A second later, the quiet was broken.
The sound of the first explosion ripped through the city like a hammer from the heavens. It was followed by a loud crack that had Ren and Thorn shielding their ears.
An instant later, the shockwave got to their position at the top floor of the building, sending them staggering as it slammed through.
Dust and debris filled the air in the distance as the western wall of Rainhold was torn open, stone, guard towers, and nearby homes reduced to rubble in an instant. The explosion had created a direct view from their window to the broken section of the wall, creating a direct view of the lands outside the city.
Then came the true horror.
From beyond the broken wall, they saw movement.
Thousands of infected poured into the city like floodwaters through a broken dam, limping, snarling, howling. And not just people. There were also animals who now looked malformed by the plague, swarming through the breach like a tide of ants.
"What in the heavenly hells…" Thorn whispered, his voice hollow.
Ren didn't speak. His hands gripped the window frame as the zombies moved through the city streets, tearing it apart.
Then the second explosion hit.
They turned toward the sound just in time to see the building in which the city had been built around, the beautiful structure that was the church collapse inward. A great plume of dust and fire shot into the sky as the holy building, the center of all spiritual life in Rainhold, crumbled like dry parchment.
"No." Ren breathed, his grip tightening on the window frame. "The records…"
The church's room of records had been his starting point. The place he'd been planning to use in getting clues on the prison in which the Blood Chosen was kept in.
"Ren?" Thorn's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. "What the hell is that?" He pointed down below.
Ren looked down at the ruined pile that had once been the Red Prophet's lair. He frowned. There was nothing to see.
Then, the dust shifted. The pile rippled slowly, grains of rubble shifting away from the centre, and a second later, a hand burst out.
The hand was torn, its flesh slouching off, blood streaming down it. It speared upward from the wreckage and grasped at the sky.
Ren stared, dread rising in his chest.
The Red Prophet had survived.
The rubble shifted again, and with a growl, the Red Prophet dragged himself into the open, one hand clawing at the cracked stones.
His flesh was charred black in places, peeled away in others, exposing raw meat and white bone. His face was nearly unrecognizable, lips seared from his teeth, one eye still glowing a bright red while the other hung half-shut in a lidless socket.
Ren and Thorn watched from the top floor window, frozen, horrified.
But what stunned them more was what writhed inside him.
Dark, blood-soaked vines slithered through his muscle and bone, coiling inside his ribcage like vipers.
Where his heart should have been was a lump of red bark, twitching like a beating heart. Roots burst from his spine, threading down into his legs, anchoring him like a parasite too deep to cut loose.
And then, his body began to heal.
Tendons stitched themselves back together. Muscles wove like cloth, pulling over bone. Skin grew across his face like a patchwork mask, raw and red, slowly coming together to what it had previously been.
It was wild. Joyful. Mad.
As the laughter died, he tilted his head up, eyes locking on Ren through the broken window above.
"Well, well,well." The Red Prophet called out. "Welcome back, Ross. I've been looking for you."
Ren's jaw had dropped. This was someone he never could have expected in a million years. "Vesper?" He blurted out, incredulously.
Thorn's eyes widened as he recognized the man too. There was no sign of the wood that had been within him. All that was left was a tall, handsome man with red hair. But his blue eyes had been replaced with glowing red ones.
"Isn't that Rosefield? The idiot that bet against you for a million gold coins?" Thorn whispered.
Vesper stretched out his arms as if embracing the air itself. "How am I here, you wonder?" He spoke, as if someone had asked. "I am here, Ross, because I am the Red Tree itself. A human Tree. The great root that chokes Elnoria."
His grin widened. "You can't kill me. Not unless you've figured out how to kill a Tree of Power."
He gestured to the sky above. "Behold my finest work."
Above them, the thousands of infected birds screeched as one as they gathered high above the church. And with a single flick of his finger, they dived.
Explosions filled the air and shook the ground as they attacked the survivors at the church. Vesper laughed again, his voice echoing through the streets.
"Do you hear that, Ren?" He screamed, a big, manic smile on his face. "Those are the screams of your failure. No matter what you try, no one will be leaving this city alive. Not even you."
"And while we've been catching up," Vesper went on, "I've made a little something for you."
He raised his arms, and giant branches erupted from the ground, rising through the air to form a perfect cage around them all, spanning the whole block.
"What do you think? Beautiful, right?" Vesper said mockingly. "I call it the red cage. You can pass through physically, sure. But your teleportation?" He wagged a finger. "Gone. The moment you try to blink away, it'll rip you to shreds."
He took a step forward, glaring up at Ren and Thorn. "There's no way out for you, Ross. Only death."
Ren exhaled slowly, Freedom in his hand. It was time to see what the blade could do.
He turned to Thorn. "Go."
Thorn hesitated. "Ren—"
"You'll only get caught in it." Ren said calmly. "This is going to be messy. I don't want to have to hold back so as not to kill anyone nearby. Go."
Thorn stared for a few seconds more before nodding once. Then, he vanished into the building. In a minute, he should be out of the cage.
Ren stepped up to the window.
Vesper stood waiting, arms outstretched like a messiah.
Ren inhaled deeply, holding Freedom tight.
"Thank you, Vesper." He called down.
Vesper blinked. "For what?"
"For giving me this chance to end our cursed relationship." Ren said, stepping onto the windowsill.
He looked up once at the cage, then down at the Prophet below.
"I'm going to enjoy this."