Date a Bride (Date A Live Fanfiction)

She knew what it felt like to be hurried out of bed. One moment wrapped in the warmth of her blankets, the next, staring into her parents' faces, full of fear. They didn't explain; they just pulled her along, faster than she could understand.

"Mama, why are the stars falling from the sky?"

There was no answer. Only the tight grip of her mother's hand, pulling harder as they started running.

Faster. Faster than her legs could keep up. Faster than her breath could catch. And in the distance, the stars kept falling.

"HA!"

She jolted awake, gasping for air, her mind still trying to separate dream from reality as her ears caught a familiar sound in the distance.

Gunshots—sharp and piercing. Explosions—deep and earth-shaking. One after another, they came. The world outside seemed to crumble, each blast an omen of destruction.

"W-What is happening?"

Her pulse raced, thoughts spinning in a whirlwind, but slowly the pieces fell into place. This wasn't some lingering nightmare. This was real.

Her gaze snapped toward the cave exit, desperate for the reassuring glow of morning light. But instead of golden rays, she was greeted by a menacing glow—deep, burning red.

Cormose columns of fire twisted and curled like the tongues of an angry beast. Red, orange, and streaks of yellow danced together, devouring everything in their path.

In that moment, caught between shock and disbelief, only one thought came to her mind.

Ember!

Her eyes flicked around the cave, frantically scanning.

"Ember!"

She threw herself out of the ground, legs buckling as if they'd forgotten how to hold her weight. She stumbled, nearly crashing to the ground, but she pushed herself forward.

The sun hadn't yet risen, yet everything around her was ablaze, illuminated not by the moon or stars, but by a chaotic blend of yellow and red.

Flames—fire. Everything was burning everywhere she looked, from the smallest plant to the tallest tree.

She could feel the heat. Smell the smoke—there was no room to believe this was a dream.

It was a miracle that the flames hadn't reached the cave, stopping in a perfect half-circle from the entrance, as if some invisible barrier held them at bay.

"EMBER!"

Her throat burned from the scream, but she didn't care.

"EMBER!"

Her mind couldn't catch up. Why was everything on fire? What was with the explosions in the distance? This couldn't be a natural phenomenon—had the volcano erupted? But what about the sounds of gunfire and cannons echoing beyond the flames?

Trees snapped and collapsed under the weight of the fire, leaves crumbling into ash before they even hit the ground. Her breaths came in short, ragged gasps, each inhales searing her lungs.

Just then, an image flashed in her mind—Ember, surrounded by flames.

"EMBER!"

She bolted into the burning forest without thinking, without caring about the flames.

Ember wasn't a normal dog. Its entire being was made of plants, leaves, and vines.

Which meant...

"EMBER! WHERE ARE YOU!"

Branches fell around her, the crackling of the fire deafening, but she didn't stop. She kept going, not caring about the searing heat or the smoke stinging her eyes.

As another shout of its name was about to leave her mouth—

"EMPER—!"

An explosion roared louder than ever, shaking the very earth beneath her feet. The ground trembled violently, knocking her off balance. She stumbled, falling onto the searing, flame-charred ground.

"Akh!"

Pain shot through her, but she barely registered it. Her only thought was to get up and keep searching. But then—

"Target identified. Designation: . Initiating capture protocol."

The voice, cold and emotionless, sent a chill down her spine. She raised her head, eyes widening as she spotted several figures—flying—hovering ominously in the sky.

"W-What?!"

During her whole life, she'd learned a lot, but one thing was certain—humans couldn't fly unaided. Sure, science had advanced, leading to airplanes and machines, but this... this was something entirely different. These figures looked human, but they weren't.

They couldn't be...

They had heads and limbs like humans but with different shapes. Their smooth heads resembled full-face helmets attached to slender bodies, and their legs bent the opposite way from human knees, extending their body length.

Arms too large, too long, hung at their sides, giving them a strangely unbalanced form. All of it was composed of metal armor, polished smooth like the surface of a mirror.

They weren't human. But what were they?

There was no time to dwell on the question, and the emerging figures didn't seem to give her a chance to do so.

"!"

Without warning, the sky blazed.

BOOM!

A deafening roar tore through the air, and the ground exploded before her, flinging dirt and debris high above.

Robots.

The word came to her like a distant memory. She remembered what the village kids had called them—a mechanized army, emotionless war machines straight from the comic books they loved.

"Ngh—"

She staggered back, shielding her face as the flames from the newly formed crater seared the air around her, licking at her skin.

Another explosion detonated nearby, shattering a tree into splinters. The shockwave knocked her to the side, and she gasped, scrambling to regain her footing. Her eyes darted frantically, searching for any place to hide, any semblance of safety.

