Read I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse Chapter 61 online for free - AllNovelFull
Kairos looked towards his father and nodded.
"Knowing the basics would be pretty helpful."
Sam smiled bitterly.
"Haha, I wish that there was someone that could've taught me how things worked, but alas, I had to learn it myself."
Kairos held onto his chin.
"Was there a lot of power struggle in your company?"
Sam let out a sigh.
"There is a power struggle in pretty much every company. I highly doubt that there is one that has had moderate success, but no power struggle. Even the startups have violent back and forths between its members."
Kairos narrowed his eyes, thinking about it.
"Huh…"
Though he had seen the surface of such a climate, he really didn't understand it, especially because he was never directly within it. The most he had seen was indirect versions or vague versions of power struggle in school.
Sam used a second to gather his thoughts.
"Though I have climbed up the ladder to a certain extent, there was always someone above me. The majority of the time, you are trying your very best not to provoke your boss in any way, which can be quite hard when they are unreasonable people."
He rubbed his knuckle against his temple, clearly a little stressed by the experiences he remembered.
"If you want to increase your power, that will always be the condition required, not provoking the one above you."
Sam leaned back into the sofa.
"From there, you can prove your abilities, that you are calm in stressful situations and show off your capability while keeping good relations. Especially so in situations where a hasty decision is required, but it is also gravely important. The second aspect is how good you are at persuasion, whether it is flattery, having a dominant personality, and maintaining relationships."
Kairos nodded.
"That makes sense."
Sam chuckled.
"Though you probably won't have to worry about that considering that you are starting near the top already. The only thing you have to be careful of is to maintain your relationship with Talia, since it seems she is the one governing everything."
He raised a finger.
"Just know that the chances of beating a person that is above you in a position of power is impossibly difficult if you have a conflict. There are a few exceptions, but they are incredibly rare. Understand that any conflict you have will likely end up as a pyrrhic victory at best. Though you shouldn't really care about increasing your position of power given you are already quite high."
Sam cleared his throat.
"Though considering this is the apocalypse and people now have dynamically different power ranges, it gets a bit more complicated. I'm not sure exactly how it will work, but physical power will be quite important. My recommendation is to intimidate, but not frighten. In other words, show that you are more powerful, but do not pressure the other side."
Kairos tapped his chin.
"Hm. It does get far more complicated."
Sam chuckled.
"This would be the part where I would tell you to always get ready to transfer to some other company, especially when relations begin to sour, but…"
Kairos laid back on the couch.
"There is not exactly a place to transfer."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, worst case scenario I would be forced to flee the city without anyone noticing. I imagine it will be quite difficult to survive without a sustainable food source, but that was just our situation before."
Sam nodded with a smile.
"Haha, yeah."
His expression faltered slightly.
"…Basically, the gist of it is to not make that girl upset, and everything should be fine. Your mother and I both did not even make our marriage known or even shared that we knew each other for the sake of not provoking certain people."
Kairos' eyes widened slightly.
"You couldn't even talk about that?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders.
"We learned that the hard way, haha."
Kairos rubbed his temple with the tip of his finger.
"…This sounds like a huge pain."
Sam laughed.
"Because it is."
Kairos took a deep breath.
"So the first steps seem to be going out to fight some monsters. Though only after I fulfill my responsibilities. Could you gather the others while I go ask Tiana about some stuff?"
Sam nodded.
"Sure."
With that, they left the room. Sam went up the stairs to go to the third floor, while Kairos went to the room opposite to his and knocked on it.
Soon after, Tiana came out.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't we just talk? Or do you have some more questions you would like to ask?"
Kairos shook his head while keeping his back straight.
"It's nothing like that. I desire to leave the city soon, thus wish to fulfill my required responsibilities now, so that I do not neglect my work."
Tiana smiled.
"It seems your father told you a few things, huh?"
The corner of Kairos' lip twitched. He didn't know how to respond.
In the end, Tiana brushed it off with a laugh.
"Well, there isn't much to report as of now. So far, we are planting partially sprouted potatoes. From what I've been told it should take roughly a month or more for them to grow. With roughly one hundred farmers, they need quite a bit to be fed. And that's pretty much the extent of the situation."
Kairos nodded.
"I suggest that you provide a relatively generous amount of food for them to eat, stating that you will give enough for perhaps the first month and a half. This way, they won't be too afraid. As people that are too afraid will likely try to find ways to avoid giving their ninety percent so they can feel a bit more secure in their food."
Tiana put a finger on her chin, contemplating it for a moment.
"Alright, that sounds pretty reasonable. You can go off on your little journey then, just come back in a week or so!"
Kairos bowed.
"Thank you."
Tiana smiled strangely.
"You don't have to be so polite in front of me."
She began closing the door and peeked out of the crack.
"Frankly, that hypocritical shit pisses me off."
Kairos flinched as the door slammed shut. He stood there in silence for a few moments.
"…Somehow I messed up already."
He shook his head and began walking up the stairs.
"Whatever."
He was greeted with the sight of Sam talking to Sydney. Tori and Chase were standing off to the side passively.
"Are you sure? Wouldn't it be better to consolidate your strength?"
Sydney looked conflicted, furrowing her brows intently.
"I don't think I should get stronger. I'm not sure if I can control myself…"
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
"Yes, but don't you remember?"
Sydney looked over to him and blinked a few times.
"Ah, remember what?"
Kairos looked her straight in the eye.
"If you want to remain in control of yourself, you also need to improve your strength. Don't you remember the difference it made before?"
Sydney blinked a few times with her mouth slightly agape, as though she finally came to that realization.
"I understand."
Tori looked between the two of them.
"Remember what?"
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"Nothing too important."
He then walked over to Nicole's door and knocked on it.
It did not take look for a set of footsteps to rush over.
Nicole opened the door with a wide smile on her face.
"Ah, Kairos!"
Kairos nodded.
"We are going out to kill some monsters."
Nicole's smile froze on her face.
"But… why?"
Kairos blinked a few times.
"To get stronger."
Nicole looked confused, tilting her head to the side.
"But we already have the shelter we need, right?"
Kairos paused for a moment.
"Shelter is more of a symbolic thing, and is only guaranteed when one is powerful."
Nicole's lips parted ever so slightly, like she never expected that to be the answer.
"Y-You are going outside to get stronger?"
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, didn't I just say that?"
Nicole looked down to the ground and fidgeted slightly.
"…Alright, I will join you."
Kairos was a little surprised as he somewhat expected her to either decline or try to convince him otherwise. Though he wasn't going to go against it, as it was better this way.
Chase cracked his neck.
"Can we go already? I really can't sit right while I'm still not even at the E rank."
Kairos let the sharpened bone rest on his shoulder.
"Yeah, let's go then."
The group then left the apartment complex and walked out towards the entrance of the place.
Along the way, they passed by many people farming the fields. Many of those that noticed the group had gotten out of the apartment complex shot hateful glares in their direction.
Kairos couldn't help but feel that these people weren't very welcoming.
It was then he recalled his father's advice. To intimidate, but not frighten. He thought that this was a method one was supposed to use in order to fend off someone in a higher position.
And that was also what his father meant.
However, it seemed like that it would also be beneficial to prevent an uprising. Most of the people farming already seemed bitter even without his intervention. It seemed that the preferential treatment that he had gotten sparked jealousy within the others.
Though he didn't want to attract attention, it was already too late for that.
Kairos assessed how much mana he had.
It was roughly a half, which was not a lot by his standards. Though he wanted to save it for the sake of going out, he figured that there shouldn't be too many fights immediately.
And so, he walked over to a boy who was trying to clear a large pile of rubble away. He seemed to be a bit younger than Kairos, and was heaving greatly just trying to move away the stones.
Kairos waved casually.
"Do you need some help in moving these stones?"
The boy looked up to him with a bit of surprise.
"O-Oh, it's ok! I got this."
Kairos tilted his head to the side.
"Why exactly are you clearing these stones?"
The boy scratched the back of his head.
"Ah, this is the plot of farmland I was assigned and if I want to farm, then I have to clear away this rubble."
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
"But it doesn't look like the others have to do the same?"
The boy looked down at the ground with an awkward smile on his face.
"Um… some people moved their rubble onto my farmland even though we were supposed to bring it out towards the city borders."
The corner of Kairos' lip turned up.
"Could you tell me who did that?"
The boy hurriedly shook his head.
"Ah, it's no problem, haha."
Kairos surveyed the area, and noticed that a few people in the distance were noticeably tense. He pointed towards them.
"I see that you are the people that neglected your responsibilities."
Those people seemed rather defensive.
"What? I didn't do anything!"
"This is a false accusation without any proof!"
"You can't just boss us around! What makes you think you have the right?"
Nicole clenched her fists and walked up.
"Kairos…"
In response, Kairos gave her a gentle push back.
"Don't worry."
He then faced forwards once more.
"That is a good question. I wonder, what makes me have the right to boss you around?"
The people seemed to get more confident at first, not noticing the sarcasm behind his words.
Kairos raised his hand, which gradually began glowing blue. He didn't inject so much that his hand began vibrating violently like before, but it was still nothing to scoff at.
The people speaking out earlier quickly realized that something was wrong, becoming somewhat afraid.
"W-What are you doing?"
A strange smile appeared on Kairos' face.
"Answering your question."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh yeah, duck if you want to live."
Report chapter
Kairos couldn't help but think that Tiana's temperament had rubbed off on him. As for whether or not that was a good or bad thing, he didn't really know yet.
Nonetheless, he couldn't help but admit being a bit overbearing felt nicer than he thought.
As he aimed his glowing blue hand towards the pile of rubble, the other people that were nearby began ducking and put their hands on their heads. The boy next to him ended up stumbling backwards and falling on his behind.
That was when Kairos let the spell loose.
For a split second, there was only a faint swish as the mana was expelled from his body.
Then, a thunderous explosion ensued.
Nasty cracks spread around the pavement that he had been walking on earlier. As for the rubble that was covering the farm, it was blown away and further shattered into smaller pieces.
The force was enough to send several of the smaller fragments twenty meters in the air, while the larger ones scattered to even move ten meters. Those fragments were still fairly large, and ended up slamming into the people that had taken cover earlier, ripping apart their skin and bruising their bodies.
They ended up letting out various cries of pain and ended up getting covered in dirt. The rubble smashed up large amounts of tilled farmland into the air, ruining it.
Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger while holding onto his elbow using his other hand.
"Hm. It seems I have caused quite a mess! Well, since it is your plot, then you shall be the one to work on it, alright?"
