“Ah!”
As she fell, a sharp pain shot through the arm she used to break her fall.
It hurt. It hurt so much.
It must be broken.
She immediately turned around and began crawling desperately. She didn’t know which direction she was going—anywhere would do, because nowhere was safe now. The church? Would it be safe there? Could God’s house really keep the Bahamuts at bay?
As she moved frantically, her knees and palms were scraped raw, and her nails broke. But she no longer felt the pain or the cold. She crawled along the ground like an insect, dragging herself through the snow.
She stopped only when she saw red letters scrawled like graffiti on a wall. The message written in blood was in the language of the Divine Text. Veronica read it without thinking.
Deus dereliquit hominem
“God has abandoned humanity…”
Her heart was beating painfully in her chest.
Then her vision suddenly widened, and she noticed the scattered objects around her.
Pieces of corpses that were now closer to chunks of meat. The bell tower. The cross. Crows landing.
The building before her was the church she had been so desperately seeking. But those who had come begging for God’s mercy had been torn to pieces and turned into sacrificial offerings.
Veronica burst into spasmodic laughter.
The Pope’s arrogant words that humanity’s sun would never set had been proven wrong.
Ever since a meteorite fell into the southern sea and Bahamuts crawled onto the land, humans had ceased to be at the top of the food chain as the rulers of the world.
Bayern, though not the capital, was a well-known port city. But it was clearly finished now. The red sunset of civilization was falling.
“Ah… urgh…”
Just then, a groan came from what she had thought was a corpse, causing Veronica to quickly raise her head and approach on her knees. A blood-covered woman was staring at her with wide eyes.
“Ma’am. Are you all right? Can you hear—”
Veronica suddenly stopped, frozen with her mouth still open. It wasn't fear of the woman's eyes, drenched in pitch-black terror, that stopped her. No—it was the realization that those eyes were fixed on something behind her.
The woman groaned with hopeless despair.
At the same time, a shiver ran down Veronica’s spine. Her body trembled violently.
There were things in this world that didn't need to be seen to understood—like the overwhelming fear, anxiety, and despair that now gripped her by instinct alone.
Drowning in the dark terror consuming her from head to toe, she slowly turned her head.
The creature was right behind her, lowering itself and bowing its head deeply to the ground.
Veronica gritted her teeth when she saw the face before her. She tried to swallow her moans, but they leaked out of her against her will.
How does it have a face?
Her hazy vision trembled. This was the first time she had seen one so close.
Bahamut.
Demon. Devil. Monster.
God’s judgment, said to have descended to punish human arrogance.
Its red iris contracted, and the black pupil swelled round, just the size of her head. Its grotesque, hairless face was smiling, and where ears should have been, gills wriggled as if to show it had risen from the sea. It simply stared at her silently.
Originally, Bahamuts had no head. But she had heard the absurd story that one specimen, after devouring countless human heads, had grown a human-like head of its own.
At such a close distance, where each tiny muscle of the iris was visible, the stench of rotting corpses was overwhelming.
No. I mustn’t provoke it.
Veronica recalled the rat and the cat she had once seen in a back alley of the market. The cat had merely watched on, curious, until the rat moved. The hunt didn’t begin until then. So, if she just stayed still and offered no reaction at all…
She held her breath. Her pulse raced. Her heart began to pound as if attached to her eardrums.
She scratched the ground until her nails broke, trying to suppress any sound. Her mind was on the verge of being crushed.
The creature’s red eye began to beat like a heart. The chain-like ring around its pupil pulsated, expanding and contracting. Veronica stared at it, entranced.
All sound seemed to disappear.
At some point, only the red eye and her heart remained in the world.
Red. Crimson. The world was drenched in blood. Newborn babies cried in pain because they were born into a world that was already falling apart. From the very beginning, their senses were assaulted by the thick, lingering scent of blood and the redness that filled their vision.
This world was falling apart. It was destined for destruction.
Her heart slowed and eventually stopped. A series of flashbacks flitted before her eyes.
Her small hand reaching out as a baby. Mother and Father smiling brightly. The first tiny snowman she made and the warm fireplace. Lively dinner and laughter. Mother reading fairy tales at her bedside. Mother hugging her.
Mother.
And then Mother, no longer reading her fairy tales, lying in bed with a sad smile. Poor Father, exhausted, his head hanging low. Approaching the darkened bedside and holding Father’s hand tightly, Father smiling weakly.
Neighbors gathered under the clear sky, all dressed in black. When young Veni asked her father where her mother was, Father held her hand tightly, just like she’d done for him before. She looked up at her kind father. But Father had no head.
So humans faced Bahamut and they—
Died.
Died.
Died.
And then were reborn.
Her vision turned bright red as if someone had splashed red paint in her eyes.
The vision of her father caused her limbs to convulse, but Veronica did not scream.
She just smiled faintly. Because she was a Bahamut now.
Now I am a Bahamut.
“Already corrupted, are you?”
At that moment, the bright red memory shattered, and the cold face of a man invaded through the fragments.
As noise rushed in, her heart began to beat again. With the acrid world of rising flames behind him, the man grabbed Veronica by the hair and stared intently at her. He had red hair and wore black armor. The crimson and black lights swirling in his fierce eyes felt cold and murderous.
She struggled to escape, but he’d gripped her hair so tightly it felt like her scalp might tear. Looking at her flailing with disgust, he asked in a low voice, “Do you want to live?”
Veronica only moaned weakly.
“I’m asking if you want to live, even if you have to crawl through hellfire.”
“Let… go.”
“Answer me. If you say you want to die, I’ll kill you painlessly.”
Did she want to die?
Veronica silently moved her lips.
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I’ve only just been reborn.
“Then ask for help,” the man murmured, as if he had read her thoughts. A burning abyss stared straight at her.
“I want to live… Help me.”
His handsome face transformed into something cruel in an instant. If there were different types of cruelty in the world, his was that of a boy who tore off a cicada’s wings for fun. With an amused expression, he released his painful grip.
“Good. Congratulations on your rebirth.”
The man thrust his sword into the ground before her. Her pale face appeared in fragments, reflected on the silver blade illuminated by the red light. Short black hair. Snow-white skin. Red eyes.
Red eyes. Eyes the same color as a Bahamut’s.
The world was falling apart—but humans were evolving.