“Keep searching— they have to be somewhere!”
“I’m using ESDF’s satellites, but this dust is seriously getting in the way! I can’t detect a thing, and visual movement is so obscured that I can’t even tell!……” She let her voice trail off, and it wasn’t hard to understand why. I had yet to properly enter within range of the Redoubt’s territory yet could easily see a tidal wave of dust rising like a tsunami. But what struck me as much more ominous was the complete and absolute radio silence.
That silence that carried with it a finality.
“Anon, I can’t get in touch with the Redoubt proper either…it might be possible that Desert Oasis—”
“Annika!” I heard a young voice hiss. It gave me some peace of mind to know Faylin was safe for the time being. But Annika’s unfinished thoughts rang loud and clear through my own.
It might be possible they’re all dead.
Even with visual interference, Resonators have no reason to go this long without contact, let alone an entire Redoubt. What’s more…
“Send reinforcements! Send reinforcements! Sen-!”
A final message, unscrambled and restored from its corrupted state. originating from the Desert Oasis outskirts nearly twelve minutes ago. The radio messages had gradually become more and more distorted since the fighting began…and Annika suggested it was possible that the Endbringer used a form of Electromaster to scramble the comms, similar to my first fight against the Rogue. From inside of Even I looked down at my bracelet, barely able to make out the distorted numbers “8:14am”. A bright ray of sunlight reflected off the metal of my mecha’s arm, striking my eyes and bringing me back to the present.
“I understand…” I spoke, calming my nerves as I finally entered the outermost layer of the dust cloud. The sun, once bright and luminous, quickly began fading until a dull white ball was all I could see.
This dust is so thick I could actually stare at the sun with my own two eyes.
“Mister Anon, i-it could also probablybe electrical interference like what Miss Lia does! You’re almost there, so let us know when you find the others!”
I wanted to ask how I was talking with them in the first place if electrical interference was causing the Resonators’ radio silence, but I appreciated Faylin’s optimism too much to argue against it…and truth be told, I didn’t want to.
I needed it.
“Ne-hzg-ative. Chances are that the Redoubt is wiped out— this has shifted from a garrison operation, into a search and rescue. Inspect the remains of the Redoubt, record it, locate any survivors, and retreat.”
“Wa-wait, Commander!” I managed to choke out. “You sent me out only for me to—”
“I did not deploy you.”
“…you just want me to report and return?”
“As well as extracting any Resonators.” she said, adhering to the nature of the operation. “But again, given the situation, that’s unlikely. What is likely, however, will be our loss of contact with you, so I want you in and out of that Redoubt.”
“Anon umm……to be frank, in the case there is interference you’ll…you’ll probably be on your own.” The engineer’s voice was delicate despite the fact she was so heavy-handed with her words earlier. I couldn’t tell if she was as used to death as the Resonators themselves. “We’ll do evhz-ything we can to support you of course, but…”
“We have no way of knowing whether Tezcacoa-hztl is still present.” the commander said, breaking Annika’s train of thought. “We have no signal, no visuals, nothing. Do you understand the situation? It’s one colossal, glorious mess. Now if the bastard is still around then you’re to retreat assuming you don’t immediately die; in the more likely scenario he isn’t, then I just need you to report the status of Desert Oasis alongside survivors. That’s all we— you— can do.”
“Commander, that’s…” Annika’s voice carried an awkward, heavy smile through the static of the radio, and I recognized it as her apologetic expression at not being able to do more. Discontent and yet all too ready to accept the burden that came with watching me fly into the desert.
Empathetic Connect certainly is a strange ability.
“…I understand. Report and return; only rescue if possible.”
I looked up, noticing that the sun was becoming dimmer and dimmer. It was no wonder the satellite couldn’t pick up any visuals, I could hardly see a few feet in front of me and it only worsened the further I flew in. And that wasn’t mentioning the fact Tezcacoatl likely used some ability that prevented Annika from having both the ESDF satellite, and my Slayer, find anything.
