Unveiling Catastrophe

"What was that?" The three of them exclaimed simultaneously as the trembling continued.

Massive, torrential winds blew past the building, destroying the already shattered windows and clearing most of the debris.

The three braced themselves, fearing they might fall if they didn't.

"I am going to check it out," Leo shouted as he made his way out of their hideout.

"Is he insane?!" Anne remarked, his gaze fixed on Leo as he crawled through the hole.

"Yeah, something close enough, but I can assure you that he is very much sane," Mark said, feeling somewhat dejected as thoughts of Leo's reckless actions crossed his mind.

"Maybe just a bit out of it," Mark added, unable to deny all of the reckless behaviors he had become accustomed to.

Anne shifted her gaze from Leo and fixed it on Mark. Her eyes held questions, but her lips remained sealed, as she felt it was neither the right time nor the place for such a conversation.

Leo reached the hallway, a dimly lit passage with only faint strands of light providing illumination. The emergency lights had lost their brightness, finally succumbing to time and the monsters that found them annoying.

Now, the hallway was bathed in an orange radiance, casting light from the outside.

The wind had cleared the window of most of the debris, vines, and spirogyra, allowing Leo to see the outside world.

He wanted to look around, but his gaze was drawn towards a giant mushroom cloud on the horizon.

"An atomic bomb," Leo thought to himself, his gaze shifting from the expanding mushroom cloud that still seemed far away but was growing.

His nerves tensed, knowing what was to come: a powerful blast of wind, strong enough to collapse the school despite the distance.

"MARK!!! ANNE!!! TAKE COVER!!!" Leo shouted, his voice quivering with panic as he lay flat on his belly, protecting his head with his hands.

The blast wind passed, causing the five-story-tall school building to shake. Despite its complex nature, compound structure, and strong pillars, the upper part collapsed, succumbing to the powerful blast.

The flood had already weakened, making the wind's job easier.

RUMBLE!!! RUMBLE!!! RUMBLE!!!! The buildings continued to shake as rubble from the upper floor collapsed onto the lower floor.

Leo closed his eyes tightly as the blast wind was too strong, shattering windows and carrying in debris, dust, and material from the outside world, a sight they hadn't seen for a while.

During this, Mark and Anne remained in their hideout, unable to escape as their usual path had been blocked.

Without exchanging words, they knew what to do. They quickly dropped and lay on their stomachs, hands over their heads as a precaution against the aftershocks.

The buildings continued to shake, the sound of rumbling echoing through their halls as the upper floors collapsed.

After a couple of minutes, the rumbling ceased, and the collapse was complete.

Leo, with his eyes closed and breath held, opened his eyes, taking a deep breath of air, immediately regretting his actions. The miasma and mana-filled air from the outside entered his lungs, initiating his metamorphic evolution.

He convulsed in agony as his DNA disintegrated and reassembled, incorporating elements that were never there before. His cells exploded and then reformed, altered from their previous state.

Leo coughed up a mouthful of dark blood, which oozed from all seven of his orifices.

He longed to scream, but his larynx, with which he could have done so, had broken down and reassembled once again.

The pain was excruciating, too much for his conscious mind to bear. He lost consciousness but continued to convulse in agony, an unbearable torment.

"Mark and Anne found safety inside the building, shielding them from the miasma and mana-rich air outside.

The building held a faint trace of mana and miasma, not potent enough to trigger the metamorphosis, thus postponing the transformation of the three individuals trapped within.

Cough!! Cough!!!

Mark and Anne coughed as dust from the collapse lingered in the air.

"Anne, are you alright?" Mark exclaimed, believing Anne was by his side.

"Anne!!? Anne!!?" Mark cried out as Anne did not respond to his initial call.

With narrowed eyes, Mark scanned the area, attempting to locate Anne amidst the dust and rubble.

He spotted a blonde girl standing there, slightly shivering, as if she had seen a ghost.

He rushed over to her, his gaze following the same direction as hers.

His nerves tensed as he discovered the source of Anne's unease.

In front of them, a hole, the result of the collapse, with rubble blocking its entrance.

Lying on the debris and obstructing the hole were ants. Ordinarily, these ants shouldn't be enough to evoke fear, but their size and the clicking of their mandibles, combined with their numbers, sent shivers down the spine of anyone who beheld them.

They stood at a height of two feet, with their length spanning an impressive five feet. Their black eyes reflected Anne and Mark, who stood before them, their ebony exoskeletons shimmering despite the dim lighting in the room.

Mandibles clacking, they continued to fix their gaze on the endoskeletal organisms before them.

Mark knew they were in serious trouble, as the ants numbered in the hundreds, and the hole created was quite large.

"Am I going to die here..." Anne inquired, her voice barely a whisper. She realized that even if she could eliminate a few of them, the rest would overwhelm her when her guard was down. With her guard up, she knew she would still be overpowered.

She looked at Mark, her calm facade completely shattered as tears dripped down her cheeks. Memories of their time together, thoughts of her father, friend, and family, resurfaced in her mind.

The ants had waited long enough, and after assessing the beings in front of them, they saw them as potential prey. With their minds made up, they surged toward the figures before them.

Mark, still holding onto hope, leaped towards Anne when he noticed she was frozen in fear.

"Get a hold of yourself; we can make it."