Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Yume Loses Control.
"Noah..."
Yume stared at the motionless body in front of her.
Her mind refused to process it because it simply couldn’t be true.
"Noah..."
She said his name again, hoping he would get up, answer her, anything at all, but nothing happened.
The blood kept spreading and Noah remained still, forcing reality to start sinking in.
"No..."
Her voice trembled.
"No."
She took a step forward and her hands clenched.
"No!"
The world around her began to lose all importance, the sounds grew distant, and only one image remained: Noah lying on the ground.
Yume felt something inside her shatter.
"This isn’t real...!"
Her eyes began to fill with tears.
"This is a nightmare...!"
She remembered the first time they spoke, the training sessions, the laughter, the moments they shared, the rooftop, the rejection, and she remembered something else too: even after rejecting her, Noah had still come to help her.
He had come to protect her, and now he was dead because of her.
Because she wasn’t strong enough. She couldn’t protect him... she had failed.
The darkness appeared as something small, a feeling or more like a crack, but it began to grow.
Yume didn’t even notice, because she couldn’t stop looking at Noah’s body while her tears fell nonstop.
"I have to wake up..."
Energy began to leak from her body slowly, but with every passing second it poured out faster.
The ground shook.
Luna spun around immediately and her eyes widened.
"Yume?"
Something was very wrong.
Yume’s energy had become unstable, violent, and dark.
Shadows began to spread around her, something Misaki also noticed.
"What’s going on with that girl?"
Reina, for the first time since the battle began, lost her smile.
Ayane remained unconscious, luckily for her, because no one wanted to be there, especially not right now.
Yume slowly lifted her head, revealing that her eyes had changed and dark energy coursed through her entire body.
Her magical suit began to deform. The luminous parts disappeared, the shadows grew, and an enormous pressure covered the area.
Luna felt a chill, because this wasn’t the Yume she knew. This was something far more dangerous.
"This isn’t real..."
Yume’s voice sounded strange, distorted and unstable.
"N-Noah..."
The darkness exploded, sending a wave of energy across the city. Nearby buildings shook, several windows shattered, the ground cracked, and the people who hadn’t evacuated yet began running in terror.
Luna shielded herself with her arms.
"Yume!"
But Yume didn’t respond. She seemed unable to hear anything. Her body continued transforming as dark energy completely enveloped her figure until her appearance barely resembled a magical girl anymore.
It was an incomplete and unstable version, as if something were developing ahead of schedule.
Yume looked down at Noah again and the energy surged once more, striking another sector of the city.
A building lost part of its structure, streets began to crack, vehicles were hurled several meters, and people screamed, ran, and tried to escape.
But no one understood what was happening, not even Luna.
’It can’t be.’
Luna tried to approach.
"Yume!"
She was blasted back.
She approached again to reach her, but the pressure increased as a barrier of dark energy appeared around Yume.
Luna slammed into it and was thrown away.
She rolled several meters across the ground and barely managed to stand.
"Damn it!"
She tried again, this time running and firing. Her energy collided with the barrier.
Nothing happened. It was useless.
Yume didn’t even seem to notice the attack, and the darkness continued expanding.
"Yume!"
Luna gritted her teeth and tried once more, but every result was exactly the same.
Nothing worked. She couldn’t get close, couldn’t hurt her, couldn’t talk to her, couldn’t do anything.
For the first time in a long while, Luna felt powerless.
Meanwhile, the villains watched from a distance.
Reina was completely serious.
"This wasn’t part of the plan."
"Obviously not."
Misaki replied, watching the destruction with concern.
The two glanced at Ayane, who was still unconscious and completely unaware of the disaster.
"Should we leave?"
Misaki asked.
The two turned toward Ayane, who still hadn’t woken up.
"For once, I agree."
Reina said.
Misaki nodded.
"I’m not staying here."
Neither of them had any interest in facing that thing, at least not under these conditions.
Reina picked up Ayane.
"This is going to be awkward when she wakes up."
"That’s your problem."
"Thanks for the support."
"You’re welcome."
The two began to withdraw.
Meanwhile, the situation in the city worsened with every second and minute that passed, as the darkness continued to grow.
Yume remained motionless, crying, not truly aware of what was happening.
The energy reacted to her emotions, and those emotions were a disaster.
Loss, guilt, sadness, despair, everything fed that transformation.
Another burst swept through the area, damaging a group of buildings. Streets began to collapse and emergency alarms sounded everywhere.
Luna observed the destruction and then looked back at Yume.
"Stop!"
But Yume couldn’t hear her.
"Please..."
Nothing.
Luna felt a weight in her chest because she finally understood what was happening.
Yume was suffering.
She wasn’t attacking on purpose or trying to destroy the city. All of this was happening because she had lost control over Noah’s death, and that was exactly why it was so hard to stop her.
Because deep down she wasn’t an enemy. She was a friend, a teammate, and someone who was suffering.
"Yume..."
Luna clenched her fists as her voice trembled slightly.
"Please."
The darkness answered with another explosion that caused more chaos.
Luna tried to approach once more, but the barrier rejected her again.
She fell once more and this time it took her several seconds to get up. Her body was exhausted, but she kept trying because she couldn’t give up, not while Yume was like this.
Not while the city continued to be destroyed.
Not while Noah was...
Luna stopped.
She didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t want to, because if she did... maybe she would lose control too.
So she stood up again to look at Yume and try once more.
The city continued crumbling around her, the villains disappeared into the distance, emergency services tried to evacuate the population, and the darkness kept growing, with no one able to stop it... or maybe there was someone.
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