This chapter is told from Labrys’ point of view.
Just before the calamity, in a small town surrounded by flowers named Almana, Labrys Scarlet walked back and forth in front of the house of the Moonhart family.
It was almost six.
(T-this is the year… I will give Chrom a birthday present… Probably…)
Labrys looked troubled as she looked at the small package in her hands.
She prepared it every year, and every year she failed to give it.
But this year she would do it. Probably.
Chrom wanted them to be friends like before… But those feelings also existed inside Labrys.
And yet, she could not bring herself to be honest.
(Today…)
She remembered what happened earlier that day.
How she spoke harshly to him, how she lost against him in a mock battle… But also how it felt when he pat her head, and his smile when he said kind things.
“…”
She felt she remembered too much.
She shook her head and her pink twintails to try to cool her head as her face became red.
(A-anyway… Anyway!)
There was something different about Chrom that day. And she did manage to make up with him just a little.
(A-and I promised we’d be friends too…)
This was just part of honoring her promise. An obligation.
And it would be a waste to just throw away the present she went out of her way to get.
So Labrys did something she would usually not do.
(All right. I’ll just hand this and go…)
Labrys made up her mind… And suddenly realized something.
She forgot something important. What to say when she handed Chrom his birthday present.
(I-I need to prepare a little bit more…)
But just as she thought this…
“What are you doing, Labrys?”
“…!? …!?”
Labrys was startled, and her twintails pointed up.
She raised her head, and saw El’s mother Reina, who spoke to her after exiting through the front door.
“What is it? Did you forget something?”
“N-no… Hum…”
Labrys fidgeted, but spoke like she made up her mind.
“I-I have something to give Chrom.”
“Chrom?”
“I-it’s… A birthday present of sorts…”
Her face became red as she spoke.
Reina felt she understood what was going on, and nodded with an amused expression.
“But unfortunately, Chrom went out for a while.”
“…Is that, so…”
Labrys’ twintails drooped.
“Do you want to leave it with me?”
“…No, I want to give it myself.”
“I see. But it will be dark soon…”
Said Reina as she looked at the clock tower.
It would soon be six o’clock.
The hands of the clock then formed a vertical line.
Clang clang… The bell rang loudly.
But just as a grand metallic symphony enveloped the peaceful town…
There was a big rumbling in the ground.
“Kyah!?”
“…!?”
It came completely without warning.
Flowers that painted the town flew around as though they had been plucked, people screamed, and little birds scrambled to get away.
“Reina, are you all right!?”
“Master!”
Master Sirius immediately jumped out of the house.
“You’re here too Labrys!? What was…!?”
“I-I don’t know. The ground just started shaking…”
Labrys looked all around, but didn’t see any damage caused by the rumbling.
But there was a bigger problem. She could hear what sounded like endless roars of monsters far away.
“Is that a monster stampede!? Why here…!?”
“Are monsters coming to…?”
“…I don’t know, but judging by the direction those noises are coming from, I would say the monster stampede originated in that dungeon. There is little chance that monsters would overflow from there and descend on this town, but… There might be a lot coming here. We need to contact the adventurer guild and the vigilance committee right away.”
“E-El and Chrom went out of town. Will they be all right…?”
“…!”
As soon as Labrys heard this, she took off running.
Labrys was quick to make decisions at times like these.
“…! W-wait, Labrys!”
She heard her Master trying to stop her, but pressed on.
“Five Boost! (physical strengthening five)”
She chanted, and the flames of magic energy enveloped Labrys, looking like cherry blossoms.
Magic energy manifested itself in different shapes that varied from person to person. Master Sirius’ was moonlight, and Chrom’s was lightning.
Labrys’ magic energy took the form of flower petals, probably due to the influence of what was essentially her second hometown.
“I-it’s a monster stampede!”
“L-look at how many…!”
“W-where do we go!?”
Labrys heard the screams of people running away in panic.
As she ran through the crowd, she left a pink light in her path.
(Is it really a monster stampede…? In this town…?)
It was unbelievable. She didn’t want to believe it.
But Labrys figured she might be strong enough to halt their advance even if just for a little bit.
She wanted to protect this town, and also Chrom and El.
She wanted to be someone who could protect others. That was why she had been working so hard to become stronger, ever since ‘that day’.
Labrys dashed towards the monster stampede, and the moment she left town…
“…Eh?”
The monster stampede was over.
The ground was carved and boiling, and she saw hundreds of cut monster corpses.
It truly was a sight worthy of the term battlefield.
And in the middle… Was a giant dragon with smoke coming from it, and a single black-haired boy.
“‘End’.”
The boy whispered as he touched the dragon, and the giant body of the dragon crumbled and turned to dust.
(…W-what is going on?)
It was an unbelievable sight.
Labrys only saw it for a moment, but that dragon appeared to be on the same level as a ‘demon king’.
Those were beings that appeared every few centuries, and were enough of a calamity to bring about a turning point in history.
(And he made it disappear in a second?)
He was hidden behind the corpses of the monsters for a moment, but Labrys took a good look at the boy.
Still, she was too far, and his back was turned, so she could not see his face. She could however feel his intense bloodlust from even far away.
He was not a monster, but also did not feel human.
“…”
Labrys’ whole body trembled.
She could not close her mouth, and her hand shook too much for her to grab a hold of her sword.
…She was scared.
And yet she could not look away.
She felt it was as though he was destined to live on the battlefield, but as she looked at that lonely body from behind… A single tear ran down her face.
She knew nothing about him, and yet, looking at him made her sad for some reason.
(…Is he an enemy? A friend…?)
If he posed a threat to the town, she would have to fight him.
She had to protect Chrom and El.
However, she simply stood in place, unable to move.
“…”
Thankfully, it looked like he had not noticed her.
Eventually, he seemingly just vanished, but the face she saw from the side just before he left was burned into the back of her mind.
It reminded her of…
“C-Chrom…?”
That whisper was drowned out by the wind in the desolated field of battle.
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Why am I reading this cringe stuff!? I should stop but I can’t! Hell!
Maybe because deep down in your heart, something is awaken. A disease… or a syndrome. That have became the dark past and future nightmare to countless of people.
*Ughh… writting this feel more cringy than reading this chapter….