Those people didn't end up responding. While covered in dirt, they continued to roll around and groan in pain. In fact, it seemed like one of them had broken their arm because of Kairos.
Seeing that broken arm, Kairos couldn't help but let out a faint chuckle.
It reminded him of some things.
The boy from before was trembling slightly.
"This… this is too far!"
The rubble on his plot of land was cleared, and the aftereffects had already tilled some of the farm for him. However, the boy was still clearly against it.
"I… I don't need this treatment."
Kairos looked at him and narrowed his eyes. However, instead of displeasure, a smile ended up spreading across his face. He couldn't help but think of more memories and look at the boy with a bit of unfairly placed disdain.
"Oh, really?"
Kairos walked over to the boy, lowered his face and brought himself closer. It was to the point where he could clearly make out the boy's afraid face.
"Don't worry, I am very impartial."
Kairos spoke rather loudly, which made the boy grit his teeth in pain. All of the other farmers in the surroundings couldn't help but stop what they were doing and look at him silently.
Kairos tilted his head to the side ever so slightly.
"No matter who, as long as they wish, then I am more than willing to help them."
A few more gullible people seemed a little excited, not understanding his true meaning.
He then stood back up and gestured towards the people rolling around on the ground in pain.
"For example, can't you see how much I've helped these people?"
Several people flinched. Some people couldn't bring themselves to look at him any longer.
Kairos pointed towards a man who was crying out in pain, with his arm twisted the wrong way.
"Out of my own goodwill, I have broken this man's arm. He is having difficulty thanking me through his tears of joy! Please come to me if you want similar treatment. Don't worry, I'm very nice."
Everyone had fallen very silent. All of the people working on farms were looking down, trying their best not to move as they didn't want to attract attention. The only people looking at Kairos were those that were in his group.
Nicole in particular had her eyes widened all the way. She reached her hand out shakily, but was hesitating.
"K-Kairos?"
She called out as though she wasn't even sure if the person in front of her was truly the person she had been with for so long.
Sydney had her mouth agape slightly, as though she was having difficulty understanding what he had done.
Tori seemed rather indifferent, as though this situation wasn't anything strange. On the other hand Chase had a strange smile on his face.
Sam pressed his lips together and looked down.
Although he seemed displeased with Kairos' actions, he also didn't look surprised.
In the end, he just sighed.
"Come on, let's get out of here."
Kairos realized he had probably gone a tad bit too far, but he figured that this should be all he needed to do for a long while. He knew how fast rumors would spread, so even the people on the other side of the city, too far to see, should quickly know what happened.
It was important to establish a reputation.
Kairos walked on ahead nonchalantly, back with the normal expression on his face.
"Yes, we should leave. Waiting here any longer is just wasting time we could've needed."
The group walked back towards the entrance, some more resolutely than others. Their walk was eerily silent, making the sounds of their footsteps rather noticeable.
It was quite strange when there were so many people, but hardly any sound was made.
The people working on the farms all tensed up and made sure not to look. Kairos thought about all of their envious glares from before and couldn't help but marvel a little at the effectiveness of his intimidation.
Along the way, a child ended up crying when Kairos got near, but he didn't even spare a glance. A mother hurriedly held onto the child and desperately tried to calm him down.
Kairos let out a soft sigh and thought to himself.
'Seems like I'm the bad guy now, huh.'
By the time the group got close to the entrance of the city, they seemed to come to another realization. The wall was closed off, meaning that they couldn't exactly leave.
Kairos' eyebrow twitched, but before he could think of going back to Tiana a pathway began to reveal itself automatically. He was a bit confused, but decided to continue through it anyway, and the rest followed.
By the time they came out the other end, Nicole couldn't keep her thoughts silent anymore.
"W-Why did you do that?"
Kairos sighed.
"I was given a rather nice position out of luck. However, most of the people are likely against my new position or jealous because of it. Considering that it is the only reason we are even allowed to stay, it is important to maintain that position."
He looked over his shoulder and into Nicole's eyes.
"Wouldn't you prefer having this as a place to stay? Without my identity as the logistics guy, then we would all be kicked out."
Nicole looked down.
"But did you have to…"
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
"What else do you think he could've done? If he tried being nice, then countless shameless people would try to take advantage of that. And taking into consideration how many there were…"
Nicole clenched her fists tightly.
"I… I guess."
Sydney lightly brushed Nicole's hair, but did not say anything. Tori obliviously blinked, not really understanding the dreary atmosphere, and decided it would probably be better to be silent.
Kairos looked towards Sam and spoke as though none of this had ever happened.
"Could you check what recently happened here? Maybe we can get a lead on where to go afterwards."
Sam had a long look at his son before nodding.
"Alright."
He got down on one knee and placed his palm on a relatively clean spot on the ground. He closed his eyes and remained very still for roughly five minutes.
Then, he opened his eyes.
"…I saw the walls being constructed."
Kairos nodded.
"What else did you see?"
Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He spoke gently.
"It passed by in a flash, but I could see a rather large group of survivors coming from the left."
Kairos put a finger on his chin.
"Since the survivors came from the left, I propose going to the right."
Tori raised an eyebrow.
"Eh? Why?"
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
"If the survivors came from the left, then there's probably nothing useful in that direction. There were no threats, and anything relatively valuable they had gotten their hands on is probably gone."
Tori slowly nodded.
"Ah, makes sense."
Sam sighed.
"Then right it is, I suppose."
The group proceeded to traverse towards the right, walking over all the dead corpses. The street was as silent as it was before. It seemed like there was still a strong sense of dread having over the place.
However, in just an hour or so of walking, they were able to see active monsters.
It was still the city streets, but there were a multitude of monsters feasting on various corpses they had found.
Chase clicked his tongue.
"Finally, I thought none of these damn things would show up."
He pulled the bow off of his back and drew a mana arrow.
Most of the monsters noticed their presence, and raised their heads to roar. Some of them took a step forward as though proving their aggression, but soon took another step back.
Chase let an arrow loose, smashing through a few skulls and diverting the trajectory of his arrow to get a few more.
"Damn. Thought I would get a few more."
Sydney's breathing had become a little heavy as she held on the bone with both hands.
Kairos raised his hand.
"Wait, wait."
Most of the group turned to look at him strangely.
Kairos cleared his throat.
"I don't plan on killing any of these, but I want to test something before we get rid of them all."
Sam raised an eyebrow.
"And what is that?"
Kairos walked forth, until he was just a meter away from the monsters.
"Just… something."
The monsters roared at him aggressively, lunging forth occasionally, but always pulling back right after. Nicole called out with concern.
"Be careful!"
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"I'll be alright."
He ended up walking a bit closer, but the monsters still didn't attack him, seemingly unwilling to step any closer.
Kairos waited for one of them to lunge forth with their claws, then he grabbed onto its claws, pulling on it with all of his strength. The monster didn't seem to expect that as it was thrown onto the pavement.
It immediately let out rather high-pitched roars and scrambled up to its feet, completely ignoring Kairos. The monster rushed back towards the other side.
Kairos decided to be a little willful and stuck out his leg, causing the monster to trip.
It didn't even look at him before scrambling away on all fours. Only when it had reached the other side, did it turn around to roar at Kairos resentfully.
Chase couldn't help but laugh.
"They are so damn afraid…"
Kairos backed off while thinking to himself.
"It really seems like there is something scaring them away, with a clear boundary too."
Sam looked over his shoulder and muttered.
"…Ananta."
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
"Anyways, you guys can continue."
Chase was in the process of drawing back another mana arrow, but decided to walk up to the monsters and take advantage of this opportunity.
Other than him, both Sydney and Tori walked up too.
Nicole simply stood in place, not going up. However, Kairos didn't say anything as he would've preferred more points going towards Chase and Sydney.
That was because Chase naturally had a hard time gathering points, and would probably need some for his evolution while Sydney's points could basically be converted into health.
As for Tori, he just shrugged it off.
But there was something he couldn't shrug off.
A strange, yet familiar brushing sound.
Report chapter
Kairos furrowed his brows, turning his head towards where the brushing sound was coming from. There wasn't anything at first, but after a few moments, he saw something far off in the distance.
It was those strange monsters that were humanoid, but were walking on all fours and inverted legs. There were also strange long thick black hair-like things on their backs. They would twitch slightly, and rub against each other to make the strange brushing sounds.
Chase was currently beating a monster down with his fists. However, despite abusing the fact the monsters wouldn't come over the edge, he was still having a tough time. In the end, his fists really just weren't enough to beat the monster down.
In the end, he resorted to wrestling. He was able to reverse their position before strangling it. Though it took a minute, Chase was able to choke it out and kill it.
As for Tori, she had already killed quite a few, while Sydney was gradually losing it. She ripped apart all of the monsters with just the sharpened bone at first, but then she started to use her hand as well.
The monsters easily tore her apart one of her arms as she recklessly strangled some in return, but at the same time, she was able to kill a few of them that way.
Chase couldn't help but stare on with a bitter smile.
"…How exactly is this fair?"
Regardless, it didn't take them long for them to kill most of the monsters. While this was happening, Kairos kept his eye on those strange monsters with those long hair-like things.
His first instinct was to call out and tell everyone to run away, but those monsters seemed to be rather oblivious. They were scouring the general area around them, but didn't seem to notice that they were fighting against several monsters at the moment.
Kairos looked over to his father.
"Hey, remember when you cleared out those monsters while we were hiding underground?"
Sam looked back towards him.
"Ah, yeah. Why do you ask?"
Kairos furrowed his brows.
"Was there anything special about them?"
Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
He paused for a moment to think for a few moments.
"I do remember that they strangely seemed unable to see or hear me. It was only when I was maybe a meter or so close to them that they started to lunge towards me, but I was able to cut through all of them fairly easily."
Kairos rubbed his chin with a bit of confusion.
"Hmm… but how would things like this even survive if they were only able to notice things so close to them? Unless there was something else about them."
Sam nodded.
"Now that you mention it, I find it a little strange that they are even rank E in the first place. Maybe it's because they have extremely strong offensive power that I never got to see before killing them."
Once they finished their conversation, the others had also finished killing all of the monsters that stayed near the border.
As Kairos walked over, Sydney's gaze snapped towards the monsters in the distance. With her eyes wide open and heavy breathing, it was fairly clear what she intended to do.
In his future vision, Kairos saw her step past the boundary. And right when she did so, the strange monsters that were over thirty meters away immediately turned to her direction and began shrieking with their hair-like things stretched out taut.
Kairos acted, quickly grabbing onto Sydney's shoulder and pulling her back.
