Fractal Plane: Awakener's Pact

Chapter 3 - A Second Chance

1

"The Class B has appeared already? Not too far from here, too."

Sayaka Uehara, taking a momentary break from her run, turned her head. On her right hand was a katana with a blade of blue light on its tip.

The long-haired girl resumed her walk. She silently prayed that she made it in time. Closing her eyes, she could sense it. She sensed two other people inside this dimension, and he's on the move.

She took a better look at the surroundings before picking up her pace before fully breaking off into a run.

Just as we thought, a Fragment has indeed materialized in Aria Alley tonight.

She continued her run, moving swiftly through the mazelike roads of the ancient city. She pressed on relentlessly before two shadowy humanoid figures materialized in front of her.

Seeing those two, Sayaka Uehara did not stop, nor did her deadpan expression change. Instead, she ran onward, tightening her grip on her sword. In no time at all, she closed the gap on the two and briefly paused some inches away from them.

Two diagonal slashes.

One from beneath and another from above. She delivered the two slashes in seemingly one quick, fluid motion.

Finishing in a bent pose with a regal air, she gave one more glance at those shadowy figures that have dissipated into the air. Seeing that her job was finished, she continued her run.

"I should get the Class B ASAP. Perhaps I could even find the perpetrator and put an end to this for good," she said to herself as her eyes continually glanced at each dilapidated structure that she passed through.

She was not on the lookout for those shadowy humanoids. For someone like her, those are nothing more than small fry. Instead...

"Not here either."

Her tight grip on her katana as well as her stern expression remained unchanged as her feet continued pushing her through this hellhole of a world. She was approaching those two. To her surprised, the two presences were not too far away from each other, but one of them remained stationary while the other continued running.

She turned another corner after going past a row of ruined structures, and after another effortless disposal of another similar shadowy figure hiding in wait, she stopped.

She approached a clearing near one of the people she had sensed, and something caught her attention.

As something loud registered into her ears, she moved to take cover behind a ruined pillar. She peered from behind her cover "It's here, huh?"

The first thing her eyes saw in the clearing ahead of her was a gigantic shadow monster. Bearing the shape of a huge insect that is roughly twice as tall as a typical human being, it had its back turned and was seemingly fixated on something.

"That's the Class B alright."

She softly spoke to herself before moving in. Then, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped involuntarily. The insect monster was not alone. In fact, in front of it was...

Sayaka Uehara was caught by surprise at what she saw. The girl, changing away from her unfazed expression for the first time, gasped when she saw what seemed to be a body hanging from one of the insect monster's scythe-like arms. "I'm too late..."

As if hearing her, the monster tossed the lifeless body aside on cue, and the resulting sound confirmed that it was thrown into something.

The girl shook her head, but in a moment, her eyes turned to the main target: the gigantic insect enemy that was tagged a Class B.