Chapter 8 - The Tower
Chapter 9
Location: New Haven Docks â€" Gateway to Chentrilla City
Diamond waited in Zammy's car as he drove along the dusty and rarely used path to the town of New Haven. Zammy's car was a broken down jeep that seemed to chug its way along the path slowly. Diamond felt a huge amount of anticipation about being able to return home and put this whole strange situation behind him, as well as getting rid of
Lance who annoyed him profusely for no discernable reason.
Diamond was sat in the front of the open top jeep that looked like it could have been better used on a safari visit. He felt the wind flutter through his elegant mane of long white hair and sighed as the car chugged up the path and the village of New Haven came into view.
New Haven was a new town that had only been created as a dock and passage for the ferry over to Chentrilla Island, isolated and surrounded by the trees of the Viridian Forest which looked out over the sea to the bustling metropolis of Chentrilla which covered the entire island in the bay.
The jeep pulled into a cove at the top of a hill that overlooked New Haven and the further island of Chentrilla. Diamond rose to his feet in horror at the sight that had befallen him.
Huge vales of smoke were rising over Chentrilla and people were rushing to get off the boats as a massive tidal wave ripped through the sea and straight towards New Haven.
Diamond got out the care immediately with Lance jumping down from the jeep. Suddenly a massive wave erupted in the sea and a massive dragon or even sea serpent rose out of the water and glared at the fleeing masses of people who were all caught in the huge influx of water.
Lance dropped to his knees.
"No!" he said... "Leviathan!"
Diamond looked back at him, on the verge of completely insanity by not understanding anything that was going on.
"Lance..." he said breaking out of his silence. "What is going on...!"
Lance just looked down at the ground until Diamond dragged him to his feet and slapped him as Zammy reversed his car and drove off into the distance.
"What!!?" shouted Diamond as Zammy sped off down the road causing Diamond to revel in annoyance. "YOU CAN'T LEAVE US!"
Lance was still looking down at the ground and Diamond felt as though all his senses were being overwhelmed at once.
"I knew... it" whispered Lance.
"WHAT!?" shouted Diamond in complete confusion.
"CAN'T YOU SEE!?" said Lance, suddenly breaking his quiet tone of voice and in tears as he broke from Diamond's grasp. Lance looked back at Diamond with his eyes filled with hysterical rage. "THAT IS LEVIATHAN! THE WATER DRAGON!"
Diamond could not believe what he was hearing, he had heard the legend of Leviathan, a great beast that lived deep in the water and would rise to reclaim the world on Ragnarok but he could never believe it.
Diamond looked back over at New Haven which was now completely flooded, he noticed that several boats, navy warships had broken off from Chentrilla dockyard and were engaging in a futile attempt to destroy the creature.
"I HAD DREAMS ABOUT THIS!?" shouted Lance who was sounded more like he was blaming himself. "ABOUT THIS... THIS IS RAGNAROK!"
Leviathan's huge scales were more than a match for the Navy's small gun cannons and it easily levelled the ships before diving.
"Ragnarok?" asked Diamond in panic, he could never believe that this was the end of the world himself, or the battle for the heavens. He watch on as Leviathan smashed out of the water and floated in mid-air around Chentrilla, the clouds turned black and the air grew cold as Leviathan commanded a huge, absolutely massive wall of water to form around
Chentrilla City so big that Diamond and Lance could no longer see the city.
"THIS IS THE END!" shouted Lance, as he forced his way into Diamond's arms, Diamond held him instinctively however suddenly he saw something, on the Leviathan's head.
Leviathan was a huge and ominous blue/green water snake with a long tail, two ominous red eyes were transfixed on its head however standing on its head was something familiar.
A human girl!?
She looked down mercilessly on the city and its screaming population, all scarping into any shelter they could however nothing would protect them.
"Lance!?" said Diamond looking at the girl. "It's that girl again... the one that was in that seal at Everonth!?"
Lance looked up from Diamond's arms.
"KESTRA VALENTINE" said Diamond, remember what the holographic Kestra on the Valkyrie had told him.
Leviathan roared before realising the huge wall of water down on Chentrilla City and causing some of the city and buildings to be completely washed away by the force of the water.
"NO!" screamed Lance.
Diamond just looked at the situation... It looked like fate had caught up with him.
Location: Chentrilla Relief Camp â€" New Haven
"Eva! Save Us From Our Fate!"
"New Chentrilla City was completely decimated today with the death toll numbering in the thousands..."
"Death count rising to millions..."
"President Kisaan is declaring a state of emergency..."
