Murrchel Academy's trademark tall tower, which used to stood at the very heart of the academy man campus, once a symbol of prestige, were now in ruins, broken, shattered like glass pieces. Twisted metal everywhere, broken marble of solid surface, and the smell of burning magic lingered in the air like ghosts thorough the wind. The metallic ship of those kamurine remained, a silent, monstrous shadow over the wreckage.
Student, Teacher, Healer fled in panic this to that way. Parents searched through the debris, calling out for their children, crying and shouting. Healers of academy shouted out for more healing potions and stretchers, bandages, they're using so many difference kind of potions to stop the bleeding. The ground was painted in panic.
Abraham walked through the destruction zone, where the most fatal injured students and teacher are held, looking at each injured person carefully. soft training black boots are resound as he stepped through the blood and mud.
He located Maria by the damaged training area. She had a single cut on her neck small looking but blood flowing like the cut is deep. She looked pale but not injured.
"Yo, you alright?" Abraham asked, his voice rough, tense.
"Yeah… I'm alright. But…" She trailed off. Her trembling eyes shifted toward the horizon, toward the destroyed central tower.
Abraham froze for a moment. His breath stopped tightening his throat.
Joel.
He turned, running—past healers, broken stones, and the cries of those still digging for their loved ones. He reached the infirmary tent, then the next, then the next. His hands brushed through scrolls of names, every parchment shaking in his grasp.
"Where is this guy…?" he muttered, voice cracking. "Where the hell are you, Joel?"
No one answered. Only the distant sound of someone weeping.
He pushed through to the last camp—the one where they listed the students who were still missing. The ones who had been near the crash. The ones whose bodies… weren't found.
Jennifer stood before the board like a complete stone standing. Her training uniform was now dusty from running and horror of tension, and her hands shaking like she had ice cube on it. Behind her, the students which body didn't found yet their parents are crying and screamed, so many voices so many mixed sound so many tears fall, clutching the wooden list as if it will give back their child to them.
Abraham rushed forward. "Hey—did you find any info about Joel? When we were fighting, he was supposed to be in Phoenix Lecture, right? That ended an hour before the blast, so he should've been—"
Jennifer didn't turn. Her voice trembled, breaking mid-sentence.
"In the tower… Book Shifting Process. Seven students were selected. Joel was one of them."
Her words hit him like steel through the chest.
Jennifer still didn't face him. Her shoulders were shaking.
Then he heard it—her sob. Small at first, then louder, broken.
Abraham brows squished together in an accusatory frown. "Hey, did you hit your head in chaos or what. You just wait I'm pretty sure he's just peeing somewhere"
But she didn't laugh. Not even a smile. Her eyes glimmered with something raw — pity. The kind that hurts more than words ever could.
Abraham's heartbeat stumbled. "Jennifer?"
She looked away. Her voice broke as she whispered, "He was in the east tower… when it collapsed."
For a moment, everything stopped. The air. The sound. Even his breath.
He blinked — once, twice — refusing to understand.
"No… no, you're mistaken. The academy has nine towers — nine! He could've been anywhere. He… he always runs late, he—"
But the words tasted hollow, like ash in his mouth.
Then he saw it — Joel's scarf, half-burned, lying near the broken marble archway. A familiar red thread tangled in soot. His hands trembled as he reached out, touching the scorched fabric — still warm, still smelling faintly of him
Abraham's face went cold. His lips trembled.
He wanted to deny it. To curse it. To scream. But his voice wouldn't come out.
He stood there, staring at the ruins of the central tower—the same one Joel had been in—reduced to nothing but dust and twisted beams.
'Gone.'
'But now that silence is all that's left, I realize — I knew nothing about him. Not where he came from, not who he loved, not what he dreamed of.
I never asked.
Did I ever care about him for once .
All I saw in him was Mormend a reflection Dark reflection of the person who used to my friend but later on he's the one who back stabbed me. Mormend… that cursed ghost who still lingers in my chest. Maybe that's why I kept Joel at a distance. Maybe I was afraid that if I called him "friend," the world would take him away too.
And it did.
Now the ground swallows his warmth, and the wind carries his laughter away. And me… I'm left with a name — just Joel.
No title. No family. No story.
A friend I never truly knew.
I wonder…
Was he ever lonely?
Did he ever look at me and think, "He doesn't see me — he sees someone else"?
Maybe he did. Maybe he knew. And maybe… he forgave me anyway.'
The loud crying and people shouting sound repeating in same flow around him died away at once like the word blocks everything else in his surrounding. Loud screams of those who lost their child, the fire's roar on the destruction zone, and the moans of those who lost and not even found the body to bury all disappeared in one flash of lights, leaving just hollow lifeless ringing sound in his soul.
He turned slowly to Jennifer, he spoke the sound is closer to whisper as if the voice itself is refusing to sound.
"…Tell me, where were his parents?"
Jennifer wiped her tears, forcing herself to steady her tone. "He… didn't have any. Joel was an orphan. Raised in a child center. Real parents unknown."
Silence.
Gusts of wind flowed thorough the very academy which few hour ago surrounded by many students and teacher now it's like wasted dead zone a place where only dead are welcomed.
He slightly lifted his eyes in the direction of the otherworldly ship that burg in his world still hanging over the academy center like the center is landing position of that ship, its huge shadow blocking the sun light and giving a dark light in razed annihilated courtyard. His eyes burned no tears fall neither the facial reaction change, But the anger still reflect on his eyes.
"You have any idea what Joel full name was?" he asked with even tone
Jennifer blinked couple of time out of wonder and disbelief, surprised by the question, that he didn't know. Her voice cracked as she answered,
"Joel Hansaw. The surname… it came from the center's owner. Every orphan there gets that name."
"Joel Hansaw…" Abraham repeated softly.