EVIL SYSTEM

Ben slowly opened his eyes, feeling suffocated. His eyes were full of dirt, which irritated him greatly.

He tried to wipe the dirt from his eyes and felt the weight of the debris on top of him.

Immediately, he tried to get up but couldn't. He put in more effort and slowly rose, leaving a pile of rubble beneath him.

The lights were flickering, and many structures seemed on the verge of collapsing.

Ben wiped his face and began walking, unable to fully comprehend the situation.

He was completely unharmed, but half of his magic had vanished, which made him suspect that that amount of magic had been used to heal himself.

Part of his drunkenness had faded, and Ben started walking through the destroyed place.

Fire and smoke were pouring out from various parts of the area. After taking a few steps, he came across a small body, split in half and half-charred.

Its arms were still outstretched, as if waiting for an embrace.

This horrific image made Ben clench his teeth and kneel beside the girl.

His hands reached out trembling but lacked the courage to touch her. He stared fixedly at the body for a while until he remembered.

Dante!! Roger!! Ryuji!!

Ben shot up instantly in a panic. He cast one last glance at the girl's body and took off running.

"Dante!!" he began shouting as he moved forward. "Roger!! Ryuji!!"

His shouts echoed through the destruction, and Ben pushed aside any debris he thought might be trapping his friends.

"Dante!! Roger!! Ryuji!!" Ben didn't stop shouting despite the smoke that made his lungs feel like they were burning. "Where are you?"

"Help, please!!" It wasn't the guys who answered.

It was a man's voice.

Ben hesitated for a few seconds; he wanted to find his friends quickly. He felt that if he spent time helping everyone, he might not have the chance to help them.

But in the end, he gritted his teeth and began removing debris after debris to find a middle-aged man clutching his leg with clear signs of pain.

"Please help me!!" he pleaded, with snot on his face.

Ben cleared all the rubble around him and hoisted the man onto his back.

The man let out a stifled scream and took a deep breath when Ben grabbed his leg.

Ben noticed this but couldn't do anything; if he wanted to carry the man on his back, he needed to hold his leg.

With the man on his back, he continued searching for his friends and shouting their names.

He passed several cars without knowing if he would actually find them. His heart grew heavy, and his legs trembled at the thought of those three being dead.

"Dante!! Roger!! Ryuji!!"

"Here!!!" A shout came from a distance, and Ben quickened his pace.

He got very excited upon recognizing the voice shouting. Running hurriedly, he reached a car that didn't seem too affected by the explosion.

Ryuji was lying against one side of the train, with one hand on his abdomen.

He seemed to have a wound, which he was pressing to avoid bleeding out.

Not far from him, he saw Dante and Roger, relatively unharmed with a few bruises and cuts, but ultimately fine.

Ben let out a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" he asked immediately.

"We're fine," Dante replied.

"Not so fine," Ryuji said through gritted teeth from the pain, pointing at his own abdomen.

Ben placed the man from his back near Ryuji and asked, "Does anyone know what's going on? What were those explosions?"

Everyone shook their heads except Dante, who kept staring fixedly at Ben's face.

"First things first, we need to get out of here," Roger said.

"That's true," Ben nodded. "We have to get Ryuji to a hospital."

Dante's expression creased at hearing this, but he didn't comment.

Ben patted his pants, trying to find his phone, but it seemed he had lost it during the explosions.

"Does anyone have a phone to call emergency services?" he asked.

Ryuji was the only one who pulled out his phone, and it was shattered.

Letting out a sigh, Ben shook his head.

Ben looked at the injured man and Ryuji. He couldn't carry both, not because of strength—he could lift them easily.

The problem was that if he carried the man on his back, he'd have to carry Ryuji in front.

It was simply too complicated.

Roger was elderly and needed Dante's help to get out.

"We should leave him," Dante said suddenly, looking at the man lying on the ground.

The man's eyes widened in terror.

"Stop joking," Ben raised an eyebrow and smiled, taking Dante's comment as a mere joke.

But Dante's expression was very serious.

Ben grabbed the man and hoisted him onto his back, but without holding his legs. With his arms, he picked up Ryuji and carried him princess-style.

"Hey, idiot, if you're going to carry me like this, just put me down," Ryuji complained, but Ben ignored him.

Together, they began walking outside the train, along the sides of the tracks. The entire structure seemed collapsed or on the verge of collapsing.

They walked for a good 20 minutes when they saw some lights in the distance, which meant they had reached the next station.

With renewed vigor, they walked to the place and found a crowd of people who, like them, seemed bewildered.

When they saw them arrive, they were surprised and flooded them with questions.

"And the train?"

"Where's the train?"

"Why are you injured?"

"We need to get to our homes!! Where's the train?!"

"Did you feel the explosions?"

Ben pushed aside anyone who got in his way. He didn't have time to explain to these people; they needed to get to a hospital.

They walked through the sea of people and climbed the stairs.

When they were about to exit the underground, Ben heard a shout.

"We're much safer here than out there!"

Ben's face twisted at this shout, and he ended up covering his face from the sudden blast of sunlight in his eyes.

Or so he thought it was sunlight.

It was still early morning; the sun hadn't risen.

The yellow light that illuminated his face… was a giant building engulfed in flames.

The lights and sounds of sirens could be seen and heard in the distance.

With wide eyes, he watched as the road was a chaos of motorists and civilians fighting to move forward.

People pushed each other in their rush to reach a safe place. Many of those people were running toward the underground, crowding the entrance.

In the distance, a building could be seen split in half, and chaos was everywhere.

Ben was certain that even if they had a phone, they wouldn't be able to get help with the lines overwhelmed.

"What's happening here?" Ryuji asked with wide eyes.

That was the question on all their minds, and in that moment of shock, Dante spoke up.

"We have to go," he said, urging them to keep moving.

"Isn't it better to stay in a safe place like this?" Ben asked.

"This place isn't safe." Dante's expression darkened, as if recalling something. "Besides, we need to get medical help for Ryuji and the man."

Everyone nodded at this last point, and after resting a bit, they began navigating the streets.

Broken windows, derailed cars, fires, thefts, and chaos abounded everywhere, making the five of them feel like they were facing the end of the world.

Everyone was very nervous and scared, even Ben, because there was nothing more terrifying than the unknown.

Everyone except Dante, who walked ahead as their guide. There was no anguish or nervousness in his expression.

He moved through the streets with marked experience.

As they crossed a particular street, he grabbed his grandfather and jumped to the side quickly.

Ben saw this but didn't understand his actions until he saw a car speeding toward them.

Dante managed to avoid it because he moved out of the way well in advance. But when Ben saw the car, it was already too close to him.

With gritted teeth, he threw Ryuji and the man to the side but didn't have time to dodge the impact.

Ben's body flew through the air and rolled across the ground for several meters. But not before leaving a massive dent in the car that had hit him.

The impact was so great that the car stopped for a brief moment and flipped over.

From the top of the car, several heavily armed men emerged, carrying various types of weapons.

"Damn it, what did you crash into?!" one said, clutching his bleeding head.

"I told you I should've been driving," another scolded, holding what seemed to be a fractured hand.

"Hey, answer!" The men peered to see the driver and were shocked to find him dead at the wheel.

A piece of metal that had broken off from the car's hood had flown by chance and lodged itself in his throat.

"He's dead."

"Look over there!" one of the guys pointed at Dante, Ryuji, Roger, and the man lying on the side of the road, watching them in stunned silence.

They thought the men had killed Ben, and the sheer absurdity and shock of the situation left them unsure how to react.