[Eiswelt, Taured, 2:03 PM, Wednesday, May 20th, 2020]
The entirety of Taured... Had been frozen by a single woman in the span of a few days.
The entire Mediterranean Sea had been flash frozen by her on Tuesday. The same day I found that red cube, the beacon.
Everything in the ocean. Flash frozen.
That also means the Flux pads holding up the roads of the country, the highways, the entire sea itself...
She chose to advance on Eiswelt. And the freezing here was gradual, not instant like in every other state. It's safe to say that the world soon became aware of what was happening here.
The Eisturm Tower and most of the bridges and highways connecting Eiswelt to the rest of Taured and the outside world, alongside the military outpost in the northern quadrant of the city, got flash-frozen the same day.
Metal shrieked and twisted, frozen solid. Bridges fell, and people died. Many people.
We were aware of the sea freezing and the snowfall, but nobody knew the source... So most people stood inside their houses. News stations, police stations, military outposts, fire stations, hospitals were all hit first by her so that everyone was isolated and nobody knew what was happening.
The rest of the country was oblivious.
Other than those who had relatives fortunate enough to call them before the phone lines shut off and warned them.
And because selfish will always be selfish, nobody said a word.
We didn't evacuate that day.
The next day, Saturday, she froze the entire Western Quadrant of the city, shooting down anything that moved and didn't. Police by now were actively in the streets, at least what remained of the police force. They did nothing.
The entire quadrant was both melted and frozen together due to the mysterious red thunderbolts she kept releasing from her hands; we believed it to be lasers.
The air started smelling like burned fuel and ozone from her attacks. Buildings toppling, cars exploding.
Mixing with the cold air, it creates a heady and suffocating smell, death.
By Sunday, she also froze and destroyed the South Quandrant of Eiswelt, the military had finally been alerted and started fighting her actively, every second they could spare, every last troop.
The President long evacuated, along with any other corrupt politcians.
By then, every breath a person would take crystallized in the air. The air became so cold, if you cried your own eyes would be stabbed from the icicles your tears would make.
Taured became a snowy wasteland, ice thick enough to touch the seabed. All the way down to the bottom of the sea.
All the water was frozen. Nobody knew how long this nightmare would last. We all hoped it would be over soon, and for most it did end...
By Monday? She earned the nickname "The Storm" from the citizens, and now everyone was actively trying to make it to the harbors and ports to escape by ship.
Eiswelt was the last city standing in the entirety of Taured, a country that spans 765 kilometers (473 miles) from West to East and 853 kilometers (530 miles) from North to South.
Gone.
[Eiswelt, Taured, Eisturm Tower, 5:22 PM, Wednesday]
My parents and I were running to the military outposts near the Eisturm Tower, but Aunt Lara didn't join us.
She remained at home.
I didn't know it at the time, but the cube was the thing that summoned 'The Storm'.
She flew from building to building, laughing maniacally, her eyes scanning the city as if looking for someone. For me.
She was fighting off the remaining Taured military, all of them by order of the President, who fled, were all rushing to Eiswelt to fight her off as the 5.5 million remaining citizens of Eiswelt, and in turn Taured, rushed through the streets to escape by boat, but to little to no avail.
A brittle escape maneuver that was barely coordinated by them.
Alexander Karawei: "Eyes ahead, son... Come on, quickly!" Dad said as we kept running through the back alleys.
Cars were being flipped and ice spikes rose out of the ground everywhere. Her laughter seemed to grow closer.
Every time she bounced or jumped, every time she landed through buildings... Smash. Clatter. Fall.
Every time she punched or shot out icicles. Crash. Break. Boom.
More and more ice and blood covered the land.
She fought against some of Taured's best men. And machines.
The Enforcers, were a specialized unit of the Tauredian army, had massive mech-like suits made out of a special alloy from Flux.
The kind that absorbed physical trauma... But didn't do much against ice.
As we got out of the alleyways and went under the Eisturm Tower, she got knocked straight into the observation room at the top by a chopper. The air itself screamed as ice crawled up the Eisturm Tower from her back. Whatever sort of strange powers she had, they needed little concentration.
Glass shattered like a thousand wind chimes. Freezing mid-air and falling onto the ground like shrapnel. A mockery of snow.
