All roads lead to Asagiri

Inside of Svikari, and more precisely, inside one of its house, stood two figures, visibly stressed about something.

The first one was that of a young woman around her 19s,her hair were not usually tied and used to cover the largest part of her back, but yet, this time, she had tied them in a high ponytail.

A long and brown war coat now covered her shoulders, as a woolen white sweat replaced the shattered school uniform she had worn before. Sadly, since she couldn't find any pants which could fit her, the girl didn't had any others than to keep use a skirt, not the same as before though.

"Are you sure that you don't want to use the axe ?"

Asked the white-haired man right by her side. His short straight hair were slightly covering his forehead, but not long even to cover his two sparking amethyst eyes. His height was... Average, just a few centimeters above the girl, as his physique was.

Yet, his piercing gaze showed nothing else than a strong and powerful conviction, hardly hiding an immeasurable fear growing inside of him.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I prefer it that way, the strongest weapon to the weakest fighter, and so the opposite."

The angel smiled warmly at the young man, whom looked at the axe attached to the hiking bag he was carrying, a large and brown one, covering his black long coat.

"Still, a knife and a fire poker aren't what I could call weapons, Celia..."

The girl named Celia, this time, turned her entire body toward the young man, her hand slowly caressing the handle of the fire poker as she spoke.

"In the hands of an Aurora, everything's a weapon, Asaki !"

One would've mistaken this sentence for some kind of egocentrism from the young girl, who maybe thought that she was the strongest or anything. But this wasn't the case at all. This sentence, was indeed, a pretty famous quote from one of the first Aurora ever : Eclipse.

This made Asaki slightly smile, as the young woman did. They needed to decrease a bit the pressure of the atmosphere before...

Before finally opening the door.

"Remember, if there are any monsters, run as far as you can while I'll fight it. Okay ?"

Asaki nodded, even if, at first, he truly was reluctant at the idea of abandoning a girl to some monsters. But since she was an Aurora, and that her mental state was kinda... Instable, if another person died before her eyes, Asaki wasn't sure that she'll keep her mind in a right place any longer.

And he had read enough post-apocalyptic and apocalyptic novels to know that those being crazy rarely lasted that long in groups of survivors.

If they were indeed in a sort of apocalypse, truth be told, if still felt like a dream or a lie for him.

"Then, let's go."

And as both of the survivors started to walk toward the door, the firm hand of the Aurora opened it, giving them the sight of a desert street.

°°°

Steps echoed on the hard concrete ground of a street, where two young adults were walking even more than carefully. Asaki was literally glued to the wall of a tall house while he was walking, looking stressfully everywhere around him. As for Celia... One of her hand continuously rested on the house's wall, while the other firmly held a fire-poker.

Both weren't saying a single word, each time they tried, a dreadful noise always suddenly scared them from nowhere, and this wasn't all.

It's been already a quarter of an hour since the two were walking here, and... On their way to Asagiri, both also met something... Really disturbing.

A corpse, even if after this one, they met some others.

Without even giving a second to Celia in order to hide the sight from Asaki, the young man couldn't help but to throw up at the gruesome sight, and smell. It was the first time that he had seen a corpse, and wasn't supposed to happen.

It was at this moment that the young man understood the reality of their situation.

Even if they could be from the human breed, only monsters could do something so... He didn't even have any word to describe this.

"Asaki ?"

Almost whispered Celia to the white pale man, which after a dozen of minute, hadn't retrieved the slightest color.

"Yeah...?"

The young woman quickly glanced at him, before she continued, still looking at their surrounding with great attention.

"I was wondering... I never saw you there, when did you arrive ?"

Oh, indeed... Asaki had never told her a single detail about how he landed there, or even about himself.

"That's because I'm not from here."

During a few seconds, the girl stopped, glancing again at him with surprise and interrogation.

"Truth be told, I'm from Rese, don't know if you know where it is. I landed here after... It's blurry but, I do recall being grabbed by some flying creature in the air, before both of us crashed here because of something. And then..."

Something felt like missing, but Asaki couldn't tell what. What could've happened before he met Celia ? Had he retrieved any consciousness before ?

"...And then I met you."

Celia stopped at the end of the house's wall, stretching her hand behind her to signal to Asaki to also stop. It was time to check which road they needed to take.

"I see..."

Still answered Celia, to indicate to him that she had heard his small story. Luckily for them, since they arrived, except for the horrific noises, the two survivors hadn't met any monsters. Only corpses, debris, and burned vehicles.

But this time, Celia didn't resume her walk, visibly looking at something with fear, and attention. Asaki slowly approached the girl, and looked above her shoulder to what she could be looking herself.

And he wished he never did.

Something akin to a human skeleton was moving, its face covered by the fresh blood of the corpse it was furiously biting, as its metallic claws were shattering the dead flesh in dozens of pieces.

Some of its bones were covered by metallic strings, connected to its long and sharp metallic claws as some piano's inside. It was still pretty far away, so Asaki couldn't actually see more of it.

But this view was fair enough to make the two of them immediately back away, not wanting to be noticed by this creature.

"Oh my..."

Asaki's legs were shaking, and he couldn't even control it. It shook, and his heart ached profusely. At the same moment, the man realized how much he wanted to pee, but even if he would be able to, the fear was too insane to allow him to do so.

His ears were trying to catch the slightest noise the creature could produce, because if it came any closer, Asaki wasn't sure that they would survive.

"Lucky that this isn't the road leading to Asagiri..."

Whispered Celia, slightly shaking, still far less than Asaki. Slowly, the two of them walked backward, just in case the creature could arrive.

The rest of the travel throughout the empty streets were mainly silent, as the two also met another creature at the end of another street, this time... Not even possessing any head, its face located on its belly.

But in the end, Both finally managed to reach the gigantic road directly leading to Asagiri, although it was surely passing by other cities.

Celia was surprised that they hadn't met any other creatures, since when she arrived during the last night, all streets were filled by them.

But for Asaki... He still couldn't believe his own eyes, his heart not even having calmed down since the first encounter.

"Finally !! Look Asaki, we just need to..."

The young woman stopped talking, this time, her eyes all widened, and filled by a new emotion...

An emotion that she hadn't showed when she saw the two previous monsters, but now, exhibited in front of everyone whom wanted to see it.

And this was fear.

The Aurora actually shook of fear, her legs also trembling like a baby's would do when it was trying to walk. Her soft and pink lips, could only whisper something, something inaudible, but that Asaki still managed to hear.

"Impossible..."

And that's because... In the middle of the road, stood something even scarier than any creatures she had seen until now. Something bigger, taller, wider, and...

Stronger...

Asaki slowly looked in the same direction as her, and as he did so, his legs finally stopped working, making him fall on his knees.

In the middle of the road...

Stood a gigantic red form, around the four or five meters tall.

Seemingly made out of flesh, its body looked like it was made out of pure muscles, unbelievable forms rolling under whatever skin covering the awkward flesh.

Each of his arms were the size, and even wider, of Asaki's whole body. And without even understanding why, the mere presence of this creature was enough to make it tremble.

Still, this wasn't even the creature itself which was scaring the two survivors, not even able to stand up correctly now.

It was what dressed in front of it, as the creature was just crossing its arms, motionless, looking like some sort of guard.

In front of the Flesh monster...

Laid dozens of, exploded, shattered, crushed, pierced...

Dozens of...

Dozens of bodies...

Which belonged to humans... And also monsters.