When Arashi looked toward where the knife had come from, he recognized the guard. The same one they had seen beside Lily when they first arrived. The same one who had carried that traumatized girl. The guard looked at them with a serious expression.
"You two can't fight them off. Just leave with the others."
Neither of them said anything. Their eyes were fixed on the monsters closing in on the guards. The guard's patience ran out.
"What are you two waiting for? Do you want to become their dinner?"
Arashi watched as the other two types of monsters finally made their move — cutting through the guards and pushing toward the crowd. The guard stepped in front of them and told them to run.
Without a second thought, Arashi grabbed Emi's hand and pulled her into a run because she wasn't moving on her own. Emi shot him a sharp look mid run.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Arashi answered, his voice unsteady from the running.
"We're nothing against them. Even if we try, we can't even scratch them. We will just become a burden for the guards. Try to understand."
Emi's response cut through everything.
"Shut up."
It wasn't loud. But it was deep enough to reach somewhere it shouldn't have. She forced his hand off her and ran beside him without another word. Her voice stayed with Arashi longer than he wanted it to. He already regretted what he said.
While running Arashi heard something behind him. He glanced back. Monsters were closing in from every direction. But what made his eyes shake with fear wasn't the numbers. It was the guard, the one who had told them to run. Struggling helplessly against the frail looking monster. Before Arashi could look away the guard lost his hand to it.
Arashi snapped his gaze forward. He shut his eyes tight, clenched his fists, and pressed his teeth hard against each other.
He felt useless. Completely and utterly useless.
After a moment Arashi heard Loid screaming his name. He stopped right away. Emi crossed past him, stopped and looked back at him.
"Hey, what?"
Arashi looked back and saw Loid frantically waving at him to move, screaming his name. Before he could understand why, a strong presence hit him.
His eyes went wide.
His body froze.
Slowly, like something was forcing him, he turned his head.
A frail looking monster had appeared behind Emi. So fast it was like it had teleported there. Its backhand connected with her side with a sickening force and sent her flying. She crashed into two girls her age who were running to survive. The impact brought all three of them down. Emi hit the ground hard, rolling slightly. One girl landed half on top of her. The other collapsed beside them.
Arashi tried to move toward the monster but his legs gave out beneath him. He hit the ground.
'Damn it. Move. Move.'
He was screaming inside his own head. He tried to push himself up but his heartbeat was out of control. His breathing turned heavy and desperate, his head dropping low. It looked like simply breathing was a battle on its own.
The monster approached the three of them slowly. Like it didn't want to kill them fast. Like it wanted them to feel every second of it.
The other two girls couldn't move. They sat on their knees, shaking. The monster stopped in front of them. It didn't had any expression on its face... Just pure killing intent.
Emi moved in front of them. She was scared. But she raised her upper body, spread her arms wide open and placed herself between the monster and those two girls her age.
The monster raised its sharp hand. Arashi forced himself up. His body felt like it weighed twice what it should. He ran but it wasn't really running.
It was more like falling forward and catching himself each step, his breathing ragged, his whole body hunched and screaming at him to stop.
Still he didn't stop.
But he was too far away. The monster drove its sharp hand downward. Emi and the two girls closed their eyes. They had accepted their fate. Arashi screamed with everything he had.
"Emiii!"
But the killing blow never came. All across the battlefield every monster stopped. Their hands reached for their heads. Something was hurting them, something only they could hear or feel. The frail looking monster's sharp hand hovered in the air, forgotten, as it pressed its own blade against its skull.
Emi saw her opportunity. She pushed herself up fast. Arashi finally reached them, breathless.
Emi drove a powerful spinning hook kick with her right leg into the monster. It hit the ground hard and couldn't get up. Arashi grabbed the two girls hands and pulled them into a run. Emi glanced down at the monster lying unconscious at her feet then turned and ran beside them without a word.
Finally, they pushed their way into the crowd. The monsters were still gripping their heads, struggling. Some of the guards didn't waste a second, they moved in and started cutting them down. One guard shouted over the chaos.
"We don't know what happened to them. But this is our chance. Kill them all."
