During Ren's whole dilemma, his movements didn't go entirely unnoticed
From afar, Haze had actually been watching over Ren all this time. From all the way back when Ren returned from helping support the vice commander till now, especially so after the dying wail occurred.
Haze felt responsible for this kid's life, so much so that he wanted to take him out of the team, immediately as he returned. But because he had proven himself useful, Haze had no choice but to let him stay, since if he exiled him now, then the hundreds of lives that he couldn't saved would've been forfeited
When the dying wail occurred, even through all its aftereffects, Haze had quickly delegated a fraction of his attention toward Ren, concerned about the child's well being
Unknown to Ren, during the wail he had inadvertently begun to descend down into the deadly crowd even though there weren't any movements for now. However, once the crowd recovered from their momentary state of paralysis, if Ren had been in there then he'll no doubt be stamped on to death, so Haze quickly intervene before that outcome becomes a reality
"Jeez" lifting Ren up manually, Haze muttered as he began to sweat profusely from the strain.
Because of the effects of the dying wail, Haze had to truly push himself just to lend a hand to Ren while in the midst of hitting his limit. It would've essentially cost nothing to catch Ren even while handling thousands of people in his normal state, but because of those pesky effects caused by the dying wail, it caused Haze's maximum output to significantly lower, which essentially brought him from the transitioning stage above grade 12 all the way down to grade 11, which just goes to show how much of a threat that Sky Whale was.
Because of Ren, Haze was left completely stun-locked. This isn't entirely Ren's fault, however, because even without having to lift Ren up manually, the thousands of evacuees that were left in the sky during the transfer wouldn't have moved faster than 1 centimeter per second anyway, so there wouldn't have been much point in doing so, especially when the effects of the dying wail are still lingering.
After a couple of seconds, Haze watched Ren show signs of semi-recovering from the dying wail, so he slowly let go of his control on Ren. As Ren readjusted his mind to the situation, he stumbled a little bit at first, so Haze acted as his training wheels for a moment, and finally, when everyone finally started to regain their senses, Haze finally stopped helping Ren, as his eyes turned to a much more pressing issue.
(I should've just brought him out.) With most of the effects from the dying wail fading away, Haze's thoughts cleared.
Briefly, Haze glanced over in Ren's direction as he readjust to his recovering power, ready to forcefully pull him out of here if he had to.
As he looked at Ren while ruminating over his decision, Haze didn't notice a large piece of debris flying toward Ren at high velocity, with the capacity to severely injure or even potentially kill him.
By the time Haze noticed it, even though it was over halfway away from its destination to crush Ren, he couldn't stop it in time.
However, before he knew what was happening, he watched as the piece of debris turned from a sturdy, human-sized disaster into dust in mere seconds.
Although late, Haze had finally fully regained his senses right as the debris shattered into dust. He felt the earlier attack that destroyed the debris and tracked it down to its source, but when he laid his eyes on the supposed culprit, he couldn't believe it.
(Was that you?) Haze couldn't believe it, because the person he was, the person that acted quicker than he did, was actually a child, not just any child at that, but the child, or more specifically, the sister of Ren Spark, Rekka Spark.
Baffled by what just happened, Haze couldn't help but stare at Rekka for a few moments before quickly turning his attention back to the evacuation.
Looking back to the crowd of people, though, Haze saw chaos. Just a moment ago, everyone was frozen and without emotion, but now, it was like their minds all devolved into a state where they can only follow their primal instinct, the instinct to survive. Even those who were powerful musicians in the crowd were like that as well, causing them to lash out.
After seeing this sight, Haze instantly forgot about the two siblings. His thoughts ran rampant as he thought of numerous ideas on how he could approach evacuation, which is essentially a horde of scared animals. With everyone running around like headless chickens, he couldn't safely abduct them from the crowd anymore, not even with the help of all the wind musicians on duty.
Rethinking his action, Haze came up with a solution. However, this solution can only lower the amount of casualties, not prevent it.
"How do I even begin to do this?" Haze said out loud to himself, struggling to figure out a good way to approach his plan.
Haze wanted to think about it more, but unfortunately, time was far too tight. The Slette is getting too close and is already taking hundreds of lives every minute.
