Late Night Conversation

Minutes had passed since Asaki finally asked the question which tormented him the most, out of all questions. It's true that Celia already told him the most she could about the beginning of whatever was happening, as she also already told him about her motivations, and why she was so strong.

So, the remaining question which Asaki didn't had any information about was also the most important ; How did Celia travel with his unconscious body if monsters were crawling everywhere ? And....

How did she break, whatever weapon, was previously hung to her belt ?

After all, only Aurora, militaries and police officer were authorized to travel with a weapon. Even though the Aurora carried more collection replica, as a symbol of honor and greatness, than true weapons.

Yeah... Aldeus still had some old traditions related to northern weapons, although it was by far the most developed nation out of all three.

"For sure Asaki. Come a bit closer, who know what kind of ears have those monsters."

And so did the young man approache the Aurora, finally glancing at the inside of the house while he did so.

This was really an old Aldeus house, mostly made out of wood with stone walls and pillars, a large wooden table installed in front of a broken fireplace. Above the green sofa, hung to one of the walls, stood a magnificent axe of collection. Its wooden handle was polished, and its blade sharpened enough to cut through the table without any difficulty.

Sure, did the previous owners bought it recently, as it wasn't correct to use a traditional Aldeus decorative axe for anything else than decoration, and so keeping sharpening it throughout time totally useless.

But let's get back to the Aurora, partially hiding beneath the massive wooden table, looking at Asaki with burning eyes.

As soon as the young man finally sat by her side, he instantly felt a warm and soft feeling invading his vital space, Celia getting even closer than they already were.

"So... Let's get back to just a few hours ago."

And as soon as Asaki nodded, she finally started to tell him what exactly happened here.

"In a first place... I wasn't in the city when the monsters suddenly appeared, I was training in the forest, to the north. After a long session, it was now time for me to come home, and rest a bit since I had been training for like... Four hours ? I don't really recall."

Celia's hand stressfully scratched her right cheek as her lips moved again, not done at all.

"But... Once I arrived, everything was on fire, everything... The houses, cars, even... Peoples..."

Even for someone who trained for years as an elite of the country, this must've truly been an horrific vision that nobody could've been prepared to deal with one-

Celia instantly stopped talking, as Asaki's thoughts also got interrupted in under a second. A thunderous noise of explosion had just echoed from somewhere a few dozen of meters away from the house, making the glasses onto the table slightly shaking, as their hearts... Almost stopped.

It took Celia a few more seconds before finally calming her heartbeats, and scared respiration, now resuming her story.

"... Hum. So, when I arrived in the middle of this total apocalypse, I... instantly tried to help those I could. I jumped onto the flames to save who could be trapped inside, into the river, to, only found a kid's... Corpse... And.... Everything else I could..."

When Celia had mentioned the corpse, Asaki unwillingly noticed how, her fist had suddenly tensed up, its bones menacing to broke themselves under the pressure.

"Everyone was running everywhere, chased by... I don't even know if calling them creatures would be the truth, because of how hideous these bastards looks like... They grabbed, slammed, crushed, slashed, ate, broke... everyone... Even I, barely avoided some of their attacks, as I could do nothing else than..."

This time, it was now her entire body who tensed up, as the Aurora gritted her teeth as hard as she could. A wet, reflecting surface, gradually forming above the two suns.

"Fled away... Letting those innocent, and poor.... Peoples..."

Asaki had a great intuition when it came to read people's emotions through their eyes, or just their body in general. It was easy for him, as anyone else, because of how much Celia was actually shaking, to guess that being unable to save anyone deeply marked her.

But when it came to help people getting through these kinds of bad feelings... Asaki was totally useless, a pair of glasses without any eyes beneath it.

So, hesitantly patting the girl's shoulder was everything the young man could actually do, as tears silently ran down her now, red cheeks.

Both, without even being aware of it, thought at the same moment about the same word. A single word, which however, had a thousand meanings and intensities, inside of such a situation.

