Chapter 1669 - 233 - The Storm Hits (1)

Sakai Ayaka's POV

I woke up to someone shaking me, although for the first few seconds, I couldn't understand what was happening or even remember where I was supposed to be.

My head felt strangely heavy, and my vision was still blurry as I slowly opened my eyes and tried to make sense of the unfamiliar surroundings around me.

I turned my head toward my side and immediately noticed Kashiwagi-kun lying there on his back, completely motionless and without giving me any kind of response whatsoever.

He looked unconscious.

"K-Kashiwagi-kun?"

I called his name quietly at first, then leaned closer to him when he failed to react, hoping that maybe he was simply sleeping unusually deeply and would wake up if I tried again.

Unfortunately, he didn't move at all, and his complete lack of response made my uneasiness grow much faster than I would have liked.

I looked around after that and finally realized that something was seriously wrong with our surroundings.

We were in a place that seemed completely deserted, with nobody else anywhere nearby, while the constant sounds of explosions continued echoing from different directions.

The explosions were loud enough to make my chest tighten, and the distant flashes of light made the entire area look like some kind of battlefield that had appeared without warning.

I slowly pushed myself up and looked around, only to see multiple explosions happening all around us, with smoke rising into the sky and debris occasionally flying through the air.

"D-Did the war just start?"

The question came out of my mouth before I could even think about it properly, because I honestly couldn't understand how things had gotten this bad so suddenly.

I had absolutely no idea why I had ended up in this situation.

One moment, everything had seemed normal, and then I had simply opened my eyes to find the entire world apparently collapsing around me.

"A-Ayaka..."

I froze when I heard someone calling my name.

That voice sounded familiar.

It was Kaori.

Kaori...?

Where was Kaori?

I could hear her voice clearly enough, but I couldn't see her anywhere around me, no matter how quickly I looked from one direction to another.

"H-Here..."

Her voice came again, weaker this time, and I immediately looked downward.

My entire body froze when I saw her lying on the ground.

"K-Kaori? W-What the... What the hell happened?"

I could barely get the words out as I stared at her in disbelief, because what I was seeing simply didn't make sense to me.

Kaori was lying there on the ground, but her lower half was completely gone.

For several seconds, my brain refused to properly process what my eyes were showing me, as though pretending that it wasn't real would somehow make the horrible sight disappear.

"I-I'm sorry..." she whispered weakly. "I-I shouldn't have put you all through this..."

"W-What happened?"

My voice trembled so badly that I could barely hear myself anymore, and even speaking those few words felt incredibly difficult with the fear tightening around my chest.

"We-we messed up..." Kaori said while struggling to breathe properly. "Something is... approaching. Even Leon... couldn't possibly have beaten it..."

Her voice became weaker with every word.

"A dragon... a..."

She seemed like she was trying to tell me something important, something that I desperately needed to know, but before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly began gargling blood.

"D-Don't speak anymore! I understand!"

I shouted at her almost immediately, even though I didn't actually understand anything at all.

I simply couldn't stand watching her force herself to keep talking when she was already in such terrible condition.

"I-If I had known it would turn out like this, then I wouldn't have asked you to join me in this war..." she whispered.

Her voice was barely audible now.

"If I had known, I would have told Tsubasa how I felt..."

"Kaori!"

I called her name again, but she barely reacted.

"L-Live, Ayaka..."

Those were the final words that came from her mouth.

Her hand slowly fell against the ground, and her body stopped moving.

For a moment, I couldn't understand what had just happened.

Wait.

She's dead?

Just like that?

My mind refused to accept it, because one moment she had been speaking to me, and the next, she had simply stopped moving like someone had flipped a switch.

W-What had even happened?

Where was Leon?

What had happened to him?

W-Where was he?

Before I could even begin putting those thoughts together, a loud and mocking laugh suddenly echoed from somewhere nearby.

"Hahahahaha! You really thought you could defeat me?!"

I immediately turned toward the source of the voice.

My body went completely stiff when I saw what was happening.

Leon was there.

At least, I thought it was Leon.

His appearance was completely different from what I was used to seeing, because his body was covered in black scales that spread across his skin like armor.

Both of his swords were drawn, but he was kneeling on the ground as though he had already been defeated.

Standing directly in front of him was a gigantic man.

The man's body was covered in brown scales that looked almost metallic, giving him the appearance of some enormous armored creature rather than an ordinary person.

His sheer size made Leon look incredibly small in comparison.

"You were doomed from the very beginning," the creature said coldly.

***

I suddenly woke up, feeling a cold bead of sweat sliding down my body.

"Haa...! Haa...!"

I was breathing heavily, almost desperately, as I struggled to catch my breath and figure out where I was.

My breathing was so loud that I could hear my own voice echoing through the room, which only made the lingering panic from the dream feel even more real.

"W-What happened, Ayaka?"

Someone called out to me from nearby.

I immediately turned toward the voice and saw Kaori looking at me with an expression of complete confusion.

She was alive.

Kaori was standing right there.

She was completely unharmed.