The Song of the End of Time (VI)

A couple of days passed uneventfully, which helped me to recover completely. I was outside watching the sky reviewing the past events.

"Asriel? Are you still worried about the occupants of this cabin?"

Maria's voice snapped me out of the thoughts I was spinning in. Mostly I'm starting to worry about her ability to guess what's going through my mind.

"Yes. Still no sign of any people outside of us. This place must have been inhabited a few weeks ago"

Could it be that our fight was so loud that it was overheard here and everyone fled in terror? Without taking supplies or anything like that? It's very suspicious. Maybe they also heard the end times song and fearing the worst fled for shelter.

"Should we go investigate around here?"

"That's the same thing I was thinking. We've rested well this past while, I think we can leave now"

"Ok~. I already have all my energy recharged thanks to sleeping on a soft bed"

Thus we left the village on a path heading southeast after loading our backpacks with food and water.

An hour of walking passed this way without any mishap, until suddenly we saw a thing that stood out too much from the rest.

"There" I said pointing my finger.

A figure, lying on the ground, with its clothes stained red.

"That's it..."

"Wait here. I'll check it out"

I took a few steps forward and confirmed what it was. A human corpse. He had a face of horror and surprise, with a deep cut on his chest. Who or what could be the cause?

"Help..."

I heard a faint voice in the distance. A man who apparently had no visible wounds was lying on the side of the path.

"Are you all right? I'll heal you right away!"

Maria without a second thought manifested her necklace and began to treat his wounds.

"Tell me, what happened to you?" I took the opportunity to ask him.

"... a strange guy with a long weapon..."

"Where did he go?"

"... he disappeared in front of our eyes... he covered himself with something and..."

At that moment his head went to one side, his eyes lost all light.

"No, hold on! Maria, what's wrong!?"

"I, I don't know. He only has a slight wound on his chest, but for some reason I can't heal it. Inside his organs are no longer..."

She was silent.

"What's going on? This gives me a bad feeling"

No doubt he mentioned a person. Could there be a human who did this? Could it be someone like Victor or Dimitri?

Maria was desperately trying to heal him, until she finally gave up. He had lost his life, there is nothing more we can do about it. What could have happened to him...?

In the silence of the environment, I seem to feel a presence behind.

"Asriel..."

"Silence"

"Huh?"

I knelt down to where she was and put my hand on her mouth.

"I think there's someone here" I said to her in a whisper.

"Where?"

"I thought I heard footsteps behind us"

Without turning my head, I concentrated as much as I could on determining the source of this concern.

"...I don't feel anything. Are you sure?"

"Strange, it's as if the feeling has vanished. Perhaps it's just me"

Did I imagine that? Maybe I'm being paranoid because of the peculiar scene.

"Are you really okay?"

"I think so. Anyway, he's been murdered. The culprit must be close by, we must be on our guard Maria"

"U, understood!"

We left the man there and followed the path to the south.

After a while of walking we arrived near the entrance to a town.

Somewhat reminiscent of my own, with slight remnants of structural damage to the buildings farthest from the center. As we walked further in, the now unusual stability of everything was noticeable.

How could it remain so quiet? The deserted streets with no sign of anyone.

"Something strange definitely happened in this place. The air felt heavy"

"Look Asriel" she said grabbing my sleeve and pointing at a silhouette in the distance.

A person was standing in the middle of the street, who slowly turned around. We had already made eye contact, there was nothing left to do but face this situation head on.

Step by step we and the stranger approached. When we were about 10 meters away we all stopped.

It was certainly a strange sight. She was holding a striking umbrella to cover himself from the sun with one hand, the shadow it generated prevented me from seeing her face well. In the other a book of a particular cover rested on his arm. She was wearing an elegant shirt with long sleeves, and shorts that exposed the skin of her legs. Mmm, if I'm not mistaken-

At that moment a couple of guys suddenly came out of their hiding places and surrounded us.

"Damn, they were hiding inside the buildings we had passed"

This looks bad. 3 against 2, the numbers don't favor us.

One of them was holding a briefcase on his back, while the other put his hand inside his pocket.

"Asriel..."

"It seems they have no intention of talking. We'll have to get out of this any way we can"

"O, okay"

If I bring in Kurogane we could balance the situation in our favor, though I still don't know what kind of powers they'll have.

I'd better save that option for later, in the worst case we could use it as a distraction and escape. In any case, I tried to take out my glove, but it refused. Could it be a sequel? Hasn't my soul healed completely? I don't have time for this!

I had no choice but to pull out my katana, and at that instant a strange mishap happened. My weapon began to make a high-pitched sound, as if it was resonating with something.

"What's going on?" I wondered aloud in surprise.

I looked up and was shocked to notice that not only this one, that book also emits that noise. Even that guy's suitcase and something inside the other guy's pocket were doing the same thing.

"I see you're one of us" said the person in front of us, coming closer and pushing his umbrella aside revealing her face.

A girl in her 20s with brown curly hair smiled at me, her face expressionless.

"You are...?"

"Welcome, you're the last one to arrive. The tournament is about to start"