Chapter 270: Vows (Slightly 18+)

The freezing night wind whipped across the plaza, carrying the sharp reek of destruction.

Hide stood with his head bowed against the crook of Sora’s neck, his broad shoulders trembling. He braced for her to pull away. He waited for the fear, the recoil, the look of horror that anyone would give a boy admitting he was fighting off urges of wholesale slaughter.

Sora didn’t.

She didn’t let go of his bloodied hands. Instead, her grip tightened, her warmth seeping directly into his cold, torn skin.

“I don’t care,” Sora whispered into his ear.

Hide’s breath hitched. “Sora… did you hear what I said? I am too dangerous, I don’t know when I might kill every-“

“I heard you,” she cut him off, leaning back just enough to look directly into his eyes.

Her eyes shone brilliantly beneath the thin, dusty silver of the moon. Her fingers released his wrists, moving upward to frame his jaw, gently wiping away the sweat and powdered concrete from his cheeks.

“You aren’t that voice, Hide,” she said, her voice rich with emotions. “Walter called you a monster on the screens, and the world believed it. But I know that you aren’t a monster. You are you. Just a human like anyone else.”

A stray gust of wind tossed her hair across her face. She stepped closer, closing the last fraction of space between them until their chests pressed against each other.

“I told you once, on that rooftop beneath the stars,” Sora whispered, her voice cracking softly as a lone tear cut through the dust on her cheek. “And I will say it again, even if the sky falls apart. I love you, Hide. I love you.”

Before the cynical, mocking voice in his skull could even muster a whisper, Sora rose onto the tips of her toes.

She pressed her lips firmly against his.

The world around them went completely still. The distant groans of collapsing steel, the strong winds.

In Ufrifa, their kiss had been hesitant, a fleeting brush of warmth filled with awkwardness. But here, under the shadow of extinction, there was no hesitation.

The kiss was desperate, hungry, and deeply tender. Sora’s hands tangled into his wild silver hair, pulling him down, while Hide’s arms came around her waist, locking her against his body as if she were the only real thing left in an ocean of illusions. The icy dread in his heart cracked and melted, drowned out by the fiery heat of her presence.

Hide pulled back just an inch, his chest heaving, his eyes wide and raw. “Sora…”

She looked at him with an intensity that burned. Without a word, she took his hand and led him away from the cold plaza, leading him silently down the concrete stairwells and back into the shelter.

They bypassed the common hall, past the faint amber lights, slipping into the seclusion of her room.

The metal door clicked shut, sealing out the world.

In the dim, shadowy quiet of the room, there were no commanders, no ranks, and no monsters. There was only a boy and a girl who had seen too much for their age.

Sora stepped forward, her trembling hands reaching for the hem of his jacket. She slid the fabric from his broad shoulders, letting it drop to the floor. Hide’s breath hitched as her warm fingers slid beneath, the slime that covered his body like an exosuite receded to reveal the hard, corded lines of his chest and torso, revealing the deep surgical mark across his abdomen.

Sora didn’t look away from the mark. She leaned forward, pressing soft, reverent kisses against the scars over his ribs, her breath warm against his skin.

Hide’s hands found the ties of her dark tunic. He realized that he was trembling and he was hot. His body felt goosebumps, and he could not understand the feeling at all. It was all strange and new. And he was curious to find out.

With careful, deliberate tenderness, he unfastened the clasps, easing the fabric away. Beneath, her skin was pale, flushed with heat, her lithe, athletic frame trembling slightly in the cool air. When his hands rested on the curve of her waist, she let out a soft, shuddering gasp, leaning her forehead against his chest.

“Hide,” she breathed, her voice a fragile plea.

He didn’t answer with words. He gently lifted her, turning toward the narrow canvas cot.

They came together on the cot, shedding the last remnants of their clothes until there was nothing separating them. The coarse woolen blanket was pulled over their shoulders, trapping their heat in a private sanctuary beneath.

When their bare bodies met, the contrast was overwhelming. His skin was feverish, humming with the coiled, latent power of his core; hers was smooth, soft, and electric with silver mana that brushed against his pores like silk.

Hide leaned over her, kissing her neck, her jaw, the soft hollow of her collarbone. Sora arched against him, her nails digging into the muscles of his back, stifling her cries against his shoulder as his hands explored every curve of her body.

Hide moved with deliberate care, mindful of his immense physical strength, while Sora pulled him closer, wrapping her legs around his hips, urging him deeper. The rhythm of their bodies was steady, desperate, and beautiful.