At first, Sydney turned back with quite a bit of aggression, but once she saw it was Kairos, she calmed down.
"What is it?"
Kairos looked over to the monsters and frowned.
"…I don't think it's a good idea to walk out of this strange boundary."
Chase turned to him with a bit of confusion.
"And why is that?"
Kairos took a deep breath, trying to piece things together.
"Don't you remember how we were almost found? I remember they were talking about leaving their minions or something, which are the same as those monsters."
Nicole nodded.
"They are the same…"
Kairos paused for a moment.
"I just don't think it's a good idea to alert them."
Tori shrugged her shoulders.
"Alright, so just try to take the long way around them."
Kairos saw that she ended up taking a step forward, which also caused those strange monsters to have the exact same reaction. Before it actually happened, he pulled back on her shoulder.
Tori looked at him strangely.
"…Is there something you want to tell me?"
Kairos took a deep breath.
"I just feel like there must be something more to those things."
Chase let out a soft sigh.
"So are we going to go back because of these things?"
Kairos hesitated.
There was a part of him that wanted to just say yes, but that would make their journey out here rather lackluster. By now, the strange monsters had filed out onto the street by quite a bit.
Kairos saw in his future vision a hooded figure appeared among the creatures. He cursed internally.
"Hide."
Without explaining himself further, he then ran towards one of the nearby buildings and tried to hide behind it. Nobody questioned him and tried to do the same, but there simply wasn't enough time.
A few of them were unable to make it within one second, causing Kairos to feel a lot of anxiety. However, there were no sounds, making it sound as though they were undetected.
While everyone was now in the alleyway, Sam looked at him with a questioning look.
"What happened?"
Kairos took a deep breath.
"I… had a bad feeling. Like there was something watching us."
Tori furrowed her brows.
"I caught a glimpse of someone and they turned to look at us while we got behind here."
Kairos grit his teeth.
"We have to leave then."
He turned towards the other end of the alleyway and intended on running there.
However, he froze in place.
As the hooded figure was already there.
The person standing there had most of their face obscured, showing only the mouth and chin. However, that was enough to show that the person had become a monster from the strange redness and deformation.
The hood that covered this monster's body was a dark red color and draped over the monster like a cloth. It covered the majority of its body, hanging just above the knees and torn at the edges.
Tori looked at the hooded figure and nodded to herself.
"Ah, that's the same person I saw before."
Chase drew back a mana arrow while his eyes narrowed. Nicole's eyes widened, but the fear didn't stop her from taking out her red watch and putting it on.
Kairos pointed his finger towards the thing and began casting the fire spell.
The hooded figure didn't seem that concerned, still standing there, but slowly raising its head. And soon enough, it revealed two hollow eye sockets, showing the fleshy interior of its head.
Kairos had made a fireball that was roughly thirty centimeters wide and intended on throwing it.
But then he heard Tori speak.
"Wait, that's not the same one."
Kairos hurriedly stopped himself from channeling the fireball any further, as he couldn't afford to be so reckless with his mana.
Especially considering he just used it to show off back at the city.
Chase similarly held onto his arrow and clicked his tongue.
"It's a fake?"
The hooded figure suddenly bolted forth, as though to challenge that statement. Kairos was at the front and saw that its arms would come out from under the cloth.
However, there were no hands on these arms, replaced by a tip of sharpened bone.
Kairos wanted to hold onto the fireball, but saw no other choice, thus released it. He shouted as the fireball shot through the air.
"Fake or not, it's still going to attack us!"
The hooded figure dashed forth at the same time the fireball was launched and ended up smashing its face against it.
A violent explosion ensued, prompting everyone to back off as the flames rushed towards them. However, another hooded figure was waiting behind them.
Chase was the last person into the alleyway, thus was also the first person rushing out.
Seeing the hooded figure standing outside, he did not hesitate to release his mana arrow. In a flash, it broke straight through the hooded figure's head, shattering it into flesh and bone that scattered into the air. Now the hood deflated like a balloon as it rested on top.
Along with that, the hooded figure even took a few steps back.
But then, it caught itself, despite having no head.
Chase frowned as he looked at the figure in front of him, but continued to run forwards without hesitation. He brought his arms back while twisting his body to the side, preparing for a shoulder tackle.
Then, he slammed into the hooded figure, causing it to be shoved back, and pushing a way back out of the alleyway. However, as the hooded figure was shoved back, two sharp bony arms came out and jabbed themselves into Chase's stomach.
As it was blown back, a nasty gash was ripped out.
The skin ripped apart to the point that it revealed his organs, showing his intestines mostly. They also suffered a little bit of damage, but it was nothing too serious. Nonetheless, this was the first time he had gotten such an injury, and was caught off guard as a result.
While Chase was in a daze, Sydney rushed out to the front, slamming her sharpened bone against the headless figure, piercing through its chest and causing a bit of blood to come out. With that, it was shoved back once more, but tore through Sydney's arm in the process.
Though, that injury basically healed immediately.
On the other side, the explosion from the fireball had settled down, though the flames continued to rage on. And in the back of those flames, a figure began rising up.
It was the hooded figure from before, but now it looked rather different. The hood had been burned away completely, while the flesh covering its body had charred considerably and hardened.
Some of the flesh began falling off of its body, revealing the bones underneath.
This was especially so for its skull, which only had a few patches of black flesh on top of it.
Part of its rib cage was revealed, and if one paid attention closely they would see a few hairline cracks within, a result of the explosion.
From all this, it was easy to tell that its method of movement was not through the muscles in its body. It began running through the flames, straight towards him.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
There had to be someone or something remotely controlling these things, but where was it?
He looked around himself for a second, but quickly refocused on his front, to deal with the charred body rushing towards him, while still on fire.
Kairos was thinking of casting a pulse spell, but had noticed the hairline cracks on the rib cage of the monster in front of him, mostly by chance. As such, he wondered if he could take advantage of it.
His mana was only enough to cast one spell with fairly decisive power and one spell with relatively weak power. As for the fireball he had just cast, that would be a relatively weak spell.
Seeing as these things were puppets of some sort, he didn't want to waste those few casts on them.
Kairos bent his knees and held the sharpened bone out in front of him. One hand was on the base while the other one held onto the side to stabilize it. He took inspiration from the proper form to shoot a basketball.
Once the charred corpse got close, he pushed against the base of the bone as hard as he could, letting it fly out.
With a crunch, the rib cage of the skeleton had shattered.
One of the arms had even directly fallen off.
But the other one shot towards Kairos' skull.
Report chapter
Kairos saw in his future vision that the corpse's sharp bone arm pierce through his skull. Despite the debilitating pain that wreaked havoc in his mind, he tilted his head to the side.
The sharpened bone ripped through his cheek, tearing it open and revealing his teeth. While the outcome definitely wasn't ideal, it definitely could've been worse.
The charred corpse continued to move, but Sam acted before it could do anything else. He swung at it with his hand that had been coated with a white light.
With a bang, it landed on the skeleton's shoulder before letting out uncomfortably loud grinding sounds. In less than a second, the arm was cut off, leaving the corpse with basically nothing left.
As though realizing this fact, whatever was controlling it suddenly stopped, letting the charred corpse fall limp to the ground.
Sam shot Kairos a glance.
"Are you ok?"
In response, Kairos sighed.
"More or less."
He held onto his torn apart cheek, trying to stifle the blood flow. Unfortunately, that just caused most of it to go into his mouth, filling it with a strong copper taste.
However, that was still not Kairos' concern.
"We need to find whatever is controlling these things."
After saying that, he looked around for a moment before jumping up and stabbing the sharpened bone into the wall. After hoisting himself up, he used his other hand and legs to get what traction he could on the wall before stabbing the sharpened bone in a higher position.
Although it was rather clumsy, he began scaling up the wall that way.
While Kairos was doing that, most of the other group were still trying to deal with the headless puppet. Sydney was still at the front, slashing into the monster's flesh and getting slashed in return.
It was rather bloody, but it more or less worked out.
As for Chase, he was hunched over with an arm covering the nasty gash on his stomach. The other hand continued to hold onto the bow, but it didn't seem like he would be able to use it anytime soon.
On the other hand, both Tori and Nicole had circled around Sydney on opposite ends. They then swung their weapons.
The headless puppet backed up from Sydney and used both arms to try and defend against their strikes.
It was able to block Nicole's fire axe relatively easily, but Tori's was just barely able to snake by and slam hard into his shoulder joint.
Sydney did not wait to follow up, bringing down her sharpened bone onto the headless puppet, forcing it to kneel down.
Tori grit her teeth and pulled back her katana despite not cutting through the skeleton's shoulder. She simply did not have enough strength.
However, there was still a clear dent made, which she fully intended on taking advantage of after.
The three of them were very quickly overwhelming the headless puppet. Tori had pulled back her katana, wanting to take a decisive slash that would cut through this one's arm, but suddenly had the urge to step to the side, thus she did.
And as that happened, two sharpened bones shot towards where her head and heart were. The source being another hooded figure.
Tori clicked her tongue as her katana flashed.
The hooded figure used both of its arms to block, and while it was close, the katana was stopped in place by one of its arms.
She was not discouraged, and continued to swing her katana around. Unfortunately, none of her attacks were able to get through, but at least the hooded figure was unable to unleash one of its own attacks.
While that was happening, both Sydney and Nicole were swinging at the now kneeling headless puppet.
Sydney's attacks were random, down more in a fit of rage than anything. As such, she wasn't targeting any of the crucial joints, mostly focusing on ripping apart the puppet's flesh.
As for Nicole, she was trying her best, but the puppet would focus mostly on defending and attacking her. In fact, there were several occasions where the puppet would let its body get torn open by Sydney just so its bone could shoot towards Nicole.
There were various occasions where the bone got a little too close to Nicole, but the slow down of time brought by the red watch was enough for her to safely dodge.
By now, Kairos had gotten on top of a three-story restaurant, with the bleeding from his cheek now gone. He observed the situation, seeing most of the others fighting against two puppets.
Next to the boundary that they were taking advantage of earlier, were several of the strange monsters with long hair-like things. They shrieked while their hairs stood up straight, almost like cats.
However, they would not step over the line.
It seemed like they were too afraid, just like the other monsters. Originally, Kairos wasn't too concerned about them, but then he saw a rather startling sight.
One of the strange monsters began to convulse violently. The flesh on its body both bloated and contracted, making it look like it was on the verge of exploding. However, that never came to pass.
