The swarm of Holloweyes descends all at once, their daggered tails snapping forward to strike. Takeda's infant body trembles. His fists—tiny and powerless—clench tight.
["…Damn it. The swarm in front of me… and that thing approaching from behind. Which do I face? No… I can't split my focus. I'll deal with what's in front of me first."]
The Holloweyes dive, their tails lashing like whips. Each tail ends in a sharp, blade-like spike, glinting faintly in the dark. The air shrieks as the tails slice through it, stabbing toward his face—always his eyes.
Takeda forces himself to stay still, his fragile body quivering. At the last moment, a sudden flash of light tears across the sky. In an instant, the front line of Holloweyes explodes mid-air. Their tails scatter, thudding into the ground around him as their bodies dissolve into black mist, leaving only severed spikes behind.
Among the raining feathers and twitching tails, something spins and falls to the earth with a metallic clang.
["…A… sword?!"]
The rumbling grows louder. Footsteps—heavy, deliberate, strong. From the darkness, a figure emerges: broad-shouldered, red-haired, armored, a man who looks to be in his mid-thirties. In one hand he grips another blade that gleams with faint light. His expression is sharp, furious. He shouts something—words Takeda cannot understand, a language foreign to his ears.
["…What is he saying? I can't understand…"]
Behind him, another figure rushes forward—a girl, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Her voice is softer, hurried, speaking the same strange tongue. The man snaps at her, his face twisted in anger. She argues back, pointing toward Takeda.
Without hesitation, the girl kneels and scoops Takeda into her arms. Her touch is warm, protective. She looks into his eyes and speaks gently. Takeda can't grasp the meaning, but her smile tells him everything.
["…What… did she just say? 'It's alright now'? …That's what it feels like."]
Behind them, the armored man swings his blade, fending off the Holloweyes that survived the earlier strike. Their tails snap like whips, sparks flying as they clash against his sword. He raises his other arm—an iron device strapped across his forearm, shielding his face and eyes. Tails slam against it, screeching, but the iron guard holds.
["…That man… his movements… efficient, disciplined. A warrior. He looks like a knight. He knows how to deal with these monsters. That guard—he's protecting his eyes. So they know about the Holloweyes too."]
The girl runs with Takeda in her arms, whispering words he doesn't understand. Her crimson hair whips in the wind, her blue eyes sharp with focus. Her breath is ragged, but she clutches him as if he were the most important thing in the world. Takeda stares up at her face, still confused, still suspicious, but… he cannot deny the sense of safety creeping into him.
Behind them, the man roars something guttural in his tongue, lifting his blade high. The sword trembles, then bursts into light. With one sweeping slash, the glow cuts through the air—a third of the Holloweyes are cleaved in a single strike, their tails writhing before their bodies dissolve into mist.
["…That sword… it glows? What kind of weapon is that? What kind of world… have I been reborn into?"]
The swarm cries out in fury, their tails rattling together in a terrifying chorus. They scatter, regrouping above. The girl keeps running, the man holding his ground, his glowing blade raised. And Takeda—tiny, powerless—can only watch, his mind racing with questions.
["…Who are they? Why did they save me? And this world… what is it?"]
The girl runs desperately, clutching Takeda against her chest. Her breathing grows ragged, but her steps remain steady. Above them, the Holloweyes screech and wheel in circles, their tails twitching like spears poised to strike.
One group swoops past her, wings cutting the air, before suddenly diving. Their tails gleam, angled toward the girl's eyes.
She halts abruptly, eyes narrowing. Her lips move quickly—chanting words in that same strange language Takeda cannot grasp. Heat gathers in her palm, then bursts into flame. A small fireball whirls to life, glowing against the darkness.
With a sharp swing, she hurls it toward the diving Holloweyes. The ball explodes in sparks upon impact, knocking them back mid-air. But instead of dying, the creatures split apart, each producing a smaller version of itself. Now each new Holloweye bears a twin-pronged tail, two dagger tips sharing a single whip. The smaller ones screech and falter, slowed but still alive.
"Tch…!" the girl clicks her tongue, frustration clear in her tone. She shifts Takeda in her arms and bolts forward again.
But the swarm is relentless. A cluster rises ahead, blocking their path. Behind, more of the Holloweyes dive, tails slashing at the air, closing the gap.
["…We're surrounded…?"]
The girl skids to a stop, chanting again. This time, her entire body glows faintly. A circle of light spreads out beneath her feet, lines and symbols forming patterns Takeda has never seen before. With a flash, a barrier forms—transparent yet solid, curving like a dome around them.
The Holloweyes crash against it instantly. Their tails hammer the barrier like spears, each strike echoing like shattering glass. Sparks of light ripple across the dome with every blow.
["…This… this isn't Earth. There's no way. That circle, those flames, that barrier… Is this… magic?"]
The word lingers in his mind, stirring a memory. Back in the slums of Tokyo, there was a boy—skinny, ragged, always clutching torn books he scavenged from the trash. His name was Renji. Unlike the other children who fought to survive, Renji's escape was reading. Whenever Takeda passed by, he would always see the kid grinning over pages filled with knights, wizards, and impossible worlds.
["…Renji used to tell me about things like this… about magic circles, fireballs, sorcerers protecting people with glowing shields. I always laughed at him… told him fairy tales were useless in our world. But now…"]
Takeda's tiny infant eyes widen as the barrier flickers under the Holloweyes' assault.
["…Now I'm seeing it with my own eyes. Was Renji right all along? Is this the kind of world he dreamed of?"]
Minutes feel like hours as the standoff continues. The swarm shrieks above, tails stabbing and scraping, their hunger for eyes unyielding. Then faint lines appear—spiderweb cracks crawling across the glowing dome.
The girl holds Takeda tightly to her chest, her arms trembling now. She whispers something into his ear, soft and fearful—yet the words remain in that alien tongue. Takeda doesn't understand, but the quiver in her voice tells him everything.
["…She's scared…? Even with this power, she's scared…"]
The barrier splinters further, the glow fading.
["…If it breaks… what happens to us? Are we both going to die here?"]
---End of Chapter 3---