This is what an Endbringer is capable of…
“I’m sch-zti-ll not reading anzyh-zh signals.” she said as I flew through the faux-night. It was nearly unbelievable to think something so disastrous could’ve happened in such a short amount of time. The feeling made me anxious, churning my stomach but sharpening my senses—
“………!”
—and bringing alongside it an idea.
“And what if I try using my Empathetic Connect?”
“Rehzzt-eat that please?”
“EMPATHETIC CONNECT! Is it possible to use that to locate the survivors?!”
“I…I shzzuy-ppose that could wo-rk, but if thhzzzert-ators are unconscious…”
“It woul-d schtzzz-ill function.” said the fatale and lulling voice of the Commander. Even through static, her voice carried an almost hypnotic calm through her epiphany. “Unconscioushzzz-ess does not affect emot-zhzzzhs— if anything, it amplifies them.”
Emotions? Is that what she said? I thought back to the time I first met the Commander, how my grasp on Empathetic Connect slipped after I awoke from my coma.
Unconsciousness affecting emotions. Like dreams and nightmares being all the more soothing or frightening when you’re in them, but after waking up…
It made sense now.
“I’m headed in.” I said, staring at the near-mute sun in the sky. The static in my ear lent itself to harsh crackling, but I was able to faintly hear voices in an encouraging tone.
“Ghhztozzzozd lyhzzhzutck Azhhzzzzyozzhhn!”
With a loud *pop* the static went completely dead in my ear. For the first time since my arrival to this world, I had no one to turn to.
For the first time in this world, I was alone.
Amidst the unchanging scenery of dull, dreary dust, the only sound to reach my ears was the muffled noise of my Flight system. When last I saw them, Lia and Hanna were leaving to chase after the Spirit of Fire, only for one to return so horribly injured I wondered if healing her was really possible…I couldn't help but think that Lia and Hanna really were— are— the first people I came to trust in this new world…it just wasn’t until now that I realized it.
“I think I know why Miss Lia likes you so much now, Mister Anon!”
She’ll be okay…Lia will be okay. She’s a three-year veteran, she’s had to have been through worse……so I kept telling myself. But it didn’t make me worry any less.
And Hanna.
If it weren’t for her, I don’t know that I’d even be here. Her voice was the first thing I latched onto when I started getting pulled into this world; I remember hearing it, using it as a tether to bring my consciousness back into the world.
“God please…” I found myself praying, “…please let her be alive.”
It was an odd, surreal feeling to pray, given the circumstances. What are the implications of God in another world? I didn’t know the answer, but in a way as strange as the prayer was in the first place, that didn’t worry me.
“Would God send you to a place like this?” Hanna had asked me, before her deployment.
“Maybe I was sent here exactly for this moment. To save you.” I thought. Hence, the question was brought forth to the front of my mind once more— which is it?
A meaningless life of my own choosing, or a meaningful one forced on me?
I wanted it to be both— a meaningful one that I carve out on my own. But I know myself, and I know the life I’ve led until now…to have them both wasn’t an option. Much less so now that I was here in this world.
Even so……even so, regardless of how I’ve lived, that was then, and I don’t need to be alone any longer. And in that same way I refuse to leave anyone else alone!
“Hanna, anyone…!” I whispered through clenched teeth. I still wasn’t entirely sure how to manipulate Empathetic Connect, but I tried to send my voice, the whispers of my soul, across the sands, no matter the distance or visibility. If what Hanna told me was true, then I should instinctively know how to use my abilities! “…I’m here! If you can hear…if you can feel my voice, then answer! Show me where you are!”
There it was. Someone else’s feeling.
……move……………
Move?
……………danger!
“Wha—?!”
I gasped, flipping upside down and drawing my blade as I ducked— twisting my body in midair to slice clean through a tentacle that suddenly appeared as if from the dust. I managed to bisect it at the cost of my balance, losing control and crashing hard on the desert floor.
How…how was that possible? I shouldn't be able to do something like that, how—!
Danger.
