In the meantime, the situation on the estate’s mountain was nothing short of traumatic.
On the populated market slopes, the world turned ninety degrees... One moment, the monks were shopping, and children were playing between stalls; the next, gravity became their enemy.
Rumble!! Rumble!!
The stone-paved streets cracked, sending people, carts, and livestock tumbling toward the cliffside... buildings made of wood and stone broke apart, sending debris sliding over anything in their path.
A tea house at the edge of the market was sheared off its foundation by the debris and slid into a grocery stall before both plummeted into the white abyss below!
Uprooted trees, some hundreds of years old, were ripped from the ground, leaving their heavy roots to flail in the air as they crushed anything in their way.
The atmosphere was charged with the smell of pulverized stone, dirt, and the screams of hundreds.
Amidst this chaos, Brahmin and the elders of House Zen took action, their expressions a mixture of rage and concern.
"Save the citizens!!"
Brahmin shouted the order; his inner peace collapsed with the mountain. His heart beat rapidly as he pierced through the clouds using his spiritual will.
He watched as the monk elders, guards, and other capable citizens used their spiritual prowess to save the helpless.
Some monks dove into the tumbling crowds, grabbing children by their robes and flying them toward the stable neighboring peaks... one elder was seen holding up a giant falling stone with an invisible wall of spiritual energy. He kept holding it long enough for a family to crawl out from underneath with only minor injuries.
Brahmin steeled his agitated heart and collected his thoughts by reciting a calming verse... immediately after he dealt with his emotions, his face became granite.
He knew that his primary concern wasn’t the buildings, House Targon, or the mountain... but the people.
’Elders to the lower sectors!’ Brahmin ordered telepathically. ’Formation Zenith! Form a spiritual net at the base of the market square! Do not let the wounded fall into the clouds!’
The elders obeyed right away. They spread out in a circle and connected their spiritual energies to create a glowing, translucent floor that caught falling people and filtered out the debris.
They kept the net alive until they managed to hold around a hundred monks; only then did Brahmin order them to take the survivors to safety.
Using his spiritual vision, Brahmin detected that dozens more citizens were trapped under the debris, their spiritual auras barely flickering. Without hesitation, he dove in the direction of the falling mountain and used everything in his power to dig them out, and fast!
He used his spiritual prowess to blast off rocks and slash through the debris to rescue them.
For a moment, it looked like he was on track to save them... but then, Brahmin looked behind him and felt his heart freeze at the horrific sight.
The collapsed mountain was a mere hundred meters away from colliding with the peak that held the most populated residential area in the territory!
The estate’s mountain was mostly a common area and had the fewest citizens living on it... the majority of citizens lived in the surrounding mountainous chain. And the mountain in front of Brahmin housed thousands of Runehoof Kin!
’What have I done...’
Brahmin stood suspended in the air, his spiritual aura flickering like a dying candle. For a moment, the iron-willed leader was gone, replaced by a man paralyzed by the sheer scale of the catastrophe.
Below him, the mountain he had called home for centuries was no longer a sanctuary... it was a trillion-ton projectile heading to doom everyone.
Through the haze of dust and falling debris, Brahmin could see them. The serenity of the Runehoof Kin, a people who had spent their lives seeking nothing but quiet meditation, was gone. It was replaced by the frantic, high-pitched scurrying of the doomed.
He saw fathers clutching their children to their chests, sprinting toward cliffs that offered no safety... he saw the elderly, unable to run, sitting in the middle of the streets with their heads bowed in prayer, waiting for the impact that would pulverize them.
The incense-scented air was now choked with the smell of ozone, sulfur, and the metallic tang of fear.
That’s when he realized it... he felt that he had brought this upon them. He had spent decades playing a careful game of politics and slow retreats, trying to keep his people alive by bleeding credits instead of blood.
But the moment he shook the hand of that masked stranger... the moment he invited "Mr. Problem" into his home, it became painfully clear that the name was no mere title.
And now... Silas Targon wasn’t just trying to bankrupt them anymore. He was liquidating the lives of the Runehoof Kin to punish Brahmin for daring to find a savior at the eleventh hour.
’I thought I needed chaos to excise the Targon cancer... instead, I’ve summoned a storm that will swallow my people.’
For the first time in his long life, Brahmin felt a wave of crushing regret wash over him as he stood frozen in the impact zone.
He could run, he could save himself, but his heart refused to move his body when thousands of his people were still in danger.
He just couldn’t.
Just when all hope seemed lost, and the shadow of the falling mountain completely engulfed the valley, a cold, sharp voice echoed through the chaos.
"Maw... open the gates."
A green comet pierced through the giant dusty clouds, and Levi appeared. He hovered directly in the narrow gap between the two mountains, looking like a speck of dust compared to the millions of tons of rock!
Yet, he didn’t hesitate for a second. He threw his arms out wide, and the spiritual energy within him exploded with enough force that it pushed back the clouds.
’Mr. Problem...’ Brahmin murmured inwardly, ’What is he doing...’
Before he could react, the surrounding peaks were suddenly coated with aetheric energy, visible to the majority of the Runehoof Kin with decent spiritual vision.
Bewildered, Brahmin and the elders watched as thick, glowing aetheric chains were born from the mountains, each one as wide as a fortress wall!
They instantly slithered in the direction of the collapsed mountain with terrifying speed. At the same time, Levi slammed his palms together while putting his focus on the tilting mountain.
Immediately, a massive ring of green aetheric energy manifested around the center of the falling mountain, tightening like a belt! Then, large metal-like latches formed on the ring, perfectly positioned to meet the incoming chains.
Brahmin and the others watched in stunned disbelief as the aetheric chains slammed into the latches, tightening the connection.
"Pull!"