A rainbow of destruction and power, reaching upward and upward, until it pierced through the clouds and continued into the dark expanse of space itself.
It was a pillar of pure and terrifying energy that seemed to have no end and purpose other than to announce that something had gone terribly wrong in the world.
The beam tore the sky in a line of devastating rupture, a jagged scar across the fabric of the heavens.
But it ended before it would reach the ground, stopping at the last possible moment as if someone had pressed an emergency brake on the apocalypse.
The phenomenon was so haunting, so terrifying in its scale and its implications, that the noon time immediately became night time in an instant, as if someone had flipped a switch and turned off the sun itself.