“More!?” I leapt sideways as a flurry of thick, concentrated tendrils shot past me, spinning me off balance again as they grazed the mechanical parts of my calf, causing Even to land face-first into the sand. They moved at unbelievable speeds for their size, parting the wind with alacrity that turned the dust itself into a weapon, pelting my armor with sharp grains of sand and dirt. I lifted my sword, all too aware of the fact that even with my Aegis I couldn’t stop them from puncturing my Slayer like cardboard.
“I-I won’t—!”
A ray of light, cutting through the dust. Then another.
No, four— seven— ten? The attacks came to a halt as glimmering spindles of light bled together like wisps of the moon, cutting through the tendrils before manifesting themselves as a Slayer.
One clad in coruscating, ivory armor.
“There is another alive. I see. Strange. Very strange.”
He spoke through his Slayer proper, appropriate given our radios didn’t work. I suddenly felt myself short of breath at recognizing his voice.
“Those who bore witness. Perished. Who did? Not you.” He turned to me. “And you are?”
I clutched at my jaw, suddenly remembering the horrid, jarring sensation of glass shards passing through the fibers of my muscle and beneath my teeth. Was I shaking?
“You are afraid…that will not do.”
Suddenly lurching towards me, he threw my Slayer to the side as another barrage of tendrils turned into ribbons of confetti, and within that same second he stabbed his blade mere inches from my face.
“That is not how one survives.”
Even in the midst of this fighting he had time to attack me!?
It was no good. My breath was turning short, I felt my ears ring and my stomach churn the acid inside it. That voice— God I can’t stand his voice and the way he speaks!
“……do…” I said between heavy wheezes. My voice could crack any second under the pressure I felt. “Do you remember me?”
He stared for a moment, as if truly pondering my question. “No. And you are?”
“……you nearly killed me!”
He only blinked in response before standing up. “I see.” He said dryly. “Do try and survive.”
“Where are—!”
I blacked out for an entire second, and my legs became jelly that got crushed by the weight of my body. When I came to I felt the warm ooze of my spit sliding up and down my throat; the feeling responsible I recognized instantly.
Fear.
I looked up from my feeble position— in the distance, a multi-colored mass of hexagonal flesh, dripping strange bodily fluids I assumed was blood. The smell was vile— gag-inducing— I could pick out the unique scent of something organic having been burned. I was afraid to breathe in. I was afraid it would stain my bones.
The source of that smell was the silhouette forming before us in the distance, through the dust. I couldn’t move.
“Afraid?” asked my senior, somehow still standing. “Fear…is the loss of strength.”
“What?”
Even got sent flying. I recognized the sensation of flying across the desert, but there was no pain behind it. Like my jello-turned limbs had absorbed all the damage, leaving my nerves with nothing left to process.
“Sen..pai?”
“You discharge your fear.” he said, tearing through a pack of tendrils. They were closing in on me, but my mind was dulled down to the point I didn’t recognize any danger until the limbs were just a few feet away.
No. It wasn’t the tendrils I feared.
It was the person who approached alongside them.
He had cut through the swarm before they could reach me, and not a moment later lifted me up by Even’s mechanical shoulder. “You are not fit to die by its hands— therefore fight!”
"…I……"
I felt my heart suddenly start pumping blood again. My eyes widening.
“Stand upright— survive.”
Shards of glass…
“Refuse and I shall be the one to kill you.”
His voice reached me; I could see through Senpai’s eyes and hear the noise of the world. The shrieking of the wind, malaise caused by moist flesh kneading against itself, the mechanical gears of my mecha working in clockwork— I heard it all in a sudden and intense barrage.
The fear of this unknown creature, or the fear of succumbing to a pain I already know.
Lia's charred flesh in my arms.
The smell of burnt human.
Glass…in the muscles of my jaw.
“GCH—! Then where are the others?!” I could almost see the waves of my scream stabilize the world. As though the sound cleared away the fog in my mind. “Where are the other Resonators!?”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Search.” he said, putting me down.
“I can’t possibly do that with—!”
“I will battle it.”
And the world turned mute.
“What?”
“I will deal with the Endbringer myself.”
“…you…want to fight it……alone?”
