The first thing she noticed… was the smell.
Dust.
Dry.
Old.
Like a place that had been abandoned… but not empty.
Her eyes snapped open.
Grey skies stretched above her.
Broken buildings loomed in every direction, their jagged edges cutting into the sky like teeth. Some had collapsed entirely, reduced to piles of stone and twisted metal.
"…What…?"
Her voice came out wrong — barely above a whisper.
She pushed herself up.
Her palms scraped against cracked ground, tiny bits of debris digging into her skin.
It hurt.
Which meant—
This is real.
"Hey—hey! Are you okay?!"
She flinched.
Turned.
Four people.
Strangers.
All standing a few steps away, all wearing the same expression—
Confusion.
Fear.
Disbelief.
"I—I don't understand," a boy stammered, his voice shaking. "I was just at home—"
"Yeah," another muttered. "Same."
The air felt wrong.
Too still.
Too quiet.
Where is this…?
She forced herself to stand, even as her legs threatened to give out.
That's when she saw it.
A glow.
Soft.
Faint.
Floating beside her.
"…What is that?"
Everyone turned.
They all had one.
Five glowing orbs, hovering silently in the ruins.
"Don't touch it," one of the men said quickly.
Too quickly.
She stared at it.
It didn't move.
Didn't react.
It just… waited.
"…We don't even know what it does," she said.
"Exactly," he replied. "So we don't take risks—"
A scream cut through the air.
Distant.
Echoing.
Everyone froze.
"…That's quite close," someone whispered.
Another sound followed.
Tap.
All heads turned.
Somewhere between the broken buildings.
Tap… tap…
Footsteps.
No.
Not quite.
There was a drag in it.
A slight scrape between each step.
Tap… drag.
Her throat tightened.
"…Inside," the man said immediately.
This time, no one argued.
They rushed into the nearest building.
The inside was worse.
Dark.
Dust filled the air, making every breath feel heavier. The walls were cracked, parts of the ceiling missing entirely.
Shadows stretched too far.
Too deep.
She pressed herself against the wall.
Tried to steady her breathing.
Think.
The word came suddenly.
Clear.
Sharp.
Panicking won't help.
The others weren't doing well.
The boy was shaking.
One woman covered her mouth, holding back tears.
The man stood near the entrance, watching outside.
Trying to stay in control.
Tap… drag.
Closer.
The sound stopped.
Right outside.
No one moved.
Her gaze shifted slowly—
Toward a crack in the wall.
And she saw it.
Something stood just beyond the entrance.
Too tall.
Too thin.
Its limbs were long—wrongly long—bending at angles that didn't make sense. Not like a human. More like a spider but unlike anything she had ever seen.
Each movement came with a faint scrape, like bone against stone.
At its center—
Something that looked almost human.
A torso.
Twisted.
Stretched unnaturally, fused into the rest of its body like it didn't belong there.
Its head jerked.
Once.
Then again.
Not looking.
Listening.
Her breath caught in her throat.
It hears us.
The man near the entrance whispered:
"…It can't see us."
She didn't believe that.
Because slowly—
The creature turned.
Toward them.
Silence pressed in.
Her eyes shifted—
To the orb beside her.
Still glowing.
Still waiting.
If this matters… waiting might be worse.
Her fingers trembled.
Tap.
Something touched the wall outside.
Right where they were hiding.
Too close.
She could hear her own heartbeat.
That was the problem.
It can hear that too.
Decision.
Now.
She reached out—
And touched the orb.
Light surged.
Not outward.
Inward.
Her vision split.
Not like closing one eye and opening the other — nothing that simple. Both angles existed simultaneously, layered over each other without blurring. Like two windows open at once, each perfectly clear, neither cancelling the other out.
The room.
The people.
The boy pressed against the far wall, his breathing so shallow it was almost nothing. The woman beside him had stopped covering her mouth — she had gone very still instead, the kind of still that came right before breaking. The man near the entrance was watching the wrong direction, his focus on the doorway when the real threat had already shifted position.
And—
Outside.
The creature.
She could see it clearly now. Not just its shape — its intent. The way its limbs redistributed weight before each movement, telegraphing direction a half second before it committed. The way its head tilted not randomly but in a precise arc, mapping sound sources one by one.
It was building a picture.
Of them.
The way its limbs tensed told her it had already decided.
Not if.
Just when.
One part of her screamed.
RUN—
The other stayed cold.
Precise.
Not yet.
[Zodiac Orb Detected]
[Initializing…]
The words arrived without warning — not heard, not seen, but understood. Neither the panicked part of her nor the calm one had called for it. They simply appeared, indifferent to the chaos around her.
[Zodiac: Gemini]
[Ability: ———]
[Status Panel Unlocked]
The light faded.
But the split didn't.
Two thoughts. Two instincts. Two streams of awareness running parallel, neither drowning out the other.
She didn't know if that was the orb.
Or just her.
The creature moved.
The man panicked.
"Move—MOVE—!"
Too loud.
The creature reacted instantly.
The entrance exploded inward.
Something lashed forward—
Too fast to follow—
Chaos erupted.
Screams.
Movement.
Panic.
But she didn't freeze.
Because she already saw it.
A moment before it happened.
"Left."
Her body moved instantly.
The creature's spider like limb tore through the space she had just occupied.
She didn't look back.
Didn't stop.
Didn't hesitate.
Because now she understood—
Thinking twice… means living once.
And in this world—
That was enough.