Clear sunlight poured down like a deluge.
At the end of the long night, a girl was staggering to her feet among the wreckage of the collapsed ruins. Unlike the sky brightening with dawn, deep shadows covered her face.
She was a wretched sight.
Blood would not stop flowing from the wounds torn across her body. Again and again, she planted her hands upon the ground and attempted to rise, only to collapse face-first without even managing a scream.
Nevertheless, the girl clenched her teeth.
“D-Don’t…… make me laugh……”
Her broken voice trembled weakly.
Flame and moisture mingled side by side. What was the name of this emotion welling from her heart? Rage, sorrow, or something beyond either?
She merely found it hot.
Her burning eyes, her voice heating her throat as it emerged, and the sun beating down upon her.
All of it.
“I-I’m…… not some…… ‘fake’……”
In her heart, she wanted to scream.
But her body had already reached its limit and would not permit it. No, ordinarily, even moving a single step should have been impossible. By now,…