Note: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to drop Power Stones and leave a comment to help the story reach more readers.
------------------------------------------------
Setsuna awoke to a desolate wasteland. No grass, no life, only a chilling wind under a pale sky. Sparse clouds drifted, the sun absent.
"The world's end?" he muttered, then gave a wry smile. The barren expanse stretched to the horizon. Not the end, then.
"Am I dead?"
It didn't feel real. He'd suffered critical burns lethal damage for any creature. Death seemed logical.
Yet that was a layman's thought, the naive musing of a child ignorant of medicine. Still, with his body charred, death wouldn't be surprising.
"If so, this is hell, right?"
He shrugged lightly, exhaling. Villains end in hell, but did such a place exist? If it did, how would a soul summoned to another world reach it?
Did death mean fulfilling his summoning's purpose?
"Another world…"
Setsuna looked at his hands. No scars marred skin that should be grotesquely burned. Proof this wasn't reality's continuation. Yet clenching his fist felt vividly real.
"…?"
A strange presence made him look up. In the lifeless expanse, a black object stood menacing, with a long blade glinting dully. A gem in its haft glowed faintly.
The black spear. His summoned weapon.
"Why did you answer my call?"
A sudden gale drowned his question, shaking and distorting his vision. Not mere wind—a ferocious torrent of air.
Setsuna couldn't resist.
His consciousness vanished
"!?"
Pain tore his eyes open. A pair of adorable blue eyes filled his vision, a worried girl's face inches away, reflecting his haggard expression.
"Ah!"
Her face bloomed with joy, an angelic smile. Setsuna doubted it was meant for him, but the thought was swept away.
Pain, like the one that woke him, screamed through his body, mercilessly coursing through every nerve.
"You're awake, big brother!"
The girl's shout too close rang in his skull. Her fervor poured into her voice, echoing painfully.
An earsplitting cry.
"Guuh!"
Caught between bodily agony and her piercing voice, Setsuna nearly writhed. Tears welled, yet the pain grounded him in life.
(I'm… alive?)
A white ceiling filled his view not quite a ceiling, but a flimsy canopy. A tent, likely. He began to grasp his situation.
(I was saved?)
It seemed so.
Moving his head was torture amid the clawing pain. Groaning, he shifted his gaze from the fixed ceiling.
As expected, a tent. Not cramped, but not spacious. More than enough for one. Bare ground, a bed where he lay, surrounded by cloth walls held by simple poles. The unsecured fabric fluttered, revealing glimpses of another tent outside.
(Yeah, makes sense.)
He nodded inwardly, mood darkening. The pain forcibly dragged his sinking heart back.
(Everything burned…)
People, town all consumed.
One man's staff turned Karan to hell, its crimson flames devouring everything.
Setsuna arrived too late, after the destruction.
Far too late.
(…)
Regret gnawed, but he laughed bitterly. What if he'd arrived sooner? Could he have stopped it all?
Impossible.
He narrowed his eyes. Preventing the fire entirely was unthinkable. Without the blaze, he wouldn't have noticed the man. Without his cackling, Setsuna might've passed him by.
And without the fire, he'd have had no reason to wield his spear.
(…?)
Footsteps approached the tent. He turned, despairing as the pain showed no sign of easing. Not just burns, perhaps.
The curtain parted, and the girl burst in.
"You're okay now, big brother!"
Her beaming words baffled him. He stopped himself from tilting his head movement worsened the pain, familiar yet distinct.
"This is supposed to be a sickroom, Elina. No shouting," came a gentle voice, like a spring breeze, laced with fond exasperation.
A young woman entered, her bluish-black hair framing emerald eyes. Her sharp air owed not just to her red-rimmed glasses but her presence. Her fitted black-and-red outfit accentuated her feminine curves.
"Sorry!"
The woman smiled as Elina failed to quiet down, her excitement palpable. Setsuna, briefly distracted by the woman's figure, caught himself.
(?)
Elina's head tilt was adorable but didn't stir him. He wasn't into younger girls.
(No, that's not it.)
Muttering inwardly, he took a deep breath to calm his flustered state. The woman's curious gaze stung.
"Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine!"
Her concern prompted a forced smile. If a strained grin counted, it was a fine one. He clenched a mental fist. I'm good. I've got this.
But
"Gaaah!"
He screamed. The forced smile triggered unbearable pain, ripping through him.
"Looks bad!" Elina's blunt remark struck as he collapsed onto the bed.