At the church, their eldest sister Tania, twenty-one years old, stood quietly in her black nun attire. Her moss green eyes shimmered in the early dawn sunlight. Freckles sprinkled delicately across the bridge of her nose. Her chestnut hair was neatly tucked beneath her veil, revealing her high cheekbones, with soft graceful features evident of her youth. Tania carefully prepared the relic for the mass, her hands moving with practiced reverence as she handled the holy relic. Slowly, the church hall began to fill, the murmurs of the members settling as they took their seats on the pews. After arranging the relics, she moved out from the relic room and headed to the pulpit and laid them out precisely on the table to the left of the lectern, which stood centrally before statues of the Seven Gods.

She descended from the pulpit and greeted the regular church members with morning smiles and warm welcomes. Then she walked over to the open double doors of the church to act as an usher. As the congregation filed in, she scanned each arriving person, looking for her family.

"Where are they?" she thought to herself.

A moment later, she saw their eighty-year-old neighbor. Tania approached her with a greeting following a question.

"Excuse me, Miss Maslow, have you seen—"

"Oh, I think they'll be a little late again this time, dear," Miss Maslow interrupted swiftly. "Just like last Spring Mass, your mother screaming at those two little brothers of yours—felt like the house would collapse at any moment!" she said with a laugh.

Tania let out a weak laugh and bowed slightly in apology. "I'm sorry again if my family caused you any disturbance, Miss Maslow."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Tania," said Miss Maslow, placing a hand on Tania's left shoulder. "It's better to hear some neighborly ruckus early in the morning. It's been so quiet at my home since I lost my husband and two sons in the Muchu Chhish raid." Tania gently escorted the old woman to the pews reserved for seniors.

"Thank you, child. May the Seven Gods bless you," Miss Maslow said as she settled beside her elderly friends.

Tania gave a polite bow and started back to her position at the church's entrance, but as she neared the mahogany doors, an earthquake shook the church, shattering the stained-glass windows and cracking the walls. The sky darkened with heavy nimbus clouds. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.

Panic erupted as the people rushed toward the entrance of the church which served as the only exit. Tania stood at the midst of the panicked crowd before she rushed to the elders who desperately held on to the pews as the ground shook. Luckily some young man and woman conjured a barrier over them, shielding them from the falling debris. A moment later, a scream, loud as thunder, echoed through the whole town. Quickly Tania turned her head toward the exit of the church and recognized the voice.

"That was Kael."

Without any hesitation she ran with the crowd, squeezing through, until she managed to exit the church. She ran desperately down the mound and went straight onto the street that led to their house. As she turned the corner, the familiar row of houses came into view, but something was wrong. Smoke curled up into the sky, rising above the rooftop. Her heart pounding, she prayed that it would not be their house. As she was about to arrive, she met a large crowd gathering around. Tania squeezed and pushed through the crowd and saw her family house. The front door was on the streets, windows shattered and part of the second floor has caved in. The house was engulfed with flames and Tania saw white magic energy surging out and twisting the debris around the house.

"Kael! Matthew! Mom! Dad!" Tania screamed, her voice cracking with panic. The crowd surged around her like a living tide, and she found herself shoving and clawing as she fought to break free. She stumbled into the clearing, breath ragged, eyes wild. Without a second thought for her own safety, she sprinted toward her house.

"Sister Tania, it is not safe to enter!" a thirty-year-old man shouted as he grabbed on to Tania who was desperately trying to let go of his grip.

"JUST LET ME GO!!!" Tania screamed from the top of her lungs, releasing a surge of green energy. The man that grabbed her to safety had loosen his grip and stumbled back by her magical force. Without any hesitation Tania ran into their crumbling home, ignoring the warnings around her.

Inside, the air was thick with dust and ash. She covered her mouth with her sleeve and stepped over broken glass and debris. The dining table was overturned. Plates shattered. The walls were scorched as if something had exploded from within.

Then she heard it, coughing, faint but close. She turned toward the hallway and saw Matthew crawling out from under a broken beam, his face smeared with ash and blood.

