"Umm..." Sera's voice softly echoed in the corridor.
She opened her eyes, clasping her forehead as she felt like someone had crushed her back.
"Where... is this...?" Mumbling in her sleep, she stared at the cracked ceiling of the corridor. Its paint had been completely scraped off, exposing the cracked bricks as the building itself barely held on.
Though, for some reason, the old dusty bricks seemed to be green in color to Sera. Confused, she rubbed her eyes countless times only to find it the same every time.
Ultimately, she decided to get up and see for herself. Turning around, she first straightened her back. Then, she jolted upright in a single motion and stretched her arms up in the air.
Slowly, as she began turning around towards the corridor, Sera caught a glimpse that almost made her jump back several steps.
At a distance on the ground, there lay a severed hand. A green-skinned hand with long, pointed nails that could dig through flesh with ease. Murky green blood pooled around the hand, smudged over the hand itself.
It was then that she remembered the events that took place several hours ago, putting her in a life-and-death situation. Memories flickered in her mind like panels: The desperate run from the bald man... Tripping with exhaustion... Getting cornered by the Goblins, and at last, the emergence of a young man...
Though, for some reason, she had forgotten many details about yesterday. She could not remember anything that happened after witnessing the young man in action.
'I-Is he...alright?' Sera pondered, hoping to see the man safe and sound.
Gathering enough courage, Sera hesitantly decided to turn around at once. As she did, she quickly covered her mouth and widened her eyes in terror. Up front, there lay tens of severed corpses of goblins over a massive pool of greenish blood.
Some had their limbs severed, some had their skulls smashed, while a few severed heads rotted along with the corpses.
The tangy, muddied smell, although unusually faint, made her cough frantically. But what shocked her even more was the young man who sat unfettered on the pile of corpses.
Just like before, his back was pointed towards the girl—almost as if he was defending her the whole time.
Though, Sera could not understand why anyone would consider sitting in such a nasty place out of all the dry floor.
"Erm... Excuse me?" She called out, "ar-are you okay?"
Hearing her voice, the young man's head slightly twitched. Realizing that the girl had woken up, the man stepped out of his meditative stance and froze.
Suddenly, as Sera stared at him intently, the young man's figure disappeared from her sight.
"You alright?" A deep voice softly echoed near Sera's ears, flustering her.
She quickly turned her head around to the right only to find the young man's face mere inches away from hers.
Her eyes quickly glanced over at his face, only to widen in shock.
'H-He's... handsome!'
After all that carnage, the sight of someone alive—and normal—threw her off more than the blood ever could.
Her mind went blank, and her face flushed pink as she mindlessly stared at the young man's face. Unknowingly, her lips parted as her eyes began to stare right into the man's cerulean eyes.
In their reflection, Sera saw her own figure. As she noticed that her face had turned completely red, panic took over her mind. She instantly turned around and covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. Feeling the warmth on her face, she felt her ears catch fire.
Ashamed of her sudden actions, Sera quickly decided to answer his question in hopes of calming down.
"Y-Y-Yes... I-I'm... Good..." She stuttered, her voice wavering with a mix of overwhelming emotions.
Unable to turn around and look in the young man's eyes, Sera froze—her eyes rolling desperately as if they were trying to find the solution to this meticulous situation she had created.
"Oh yeah?" Sera widened her eyes as she heard the young man's voice once again, this time, though, significantly closer than before.
"Well, you certainly don't look alright to me..." The young man muttered as he stood over to her right side. He then softly placed his hand on her forehead.
Sera blushed further, her head turning into a steaming hot pot.
"See, your forehead is steaming!" He muttered, quickly shaking his hand off her forehead dramatically.
"I-I just want to thank you for helping me out last night..." Sera said in a calm voice. Turning around, she hesitantly looked at the young man.
"Well," The man smiled and extended his hand forward. "The name's Lucian. Lucian Cross. And if you really want to thank me... I'd like to ask for a favor."
"Oh! My name's Sera Kade. Nice to meet you!" She quickly held onto his hand with both of hers and politely accepted his gesture. "And... Favour?"
"Yeah... Can you tell me what date it is and what exactly has happened since the start of the apocalypse?" As he asked his question, the small smile faded away from his face, and his eyes sparkled with a glint of determination.
"Sure! Though, it'll be much quicker for you to see for yourself. Come, let's go outside!" Her eyes sparkled.
Lucian chuckled slightly as he realized just how eager she was to go outside.
'Maybe that is the right thing to do... After all, even I'm, quite frankly, curious as to how the sunlight has returned to the world.' A thought struck his mind as he quickly nodded in agreement.
"Let's go, then!" Sera smiled brightly.
They soon began to walk towards the corridor. As they did so, Sera instinctively rolled her eyes to the left. She was curious as to where Lucian could've appeared from.
There, her gaze fell upon a small wooden door at the end of the corridor. The door was open, letting Sera quickly glance inside as they both walked past the door.
'What the...' She widened her eyes in an instant, shocked.
Inside, what seemed to be a small room in the past lay utterly demolished. Paper parchments covered the corners of the ground alongside giant pieces of broken wooden shards. From the center, huge cracks stretched deep and wide, spiderwebbing not just around the floor but also the walls and ceiling.
Around the center, a black hue was smeared all across in a perfect circle, sprayed all across the room.
Her throat went dry as a single thought struck her mind.
'Did he... do that?'