Pictures flashed on the television set of every home around Terra, with many looking in despair at the destruction caused by Leviathan and Kestra Valentine who was being labelled as an "Unknown Sorceress". People dropping their dinner and crowding around the television at the pictures of the massive destruction of Chentrilla City that had dazzled so many people.
"Oh My God... what could do that to a city!"
The pictures on the screen, showed that the sea had completely levelled Chentrilla City with only the tallest spires collapsed and poking out of the water with a graveyard of military and civilian ships all half destroyed in the water, some still on fire. The military and local aid groups had set up an outpost on the high ground just above New Haven to help those injured in the attack.
"Get me a morphine solution!" shouted a doctor as he shouted out over the crowd of Terrans of all different races that were gathering inside the small tent complex which was being used as an emergency medical triage centre however even they could not cope with the massive influx of casualties that were entering the hospital, not just from Chentrilla but also from the ships and even New Haven. The death toll was becoming worse by the hour.
Diamond rushed a trolley of medical equipment through the crowd of people, he like many civilians had been drafted into helping with the relief effort on the injured.
Diamond stopped at his intended patient which a Foxian doctor in a lab coat and medical apron was already trying to stop his internal bleeding of this Wolfian which lay dying on the table.
"Ah..." said the doctor looking up at the Pegasus with almost relief in his eyes, he had not had a break for hours. "I need you to hold this clamp in place while I retrieve the instrument I need..."
Diamond looked down at the Wolfian who was laying on the slap like emergency bed. Most of his fur was complete burned off and his stomach had a huge gash in his side which the doctor was pointing at... Diamond looked back at the doctor... He could honestly not expect him to do this?... Could he?
The Doctor looked back at Diamond's shocked face. "Look..." he said realising the impact of the command he had given Diamond. He spoke to Diamond with a rush calmness. "I realise that you have never seen injuries like this... but you have to do this otherwise we will lose him...!"
Diamond was tempted to say no for a second before he realised that he had to help if he could and he was not prepared to allow anymore deaths at Kestra's expense. There was no need to level a city... it seemed so... pointless to him.
He walked round to the gaping wound on the side of Wolfian and a large metal clamp that was hold his internal artery together... he saw the blood drip out of the wound and after a few hesitant seconds pushed the clamp down to control the bleeding from the artery.
The doctor rushed off to the tray and started to prepare a mixture of liquid drugs that were on the trolley that Diamond had brought him.
"What... are you doing?" asked Diamond, ignoring the people pushing about behind him and feeling the warmness of blood and gore trickling through his white fur on his arm as he held the clamp in place.
The Wolfian began to howl out in pain as his eyes opened and it realised the pain that he was in... Diamond was shocked that this wolf was not sedated...
He is still aware...
"Is it not obvious" said the doctor, still preparing the drugs with his back to Diamond and his patient. "I am getting the drugs to sedate him..."
Diamond felt himself slip on the clamp... he hoped it would stay put and it would be alright... it was not...
The heart-rate monitor began to race, as new warm blood spewed out of the would on the wolf and all over Diamond, causing it to splatter in his beautiful white fur.
"Oh no!" shouted the fox doctor, who spun round to look at Diamond who was trying to contain the blood which was still spurting out of the side of the wolf as he began to shake.
"Convulsion!"
The crash team that were nearby immediately rushed over the shaking body of the wolfian that was shaking madly, with the life draining out of his eyes.
Diamond was pushed back as the crash team needed to get close and began to try and fix the artery surrounding the clamp. Diamond stood there, helpless and covered in blood... he suddenly felt scared... he knew that if that Wolfian died, he would have been the direct cause of his death...
All because his hand slipped...
He looked around and suddenly he could clearly smell the blood choking him, he heard the sounds of people moaning in pain... doctors calling for emergencies and children crying as they lost their parents.
He could not stand it!
"It's not working...!" shouted one member of the crash team. The fox doctor watched the heart-rate monitor show blips of life and then one continues line and tone which struck deep in Diamond's soul.
"Time of Death... 20.43" said the doctor who wrote it down in the notes before seeing Diamond run out of the tent into the cool night air.
It was amongst that air that he dropped to his knees, crying as the doctor came out of follow him and patted him gently on the back.
"There is no easy way to say this" he said, looking at Diamond who was crying his eyes out, unable to get image of the dying Wolfian out of his head.
"But... we sometimes loose people... that is the nature of life and in triage... it happens a lot... casualties of war."
Diamond thought to himself.
"But... we are not at war and because of his own stupidity... he had just murdered another Terran and... that makes me a murderer."
Murderer...
The wind seemed to taunt to him.