Awakening of the Weakest Slayer

Sezel and Vesta ran through the unfamiliar maze-like alleys of the ruined city, their footsteps echoing in the oppressive silence, and the noise of tremors was a distant echo now.

They had been running for what felt like an eternity, constantly keeping a single, straight direction, yet the city seemed to conspire against them, twisting and turning, leading them into one dead end after another. The main street, where they had left Shiki and Mari, remained stubbornly out of reach.

A frantic urgency gnawed at Sezel's heart. Luckily, the heavy, bruised clouds above had not yet begun to pour down their venomous tears. But that would not be the case for long.

"We need to hurry," Vesta proclaimed, her voice a ragged, breathless gasp as she stood face-to-face with a massive, moss-covered wall, another dead end in their desperate pursuit.

"What are you planning to do?" Sezel asked, his own voice laced with a confusion that was quickly being overshadowed by a growing dread. The constant, guttural rumbling of the clouds overhead was intensifying, a promise of the coming storm.

THUD!

A large dust cloud erupted in front of him, the sound of crumbling brick and mortar followed by the sharp, cascading clatter of debris. As the dust began to settle, he could see Vesta standing where the wall had once been. Now, it was just a gaping hole, a heap of broken bricks piled on either side, and the alley continued into the darkness beyond.

He stared at that for a second before Vesta gestured him to follow behind. He followed without asking anything. He could imagine himself being the punch bag, and he just saw what the punches could do.

They broke through another wall, and then another, their path a straight, destructive line carved through the labyrinthine ruins. As they drew closer to their destination, the once tremors and blasts they had left far behind again became louder and more clear.

It was not a bad thing. It was a clear sign that they were finally approaching the main street, the large, paved road that served as the central artery of this dead, forgotten city.

After another kilometer of this brutal, desperate charge, they finally broke through the last wall that stood between them and their goal. Through the ragged, gaping opening they had created, they stumbled out onto the main road. But it was not a road anymore.

Sezel was rendered speechless by the sheer, unadulterated devastation the beast had left in its wake.

The place where the wide, paved road, covered in thick, untamed wilderness, had once been now looked as if some humongous, impossible object—or rather, some impossibly large monster—had crawled all over it, leaving a trail that was less a path and more a deep, ragged chasm that stretched as far as the eye could see.

The houses and buildings that had once lined the street were all destroyed, hammered down into piles of rubble and dust as if by some colossal, indifferent hammer. The image of the Cecaelia's terrifying, whip-like tentacles, each one a weapon of mass destruction, flashed in his mind.

Sezel's mind suddenly pushed all of the things around, his heartbeat became faster by the second as the thought crossed his mind: Shiki and Mari. He looked around, his eyes sweeping the devastated landscape. As far as he could see, there was nothing but ruin. No building was spared. No corner was left untouched.

Vesta, her own face a mask of dawning horror, suddenly sprinted towards the entrance of this part of the city, the place where they had left their friends. "They must be around here somewhere!" she shouted, her voice a desperate cry that pulled Sezel out of his trance-like state. "Check around!"

He took a few deep, shuddering breaths and sprinted after her. As they ran, they saw nothing but devastation. The road had been plowed into a deep, ugly crater that stretched all the way to where the monster was still, presumably, fighting.

The buildings around them had been destroyed like mere toys, some of them so completely obliterated that they had been turned into nothing more than fine, grey dust.

As he ran, as he saw the sheer, indiscriminate scale of the destruction, strange, ugly thoughts began to form in Sezel's head. Are they dead? There was no way they could have survived this. He wanted to deny them all, deny that it can even be possible.

A strange feeling, an unfamiliar ache, twisted in his gut. He didn't want her to die. And his stomach churned at the thought, at the realization of how much he had come to care. His heart, his cold, selfish heart, so desperately wanted to find her now, to see the smiling face of the little girl he had only met three days ago.

TIP! TIP!

Suddenly, Sezel saw two drops of a dark, water-like liquid fall onto the cracked pavement in front of him. He skidded to a stop, his gaze flickering upwards. The sky was now completely black, the dark churning clouds that had made the night feel even more absolute.

The gusts had died down a little, the rumbling in the clouds had become silent. And the drops that fell in front of Sezel indicated just one thing. A dread coiled in his heart, a low whisper escaping his lips.

"The Venomous Rain has started."

He quickly shifted his gaze to Vesta. She, too, was lost, her face tilted up towards the sky, her expression was one of horrified realization. He ran to her side, grabbed her hand, and pulled her behind him, breaking her from her trance.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, her voice a mixture of anger and confusion.

"We need to hide," Sezel replied, his own voice a ragged, desperate gasp as he ran, pulling her along. "Find a shelter. Now."

"But Shiki and Mari," she said, her voice a pained, desperate cry. "We haven't found them yet."

"You can only find them if you live," he said, his voice distant. His words were a hard shard of logic in a world of chaos and emotion. "They are not fools. They would have hidden somewhere." He said the words, but a sliver of doubt still lingered in his mind. He was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince her.