As though a dragon were turning beneath the earth, the terrifying tremors did not stop, but instead grew increasingly violent.
Located in the Island Nation, Academy City's buildings had been built with extensive earthquake protection.
Yet against the shaking now, those measures were not entirely useless, but they were barely better than nothing.
Enormous cracks began spreading across buildings covering at least half the school district. Powerful tremors kept traveling along those cracks, spreading the spectacle of upheaval farther and farther.
Buildings of steel and concrete tilted and swayed uncontrollably, as though enclosed inside a soccer ball rolling endlessly along.
The flimsier unfinished buildings toppled outright, turning into heaps of rubble.
Although the sturdy commercial towers barely maintained their basic shapes, their outer walls kept peeling away, making them look like enormous skeletons standing upon the earth.
Looking at the abyss-like fissures cutting across the broad, intersecting roads in the distance, Harumi Kiyama came back to her senses.
Roland had already demolished the exterior wall completely when he barged in, and since the Advanced Education Bureau was, at least, an official Academy City facility, it belonged to the category with the most stable structures.
As a result, aside from flickering lights and dust and debris showering down, the shaking had no actual effect on Harumi Kiyama.
But that certainly did not mean she could ignore this disaster.
"What is going on?"
Harumi Kiyama frowned, looking toward the gray sky in the distance.
Without any warning, powerful hurricane winds mixed with torrential rain instantly engulfed the surrounding streets.
Beneath this abnormal weather, the vicinity seemed to fall under a shadow all at once, leaving only the overwhelming clamor of rain.
The drops fell relentlessly in a steady rhythm, playing a grating melody against windows, the ground, and steel.
-as though it