episode_0064

The world was burning.

That’s how it felt to young Daphne. The cars stalled on the road were utterly destroyed, trampled, and torn apart.

-Growl!

Hordes of Skullkits ran along the road, chasing terrified people. Among them, Fellinuts darted around, tearing victims to shreds by swinging their arms like mad cats. Growlers used their massive size to rip vehicles apart like paper, slaughtering the hidden survivors. In the distance, massive, building-sized spider-like monsters walked, shooting beams of light that set the road ablaze.

“Take the children! Hurry!”

As the roars of the beasts grew closer, her father entrusted the two sisters to their mother. Soon after, growling sounds were heard, and a man’s shouts and screams echoed a few times before being swallowed by other noises.

The monsters’ roars continued to draw closer. A monstrous shriek, like a cat’s wail, approached, and their mother, who was fleeing while caring for her children, was crushed and knocked down by something that fell from the sky.

“…Daphne! Run! Laurel, you too! Quickly!”

“…Mom!”

Leaving the woman’s desperate cries behind, the sisters ran. Tears flowed uncontrollably. Was it from fear, or the terror of never seeing their parents again? Amidst the chaos, Daphne ran without realizing she was getting tired.

“…Gasp..! Sis! Gasp! Sob!”

Laurel stumbled and collapsed, having a fit. Her meager lung capacity couldn’t handle the sudden exertion. Daphne, stomping her feet in distress, dragged her sister and hid behind a truck.

“Sob…sob! Sis! Sob! Gasp…”

She barely managed to calm Laurel, who couldn’t control her breathing.

I’m scared. Please. Someone save us.

The Grace sisters hugged each other, trembling.

As the noises of the wicked monsters grew closer, a tumultuous flapping sound was heard from the sky.

When she looked up, helicopters flew over the road. People jumped out of them into the smoky hell below. A little later, the sounds made by the monsters rapidly diminished. Young Daphne realized they were hunters.

“Sis?”

“We’re alive…!”

Coming out from behind the truck, she saw that all the monsters had turned into corpses.

The moment they felt relief, a massive yellow beam of light flew over and incinerated a vehicle. An explosion erupted, and the sisters fell back in surprise. Daphne felt a slight stinging sensation. Something hot was trickling down her forehead.

“What…?”

A house-sized, spider-like monster was rushing towards them. The monster was fleeing from the hunters.

The problem was that the Grace sisters were in the monster’s escape path.

The spider-type monster, thrashing in pain, swung its legs wildly. It failed to eliminate its enemies, but the stalled cars rolled around or shot into the sky. One of them rolled towards the sisters.

It was too late to dodge.

Young Daphne realized for the first time then that when a person is in mortal danger, the world seems to slow down. Her body felt like stone, unable to move.

Then, her body tilted sideways. For some reason, against her will, she was thrown outwards.

“Huh?”

How her frail, spoiled sister found such strength, Daphne didn’t know, but the sight of her sister pushing her with both hands and falling back was etched into her mind. Daphne barely managed to get out of the rolling vehicle’s path.

And then, Laurel vanished from sight with the car.

The current Daphne, watching that scene, wanted to close her eyes.

The nightmare would not allow it.

***

The silver-haired girl ran, blood dripping from her forehead and tears streaming down her face. She gasped for breath on the road, where stalled cars were scattered, heading in the direction the car that took her sister had rolled.

“Ugh!”

A sensation grabbed her ankle, and she tumbled to the ground. A wounded man who had crawled out of a car had grabbed her ankle. It was a desperate grab, born of the will to survive.

“S-save me…”

“No! Let go of me! Let go!”

To her, the bloodied injured man looked no different from a monster. ‘I have to go save my sister. Please let go of me.’

As she desperately tried to pry the man’s hand off, a pale green flash of light erupted from Daphne’s body. A translucent barrier flickered between her and the man, then disappeared. The man’s hand was thrown back.

“Ugh? O-oh…”

That wasn’t the only surprising thing. The man, bathed in the green light flowing from her hand, unintentionally fell into a peaceful sleep. All the wounds covering his body also vanished.

For reasons unknown, this was an opportunity. Daphne stood up and moved forward.

Laurel lay beside the car from before. Her entire body was drenched in blood, and her eyes were closed. More than anything, she wasn’t breathing.

