Chapter 002: Straight into the Action

The building shook as Natasha covered her head, not wanting to be killed of by any stray debris. The orb on the pendent on her neck was still shining brightly, and it; which felt more of a heart than her own physical heart pulsed more and more as she progressed closer to what she increasingly realized was the other side of the school.

‘I don’t know how much time they have or if they can even survive that long, I need to be faster,’ Natasha didn’t question what she would do once she got there, after all she also had one of these Magic Orbs—to which she had yet to learn the name of—so she reasoned that as long as she made it the crisis could be averted.

Natasha pursed her lips and made a quick detour through the empty halls filled with fallen books and abandoned bags before she made her way to the brightly illuminated outside. She looked up into the sky, which was no longer red, but had a star shaped scar that was embedded into the sky.

‘No matter how dense people are, they should realize things are wrong right?’ Just as she thought that, another rumble made it’s way through the ground and smoke constantly erupted from everywhere within what she could determine was a 2km radius.

While in awe of her new perception of space and distance, Natasha quickly made there way to her destination—the bike rack.

Riding a bike was faster and much more lenient on the stamina for medium distances than running there. Not to mention she had to rush over there, if she had to cover that distance on foot she would never make back in time before;

1. They all died again and the time loop restarted.

2. Or they all really died and that miraculous time loop stopped working.

Both of these were bad! Bad outcome!

The falling Sakura leaves were splattered across the path—and she still saw no signs of any students, whether on concrete or the grass yard that she was now cutting through to save time, there was no one.

‘Both the scent and sight of blood are absent, which makes the worst case unlikely.’ Natasha surmised as she glanced around with narrowed eyes, her most neutral state of sight.

—“I mean, one thing I hate about games and stuff is the fact that they try so hard to be unique like for instance; what the f*ck is a “Corastrum” bro? Just call it Star Crystal or Star of Hearts or something man, Hell! Even Mana Heart could have sufficed, but game developers always have to drag it when it comes to Latin and shit…”

‘What in the blood hell is a “Corastrum”, wait? Heart?’ Natasha’s brows furrowed and she looked down at the shining object near her chest, four twinkling stars were within and as if joyous at being watched they all moved around in a jovial manner.

“So that’s what you’re called huh,” Natasha chuckled, “No wonder I’ve been unconsciously referring to you as my “Heart that is more than a heart” hehe, no wonder.”

Natasha’s eyes sparkled at the new information, and while it wasn’t much, it brought some clarity to this confusing situation. In the first place, she hadn’t overreacted to the what happened to the sky because she wanted to study what was going on with the orb—now named the Corastrum—as she while she didn’t know situation with the sky, she did have an inkling that the Corastrum was key to wading through whatever followed.

‘Maybe I should have gone and done some information gathering as well,’ She sighed, and saw the bike rack just up ahead. She slowed, come to think of it, she still didn’t know what had killed the Leon or why it resulted in a time loop—

Her brows furrowed and she slowed down even more, hiding behind something quickly. She didn’t know why, but she had a bad feeling, as if there was something in the area.

Very soon, she got her answer as fire suddenly erupted about 300 meters away from the front of her and suddenly making the rudimentary forest in the school turn to ashes—the air distortion somewhat unique to flames interacting with air reached higher than most skyscrapers and might have even tickled the clouds. Booms and sparks were constantly heard and seen as the all the air within that specific height and distance was ignited—laid to waste by the sudden calamity.

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And then came another detail, Natasha finally heard something she hadn’t in a long time.

Human voices.

More accurately, screams of fear and uncertainty.

Just then…

—“Honestly, wasn’t arc 1 of this just excessive. It had like a bunch of Meta-Beasts appearing left and right. Sure, they were one star, likely fodder in the grand scheme of things, but for girls who haven’t even awakened and normal humans? This was just the equivalent of the grim reaper sleeping under your bed, living with death at every corner.”

Now, Natasha realized three things;

1. A one star was the lowest of the low and she had 4 stars, so it was sure that she had plenty of potential. As for if she could live to have it realized, that depended on her.

2. There were unidentified creatures with this type of potential as well, and the thing that engulfed the surrounding 100-200 meters of forest, rock and air in flame was a mere one star.

3. She had to leave, and fast.

Another explosion sounded, and as she watched the bike rack rattle; Natasha thought that if it could cause some of the bikes there to get loosed from their chains so she wouldn’t have to go over there, it would be great.

Aewwk— Aeewk— Aeewk—

The voice of a raging monkey suddenly sounded out, and pillars of flame reached out into the sky wildly as many students who were hiding in any area began to rush out in a panic. Seeing this scene, Natasha realized that it was not that there were not many people, it was that no one in their right mind would stay outside at a time like this.

Rattle— Rattle— Clank—

Just then, something else interrupted her thoughts and Natasha nearly squealed.

A bike, it was a bike! It came free! Her eyes lit up with happiness, as she didn’t have to go over near the danger to get what she came for. It was a happy occasion, but then her expression cooled.

This bike, it seemed to be in a weird state. Bikes were supposed to be on the ground, so...

Why was it flying toward her…?

As she watched blankly, Natasha raised her hand as if to catch it and then promptly dodged to the side. The bike fell with a crash, and she quickly rushed toward it and boarded the thing. Not missing a moment, she quickly checked every key component; the tires, frame and gears before she took off.

Not even sparing a glance at the other fleeing students, and seeing what she did they were somewhat incredulous. They then quickly snapped back to attention and, while the monster was distracted with destroying everything, quickly grabbed a bike from the rack and left in any manner they could.

Those who couldn’t get a bike, just ran as far and as fast as they could.

Any mention of screaming and some such was done is muffled voices and silent cries. Don’t play around, if that heard them, it would be certain death. They hadn’t live near two decades in this world just to throw it all away at this critical moment.

The stupid monkey, who was too busy rampaging and inattentive, let all of it’s potential prey run away but it didn’t seem to care. It’s mind seemed very simple, not caring about the fleeing humans at all and just content with burning everything to ashes.

It jumped up and down, flames ejecting from it’s feet and ash from it’s mouth as it melted rock and combusted air.

This was the last scene Natasha saw before she got out of the area, but her heart was still chilled. She pursed her lips, she didn’t know what thing that was, other than it was called a Meta-Beast and was apparently only a one-star.

‘That crater was like 50-70 meters in diameter and from 100 meters away I couldn’t even see the bottom, so at least more than 1 meter in depth all around… and that pillar of flame, was similar to Tokyo Tower…’ The bike she was riding suddenly became a bit unsteady and Natasha slowed down, placing her hand on the wall, arms trembling.

Slightly choked and parched, Natasha’s indifferent face suddenly twisted as her narrowed-eyes furrowed in slight worry. She gripped the bike handle as tight as she could, trying to choke her fear and then started peddling again. She had a lot of distance to cover, she didn’t have good ground nor enough safety to guarantee a safe journey of what she suspected was more than 1km across a large campus.

All she could do was move, peddle like her life depended on it and try to save a man that she was uncertain if he had any feelings for her or not. That was all she could do, whatever magical ability she had, she couldn’t quite access it just yet.

—“’Hey doesn’t Corastrum kinda sound like Colostrum?’ Like the breast milk thing?”

Natasha nearly fell of her bike, but even as it swayed unsteadily—like her resolve that was steadfast a moment ago—she still moved forward in determination.

‘Hubby, I’ll save you!’ She thought so with an obsessive expression.

Current Time: 6:03:04 PM