His gaze met that of the red woman—her bangs had lifted from the rooftop leap. She was pointing the gun at the boy's face, her expression a mix of fury and desperation, the kind a human might show. Her eyes were crimson, with dark sclera, and black veins bulged along the sides of her eyelids.
In her stare lay the intent to shoot. Matching that intent, her grip on Nova's shoulder was monstrous. He felt like his shoulder could snap at any moment, but then something happened.
She opened her eyes and mouth, startled. Something changed in her when she finally saw Nova's face—her lips trembled. In a raspy yet bewildered voice, she whispered:
"Human…"
She spoke in Terra's language, but Nova paid it no mind. Fearing for his life, he twisted in midair and kicked the woman's hand. Her arm jerked back, and the weapon fired.
The bullet grazed past Nova's head and slammed into the glass of the adjacent building.
Out of immediate danger, he pushed off with both feet against the woman's chest, sending her crashing into the façade of the building behind her. He, in turn, smashed into the window of the building in front, shattered the glass, and fell onto a strange semicircular couch.
He then ran, ignoring the horrid creatures inside who stared at him in fear. He kicked through and broke a couple of doors until, within seconds, he reached the other side of the building.
Just as he had entered, he exited—bursting through a window and throwing himself toward a rooftop nearly twenty meters below.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!'
He hit the concrete—something cracked inside his body as he rolled to absorb the impact, but he barely noticed.
His ragged breathing and spiraling thoughts forced him to run with everything he had. The aura of Anticipation flooded his body, and his eye shone intensely. The paranoia that the woman might be right behind him was overwhelming—greater than any feeling he had ever experienced.
He didn't stop. He slid down a slanted glass roof and hurled himself toward the edge to reach another rooftop. So consumed by the fear of being caught, he misstepped and slipped, plunging into the void.
'Not this time!' he thought as he drew his sword.
With desperate skill, he drove the blade into the wall with all his strength. Concrete and metal shattered with a harsh screech, leaving a long, broken trail downward.
The blade struck something solid and stopped abruptly, halting his fall—at least for now.
His eye landed on the hull of a massive spaceship. For an instant, he thought this was the end, but the fall was short-lived—he landed on a rusted metal platform a few meters below.
He shut his eye as he landed, then opened it again to realize he was in another alley. Aching from the fall, Nova sat up and rubbed his head. By then, his Spectrum had faded.
'What the hell?'
This alley was far darker than any other. It was silent, vast, and utterly deserted. Everything around him was rusted and damp. The stench of oxidation was intense, clinging to his clothes and the air like a sticky liquid.
'She didn't follow me?'
He looked up. It was incredibly high. He could barely make out the sword embedded in the wall. Aside from that, there was no sign of the red woman. He couldn't hear her heavy footsteps in the distance, much less her rough, terrifying voice.
He sighed, exhausted, sweat dripping down his forehead.
'Damn it…' he thought. 'She called me human. I understood her!'
She spoke Terra's language, but there was something strange about her voice. It sounded as if two languages overlapped—she was speaking both her own tongue and something comprehensible to Terra at the same time. Maybe, in this world, there were people capable of translating their language so others could understand them. That, however, was just speculation.
Worn down once again by the chase, Nova pushed himself up. He clutched his right arm in pain and examined it.
'I knew this would happen. I can't stay calm without some Aberration trying to kill me.'
Limping, he staggered deeper into the abandoned alley.
'Feels like my arm's broken. I need to find somewhere to hide and heal.'
Still exhausted, he picked up the pace and ran farther from the alley. The more he tried to escape, the taller the walls grew, the more rusted the metal became, and the more disturbing the surroundings felt. His hurried footsteps echoed against the ground—a ground that sloped downward at an angle.
Nova kept going. Even he could tell this place was different from anywhere he had been before. A high ceiling blocked out the sunlight, forming a long, dark tunnel.
'Maybe they won't find me here.'
Expecting nothing, he stepped into the darkness. At the far end, a faint blue light flickered softly within the blackness.
When he reached it, he frowned. Before him was a wide spiral staircase, filthy and abandoned. Colored lights hung from the ceiling like elongated lamps fused to the concrete. An irritating buzz came from one of the flickering lights.
'This'll do.'
He sat on the stairs and leaned against the wall. With a sigh, he tightened his grip on his arm. Suddenly, a crunch echoed. Nova suppressed a groan as pain surged through him, then breathed heavily from the effort. He had set his broken arm without much trouble.
To ease the pain, the Spectrum of Serenity wrapped around him gently. His eye, glowing gold, settled on the fruit in his hand.
'Maybe this will be enough to heal me.'
He ate the fruit. A few seconds later, he leaned his back against the wall and stared toward the tunnel's exit. His eyelids felt heavy and his body ached, but his Serenity managed to quiet the urge to scream.
'Damn it…' he thought. 'I want to go home…'