3. Outcome
Screams echoed through the area as the walls collapsed towards them, only to fall short when the noticed the rubble seemed to freeze. Almost as if time itself had stopped the rocks from slamming into the defenceless civilians that were trying to flee.
Atemu blinked as he lowered his arms, a large rock inches from slamming into his head. It surely would have resulted in his untimely death if the rocks hadn't been stopped by some unknown force. Shaking his head, Atemu turned his attention onto the people who were frozen in shock with rocks suspended extremely close to colliding into them. "Dwell on this later! Leave now!" Atemu instructed. "Who knows how long those rocks will be held back!"
His slightly panicked voice echoed through what was left of the hallway, causing people to snap back to reality. Rushing to obey, people quickly began to go through the tunnels into the bunkers yet again.
"What happened here?" Seto asked with a frown, touching a smaller rock that responded by shooting through the wall like a bullet. Seto couldn't help but flinch when he realised how lucky it was that no one was in the bath of the rock when he accidentally broke whatever was holding it back. "Who did this?"
Atemu frowned, having a gut feeling who had stopped it. There was only one person that he knew of who had enough stamina to hold so much damage back. And only one person stupid enough to risk their life by using so much strength to save the palace people.
"Where are you going?" Seto asked as Atemu started to weave through the people in the opposite direction, heading back into the depths of the destroyed palace.
"Following a hunch. Make sure everyone gets out," Atemu instructed.
"You better not be doing something stupid again," Seto grunted, stooping down to pick a child up when her mother tripped on a rock. Atemu merely waved him off before he disappeared around a corner. Rolling his eyes, Seto followed the woman and the remainder of the people into the tunnel. He had barely stepped foot into the tunnel when he found the ground quake again.
Turning around, the stragglers gulped when they found the entry point to the tunnel was completely blocked by rubble and the entrance had partially collapsed. 'We barely escaped,' was thought by many of the survivors before they turned and continued down the tunnel. It wasn't safe yet.
Seto tightened his grip on the child in his arms, praying to the gods that Atemu had somehow survived after stupidly turning back and abandoning them. He could be dead though considering the force of those rocks coming at them. Even the smallest rock could cause a heap of damage if it managed to land a strike.
Reaching the bottom of the tunnel, the survivors found themselves in the bunkers hidden under the palace. The bunkers are located on a secret floor between the dungeons and the main flood with reinforced flooring and ceiling to ensure the occupants would be safe during the harshest of storms or the most severe wars of the era. Like the dungeons, the bunker spreads out under the village towards the cliff face behind the city.
Everyone stopped and stood aside, waiting for further instructions. "Will we be staying here?" the mother asked Seto as she accepted the child back from one of the branch family Princes.
"No. There's another exit on the other side that will lead us out into the forest. Everyone else will be waiting for us there," Seto answered, hiding his worries as he stood tall and walked to the back of the bunkers where the exit was.
This room was intentionally designed to have two exits encase the palace was overrun or destroyed and the civilians needed to escape. While staying in the bunkers for many weeks was possible, it wasn't a long-term solution. It was recommended for a few days at most. With the exception of severe storms forcing them to hide in the shelter. Only then is it allowed for people to stay long-term. Or until the storms settled enough to flee.
The people followed after Seto, soft murmurs echoing through the room when people started to realise that the Crown Prince wasn't with them anymore. They were all too scared to actually ask Seto though since he's known to have quite a temper when pushed. All the Princes were known to have a temper.
The only one they somewhat felt comfortable expressing a question to is Yami himself. His response was often a soft smile or a chuckle. Even when the question is rather personal and probably shouldn't have been voiced.
The ground continued to shake and quake as they started to enter the second tunnel that led them up once more. It took fifteen minutes of walking uphill through almost complete darkness before Seto found the switch that opened the tunnel to the outside world.
Bright light flooded the tunnel as the sliding stones concealing the tunnel opened to reveal the forest. "Took you long enough," Marik said with a frown as Seto and the others exited the tunnel.
The people moved a safe distance from the tunnel entrance and looked up, finding themselves by a massive drop and a great view of the palace. Or, more accurately, what was left of the palace. Even some of the homes surrounding the large building had been knocked out. All the damage seemed to originate from the west wing of the palace where the Royals lived and slept.
"What will we do this time?" Bakura asked as he came to stand beside Marik and Seto, everybody keeping their eyes locked on the palace.
"We should have moved the palace years ago. This is good incentive to actually do it. How many times are we going to rebuild the palace in the same place? There has to be something there that keeps causing this 'incident'," Seto responded with a frown.
"How are we going to get Yami to approve that?" Marik asked, watching as another section of the palace collapsed in on itself.
