CHAPTER 5.5: K.I.D.: THE CRUCIBLE — KALISRADHA

CHAPTER 5.5: K.I.D.: THE CRUCIBLE — KALISRADHA 

[08:15] 05.01.2090

Capital city Kakuda,

Rudishikaarah country, 

Mahabumi Continent 

1100Km to the North-Northwest of JUSM

Kalisradha looked at the camera. A gaze as straight as laser beams. "To eliminate the risk of hacking or altering the results and to make sure everybody's vote is treated with maximum importance, we've implemented the most traditional voting system..."

She moved aside of the camera to reveal a big black metal box sitting on the table. It had a capital "X" printed in white on all four sides of it. However it was upside down. She then looked at all the presidents present and continued. 

"You are all presented with a piece of paper and an unerasable pen. The piece of paper contains all participants names and a box infront of them. You will pick ONE candidate to vote and cross the box infront of them. Then you will fold the piece of paper in two and cover it with your hands until your name is called. Once called please pick up the paper from where the two folds meet and walk to this box. Then you will insert it, still holding the folds so that it won't accidentally open before going inside the box. The only rule is that you can't vote for yourself. I hope that's clear for everybody."

As no complaints or distress were noticed, she called Devash and ordered him to turn over the black box. 

Almost everybody was shocked. Amidst some audible gasps, Devash came to the front. Everybody saw him entering the room with Kalisradha but as time passed, they completely forgot his presence inside the room. After turning the box over, he went back to his position. Behind Kalisradha on a Shadowy corner of the room. 

Kalisradha then Continued, "I'm sorry for the long explanation, just making sure the vote is absolutely fair without any complications." And as remembering something, she added, "Oh and please don't worry... the papers are made from anti-spy tech so nobody can peek over and spy your vote. I repeat, your vote is yours only and it has complete autonomy!!"

'AUTONOMY MY ASS!! THIS BITCH IS REALLY RUBBING SALT ON THE WOUND' A single thought echoed in everybody's head as soon as they heard the word autonomy. However, what they didn't know was that, the thought they thought was only resonating inside them, actually resonated inside all of them simultaneously.

"Well then, without further ado let's start!!" Kalisradha finished her mini presentation and gave off to the vote of the century. 

After a few minutes passed she confirmed that everyone was finished and spoke with a calm and collected voice, "Well then, let's start as before. Mr Seqoi Grei, please come forward and cast your vote." She then sat down solemnly and waited. 

However, from the corner of the room, Devash caught a bit of excitement buried deep in her last sentence. A soft smile escaped from his gloomy face. His eyes softened yet it wasn't visible. His black hair almost covered the eyes, leaving only a little exposed but the silver bangs which followed, completed the job.

Seqoi got up. The camera captured all of his movements. It was angled so the black voting box was the focus while the shot expanded to capture everything around it. All the actions of the participants sitting around the oval table was captured in high resolution and streamed live for the whole world. Racking up views and making someone very irritated.

Seqoi walked to the box and guided his vote, the folded piece of paper to the slim entry. The views soared again. What was before a tight battle between the Mahabumi Union vote and the JUSM inauguration, now had completely turned in the favor of the union voting stream.

The ground shook. Violently. Seqoi lost his balance and missed the paper thin opening of the black box. The piece of paper slipped and fell on the table. 

"Hey, don't you think it was a vote for Kalisradha??, See there.. right there.. 'dha' is visible before the crossed box." People started theorizing after getting a glimpse from the stream. Coincidentally, the paper fell infront of the camera half opened. However, the theories didn't last long. 

The ground shook again violently. Mr. Seqoi fell down. The chairs started gliding all over the room. Soon cracking sounds started echoing inside the high rise skyscraper.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?? ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE??!!" Panic started to disperse throughout the room. 

"What is it now... is it another earthquake???.... but the predictions said it's impossible..... did Dr.Hexdl's tower malfunction??!!..." Kalisradha questioned herself quietly while gliding left and right in her chair. 

But she decided it was enough thinking time and to keep the questions for later. Right then, Kalisradha started to evacuate the building. "EVERYBODY, LET'S EVACUATE, FOLLOW ME!!" She shouted. But it was in vain. She tried to calmly evacuate yet the other presidents had different plans. 

They rushed, pushing and pulling each other. Kalisradha was confident the building wouldn't collapse. Unfortunately the others weren't. But her confidence too stemmed from the speculations of what she had seen before. 

She had completely destroyed the previous presidential office and planned the rebuild to withstand even magnitude 8 earthquakes and more. But the others didn't care. By ignoring Kalisradha's directions, who lives and works there, everyday, they already proved that knowing the fact that it was rebuilt wouldn't change anything. 

However little did she know, it wasn't enough. And clearly being the tallest building didn't help either. It took only seconds.

