Final 9 Minutes of Menin

– T-minus 9 minutes
Several scouts yelled at different times, interrupting each other; "Man approaching!", "Movement at the gates!", "Commander please take a look at this."
The General of the castle commanded; "Identify him."
One of the scouts started talking; "Tall middle-aged male, isn't wearing a military uniform and doesn't have any visible weapons on him, yet we can't see any trade goods or message scrolls on him either."
The General of the castle commanded; "I have a gut feeling he isn't an ordinary traveler, alert the army."
– T-minus 8 minutes
Bells rang frantically from the outpost guarding Menin, alerting the army of an emergency. Hundreds of military personnel rushed to the walls, awaiting orders. Officers ordered them to gear up in case there is a declaration of war.
– T-minus 7 minutes
The General waved at the man, hoping to see if he was friendly. No response.
His strategist came running into the outpost, asked for the commander, and quickly approached him.
Strategist; "I wasn't prepared for the bells, I'm sorry, what's happening?"
General; "Someone is approaching the gates, probably a messenger but he doesn't seem to be military."
Strategist; "Should I order for the nearby villages to be evacuated inside the city walls?"
General; "I don't want to cause panic without reason, let's see what the man has to say first."
Strategist; "Sir, we are talking about human lives here. Let me make up a reason and evacuate the villages please!"
General; "I need a squad of our best archers, you can evacuate the villages after arranging them."
The strategist quickly ran back to the men, yelled frantic orders at several personnel, and started following some of them towards the villages.
Four archers quickly appeared beside the General, they couldn't think of anything to say, so they kept quiet.
– T-minus 6 minutes
General; "Can you all land your arrows right at the feet of that man approaching us?"
One of the archers quickly drew his bow, but the General turned to him with panic; "Not now! I am just asking to plan."
That same archer immediately loosened his posture and replied; "Yes sir, from this range we can hit anywhere you want."
Men in the rear ranks were almost done preparing, they were almost certain they had to fight that day.
– T-minus 5 minutes
Some of the scouts were clearly hesitant of something, the General yelled when he noticed; "What are you planning to do? Is there something you want to share with me?"
Most of them went quiet but one of them unsurely spoke up; "Sir, I think we should kill him."
General; "You morons, how can you be scared of a single unarmed man?"
Scout; "Sir, I— I don't feel safe..."
The General opened his mouth to scold the scout, but overlapping sounds from the army behind him interrupted him; "Just shoot him!", "Why are we letting a dangerous man approach us?", "I can feel it... blood will be shed today."
The general hid it but he secretly agreed with his men, so he ordered his archer squad; "We should scare him off, shoot at the same time and make sure it lands right infront of him."
4 arrows left the 4 bows that those 4 elite archers carried, the general kept his proud posture but he was curious if it worked or not.
– T-minus 4 minutes
A chorus of scouts audibly gasping interrupted him again, and one of them yelled; "He— he suddenly moved forward, he appeared— uh— I think he teleported sir!"
The General turned around to look over the walls, and it seemed the man approaching the gates was way closer compared to a few seconds ago, the arrows were far behind him.
This could only mean one thing!
The General yelled; "We have a mage approaching us! He might be sent to assassinate someone, likely me. Get ready to defend against spells!"
– T-minus 3 minutes
The man in the distance (now not so distant) slowly rose above the ground and started talking; "Surrender a selection of your greatest warriors and I will let them live. Everybody else is to be exterminated. Today is the last day the city of Menin stands!"
The General commanded; "Archers, Fire!"
As arrows travelled over the walls like a flock of birds. he turned back and yelled at his men; "Defensive formation D, leave out the back rank, you will load up the cannons!"
The army started to look like a fluid, everyone was moving into position and the back rank was busy loading up the cannons.
– T-minus 2 minutes
It seems none of the arrows hit the man.
The man in the distance spoke again; "It seems you won't surrender anyone, too bad they are all going to die and go to waste."
He rose up even higher, sparks and lightning were slowly surrounding him, a clear sign he was preparing energy for a big attack.
The man rolled up his sleeves to expose two sigils, each one placed right above the palm of his hands. He crossed his arms to join the sigils together, locked his fingers, and pointed his arms towards the outpost.
Even if they were in a defensive formation, the army personnel felt close to death, some broke and started running towards the barracks.
Lots and lots of soul energy started leaking from the man in the sky, but he wasn't only channeling that energy... he mixed it with drops of dark energy. This unholy aura slowly surrounding his arms turned into extreme heat but it also had a gravitational pull, like a burning black hole.
The burning ball shot out of his fists, turning into a ray. When it met the ground it didn't scatter, it started collecting up like a really big drop of water, the defensive formation meant nothing to this immense power. Armor liquefied with humans still inside it. Walls of the castle cracked and couldn't resist this pull. Everything moved like they wanted to join this ever-growing fire, and they did. It grew and grew, taking over the whole outpost and bursting, only to leave behind small pools of dissolved rocks and humans, covered in ash.
The kingdom lost 400 great men that day, against a single attack from a mage. This wasn't a declaration of war, this wasn't a surprise attack to break the defenses of the city. HE was the only intruder.
– T-minus 1 minute
The attacks of the intruder never stopped. He had other sigils on his fingers which he used to manipulate objects around him, and he smashed open the gates of the city. He pulled humans towards himself just to split them in half with a single punch. He set fire to the streets, letting electricity follow the ground to find its way into the houses of civilians. It wasn't enough, he moved quickly to the other side of the city. Even more fire burned through the houses of the people, and children dissolved in the palms of their parents.
– T-minus 0 minutes
Not a single soul was spared that day. Thousands of civilians, including children, fused into the soil of Menin.
It was the last day of the city of Menin; army outposts fell, walls collapsed, the population was wiped out, and the land was cursed for eternity.
Nine minutes is all it took to level a city.
This was the first time the world of Eina heard about the god of conquest Hito, but it won't be the last.