Momentarily those words were all that sounded in the world as the cacophony returned. There wasn’t the barest hint of doubt or folly in his voice. He meant what he said, and drawing his blade he pointed at the hexagonal flesh in the distance.
“True survival,” he said, drawing a stance, “embraces. The unavoidable battle.”
“The unavaoidable..? Wait— Senpai!”
In a wisp of moonlight he disappeared, dancing through wave after wave of flesh as he scaled the body of Tezcacoatl. I stared in awe and disbelief as he actually cut into him— into the Great Champion of the Outsiders.
……but for twenty-six years of living in a constant state of alert. Nearly three decades of nothing but the burden of living. No, surviving.
Was that the price for such strength?
But my mission was to find the others, if I hesitate…
“Senpai…I-I’ll leave it to you!”
I vaulted over a small dune, placing my hand over the sand and feeling the grains chip away at the metal body of my Slayer. Senpai was still here— fighting— and he wouldn’t do that without a reason. No, it goes against his survival instincts. And if that was the case, and he really can see what’s next to come, then I need to follow through with that vision.
…if I’m here too, then it falls to me to be the will that manifests the future he sees. An extension, a part of the reason that he still remains.
The sand shifted loosely below my fingers, humming a tune different then the chaos behind me. Calming my nerves as best I could, I took in a deep breathe, holding it. Then another. And then one more…and let go.
“You’re not going to die here,” I said, reaching out, “you have others to answer to— so speak!”
My eyes flew open, and no sooner did I begin running than the Endbringer turned its massive fuzz-coated eye toward me.
“It is not wise. To ignore one’s opponent.” said Senpai, appearing in front of its lambent black pupil. “Say. Do you remember my name?”
Having landed on the eye, fuzz began wrapping itself around his legs as the gelatinous organ swallowed the ankles of his mecha. But he had already seen it.
“Allow me to carve it into you. Outsider.”
Striking the armor of his palm with his sword, the jello-like pupil erupted in an array of miniscule explosions so numerous that even with their small size they still managed to clear the dust surrounding them both. A Relentless Barrage?
“Gifts from the dead. Not their weapons, but their bodies.” he said, grinding his blade against his Slayer’s armor. Wait…grinding his sword? “Dead…not devoured. Your mistake.” The next moment came in a blur as he plunged the glowing hot blade into the Endbringer, steam erupting from the source as the pupil moved to and fro. Tens, then hundreds of tentacles must have reached for him but all were for naught as he didn’t even move, instead drawing the blade out to cut through them before once more driving it through the eye in frenetic slashes. Steam erupted from the wounds, creating moisture that intermingled with the dust to create rain in the form of thick globs of mud, coating Senpai’s once pristine armor.
But he didn’t let up.
A dull red light penetrated through the muddy rain, reaching my eyes and illuminating the steam— through the glow I saw his sudden jump, and while some of the tentacles followed, others had too much momentum to properly slow down. Vibrations like quakes of air perforated my armor in waves I recognized as pain. This thing felt pain too…but if it could see the future why…?
……I see.
That was his plan. When lacerating its eye he purposefully allowed himself to be surrounded to lure it into a false sense of security, so it wouldn’t relent in its attacks. So it would become desperate. Prescience can only see so far into the future, and in its desperation it moved too fast for its own good— penetrating its own eye. My train of thought shattered at seeing a geyser of black explode from the Endbringer’s pupil; steam turned into smog turned into night black tar falling in coagulated ebony clumps. Was that…some form of blood?
Tezcacoatl turned just enough for its eye to be illuminated by the dull scarlet glow from Senpai’s sword— it was horribly lacerated. Black and purple veins strewn over flesh, hanging outside the eye proper, out in the open…it was so mangled I couldn’t tell where the iris was anymore. And though dozens of gashes covered the organ, I doubted it only used its eye to see. My eyes were drawn to the figure still in the air, light illuminating Senpai’s figure despite the grime and muck covering it. He and his Slayer were damaged; sparks and loose wires following him as he used his sword to traverse the Endbringer’s body.
Yet I……
……I………
…………I noticed how dark the world was. Like a moonless night. But in truth the sun is already out.
I took in a deep breath and pressed my hand into the fissured earth.
“Listen to me, and to my whisper……it’s time to wake up. Morning has arrived.”
This was a gamble that would put my life at stake, but I couldn’t think of any other way to find them. This time, I closed my eyes and let myself become totally exposed, exposed to danger, and exposed to the dark that soon enveloped up the edges of my vision. The world around me crumbled like sand through a sieve as the darkness dimmed my peripheral vision before swallowing my entire sense of sight in emptiness.
And in this leaden world, I felt a faint heartbeat.
“You’re not allowed to go back to sleep! Get up— you have people to answer to!”
I could feel it getting stronger. Trying to tether itself to the physical world, but…
“Yeah…the world is a scary place. I know.” I said, allowing the heartbeat to read my own fear. “But the sun comes back up for a reason. Wake up…enjoy the fruits of the blue sky, with the best the light brings forth.”
The lifeless sands parted, showing a shadowy road with dots of varying colors scattered behind fog stretching across the desert. A string of teal-green thread unfurled from Even’s chest, spreading out to reach the Slayers. And my attention was drawn to a distant, burning pink orb that seemed all too familiar.
I jolted up, rushing towards it, recognizing the tremors in the sand as attacks that aimed for my body. To my surprise, the world didn’t return to normal— I surely thought that if anything could break the “trance” I was in right now, it’d be physical danger. But Senpai was watching my back, and the road continued in nothing but the murky fog and midnight horizon as I ran on the slate gray sand covering this dark road.
What exactly is this “place” anyway? Or is this place…a feeling? Then what am I feeling now? I vaguely recognized it as an ability of Empathetic Connect, but ultimately ignored it knowing the matter at hand right now was reaching the rosy pink orb I soon noticed was protecting another. An orb that burned like a velvet candle.
Tremors made my steps shaky, but when I finally reached them I looked down only to realize a layer of glass sat over the sand. My breathing instinctively became shallow, mouth parched dry; everytime I swallowed my throat felt as if it had sand. But I saw the pink and red orbs. I felt their dread as my own.
And alongside it, my panic at the pain caused by that glass.
“I…never expected you to go gently, Hanna!” I angrily spat, taking the teal thread and wrapping it around my mechanical arm. It felt like wrapping a tourniquet, but that was just what I needed to ignore the cramped feeling of suffocation in my throat. I shoved it through the earth, and the sound of shattering glass caused a literal crack to appear in the fog surrounding me, only widening as I grabbed onto something metal buried in the foxhole. “That’s why, for once in your life quit being so stubborn and— wake up! You won’t die here, I won’t let you die here!” I yelled, grabbing hold of a mechanical forearm.
I felt a voice latch itself onto me, finally finding ground to take root in the physical world again.
She just needed someone to pull her out. And I couldn't help but smile.
“…welcome to the end of the world.” I greeted. “Now get— UP!”
The emerald thread zigzagged across the desert at lightspeed causing cracks to give way like a kaleidoscope within the fog before the midnight world finally shattered, fragmenting the fog into glass powder that cascaded downward, unveiling the horrors of the real world again. With all my strength I hauled the two Slayers out of their hollow, sand arching in a parabola above us as I freed the two out from their underground prison and they landed behind me in a painful, crooked mound.
“Hanna!” I spat, rushing to pick her up. She was horribly wounded, missing an arm and all of her chest plating. Sand coated her circuitry, chipping away at the joints and exposing the circuits.
“…An-on?”
“That’s right, it’s me!” I gasped, clinging to her. “I’m here!”
“-shouldn’t…ve come..”
It was a miracle she could move in this state, let alone speak.
“If you weren’t so reckless I wouldn’t be.”
“…Chel-sea?”
Chelsea?…that’s right, another Slayer was with her! Quickly hoisting Hanna into my arms, I made a sweep of the area before my eyes settled on a crimson mecha at four o’clock. I bolted to her, noticing she had significantly less damage than Hanna but had a hole through her chest and knocked unconscious. For how empty the Redoubt was, and the state of these two…just how horrible had the fighting been?
