((You'll notice this chapter is short: Read the opening of A/N to know why.))

  //Powder's PoV//

  A brilliant white fsh of light erupted as Powder watched Orion raise his hand. Her hope shattered instantly, both she and Ekko c their eyes while screaming in fear, curling into balls.

  The light was so intehat illuminated everything- the river, the buildings on both sides, and eveire bridge.

  Explosions followed, shaking the ground as the smell of toxic fumes filled Powder's nose. She couldn't move, frozen in fear and overwhelmed.

  Breathing heavily, Ekko g to Powder from behind, burying his fato her clothes. Both shook untrolbly, waiting for the blinding light and violent tremors to pass.

  When it finally dimmed, Powder looked up, her breath catg. Flickers of fmes danced across the chemical factory, the smoke and the smell of burning chemicals filling the air. Mini explosions tio ripple through the building leaving the walls charred and crag.

  Her gaze drifted through the blown out window. Shards of gss littered around them, but thankfully none pierced them. What caught her attention the most erfect, circur gap- two meters in circumference- where Orion once was.

  She couldn't see the crimson-eyed maher and some of the other thugs either. The fl where he stood above Orion was still there, only vat of bodies. They most likely escaped.

  Her heart tio sink however, shock flooding her, uo process what she had done.

  "I killed him..." she whispered, voice trembling and traumatized.

  Ekko grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently. "Powder, we gotta go!"

  "Powder! Ekko!" Cggor's voice echoed from below. Mylo stood beside him, their expressions tight with .

  Paze drifted toward them, unfocused. She barely registered Vander and Vi in the distance, supp each other, bloodied but alive with pained expressions. They casted worried goward them as they waited.

  Still shaking, Powder finally climbed down slowly with Ekko guiding her until it was safe enough to drop. Cggor caught her as she staggered, lifting her into his arms, cradling her protectively as he turo run.

  She didn't resist, she barely reacted.

  Ekko's gaze lingered on her sympathetically. He was also uo find words to express what had happened. What could be said?

  Everyone would know soon enough.

  ----------------------

  //Orion's PoV//

  The brilliant fsh of light blinded Orion upon tact with the unstable crystal. He was immediately engulfed in a wide sphere of twisting, curling light that seemed to fold in upon itself.

  Some called it wild magi impri behind that embodied the true essenagipredictable, untamed, chaotic.

  Others called it corrupted magiderstandable given that while its core radiated a pure, blinding white, its edges swirled with a vile mixture of purple, red, and bck.

  Orion shouted in paie the mesmeriziy surrounding him, it felt as though his skin was being stripped away, fyed by the sheer energy of the are.

  His body stretched razor thin, drawn out like liquid through a straw- yet the return to his inal form was an equally disturbing, violeion.

  He eled magic for as long as possible, even if it was just a drizzle, as he hoped to outst this phenomenon. But it wasn't enough, and his body gave out.

  The colors twisted tighter, the brightness overwhelming. Then, with a deafening thundercp, the bubble around him seemed to burst, leaving only blinding white in his vision.

  Gasping for air, Orion's fingers cwed the grouh him.

  Uo uand the texture, nor able to think. Everything was on fire, yet he shivered untrolbly. His senses failed him. No sight, no smell. He only felt sick- overwhelming o the point of violent vomiting into the ground below him.

  Was he cold? Warm? The distins blurred as his sciousness briefly slipped away.