"It won't be up to him. He probably won't survive this," Seto admitted softly, trying to keep the palace people in the dark. The last thing they needed was for the people to hate Yami.
They don't know why, but Yami's clan get this infliction every five years with no indicator that it's coming. It's only ever one member of the clan inflicted at a time. It just happened to be Yami's turn this time. He can't control what is happening to him. But it had killed all those that come before him. Everyone who knew of the infliction thought that Yami may have been immune since he is a half-breed. Only pure clan members had been infected up to this point.
"Are you saying that it got Yami this time?" Bakura asked, looking up at his taller cousin with a concerned frown.
"You already know that. You saw firsthand when it began," Seto growled back. It's why Atemu dragged you out of his room," Seto snapped back.
"Where is Atemu now?" Marik asked, looking over the people. But he couldn't see his spiky-haired cousin.
"I don't know. He went back. Something about a hunch he had to follow," Seto admitted with a faint blush.
"WHAT?! WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM?!" Marik and Bakura shouted in unison.
"Because I had to help everyone leave," Seto growled back. "We were on borrowed time. It's a miracle we even survived long enough to ensure everyone entered the tunnels. By the way, is the entire kingdom evacuated?"
"Duke, Malik, and Ryou are heading the evacuation. Last we heard, up to ten blocks have been evacuated and they're still working on the rest. Some people are demanding answers but a few well timed spouts of debris destroying buildings convinced them to shut up and run," Marik answered. "The outer blocks will be the hardest to evacuate because they'll believe they're safe from the damage."
"Nowhere is safe. Not even here. Is the sealing core ready yet?" Seto asked.
"We can't find them…" Bakura admitted with a faint blush, his blush darkened when Seto turned to him with a frown.
"Fucking bastards," Seto grunted, a sigh escaping him as he turned his eyes over the gathered people. They should be here somewhere. They're needed if they plan to stop Yami before he destroys the entire city. "What will we do if we can't find them?"
"Maybe Atemu has a plan?" Bakura suggested. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone back."
Seto blinked and looked at him for a moment, a collective gasp escaping the group. Snapping his head back towards the palace, Seto blinked in confusion when he found the palace in a state of both being blasted into the sky in a trillion pieces and a near transparent version of the palace in all its glory. Without a single scratch. "W-What is happening?"
"Atemu is more in touch with things than we realise. He was raised by Yami's mother and shown tricks of their clan," Bakura pointed out. "It's possible that he is somehow linked to this. You know that Yami's clan has been found to have temporal abilities. It's possible he was taught a rudimentary version that may hold the palace in a temporary time-space bubble."
"He's not that strong," Marik butted in. "But he may be able to convince Yami into activating his abilities. It wouldn't be the first time we've seen Yami manipulate our time-space."
"That's impossible at the moment. The 'infliction' makes them incapable of rational decision making and all people who presents themselves will be seen as nothing more than a mere enemy," Seto pointed out. "That's why Yami's mother was unable to be saved."
"Yes, but Yami is a half-breed. That may change the rules of the game," Marik stated. "As much as he hates it, it's the truth. His half-breed blood really changes his capabilities. It might also interfere with how much they can control him. Maybe that's why the 'infliction' has only ever gone after full bloods."
"Is there no more pure bloods?" Bakura asked.
"None that we know of," Seto answered. Seto blinked when he sensed a strange presence standing beside him, tilting his head to see nothing there.
"How narrow minded are people to still call others 'pure bloods' and 'half-breeds'?" a voice hissed darkly from beside Seto. People in proximity jumped and frantically looked for the source of the hiss, but none could be found. "Blood has nothing to do with this. That clan is just more in tune with their surroundings."
"Show yourself," Seto demanded, drawing a kunai from the back of his belt.
"It'll do little good. Just shut up and watch the show. It's sure to be quite entertaining," the voice hissed back in response, keeping their feminine tone low and dangerous.
Bakura tilted his head, noticing the faintest shimmer of an outline standing beside his cousin. 'A spirit? Are they the one behind the incidents?' Bakura wondered.
"Getting warmer, Kura," the voice hissed, the albino psycho noticing the faintest hint of a smirk on the lips of the shimmering spirit.
"W-What? You can read thoughts?" Bakura asked, turning read when the spirit merely returned a cold, bone chilling cackle in response to his question. It nearly put the fear of death back into the male.
"What is going on?" Seto asked with a frown.
"I said to watch the show. The best part is about to happen. Here, I'll give you a hand," the spirit raised her hand and a black orb appeared, spreading out to show a screen. On the screen, an image of Atemu appeared as he moved through the palace hallway. The hallway repaired itself as he walked and collapsed again once he was through, leaving him a metre in each direction of protection.