Breath mingling with ragged gasps, their pulses pounding together in unison. In that rhythm, the mocking voice in Hide’s mind was completely obliterated, replaced entirely by the sound of Sora whispering his name into the dark.

They moved together until the heat broke in a shuddering, breathless crest. Sora buried her face in the crook of his neck, her body tightening around his with a choked, blissful cry, while Hide held her fiercely against his chest, pouring every ounce of his soul into the warmth between them.

Afterward, the tiny room fell into an exhausted, peaceful stillness.

They lay tangled beneath the blanket, chests rising and falling in sync. Sora rested her head over Hide’s heart, her fingers lazily tracing the faint veins along his collarbone.

She stared into the dim shadows for a long time before she spoke, her voice quiet and clear.

“Marry me, Hide.”

Hide froze.

He looked down at her dark eyes gazing up at him.

“Sora…” Hide murmured, his throat tightening. “I… I am a criminal. And the war… the world is hell right now.”

“I know,” she said softly, resting her palm flat over his chest. “I don’t care about the future. I want to be your wife. Now. Before whatever comes next.”

Hide stared at her, feeling a profound warmth bloom in his ribs. He reached up, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing her cheek.

“I accept,” He said.

Sora’s lips parted, a fragile smile breaking across her face.

“But not like this,” Hide added gently. “After I am done with Walter. After I kill my brother, Rosh, and close the gates forever. When the sky is clear and Earth is normal again… I will marry you in the light. That’s my vow.”

“Then you better make sure you survive to keep it,” she whispered.

—

BOOM!

The dawn broke not with birdsong, but with the thunderous roar of artillery and the shrieks of tearing metal.

Along the rocky, fog-shrouded shores of the southern coast, a brutal skirmish was underway. A feral swarm of amphibious, razor-shelled Calamity beasts had lunged from the black surf, attempting to ambush the staging docks.

CRACK!

A massive warhammer swung in a devastating horizontal arc, obliterating the armored skulls of three charging beasts in an explosion of black ichor and bone fragments.

“GET BACK IN THE WATER, YOU UGLY BASTARDS!” Gideon bellowed.

Beside him, Kai stood atop an overturned shipping crate, his staff aimed forward. His prosthetic hissed as he planted the mechanical foot, channeling dense water mana into a volley of supersonic, spiraling javelins that impaled five lunging crawlers through their eyes.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

From the elevated catwalk of the boathouse, Ryan shot the smaller beasts.

Below Toma and Evelyn were rapidly securing the last steel crates of munitions and food rations, hauling them up the gangway.

“Flank on the right!” Toma shouted.

Before the beasts could leap, Kiko blurred into action. Her slender fingers flicked through the air, weaving a web of razor-sharp threads across the rocky shallows. The beasts charged blindly into the trap, their limbs and throats sliced cleanly into ribbons before they could touch the pier.

SHING.

Sora leaped gracefully from the pier, her wind-imbued rapier whistling through the air. Wind blades tore through the center of the remaining pack, scattering them across the sand.

SWOOOOOSH!

A single, crescent-shaped wave of mana cleaved across the shoreline. The strike moved with supersonic velocity, bisecting the remaining twenty beasts instantly, their upper torsos tumbling into the foaming tide.

Silence descended over the beach, broken only by the rhythmic crashing of the waves.

Hide flicked the blade clean, clicking the katana back into its sheath.

Moored to the reinforced deep-water pier behind them was their transport.

Evelyn had pulled strings to secure a colossal, armored deep-sea cutter—a sixty-meter steel vessel outfitted with reinforced hull plating, manual combustion drives, and heavy anti-beast harpoon cannons.

“All supplies loaded!” Ryan called out from the bridge deck, wiping his glasses. “Fuel tanks are topped off, and the radar jamming arrays are online!”

Gideon slung his warhammer over his shoulder and grinned, clapping Kai on the back. “Then let’s get going.”

One by one, the team boarded the ship.

Hide stood at the railing of the bow as the massive diesel engines roared to life, vibrating through the iron deckplates. Sora stepped up beside him, her shoulder brushing his arm, her dark eyes looking out over the open ocean.

The ship cut through the grey swell, turning its bow northward.

Ahead lay the Central Continent. Ahead lay the International Exterminator Corporation, the stolen ring, and Walter Bigiva.