Torrential rain poured from the sky as a black figure raced through the streets at astonishing speed.
The violent wind and rain were only the beginning of the Catastrophe.
Most people could barely move around under such conditions. Even if they managed to walk, they could only drift along with the wind. Trying to move against it was an incredibly difficult task.
Yet the black figure was advancing directly into the gale.
In fact, he was running.
"Almost there. Just hold on a little longer."
Wrapped in a black cloak, the figure carried two Ursus refugees, one under each arm, as he moved.
The people he was carrying were far from comfortable in that position, but in circumstances like these, they were hardly in a position to complain.
The shelter they had been hiding in had just been blown apart by the wind. Just when they thought they were about to die, a blood-covered person dressed in a black cloak had suddenly appeared.
At that moment, they had thought Death itself had come to claim them.
Instead, the stranger simply scooped both of them up and sprinted off in another direction.
The rain was freezing cold, yet the person's body felt strangely warm.
They could not tell whether that warmth came from his body or from his heart.
"Stay here. Everyone inside is sheltering from the Catastrophe just like you. There is no need to worry."
After reaching the destination, Shirou set the two refugees down and pulled back the hood covering his head.
The cloak served two purposes: keeping himself from getting soaked and shielding the people he carried from as much rain as possible.
Although the risk was extremely low, the rain was still part of a Catastrophe.
It was not something to be taken lightly.
The building he had chosen was relatively spacious and sturdy. More importantly, it had escaped damage from the Infected rioters, making it exceptionally effective at blocking wind, rain, and cold.
"The Catastrophe should pass soon. Be careful."
After briefly checking the situation inside, Shirou pulled the hood back over his head and stepped outside again.
Thanks to his continuous rescue efforts, the building was becoming rather crowded.
The issue was that the refugees all kept their distance from one another, afraid to make physical contact.
Shirou could not really blame them.
Their homes had just been destroyed by people filled with malice, and now they were facing a Catastrophe.
Their caution was understandable.
The only reason everyone remained orderly was because they had all been brought here by Shirou. They knew this red-haired man of unknown race was powerful, so no one dared to cause trouble.
Shirou understood better than anyone the extent of Ursus's prejudice against the Infected.
Everyone sheltering here had been confirmed to be uninfected, but just in case, he projected a sword before leaving and planted it beside the entrance as a marker indicating that the building was occupied.
He certainly was not going to place it on the roof.
The storm was far too strong. If the sword got blown away and struck someone, that would be a disaster in itself.
"Time to move on to the next location..."
After making sure the sword was firmly embedded in the ground, Shirou surveyed the surrounding area before heading toward the city center.
He could feel that the strength of the wind had stopped increasing and might even have weakened slightly.
The rain, however, showed every sign of growing heavier.
For Shirou, no matter how fierce the wind and rain became, he could barely feel them striking his body.
The projected cloak and the Mystic Code he wore were both doing their jobs.
Ordinary people, however, had no such protection.
As a result, Shirou could only keep increasing his pace while using Reinforcement Magecraft to sharpen his hearing and listen for sounds in the surrounding area.
There were others carrying out rescue efforts as well.
Most of them, however, could not move nearly as quickly as he could. They could only advance slowly through the storm by relying on teamwork and numbers.
They were rare, but they did exist.
Whenever Shirou happened to encounter them, he would lend a hand whenever possible.
For example, he would provide sturdy ropes or direct them toward the nearest safe shelter.
All things considered, Chernobog was fortunate this time.
The Catastrophe that had struck was merely a wind-and-rain type.
Shirou remembered very clearly that one type of Catastrophe involved meteors.
The books he had read described them in detail.
Those so-called meteors were not really meteors at all.
They were massive crystalline formations composed of Originium.
The thought left Shirou feeling vaguely uneasy.
"Do not tell me we are getting a double Catastrophe. This storm is already bad enough."
Sensing the anxiety creeping into his mind, Shirou gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
The possibility was not entirely impossible.
