Boom
As the seconds ticked by, Cordelia could finally open her eyes after she had reflexively closed them due to the blinding light.
Moving her hands that had inadvertently clutched her ears to block out some of that sound, she balanced herself on the tree.
It took her eyes a good few seconds to adjust to the difference in the ambient light before she could finally glimpse at the source of the explosion and hopefully, understand something from the remnants.
Unfortunately, all she saw was an even more gory scene than her earlier sightings, causing her now clean face to contort into an ugly frow of repulsion as she barely clasped her mouth shut while clenching her stomach with her other hand to prevent another episode of emptying her already empty stomach.
The explosion had naturally left nothing behind except a scorched piece of land and mangled up corpses strewn across with their innards spread about in a gruesome display.
A scene straight out of hell as some would call it or even worse from most horror movies if Cordelia had to put it into words.
'Ah! Damn you!'
'Whoever sent me here! You damn bastard!'
'What have I ever done to you?'
'Why must I go through so much in less thana day?'
Cordelia cursed without relent at the being or entity, even if it was some kind of god, who brought her into this wretched world and made her go throw the horrors of it again and again.
Despite how much hatred she felt, she didn't speak it out as who knows whats lurking around the corner and she had already made sure that cursing inside her head didn't seem to cause her any troubles.
Spurt
Drip
"Haa... Haa..."
Cordelia instantly stopped whatever she was thinking(cursing) as she heard ragged breaths and the sound of blood dripping in her near surroundings.
'Could it be that someone survived that kind of dangerous explosion?'
Cordelia felt her thought highly unlikely as she shook her head before choosing to move away from this accursed place.
"That bastard!!"
"I'll... Kill... You...!"
Unfortunately, the words filled with strong resentment caused her to stop before she could even descend the 8 meter tall tree she had climbed to make sure her figure was masked by the foliage.
'Someone is definitely there...'
'Ugh! I really don't wanna look at that scene again, though.'
She cringed at just the thought of looking at that unbecoming scene once more.
Her reluctance to look at the scene was far too great for her to give up, just to see who survived.
But, in the end, her rational side won and she scrunched her face, hardening herself mentally to look at that horrendous sight again.
'It will be a quick glance. Yes, no more than 5 seconds. No, no, that's no good! Only 3 secodns, yes...'
She tried to reassure herself that she wouldn't be looking for too long before she took a peek by moving the foliage a little, causing a soft sound.
Rustle
The sight she saw sent chills down her spine but she clenched her jaw with all her willpower and gulped whatever was rising to her mouth as she tried to locate the source of the whining, weeping sound.
It didn't take long for her to find the source as she wondered, 'I can see a few strands of brown hair and the broken spear in his hands, but everything else is in blood and shambles. How am I supposed to know anything!? And he must be on the verge of death.'
Cordelia decided to not intervene due to the small detail of there being more than one dead bodies, given the blood and innards spread out, causing her to recall something she read in the novel.
'Many a times, people group together to kill stronger Examinees and the traitors to humanity can even group up easily for some reason.'
It was just a passing paragraph in the novel with not much significance as it only came to be known by the time the world was already half-destroyed.
'In all due spirit, I haven't the slightest intention of getting entangled with such psychos.' Hence, her decision to leave quickly without alerting the half-dead man.
She could have waited for him to die, but who knows how long that would take? Why waste her precious time when she was already short of it?
If not for the fact that she had a lucky encounter before this unlucky one, she would've headed straight for her destination.
Recalling that, greed bloomed in heart as a sill smile plastered on her face.
Nearly an hour ago, on her way north, she had found a small pond filled with clear water, wafting a relaxing scent, causing her to lower her guard inadvertently.
Luckily, she didn't encounter anyone in her surroundings, giving her the peace of mind to make a decision.
'There should be no river or water body according to the vague map, yet here I am,' wondered Cordelia in awe as she recognised her current situation,
"A Lucky Encounter!"
Looking down at her dregs of a dress, which barely reached her knees as she had to keep tearing it apart to bandage her wounds, her expression fell as she assessed the rest of her clothes.
Her sleeves were more or less bare with just the cloth being taut around her wounds to stop the bleeding and her dress hung by her shoulders barely covering her thighs.
Since her body had no shoes on due to being bedridden or on wheelchair, she walked and fought barefoot, causing her feet to blister apart, but she had made some make-shift boots using wolf pelt and fur to cover them.
The same wolf pelt and fur were stiched around her dress using grass which covered her legs to half her shin bone, providing some much needed protection.
Sigh
"If only I could cleanse and rid them of the bloody smell, so many monsters wouldn't have attacked me... Sigh"
Cordelia lamented her situation, but knew that she had tried her best, given her sudden situation.
Fortunately, the pond right in front of her had an unmatched allure of drawing her in and taking a nice, comforting bath.
'Luck is always fraught with dangers and I am too early to become fish food due to haste.'
'How embarrassing would it be if someone heard of a Transmigrator becoming a fish food because they were greedy for a bath!?'
No matter how uncomfortable she felt with the grime, dirst, caked blood, and other unidentified objects on her being, she held her urge of wanting to jump out of her clothes into the pond in.
Splash
Schwaa
Suddenly, the water parted ways, startling Cordelia out of her wits as she hadn't anticipated something to be in the water, givrn how clear it was.