Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Anguish.
In search of prey, a group of giant reptilian lizards travelled along a torn road in a ruined city. Ignoring the skeletons and decomposing corpses around them, they growled in search of food.
One of the reptilian lizards departed from the group, sniffing the ground as it moved towards an alleyway.
Upon entering, it noticed two young people standing inside. A silver-haired beauty and curly black-haired young man.
Within the split second of spotting them, it opened its mouth to alert the others and prepare an attack. But just before it could-
*Chomp!*
Its mouth was forced shut by threads attached to the walls of the alley. To escape the grasp over it, it leapt back reflexively.
However, when it was mid-air, even more threads latched onto it, grabbing it before pulling it deep into the alley.
*Splatter!*
The threads instantly tightened, splattering blood over the walls as it tore through the giant lizard's bones and skin.
[Thread Manipulation: Restrictive Coffin.]
Julius glanced at the threads as he walked past the corpse.
'The threads are a manifestation of her ability. They're harder than steel and hard to spot. She seems to have gotten better at controlling it too.'
He slowly peered over the walls once he reached the alley's exit to make sure the coast was clear. While she peered over Julius's shoulder, Lyra's large chest pressed against his back.
The coast was clear. In light of this, the two crossed the street and headed into the next collapsed building.
They traversed the city in this manner. They utilised the rubble as cover, stayed off the main road, and moved through buildings in order to avoid drawing attention.
It was important for them to be as quiet as possible, taking care not to make any noise.
For emergency situations, Julius was even given a gun by Lyra.
In the face of these monsters, a pistol wouldn't do much good, but this wasn't a regular pistol. It was a high-tech pistol that used specialised ammunition.
A single shot from it can deal considerable damage to a low-ranked monster. However, in the high-rank danger zone they were in, it wouldn't amount to much.
Which was why Lyra would constantly glance back at Julius to check on him with an anxious look.
'It's swarming with monsters, it's too dangerous… I shouldn't have brought him here when he still can't control his ability, but… there's no one else… there's no one else who I could call for help. It's always just been us three, all alone in this cursed world.'
Lyra finally spoke up after checking around and confirming that the room in which they were in was safe.
"Julius, from now on it's going to get dangerous… I won't be able to watch over you-"
Lyra's whispers were interrupted by Julius who suddenly covered her mouth with his palm Lyra's and quickly pinned her down against the building's wall for cover.
A few seconds later, a giant dark silhouette passed by the window which showed the outside of the building.
'These ruins are just as shitty as ever, no signs of life except for monsters.' Julius let out a sigh. He then got off Lyra who had nervously averted her eyes.
"Lyra." He called out to her, his expression and tone serious. "Focus. I'll be fine."
She looked at him and hesitantly nodded.
After that, she got up and started moving, gradually quickening her pace as they left the building. Following right behind her, Julius tried his best to keep up.
-
-
-
'She's fast… on top of that she kills them before they even know what hit them.'
Lyra and Julius delved deeper into the ruins. With her threads, Lyra quickly cut down low-ranking monsters whenever necessary to clear the way.
In order to avoid mid-ranked monsters, they would take a different route.
Julius had yet to fire a bullet from his pistol. There was no need to, Lyra was that powerful.
Eventually, the clouds began to gather and rain began to fall. Just as it had, they entered a tunnel between two collapsed apartments.
'We can do this… Julius is properly keeping up, we have yet to encounter any high-ranked monsters. Fortunately for us they reside more towards the city's centre and the portal where Ava is trapped is closer to the outskirts.'
In the tunnel, they were surrounded by darkness and debris. Even so, Lyra did not show any sign of slowing down.
'This is the path we took before she got trapped…' Lyra thought to herself
In the midst of the debris tunnel, they noticed a light at the end. The exit was almost within reach.
'Wait for us Ava…we're almost there-'
When Lyra emerged from the exit, her thoughts were interrupted as through the corner of her eye, a giant battleaxe approached.
"Lyra!" Julius called out to her, pushing her out of the way.
She reacted almost instantly, stretching her arm out towards the attack-
[Thread Manipulation: Impenetrable Bundle-]
*Boom!*
In an instant, both their figures flew through the air. Lyra crashed into a broken car down the road, whilst Julius crashed through a building.
-
[HP: 100 -> 34%]
[You are afflicted with bleeding.]
His vision was blurry, his ears were ringing. He looked down at his left arm and left leg only to find that they had been violently bent.
"Aaaargh!" He groaned as he coughed out blood.
If not for his nightmares and the adrenaline, he would've already fainted from the pain.
In that last second before they were hit, Lyra had created a shield by bundling up her threads to weaken the impact.
'I was able to avoid being sliced… But I still ended up in this state-'
Suddenly, a large humanoid monster charged past the hole in the wall, interrupting Julius' thoughts.