“Hrrng…”
“Chelsea! Chelsea hey can you hear me?!”
“…Child..?....what took—?”
The dull light in her Slayer’s eyes turned bright as she pushed us out of the way. Thin tendrils cracked the air, aimed straight for us. Her weak shove moved us from the attack, but a swarm of them quickly followed, descending on us without mercy.
“AEGIS!” The pale shield glimmered to life but the tendrils were strong. Repositioning Hanna beneath my arm, I heaved Chelsea onto my back and strengthened the shield by narrowing it to those spots so as not to worry about protecting either of them.
“Ch-ild, lower me in order that I may—”
“You’re in no shape to fight!” I grunted, lifting my blade, barely managing to cut through a tendril. Holding a sword with only one hand was exhausting, and looking down I already saw signs of chipping. It wouldn’t be long before it broke. “We can’t stay here, I’m taking you two back to Skull Beach!”
“Ca-n’t…”
Hanna’s voice was barely audible, as if the dust around us made everything sound muffled. But in her faint tone, I still understood her meaning:
“There's no way to escape.”
At least not with Tezcacoatl still alive. So what could I do?
A tendril struck the Aegis causing me to stumble into a different swarth of thick tentacles. I gripped the blade with my only free hand, powering through the attack just enough to spare us what would’ve been yet another death.
And the price for that was my blade. I looked down, the silver metal shattered at the base in jagged rectangles.
“ou…shoul-dn’t..have come…A-non…”
I tightened my Slayer’s grip on the hilt, trying to direct the adrenaline in my body towards something other than panic.
Lia.
The way she saved Faylin and I during Ifnielis’ attack, the way she returned so broken and hurt. And yet I was the one who shouldn’t have come?
“Hanna.” I said, focusing my attention on the one other object freed from the foxhole. “You’re not the only selfish person here.”
Forcing the Aegis to surround my Slayer completely, I scampered like a bug towards the object lying in the charred sand. The Endbringer’s tendrils pelted my shield, destabilizing the sand and nearly penetrating the pale blue hexagons— but thankfully I was carrying two other Slayers, and the added weight helped me stand against what felt like oceanic waves of force crashing against me over and over again.
“Chi…n-n-nO!”
We’d nearly reached it, and though I heard Chelsea’s voice in my ear, I continued.
“Yo-u can not..! Don..’t!”
I grabbed the crimson blade from the black sand; flickers of blood red lightning slithered across the metal as the blade found itself in my hand once again. Pulsating. Resounding with the feeling of survival.
Survival.
I raised it above my head.
“YOU WON’T—!”
———————————————————————————
“♪ And by~~ my song
♪ You shall~~ not fear
♪ So lis~ten~~ close, with-your ear~~
♪ Because you~~ my dear
♪ My brave~~ chevalier
♪ I know you and your heart, are right here~~
♪ And I~~ now too
♪ Shall acco~~mpany you
♪ In your dreams, in your hopes~~ and~~~~
♪ In, your, years~~~~~
“Ehehe, mom you just made that song up!”
“A song has to come from inside you, little beaker.” she said, squishing the girl's nose and kissing her goodnight. “Maybe one day you’ll sing a song for me~!”
“Mmm, but I’m not very good…”
“It doesn't have to be good, dear. It just needs to…”
“Come from inside!” finished the child. “From the hea—”
———————————————————————————
“AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!” I angled the sword just enough to deflect a direct blow, but not the entire attack. We flew across the sky; I was just conscious enough to cut through a tendril aiming to plunge us ten feet beneath the sand with Chelsea’s weapon. But it didn’t lighten our fall. Had Aegis not been protecting us then Hanna would’ve died on impact, not to mention Chelsea via our combined weight.
On instinct I shot up, setting Hanna beside me and removing Chelsea’s arm from my shoulders. Were they okay?
“Child…you..”