But there was none. The once-familiar landscape was gone, replaced by a hellscape of fire and destruction.

With nowhere to hide, only one choice remained.

She pushed herself up, stealing a glance over her shoulder. The robots—mechanical figures, their sleek, metallic forms reflecting the flames around them. Each one aimed a massive armament directly at her.

"Alert! Subject detected attempting escape!"

She tore her gaze forward, her legs moving before her mind could fully catch up.

She hadn't yet mastered her body's capabilities—especially the inhuman speed she possessed—but there was no time to hesitate. She had to bet on her adaptations, however raw they might be. The brief training she'd undergone in the few past days was all she had to rely on now.

"I have to run!"

She darted between the burning trees, flames roaring on either side, their heat pressing against her skin like an invisible hand.

The world around her blurred as her muscles coiled and released with a speed she could barely control.

The chaos—the crackling fire, the trees collapsing in waves, the mechanical whir and deafening explosions—began to fade, drowned out by the sound of wind rushing past her ears as she sprinted faster and faster.

Her dress, once elegant and flowing like a bridal gown, now clung tightly to her legs as she ran. The smooth fabric whipped around her in the wind, catching on branches and pulling against her.

"I have to..."

Without breaking her stride, she launched herself effortlessly into the air, landing lightly on a branch high above. Her feet found it naturally as if it were solid ground beneath her.

Another jump—another tree. Her body moved like water, flowing from one branch to the next, each step as seamless as if she'd been born to it. The trees became a pathway, her speed increasing with every leap.

Flames flickered at the edges of her vision, but they couldn't catch her. She was too fast, slipping through the heat untouched.

Every leap brought with it a faint "whoosh," and for a split second, her figure would disappear—vanishing from one tree only to reappear on the next, several feet ahead, as if the space between simply didn't exist.

She had no idea how she was capable of such feats, yet it felt as natural as breathing.

"Target out of range. Termination unsuccessful. Initiating Plan B."

The robotic voices echoed briefly, drowned out by the roar of the flames. One by one, the machines retreated, their metallic forms swallowed by the inferno. The fire twisted around them until all that remained was the dim glow of their fading presence.

But she was unaware. The danger had withdrawn, yet her mind remained fixated on a single thought. It consumed her, driving her every movement. She didn't stop. She couldn't.

Emper!

She leaped one final time and found herself airborne—free, suspended in the vast night sky. Time seemed to stretch as she hung there, weightless.

"!"

She gasped, struggling to process the sight before her.

It wasn't the flames and chaos consuming the land below.

No, it was something far worse.

Her gaze drifted to the horizon, where the ocean lay exposed under the night sky, illuminated by the blaze.

"What... the...?"

Her eyes widened. A fleet of massive, shadowy figures cut through the water.

These hulking giants of metal floated in formation, their sheer size dwarfing anything she had ever seen.

Her mind scrambled to make sense of them, to align them with the ships she knew. They moved silently, like predators, far too vast and menacing to be any vessel she recognized.

She'd seen warships before—powerful and towering in their time. They called them battleships.

But these... these were something else entirely. Longer, wider, with sleek, angular edges that glinted in the dim light. Their surfaces bristled with guns, massive barrels pointed skyward, making her feel like even the heavens weren't safe.

Her stomach twisted. How could something this massive, this deadly, exist?

"I-I have to find Emper fast—!"

A sudden rumble beneath her cut off her thoughts, distinct from the explosions and crackling flames.

It was a deep, guttural sound, far more primal. The ground quaked as if something alive was stirring, and she snapped her head to the left, to the source of it.

Her breath caught as she took in the looming volcano in the distance. It was active, rivers of molten lava snaking down its slopes—but that wasn't what froze her.

Encircling it were towering columns of writhing, plant-like tendrils—thick as trees, rising from the ground like the arms of a monstrous octopus.

Each one twisted violently through the air, slamming into the earth with enough force to send tremors beneath her feet. The tendrils lashed and coiled, as if searching for something—or someone.

"What in the world...?"

She frowned. The monstrous arms weren't just moving wildly; they were aiming at something, as though trying to swat down a target. And then, amidst the chaos of crashing vines and quaking earth, she caught a glimpse of it—a figure, darting through the air with impossible agility.

A woman.

Clad in strange, gleaming metallic armor, unlike anything she had ever seen. Her movements were fluid, each dodge timed to perfection as she narrowly evaded the massive plant arms. In her hand, a sword gleamed with an ethereal glow, cutting through the smoke and heat as if it belonged to another realm entirely.

