The church of Letatras...
This is what the, whatever could be the gray entity, showed to Asaki before transpiercing his chest.
What could this dream ; seemingly coming from a bad written novel, means ? That some kind of old and almighty God will give him his power in order to save the world ??
'Like "You are the chosen one Asaki, save Vaulstrae's society" stuffs ?'
Aah... If only it could be that easy, to be some kind of mundane novel's mc.
Still, now that Asaki fully recalled the memory of this strange sight, it seemed impossible for it to leave his mind, not even for a second.
Indeed, if there was really something special about that strange sea of darkness, then his only hope was the church.
... even if Asaki was actually dying from fear. He, who litteraly almost died few days ago, still couldn't stay hidden without doing anything.
But he wasn't alone ! An Aurora, one girl of three top 60 of his entire generation, was following him !
Even fatal wounds seemingly not enough to be able to take her down, since an entire hole under her right shoulder had healed within a couple days.
"We need to turn after this tunnel right ?"
Celia, now holding a new map behind Asaki, nodded at the man's question. It was the map of the sewers, which they had found inside the cellar. Surely did the previous owner of the house work in there, explaining the access to the stinking tunnels.
In the middle of this dirty and smelly underground walked elegantly Celia, also now dressed in brand new clothes. Those were fair more practical than the previous one, fitting the girl's new lifestyle.
A long and black sort of war coat was covering her top, a small golden symbol encrusted on one of the sleeve indicating to the survivor that it was a sort of uniform. Matching it, followed black trousers, in the same style and texture than the coat.
Even in a man's uniform, Celia looked... Absolutely gorgeous, way too beautiful for such clothes.
'Soon, if we survive long enough... She'll have a lot of men running after her.'
If not in the following weeks... Some persons, even in a sort of apocalypse, couldn't properly control their crotch.
"Asaki ?"
Breaking the awkward silence as they turned, Celia's voice echoed across the whole tunnel. The young man simply made a fainted noise to indicate to her that he was listening, making her continue her sentence.
"I know that you don't have the exact answer but... What do you think is going on?"
About what ? The twins ? Wounds? Monsters ? Nah... She was talking about everything, about what started it all.
"An apocalypse... There's not any single word capable of describing what's happening right now."
Without letting some time for the woman to respond, he continued.
"Monsters appear out of nowhere and destroy everything, everyone die and destruction is the only ruler left in the world... Looking for any answer right now would be useless, as our unique priority is to survive, but... Yeah, things will never be like they were before..."
During seconds, Celia and Asaki didn't say anything, both thinking about everything and nothing. Surrounded by death, sleep deprived, tanked unbearable pain and continuously followed by the threat of getting killed...
Both already has a permanent trace of this apocalypse inside of their mind.
°°°
Minutes later, the duo finally reached the rusty ladder they were looking for, the journey now once again filled by silence and despair.
Climbing it was this time way harder than the one before ; firstly because they needed to hurry, night arriving in around two hours, and secondly because this ladder was fair more rusty than the one before.
But in the end, after that Celia skillfully reached its peak in no time, and so helped Asaki with his climbing, they did it.
"Now, Let's just walk through the forest. There's trees to hide us and it'll be more direct."
Asaki nodded at Celia's proposition and then, both started to walk il the direction of the small mountain where the church was located. Not enjoyed at the idea to spend the whole travel without saying a word, the young man began :
"I was wondering, you already got along pretty well with Naelle huh ?"
The girl slightly smiled, scratching the back of her head while replying.
"Yeah, I wouldn't have convinced her so quickly otherwise."
But both Asaki and Celia knew that something was wrong with the girl, and the twins in general.
"Haven't noticed anything strange about her?"
Faking extremely well being surprised, Celia shook her head, the orange piercing gaze now completely facing Asaki.
"N-no, not at all. Why would I ? She's so kind !"
Kind yeah, and thais was all what the problem was about. After all...
"Also that she mentioned multiple "others guys" and seems scared as f*ck to be alone ?"
Both of them instantly stopped in the middle of the trees, Celia looking deeply in front of her as Asaki stared at the two suns.
"I'm pretty sure that she told you something about what could be happening in the cellar."
The man marked a small silence, before resuming.
"After all, they lied to us since the beginning..."
The red-haired girl was surely experiencing a sudden flow of memories crossing her mind, as Asaki exposed everything that was happening.
"... Remember what month we are ?"
Hesitantly, Celia replied, still not understanding everything that the young man was telling her.
"February... ?"
And as she replied, an arrogant smiled drew on Asaki's face, his face filled by ressentfulness toward the ones who lied to them, although it was surely not their fault.
"Not anymore..."
Blue birds suddenly crossed the sky above their head, singing a rare and beautiful melody within the forest.
"We're in the middle of March."