I was panting like an animal, vaguely aware of my own pain but more so of what she was trying to say to me. I looked down— her weapon still firmly in my grasp. Even after an attack like that it remained undamaged, unyielding. Was it…glowing?
Had it always been this red?
“Chansonnier…” she said through bated breaths. “…its resonan……chant………aria…”
I gripped her head, shouting her name to no avail.
“…con…cussion.” slurred a pink and blue Slayer, crawling towards us. “She must’ve hit her head…she’s taken so much damage already…”
I didn’t answer her, instead just staring at Chanteuse, Chelsea’s Slayer. Since when did her weapon have a name? She must’ve given it during the fight since she’d never mentioned it before…
I grit my teeth.
Escape wasn’t an option but we had to try……but could we? Even now Senpai was holding the Endbringer back alone, and every second I waste he’s only put under further strain.
Even someone like him would fall given time.
I felt my grip on Chansonnier loosening. My conviction going into this battle had been strong, my desire to do something but…it was disappearing as the reality of the situation seeped into me. I felt it dim, like the light unable to penetrate this dust.
“I can’t get in touch with the Redoubt proper either…it might be possible that Desert Oasis—” I remember Annika saying before Faylin interrupted her. That unwavering optimism that things would be okay.
“I think I know why Miss Lia likes you so much now, Mister Anon!”
And yet……
“……hey.” uttered the recuperating voice next to me.
“Hanna, you shouldn't—”
“—thanks for coming.”
…………………………
Sincerity.
That’s all I felt from her.
Amidst the darkness, bruises, grime, destruction, dryness, cruelty, and reality of our deaths……was Hanna’s sincerity.
How could I answer something like that?
“…not yet.” I said, clutching the hilt of the Song Blade. Throwing myself in front of her, I cut through a swarm of fleshy mass in a wide arc that still managed to strike the dim light of my weakened Aegis.
“Anon..?”
“You still have another person to thank. And—!” I spat, remembering what Chelsea had taught me. A firm stance, low to the ground, the blade an extension of my conviction. Another swarm descended but thicker this time, each tentacle as wide as the base of an oak tree. I prepared to meet them with the glowing blade!
“—you still have TO TEACH ME HOW TO LAND!” I yelled, cursing as the mass tore through the sword— the raw force behind them was so heavy it felt like I was trying to push back the waves of an ocean.
But when I thought of the girl behind me, that girl whose tears hit a porcelain sink…
“GHAHHAHHHHHHHHHHH—!!”
I screamed but the flesh was pushing me back, I couldn’t keep this up any longer. I opened my mouth to tell her to take Chelsea and run but…
Gold.
A golden light tore through the tidal waves of flesh, planting itself next to me. I didn’t have time to think, only to switch the crimson blade into my left hand and grab the golden light with my right, using them to sever two tendrils that aimed for Hanna and Chelsea.
I collapsed, instinctively using the thinner of the two weapons to prop myself up. Only now that the wave had passed could I see that what was in my hand was indeed a weapon— a golden spear.
“Havîn…” said an unknown voice in surprise from behind us. “You…are wielding Havîn…”
“R-Rojin, you’re alive!”
But the girl paid no attention to her as she walked up to me. “Are you the one whose whisper I heard?”
I recalled the green thread that spread across the desert when I searched for Hanna. It seems it reached further than I thought.
“‘Rojin’ is it…?” I asked, staring at her weapon. “Is anyone else awake?”
"Of that, I could not say."
I took a deep breath, reigning back the adrenaline that made my body feel like a thousand ton feather.
"…it wasn't supposed to be here, it wasn't supposed to stay. Now any chance we have at escape lies in killing it."
"As if we haven't tried…"
"Hanna," I found myself saying. “During our training, before you and Lia left to fight Ifnielis, we found Even’s final capability. Found what I'm capable of.…so while you escape, let me try.””
I could feel her heartbeat as I placed Chelsea’s unconscious body in Rojin's arms.
Her hysteria at hearing my suggestion was palpable.
“While Senpai can still fight, while you can still escape……let me try and kill Tezcacoatl.”