"Tania…" 

She rushed to him and lifted the beam away with a grunt. "What happened Matt?" she asked, gripping his shoulders, pulling out from the debris. She noticed the trail of blood from Matthew, she took off her veil and ripped the clothes off Matthew to find the wound, she found a deep slash from his left nipple down towards his bellybutton. She placed her veil on it putting pressure on the wound.

Matthew turned his head, pointing using his lips toward the back room. "Man in black... Attacked us…" He moans the pain he felt when Tania put pressure on the slashed wound. 

"Kael is inside… but mom…. and dad…" Matthew's voice cracked and cried.

A second tremor shook the ground, this one stronger than before. The ceiling creaked. Tiles fell. Tania used her body to shield Matthew and conjured a barrier to protect them both.

"Matthew not another word. Preserve your energy."

She then quickly chanted ayohon (heal or mend), a green magic circle emerged, along with it was a green light. She then chanted Hangin Espirito before a wind spirit emerged. Tania commanded it to carry and continue healing Matthew outside of the house. Once she saw that he and the spirit was safely outside, she turned and pressed onward to the direction where Matthew pointed, determined to find the rest of her family. She summoned again a magical barrier around herself to shield her from the crumbling structure.

A third tremor shook the ground, followed by a massive surge of white magic energy and an anguished cry. The pressure shattered her barrier, searing her clothes and burning parts of her skin. Gritting her teeth, she conjured another barrier, this one thicker, but even then, some of the energy seeped through.

At the heart of the destruction stood Kael, surrounded by crackling white energy. Unknown Baybayin script glowed on both of his arms, with wavy, ethereal lines stretching from his forearms to his eyelids. He was looking up to the heavens, screaming. A sound filled with rage and sorrow. In his trembling arms was the lifeless body of their mother, Emily, and in front of him, their father lay motionless, his own unsheathed sword, Durandal, lay on the cobbled stone floor just in front of Kael.

Tania stood frozen by the scene before her. The heat of the lingering white magic energy stung her skin, but she no longer noticed the pain. Her eyes locked on Kael, her brother, transformed into something unrecognizable and terrifying. The glow of the white runes on his skin, pulsed around his arms up to his forearms. There are ethereal lines that lined up to his neck, and crossed both his eyes and moved up to the sides of his forehead then white holographic dragon horns emerged above his head connecting the ethereal lines.

"Kael…" she whispered.

He didn't respond. He knelt in the middle of the ruined room, cradling Emily's lifeless body as if afraid she might vanish if he let go. His cries had faded into ragged, breathless sobs. The air around him still shimmered with unstable magic, thick with sorrow and rage. Objects swirled around Kael like tornadoes.

Tania stepped closer, wincing as the pressure of the magic pressed against her barrier like waves crashing on glass.

"Kael, it's me. It's Tania."

His glowing eyes flicked toward her, wide and hollow, as if he was seeing through her. Tears streamed silently down his soot-covered cheeks. "Tania... I... I..." His voice cracked.

She dropped to her knees beside him, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

"What happened?" she asked gently.

Tania turned her head. Their father lay motionless in front of Kael, blood pooling beneath him. She turned her head back to her mother, Emily, limp in Kael's arms. Tania breathed heavily, trying to contain her emotions after seeing both the lifeless bodies of her parents making her entire body numb. Kael finally spoke, lips trembling, his voice filled with rage.

"I...I... couldn't stop... HIM!"

His magic aura intensified, but his strength gave out. The light in his eyes flickered and dimmed, going back to his natural blue eyes. The markings on his arms faded but were still visible. He slumped forward, still clinging to Emily. Tania caught him, pulling him and Emily into her arms as the magic around them died down. Swirling objects fell to the ground like raindrops. Outside, church bells rang in alarm, summoning the village, but inside that shattered home, time stood still. Tania couldn't contain her emotions. She cried and looked up to the heavens, pleading to the seven gods for an answer to the unexplained tragedy.