He was alone again. It was a familiar feeling. One neither pleasant nor terrible, neither white or black. He had yet to rid himself of liberation. From the shackles of old that did everything in their power to stop him. [i]That[/i], indeed, felt terrible. Nothing he would die to, but it would've been nauseating to him if his mind had been fragile. Blue surrounded him as he let his body breeze past the air, through a vast world within existence. He existed- that alone opened up an infinite possibilities, but there was only one he sought for. Total consumption. But... He needed to prepare. After all, now that he was out of a world of nothing, his presence wouldn't go unnoticed unless he prepared a place where nothing can sense him. And so, he went ahead to start doing just that, out in the middle of the oceans- unseen, and unknown due to him using every ounce of his power to remain covert. [hr] [color=ed145b][b][u]Vermilla[/u][/b][/color] The longest ten minutes passed in Kora. Everyone remained within the barriers generated by the military, and no man and woman was not distressed by the disastrous aftermath of the unknown attack. An alarming amount of people were nowhere to be seen, though had the military not shown up quickly, that would've been ended up being almost everyone. That didn't change the fact that almost every building had been damaged in some form, some seared from the heat of the electricity. Less sturdier buildings had simply fallen apart. The ARK Soldiers seemed to be more composed about the situation than everyone else, even if the military itself was acting as the calming voice for the citizens. To be able to be composed during a time like this... [color=ed145b][i]I'll never understand them,[/i][/color] Vermilla thought to herself. She didn't hate them- it's just that she couldn't understand just how they thought about most situations. After all, they always did the right actions, but rarely did they favor showing emotion over being efficient. That often made it frustrating to try understanding them, even during her days in the Intelligence Agency. But perhaps that was one of the many things that made them unique from the rest of the military. Even so, she wasn't sure if they would be capable to take down the cause of all this. All around her, there were hundreds- no, thousands of people gathered within the barriers. The barriers were all closely placed together, forming a giant ring surrounding the center of Riesling. As such, it was natural for the shrunken size of the "safe" areas of the city to cause larger crowds. People brushed past her occasionally, the sheer volume of people often getting in her way as she walked around. She needed to find the Colonel. Even if he didn't know what was going on, at the very least, he could know of a potential lead, right...? ... She felt very unsure about that, despite her hating the idea of doubting good things about people. [color=f26522]"DAMMIT!"[/color] A brash voice yelled from a distance. Vermilla turned, only to find one of the few spots that was a little more vacant. Not too far from her was a scary-looking man, ruffling his short hair with his gloved hands as he muttered something inaudibly. He stood next to a woman, though Vermilla noted that the two were both wearing things that shielded their eyes. Though, that voice was rather familiar... If she recalled correctly, she heard it just when rain began to fall. He seemed much more frustrated than when the rain had fallen. ...Which was understandable, considering that everyone's day was ruined, essentially. Vermilla headed to their way, albeit slowly. She didn't want to start running and bash her head against someone. [hr] [color=f26522][b][u]Ryuu[/u][/b] "This sucks on ICE."[/color] Ryuu's day was more than ruined. The expo was literally dead. Some fucking demon sped through the damn city as if it were trying to collect people like golden rings, and the whole damn city was blown apart. And he SWORE that his flight ticket had been turned into ashes down in that stupid, stupid city. Was it the city's fault that some kind of alien invasion destroyed and frightened the living daylight out of people? Hell yeah! Did he honestly expect [b][u]any[/u][/b] city be able to retaliate to an attack that fast? Well, hell no, but his case was still valid! He wanted to blame something he knew about, but it had been a while since he witnessed something truly unfamiliar and out of the damn world. The days at Athalia were much simpler than this. There weren't many things Ryuu considered to be truly annoying, but one of them had to be the feeling of being helpless. He fought, but he still felt like he was entirely at the mercy of whatever caused the attack. And it... sucked, really. He sighed [b]heavily[/b]. Glancing at Andromeda, he stared at her for a brief moment before looking away. She seemed to be in a better condition than himself. Earlier, one of the field medics went up to him and asked if he needed treatment. He would've accepted, but... His pride!!!! Arghhh, his prideeeeeee. It felt especially worse to look weak in front of one of his older classmates- and friends. He decided to just slap a bandaid on his cheek because "lul videogaemz" but that was turning out to be one of the most useless ideas he had come up with in a while- even more useless than the entirety of his efforts at the Expo. Amazing. [color=f26522]"What the hell is even going on..."[/color] He fell silent for a split moment. Alas, he barely shut up for only two seconds before he blurted out to Andromeda, [color=f26522]"Andro! Have you seen Carmen? Or, is there like, anybody else you met?"[/color] Carmen. [i]DAMN.[/i] Of all people he wanted to meet right now, she somehow ended up being at the one of the top people in the list, the other top people being all the visual novel characters who can comfort him right at this very moment. He absolutely detested thinking about it, but he knew that she was more rational than him. Knowing all this supernatural baloney and the results that ended up coming from it, at least making sure the people he knew of were safe was a high priority to him rather than thinking about what to do next. Though, he knew that Andromeda had a more likely chance of knowing some of the people who showed up at the Expo. He refused to admit that he just wanted to make sure the people he knew of were okay, even if it was a very selfish thought in the aftermath of a disaster. [hr] [color=6ecff6][b][u]Mark[/u][/b][/color] With nothing around to hurt him for now, Mark walked down the streets. He put all his stuff away, though for some reason, they were nowhere to be seen on his person. The whip he used, the machete he swung- they were all not present. Instead, he put his hands in his pockets, walking. As he walked, he eventually saw the white-haired person he had come across earlier. He had waved at her or something, though he forgot because he went past her way too quickly earlier. So he waved again, this time speaking out his mind as honestly as possible. From the depths of his mind, he took out the most truthful of words to this stranger, who he knew very little of, and whom probably knew little about him. But his earnest words should surely ring out to her! [color=6ecff6]"'ello,"[/color] he said with a small smile. [color=6ecff6]"I'm lost. Do you know where everyone is right now?"[/color] His words ended up being anything but earnest, though he did seem sincere with talking with the woman. After all, being insincere when he just briefly saw her get hot-tempered could result in... interestingly negative things. Though there was a ring surrounding the city at this point, he wanted to go to the more vacant side of the ring. [sub][@Driving Park][@Animelover_princess][@Nevix][/sub] [hr] [b]Post / Part 2 of 2[/b]