The trek through the forests lasted nearly half an hour, a testament to how deeply Hanakawa had been buried from whatever lay beyond. At some point, the ground had sloped into a minor decline as the density of verdant growth thinned out. Then, just like the border between land and sea, the forest stopped with a clean-cut line that guarded its boundaries as far as the eye could see. Ahead of me lay a winding dirt trail that cut through the terrain of rolling hills and rivers, just beyond which stood the crumbling stone husk of a long abandoned town. It wasn’t a welcome sight to see a destroyed civilization  immediately after leaving the forest, but the traces of human presence nevertheless brought some relief.

Fragments of tattered walls and scattered belongings were strewn about the streets. Whatever it was that caused the people of this town to leave had caused great panic and an ensuing battle. I approached a sizable abode whose walls were considerably damaged, yet whose door still remained standing. Based on the scene the ruins painted, I presumed nobody would ever be returning to reclaim their items. With any luck, I’d find some sort of map or at least an indicator of what route to follow to find civilization. 

Stepping through a breach in the building’s sides, I noticed the door had been barricaded shut by a pile of assorted furniture. As I passed by a fractured mirror, I glimpsed my dirtied reflection. I hadn’t paid any attention to my appearance since awaking, but my sleeves were burned off from the battle with Seraphim and the rest of my clothes were torn from cuts everywhere. However, it seemed the actual wounds to my body had healed. Searching the drawers throughout the house only yielded items like rusted pocket watches and dirtied jewelry. Perhaps such items had shone with great value for their owners in the past, but now were only stained by the passage of time. Eventually, I found a suitable change of clothes, which, despite being aged, served their purpose much better than my old outfit. 

Looking in the mirror again, I observed my new appearance, realizing my face wasn’t quite the same as before I had ‘died’. Moreover, the worn boots and large cloak made me seem more like a character in my dad’s bedtime stories than a resident of Hanakawa.

I continued rummaging through a few more houses before realizing they all held pretty much the same things, eventually deciding my time would be better spent simply leaving and searching without aid. 

I prepared to depart on the trail I had seen before when the sound of crunching dirt caught my attention. There was someone else in the ruins with me. Peering around the back of the house, I caught sight of a horse-led wagon without any riders. Whoever it was had likely disembarked while I was changing. Without knowing whether or not my company was hostile, I decided the best course of action would be to retreat into the forest for the time being. That is, until a voice shouted towards me from behind.

“You over there! State your name and purpose for trespassing upon these ruins!”

I whirled around to the sight of a girl holding a strange staff a fair distance away from me. She was slightly shorter than myself and sported a uniform of white and blue that bore the same sense of officiality as the Hanakawa sentry’s uniform. Great. It seemed I had already placed myself in an unfavorable situation before getting to properly meet anyone. 

It was faint, but there were definitely traces of mana building up at the end of the staff. The echoing sound of metallic movements rang out as its shape expanded, traveling up the rod towards the crystal at its end. Her hair began flowing in a breeze of mana that encircled her presence.

The technology this world’s people boasted was certainly far beyond the scope Hanakawa could’ve reached. I reminded myself that now was not the time for curiosity about such information. If possible, I had to find a way to make this girl no longer see me as a threat.

“It’s a long story- If you just give me a moment I can explain everything. It has to do with the barrier back-”

I paused. Would the outside world even know about the barriers if its surface could project images to make its existence indistinguishable? Moreover, if they did know, how would they view the people inside?

She stared at me with cold eyes.

“So you’re the one who broke the barrier?”

“Yes- As I said before, I can explain if you just give me-”

She sighed.

“It’s always idiots like you that are causing us unnecessary trouble”

The mana gathering around her staff was now dense enough to shine with a whitish hue. Damn it. It seemed I could no longer avoid a confrontation, given that her implications of breaking the barrier were clearly far different from mine.