Panicked, Haze made a quick calculation and decided that executing this plan is better than doing nothing.
In the next moment, Haze used all his computing power to continuously analyze the crowd and quickly created a mental pinned on thousands of people.
Instead of a group of people being lifted up all at once, Haze plucked all of the thousand-plus people he selected out, sometimes one by one and sometimes groups; depending on their movements. Although this process may sound slow, Haze somehow did all of that and managed to accumulate more than a thousand evacuees within 1 minute.
*NOOOO... HELP M-* despite successfully extracting over a thousand people, dozens, up to a hundred screams rang as people beside the lucky evacuees began to trip and subsequently crunch under the brutal crowd
Although this method may lead to expanding the list of casualties, it is significantly better than copy and pasting what they did before the crowd went crazy; since if they did do that, then the casualties might be equal with the people they manage to pluck out.
"That... Haahhh worked better than hahh I expected." Haze said in between breaths, exhausted for the first time in a long while.
Feeling his Node reserves run low, Haze detached 4 Node canisters from his belt and held two of them in each hand, instantly draining all four canisters in seconds.
After that, Haze watched the wind musicians trying their best to prevent casualties that were caused by his action, but unfortunately, most of them were unable to prevent it.
(Dammit, why is a voice amplifying sequence for the wind resonance path so hard to get?) Haze thought as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fist in anger.
Haze wanted to communicate with the wind musicians under his command and warn and tell them where each of the chosen evacuees was so they could more adequately save the people around them when they eventually got lifted up into the air. But because he doesn't have a way to communicate with his team, the wind musicians have no choice but to stay extremely attentive.
Seeing that the wind musicians were struggling with gathering the floating evacuees since they were scattered significantly more than before, Haze waved his hands in a cupping motion and slowly put both hands together. Quickly but gently, all the scattered evacuees began to gather in front of the wind musicians, making it much easier for them to evacuate them.
(Where's that kid...) Haze suddenly remembered Ren as he began to calm down.
While the other wind musicians were working their butts off to save people, Haze noticed that Ren wasn't among any of them anymore.
Due to the grim situation, Haze immediately assumed the worst possible outcome for where Ren disappeared to.
Fearing that Ren may have fallen into the crowd, Haze desperately looked around, trying to see if he may have missed him in the chaotic scene.
"I need to bring that kid back to his sister." Haze spoke to himself as he gave a slight glance at Rekka, Ren's younger sister.
While looking around for Ren, Haze never slacked on evacuating for even a second; he scouted the crowd for the next round of evacuations. Until he finally found Ren somewhere he didn't expect to see him.
*Haaah* (Good... you've decided to leave.) Haze breathed a sigh of relief as he expressed his respect to Ren internally.
However, there's still this feeling inside Haze that tells him he shouldn't be happy about Ren's resignation. On one hand, Ren's departure felt unresolved. While on the other hand, Haze was glad that Ren wouldn't have to watch the rest of this tragedy take place, since it's definitely going to get worse.
However, Ren suddenly stopped. Haze was curious and cautious as to why he did, so he couldn't help but direct part of his attention toward Ren's direction again to see what was going on with him, mainly to make sure he doesn't fully fall into the crowd that'll most likely kill him.
Haze briefly scanned through Ren's body, but when he saw Ren's face, he felt his strings in his heart begin to tighten again. Haze couldn't understand it, because the emotion that he saw on Ren's face was so raw, it felt like he was glancing into Ren's soul in that instance. The will that makes him tick and the true self that most are unable to bring out for the majority of their lives
Suddenly, Ren turned around, floating back to the front lines, inadvertently hiding his face from Haze's gaze.
"...." Haze was left speechless.
Haze couldn't believe it and couldn't unsee it. For a moment, Haze thought about stepping in and stopping Ren, but... the vision of Ren that he saw at that moment stopped him, somehow forcing his hardened emotions to waver.
Before, he thought Ren was just forcing himself to do the right thing, but now that he got a glimpse into Ren's soul, he knew that there was much more to that decision.