*THRUAMMMM* 

Something huge slammed into the building, taking out the entire 37th floor. The building was split right in two. And gravity took care of the rest. The lower floors stayed in place but the higher floors wasn't that lucky. 

The impact shattered the walls. And the cracks ran upto the 100th floor. As if a building block creation coming apart, the upper floors came crashing down in pieces.

"GAHHH.... I'M FALLING...HELP ME!!!"

"OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!! SOME ONE FUCKING HELP MEEE!!!"

"I'M GONNA DIE!! I'M GONNA DIE!!"

"MY LEG!!! WHERE IS MY LEG!!!!"

Screaming, shouting, lamenting. Through the fall many noises were heard. Some dreading what's happening, and some dreading what happened. And a few without a care in the world.

However a single person was falling completely stunned. But not because of the fall. Instead of what was happening right infront of her eyes. 

'My house.... my office.... my status... it took me my whole life to come here. My sacrifices, my pain, my ambition. All it took was a moment and now...it's all crumbling away...right infront of my eyes...' 

Kalisradha's thoughts made her heart ache. Yet it wasn't over. Just a few centimeters to any direction and a whole new destruction was taking place. 

The city, the country, the ambition. Everything she had been carefully taking care of. All was crashing down. Going In flames. Dying left and right. Nothing was being spared. Her everything was being taken away from her. 

To anyone still sane enough to witness it, the world had become a scene worse than Hell. None of them had ever seen the pit, but in that moment, none doubted they were standing in it. Or rather falling into. 

*BANG...BANG...BANG...*

That's when she saw the cause of all this. Something was walking carelessly on her city. On her country and people. Just moving forward. Crashing and trampling everything in its path. 

3 dragon like heads loomed above. In the sky filled with burning smoke. Connecting to them were long, black necks. Braided, or rather, intertwined together. The only visible feature on the heads were sword like teeth. The teeth which seemed to be able to chew through anything. And as she lowered her gaze, she noticed the last straw needed to understand what was happening. 

Several giant tentacles were just mindlessly swinging left and right. Up and down. It surely was one of the reasons that brought her sky-high home crashing down to the ground. 

She sighed. But soon after her face lit up. Dangerously so. She glared at that monster with vicious half closed eyes. To the thing towering so high, that its heads were almost invisible. Her distinct red eyes clearly emitting malice.

"HOW DARE IT!!! HOW DARE IT DO THIS TO MY WORLD!!! I SWEAR I'LL ERASE IT FROM THE FACE OF THIS PLANET!!!"

Kalisradha declared to herself. While calmly falling down. Alongside her office and everything else. She was standing on top of a piece of the broken floor. Upside down. Her feet was stuck, as if glued to the floor piece. The upward air resistance kept her long, flowing red hair exactly as it was normally. The drag didn't even make her flinch. Nor did everything falling besides her. 

Jumping from one piece of the crashing building to another, Devash finally found Kalisradha. However as he was going to jump the finally step to reach Kalisradha, he suddenly froze. He received a communication to his earpiece. 

"Don't worry about me... I'll be okay. Save those fuckers who don't have anyone who can save them. I need them alive.... for now."

Devash was worried, but he couldn't argue. The rest of the presidents were falling too. Screaming and shouting slurs as idiots. Unhappy, but still he chose to obey her order. Devash jumped through the rubbles. One by one. Quickly, as if his shadow got there first and pulled him. 

He got to the falling presidents in seconds. He didn't speak nor even looked in their eyes. He just performed his job, perfectly. As if gliding through the shadow of them, he moved from one to another until he reached the ground. He threw away the president he was carrying to a safe spot. And he Countinued the up and down cycle several times in a matter of few seconds. 

Kalisradha on the other hand, activated her propeller fans integrated in her black suit. Her coat came open and the fans created downward air force which propelled her upward. 

She glided down in the air slowly until all the wreck and rubble settled down. Finally, she stepped ever so gently on a high pile of wreckage and dismissed her fans. Her face had returned to the ever so composed leader loved and feared by all. 

Gently stepping on rubble, she made all the way down and scanned the perimeter. Firstly she searched for the presidents with her heat vision lens. To the side of her vision, their details appeared on a floating green screen. They were safe. Inside the underground subway passage. Devash had cast an illusion to it. Which made it seem like the debris blocked the entrance. So people evacuating won't see and enter inside. 

Fortunately, no casualties were there from those who were present in the election room. Yet it couldn't be said likewise regarding the rest. Burned to crisps. Crushed under vehicles and buildings. Fell to their end. Corpses and Corpses as far as the eyes could see. Devastation and Destruction until one's eyes could no longer remember the normal.

Amidst the chaos of burning surroundings and people screaming out of pure despair, Kalisradha's mind ran, on a completely different wavelength. 