The crystal on the staff became enveloped in a bladed white energy, surging with mana that intertwined with her own aura as she pointed the tip towards me, a clear invitation for combat.

Aura armament. I immediately recognized the technique as one used by a friend of my dad’s back in Hanakawa who reigned as one of the strongest captains in the sentry. In essence, it required externalizing your aura to the point it could manifest as weapons or armor. Typically, the focal point of a weapon armament was the blade, and the farther the focal point had to be sustained from the user’s body, the more difficult it was to activate it, not to mention maintaining such a state.

The problem facing me now was that this girl effortlessly maintained the lengthy spear armament enveloping her staff. 

She lunged forwards with a jab as I ducked beneath her first strike, the tip of the blade producing a drop of blood from my cheek. 

Despite her excellent mana control, I quickly noticed her actual form with handling the weapon was lacking, meaning that weakness was where I could find my chance to disarm her and force a conversation.

Another jab flew towards me as I finalized my plan of action.

[ Weaving (Lv. 1) has been activated! ]

Threads of mana rose from my body and began to follow my every motion. 

“What the heck is that?!”

She gestured towards my aura in confusion and continued attacking.

Kchrrt! Our dense auras collided in the air over and over, the threads created by weaving barely managing to divert the course of her spear armament each time. 

A flurry of mana rushed down her body and through the spear towards me as her movement speed increased. 

Her attacks were now becoming harder and harder to avoid, forcing me into a defensive position. Fighting with the intent of not harming your opponent was much easier said than done. However, her increased speed seemed to have lessened her ability to precisely control each individual movement.

Her spear finally cut through one of my threads with forceful momentum. I recognized my opportunity to end the pointless scuffle.

As the speartip fell, I advanced within her range of attack and grabbed the handle of the spear. Wrenching it from her grasp, her aura disconnected and the spear returned to the appearance of a staff. I took a few steps back and planted the staff firmly into the ground as she glared at me in shock. 

“Are you willing to listen to me now?”

“Tch! Damn you!”

She now ran towards me with her arms swinging, defiantly looking as if she wouldn’t stop fighting until her last breath. Why did the first person I met have to be like this?

Crreeaaakk. We both froze as the sound of trees being bent and snapped echoed from behind me. No, not just behind me, it was coming from back within the forest. Based on the girl’s startled reaction, whatever caused the noise wasn’t affiliated with her. 

I whipped around just in time to catch sight of an uprooted tree hurtling our way. 

“Get out of the way!”

I grabbed her by the arm and narrowly pulled the both of us out of harm’s way as the tree brought down a row of houses, shrouding the ruins in a cloud of dust.

Briefly checking on her condition, I propped her up against a still standing wall and emerged from the smoke to confirm the aggressor. I could still feel her glare piercing the back of my head, but it seemed she had identified the greater threat and chose to put her aggression towards me on hold. A message that mirrored the style of the Hanakawa Corruption Archives appeared in my field of vision.

< Titan-type | Rank 5 Threat | Highly Durable | Slow Regeneration | Somewhat Intelligent | Considered the final and strongest counterpart to golems and goliaths, titans are large and extremely durable creatures that can appear up to two stories tall. Compared to their counterparts, titans appear much more humanoid despite their awkward proportions. They have minimal capabilities regarding intelligence, able to use their surroundings as weapons much as a goliath wields its club. Unlike their counterparts, their core is wedged inside their chest rather than within their heads. >

I was almost certain that this beast had come from Hanakawa, yet I had also seen with my own eyes the remainder of Hanakawa’s corrupted beasts being eliminated in the fight with Seraphim. Whatever the cause for this beast’s appearance, subduing it was a priority. Given how mentally defeated that girl had seemed when I placed her in that house, it would be solely up to me to defeat the titan. I inwardly hoped that playing the hero would get her feisty character in my favor as I brought out my aura to its full capability.

[ Trait, Adaptability (Lv. 2), is preparing to activate! ]