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Embers rose flittingly into the air with each crack of the collapsing wooden timbers, sparks erupting from each groan of the structure. All but the skeletal frame reduced, the old home was evaporating with all the memories contained within the flames. A ring of glass lay scattered about the seared perimeter of the foundation. The once green and delicate flowers and shrubbery had been reduced to cinders, sprayed onto the lawn by the shattering heat. Hours before, there had been a family sleeping within.
There had been no firefighters to rescue the children from the smoke, no concerned neighbors to burst through the crackling doors to awaken the slumbering couple in their bed. The fire had come suddenly, quickly, and absolutely. But this time, no one was left to protect or save. To the left, and to the right; behind and before, all the buildings were in flames or smoking. The few survivors screamed up and down the cratered street, all thoughts of possessions forgotten in their desperate attempt to survive. It was futile.
Corpses lay slumped in the road, stretching into the distance backlit with a blazing urban skyline. Some were aflame, others riddled with countless wounds, and still others but frames of their former bodies. Even more composed the ruined landscape, whether a part of collapsing buildings or blackened yards. What had once been a thriving community of a hundred residences could now be considered a cremated graveyard, those left simply delaying their eventual resting places.
Smoke rose from the remnants of the living, billowed from consuming flame, and cloaked all else in haze. Stars were no longer visible, grey replacing the white speckled black, only shadows in the sky. The stench of not only death, but carnage, the smelting of skin and burning of bone, wavered in the rising shroud, clinging to every object, and drowning those awaiting their fate. Burnt humans were the invader's potpourri, their scent the fueling breath of fresh air.
Overhead, the creeping outline of a wholly alien vessel loomed, birthing mechanical children of destruction with each moment past. Streaming ever so slowly from each glowing orifice, flying craft of every smaller size swept out and downward to complete the bidding of their carrier's hidden mind. Some sped above the narrow screaming streets, releasing green orbs of incinerating explosion, and strafing every moving object, living or otherwise, with azure bolts of fire. Granting no delay, fighters otherwise reserved for darker set pursuits mercilessly released their loads of indiscriminate death, destined for what all else had left standing.
Trailing, the wake of aerial chaos, the final instrumental hand, simply another extension of the gargantuan menace above, lowered itself into momentary pause, disgorging miniature minds of malice. Roaring as their feet traversed the decimated ground, nothing that had managed to take hold of fortune's previous gifts of life was granted permission to persist. Racing, thirsty for steaming blood, creatures of wrath poured into every hole, through every opening, and over all obstacles. Their weapons fired, their fists struck, and their cries of satisfaction were heard above all else.
Children cried, women wailed, and men shouted; but all of them died, their insignificant lives vanishing before the tide of ruthless fury. Ghosts sped past and through fleeing and fallen bodies, wraiths slid behind with indiscriminant sights, and banshees screamed incessantly into all ears. Flesh was melted, bone turned to dust, and souls blasted into oblivion. No force stood high enough, no strength proved strong enough, and no human brave enough to ebb the flow of inevitable death.
Observing, the source of the terror stretching increasingly outward, electronic eyes fed their observation to their all controlling master, watching in distant safety with apathetic concern for the increasing mass of corpses. A god above the rest of the dispersed collection of warriors, a being held above all relative standards, it smiled upon what everything controlled by its calm hands wrought. Destruction, chaos, and death were the instruments of this power, directed loosely toward whatever was next in line to be wiped from the face of existence.
Everything was perfect, until the least expected moment crashed into the untouchable sanctuary of an invincible mind. Doors flew open, explosions spread, and smoke cloaked the one force, the one being that this god feared and loathed. Blood smeared upon dulled armor, burns blemishing perfected protection, and anger glistening from a cracked visor, the demon charged. Piercing revenge engulfed that considered untouchable, the sturdy tool of an inferior enemy spitting flame, quenching insatiable desire. The impossible now reality, uplifted power surrendered to incomprehensible death, hapless to resist its nightmare.
At once, the behemoth mother transformed from controlling master into insignificant metal. Command stolen by the demon, one last order was received and followed by infallible technology. Tongues of fire a precursor to blinding explosion, the instruments of a fallen goal became destined to their own intention. Even still, when debris had finally stopped falling, and all the dust settled or drifted away to lay elsewhere, only one thing was left of what used to be a city:
Ashes.
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