Instead, the flesh on its arms were ripped off, leaving sharpened bones. That flesh then turned into a hood that covered the rest of its body. As for the legs, they forcefully twisted and made the monster turn into a bipedal.
Like that, another hooded figure began running into battle.
Considering that two were already making the group go into a stalemate, another would break the balance and overwhelm them.
Chase seemed to notice this.
He was still bleeding since the gash on his stomach was very messy, making it hard to heal. If he removed his arm, then there might be some unforeseen consequences in the near future.
Yet, a mana string formed on the bow anyway.
But then, something Kairos didn't expect happened.
Chase tilted the bow sideways and bit down on the string with his teeth. As he pulled back, a mana arrow formed.
Then, he let it loose onto the faraway hooded figure.
A loud bang resounded.
The mana arrow exploded onto the figure's chest, turning it into a mass of flesh, blood, and bone. Almost all of the torso was now gone. With that, its arms had disconnected along with one leg.
The hooded figure was essentially rendered useless.
Kairos took a deep breath and pointed his finger towards the group of strange monsters. It would probably be better to kill those before they turned into more of the puppets.
With those thoughts in mind, a fireball appeared on the end of his finger.
As he channeled mana into it, Kairos suddenly felt a strange sensation of being watched. His head snapped to the side, and on the floor next to him, he saw an eye.
The eye was partially inside of the floor, with eyelids consisting of cement. As for the iris, it was blood red.
That eye was very familiar to Kairos. Although it wasn't impossible for multiple eyes with red irises to exist, he couldn't help but compare it with the giant eye he saw in the sky before.
They were vastly different sizes, but they were the same.
Kairos immediately brought his sharpened bone down. However, as he did so, the eye shut its eyelid, disappearing entirely. In the end, he smashed into the roof, causing a crack to form.
He was pretty confident that he did not hurt the eye.
Kairos stood up and shouted.
"There is an eye somewhere around here!"
By now, the fireball at the end of his finger had expanded to be forty centimeters wide. He didn't think that this would be enough to kill all of the monsters, but since they decided to bunch up, it should have a fairly strong effect.
Kairos let the fireball go, letting it speed through the air.
The strange monsters were oblivious, until the fireball was right in front of their faces.
An explosion ensued.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded] x 4
The explosion itself was roughly two meters wide, which instantly killed four of the monsters. After that, the flames that spilled out from the explosion caught onto many of the other monsters.
They ended up shrieking in pain and scattering away from each other. Though even in their panicked state, they did not cross the boundary as though doing so would be worse than losing their own life.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded] x 5
The flames were able to burn most of the closest monsters to death. There were still more than ten of them left, but each of their bodies had charred considerably. More than half of them were gravely wounded, while the rest were still not in the best condition.
Kairos immediately felt more piercing glares on him.
He took a quick scan around and saw that there were three eyes looking at him from various positions. One replaced the entire window of a nearby building, while another was about the size of a basketball on a building across the street.
However, the most notable one was probably the eye that rested on ground beneath him, nearly as large as the roof itself.
Kairos was standing at the edge of the building, thus found himself at the edge of the eyelid. He was honestly frozen in shock by the appearance of three eyelids, especially the one below him.
However, after being exposed to it in his future vision one second in advance, he was able to overcome it before it happened in reality.
Seeing the giant eye beneath him made Kairos want to blast it away with all the mana he had left using a pulse spell. However, the fact that there were multiple eyes extinguished this desire immediately.
He thought that maybe the eyes were the 'true' body of sorts, but seeing several made him feel like it was not so simple. Nonetheless, this apprehension did not stop him from stabbing the eye with his sharpened bone.
Kairos honestly expected that the eye would somehow evade or deflect his strike.
So when he heard an uncomfortable squelch, he couldn't help but be surprised.
The sharpened bone had pierced into the eye, causing some blood to spill out. However, the eye did not seem perturbed. Instead, it just continued to look at Kairos passively, almost like it could not register anything else.
Although the eyes all looked at him neutrally, Kairos could not help but feel resentment behind them.
Along with that was just the overall creepiness of them.
Kairos decided to leap off of the building in order to evade them. Though he wasn't looking at the eyes, he could still feel their pupils following him.
With a slam, he landed down on the pavement.
Tori was still engaged in a battle with a hooded figure, and while she was able to make various nicks and dents in the sharp arms of the monster, they were still very much stuck in a stalemate.
Kairos was behind Tori's adversary and decided to help out, rushing forth with the sharpened bone. The hooded figure suddenly turned around and did the same thing. Tori seemed a little surprised by this sudden change, but only waited a split second before taking advantage of it.
Kairos saw where the sharp bone arms would go in his future vision, thus promptly evaded one of them and parried the other one. At the same time, Tori swung her katana with full force.
Her instinct was to go for the creature's neck when it decided to turn around, showing such a vulnerable side to her. However, she quickly remembered that these things still moved without their head.
And so, she swung towards its arm.
With a thunk, one of the hooded figure's arms fell off.
At this time, Chase was focusing on the basketball-sized eye off in the distance.
He drew back another mana arrow using his teeth, intending on destroying it.
But out of nowhere, the pupil suddenly turned towards him.
Then, Chase began aiming the mana arrow towards Kairos.
Report chapter
Kairos immediately noticed that Chase suddenly redirected his arrow towards him, instead of the red eye he was initially aiming at.
He frowned, wondering what caused this sudden change.
The hooded figure in front of him only had one arm to fight with, so it was not hard to hold it off. Unfortunately, there was now something else to deal with.
Kairos suddenly felt a strong pain in his chest. This was something he expected, so he quickly twisted himself to the side.
And right when he did, a mana arrow streaked past where he just was.
With a bang, the mana arrow smashed against a distant building.
Kairos grit his teeth and swung his sharpened bone to block the arm of the hooded figure.
"What the fuck are you doing, Chase?"
Chase did not respond.
Instead, he removed the arm that was covering the gash on his stomach, letting the blood spill out of him. Then, he began drawing back another arrow with his hand.
One thing Kairos noted was that Chase's eyes had changed from light blue to dark red. Along with that, his mouth hung open ever so slightly.
Tori's katana flashed, severing another one of the hooded figure's arms. Though that didn't stop her from noticing that they were receiving friendly fire. She turned around to look at Chase with a betrayed expression.
"You're really acting up now? What the hell is wrong with you?"
As Kairos expected, Chase did not respond.
Instead, he let another mana arrow loose at Kairos, who dodged by depending on his future vision.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
He was wondering what could've possibly gotten Chase controlled like this. Yet, the only real thing he could think of was the fact that he had stared into the eye from earlier. But realistically, that made no sense.
After all, Kairos had stared into the eye multiple times before and nothing happened.
As those thoughts ran through his head, he saw his father approach Chase.
Then, in his future vision, he saw Sam split Chase in two vertically, spilling his blood everywhere.
Kairos quickly shoved how surprised he was out of his mind before calling out.
"Father, wait!"
Sam had both hands tightened around his sharpened bone, raised for an overhead swing. But he stopped himself once he heard Kairos' voice.
Though from the way he furrowed his brows, it was clear that Sam wasn't pleased.
"Kairos! You can't just spare the people that turn on you, even if you've created ties with them!"
During this time, Chase pulled back another mana arrow, and while it seemed to strain his body, his expression hardly changed.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"I'm not sparing someone that turned on me!"
While saying that, he rushed towards Chase, looking him dead in the eye. At the same time, he muttered to himself.
"At least not this time…"
Sam looked confused, but decided to remain silent.
Kairos suddenly felt a piercing pain in his chest, thus he shot towards the left. As expected, once he did so, a mana arrow flew past him. By now, he was only a few meters away.
At this point, Chase's condition looked bad. His veins were bulging from his skin intensely, while his body was trembling faintly. Nonetheless, he still slowly reached towards his bow, preparing another mana arrow.
Before that happened, Kairos shoulder tackled him.
With a thump, Chase got the wind knocked out of him, while his body folded like a sheet of paper. Before he was thrown away, Kairos wrapped one arm around Chase's waist, holding him in place.
Even now, he was still thinking of what could've possessed Chase.
The few things he had thought of were things related to evolution energy taking him over. However, that was unlikely considering that Sydney still had a hold of her emotions despite several close calls, as well as the rest of them more or less being sane.
Kairos definitely believed that they were all slightly on edge, considering how quickly they broke down while trapped underground, but that was different from what was happening now.
He also thought that it might've been the bow taking over Chase's body.
Though again, he believed the chances were low. Chase had heard the story about how guns took the evolution points instead of the actual soldiers. Considering that he had been getting points all this time, Kairos was pretty sure that the bow didn't get any.
After all, the points were always distributed to the killer solely, instead of being shared.
Then, there was also the possibility that Chase had actually turned on them, perhaps because of some sort of telepathic communication. However, Kairos was fairly confident that Chase was the type of person that would've said some sort of snarky remark like, 'Sorry, but I don't plan on dying.'
Then, the only thing Kairos could think of was the fact Chase looked at the eye earlier.
While he was caught up in his thoughts, he could feel Chase struggle venomously, scratching his skin like an animal. Although his skin was torn through, because Chase didn't have particularly long fingernails, the damage was minimal.
Nonetheless, Kairos still was having difficulty keeping him in check.
Chase ended up throwing his bow to the side, and seemed to intend on scratching him with his other hand as well. Yet, as the bow was flying through the air, several black tendrils shot out from its sides before piercing into Chase's arm.
Kairos couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.
So this is what he meant by being unable to use other weapons.
Chase's body had stiffened up while the bow pulled itself back to him. Once it was next to him once more, the bow forced itself into his grasp before retracting the tendrils.
Somehow, the spots where Chase's arm had been pierced by the tendrils seemed completely fine after they were retracted, save for a few tiny red dots.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"Hey, you awake yet?"
Chase remained still for a few seconds. Then, he began clawing away once more, but this time kept a firm hold onto the bow.
Kairos let out a sigh.
He guessed that the owner of the red eye found some way to possess Chase. But then that begged the question.
Why wasn't Kairos possessed?
If looking at the eye was really all it took, then he should've been possessed as well. His guess was that since his rank was higher, he was unaffected by the skill.
While all of this was happening, Tori took care of the hooded figure with no arms, while Nicole and Sydney were able to take off one arm from the puppet that they were fighting.
Kairos began pondering over possible solutions to get rid of Chase's possession.
"Wake up, dumbass!"
Unfortunately, Chase only continued to claw away at his back. Kairos ran towards a wall, and slammed Chase into it, causing him to make a strange gurgling sound.
"Hey! Do you hear me?"