He only had a second to catch a glimpse of it before it was gone. It looked like a mixture between a man and a bull. Over two metres tall, it had the head of a bull and boulder-like muscles all over its fur covered body.
Two large battle axes were carried on each hand, an unusual sight since each weapon was meant to be dual-wielded.
'Fuck, it was a minotaur…! And that direction.. It's headed for Lyra!'
Julius tried to get up and chase after it but due to his bent left leg, he ended up falling right back down to the ground.
With no other option he crawled. He crawled towards the hole he had crashed through in the wall.
In spite of the pain ringing in his ears and the loss of blood, he kept crawling, focused on at least making it somewhere so that he could see her.
Upon reaching the outside, his face went pale.
Lyra was covered in injuries, engaged in an intense battle with the minotaur. With its battle axes, it relentlessly slashed through her threads, unleashing attack after attack.
Several of her bandaged injuries had burst, soaking her clothes in blood.
'Shit…! We don't have much time, I need to create an opening for her.'
Immediately, Julius pulled the high-tech pistol from the holster around his hips. Taking aim at the Minotaur's back, he fired the weapon.
*Bang!*
His arm was knocked back by the recoil, and a bright blue light flashed as the bullet hit the minotaur's head.
*Thump!*
Its head bopped forward, but the bullet fell to the ground. It couldn't penetrate its hide. It continued raining attacks down on Lyra without even looking at him.
Seeing this, Julius's eyes widened.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
Except for the last bullet, he fired all the bullets in the chamber. In spite of this, all of them fell to the floor after failing to penetrate it. The minotaur hadn't so much as glanced towards Julius.
"This can't be real… Even if it's a minotaur it shouldn't be able to…!"
-
With a puzzled look on her face, the black-haired Vampire watched the situation from the roof of a nearby building. It didn't seem to bother her that the rain poured down on her.
"Hm~ That doesn't look good. He's not activating his ability… rather than not wanting to, it looks more like he can't."
She raised her eyebrows.
"Ah- I recall hearing him mention that he isn't able to control it and it only activates when something is hostile to him or he's in active danger."
Her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.
"With the minotaur's hostility focused on that girl, his ability will never activate. At this rate… that girl will die. Maybe It's time I go and help them…"
Just as she got up to intervene, she suddenly halted. The air around Julius started to change, a dark mist began to surround him.
"Hoh~ on second thought… I'll watch for a little longer. I feel like I might witness something interesting if I do." She muttered with a grin.
She looked out into the distance, the figure of monsters catching her eyes..
"That being said, you better hurry… We can't stay here for much longer."
-
'What am I… doing…?'
Laying on the ground by the wall, Julius's pupils dilated as he watched the fight near its end.
Using her last bit of energy, Lyra bundled her remaining threads together, entrapping herself in a sphere.
He could not see her figure from the outside, but it was obvious that she had reached her limit. The rest of her power was being used to hold back the minotaur's attacks.
'Seriously… What am I doing? Why am I just watching while she's there fighting for her life…?'
With its two battle axes, the minotaur relentlessly unleashed attacks one after another. The threads were quickly chipped away.
"At this rate Lyra will… Lyra will die…!'
It was only a matter of time before the Minotaur would break through Lyra's defences and kill her.
When Julius saw this, he grit his teeth and slammed his remaining hand on the ground.
[HP: 30 -> 29%]
"Nightmare!" He yelled out, clenching his hand into a fist. "Do something! You've ruined my life! You've killed me as many times as you wanted! So for once in these ten years…"
[Nightmare: Level 1 - Locked.]
He pounded the ground with the gun on his remaining arm, tears streaming down his cheeks.
[HP: 29 -> 27%]
"Work! Work you shitty ability! What the hell are you good for, if not now!?"
Watching as the sphere began to tear open, his fists grew bloodier.
[HP: 27 -> 24%]
"Give me the strength! To kill that monster!"
[Skill: Nightmare Level 1 - Locked.]'
With his finger on the trigger, Julius placed the barrel of the gun in his mouth. Lyra's sphere had been torn open, leaving her injured figure vulnerable to the minotaur.
In that moment, however, the thought that went through her mind was not her impending death, but rather Julius. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shut her eyes and called out his name. "Julius… I'm sorry…"
"Nightmare!!" Julius yelled with the chamber in his mouth, tears pouring out of his eyes.
[Skill: Nightmare Level 1 - Locked.]
Immediately- the minotaur swung its two axes at the girl. And in the very same instant, Julius pulled the trigger.
*Bang!*
[Skill: Nightmare Level 1: Locke- Error! - Nightmare Domain.]
And in that instant, a world of darkness emerged.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone