COTE X Lol Fanfic: Ayanokōji In Strange Lands

chapter 10

3rd person POV***

Shurima is dying. I do not think she will rise again.

The emptiness that writhes in the very bones of my homeland is a malignant, unspeakable thing. It spreads. It devours. Its merest touch is death. A thousand deaths—a thousand, times a thousand, times a thousand. Perhaps once there were some who could stand against it and hope to prevail, but no longer.

I walk here, alone, in the darkest places beneath the world, and I see it with my own eyes, through the finely crafted lenses of my helm. What is seen cannot be unseen, and what is known cannot be forgotten. Not here. I am weary, so very weary.

Still, I walk.

I can no longer feel the ground beneath me, nor the bare rock of the cavern walls, but so, too, am I spared the worst of the numbing winds that rise from the depths. I give thanks for that, for truly this is a chill beyond the desert’s night. I have sat upon the endless plain of the Sai Faraj beneath the first moon of winter, and yet never known anything like this. It is the deep cold of the Void, which the ancients—in their ignorance—might have named as their underworld, and the source of all evil in the mortal realm.

The truth is worse, I think. The air itself feels wrong, and unnatural, throbbing with a fierce, purple un-light that pains the mind.

And from the shadows that even my eyes cannot pierce, you come.

Three. Four. Maybe five. It is difficult to say. A hundred and more of your kind have I faced, and slain. Your howls echo in the gloom, but I do not fear you, for you have already taken everything I ever had.

My wife; my beloved. My daughter; our binsikhi, our little explorer. I call out their names, as I always do, to remind myself why it is that I fight. Then I raise my gauntlet.

For all your teeth and your claws and your ravenous rage, you cannot defeat me. Either I will strike you down, back to the pit… or you will send me into the hereafter, and I will finally be at peace. I will be with them once more.

Kiyotaka POV***

As I ran across an atop an ocean of purple creatures I spot Nouria in the distance on the ground unconscious.

I quickened my paced and enhanced my feet with light.

Each time I step on a disgusting creature, it cries and explodes, propelling myself on each stride I swooped Nouria off the ground and began running to the less dense part of the horde. Placing her on my back I tore some of the fabric on my stone mason clothes and tied her waist around mine. Wrapping her arms on my neck and holding onto her with my right hand to not let her slip off.
Feeling her faint breathing on my neck I assumed she was fine, for now at least.

I could've just abandoned her and my escape would've been easy but, there's  still so much stuff I haven't learned from her. So not yet, I forbid you to die.

Listening to the history of this world piqued my interest and I want to hear more from her, so you better be grateful and tell me the wonders of this god forsaken world.

The little bits of sand on stone made it a little harder to run on but I can manage, because back in the white room I was trained in various environments.

Shooting pulse fire in front caused the creatures to avoid it and created a small path ahead. Immediately taking the opportunity I ran as fast as I could but the path was getting smaller until we were finally surrounded once again.

I'm running out of options since Nouria looks hurt, I didn't get a proper look at her since I was in a hurry. Some of her ribs are broken, a few cuts and a large one on her side that I temporarily covered with my light. But, I have no idea how long I can keep this up.