The best way to describe it is that it felt as if Ren was doing this as a strange and almost twisted way to keep his memory of their parents alive. To Ren at that moment, it was like everyone he saw below took the form of his parents, screaming for help, desperately calling for him to save them.
A sight like that should be mortifying to anyone, but yet to Ren at this moment, it felt deceptively relieving. The dying wail significantly affected Ren, however, there is some truth to why he felt that way, and why he sees what he sees; it's like his brain was showing him what he desired the most and that is to go back, to that moment when he was in the alleyways running and doing anything he could to outspeed the Slette, still not knowing if his parents were dead or alive.
In a sense, it's also a way for Ren convince himself to continue looking forward, so he can stomach living on in this world without their most precious treasure, the warm and soothing voices of their parents.
He knew that if he were to disappear right now, with the state his sister is in, there's a high likelihood that once Rekka wakes up and finds out, she will most definitely join. Which means, if he quits now, Ren would've affectively murdered his sister, Rekka
...
By now, most of Haze's attention was on Ren, worried for him, as Ren display a couple odd behaviors. Ren froze one more time before moving on again, which isn't too strange until he reactivated his Node.
Not even a second after Ren's hands began to glow green, it looked like Ren's Node was forcefully deactivated like an exterior force had tampered with it. Not only that, but Ren's body had grown unnaturally stiff and unmoving, frozen in the air like a statue
It was then, Haze saw Ren's mouth move, saying something that he couldn't hear. However, he doesn't know why, but it felt like he knew what Ren was saying, even without reading Ren's lips.
"Windy departure...?" Haze unconsciously muttered,
It was then Haze sensed a disturbance within his dominion. He felt an unstoppable force of power forming in the sky, causing him to look up to evidently see visible forces of wind form into humanoid apparitions.
"That's... Is that!?" Haze exclaimed in surprise
That power felt incomprehensible, like the force of the universe itself was backing it. But yet, it didn't feel threatening at all.
*Wuuuuuu, tuuung, yuuuuu*
A repeating melody slowly form As Haze observed thousands of windy apparitions form before his eye, mesmerized by sheer capacity of the phenomenon, but when he saw those figure begin descending and the melody subsequently change, he got serious as his conjecture became a reality
"That's an Origin Phrase..." Haze's eyes widened as he muttered to himself in utter shock.
Haze was far beyond surprised by the activation of this phenomenon; he never thought that an Origin Phrase would be created here and today of all times
Even though Haze's intuition told him that it'll be fine, he didn't let his guard down for even a second, as he fully focused his mind on deciphering the abilities of this Origin Phrase from afar in order to decide his next course of action.
(Whose... Origin Phrase is it?) Haze thought, but halfway through, he finally connected the dots.
Haze swung his head faster than he ever had done before, looking at Ren. From all the strange movement patterns to his current state, it was obvious who it was that triggered the Origin Phrase.
"It's you... Ren Spark..." Haze stared at Ren in shock.
As Haze stared at Ren, his face grew conflicted. Haze knew the theoretical requirements to trigger an Origin Phrase, but knowing it brought him no comfort at all. Instead a flood of guilt and, oddly, pity drowned his heart, knowing that he could've prevented this
The melody that accompanies an Origin Phrase always reflects the emotion and story of the person that triggered it.
However, the melody that's currently reverberating through the air is far from something lighthearted. In fact, as everyone listens to it, all they can feel is a deep sense of longing, like they can never see someone they've been with for their entire life ever again. Although, there is an oddly encouraging twirl in the melody occasionally that kept it from being completely depressing.
...
As the thousands of windy apparitions descend, Haze takes a stance and gets ready to defend the civilians from whatever abilities that Origin Phrase holds.
There were still about half of the floating evacuees left not evacuated yet. Haze wanted to conserve some Node, since he needed to be efficient with the remaining Node canisters he had.
But now, since Haze can't risk finding out about the abilities of this Origin Phrase too late, he quickly evacuated the remaining floating evacuees himself before taking off.
Right as the windy figures got halfway to the crowd, Haze flew upward to intercept the figures before they made contact with the crowd below.
Without getting too far ahead, Haze stopped and pulled his left hand downward, exerting a small amount of his Node into a polished ball of wind.
