In the sky above Yashiro station, Kaelis was observing its destroyed state.
From this height, it was hard to imagine the place ever being alive.
Building toppled over, the train rails were warped and the outer wall showed faint signs of cracking.
Just what kind of kabane could do this?
He wondered what kind of variant must have done this level of damage.
A regular kabane is only a little stronger than humans and the new 'wazatori' is at most twice as strong. But they aren't powerful enough to cause cracks in the wall nor bend rails, no matter how much there are.
So the thing that caused this was definitely something a lot more powerful.
But then if something of that caliber passed through here, how are there survivors?
Shaking his head and clearing these thoughts, he decided to check the outer perimeters of the station after he clears the rail.
He then flew towards the rails where the watchtower had fallen and with a thud he landed a few meters away.
"If I didn't know better, I would think this was set here deliberately."
The huge chunk of metal had fallen straight across the tracks, blocking the line completely.
It was a massive thing, with the steel beams inside bent and twisted with them sticking out.
He walked over to the side to look at where it extends from.
"That guy kibito, when he said it, I thought it was the tower itself that was on the track. But now that I'm looking at it, it's a damn support pillar."
The tower itself was on the ground in pieces.
Deciding that he should just get this over with quickly, he spread his spirit over the pillar and took his time lifting it so as to not destroy the rails…
BANG!
After a minute of careful removal, he discarded the pillar to the side.
"That should do it." He brushed off his hands, even though there wasn't a speck of dust on them.
"I should check for anything that could cause problems. Ten minutes isn't enough time to get everything in order, and besides, they should be able to manage fine without me for a bit."
Kaelis flew along the top of the eastern outer wall first, eyes sweeping over every corner for anything unusual.
Nothing.
The west wall? Still nothing.
Northern wall? Empty.
He figured the southern section had to show something, right? Nope. No signs of kabane anywhere.
That was… suspicious. The place had been attacked recently, yet the grounds were eerily clear. Barely any corpses scattered about.
Tsk. He really needed to get the full story from the survivors.
Don't tell me the kabanes packed up and left already.
He looked towards another area—the boilers and maintenance rooms, one of the few remaining areas the Kabane might be held up in.
Over there, he pushed open the first boiler room.
The main tanks were broken, pipes leaking steam, and tools were scattered on the floor.
Nothing was moving, but the place still felt off.
He moved to the next room. A low, wet sound echoed through the tunnels.
Kaelis paused. It wasn't wind. Not steam. Something was down there.
"Figures," he muttered.
He headed toward the noise, keeping an eye on every shadow. Broken doors and dark stains on the floor showed something had already been through here.
At the bottom of the tunnel, faint red glows caught his eye. The metal floor was warped, and the heat hit him instantly.
"Alright," Kaelis said quietly. "Let's see what's still down here."
It was kabanes. Lots of them. Practically a horde at this point.
He summoned a simple long sword and with a swift step forward, he swung his blade.
The first Kabane's head came off in a single stroke, and the body crumpled to the floor.
Before it even hit, he was already spinning, slashing another one across the chest.
They came at him in waves, dozens of claws and teeth snapping.
Kaelis didn't slow down. He moved like water, pivoting, stepping, and cutting.
Each swing of his sword split a body in two, decapitated another, and sent the next flying backward.
Sparks flew where metal hit metal, or where his blade struck pipes and machinery, but he didn't care.
A particularly large Kabane lunged at him from the side. Kaelis twisted his body, letting the creature slide past while he swung around and cut it clean in half.
Another one jumped from a railing above, but he punched it nearly vaporizing its upper body.
Within seconds, the horde was nothing but a heap of twitching bodies and broken limbs.
Kaelis stood in the middle of the piles of bodies.
He wiped the blade on a torn uniform, glanced at the next hallway, and muttered,
"Alright… what's next?"
Kaelis sprinted down the hall, swinging his blade in a powerful horizontal arc. A gust of air shot forward with it—Whoosh—THWACK!
He didn't bother checking what he was hitting. No humans should be here anyway.
The small horde of kabane was cleaved in two. Even the wall behind them didn't escape unscathed.
He moved from hallway to hallway, room to room, cutting down the horde with every swing.
Five minutes later, he slowed, "nearly" all the kabane gone.
"That should be most of them right? The rest will probably show themselves once Ayame and the others start making a ruckus." He dismissed the sword and prepared to leave.
Seeing as he couldn't find anymore and the amount he got rid off was in the hundreds, he was about leave when—
CRACK!
He paused—something wasn't right.
CRAAACK—BOOM!!!
A massive, smoky hand erupted from the ground right where Kaelis had been.
Instantly reacting, he dashed in the opposite direction, smashing through walls like they were made of paper and bursting outside.
Once in the open air, he took to the sky, putting as much distance as possible between himself and whatever was still under the building.
Below, the structure crumbled inward, a column of smoke twisting upward, taking on a shape that vaguely resembled a monstrous hand reaching for the sky.
A huge humanoid figure wrapped in thick, black smoke that constantly swirled around its body.
Its arms and legs were unnaturally long and thin, with sharp, jagged edges along the limbs.
Its face was hidden in shadow, but two glowing red eyes shone through the darkness.
The smoke around it moved like living mist, making its form seem unstable, as if it could vanish or change shape at any moment.
"Are you for real?" Kaelis muttered. "This is something straight out of a nightmare."
The creature gazed up at Kaelis's figure, who was not a ways from it and let out a guttural screech.
"RRRAAAUGGHHH!!!!"
"Sybau!"
Chapter 21 end.