After all, Catastrophes themselves often generated large quantities of Originium crystals and even created entirely new Originium veins.
In that case, a few Originium meteors made of crystallized Originium would seem perfectly reasonable...
Like hell they would.
All Shirou could do was pray that no meteors would appear.
Chernobog had already suffered through riots and a Catastrophe.
It did not need any additional disasters to emphasize just how miserable things had become.
"That is... a school?"
While silently hoping for the best, Shirou caught a faint sound and immediately headed toward it.
The closer he got, the clearer the source became.
It was a school.
Finding a relatively high vantage point, Shirou carefully observed the situation inside.
Generally speaking, when disaster struck a region, schools often made excellent shelters.
They were spacious and structurally sound.
"Reunion...? No, those are the rioters?"
Looking through the windows, Shirou was able to make out the situation inside.
Several people wearing white masks were moving through the building.
Judging by the weapons they carried and the terrified expressions on the students' faces, they were clearly not there to help.
Once he confirmed what was happening inside the school, Shirou knew exactly what he needed to do next.
This time, however, he had no intention of solving the problem through archery.
Although he was confident he could still hit his targets despite the strong winds, he could not eliminate the enemies without risking damage to the building itself.
Once he resorted to shooting, the school would probably end up being torn apart by the Catastrophe outside.
It would be better to go inside personally and deal with the problem directly.
Although it was still morning, the Catastrophe had darkened the entire sky over Chernobog, and there were no lights on anywhere.
Naturally, nobody inside noticed the black-cloaked Shirou entering the school.
After stepping inside, Shirou immediately discarded the soaked cloak.
He would not be needing it for what came next.
The cloak dissolved into blue particles of light and vanished, while Shirou himself had already disappeared down the end of the corridor.
At that moment, he was heading toward the location where he had last seen those people.
"They are not here anymore?"
Upon reaching the floor he remembered, Shirou found nothing.
There was good news, however.
Along the way, he had not seen any corpses.
More specifically, he had not seen any student corpses.
He had spotted several white-masked individuals frozen into ice sculptures, but Shirou had no intention of finishing them off. Doing so would only waste time.
The sight of those frozen figures reminded him that he himself had been turned into an ice sculpture earlier by a certain Cautus.
That person was probably searching through this school right now, if not earlier.
"Either way, I should keep going up to the floor where those students were..."
After a brief moment of hesitation, Shirou decided to continue upward toward the floor where he had previously seen the students.
The moment he stepped onto the staircase, he sensed something was off.
Even so, he continued climbing.
Then he heard the sound of a bowstring releasing.
A crossbow bolt flew toward the space directly in front of him.
Shirou reached out and caught the bolt in midair.
"Ursus profanity! You caught a crossbow bolt with your bare hand?!"
Watching his shot get casually caught, the shooter immediately unleashed a stream of colorful language.
He had only fired the bolt as a warning to stop the intruder from advancing. He had not even aimed at the person.
Yet the other party had simply reached out and caught it.
Had he spent so long on the tundra that crossbows had somehow gone out of fashion?
"Quick, go inform Big Sister Frostnova!"
Once he got a clear look at Shirou, the crossbowman suddenly felt that catching a bolt barehanded was actually not that strange.
At the same time, he shoved the companion beside him and told him to go fetch someone.
This was far beyond his ability to handle.
Besides, he had absolutely no intention of fighting Shirou.
This was reinforcements!
Why would he fight reinforcements?
"We do not have any hostile intentions! We only set up barricades here to stop people downstairs from coming up!"
After sending his companion off, the heavily bundled crossbowman raised both hands and shouted toward Shirou.
"...I can tell."
The corner of Shirou's mouth twitched slightly.
He was still standing in the exact posture he had used to catch the bolt.
Meanwhile, the other man had already completed the entire sequence of notifying someone and raising his hands in surrender.
It was... rather strange.
The reason Shirou had not counterattacked was because the bolt had never been aimed at him in the first place.
Moreover, he had already noticed people hiding near the staircase.
He had initially assumed that students had set up barricades there.
Now it seemed that the barricades belonged to members of Talulah's faction within Reunion.
And they were people he had met before.
Shirou remembered clearly.
The people standing behind the Cautus who had frozen him earlier had been dressed exactly like the man in front of him.
"Come on up. There are other people downstairs."
After confirming that Shirou had no intention of attacking because of the warning shot, the crossbowman directly invited him up.
He even stretched out a hand as though intending to help him over the barricade.
"I did not see anyone on my way here."
Ignoring the offered hand, Shirou pushed off with both feet and vaulted cleanly over the barricades.
He landed steadily in front of the man and returned the crossbow bolt.
"They are hiding. Big Sister Frostnova just led a sweep through the area."
The crossbowman accepted the bolt and gave a brief explanation, apparently unfazed by Shirou's athletic display.
"I see... So you are protecting the students here?"
Thinking of the frozen figures he had seen earlier, Shirou found no reason to doubt the man's words.
In fact, that explanation made perfect sense.
"They are all staying on the top floor. There was some sort of dispute a little while ago, and our people are handling it."
The crossbowman pointed toward the upper floors as he spoke.
He trusted the red-haired young man standing before him quite a lot.
He trusted the Archer who had once helped them survive on the northern tundra.
And he trusted the words spoken by Alina and Talulah.
At the same time, he trusted his own judgment.
The person before him looked intimidating and difficult to approach, but from beginning to end, all he had cared about was what was happening inside this school.
"A dispute? Is it related to the Infected?"
Upon hearing the word, Shirou frowned slightly.
He had encountered similar problems during his rescue efforts earlier.
For example, ordinary people rejecting the Infected.
As a result, Shirou had been forced to separate the two groups and shelter them in different locations whenever possible.
Fortunately, with Structural Analysis at his disposal, determining whether someone was Infected only required brief contact.
So his first assumption was that the dispute here had been caused by ordinary people targeting the Infected, in other words targeting Reunion members.
"That is part of it, sure, but they do not dare make it too obvious. After all, the people helping them right now are Infected."
The crossbowman laughed.
"The real reason for the argument is that the nobles and commoners started fighting again. That sort of thing is pretty common in Ursus. Honestly, if we were not worried that a fight upstairs might interfere with our defenses down here, we would not even bother getting involved."
Hearing the explanation, Shirou fell silent.
"..."
He did not really understand.
Even though he was not entirely sure what the man meant, Shirou nodded as though he understood and glanced around the corridor.
There were many people dressed in thick winter clothing like the crossbowman, busily moving about.
There were also ordinary Reunion members present.
Quite a few of them kept sneaking glances in his direction from time to time.
The attention made Shirou somewhat uncomfortable, prompting him to retreat a little closer to the staircase.
"Big Sister Frostnova will be here soon. Just wait here for a bit."
Seeing Shirou's reaction, the crossbowman did not try to force a conversation.
Instead, he reloaded his crossbow and returned to his position by the staircase.
"Nobles..."
Leaning against the stairwell wall, Shirou began reflecting on what the crossbowman had said.
He knew that many places across Terra still maintained noble systems.
Ursus happened to be one of them.
However, during his rescue efforts, he had mostly encountered ordinary Ursus civilians.
As a result, the existence of nobles had completely slipped his mind.
If the crossbowman had not brought it up, he might not have realized it at all.
Still, it was not something he needed to concern himself with.
His job was simply to save people.
With that thought, Shirou leaned against the wall and pulled out some emergency rations he had brought from Azazel before leaving.
He began replenishing his energy.
Running through a storm while carrying people to safety had been exhausting work.
Taking advantage of this brief break to rest and recover was not a bad idea.
Once he met the "Big Sister Frostnova" the crossbowman had mentioned, he would deal with the troublemakers causing problems inside the school and then leave.