Sezel and Vesta sprinted away from the devastated part of the city, towards the deeper alleys, where they might be able to find a building with a proper roof and protection from the upcoming storm.
The wind scythed between the narrow alleyways in biting gusts, lashing their bodies like invisible whips, trying to shove them off balance with every step. They ran as if their very lives depended on it.
Because they did.
And yet, even as they moved with that desperate urgency, a more fragile wish burned beneath the urgency of survival, the hope that sowhere along their path, they would find Shiki and Mari. The chance felt impossibly small, like chasing a shadow through the rain, but the thought refused to die.
They had nothing on them now, no food, no water, no real supplies at all. Their bags, stuffed with everything they might need to live another day, were still with Shiki. All Sezel carried was the sniper rifle slung across his back, its weight digging into his shoulders, a useless anchor against the storm.
The inner part of the city was still alright. Only the outer rim near the main street had been leveled by the beast's rampage. These ruins, in the deeper part were still vertical, if strangled beneath years of invasive wilderness. Vines as thick as a man's wrist wound across crumbling doorways, sealing them shut. Windows gaped like the hollow eyes of skulls, black and empty.
"Look for a large building!" Sezel's voice was hoarse, half-swallowed by the shriek of the wind.
Every second felt like a claw raking down their backs, every step made their heart beat faster. The intensity of the clouds had soared to extre within just a little ti.
Behind them, the distant blasts… and the tremors… were gone. Silenced. Whatever clash had been raging between the Slayers and the Cecaelia had ended. There was no telling what the outco was, but Sezel inwardly wished for the man and his whole cohort to be eliminated.
Without warning, Vesta's hand gripped his, stopping him. He turned, breath heaving, and saw her frozen mid-step, eyes fixed in disbelief at sothing to their right.
"We don't have ti!" Sezel barked. The rain hadn't yet opened up, the venomous drops had begun to fall, but the sky above looked ready to split open at any second. Soon the dreaded venomous rain would fall in earnest.
Vesta didn't answer. She broke into a sprint, darting down the side alley without another glance at him.
Sezel gritted his teeth, muttering a curse, but followed. Questions churned in his head — what had she seen? And was it worth wasting precious seconds of their dwindling ti? and to so degree he wanted to save his own ass.
They careened around the second turn… and Sezel's eyes widened. Not in fear or shock. But with relief.
"Shiki!" Vesta's voice cracked with sothing close to joy.
Ahead, flanked by the shadowed walls of the alley, Shiki was running from the direction of the main street, two bulging bags slung over his back. And on his shoulders, gripping tightly, was Mari.
Shiki's stride faltered — then stopped entirely. His eyes widened, and his breath caught. For a mont, it was as if he had stumbled on a vision from a fever dream, sothing so impossible he couldn't trust it to be real.
CRACK!
The world was split in two. A spear of lightning tore the sky from horizon to horizon, flooding the endless dark in searing white-blue light. For that fleeting heartbeat, everything was blindingly clear: the broken streets, the ruins, the jagged vines dancing in the wind. Then ca the deafening hollow-booming roar of thunder.
Sezel and Vesta sprinting toward Shiki. Mari slid down from his back and, without hesitation, barreled toward Sezel, her face pale, her small hands clutching at his clothes the mont she reached him.
"Where did you go, mister?" she asked softly, her voice trembling with fear.
Sezel gulped hard, a strange feeling of relief arising in his gut. Slowly, he raised a hand to ruffle Mari's snow-white hair. "I'm right here," he said, his voice low and steady, though it felt as if his lungs were releasing a breath he'd been holding for hours.
He bent into a crouch, turning so his back faced her. "Co on. Fast. Get up."
Mari clambered onto his back without hesitation, her small hands locking onto him as if letting go would an losing him again forever.
Shiki handed one of the bags to Vesta, keeping the other slung over his shoulder, and the four of them resud their flight with no further words, the rain had started to get fast.
Through the sheets of darkness ahead, Shiki spotted a larger building standing taller than those around it. "There!" he shouted over the wind.
Their pace increased to a reckless sprint, their legs burning as they sped through the labyrinth of narrow streets. At last, the building lood before them, broader than the narrow hos around it, with lines of cracked windows and an austere, blocky silhouette. A school, perhaps, or sothing similar.
Behind it, cutting the world clean in two, was a massive wall of stone, so long it seed to stretch on without end. It was like a boundary between this city and the world on the other side.
The building itself was almost entirely consud by the wilderness. Vines, black-green and thick as ropes, coiled over every window and fra, layered in a net. The rusted front gates groaned under the weight of ivy and shadow. Behind them, only darkness waited. On any other night, it would have been reason enough to turn away.
But the rain was advancing in earnest now, and choice had been stripped away along with ti.
They rushed the gates, cutting through the vine-wall with hurried strikes of their blades. Vesta's sword burned with its familiar fire, the blade shedding warm light. The glow kissed the darkness ahead, revealing walls, fractured tiles, and a staircase choked in plant life.
The climb to the first floor was a gauntlet, but here the growth was thin — only scattered vines, half-dead in the dim, stale air. Better than the net beneath.
Sezel set Mari gently on the ground. Shiki all but collapsed, his back sliding down the wall until he sat heavily on the cracked floorboards. Their breathing filled the silence. They'd covered more than distance tonight; they'd crossed from the edge of death to sothing that, however briefly, felt like safety.
Sezel walked to one of the cracked windows. Outside, the rain's tempo had quickened, each poisonous drop tapping against shattered glass. The wind howled through the crumbling gaps of the ruins, carrying with it the mournful voice of a city long dead.
He turned back to the others, moving to a clear patch of wall and lowering himself down. His sniper rifle leaned within easy reach, his katana resting beside it.
No one spoke. Exhaustion had stolen words from all of them. Mari, swaying from fatigue, curled beside Sezel and rested her white head on his lap. He looked down at her, a small smile forming on his lips, he had found the reason of why this girl was important to him.
'I will protect you as i promised.'
The rain beca a steady rhythm outside, its precise, soft beats against stone and glass a distant orchestra. Vesta leaned back with her eyes closed, her hands resting on her knees. Shiki took the post by the window, eyes scanning the street below without pause.
Sezel fought against the weight pulling at his eyelids. He hadn't closed them once since stepping into the Spirit Realm, the four long days of exhaustion made every part of his body sour. And unknowingly it consud him. In the quiet, with the rain as his lullaby and Mari's warmth against him, he stopped fighting.
The tension bled out of him. His eyes shut.
For the first ti in days, Sezel surrendered to sleep.
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