felt only despair and rage.
They were not his own subjective feelings, but the tangled emotions his special ability sensed from the sky.
"Oh my God! It’s a plane!"
"Something’s wrong with that plane! Is it going to crash?!"
"Look up there! Those two lights... are heroes fighting?!"
Terrified screams erupted throughout the community center.
People crowded frantically in front of the windows. Some began making calls, while others went weak in the knees and collapsed to the floor.
Lance Blue stood frozen in place. The books in his arms fell to the ground with a clatter.
At that instant, his emotional empathy was magnified to its utmost limit, flooding violently into his consciousness like a burst dam:
From inside that rapidly falling plane high in the sky came the ultimate fear and despair of hundreds of passengers, so intense it seemed nearly tangible!
From the ground came the sudden terror and helplessness of everyone witnessing this scene, as well as their trembling in the face of a devastating catastrophe falling from the sky!
And then... there was an even sharper, smaller, more helpless fear, pricking his senses like a needle.
That feeling came from the plane, yet it also seemed unusually clear.
"No..."
he murmured, his face turning deathly pale as his stomach churned violently.
The plane did not crash directly toward the densely populated city center. It seemed to be affected by some force—perhaps the aftermath of the heroes’ battle, perhaps the pilot’s final effort.
Trailing thick smoke, the plane carved a desperate arc through the sky and glided down toward District Seventy, toward the skies above the outskirts of this old neighborhood!
"It’s coming this way!!"
someone cried out in despair.
"Evacuate! Hurry, evacuate to the basement!"
Elliot’s voice rang out amid the chaos, carrying a calm he was struggling to maintain, though Lance Blue could feel the same violent turmoil within him.
The crowd began surging toward the emergency exits, crying and screaming.
Yet Lance Blue seemed nailed to where he stood.
He could not tear his gaze away from the window.
He saw the plane’s enormous shadow sweep over distant rooftops with an ear-splitting howl.
Then, a series of even more violent and concentrated explosions erupted from the aircraft!
It was not crashing... it was exploding in midair!
The engines on both wings exploded one after another, leaving the plane battered beyond recognition and no longer capable of lifting its nose to fly again.
A massive fireball blossomed in the air, thick smoke billowing out.
Countless burning, razor-sharp fragments burst outward from the center of the explosion in every direction, like a deadly firework scattered by Death himself!
Some of the smaller fragments burned up in the air, but sections of the aircraft wreckage, still wreathed in flames and bearing sharp edges, trailed black smoke as they howled toward the ground!
One huge, twisted fragment of metal wing was falling at a horrifying speed toward the old neighborhood where Mrs. Carter’s pancake stall stood!
"Mrs. Carter! Jake!!"
Lance Blue’s heart suddenly clenched. An overwhelming panic instantly crushed all his discomfort.
He spun around and, heedless of everything, shoved through the panicked crowd and rushed out through the community center’s main doors!
"Lance Blue! Come back! It’s dangerous!"
Elliot tried to chase after him, but the countless people fleeing for shelter packed around him so tightly that he could not take a single step.
Elliot’s shout was left behind him.
The streets had already descended into chaos.
People screamed and fled in every direction. Cars swerved wildly, and piercing alarms filled the sky.
Burning debris fell sporadically like a meteor shower, smashing through rooftops as thick smoke began to rise.
Lance Blue ran desperately, his lungs burning with pain.
There was only one thought in his mind:
Go back! Go back to that street!
People ran and screamed like headless flies. Cars lay jammed haphazardly across the road, while piercing sirens mixed with secondary explosions from somewhere unknown, composing an apocalyptic symphony.
Lance Blue could hear nothing and see nothing. He only knew that he had to run with all his strength. His lungs burned like broken bellows, and his legs felt as heavy as lead, but he refused to stop.
As he rounded that familiar street corner—
Time seemed to be cruelly stretched out and frozen at that very moment.
A burning piece of plane wreckage struck the upper-middle side of the old five-story apartment building on the corner dead on!
Bricks, glass, and chunks of concrete mixed with flames and thick smoke cascaded down like a waterfall, instantly blasting the shops below into complete ruin.
Including Mrs. Carter’s pancake cart and Jake’s convenience store.
They were completely swallowed by rubble and a sea of fire!
All that remained reflected in those blue eyes were raging flames consuming everything he had once known.
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