Eleanor Karawei: "Hurry up honey! It's going to fall... Oh dear Ancient..."
We continued running onto 26th Mainlane street, past my father's favorite bakery since he was a child.
I glanced through the windows, the baker inside was boarding up the place alongside his family. A smart move considering the chaos outside.
I looked back towards Eisturm where she had landed.
The entire thing rattled with the force of her landing, freezing upon contact... She cackled loudly, the sound echoing off the buildings in the rapidly changing landscape.
The Storm: "Nice try! But you can't fight metal with metal!"
Her voice was robotic, high-pitched, she definitely was not human.
She dashed forward just as we ducked under a falling truck, right on top of the alleyway we passed through. A spike came out from between the two buildings and trapped the truck above us, making a makeshift roof in the alley.
Alexander Karawei: "Damn it... Quickly, this way!"
The two buildings forming the alleyway started collapsing as Ice twirled and twisted underneath the ground.
Eleanor Karawei: "C'mon sweetie... We're almost at the port. Oh Lamb, have mercy!"
The strange woman fell before us after taking a particularly massive blow from an Enforcer. Looking back, she locked eyes with me and grinned.
The Storm: "Karawei... It's SO nice to finally meet you face to face! We have so many plans for you... You're the key, Karawei, forged in ice~ At least that's what daddy said!"
James Karawei: "What...?"
She suddenly turned around and caught a falling chopper, on fire, throwing it into the building across where the Enforcer was, the chopper exploded, and the explosion itself froze solid. A terrifying sight as the Enforcer was consumed by it, like a rose.
Another one jumped down from the building in front and landed on her. She shot out a thunderbolt from her foot and jumped up into the sky. Battling another Enforcer and trading blow for blow with the mechanized man. He didn't last long.
We took this chance to run, The Navy, at least what remained of it, was already guiding people onto giant freighters so that we could escape...
We didn't.
She kicked down the Enforcer, clasping her hands together and lifting them up.
The Storm: "You're finished! Tesla Scalpel!"
A giant laser came out from her hands that cut the Enforcer in half, freezing and burning him at the same time. She then fell back down purposefully, shattering the ice below her and in turn making a sinkhole in the ground.
We kept running as buildings fell.
She glanced towards the port and I looked back at her, she knew where we were going.
She turned and ran towards the port, jumping up into the air and propelling herself with some sort of red energy blasts from her feet. Hovering in the air and freezing it, letting the shards rain down like bullets onto the city below.
The Storm: "You're not getting away so easily! Bye bye!"
She slammed her fist down into the first freighter, flash freezing it... It fell and crashed into the other three ships, also freezing them.
She pushed off of it and jumped up even higher in the sky. And then with her fist extended she punched the air downwards.
The Storm: "Tundra Scalpel!"
And then suddenly...
A giant ice spike came out of the ground and destroyed the entire port. It was so sudden, so quick.
It was the biggest one I've ever seen.
48 km² of ships and containers... The spike, however, triumphed in size and sheer volume, reaching the height of the Eisturm Tower itself, coming in at over 250 cubic kilometers, that's 60³ miles of pure ice.
5.5 million, dead.
My mom fell to her knees out of sheer terror, my dad started praying silently... Muttering something in Latin... For some reason, I didn't do anything.
I felt... weak. I felt dizzy from all of it, like my breath was taken away from me.
I looked around calmly like someone walking through a field of wheat.
Then, I felt something, like ropes crawling over my legs and binding me, but I couldn't look down... But it was such an unfamiliar feeling, it just didn't register with me.
Like Déjà Vu.
She dashed forwards once again, gigantic ice wings forming from her back as she began flying high above the city, launching up into the sky what looked like more red thunderbolts from her hands. Cackling.
The thunder went into the clouds, and the sky roared, the strange red electricity coursing through the clouds causing a snowstorm almost immediately, the air became dark and red. Or at least my vision did.
The strange thunder rained down onto the city.
The last thing I remember?
Her laughter.
A strange looking glowing eye looking into mine.
And me falling to the ground.
As I was falling to the ground... I felt a gentle warmth on my forehead.
And then?
...
Nothing.