SSS Rank Awakening: The World Beyond Redemption

At some point while reading the articles, Rael’s eyes closed.

When he opened them again he was sitting against a dead, blackened tree. The trunk was split and charred, the branches twisted like broken fingers. The sky above was a deep, unnatural red. No sun. No clouds. Only that solid crimson pressing down.

Blood began to rise around him.

It came slowly at first, seeping up from the cracked ground, warm and thick. It reached his ankles, then his calves. He tried to stand and discovered the ropes. Coarse, wet rope bound his wrists and chest to the tree. The blood kept climbing. It covered his knees. He shouted—something he almost never did.

”Help! Anyone!”

The blood rose to his waist. It was heavy, pulling at him, filling the air with the iron stench of a slaughterhouse. He pulled against the ropes until the bark bit into his skin.

”Rael...”

The voice came from a short distance away. He turned his head so fast his neck cracked.

Lila stood in the blood. She looked exactly as she had in the cave—pale, tired, but alive. For one second relief hit him so hard he almost laughed.

”Lila—how are you—”

”Rael.” Her voice was quiet. Then it rose, sharp and raw. ”Why didn’t you save me?”

The words hit like a physical blow. ”No. No, it wasn’t— I tried—”

Her eyes emptied. The color drained out of them until only hollow sockets remained. Blood spilled from the corners and ran down her cheeks in thick lines. She collapsed forward. Both legs were gone below the thighs. She began to crawl toward him through the rising blood, dragging herself with her hands, the stumps leaving dark trails behind her.

”Because of you I died.”

He threw himself backward against the tree, ropes cutting deeper. ”No—no, please—”

She kept coming. The blood was up to his chest now. Her hollow face was only a few meters away. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impact.

Nothing came.

He opened them again.

Aurelia sat on his lap as if she had always been there. The red sky framed her hair. She smiled the same soft, terrible smile she had worn while eating brains.

”I love you, Rael.”

She leaned in and kissed him. Her teeth closed on his lower lip, then kept going. Skin tore. Flesh parted. Pain exploded across his face as she bit deeper, ripping outward, blood pouring down his chin and throat.

He woke with a violent gasp.

He was sitting upright on the sofa in the new apartment. Morning light leaked through the windows. His hands flew to his mouth. Lips. Intact. Whole. He pressed his fingers against them hard enough to hurt, confirming they were still there. His heart hammered so violently he could feel it in his throat. Sweat soaked the back of his shirt.

A dream. A nightmare.

He forced slow breaths until the shaking in his hands eased. The fear that lingered felt wrong—deeper than anything he had felt even while Aurelia’s tentacles were crushing him. In the realm he had acted. Here, in the dream, he had only been helpless.

Outside the window the sun was just clearing the towers. Early morning. He stood, legs unsteady, and walked to the bathroom attached to the hall. The apartment was larger than it had seemed the night before—an open kitchen connected to the living space, two bedrooms further in. He had not even opened the bedroom doors yet.

He turned the shower on and stepped under the water. The heat helped. He stayed there a long time, letting the dream drain away with the water. When he finally stepped out he dried his hair with a towel, dressed in clean clothes from the delivered boxes, and decided the nightmare could wait. There were real things to handle today.

First, the apartment. Plastic still covered nearly every surface. He started in the kitchen, peeling wrap from the counters and cabinets, wiping down shelves that had never been used. He left the main hall for later and moved to the bedrooms. The larger one he claimed for himself. While he cleaned he thought, absently, that no sovereign child would ever do this work. They had armies of servants. He was probably the first of his kind to scrub his own floors. He was not particularly good at it, but he improved with every minute, movements becoming faster and more efficient.

Even so, the entire place would take the whole day. He needed help—or at least the right tools. He changed into outdoor clothes and decided to go buy a cleaning robot and handle the other items on his list.

As he locked the apartment door the neighbor from the previous evening appeared in the hallway, carrying a small bag of trash. She looked at him and gave a polite bow. Rael returned it.

”I live next door,” she said. ”I didn’t realize we had the same floor.”

”I only moved in yesterday.”

”If you need anything, tell me. Neighbors should help each other.”

”Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

The exchange was ordinary, almost warm. She disappeared back into her apartment. Something about her still felt slightly off—not hostility, just a quiet wrongness he could not name. He filed it away and walked to the elevator.

Downstairs the morning traffic was already moving. Cars pulled out of the underground parking in a steady stream. He would need a vehicle of his own soon; an awakener without reliable transport was at a constant disadvantage. First, though, the store.

He ordered a taxi. The same guard from yesterday gave him a small nod of recognition. Rael nodded back. People here were almost too friendly.

The taxi ride was short. The driver, an older man with a perpetual half-smile, made a dry joke about customers buying their own cars and putting honest drivers out of work. Rael gave a short answering smile and let the rest of the journey pass in silence. He was heading to the best automobile store in the city for a reason.

The taxi slowed and stopped in front of a wide glass-fronted building. The sign above the entrance read Nexla Automobile Store in clean white letters.

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[Strom2warden Thanks for the Gift]