After a short period of recovery, Chase went back to what he was doing before, attacking Kairos. At this point, Kairos was beginning to wonder if this entire thing was a lost cause.
That maybe it was better to just kill him outright.
At the same time, Nicole let out a grunt as she swung her fire axe, taking off the puppet's last arm with some difficulty. Most of the chest and gut were torn open because of Sydney.
While she suffered similar injuries herself, all of them rapidly healed.
Kairos pulled back from the wall he slammed Chase into, and as he did, a red eye formed on it. At first, the red eye glanced towards Kairos. However, just a second later, it turned to look at Sam, who was looking back with evident surprise.
To Kairos' dismay, Sam stiffened up strangely. Then, his eyes began to turn red as well.
Nicole was focusing intently on Chase, and seemed ready to kill if necessary. Unfortunately, that also meant she wasn't focusing on Sam.
In his future vision, Kairos saw Sam swing his sharpened bone horizontally as a white light coated it.
And Nicole's head come off.
Kairos' eyes widened as he looked at Nicole.
"DUCK."
Nicole seemed taken aback, but followed what he had said, causing some of her long black hair to fly up in the air. Right afterward, Sam's sharpened bone snaked past, cutting the tips of her hair.
Nicole couldn't help but shudder as she felt the wind of the strike pass by the top of her head so quickly, but did not delay in running away from Sam.
Sydney's breathing was heavy, and she turned to face Sam with determination. However, once she saw who it was, all of that determination turned into confusion. In a flash, one of Sydney's arms fell off from Sam's slash.
Tori furrowed her brows.
"Damn, weren't you the one being all high and mighty about people turning on each other?"
Kairos cursed under his breath, he was wrong about his initial predictions again.
"Make sure you don't look at the eye! It will possess you, just like how these two have been!"
Nervous expressions appeared on the rest of the group. They clearly began hesitating over whether or not they should even be looking in a certain direction.
Tori voiced her concerns.
"Damn, should I keep my eyes closed, then?"
Kairos took a second to think. After all, they couldn't just close their eyes to fight. From what he recalled, it took a few seconds for the eye to take control.
Kairos decided to take a gamble with his advice.
"If you see the eye, immediately look away."
As he spoke, an eye formed on the floor underneath Sydney. Instinctively, she turned to look, but hurriedly closed her eyes right after before turning her face away.
It seemed to have worked.
But in that time, Sam swung his sharpened bone once more, taking off another one of Sydney's arms.
Her regeneration was enough to stop the bleeding from both of her arms, but it would be optimistic to think that it could do any more.
Sydney ran away, though still half confused.
As for Kairos, he grit his teeth as he internally complained about how unfair this was.
With just a single look, someone could be turned into a puppet, and inherit all of their powers?
What was he even supposed to do?
Kairos slammed Chase into the wall once more before grabbing him by both shoulders.
"Wake up, you piece of shit! Otherwise, I'm killing you!"
As he expected, it did little to deter Chase from attacking him any longer. Kairos cursed, and slammed his head against Chase's rather helplessly.
With a frown, he glared into the man's red eyes.
"Did you hear me?"
Kairos was about to give up, but suddenly noticed that Chase's eyelids fell slightly, while his grip weakened. He blinked a few times and pulled his head back.
"Can you hear me?"
Chase immediately began struggling fiercely once more.
Kairos clicked his tongue, feeling extremely irritated. It seemed that some of the control over Chase weakened for just a moment.
But why?
Kairos brought his head closer once again, and as expected, it caused Chase's motions to dull once more. Something was causing the control to lessen whenever he got close.
Was his body in some way special?
Maybe it was somehow tied to his ability to see the future?
Or maybe the person controlling Chase was just playing with him, trying to make him hesitate more on killing.
As these possibilities flashed by in his mind, he couldn't help but panic.
While he was thinking, Sam was rushing after the others. Sydney was relatively fast, but still slower than him. As such, she would still get cut up by Sam every so often.
On the other hand, both Nicole and Tori also fled, but were both substantially slower.
They were still F rank, after all.
Kairos had to decide quick.
Report chapter
Kairos' mind worked quick, as every single second was one that he could not afford to give.
The red eye would control anybody that looked at it.
That is, unless it was him.
And when he slammed his forehead against Chase's, it seemed to make his eyes dull slightly.
Dots connected one after another, until Kairos felt he was quite stupid for not getting it earlier.
His glasses.
Kairos grabbed onto his glasses by the bridge before forcefully pushing them onto Chase, focusing on getting the lenses as close to the eyes as possible, and nearly getting them to touch his eyeballs.
Chase had an immediate reaction, gradually closing his eyelids. His body seemed to fall limp too.
Then, he lost consciousness entirely, falling down towards the ground.
Kairos quickly put the glasses back on his face just in case and stuck out his foot, letting Chase's head land on it. Though he wasn't sure if Chase could still get injured from falling on his head, Kairos recalled him mentioning it, so he helped out.
And immediately afterwards, he rushed over towards Sam, who was still trying to cut up everyone else.
It did not take long for Sam to get within range to attack the others. Tori seemed to instinctively realize this, as she spun around and decided to face him head on.
Sam recklessly swung his sharpened bone as a faint white light coated it, while Tori raised her katana to block.
An ear-piercing clang rang out.
Tori had raised her katana in time, but Sam was still pressing down on her with the sharpened bone. Uncomfortably loud screeching sounds filled the air as the white light grated against the katana.
Tori was almost immediately pushed back. She grit her teeth as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Though she was trying as hard as she could, the katana continued to press down onto her. Her hand was trembling, and a few tears even formed on her palms.
The difference in strength was just too huge.
While Tori was gasping for breath, she was beginning to lose focus. That was when Sam suddenly backed up, causing her to stumble forwards. Then, with both hands around the bone blade, he traced a vertical arc right towards her neck.
Tori's eyes widened considerably, and just before the attack connected, she suddenly disappeared, turning into a red mist.
The sharpened bone tore through the air, making a clear whoosh. But that was it.
Tori reappeared at the next moment, heaving even more violently than before. Sam did not delay in bringing down his sword once more, except it didn't reach Tori.
In fact, it wasn't even close.
Because he was swinging behind him.
Kairos suddenly stopped in his tracks and leaned back, letting the tip of the sharpened knife pass right by his neck. His pupils were shaking slightly, because he saw his head come off in his future vision.
Kairos sucked in a cold breath as he continued forth, trying to shake off the nervousness. He pulled the glasses off of his face with one hand and grabbed onto Sam's head with the other.
Naturally, Sam, or more accurately the thing controlling him, wasn't just going to let him do what he wanted. The sharpened bone once again flashed through the air.
In all honesty, Kairos was a little nervous because of what he just experienced earlier, but quickly calmed down. Neglecting the sharpened bone completely, he pushed the glasses towards Sam's face.
Nicole was paying attention to the fight a few meters in the distance and noticed that. She ended up taking a step forwards and reaching out with her hand.
"Watch out!"
However, Kairos didn't react in the slightest.
And right when the bone was just a few centimeters away from his neck, the entire thing self-destructed on itself, turning into several tiny fragments. A few of them scraped into his neck, but were more or less harmless.
With probably more force than necessary, Kairos pressed the bridge of his glasses onto the bridge of his father's nose. The lenses got right next to his eyes, and the effects were immediate.
The strong red color of his iris turned to hazelnut, as his eyelids fell.
His father was about to collapse, but Kairos caught him before he fell. Right after, he put the glasses securely onto his face and turned to the others.
"We have to run now! Someone pick up Chase."
Tori dashed over to Chase and picked him up in a princess carry once more. She muttered to herself.
"…He really is a damsel."
If Chase was awake right now, he would've pretended that he was actually asleep so that he wouldn't have to acknowledge her statement.
With that, the group began running.
However, it didn't seem like the person behind all of this was going to let them go so easily.
A giant eye appeared on the road, and two more appeared on the sides of two apartment buildings, each nearly taking up their entirety.
Tori, Nicole, and Sydney ended up catching a glance of the eyes, but quickly turned away. They were able to see that there were eyes to the sides and below them in their peripheral vision, thus they naturally looked up towards the sky.
However, there was another surprise waiting for them.
A giant eye, staring down at all of them, far up in the sky.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"Just close your eyes!"
They all did as told. While Tori was intently keeping her eyes shut, she couldn't help but raise a point.
"How do we know where to run?"
Kairos furrowed his brows.
"Just follow my voice!"
He looked over his shoulder and continued to call out, saying various variations of 'over here', or 'keep following'. Eventually, Kairos ended up needing to step on the eye and felt quite uncomfortable doing so, however, it was solid enough to the point that he could ignore it.
He decided on retreating entirely, as whatever this was, it was far too risky for them to take it on. Kairos looked over his shoulder once again, but then his face twitched.
For a second, he couldn't help but tense up and forget to call out, prompting Tori to nervously complain.
It was because there was a monster following them.
It had a hood draped over itself just like the other hooded figures, but this one was clearly different. The monster still had its arms intact, and instead of claws, it just had normal hands. As for the redness of its skin, it was very slight. Enough that one could just mistake it as someone that was slightly sunburned.
In fact, the overall frame of the monster was very similar to a normal human, to the point that it was slightly shorter than Kairos.
However, nobody that looked at its face would consider that it was a normal human.
That was because it had seven eyes and no other facial features.
One of them was a giant eye on his forehead, taking up most of the area, while the others were in two vertical lines across its face.
The giant eye as well as three other eyes were closed. As for two of the eyes, they were open, but also furiously bloodshot. One of them even had a small hole inside it and was bleeding.
As for the last eye, it was noticeably smaller than the rest and looked somewhat shriveled.
It was almost like the monster was slowly growing an eye on its face, or something like that.
The two open eyes seemed to glow, even in the daylight.
They also seemed to hold a clear hatred for Kairos, as though it was desperately wanting to tear him to shreds.
Unfortunately for Kairos, despite the monster being shorter than him, it was faster.
And by quite a bit too.
Kairos took deep breaths and considered his options, but didn't forget to call out.
"Run faster!"
Tori's face was flushed, as carrying someone and running as fast as possible wasn't that easy for her.
"I'm trying!"
Kairos grit his teeth.
"Just run faster!"
A deep frown was forming on his face as he began considering his options. He still had enough mana to cast a relatively strong pulse spell, something that would be enough to instantly kill thirty or so regular monsters.
However, Kairos was not confident that it would be enough to even incapacitate the monster behind him.
He was fairly certain that the monster behind him was the true body of what was controlling all the things from before.
