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.CHAPTER 10.
I felt something searing hot brush against my right arm, and I instinctively rolled across the ground.
“Ah… Aah…!”
I collapsed face-first onto the earth, clutching my burning arm as tears streamed down my face.
Then I saw what was engulfed in flames.
It was Magne.
My fellow recruit.
“No… That’s impossible. It can’t be…”
Behind me, Linia’s voice shook violently as she tried to deny reality.
In the end, her strength gave out, and she collapsed to her knees.
“So what if its eyes are damaged and it can’t see?! Aim for its mouth!”
“Raise your rifles! Three, two, one—Fire!”
“Hey! Can’t you shoot straight?!”
“Haa…”
While the riflemen from First and Third Squads fired in unison, the other soldiers steadied themselves.
The veterans, led by April, resumed their assault.
Winter, though breathing heavily, maintained his flawless stance as he faced the dragon.
BOOM!
Winter swung his sword with tremendous force.
At last, the dragon’s enormous body slowly collapsed to the ground.
“Haa…”
“Don’t relax yet. Confirm the kill.”
Just as everyone finally began to catch their breath…
The dragon’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
ROOOAAARRR!!
A massive torrent of fire burst from its mouth once again.
It was larger than anything we’d seen before.
The flames spread in an instant, igniting the carpet of fallen leaves covering the forest floor.
The darkness that had surrounded us until then vanished all at once.
Winter hurriedly unleashed another blade of icy aura, extinguishing the flames.
Elliot, though visibly startled, immediately fired a massive shot directly into the dragon’s mouth.
That finally ended its life.
For a brief moment…
It looked as though everything had been brought under control.
“AAAAAHHH!”
But then…
I saw it.
Where Linia had been standing…
There was something there.
Something so mangled that it no longer even resembled a human body.
“Hey, Salvia! Your leg!”
…What?
What is this?
Why is this happening to me?
Why?
…Am I even still alive?
One death after another.
The overwhelming helplessness.
The denial.
The feeling that my very sense of self was beginning to collapse.
“Ah… ngh… aaah…!”
Then an indescribable pain exploded through my leg.
Still lying on the ground, I reached down to touch it—
The instant my hand made contact, I jerked it away with a scream.
My leg was on fire.
“Hngh… A-Aah!”
Unable to move it properly, I instinctively clawed at the ground with my fingertips, dragging myself forward.
I had only one thought.
Make this stop.
Please… somehow… make it stop.
“…Hey! Where did she go?! Light up the area with your aura!”
Then I heard rushing water.
SHHHHHH—!
Throughout the battle, I’d been hearing the roar of water somewhere to my left.
…A stream.
It was a mountain stream.
The soldiers rushed toward me to extinguish the flames consuming my leg.
But my mind had already gone half blank.
Instead, I crawled toward the water…
And threw myself into it.
“Hngh…!”
A sizzling sound erupted from my leg.
The pain was unbearable.
At the same time, freezing mountain water pierced straight through me, chilling me to the bone.
“Haa… haa…”
Everything felt numb.
So much had happened…
Yet it felt as though someone had plugged my ears.
All I could hear was a dull ringing.
My fellow recruits…
They were all dead?
Really?
“Hey! Get out of there!”
…I couldn’t hear them clearly.
SHHHHHHHH—!
The rushing water drowned everything else out.
And more than anything…
I couldn’t think.
It was too dark.
I’d lost my sword before falling into the stream.
Without the glow of my aura…
I couldn’t see anything.
Nothing.
My leg still refused to move.
Water kept pouring into my lungs.
“Why isn’t she coming up?!”
“Don’t leave her in there! It’s pitch-black! Find her and pull her out!”
“I-I can’t see where she is…! It’s too dark!”
“Torches! Bring every torch you’ve got!”
Carried helplessly by the raging current…
I simply drifted downstream.
ROOOOOOM!
A thunderous roar erupted somewhere behind me.
Now I couldn’t hear the soldiers at all.
I realized something was terribly wrong.
Yet my thoughts remained sluggish.
My body refused to respond.
In the pitch-black night…
As more and more of my body disappeared beneath the water…
I desperately flailed my arms.
I had no idea which way was up.
I couldn’t see anything.
The current kept forcing me backward.
It grew stronger.
And stronger.
…Was this always how this world was meant to end?
Maybe…
Maybe everyone was always destined to die like this.
Maybe this world had always been this cruel.
Dragged deep beneath the current…
I squeezed my eyes shut.
If this is the kind of world it is…
Maybe… it’s finally time to give up.
I’m done…
There was no reason for me to keep living here.
None at all.
Just as I was finally about to let go…
Something warm grabbed my hand.
…Warm.
Instinctively, I clung to it with all my strength.
In that freezing water…
It was the only source of warmth.
Whoever it was had dug their fingernails deep into my palm as they gripped me with desperate force.
Someone wrapped both arms tightly around me from behind.
Held so firmly…
I couldn’t resist anymore.
It was exactly the rescue hold we’d learned during water survival training.
ROOOOOOM!!
An enormous crashing sound thundered directly behind us.
Now…
That roar was the only thing I could hear.
A moment later…
My body was suddenly lifted into the air.
Then I felt myself falling.
“Haa… haa!”
I must have blacked out for a moment.
When I opened my eyes…
I was lying in the shallow water along the riverbank.
“Don’t… don’t die…”
Someone was pressing down on my chest.
“C-Cough!”
Water burst from my mouth along with a violent cough.
My body lurched upward.
I tried to see who was performing CPR on me…
But my eyes burned so badly from the water that I couldn’t open them.
I managed to raise one hand and weakly grasp the person’s forearm.
I felt like I was freezing to death.
Yet the arm I touched was burning hot.
My fingers tightened instinctively.
My nails dug into their skin.
“…Ah.”
When I finally managed to open my eyes…
I found Aquila looking down at me.
His jet-black hair clung wetly to his face.
Something—whether water or tears—I couldn’t tell—ran down from his reddish-orange eyes.
The instant our eyes met…
A sharp jolt shot through my entire body.
It felt as though our souls had become connected.
“Don’t die.”
“Please… don’t die.”
“You… at least you have to live.”
“You have to survive… please.”
For the first time…
I heard genuine emotion in Aquila’s voice.
He sounded as though he were begging.
“Cough… You… you were still… here…”
Yes.
He was still alive.
I’d thought everyone was gone.
But he was here.
“I… I couldn’t save…”
Aquila stumbled over his words, trying desperately to tell me something.
“Cough… I know.”
I interrupted him between violent coughs.
I didn’t need to hear the rest.
Just by looking into his eyes…
I understood everything he was feeling.
“I know… exactly what you’re thinking.”
“…Don’t speak anymore.”
Still looking at me with those vivid crimson eyes…
Aquila reached out.
He carefully lifted me into a sitting position.
Then he leaned me forward and firmly patted my back.
“You swallowed a lot of water. Spit it out.”
“Cough! Cough!”
Every cough brought more water pouring from my lungs.
“That’s it.”
“You’re doing well.”
“That’s right.”
He kept whispering encouragement into my ear…
As though coughing up water were some remarkable achievement.
Only after there was nothing left to cough up…
Did I finally begin to feel the cold.
It was freezing.
My whole body shook uncontrollably.
It felt as though even my brain were freezing solid.
Still dazed…
Unable to fully understand what had happened…
I spoke without thinking.
“I’m cold.”
It was pure instinct.
His body…
The one I was touching…
Was warm.
“Hold me.”
“Okay.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll do anything.”
“I’ll do whatever you need.”
I reached toward him with ice-cold hands.
“So… please live.”
“You just have to stay alive.”
“That’s enough…”
Aquila pulled me into an embrace so tight it nearly stole my breath.
Wanting desperately to survive…
I wrapped my arms around his back with all the strength I had left.
Back in the stream…
He’d gripped my hand so fiercely that his fingernails had torn open my palm.
Blood still seeped from the wounds.
They stung.
But I didn’t care.
I wanted to live.
“No matter what… I’ll save you.”
“You’ll never die again.”
“I’ll make sure you live…”
Still holding me tightly…
Aquila muttered those words over and over like a man who had lost his mind.
Our clothes were soaked.
Our bodies were soaked.
Pressed tightly against each other, we could feel every ounce of the other’s warmth.
And yet…
There wasn’t the slightest trace of romance in that embrace.
This wasn’t a love story.
We simply wanted to survive.
And we desperately needed someone to lean on.
Paradoxically…
The only way either of us could keep fighting to stay alive…
Was by making sure the other survived.
So we simply held each other.
It was…
The warmest,
and at the same time,
the driest embrace imaginable.
