Crumbling Down

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And those were the last things the almighty Xilgroxog told me, and I have been floating in this empty space for almost twelve hours now, I mutter, "Damn that, 'You will awaken soon,' my ass..."

I cross my arms and pout, shouting out into the darkness, "I honestly feel like a puppy being left in the rain!" Before letting an extremely long sigh escape my mouth; boredom is the only emotion I feel currently, and I hate that feeling so much. I would love to kick a pebble right about now.

I let a yawn escape my lips, before stretching all of my limbs, wondering, "Am I starting to feel tired, or is this the effects of boredom?" I squint my eyes, before coming to the conclusion of, "Eh, I should just close my eyes and wait for something new to happen."

As I start shutting my eyes, I then hear distant whispering; sadly, I am unable to decipher these said whispers, so I just shrug and fully shut my eyes, thinking, "Maybe one day, I'll awaken from this nightmare."

A few seconds pass and all of a sudden, a flood of audio and physical stimulation is felt across my body: screams of terror and roaring fire, it's as if only a few seconds have passed from when I was knocked unconscious in my room; I try moving my legs, but they just flail aimlessly, as if I was being carried.

Actually, I am indeed being carried, this sensation is all too familiar; as I open my eyes, I notice that a man clad in iron armor is carrying me like a princess—a dream come true for any girl—which is something I experience on an almost daily basis thanks to my friend.

This armored man carrying me right now is Nishimoto Benjiro, one of my lifelong childhood friends back in the academy, but weirdly, I have not been able to see his face since he has always worn rags over his face back when he was a child.

As a sign of thanking him for carrying me out of my burning building while still making fun of him, I reach out my hand and caress his cheek - well, where his cheek is supposed to be since he is wearing a helmet - while whispering in a somewhat erotic way, "Thank you so much, Benjiro-kun~"

I then hear the sound of chainmail rustling as he looks down at me, his glare already announcing what he is about to say. "If you do that again, I will honestly just leave you here just to get cooked in this burning building."

I laugh at his threat, exclaiming, "You can't possibly do that, we've been friends for almost twenty-five years!" 

He lets out a sigh as if he had already given up.

A sense of a grip loosening is felt on my back, my eyes widen as I cling to his neck while flailing my legs like a newborn baby; I then proceed to shout in terror, "W-wait, I take that back, you can definitely do that!"

His grip keeps on loosening, and my grip on his neck is getting tighter, my cries for help keeps on getting louder and all of screams echo throughout the burning rubble, "St-stop! I was kidding! Don't let go off me, please!"

□-■-□

I run out of the blazing building while holding my bag full of alchemy bottles and having my dress hanging on my arm; as I turn around, the terror of what has occurred within this very building is very obvious.

I then notice as a few people in robes which consist of a red and yellow pattern run past me, lining up side-by-side and blasting the building with water magic in an effort to extinguish the roaring flames.

I let out a pained sigh while shutting my eyes, I then reopen them and turn around, looking at my surroundings, my heart starts sinking as I then wonder with a widened gaze, "Where are Nishimoto-san and Takemoto-san?"

I quickly turn back at the burning building, I drop my belongings and run towards the building, but I was then suddenly stopped by one of the blazefighters, with them telling me, "Ma'am, it's not safe to go in there yet!"

I try to force myself through, shouting with desperation, "I-I have to get in there!" I then try to climb the man by grabbing onto his shoulders, as I start to feel tears forming in my eyes, "My friends are in there! Let me in, please!"

However, the man is too strong, he holds me in place as I stop forcing myself and resorting to accepting my fate; being unable to try and help them, I stand there, hoping they are capable of exiting the building.

"Get out of there, please," I beg for their safety with those words of mine; tears then start running down my cheek, wiping them off would be pointless as every tear wiped would just be replaced by five more.

I stand there for a few more seconds, before looking down at the ground as I come to accept the fact that they have been consumed by flames; I feel my body lose all its heat and my face erasing all emotion.

Closing my eyes, I slowly stumble away from the brick wall that is this man infront of me; but to my surprise, I hear one of them shout, "I see two people exiting the building! Go on and help those two!" 

My eyes regain color and I straighten my back as my life has been restored thanks to that information; I run back to the man acting as a roadblock, and I see two silhouettes walking out of the blazing building through the doorframe.

I notice the figure of Nishimoto-san, clad in iron armor as always; I wonder if he is sweating under those layers of steel plates, and... oh, Takemoto-san is clinging on to his face like a Thornmask while screaming in terror.

■-□-□

I cling tightly onto Benjiro with my life while screaming, considering the fact that I was literal moments away from death due to being consumed by a fire caused by the almighty Xilgroxog's footsteps.

"PLEASE! SAVE ME, THIS MAN IS TRYING TO KILL ME!" I continue screaming in terror as Benjiro is still trying his best to get me off of his face.

"Gfft... Oftt... Ofttt.. MFFFTT!" I hear the muffled shouts of Benjiro trying to escape, but my screams are louder than him. As he finally gets a grip on me, he pushes me away from his face in order to shout, "Get this godforsaken man-child off of my face!"

I then listen as a bunch of heavy footsteps approach me and my very unfortunate friend, all shouting at each other in regards to something before grabbing onto me and prying me off of Benjiro's helmet.

As they finally pry me off of his helmet, I just fall onto the ground and lie in the fetal position, unable to cope and comprehend whatever in the world is going on with my life right now. 

"Am I going insane? Is this just a dream? Am I dead? Oh Qevaris, Goddess of Dreams, please wake me up from this nightmare!"

□-□-■

After a few moments have passed from the chaos of having my friend latch onto my face. I sit down on the base of the fountain, my arms crossed while a man in dark blue robes blast me with a cooling spell, which I highly appreciate, considering the fact on how hot it gets in this full plate of armor.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I turn to my left and stare at my good old annoying buddy, and he is also being blasted with cold magic; he still looks visibly shaken, trembling where he is currently sat at, I then wonder, "Is that from the cold being blasted on him or from the sheer terror knowing he nearly died to a blazing fire?"

"TAKEMOTO-SAN! NISHIMOTO-SAN! YOU'RE SAFE!"

A lady shouts from afar. "That voice sounds familiar..." I then turn to the direction where the sound originated from, noticing a girl with white hair running towards us; it was is indeed Kitamura-san running at us with what seems to be tears running down her face... I'm glad she's safe.

"Oh bless the Great Goddess of Fortune, Duena, you're both safe!" Is what she shouts before jumping at us and giving us a big hug.

"Wait! You're gonna push all of us into the founta-" Were the last things I was able say before falling into the fountain with my three companions; all of us start thrashing around in the fountain, trying to get out of the water.

After a few seconds of thrashing around, I finally sit up, noticing Natsuo-kun and Kitamura-san laughing their asses off, and I start feeling a faint smile forming on my face; I start chuckling, before proceeding into a full on laugh.

"Pfftt, Wh-what's your problem!? Did you forget to take a bath before sleeping, Kitamura-san?! BWAHAAHAHA!" Natsuo-kun sarcastically asks before laughing, it's as if his fear had just suddenly faded away thanks to this mishap caused by the fair lady.

"Shut up, idiot~ I was just extremely worried about you two!" Kitamura-san retorts with a smirk followed by another wave of laughter, this continues on before our little bubble of happiness gets popped by a sudden...

"HEY, YOU THREE!"

We all turn to the direction wherein which the disgruntled voice came from, with a sense of dread looming over us, knowing what is about to come towards us. "Oh no, we are so dead," Natsuo-kun claims with widened eyes.

"You... YOU! You goddamn imbeciles! You three are dim-witted, inconsiderate, pieces of actual human trash! You three... you three burned down the thing I worked hard for... FOR TEN YEARS!" The spokesperson of the guild and owner of the establishment screams at us with ferocity in his voice, his face extremely red and veiny due to the rage currently fueling his blood.

Natsuo-kun then stands up with a chuckle, clearing his throat and trying to make himself look as non-threatening as possible, which is extremely easy for him thanks to his stature. "Well, yo-you see, Aoyoma-san... we weren't the ones who started the fi-"

"OH DON'T YOU LIE TO ME, DARK MAGE!" The guild spokesperson grabs Natsuo-kun by the collar of his robe and pulling him closer; he grits his teeth before shouting, "I saw how your room was the first to become ash when the building was burning down, you idiot!"

"You did one of your goddamn rituals! And that costed me an entire building!" He pushes him away, making Natsuo-kun fall on his butt once more, which is already completely soaked thanks to the water the three of us are all currently sitting in.

I look at Natsuo-kun, and his head is bowed down; I am unable to see his eyes due to his bangs, though the thing I am capable of noticing about his facial features is his very unnoticeable frown which he is hiding very well from the guild spokesperson.

I furrow my brows, and as start to push myself up, I feel a force stopping me from standing up; I turn to my left and notice Kitamura-san holding my hand, I look her in the eyes, before whispering, "What's the deal? I need to help our friend!"

She shakes her head, and I listen to her audibly shaken voice as she whispers back at me, "Nishimoto-san, you'll just get yourself a bounty for harming a royal..." she looks at the guild spokesperson, still harassing Natsuo-kun, before looking back at me, "...you know how high he is on the pillars of society— you could almost consider him the right-hand man to the king —thanks to his position as the owner of this establishment and spokesperson for the guild."

She looks down at the water, her face reflecting off of it, which starts rippling as a tear drops from her face; the words that escape her mouth afterwards stick with me just like a piece of gum.

"We can't stop him, Nishimoto-san. I'm sorry."

I clench my fist as I watch in despair as my friend gets pushed back into the water, and being ordered to stand up, while being hurled verbal insults; after that bout of abuse, the guild spokesperson states, "You three will have to pay a debt of ten million Ezla if you really want to join back into this guild of mine; that will cover all the damages caused by your dull-wittedness!"

"But until then, you are BANISHED from entering this kingdom ever again!"