'What are they?'

'From where did they come?'

'How long have they been here?'

'What did they come here for?'

However Kalisradha filtered out all the nigh-useless questions and decided to act upon just one, 

"How do we kill these things?"

"Fire... although I'm not so sure, however i saw it actively avoiding the flames and burning areas.... even without eyes..." Devash answered in a low voice into her ear. Already standing right next to her. 

"Good work, let's use our special device then...in the meantime can you help the victims to safety." Kalisradha answered without even flinching or, turning around. 

With an audible disdain, he obliged. Took a few steps back disappeared. As if dissolving into nothingness. 

Kalisradha lifted her arm and tapped her watch. A light green holographic interface popped up. At the same time, the only undamaged structure of the city started to change. It transformed. The robust clock tower which displayed digital information as time, weather etc split in two. 

From within emerged a large sphere with circular rings attached to it. Kalisradha's interface took a new look too. A joystick on one end and two buttons in the other. In the middle a huge aiming target. 

She moved the joystick in the interface which prompted the base of the tower to turn. As she adjusted the Angle, the base of the sphere moved too. Up and down, just like the aim in Kalisradha's screen did. 

Finally locking onto the target, she pressed one button. The sphere glowed a bright red. Through one of the rings, a circular ray of concentrated heat shot directly at the coiled necks of the damned monster. 

*ZHANGGG*

*ZHANGG...ZHANGGG....ZHANGGG*

As soon as it finished, another one and another one again. Multiple diamond melting, concentrated heat rays were fired to its necks in the matter of seconds. 

As the power allowed for it dried up, Kalisradha thought the neck had already been severed. She eagerly waited until the smoke and fire around the necks died down to confirm it. 

However it didn't happen. Instead the ever so unbothered monster became bothered. It stopped just roaming around. It became agitated. The slow rhythmic movements became chaotic. The agony turned those rhythms into a frenzy. 

Before she could take any action, the monster backtracked. It's speed multiple times more than before. It's tentacles slashing everything in its path and more. And finally the necks started to swirl.

They threw them up and down. Right and left. It felt the pain in the necks. That's when she got a good look at its head too. A dragon like head with sword like teeth. Nothing else. However the mouth could fit multiple building in it. And as was its roar.

*GHHUUUUUHHHHHH* 

*GHUUUUUHHHHHHH*

The sheer sound created Shockwaves which toppled vehicles. But most dangerously, it lost its path. The people thought they were safe since the monster continued forward. 

However the dread and despair filled their faces in an instant as they saw it heading back. Some ran. Some hid. Some prayed. 

However it didn't care. It couldn't. That's when Kalisradha noticed what lied in its path. The underground subway where the presidents were stored. So she did the most illogical thing to save the most logical thing. 

She tapped into the extra energy reserves and fired one last shot. The extra energy that should've been used to power medical facilities in an emergency. The same energy that should've been used to help the people in an emergency.

However, it did do the trick. The monsters path change after being burned yet again. But it did do the other, not so trick too. The monster was now towering above Kalisradha. Its giant foot seconds before reaching her.

However she was calm. It was all predicted. "Devash...", she simply spoke his name. Through the earpiece, he heard his name. Looked over and saw the disaster. 

"Ah damn... she's really a piece of work...." he whispered as he dropped a victim in his hand and jumped to the nearest shadow. Fortunately from all the wreck and rubble, there were plenty. 

He jumped from one to the other. His lower half wasn't visible. As soon as he stepped on a Shadow, he was engulfed into it. And thus the movement from one shadow to another was as swift as a continuous ricochet.

Before the leg came down, he was there. However, he was a little bit too late. Or rather, Kalisradha was too late calling for him. He couldn't carefully escort Kalisradha to safety. As he could already feel a slight pressure on his head. The giant, tower like leg had already reached them. 

Devash pushed Kalisradha. As far as he could. Away from the giant shadow looming above them. He watched Kalisradha disappear from his sight as the leg came crushing down. Devash then proceeded to ever so calmly sink into the shadow beneath him. But he couldn't. 

As half of his body was already in the shadow, the upper body saw something. It caught a glimpse of a pure dread. Fear seeped deeper and deeper in him. As an insect carving and gnawing deep into flesh. 

With the roars of the burned monster, screaming of the terrified people, and the sound of the buildings crashing, nobody noticed what should be easily noticed.

What should be noticed instinctively. Something even a newborn would see and scream.  

Another monster had appeared. And Kalisradha was right under its path. Devash saw it last. After everything was done. Without any options left. What he could do was watch. As another huge foot came looming down onto Kalisradha. 

One meter. There was that much distance between Kalisradha and the giant foot. But considering Devash's distance, he couldn't save her. The foot came crashing down onto her.