Chereads / Vaulstrae (Paused) / Chapter 19 - Resurgence

Chapter 19 - Resurgence

Two crimson moons kept looking at him, as the feminine voice continued to speak with incoherent words.

One minute, she seemed to talk about her being called Naelle, and the other, she was talking about some frozen wound or metallic ones.

In the middle of this word tempest, only one thing could cross Asaki's blurry mind.

'W... What the hell is... Going on...?"

The young man was profusely sweating, multiple strains of the transparent and sticky liquid vainly trying to escape from the heat of his body. The world around Asaki had, since then, stopped spinning like crazy. And the blurry fog which was covering his eyes... Had now, almost, completely disappeared.

His stomach suddenly sent to the young man a burning and acid sensation, soon reaching the depths of his throat. Without wasting a second, the wounded man turned his head to the side, as his body moved on its own to redress itself to the same side.

"Hueerrgh !!!"

As a dirty and smelly burning liquid spat on the ground, sometime even mixed with strains of blood, the young girl immediately backed away by surprise.

Asaki then coughed a few more times, desperately trying to catch his breath back. It burnt, it was... Acid, and so painful...

During a few more minutes, the man kept coughing, as the blonde-haired girl gently caress his back to help him, or... Comfort him ? In fact, Asaki wasn't even feeling it, so...

"Wow !! Now, you're as cold as ice... You should return under the blanket, you're still bleeding, and..."

She seemed so anxious, but... Who wouldn't be ? Asaki, surely looking, and smelling, like a dead corpse, had just vomited like crazy just after he woke up. In fact, it already asked the girl a lot of self-control to not vomit by herself at the gruesome sight.

"I... I'm fine..."

Now that Asaki had rubbed his arm against his mouth to clean it from the dirty liquid, his pale face finally turned in direction to the girl called Naelle, whom he could clearly see now.

The girl seemed slightly younger than both Asaki and Celia, surely around her 17s or something like that. Her long blonde hair were shining like golden strings, a crimson ribbon attached to the right side of her head, as a rose. It matched perfectly with her two red eyes, which reminded of Asaki, with those golden strings, as two ruby resting inside a golden box.

A black school uniform, the same as Celia, covered her body. And even if, compared to that of an Aurora, it didn't look extraordinary ; She still had something, which emanated from her. Some kind of beauty, which only belonged to Naelle. Asaki was sure that inside of her school, she was surely very popular.

But, the nervous voice of the young girl quickly pulled him out of his thoughts, as she gazed awkwardly at his torso.

"You... You're feeling better ? When you arrived, you really looked like you were... Sort of dead."

Asaki slowly looked down at his body, and as he did so, his eyes widened in surprise.

Long and dense bandages covered his torso, and rights ribs, as multiples small scars covered some of his limbs, like a long one drew on his arm.

Scars weren't supposed to appear after only one day... And, he didn't remind getting such wounds during his fight, nor when the gray silhouette pierced through his body.

"After all... We... Wait !"

Quickly, the young man's heart started to pound even harder, as his eyes quickly looked around him to find Celia. Where was she ? Was she alright ? Asaki only reminded partially of a man's voice, saying that someone else was awaking.

"Hey, hey !! Don't panic, your friend is also here ! She's in the other room, and alive ! Even if... Her state is much worse than yours..."

And as she said so, her voice didn't stop, saying something that Asaki feared more than anything at the moment.

"... After all, it's already been three days since you both arrived here."

°°°

A black screen suddenly invaded the young man's eyes, as he felt his body falling brutally on the bed. Another series of coughs invaded the pale body, as thousands of thoughts crossed his mind.

'Three days ? How's that possible ?? We can't live without eating or drinking during three days ! And we arrived three days ago, since how much time did our bodies floated across the river ?'

A slight scream of panic echoed inside of the room as Naelle miserably tried to redress him, which took Asaki multiple minutes before doing so. He felt... So weak, but, each second passing by...

Each second passing by, the same burning energy was slowly recharging all of his muscles.

"Th... Three days...?"

Naelle's blurry silhouette nodded, as she answered.

"Yeah ! We were looking for food across the river when we found both of your frozen bodies resting on the ground. Truth be told, it was really hard to separate the girl's body from your arms, firmly holding her."

And after a few more seconds, Naelle suddenly understood the reason behind the young man's panic.

"Oh, and... It's been around a week since... You know."

'A week ?? Wait... We got attacked during... The second day ? So if today is your fourth day here, it means that...'

This couldn't be real.

The two survivors spent a whole day, alone, in the coldness and suffering from fatal wounds, without dying ??

Asaki's eyes quickly looked again at his torso, as his weak hands immediately tried to remove the bandages.

"N-no ! You shouldn't remove it, you..."

And as the man removed the latest bandage from his body, he finally saw, or, discovered, what was drawn on this pristine skin.

The deep and dreadful wound which previously covered his rights ribs had already almost fully disappeared, a... Sorts of miniatures transparent crystals covering it as a scab would.

The second wound he received on his torso, however, had fully disappeared. A long and pristine scar now replacing it.

Suddenly submerged by fear, the young man almost fainted again, feeling his heartbeats suddenly losing in speed.

"Wh... What... How is..."

And as dizziness and nausea filled his body, a sudden awful scream filled the room, coming directly from...

Behind Asaki.