Chapter 57: Sixth Bottleneck Of Insight

“Zax?”

A voice so faint that it could get blown by the lightest breeze ... that was the last thing he heard from her.

Everything slowed down till it got frozen in place after the explosion. A sense of incomprehensible dread consumed from the very depth of his being. He wanted to reach out, to charge with his dark attribute energy and what minuscule amount of dark element energy he could muster, but for this instance his perception was heightened well beyond all other of his capabilities. Thus, he could only watch.

The ceiling cracked and split, raining rocks and Sun Stones like meteors, as a wave of indescribable energy unleashed its wrath from above in a passing, instigating a chain of cataclysmic devastation.

Quick to die were those on high ground, buildings and hillside streets. Even before they were engulfed by the blazing heat the wave emitted, they were pulverized by the ceiling’s debris.

There was no sound to the initial scene of destruction, as it failed to keep up and by the time it did, it was absorbed by a succeeding cacophony of havoc.

‘N-o!’ Zax uttered with great difficulty. His eyes barely registered the sudden explosion when the death toll already numbered tens of thousands.

Then, came the heat from the wave.

Those who were in the open, shelter seekers like his family and friends that were evacuated to the distant caves from the pathway, were struck head first, body instantaneously next.

They lit up like torches dipped in oil.

“MO-M! DA-D!” He finally was able to raise up the pace and hoarsely yell.

A dark attribute domain emerged and spread, his fastest response. Triggered by turbulent emotions, it encompassed more rapidly than ever!

He had to save them!

He must not let their deaths happen before his eyes, when he is so close to prevent it!

Why were they on an elevated ground?

It was only centimeters above where they stood just a few steps before, meters farther than where they were, but catching up to those parameters was time consuming when time was the sole thing he lacked.

“NOOOOO!” Zax bellowed with a face so ashen it was sickly white.

He got them, many he got!

Friends, relatives, strangers, tens, hundreds of thousands.

But for hundreds of thousands others he was too late.

His parents, his grandparents, Serah’s parents, his childhood friend Mi and her two daughters.

The list went on and on, but only two names had really captured Zax’s attention in the final moment of their lives...

“Mom, dad”. He weakly whispered as he stared at the void, broken. Outlines of their figures still in his view.

They never realized even when their bodies were set by ablaze, as it devoured all too fast, immediately transforming them to a pile of ash.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

His dark attribute domain trembled, on the verged of collapse by the brunt of direct contact with the wave. It bought just enough time for Supreme Ruler Ariel and a handful of others to react.

Alas, it all amounted for only the sufficient timespan for them to change countenance.

BOOM!

He was unable to preserve against the might of an Immortal induced shockwave.

His heart palpitated, yet again he is going to suffer a loss, and now on a much greater scale!

She was slow, despite being a Martial Mortal, but her reaction gradually took shape ... tears and confusion. Her gaze was still fixated on him, so she has not witnessed his loss, but the shattering events behind him still landed in her line of sight.

He noticed the mild shift in her face, the awareness, and his attention reverted back to the living. Nevertheless, the debris and the emitted heat were merely trivial in every aspect in comparison to the incoming wave.

‘POWER!’ There was no other word to describe what he needed.

He made the choice.

Although the death of his parents left a deep mark on his soul, debilitated his mental states, he threw caution to the wind.

‘GO! GO! GO! Take it!’ He urged his spirit to graved the spark of light in front of it, the sixth and last bottleneck of insight, and it ecstatically obeyed!

He always suspected that taking the final stride forward would incur the Godly Retribution’s full judgement. He became positive of its obstinate intent to hurt him when Sister Iaura’s prayer resulted in worse outcome than unrequited ... The only thing he was oblivious about was the reason, what sin did he commit that had made him so deplorable?

Unanswered questions were a distraction he could not bear its consequences.

His spirit moved, pulling the membrane of his soul, the step it could take unhindered, extending its reach for the sixth bottleneck was the trial in which it will not be able to allude the Godly Retribution.

THUMP

The step had been accomplished and the anarchic visage of his Inner Panorama began to quiver.

‘PERISH!’ An unfamiliar voice rang in his sea of consciousness.

Since it bore upon him, for the very first time, the Godly Retribution had declared its purpose.

Not to punish, reprimand, edify or mere harm, but to completely annihilate!

VROM!

The protective formations blocking the Godly Retribution’s oppression vibrated, their resistance plunged as they deconstructed for the last time.