There was a part of Kairos that wanted to fight it.
From what he could tell, it was a rare opportunity where this monster showed itself. Not to mention, it would probably get far stronger in the future.
And he would've taken that risk, as stupid as it was.
That is, if he wasn't carrying his father on his shoulder.
Kairos wasn't confident that he could protect his father's life while fighting the monster, thus he stayed resolute in running away.
Seeing the monster gain on them, Kairos slowed down a little, until he was just behind everyone else.
"Keep going forward! I will tell you if something comes up, just focus on running faster!"
Then, mana began gathering towards his hand. It wasn't enough to make it glow an intense blue, but there was still an indistinct light blue mist surrounding his hand.
Kairos raised his hand towards the monster that was rapidly gaining on them and hoped that this would be enough.
However, he suddenly stopped himself.
And similarly, the monster stopped in its tracks as well.
The four eyes that were closed on his forehead abruptly shot open, while the eye in the sky and on the terrain shut.
Kairos furrowed his brows in confusion, but didn't stop running.
As for the monster, it was slowly taking a few steps back. There was no facial expression to read, but it seemed nervous.
Then, the monster ended up turning around and breaking into a full-out sprint, going as fast as it could.
As for Kairos, he didn't feel too good about suddenly getting out of his situation for free.
Though he definitely thought that his chances of death were pretty high if the monster didn't run away, he still didn't think their current situation fared any better.
Kairos knew that the monster ran past the boundary that all of the other monsters were unbelievably afraid of. In other words, something frightened it badly.
Frightened it to the point that it began running without abandon, despite all of its hatred.
Despite how strong it was.
Kairos hesitated, but quickly came to a decision, even if it wasn't the most thought out one.
Because he really felt like there was not enough time.
"Open your eyes and run to the left, right now!"
For a second, everyone was rather confused. They hesitatingly opened their eyes and noticed that the haunting glares coming from all sides were gone.
However, they didn't relax, because the anxiety in Kairos' voice was as clear as day.
There just so happened to be a road that led to the left at this junction, the reason why he said to go this way. And the group all ran down this path.
Both Kairos and Tori lagged behind slightly as they were both carrying someone, but they were still running with all their might.
Nicole spoke through heavy breaths.
"What are we running from?"
Kairos was heaving violently, but still responded.
"I don't know."
At that moment, a high-pitched screech came from their right, far off in the distance. It sounded like it was at least several kilometers away, but it was still clear to each and every one of them.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
"…Just know it's something worse than the thing we just fought."
A solemn air hung over the group.
As for Chase and Sam, the both of them suddenly furrowed their brows, both having nightmares.
Report chapter
Once Chase fell unconscious, he found himself in what seemed to be an endless white expanse. His first instinct upon reaching here was to take a preliminary look around.
However, there wasn't much to see. Though one could argue there was actually a lot.
After a few moments, Chase walked a few steps forward. The sound of his footsteps seemed to echo several times over, creating a rather distracting cacophony of sounds. Eventually, he stopped walking, letting the overlapping sounds of footsteps gradually die down.
Chase narrowed his eyes as he continued to look around him.
He felt a little strange, and after a few moments, he realized it was because there was no bow on him. On top of that, his clothes were normal casual ones that were not tattered or bloodied.
Nor was there a faintly bad smell coming from him from a lack of a shower.
His condition made it seem like he was living a normal life, before all of the occurrences of the apocalypse. However, this didn't make Chase feel any more comfortable. If anything, it did the opposite.
He shut his eyes tightly as he tried to recall what had last happened.
It took a few minutes, but he was just barely able to pick out the fact that they had left the city Tiana had built and headed off to get some more evolution points.
As pieces continued to connect into his mind, he remembered that they were fighting a rather strange opponent, one that could control puppets.
And then…
He couldn't remember anything else.
Chase held onto the side of his head, trying to push his memories further, but they seem to have been cut off entirely. After a little while longer, he gave up on trying to recall any more.
He was beginning to consider his options, though there weren't exactly that many in his current situation.
As he was pondering, he suddenly felt the place distort rather violently. Chase himself was unaffected, but distortions appeared on the endless white expanse.
They settled down quickly afterwards, but he was still a little concerned.
Then, a few moments later, the rippling became extremely strong. It was as though he was trapped inside a giant rubber ball, and that rubber was being stretched to its very limits.
And then, it was cut.
Tears formed in the endless white expanse, expanding rapidly. And once it cleared up, it revealed… himself.
His younger self to be exact, out in the park, playing around.
Chase was a bit bewildered, but decided to walk up to his younger self and observe him. It didn't seem like his presence was noticed. He attempted to reach out and touch his younger self, but his hand phased right through.
At that point, he simply let his arms fall to his sides as he decided to observe.
Chase was playing by himself, and there weren't many other kids around.
At some point, when he was at the highest point he could reach in the park, he saw some kids younger than him off in the distance.
There was a kid with black hair getting shoved around by two other kids. They seemed quite a bit younger than him. The two kids seemed rather arrogant.
Chase actually remembered this, despite this being many many years ago. He walked over to look at the kid with black hair and noticed something.
Though he was being shoved around, there was a clear look in his blue eyes. From what Chase could tell, that kid wasn't afraid. Rather, he was clearly intending on doing something. This wasn't something that he had remembered from before.
However, before that happened, his younger self rushed in, running down a slide and jumping off halfway. Little Chase's feet slammed into the wood chips, scattering them around in the air.
This attracted the attention of both the kid with black hair and the two other kids.
Little Chase pointed towards them.
"Leave him alone! What did he do to you?"
The two kids frowned exaggeratedly.
"Why do you care?"
"It's none of your business."
As for the kid with black hair, he gave a curious look.
"Who are you?"
Little Chase thumped his chest.
"I am a person you can stand behind!"
After saying that, he got in between the kids. Because he was a substantial amount older, he was also quite a bit taller.
The two kids looked displeased.
"Get out of the way!"
"You will regret this!"
Chase couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle when he looked at his younger self. But then, his smile disappeared.
Little Chase suddenly frowned strangely, looking at the two kids with scary eyes. He gave off a pressure that wouldn't just come from being taller or older. It was something closer to what one would see from a soldier on the battlefield.
In fact, it would actually be far worse.
Despite taking a spectator role, Chase couldn't help but feel slightly frightened by his younger self. Right after that fear appeared, he immediately felt strange.
Why in the world was he afraid of himself?
And in a vision no less.
Though, it definitely seemed like he wasn't the only one that shared this fear.
The two kids were trembling, nearly unable to stand up. In fact, one of them directly wet themselves. After just a few more moments, the two of them ran away crying.
"Waaaaaaah!"
"Mamaaaa!"
After the two kids ran away, Little Chase turned around with a rather proud expression.
"You are saved now!"
The kid with black hair looked up to him enthusiastically, with clear admiration
"Wow! You're so powerful!"
Little Chase smirked.
"Heh. Naturally."
The kid raised both hands in the air.
"Can you teach me?"
Little Chase proudly straightened up his back and raised a finger.
"Of course! Make sure that you always fight for someone else!"
The kid seemed rather confused, furrowing his brows and putting a finger on his chin.
"No, I mean teach me how you became so powerful!"
Little Chase giggled.
"That's exactly what I am teaching you! If you care enough to help someone else, the power comes all on its own."
The kid's mouth hung open slightly as he let out a gasp in awe.
"Wow, that's so cool!"
Little Chase gave him a thumbs up.
"I know!"
Chase let out a soft sigh as he watched all of this. The background became distorted once more. Then, he saw his younger self once more, looking upwards.
Opposite to him was his mother, holding onto the sides of his face with both hands.
"Chase, it's not too bad because you are a kid now, but you can't offend some people, alright?"
Little Chase seemed rather upset.
"But they were the ones wrong!"
His mother let out a helpless sigh.
"I know, I know. But it's not always about who's right or wrong. It's about surviving."
Chase looked rather solemn as he watched this. He recalled that his naive younger self didn't even slightly believe his mother. In fact, he didn't even really understand.
Even though Chase was just a kid, he was living in a rather run-down and shady area. As such, there were several times where he witnessed some less than favorable people doing things.
However, Chase knew that he was far weaker, though he based that more on the fact that he was younger at the time. While he did piss some people off, people weren't able to find out that it was him.
But what he didn't know was that his parents were also involved in these shady businesses. That was actually the primary reason that they lived here in the first place.
While Chase never directly got caught, he would eventually find out that he ended up leaving clues that led to his place.
That ended up making the people suspect his parents.
And in the end, some people were sent to kidnap one of their children.
At the time, Chase was not in the house. However, his little sister was.
As he was recalling these things, a high-pitched screech filled his ears, giving him quite the headache and prompting him to dig his fingers into his scalp in pain. The space around him distorted to show his younger self at his doorstep. The door was already wide open, and little Chase seemed confused.
In the end, he walked in without caring too much.
However, everything seemed ruined.
When he was younger, he was hardly afraid of anything, and as such charged in. A thick smell of blood filled the air. Along with that, there were several people screaming at each other rather loudly. He followed those voices.
As for Chase, he followed behind with a slow walk, not too anxious to see what happened.
The voices got clearer when he got closer, however.
"Are you retarted? Why did you kill the person we were supposed to take hostage?"
"Fuck, man, she was biting me, alright? I just wanted to put her in her place."
"With a fucking bullet to her heart? Explain yourself shithead, or we are going to pop a cap in that thick skull. You must be working for the snakes, aren't you?"
Once Chase reached the living room, he saw his younger self frozen in shock. Six or so burly adults were standing around a tied up dead body. They all had pistols in their hands, and in the middle of them was a little girl. She was bound, but there wasn't much of a point in restraining her.
The little girl's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, while a trail of blood leaked from her mouth. Along with that, there was a rather bloody hole in the middle of her chest.
This was Chase's sister.
Once his younger self showed up, the guy who killed the hostage had his eyes light up.
"Haha, look at all of you overreacting, we have a hostage right here!"
He rushed over and grabbed onto Chase's wrist with one hand while the other one held onto the gun leisurely. The man turned around with a confident smile, looking at the others.
"See? You all are so uptight and unadaptable like one tiny mistake would cause a collapse of the plan."
The guy did not notice the strange look Little Chase had right now. It was a rather terrifying one. With a small frown and dead eyes.
While the man was still looking behind himself, Little Chase grabbed onto the man's hand that was holding onto the gun, pointed at the stomach, then forcefully pushed against the man's trigger finger. It was all in one swift motion.
A loud blast rang out in the room, and blood splashed out.
