Hope born of solitus

*

I raise my right arm at the writhing mass, it was gargantuan, it could easily swallow me up and leave me without my bones...

Unnerving, my senses froze from the fear and I stopped breathing. My heart caught in my throat with a burning pain, a voice almost calls out to me. It feels like there's a voice there conversing with me, at the same time I hear nothing. Only instructions form in my mind naturally. 'Aim' with your right arm. 'leave' the rest to your own will. A deep scarlet spark shone for an instant, everyone's attention was on the monster, nobody was able to observe my suspicious behaviour. I feel a naught but a single warm gaze peering at me, it comforts me.

The monster shone with a black light, before pouring forth a beam of kinetic destruction. Atomic disintegration, it disassembled all into their constituents, finer than dust and beyond the visibility of the naked eye. The scarlet light appeared once more 5 metres away from where my right hand was pointing. It caught the black light and grew...

Like a ravenous beast, it spread forth and surrounded black with deep scarlet. It arced away like lightning, then arced back and consumed the black. Eventually it devoured the writhing black mass, forming a tornado with the largest point ending at where the monster was.

Sunlight returned, the roof was back, and everyone was staring at the front of the class... I was also back in my seat, as if nothing had happened. The familiar sound of the whiteboard duster grazed the writings. My heart was still skipping a few beats, painful, I held my breath for so long that it inflicted a sharp pain. It was proof that all of it was real, for my anguish is enough reason.

... Ah! I have to take all of these down before teacher erases all of it! The rest of class was uneventful, then came lunch time. It was hard to eat after what went down, but nothing else was out of the ordinary, as if it was all a bad dream. I chewed up the bread I brought and swallowed with great difficulty, silently concealing my lost of appetite. Getting a fright of a lifetime does cause such effects... Perhaps it was better to get a change of pace. I excused myself from the table, hopefully it wasn't too obvious that I was eating slower than usual.

Sariel followed, she didn't hide the fact that she was tagging along. After all, accompanying wasn't that unusual. We reached the toilet down the corridor, shared by the hall of classrooms on this floor. By the way, we were on the third floor, it's where the second years are placed. Her glossy black hair reached her back and her cold sharp eyes were the targets of envy for many. They exude a mysterious and spine shivering charm, she always caught the attention of others. It was only after a few months in the first year that people got used to her beauty and stopped staring so much.

Compared to her, my black hair was shoulder lengthed and seemed a little unkempt they curled naturally at the tips so I left them as is. Come to think of it, the regulations on hair were incredibly lax for the female students.

She made the first move, with a single step she closed the distance at a low stance. She drew her arm back at an angle, as if ready to pounce. This wouldn't be the first time we pretended to fight, but a feeling deep inside me told me that this time wasn't play. An arbitrary intuition, nevertheless I took caution. My visual acuity has always been stronger, I lightly shifted to my right as her right arm stretched past me and struck the wall. A kabedon... I grabbed her right arm in that moment and pulled her closer.

I didn't want to hurt her, so I didn't throw her. But now we were awkwardly pressed against each other in front of the restroom's mirror... If someone were to see us it would be bad... I could feel her hot breath tickling my clavicle, I avoided slamming anything into the wall, so neither of us should be bruised.

"W... What?!" (Sariel)

"Come on... I didn't need some mysterious 6th sense to detect your thirst for battle...

Why did you attack me? " (Lastia)

Sariel looked away hesitantly, some of her thoughts escaping onto her face. Evidently, there was some semblance of guilt and apprehension from how her eyebrows twirled up and her cheek stiffened but it took a solid minute for a coherent answer to come out.

"I... You... Right... You did that didn't you? You fended off that phantom's attack. With it's perishment, the event period was reset." (Sariel)

"... Event period...?" (Lastia)

"Right... I'm sure you can tell by now after seeing with your own eyes. We call these phenomena by countless names, events, attacks, ambushes, encounters.

For an unspecified period of time, everything that occurs is reality... The people killed by monsters, the damage wrought onto the surroundings. None of it is an illusion. But once you defeat the monster, the world will not recognise the event and everything will return to the point of the beginning. " (Sariel)

" You... Who, are you? Why do you know all of this? " (Lastia)

I choked out my words, hesitation and incomprehension brewing in my throat. There was much uncertainty, my heartbeat rose sharply and hadn't gone down for a while. There was a sense of helplessness that I couldn't control... My mundane life, my ordinary routines... I had gotten so used to them that anything out of the ordinary gave this foreign anxiety. Sariel's expression shifted from an unfeeling gaze to a slightly gentle smile. Perhaps this was her attempt at reassuring me, but I couldn't calm down from such a creepy smile!

"Fufu~ ahh~~this is youth!" (Sariel)

Are you sure?! I've never seen you smile so wide with your eyes closed before! For now, I prudently kept my thoughts to myself and waited for her to composed herself. Really... Do we not spend enough time? Must there be supernatural elements for it to be considered enjoying one's youth for Sariel?

"Well, there's no other explanation. It's magic. I don't know how it works either." (Sariel)

It felt like the cool beauty image that I had built up from my impressions of her was completely shattered in a single day.