The puppet had finally reached the looming factories and the metallic cylinder. From this proximity, the structure was truly colossal, towering over everything. It stood tall, an island of cold, hard metal in a sea of dry, golden stacks of grass that danced and swayed in the slow, whispering winds.
The puppet hid nearby in the tall wilderness and observed the movements, scanning the area for any sign. But there was nothing. Everything was as silent as a tomb.
Sezel was completely focused, his consciousness a ghost inhabiting the puppet's form, his own body was a forgotten vessel on a distant rooftop. He was so engrossed in the scene that he didn't notice Shiki's approach until a firm hand grabbed his arm and jolted him backwards.
Sezel looked back, bewildered. "What happened?"
Shiki said nothing. He simply gestured for Sezel to come inside, his gaze flickering towards the rooftop access gate. Vesta was there, her arms wrapped around Mari in a protective embrace, trying to console the trembling child.
What happened? Sezel questioned himself, a knot of unease tightening in his gut. He followed Shiki slowly, his footsteps silent on the grimy rooftop.
"What is it?" Sezel asked, his voice a low, urgent whisper as soon as they were inside.
Mari looked absolutely terrified, as if she had seen a ghost. Sezel got down on his knees and placed a reassuring hand on her head. "What is it?" he asked, his voice soft.
"She said she is sensing something dangerous," Vesta replied instead, her voice tight with a tension that mirrored the child's fear.
Sezel's gaze flickered to her, his eyes narrowed as if asking a silent question. She gave a single, almost imperceptible nod, and he stood up, his own senses now on high alert.
They all waited, huddled together in the shadows of the school building, while Sezel, his mind a split screen, continued to observe the outside world through the eyes of his puppet.
The wait didn't last long. Suddenly, Mari clutched her hands around Sezel's wrist, her small fingers digging into his skin with a surprising strength. Before he could turn to her, an otherworldly pressure descended upon them, a crushing, invisible weight that nearly buckled them to their knees.
The assessment devices in their pockets, long silent, chimed on cue.
[Elite Beast - The Two Faced Dragon detected]
Sezel's eyes widened. An Elite beast? Rank-5? Before he could even begin to process the implications of those two, world-shattering words, the pressure intensified. And with it followed a deafening, soul-crushing roar, a sound that seemed to tear through the very fabric of reality, as if their very souls were being crushed under a heavy, indifferent weight.
Sezel's gaze darted to Vesta and Shiki. Vesta was still standing, her body rigid, her face a mask of pure, struggling effort. Shiki, however, was on his knees, his hands planted firmly on the ground as he supported his trembling body, his face pale and contorted as if he were about to be sick. Sezel was still upright, but his body felt as if it were being torn apart from the inside out.
The most abnormal was Mari, she still clutched Sezel, her small body trembling, a faint vibration that Sezel could feel even through the violent trembling of his own body. But she wasn't feeling the pressure. He was sure of it.
'Where did this thing come from?' he wondered, his mind racing. He slowly, painfully, made his way towards the gate and peeked through.
Strong gusts of wind were now blowing downwards from the sky, a violent storm that made it impossible to see outside. But slowly and surely, the gusts began to slow, and with them, the crushing pressure on his body began to recede. He gasped for air as soon as the pressure became bearable, his lungs burning.
It was dangerous. Too dangerous. An Elite beast of Rank-5 was not just a monster; it was a catastrophe, a walking, breathing apocalypse that could destroy cities with a single breath if it wanted to.
Suddenly, a weird, prickling sensation grew in Sezel's stomach, an instinctual warning that screamed of danger. His eyes widened as he focused solely on the perception of his puppet.
The puppet was terrified. He could feel its fear. It was feeling the same pressure Sezel had felt just moments ago. A huge, dark shadow now covered a large area of the vast, open expanse, blotting out the sun. Something had come flying, a humongous, impossible creature with two large, leathery wings.
The creature descended, and with a sound of claws scraping against metal that echoed across the desolate landscape, a sound that Sezel could hear even from this far away, it slowly sat atop the massive metallic cylinder.
Sezel's pupils shrank to pinpricks the moment his perception took in the beast's mighty, terrifying form. It was a dragon. An actual, living dragon. It had tremendous wings that could blot out the sun, and a long, tentacle-like tail that whipped and thrashed through the air. But the most terrifying part was its head. It had two heads, one covered in fiery red scales, the other in icy blue, each one a separate entity, their eyes glowing with a malevolent intelligence. Its whole body was covered in coppery green scales, each one the size of a man's shield, except for the two distinct, terrifying heads.
Sezel was speechless. Vesta was now mending to Shiki, who was breathing heavily, his face pale and clammy.
'What is this thing doing here?' Sezel gritted his teeth. He wouldn't dare go out. The beast was just sitting there, on top of the metal cylinder, its two heads slowly, methodically, scanning the area as if it were looking for something.
He quietly, silently, observed it through his puppet.
It didn't wait there for long. After a few tense moments, it unfurled its massive wings, and with a few slow, deliberate flicks, it created gusts of wind so strong that they uprooted the dry wilderness below, sending clouds of dust and dead grass swirling into the air. The spectral Flesh Reaper dug its claws into the hard, dry ground, fixing itself in place as the mighty dragon took flight. And within minutes, the colossal form was engulfed by the horizon.
It came, and it just flew by, leaving only a lingering, deep terror and a profound, soul-crushing fear in its wake.
Sezel could only wish for one thing: that he would never come face to face with such a thing again. None of his tricks, none of his desperate, suicidal gambits, would work against something of that monastery.
He walked out of the stairwell and back onto the rooftop, his gaze scanning the vast, empty field where the dragon had just been. He gulped hard. Behind him, Shiki, Vesta, and Mari followed, their own faces pale and drawn.
"Let's jump off the roof," he said, his voice firm, his eyes fixed on the distant, silent factories.
They couldn't go down through the building; the floods had seen to that. The only viable option, the only way forward, was to get down to the wall and find a way out of this walled-off, forgotten hell. After all, they still needed to get going, to find the heart of this Gate.