The man did not even slightly suspect that a child would fight back, thus dropped his guard completely. In the end, he paid quite the price.
The man groaned in pain and found himself falling to the ground. With both hands, he covered the gunshot wound on his stomach, but the wound from when the bullet exited was far worse.
He was losing blood rather quickly.
As for Chase, he had taken the gun out of the man's hands and began pointing it at the other five people.
For a split second, the other five were in shock, but they still didn't seem that concerned. Some people took cover behind a wall, while others pointed their own guns at him.
Before Little Chase even got a chance to fire his second shot, two people had already pulled their triggers while aiming at him.
When Chase saw this scene, he initially felt a bit of melancholy. However, as the situation went on, he gradually felt that his survival didn't exactly make sense. Sure, he had a gun, but he was facing five other people that not only also had a gun, but had the proper knowledge of how to use one.
Then, he found out his answer.
Report chapter
Little Chase twisted his body to the side as two of the others aiming at him pulled their triggers. He dodged both bullets.
Then, he fired a shot of his own, landing straight on a man's forehead and causing gray and white matter to splatter on the wall behind him.
"Shit!"
Several more bullets began firing towards Little Chase, as the people who took cover joined in, and others crouched down to shoot.
However, he had suddenly become something like the best dancer in the world, twisting from side to side and abruptly dashing in directions one after another.
As for Chase who was spectating all this, he walked right in the middle of the gunfire, with all of the bullets passing straight through him. He then looked directly at the face of his younger self.
Chase suddenly raised an eyebrow.
The gun in his younger self's hand began changing, shrinking down in size to fit his small hand while his light blue eyes gradually shifted color.
Becoming golden.
This change wasn't something that he realized at the time.
The others fighting him seemed to notice though.
"What the- his eyes!"
"I couldn't give a fuck if I wanted to, just shoot the kid!"
Yet, despite having an overwhelming advantage they began falling one by one. As for Little Chase, he was completely unscathed. He shot his gun once every second, and each time he shot a person's head would blast into blood splattering across the ground behind them.
It did not take long until there was only one person left.
The man in question was taking cover in another room, taking in slow deep breaths. It took him only a second or so to regain his composure and remain completely silent. He was utterly confused on how all five of his teammates died just like that to some kid, but that wasn't enough to make him give up.
With his line of work, people dying was a common occurrence. One of his companions just casually killed Chase's sister just now, showing this.
The man pointed his gun towards the entrance, waiting patiently.
Then, a bang rang out.
The man felt dizzy all of a sudden, but didn't understand why. In his last moments, he put his hand up to the side of his head and felt blood.
Then blacked out.
On the other side of the wall, Little Chase retracted the pistol he had put on the side of the wall. He didn't even walk over to the other side to check if he truly killed the man. For whatever reason, he was just that confident.
The spectator, Chase himself narrowed his eyes when he saw all of this. He did remember somehow killing all of the people in the house, but never thought about how he did it. It was something he tried his best not to think about.
In fact, he was questioning if the vision he was seeing right now was actually his own memories. If so, it would mean he had some sort of power that he wasn't aware of.
As weird as it was, it would actually explain how he was able to even survive this encounter in the first place.
He let out a soft sigh and watched his younger self walk over to the first person he shot.
Then push the tip of the gun into the man's eye socket.
For the first second, there was no response, but then the man couldn't help but wince in pain.
"Wait, let me go, I don't even really care about those guys!"
He seemed to want to plead more, but a gunshot cut him off before he could say any more. The blood splashed back onto Little Chase's face, but his expression did not change. He remained still for a moment, almost like he was fully taking in what he had just done.
Then, Little Chase looked towards the corpse of his sister. He slowly walked over to her side.
The gun in his hand clattered onto the floor.
Then, he dropped down on his knees.
Chase walked over to the couch in the living room and sat on a section that was covered in brain mush. It was quite uncomfortable, unlike an actual couch it felt like he was sitting on stone.
However, he didn't even notice it, as his attention was all on his younger self.
Little Chase gently picked up his sister and brought her into a soft embrace. The blood spilled onto his clothes, but he couldn't notice that at this point.
He spoke through trembling lips.
"Sorry, sister."
Then closed his eyes.
"Your brother did not listen to mother's advice."
Chase did not move for a few moments, but eventually, stood up. He knew that this was just a vision of the past, but he still couldn't help but bring himself to speak up.
"Naive."
With that, he walked out of the house.
And once he did so, a bright light flashed while his vision suddenly cleared.
"Agh…"
Chase would've thought he woke up in a bed if it wasn't for the fact he was greeted by a violent jostling sensation. His eyes opened, and Tori's face appeared in front of him.
She smirked, and spoke while panting.
"You finally woke up, huh?"
Chase quickly realized he was being carried by Tori.
He then closed his eyes.
"I'll go back to sleep."
The corner of Tori's lip twitched.
"Wake up, damsel!"
Chase opened his eyes.
"Ok, ok. Just give me a few moments, my body feels weak. What is happening anyway."
Kairos had a small frown on his face as he carried Sam away.
"We are running from something."
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"…something?"
Kairos sighed.
"Basically an enemy we can't afford to offend."
Chase narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.
"Spooky."
Kairos took a glance at Sam, wondering if he had woken up yet. He had been making quite violent movements in his sleep, clenching his fists and frowning intensely. However, he was definitely still asleep.
Seeing this, Kairos furrowed his brows, but did not panic.
Since Sam had fallen asleep later than Chase, he figured that it logically made sense that he would wake up later too.
However, he would turn out to be asleep for much longer than imagined.
When Sam was taken over, he too was sent into an endless white expanse.
However, unlike Chase, he recalled what had just happened immediately. He realized that he was in the middle of a fight, but was suddenly thrust into this place.
Sam instinctively reached for his waist, wanting to take one of the sharpened bones he had put there. However, he only ended up grasping air. He realized that he was covered with normal clothes, like he wasn't actually in an apocalypse right now.
Sam frowned and tried to channel mana into his hand for his blade spell. Unfortunately, it ended up doing nothing. There wasn't even a tiny bit of mana in his body right now.
He did not give up though.
Sam raised his leg and slammed it down with a grunt. A fairly loud tap echoed within the endless white expanse, while his foot landed down on the rock-solid ground beneath him.
As though this place wanted to further frustrate him, he didn't get the normal feedback one would from stomping hard onto the ground. While it was hard like rock, it was also soft like cotton.
Sam furrowed his brows from the loud reverberating echoes. He attempted to stomp and even punch the ground, but the only thing that did was to make uncomfortably loud reverberating echoes.
He wasn't even able to hurt himself, save for his ears.
It was as though he was in a padded cell, where people too insane for their own good are put in.
Sam then tried running, but that ended up accomplishing nothing.
After just a little bit of running, he already got winded, like he was back in his worn-down body that worked a nine-to-five.
Sam hunched over and put his hand on his knees, panting.
That was the moment when the world around him distorted significantly, ripping and tearing. Before he knew it, Sam found himself in a familiar place.
It was a lecture theater, where university classes were held.
There were rows of seats gradually going up, all filled with people. It was as if a really popular movie was showing, but it was actually just a slideshow with a professor monotonously giving his lesson.
Sam blinked a few times, clearly a bit bewildered by the sight in front of him.
After looking around a little, he was able to catch sight of himself. And next to him, was his wife, and best friend at the time.
Sam walked down the steps slowly, and got next to his younger self. He waved his hand.
"Um, hello?"
There was no reaction. This made him realize that in this place, he couldn't be seen. That he was only an observer.
As Sam spent more time here, the memory gradually became clearer to him. His freshman self leaned over to the side.
"Hey, do you understand a single thing that this guy is saying, Ananta?"
Ananta turned back to look at him with a slightly awkward expression.
"It's only the second week of lectures, how do you already not understand? It's just going to get way harder, you know that right? We are just starting university!"
Freshman Sam pressed his lips together.
"Well… I wasn't paying attention to the first lecture at all. Honestly, I have no idea what the hell this delta epsilon stuff is."
Ananta let out a soft sigh.
"I'll teach you later, ok? Just try to understand what you can from this lecture."
Freshman Sam blinked a few times and recoiled slightly.
"…Wait really?"
Ananta rolled her eyes.
"That was what you were trying to get at, weren't you? I just said it for you."
Freshman Sam scratched the side of his head awkwardly.
"Uh… yeah."
This was a memory that stuck out to Sam in particular, because he was really just complaining for the sake of complaining. Venting his emotions was something he just did casually.
When Ananta proposed to teach him, he was genuinely surprised as he was not expecting that. That thought never actually crossed his mind.
However, he was also the awkward type of person that tended to go along with the flow. He had a natural inclination as to what words and actions wouldn't piss the other person off.
And in this case, his freshman self had a strange inclination that Ananta would lash out at him if he said anything different.
His thoughts at the time were that Ananta was nicer than he expected and that he might as well go along with it.
Suddenly, a high-pitched shriek reached Sam's ears, prompting him to grab onto his head with both hands.
The vision around him distorted significantly.
He saw a glimpse of himself along with Ananta, sitting at a table studying several months later.
Freshman Sam was writing down a series of numbers, while Ananta was looking over. After a few moments, she sighed.
"Why are you using permutations here? This is a combinations question, it literally says order does not matter in big bold font. "
Freshman Sam gasped.
"Ah, crap!"
Ananta sighed, but was still smiling slightly.
"I told you to take this course in highschool."
Freshman Sam laughed awkwardly.
"I uh, didn't think it would actually be difficult. I thought probability was easy, with just a couple fractions here and there."
Ananta laughed.
"You really think they are going to teach you an entire course that just has basic fractions in it?"
Freshman Sam raised his hands in the air.
"I didn't think it through!"
The vision quickly distorted once more, but it was still this same room. The only differences being the scented candle lit and placed to the side, and the fluffy pillows on the seats.
On one side of the table, was a rather oblivious person. And on the other, was one that was lovestruck.
Report chapter
This vision of the study session was a year later.
Sophomore Sam laid on the chair lazily, looking down at a textbook while twirling a pencil in his hand. It was fairly clear that he had gotten used to being here. On the other side was Ananta. She had a notebook open along with a mechanical pencil next to it. However, she wasn't looking at that, but rather the person across from her.
A drawn out sight came from Sophomore Sam.
"Ironic how it's called Stoke's Theorem, but I'm really not stoked to learn it."
Ananta laughed and placed one hand on her cheek.
"It's not his fault that his last name was that."
Sophomore Sam leaned back in the chair.
