Facing their train tickets, Eleazar and his companions quickly located the train they were boarding
The dark locomotive had warmed up with black smoke, and some unerased craters were still vaguely visible on the shell.
Eleazar mused.
After checking his ticket and stepping into the noisy compartment 12, he swept in out of habit.
The neatly arranged seats were nearly full, people were either whispering or talking loudly, and some young people, who were taking this kind of transportation for the first time, were gleefully poking their heads out of the windows and looking to the right and left.
Walking to the middle of the compartment, Eleazar found their seats.
16D...
It was a four-person booth with a young man and woman already seated inside.
"This is it, you sit in it."
Letting Fina sit down first, Eleazar, who had put his bags away, sat down beside her.
The youth sitting across from them stole a glance at them and quickly averted his gaze again.
Eleazar also sized up the two across from him and averted his gaze after not realizing anything special.
Fina pulls out the arcane book of astrometrics again and continues to flip through it to watch.
She was accepted into the astronomy department at the University of St. Inge because of her excellent physics grades and has recently been brushing up on her astronomy knowledge.
Eleazar watched her silently.
This moment in time was extremely beautiful, the sunlight cast down on that quiet side face, she lightly opened her lips, white teeth unconsciously biting her thumb, a shaky sunlight was like an old film camera, framing this scene.
But suddenly, she picked up the book, turned in a circle, and leaned heavily against him.
Eleazar sighed regretfully and tilted his head back, eyes slowly closing to get some shut-eye.
"Woo--"
The black railroad train, spewing thick smoke, sped through the endless countryside with an unstoppable momentum.
From the daytime when the sun is blazing in the sky to the night when the moon is high in the sky, the Mercedes is tireless, as if it never stops.
Across mountains, across rivers, through suburban farms and industrial parks everywhere, the roar of steel resounded in every gathering place.
The clamor in the carriages, likewise, continued throughout the day.
Eleazar, who thought he would change by late night, is completely dead.
The grinding of teeth, the snoring, the sleep talking, plus the rhythmic rumble of the railroad tracks beneath his feet; all made it completely clear to Eleazar, who had never been able to get into deep meditation, that practicing in a place like this was a fool's errand.
"Might as well go to sleep."
Glancing at Fina, who was sleeping on her shoulder, Eleazar lifted a hand to help gently ruffle her hair a bit.
Then he too leaned back against his head, eyes closed tightly, and loosened his tight frown as he tried to fall asleep.
I don't know how long it took, but the compartment went completely dead silent.
The sleeping pretty face frowned slightly, and her eyelashes fluttered for a while before her green eyes gradually opened, she glanced absently at the roof of the compartment, and then at the man beside her who was sleeping on all fours; her eyes closed and she continued to sleep.
...
"Boom!"
The carriage suddenly lurched violently, and without waiting for those sleeping people to react, a sudden huge force threw everyone up high.
The world suddenly spun around, thunderous explosions boomed in the ears, and people were like toys in the hands of children, crashing around and being thrown at will in the unrivaled onslaught, until their limbs were twisted and torn apart, coloring every inch of the carriage red.
As the tragedy worsened, and even the sturdy walls of the carriages began to twist, warp, and crack, the few remaining conscious people finally realized what they were facing.
Train derailment!
The train rolled violently across the wilderness like a dehydrated fish, leaving a series of shocking wounds on the earth and throwing uncountable blood-red things along the way.
Screams rose and fell in the carriage, long since reduced to hell.
"Boom!"
As the train let out one last mournful roar, the carriages finally stopped tumbling and skidded across the ground for a long distance.
"Tick tock... Tick tock..."
Inside the twisted and warped compartment, a bloodied Eleazar struggles to raise his head.
The sight was blood red, and I wondered if my eyeballs were bleeding, or if this was the real sight.
Fuzzy chunks of flesh were glued to the walls of the wagon everywhere, and dripping blood flowed like a stream, drenching the hellish-painted scrolls below.
The whole world was as silent as if it had died.
Blank head, which was just beginning to come to terms with what had just happened...
Eleazar slowly turns his head, trying to make sure the person next to him is still there.
Fina's gone, and he's not where he was.
The accident that had just happened had turned all good things upside down.
Eleazar laughed miserably and moved his body with great difficulty, trying to stand up, only to realize that his body had already been pierced with holes from the steel pipe, while his left leg was gone, and a sharp, gut-wrenching pain came from all over his body.
"I..."
The wounds on his body were eating up all his strength like a black hole.
"I'm dying?"
Eleazar's eyes are a little hollow.
The memories of his life skimmed by, finally settling on the moment when he dragged his time-consuming body to open the magic guidebook.
It's so hard to concoct a magic potion.
Good to know the transcendent.
It was so hard to get a new life...
"How can I die in a place like this!"
Eleazar let out a roar, the color in the pupils of his eyes instantly faded, his broken body filled with spirituality, and that raging transcendent power caused the space around him to quickly crumble like a mirror.
...
A sweaty Eleazar's eyes snapped open.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble..."
The traveling sound of wheels crushing the railroad tracks rang rhythmically in his ears.
Eleazar slowly turns his head to look out the window and realizes that the train is still moving at a normal speed.
As if the catastrophe that just happened was just a nightmare?
His eyes shifted down to Fina, who was leaning on his shoulder.
Dropping his head, he sniffed deeply at the scent of her hair, and his violently rising and falling heartbeat then slowly settled down.
It was only now that he came back to his senses, feeling like he had come to life.
Yes, it was just a nightmare...
It's only too real...
It's so unacceptably real, it's as if it was purposely woven together.
Lifting Fina's impotent face, he gently ruffled his hair and wiped the sweat from it.
Her tightly closed eyelids fluttered, her brow furrowed slightly, and her body was stiff and unable to move as if she had fallen into a horrible dream that was difficult to wake up from.
Not only her but all the passengers around her who were paralyzed in their seats, their expressions were all in agony as if they were caught in some kind of desperate dream, with tears streaming down their faces.
Eleazar grimaced and looked around at the faint red mist that filled the area.
Amid this transcendent power, all were plunged into their brutal nightmares.
The spewing killing intent was slowly searing him...
Gently kissing Fina's forehead, Eleazar laid her down flat on her back.
But just as he got up, he realized that she had grabbed hold of him at some point.
"Be good, I'll be right back."
Eleazar removed the jacket she was clinging to and gently covered her body.