But the moment the guards thought it was over the monsters lifted their heads. Like nothing had happened. Like the pain had never existed. They moved before anyone could react — faster than before, cutting straight past the guards and plunging into the crowd instantly.
In the chaos a young girl, barely on the edge of her teenage years, got separated from her parents. Terrified and lost she reached out and grabbed the closest person in front of her, clutching their waist tightly.
It was Roselia.
"Please... save me. Help me find my mom."
Roselia looked down at her. Then at the monster closing in. Then back at the girl, whose hair was messy, trembling in fear and desperate to find her mom.
Without a word she grabbed the girl's arms, peeled them off her dress and shoved her toward the monster. Then she ran.
No hesitation.
No looking back.
The monster's sharp hand came down on the girl's shoulder. It didn't kill her. It just gripped her tight and started dragging her across the ground toward the rift.
Emi noticed it. She felt angry at Roselia. But it wasn't the time for that.
Without wasting a second, she ran toward the monster, pushing through the crowd. Arashi tried to stop her, reaching out with one hand, but failed.
"Emi, don't—"
But Emi didn't pay any attention to him. So Arashi forced himself through the crowd to follow her. Emi and Arashi both struggled through the crowd, crashing into people.
Emi never took her eyes off the girl being dragged away, crying in pain, trembling in fear, and desperately calling for help.
Then, Arashi and Emi barely managed to push their way out of the crowd. By the time they did, the monster had already dragged the girl into the rift. Emi froze in shock. An instinct to protect others took over her. She looked at Arashi.
"I'm going inside." Arashi was stunned.
"What?!"
Before he could stop her, Emi ran and jumped into the rift.
"Emi, wait—"
Arashi noticed the rift was beginning to close. The monsters were retreating through it, dragging people with them. He had no other choice.
He ran toward the rift. His heart pounded, not from running, but from worrying about Emi and remembering the promise he had made to her sisters.
Then he leaped and barely made it inside as the rift was only inches away from closing. But as Arashi disappeared into the rift, Loid reached out and grabbed for his leg.
He was too late.
The rift closed before he could stop him.
Loid stared at the place where the rift had closed. His outstretched hand slowly tightened into a fist.
At the other side, Arashi was falling from the sky. For a few seconds, he couldn't process what was happening. Then, he realized he was falling. He flailed his arms in panic like a chicken.
" Shit. If I fall from this height, I'll die."
His movements while falling were like swimming in the sky. After a few moments, he looked down and saw a forest. But it was dark down there. Only the green leaves of giant trees were visible. As he fell lower, he finally saw the ground. But it was still far too high for him to land safely.
Land. Instant death.
"I'm dead! I'm dead!"
He was heading straight toward a giant tree. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to land there.
"Still too high..."
The wind tore his words away. He knew if he landed on the trees, he'd survive. But it would still hurt like hell.
Finally, he crashed into the upper branches.
"No, no, no..."
Thick branches smacked against his body, forcing a gasp out of him with every hit.
Think! Think!
Leaves blocked his vision. All he could see was green. He bounced from one branch to another.
He couldn't tell if he was still falling or spinning. Branches kept slamming into him from every direction.
Suddenly, he realized he was being hit by fewer branches. Then he finally broke through the leaves and was back in the open air. Before he could react, he hit the ground.
"Ouch...!"
He didn't stand up immediately. He lay there, staring straight at the dark sky, his ears ringing. He couldn't breathe. The impact had knocked the wind out of him.
He coughed.
He wondered if anything in his body was broken.
Then it slowly hit him.
"Wahh... I'm still alive?"
After some moments of lying down peacefully, he stood up and looked here and there. The place was too dark. The forest was covered with big trees. Some were green, while others had no leaves; they were dead. Blood and horrifying bones of some unknown creatures were scattered across the ground. The ground was slightly broken in some places.
Arashi let out the words with both excitement and fear.
"God damn! What's this place?"
He started walking. His eyes kept looking around. He started searching for Emi and shouting her name, cupping his hands around his mouth to make his voice carry.
"Emi. Where are you? Emi."
He shouted her name repeatedly as he walked, crossing a small signboard without noticing it.
There was something written on it in black.
Death Valley