The woman spun mid-air, her sword flashing in a brilliant arc. One of the enormous tendrils lunged toward her, but it was too slow. With a powerful swing, her blade sliced cleanly through, severing the vine. It crashed to the ground, writhing as it fell, and quickly ignited under the heat of the surrounding flames.

Everything was happening so fast that she barely realized she was still suspended in the air as if time itself had slowed.

She withdrew her gaze back to the horizon, and it felt as if the problems were coming at her one after another.

"The stars?"

Several glowing points of light were speeding toward her, and just then, the sound of cannon shots reached her ears, and she realized what the situation was.

Instinctively, she crossed her arms, bracing for the inevitable. Ear-piercing sounds whizzed past, one after another.

Her eyes were shut tight, so she wasn't sure where the shots were landing, only that—somehow—they had all missed.

But her luck seemed to have run out.

Without warning, the noise shifted. A brilliant flash erupted behind her, followed by a deafening explosion.

"Ngh... Aah..."

The shockwave hit like a wall of force, knocking her forward. Time seemed to snap back into place as her body was hurled toward the ground.

She tumbled, the flames twisting and dancing around her as she rolled through the scorched earth.

Somehow, she ended up in a familiar, flat, open space. The fire that had engulfed the jungle seemed to fade here, its flames licking the ground with less intensity.

"Huff~Huff~"

Slowly, she pressed a trembling hand to the ground, pushing herself up as she gasped for air.

"How... am I supposed to react to all this..."

Her fingers sank into the dead soil, crumbling to dust in her grip. Kneeling there, she breathed in ragged bursts, her chest rising and falling as her gaze fixed on the horizon—the place where her future had once stood, where she had dreamed of building a home.

Was all gone.

Ash swirled in the wind, the remnants of what could have been. Through the thick haze of smoke still veiling the sky, she could barely make out the charred remains of where her dreams had been rooted.

Her hands trembled, fingers pressing harder into the dead earth, as if clinging to it could somehow keep her grounded in a reality that was slipping away.

Nothing remained. Everything had burned—Gone.

She rose slowly, her legs trembling beneath her, her gaze fixed on the emptiness ahead. As she stood, dust fell from her fingers, scattering into the air.

Was this world at war? Had she stumbled into enemy territory under attack?

She knew nothing—nothing about her new self, nor the world she now inhabited. She wasn't even sure if it was the same world she had once known.

Gritting her teeth, she tightened her grip on the remaining dust, surveying the devastation around her.

She didn't care. She simply didn't anymore.

Not about anyone, not about anything. The only thing that mattered was herself, and that was it. If anyone dared to interfere in her life...

For all she knew, her eyes were glowing with a faint grey light.

Emper...

"..."

She rubbed her eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on gathering her thoughts before finally taking in her surroundings.

"W-Wait... What is that sound?"

She darted her gaze up, around, as if searching for something elusive.

If anyone had been beside her, they might have guessed, "Explosions?" or perhaps asked, "Which sound do you mean?"

But even if she could describe the sound to them, they would probably just give her a confused look or deny hearing anything like it.

In the distance, likely from the south where the dormant volcano lay, a cry—one of deep pain—echoed faintly.

It was so distant that, under normal circumstances, no one should have heard it, especially not amidst the chaos of explosions and roaring flames around her.

Perhaps she should have said—she felt it—rather than she heard it.

And then...

The sound intensified, sharp and undeniable, like a monster's scream reverberating through the earth itself. The island seemed to tremble beneath the weight of it, as though the very land was responding to that tortured wail.

She stood still, frozen in place, not even raising her hands to protect her ears from the deafening roar. Her body didn't flinch, didn't move...

The sound wasn't a roar of pain, nor a scream of anger—it was a desperate call...

"It's... calling me?"

Just as those words crossed her mind, the sky above exploded in light.

In the blink of an eye, everything was bathed in a bright, unnatural pink, far more intense than even the sun at its highest.

It blazed, swallowing the horizon and casting long shadows that seemed to stretch endlessly beneath the flickering flames.

Time slowed to a crawl as she lifted her gaze toward the sky.

"Starboard one-oh-four! Divert all generated magic to the main cannon! Charge at 120%—"

As her eyes adjusted to the fading pink haze, she noticed it—something colossal, hovering just above the treetops.

The light around her dimmed as if the sky itself were holding its breath.

"What... is that?"

"Now!"

Before she could fully grasp the situation, the air around her suddenly vibrated. She saw it clearly now—a concentrated point of light coalescing at what seemed to be the mouth of a massive cannon, like a black hole pulling everything toward it.

The last thing she registered was that beam of light, rocketing toward her with unstoppable force, consuming everything in its path.

"Ember..."