“Help me! Isn’t anyone here?”

A startled Daphne frantically pleaded for help, but no one answered. As she sorrowfully called for rescue, she felt something strange and touched her forehead.

Her wound had vanished. The bleeding had stopped, and it no longer hurt.

The earlier situation came back to her: the green light emanating from her body. She also remembered something she had learned in school before.

Could this be an Awakening?

Even with an elementary schooler’s reasoning, it wasn’t difficult to deduce her situation based on a few causes and basic knowledge. Daphne prayed to God with a desperate heart.

‘Please! Help me! Make the light come out!’

‘This light coming from my body must be the power of an Awakened One. It healed my wounds, so maybe it can heal my sister too!’

As she desperately prayed, a pale green light emanated from her hand. Filled with feelings of expectation and hope, she diligently stroked Laurel’s body.

Nothing happened.

Hope crumbled.

“Huh…? Why? Why?”

The current Daphne, forced to relive this entire process, wanted to cry as she watched her past self stroke her sister with trembling hands.

“No, right? It can’t be that it only applies to me? My wounds healed, so Laurel will be healed too…”

On the first day of her Awakening, she learned a bitter lesson.

She learned it.

Her unique ability, named by her former mentor, an old witch, was…

“Waaah…Waaah…S-sob…”

…the fact that it couldn’t heal the dead.

Amidst the great catastrophe, the girl sobbed, holding her sister’s corpse. The late regret bubbling up within her couldn’t be stopped.

Laurel, wake up. We were supposed to go to the amusement park.

I’m sorry for saying mean things. I didn’t really mean it! Believe me. I didn’t mean it. Please. So, please just wake up.

I won’t tell you to be quiet every time you whine at night.

It’s okay to throw a tantrum. I won’t get angry anymore. I’ll even just give you the doll.

Please, please.

However, there was no one there to hear the girl’s confession.

***

Daphne’s nightmare usually ended at that point.

It would fade to black after she finished crying, embracing her sister, and she would wake up in bed with a heavy heart. Recently, such occurrences had become rare, but just a few years ago, it was a familiar pattern that tormented her nights.

But the dream continued.

‘Why isn’t it ending?’

Daphne was puzzled, but as there was nothing she could do, she merely watched. The scene before her continued to play out.

Time flowed coldly, like a majestic river. Many days had passed since the year of the tragedy.

The events of that day were quickly forgotten. What Daphne experienced was certainly worthy of public sympathy, but objectively speaking, it was merely a common occurrence happening in real-time across all continents worldwide, including Rustroom.

The qualitative value of tragedy is inversely proportional to its quantity. The more there is, the more desensitized people become. As long as there were countless children in the world who had lost their parents to monsters, she too couldn’t remain the protagonist of a tragedy forever.

Fortunately, the relative who took her in was strict but generous. While she was recovering from her wounds and trying to live, she was lucky enough to receive almost free education on Awakened abilities from a retired elder.

-“Always be courteous to others and remember to speak respectfully. Your words determine your dignity and worth. Do you understand?”

-“Yes, Teacher-nim.”

The scars in her heart would not disappear, but the space gnawed by pain was filled by a resolve that had matured over a long time.

Daphne made a decision.

‘I will definitely help people with my abilities.’

She resolved that no one else would get hurt. She didn’t want to see tragedy repeat itself anymore.

With a direction set, all that remained was to move forward. She diligently studied to prepare for admission to an Awakened Academy.

Her goal was Polaris Comprehensive Academy.

It was an academy boasting a long tradition and strict atmosphere. With her abilities, she could have aimed for other good academies, but for some reason, her intuition told her it would be best to go there.

And so, she passed the exam, entering the academy with top-tier grades. Scholarship benefits also somewhat reduced the burden of student loans.

A week before the entrance ceremony, as she was unpacking in her dorm room, the door burst open.

Daphne, observing the dream, wondered.

‘This is…when I first met Violet, isn’t it?’

A naive-looking blonde girl entered. Her ruby-red eyes were striking.

It was her roommate, Violet.

“Hello?”

Violet was surprised when she saw Daphne’s face.

“Wow… you’re pretty…!”

The past Daphne was flustered, not knowing what to do, and felt embarrassed.

Time flowed again, moving towards the entrance ceremony.