'Useless...'

One was thinking about of how much useless he was to his savior, a powerful and beautiful girl, whom he couldn't repay anything for saving his life. Not even able to comfort her, as she cried.

And the other, cried. Thinking about of how much useless she was...

... But to the world.

°°°

"What do we do... Now...?"

Around a dozen of minute had passed since Celia started crying, and also told Asaki the rest of what she knew.

After Celia fled from the monsters, she headed to her school without even being aware of it. By chance, some students also hid themselves inside of the changeroom, most of them being some guys living on campus.

Strangely, Celia hasn't given Asaki that many details about what happened here. Truth be told, each time she tried, the Aurora restarted crying, shaking even more than before. In the end, all that Asaki knew, was that a monster arrived while everyone seemed to yell at her, or something like that, and so gave her the opportunity to flee. Again.

After a long moment, she then fell unconscious inside of... And this was what Asaki couldn't believe, a church of Letatras.

The Letatras was, if you can call it this way, the main religion of Aldeus before and during the Zenith wars. It was mainly composed of nine "lords", not even gods, each of them having cult which members could be counted to millions of believers.

It's also said that the Zenith wars, in addition to the desire to conquer Rakuen, also took place because of a religion conflict. Archigrad practicing the Fateism, so believing and praying Fate or Destiny, itself. And Aldeus, praying its Nine Lords.

Because of all the believers dying during the war, and also because of the animals, and sometimes, human's sacrifice practiced by the Letatras, the religion quickly disappeared from everyone's heart.

Although it's not forbidden to practice it today, as long as you don't make any human, or animal's sacrifice, the Letatras is casually hated by everyone in Aldeus. To not mention the fact that, the few believers from today, don't even follow the true religion's orders.

So much wrath toward this religion, leading to so much changes, forced them to create a new evangile called "Letatras New Order" while the original evangile is simply called "The Letatras". In fact, an old evangile of The Letatras was so rare, that you could literally buy a house if you decided to sell it.

But let's get back to Celia, after she lost consciousness inside of one of the "new Letatras" church, she awoke hours later, feeling really strange as her heart and limbs were all burning from pain. She also added that her wounds had strangely healed, but since she was dying of fear and confusion during the whole night, she wasn't sure of what kind of wounds she really had received.

Lost in fear, she then walked desperately, looking for someone that she could at least save, she, who abandoned everyone behind her. Or, just failed saving all those she tried to.

"And that's how I found you there... Sleeping on a sand dune... I, then, managed to find a wheelbarrow before starting to move your body out there. And to answer to your very first question..."

Celia pulled out from one of her uniform's pocket a small white box, which she opened to reveal a sheet of paper folded at least a hundred times. Inside of it, a map, strangely recalling Asaki of something...

"We travelled through the sewers, where the creatures couldn't go yet."

Now that she was talking about it, it's true that inside of Asaki's nose, was stuck a disgusting smell from the beginning. At least, he knew why now...

"I... I see... That's really smart. I guess I owe you one then..."

Celia, even though it was supposed to make her happy, didn't even try to smile a bit, still looking at the ground with an infinity of guilt and sadness. The Aurora,a dn Asaki, stayed like that for a few minutes, simply looking at the ground as the silence was sometimes, shattered by deafening noises coming from outside.

"Asaki ?"

From the windows, the young man could see the sun slowly hiding behind the trees, the mountains, and far away, the sea. One day already passed, and Asaki still didn't know what was happening, or when, and how, he'd be able to come back to his home.

"Yeah ?"

Celia also looked at the windows, a far more deep and complex emotion drew on her face now. Her strong, but still elegant, arms were slightly wrapped around her legs, as she had pulled her knees to her chest. It felt really strange about how the two were talking, sitting next to each other, as something terrible was happening outside.

"Do you think that the militaries are gonna save us soon ?"