Volume 4—Chapter 125: No Inglisu
Monster had stopped coming out of the dimensional crack. The cataclysm was already over. Countless nightmare creatures had either been wiped out or driven back into hiding. But it still wasn’t truly over yet. A monster beyond the world itself still remained. Nidhogg had not been cast out from this world.
But that side of the story could wait for now.
In the ruined streets of New York, around the remains of Times Square, Caroline slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a familiar face leaning over her.
Aria.
The moment their eyes met, Caroline immediately shoved her away.
“Get away from me!!”
“Uh… yeah… sorry…” Aria quickly scooted back across the broken pavement.
“What did you do to me?!” Caroline shouted, still breathing unevenly.
“Uh… nothing. I don’t know, I just…” Aria scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“Just what?!”
“I just woke up too.”
“What do you…”
Caroline stopped midway through her words.
Only then did she properly look at Aria.
This Aria felt different.
Her eyes were no longer empty like before.
“…I see,” Caroline muttered, letting out a slow breath. “Sorry. I freaked out…”
She pushed herself back onto her feet and dusted off her clothes. Bits of broken concrete and ash scattered from her sleeves as she looked around.
Ruined buildings surrounded them from every direction. Burned vehicles littered the streets. Giant cracks split the roads apart, while shattered screens and collapsed billboards hung dangerously overhead.
But more importantly…
There was no one around.
The silence felt eerie.
“I guess everybody already evacuated,” Caroline said quietly.
“Um…” Aria glanced around nervously. “We’re in America, right?”
“Yeah.”
“How are we supposed to get back home?”
Caroline turned toward her with a strange look.
“Can’t you just use your power to take us back?”
“About that…” Aria laughed awkwardly while scratching her cheek. “I probably can…”
She paused.
“…but I don’t know how.”
Caroline stared at her blankly for a few seconds.
Then she covered her face with one hand.
“You gotta be kidding me…” said Caroline.
Then Caroline suddenly remembered something.
“What about the witch… where is she?” she asked immediately.
“Oh… Emilia?” Aria pointed vaguely toward the sky. “She flew away just a moment before you woke up.”
“And you didn’t think about stopping her?”
“Hahaha…” Aria laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of her head. “I guess you’re right…”
Caroline let out a tired sigh.
“Do you at least still have your phone?” Caroline asked.
“My phone? Come to think of it…”
Aria quickly began checking her pockets. A second later, her expression brightened.
“Oh, I still have it.”
Then she pressed the power button.
Nothing happened.
She pressed it again.
Still nothing.
“Wah!!! It’s broken!!” Aria cried out in disbelief while shaking the phone lightly. “I can’t even turn it on…”
The screen was completely cracked, with faint burn marks around the edges like it had been struck by lightning.
Aria looked genuinely devastated.
Caroline stared at her for a moment before rubbing her forehead.
“Seriously…”
“Do you think it can still be repaired?”
“That is not the important part right now.”
“Ah…”
Caroline exhaled slowly.
“Well, whatever. I guess we’ll be stuck in America for a while before we can get back.”
Suddenly, voices echoed from the street nearby.
“Hey, there are survivors still in here!”
Aria and Caroline both turned at the same time.
A man wearing SWAT tactical gear was waving toward them from behind an overturned police vehicle.
“As expected, there are still people who didn’t evacuate,” another man said while approaching carefully with his rifle lowered.
Several more armed personnel emerged from the ruined street behind them. Their uniforms were dirty, and some of them looked exhausted, but the moment they confirmed Aria and Caroline were alive, the tension in their faces eased slightly.
One of the men stopped a few meters away.
“Are you two injured?” he asked.
“Uh… um…” Aria awkwardly raised her hand. “A bery sorry… no inglisu…”
Caroline immediately turned toward her with a flat look.
“What the heck are you doing? You’ve been speaking English this entire time.”
“Huh?” Aria blinked. “Am I?”
She paused.
“…Was that part of my power?”
Caroline looked like she wanted to say something, then gave up halfway through.
“Power?” one of the men repeated. “Oh, are you an Esper?”
“Yes, we are,” Caroline answered before Aria could say anything strange.
The man visibly relaxed a little after hearing that.
“I see. Did you guys lose your armband?”
“Well, we’re not really affiliated with the Association,” Caroline explained.
“Oh… so you guys are civilian Espers.”
The man nodded in understanding.
Behind him, a few other SWAT members lowered their weapons completely now that the situation seemed safe.
Meanwhile, Aria was still muttering to herself.
“So I really was speaking English…”
“You are still speaking English,” Caroline whispered.
“Woah…”
The man stared at her for a moment before deciding not to question it further.
“Well, either way, this area isn’t safe yet,” he said. “We’re gathering remaining survivors and moving them to one of the emergency shelters.”
He glanced around the destroyed streets of Times Square.
“There’s still a chance stray monsters are hiding nearby.”
And so, escorted by the SWAT team, Aria and Caroline made their way toward the shelter.
The streets of New York were almost unrecognizable now. Burned vehicles littered the roads, shattered glass covered the pavement, and entire buildings stood half-collapsed as smoke drifted through the cold air.
Emergency sirens echoed faintly in the distance.
As they walked, Aria kept glancing around with restless curiosity.
“So this is Times Square…”
“You say that like you’ve never seen it before,” Caroline muttered.
“I mean… I’ve seen it online.”
Caroline sighed.
Behind them, one of the SWAT officers spoke into a radio while the others maintained formation around the survivors they had rescued.
Far above the ruined streets, atop one of the damaged skyscrapers, two figures silently watched them from the edge of the building.
One was a tall man dressed in black, his gaze fixed entirely on Aria.
Beside him stood a woman with purple hair fluttering in the wind.
“Ouranous, why are you looking at them so intensely?” the woman asked.
The man remained silent for a moment before speaking.
“Talk about gears of fate…” he murmured. “Zephira, change of plan. Let’s not intervene for now. Let’s observe them.”
“You sure?” Zephira asked while narrowing her eyes toward the group below. “Shouldn’t we search for Notia first?”
“No need for that,” Ouranous replied calmly.
A faint smile formed on his face as he continued watching Aria walk through the ruined street below.
“She’s right where we need her to be.”
Author's Note
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