(I hope this won't harm you, Ren Spark.) Haze thought as he swung his left hand forward, releasing the ball of wind.
As the ball of wind flew and quickly collided with one of the figures, it dispersed as soon as it got close, and following that, the dispersed winds didn't just scatter and dissipate.
The figure that the ball of wind was supposed to hit began to absorb the remnants of the dispersed attack, and as it did so, the figure that was once a rough humanoid stature turned more polished; however, it still didn't have any distinct features, like a mouth or a pair of eyes
Watching the ball of wind he threw easily be dispelled, Haze wasn't too surprised, but whe the figure absorbing the remnants of his attack, it caught him off guard, causing him to widen his eyes in surprise as shivered ran down his spine
(Is that the kind of special ability this origin phrase has? .... Or is there more...) Haze thought to himself, remaining cautious
Although Haze had already discovered one of this Origin Phrase's abilities, Haze was still skeptical and hesitant to let it go through.
Haze was prepared to use every last drop of his Node just to partially stop the Origin Phrase. Knowing full well how devastating an Origin Phrase on first release could be
(I need to either stop this quickly or... NO! I'm wasting too much time already!) Haze thought, feeling frantic about leaving his designated task for too long.
Quickly, Haze flew close to the gradually descending windy figures and touched it, ready to retreat and counter it if it harmed him, even if it was just a small scratch.
"Huh?!" Haze expressed as he raised his right eyebrow in both surprise and confusion.
The moment Haze touched one of the windy figures, he barely felt anything. Almost like each of these figures were made out of light breezes of wind, so light that even a person blowing would feel stronger than it.
Haze wanted to run it through a few more tests, but before he could, the windy figures came to life and began to move so fast that even Haze couldn't pick up on their movements with his eyes.
"No!" Haze exclaimed in shock.
Without even waiting to see what the apparies were doing, Haze assumed the worst and got ready to retaliate.
"I need to destroy this before it gets to the crowd!" Haze raised his voice with conviction
Blinded by the potential threat of the Origin Phrase, Haze looked through his arsenal of sequences and got halfway through casting a highly destructive but precise sequence before he finally noticed that the Origin Phrase wasn't doing anything harmful.
....
The windy figures scattered, becoming more and more animated as they moved.
Like rain, all the windy apparitions dove into the crowd all at once and moments later began holding onto people by their arms.
As the apparition held onto their respective people, a pillar of wind shot onto each of them, encasing both the apprition and the people they held onto, creating a mesmerizing scene with thoughsands of pillared winds piecing the sky
At first, the sight of these suddenly emerging pillars of wind looked terrifying, especially with the added context that this is all happening in the middle of a Slette disaster that had been killing hundreds of people by the minute.
However, the pillars didn't stay on the field for long, as seconds after they appeared, the pillars of wind had already begun to disappear from bottom to top. While, somultaneously revealing two largely different humanoid figures
As the pillars of winds disappeared, each of them revealed a windy figure holding onto one human each. And right afterwards, holding tightly onto each of their humans, they flew as fast as a race car to the safe zone.
...
While that was happening, someone very acquainted with Haze snuck up behind almost catching him off guard if Haze hadn't been in this form.
"Haze, do you know whose Origin Phrase that is?" The Vice Commander asked, mesmerized by the spectacle of thousands of windy apparitions evacuating the citizens.
Distracted by the thousands of windy figures below, neither Haze nor his vice commander noticed that a thousand more windy apparitions were floating down before the ones that were evacuating the citizens even disappeared.
Finally noticing the additional windy apparitions descending into his dominion, Haze looked up and was far beyond astonished by the capacity of this Origin Phrase.
(That is crazy...) Haze thought with his mouth agape, surprised by the true scale of this Origin Phrase.
Watching all this, Haze felt like there was hope that they could avoid further casualties.
Determined, Haze briefly glanced at Ren's unmoving body floating in the air and quietly thanked him before continuing with a new plan to evacuate all the citizens in the crowd with their new and powerful support.
"Vice Commander, help me with this." Haze looked to his side, looking at his the man who stood by his side