Editing Apocalypse Witch:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 7===

A blinding light spear crashed down from the heavens.

“Gwaaaaaaaaaaahh!?”

Karuta had known there would only be a few seconds of lag between taking out the cameras in an area and Yukino finding it suspicion, so he took off running to put as much space between himself and that location as he could. Nevertheless, something like a blazing wind slammed into his body. He had escaped a direct hit, but the fearsome heat had expanded the air and formed an invisible wall.

The blow to his back shattered his barrier.

He rolled along the filthy alley.

Strange cracking sounds continued on and on as crystals covered most of his body. The thirty second countdown began. Another attack before then and it was all over. The healing process would be stopped, everything would be torn from his body, and he would die. That was plainly obvious to him.

“Pant, pant!!”

He checked behind him from the ground and saw both walls of the alley were orange and melted. The piles of trash had become pillars of fire reminiscent of giant fir trees burning down in a forest fire. The alley surface had melted like a sugar sculpture and it had collapsed down to create a large hole. That may have connected to the sewer or the subway.

“Kh.”

He slowly got to his feet.

He scattered crystal fragments across the ground as the healing completed.

He resumed running.

They had feared Yukino could search for them using thermo images taken by a satellite, but he was starting to think that was not a concern. The heat here was so high that the entire area would be blotted out with white. She could not use that to see if her target had survived.

(I only have to focus on the surface cameras.)

He clenched his teeth while taking out a few more security camera lenses with a drink or a spray can to draw the light spears toward him. He once more felt a sunburn-like pain in his skin.

The slight lag was working out for him, but the more cameras he took out, the more data she would have to predict his route. If her prediction was accurate enough and she fired where she expected him to be, he was done for. He would be vaporized before he could even feel the pain.

“Ha ha.”

He was running around and barely avoiding death, but for some reason, there was a smile on his face.

He had no idea what it was he wanted to do, but he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders for the first time in a while.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

He had attended Ocean Crystal Magic Academy Grimnoah.

He had learned Crystal Magic that used a Crystal Blossom via a printed circuit board smaller than a stamp.

He had trained to combat the Threat that put the world in danger.

In the end, what had he really wanted to do?

He no longer had that right. His days at that school and the future he had envisioned for himself had been stolen by the Problem Solvers and his group had sullied it themselves when they used Crystal Magic against Elicia after she had already surrendered. But the remnants of that dream had remained there somewhere in his heart.

However, that thought was interrupted.

Even if he outsmarted them and protected the civilians, the great evil of the Problem Solvers was still out there. And one part of that evil, the demon named Yukino Arakawa, was making her next move.

The night sky shined bright.

He knew this had to be another light spear, but instead of cowering in fear like an animal, he used his rational mind to send himself running even a step further before it hit.

But something unexpected happened.

“…?”

The light did not gather together.

The brightness in the night sky endlessly expanded instead of taking the form of a spear.

A chill ran down his spine.

It almost looked like a giant suspended ceiling of fiery heat dropping down to crush the city of London!