"Why are these people named after all these theorems anyway? So many of them are just basically the same formula, like this one and Green's Theorem."
Ananta shrugged her shoulders.
"What? You don't want your name passed down in history?"
Sophomore Sam clicked his tongue and rested his head on the top of the backrest.
"That's lame as hell. I don't care about what happens after I die. At the very least, I don't care enough to be this pompous."
Ananta rested her elbow on the table and supported her head by the chin. There was a small smile on her face.
"Haha, that's a bit harsh. Though, at the same time, it's just like you."
Sophomore Sam tilted his head to the side.
"Just like me? What does that even mean?"
Ananta leaned in a little and giggled.
"Hm? Are you trying to get at something?"
As the person revisiting this memory, Sam let out a soft sigh. He could still vividly remember where this was going.
As for his younger self, he had no idea.
"Huh? Am I trying to get at something?"
Ananta rolled her eyes as her smile grew slightly wider.
"Your words just now were… just like me."
Sophomore Sam slowly nodded.
"Uh, yeah?"
Ananta let out a soft sigh.
"Yes."
This confused Sophomore Sam tremendously.
"Huh?"
Ananta pouted.
"You really are making me spell it out, huh? Yes, I like you."
Though she was quite clear, it didn't seem to clear up the confusion the oblivious man was facing.
But thankfully, after about thirty seconds or so, Sophomore Sam was eventually able to piece together the meaning of this sentence. Though, he still wasn't able to believe that he was getting confessed to.
"Wait. Are you saying you like me… like that way?"
Ananta clicked her tongue.
"What else is it supposed to mean? Come on, you can't tell me that you really weren't expecting this."
Sam opened his mouth and closed it a few times, trying to speak, but unable to formulate the words.
Ananta crossed her arms and looked to the side.
"We are basically already a couple, y'know? Like, just think about it."
Sophomore Sam put a finger on his chin and did just that. However, to him, he didn't really see it. They just seemed like close friends.
"Uh… is it?"
Ananta stood up and grabbed onto his shoulders before shaking them.
"Don't lie to me! You've been teasing me so much, yet you're pretending to be innocent?"
Sophomore Sam raised his hands up like he was being yelled at by the police.
"Ehhh?"
Ananta let out a soft sigh.
"I've bought you things, and you've bought me things. We got out to eat together with just the two of us frequently. You even come over to my place all of the time!"
She pointed at him accusingly.
"But the kicker that lets me know that you know is that you always wrap your arm around my shoulder! I've been letting you do it without even shying away, so you obviously know by now!"
Sam looked at his younger self's bewildered expression and couldn't help but laugh, but the smile on his face slowly disappeared.
Sophomore Sam shut his eyes tightly and furrowed his brows.
"…Oh, those are all things that people dating do."
Ananta leaned back into her chair with a small pout.
"I mean, pretty much everyone already thinks we are a couple, and we basically are. I'm just making it official."
Sophomore Sam scratched the side of his head.
"But those things could also be considered a thing friends do, right?"
Ananta rolled her eyes.
"What kind of friend has that much skinship and stays at each other's places this much?"
She let out a soft sigh.
"I guess we haven't gotten that far, especially because all our friends think we are just fucking all the time."
If Sophomore Sam was drinking something, he would've spit it out. In fact, despite only having saliva in his mouth, he nearly spat that out.
"What?"
He grabbed onto the side of his head, then seemed to come to a realization.
"Oh… that's why Tony always gives me those weird looks when I'm walking to your place."
Ananta grabbed onto his hand with a smile.
"Well, do you want…"
She ended up blushing and awkwardly cleared her throat.
"I mean uh, you haven't said that you liked me back. It's only fair, you know?"
Sophomore Sam was stunned for a moment. There was a forlorn look on his face for a brief moment.
But eventually, a trembling smile formed on his face.
"I uh, like you too."
Sam took a deep breath as he watched his younger self say that.
It wasn't technically a lie, but he really didn't see her that way at all before. It was kind of an oversight on his part considering the circumstances, but he thought that Ananta also saw it at least somewhat similarly.
Sam just always wanted a friend, and it just so happened to be that Ananta ended up being one of them. He really did enjoy spending time with her and would probably even die for her.
But he still thought of her as a friend.
It wasn't that he liked guys or anything. Sam just always thought of her in that way. He didn't think it was weird, but from how everyone else acted, he couldn't help but accept that was the case.
When confronted with the sudden confession, his first instinct was to be honest and tell how he actually felt. But then, he also imagined their relationship would take irreparable damage.
In the end, he paused for a moment to think.
If he had to choose someone to always spend time with for the rest of his life, he would without a doubt choose Ananta. So even though it was out of the blue for him, he decided to accept it.
Sam sat down on the floor and looked up to the ceiling.
It was a little dirty.
He never really understood why there couldn't just be friendship between opposite genders. It seemed like there never really just was a place for only friends. It was either acquaintances, or lovers.
There was technically a friend phase, but it would have quotation marks around it so much of the time. It seemed that the only way this was possible was if it was a business relationship, or if it was one made while being an adult.
Sam didn't decide to fight with this notion.
He was the kind that just went with things. And that's how he ended up marrying Ananta.
Sam then thought of something he wanted to try out as he looked towards his younger self. Without really knowing why, he decided to place his hand on the back of his younger self.
His hand phased through, making him think that his test failed.
But then, time began to reverse. It started off slow, but very rapidly picked up in speed. After remaining in this position for quite a while, Sam suddenly released it.
And once he did, Sam saw his younger self when he was just a kid.
This version of him was sitting down on a bench at the park. He watched the other children playing around, while he was just kicking at the woodchips covering the ground.
There was a natural frown on his face, and he looked rather grumpy.
But then, a little girl ran over and waved towards him.
"Hey! Why are you just sitting here at the park? You should be playing!"
The kid version of Sam just grumbled, not willing to respond.
Then, without even asking, the little girl grabbed onto his hand and pulled him up from the bench.
"Don't be like that, dummy! Why don't you play with me?"
The kid version of Sam seemed a bit apprehensive, but muttered an agreement.
"Ok…"
The girl smiled brightly.
"My name is Ananta, what is yours?"
He muttered.
"S-Sam."
The two of them proceeded to just run around the park, where the majority of the time was just Ananta pulling him along. Yet, it did not take long for the frown to turn into a smile.
Sam's eyes began to dull slightly as he watched this. He could feel some sort of resistance, that he could leave this strange realm of memories by now.
But he didn't want to.
He justified it to himself by saying that he would only stay for just a little bit longer.
"Not so fast, Ananta! I'm scared!"
"What is there to be scared of, dummy!"
Sam saw himself grow up, becoming older along with Ananta. Both of them had changed considerably over time, but they were still very close to each other.
When they were in middle school, they had both gotten very used to each other's presence.
"Yo, Sam! I got a hundred dollar restaurant gift card, let's go get something right now."
"Seriously?!"
Middle school Sam had his eyes open in shock. As for Ananta, she just laughed.
"Yeah, that would be a dirty lie to tell!"
He then grabbed her arm and pointed in a direction.
"I want at least one box of chicken nuggets!"
Then, they were highschoolers.
"Ananta! Let's go use up this movie gift card I got for my birthday!"
"Don't add so much butter to the popcorn next time!"
Before Sam even realized, he was once again looking at himself and Ananta together. And Ananta confessing to him again.
Sam reversed the time once more, taking him all the way back.
And he watched the entire process again.
And again.
By now, so long as he somewhat willed it, he could leave this place. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
It made one wonder if he would actually leave this place at all.
As for the person carrying his unconscious body in reality, Kairos, this delayed wake up was stressing him out by quite a bit.
By now, the group had been running for nearly thirty minutes. Chase had already begun running using his own feet, and the general consensus among everyone was that they were really tired.
However, none of them suggested to stop running. In fact, none of them dared to stop.
Everyone kept their eyes forward, but there was an extremely bad looming feeling coming from behind. Far off in the distance, there was a massive set of red tentacles that were smashing apart the surrounding infrastructure.
All of them could agree that they wanted to run away.
There was some sort of strange pressure that made them feel afraid. There was a natural instinct in their bodies telling them that they had to escape, further propelling that desperate desire to flee.
And the unfortunate thing was that the giant tentacles were approaching them.
The distance between them was still quite huge, but it seemed like the monster had somehow noticed them.
Kairos' eyes were bloodshot, as carrying someone while running really did weigh him down, especially when he was running at full speed. He really hoped that Sam would wake up soon, but that seemed like a pipe dream at this point.
There was also another lingering fear in Kairos' mind.
At some point, he turned around to look at the monster, and that fear ended up being well placed.
Report chapter
Kairos recalled Sam's description of his mother, Ananta, earlier. He said that there were red tentacles sprouting from her body, and each should have had considerable amounts of power.
As for the monster chasing them, it also had tentacles.
Though they were far more massive than Kairos could've ever imagined.
And as he expected, once the monster got closer, he was able to confirm that it really was his mother. Except, she looked quite different.
Ananta used the red tentacles to walk as though she was a spider, crushing through buildings and rushing through the air very quickly. It looked as though the entirety of her back was no longer there, replaced by a hole that held tentacles larger than her.
As for her body, it was significantly reddened, to the point it was on the same level of actual monsters. There were also large bulging blue veins snaking through the entirety of her body, almost looking like cracks.
If nothing else, she would have a normal size body assuming you ignored the tentacles.
Unfortunately, from her bloodshot eyes and open mouth with fangs, she seemed far from friendly.
Though Kairos' goal was technically to find her at one point, he was hoping to be a little tougher during that time, with at least one card to bail out of the situation. On top of that, he was mostly depending on Sam to do the talking.
But he was unconscious right now.
Realizing that running was pointless by now, Kairos turned around and faced her. He brought his father down from his shoulder and tried to hold him up in a fashion that she could see.
From there, he tried to talk.
"Wait, Mother! I am your son, and this is your husband right here!"
Most of the group turned around to look. Some of them looked afraid, but most of them looked pretty hopeful after hearing those words.
Unfortunately, the results didn't match up with those hopes.
Kairos' mother had her eyes right on Kairos and Sam, but it was as though she was looking right through them. Her mouth was open, with her teeth bared like an animal. There were even sharp fangs to match, really making her play the role.
Though Kairos saw that it didn't exactly work in his future vision, it wasn't like he had much of another choice.
With each step closer that Ananta got, the strange pressure bearing down on them increased exponentially. By the time she was five hundred meters away, it felt like their very souls were being crushed.
Kairos yelled at the top of his lungs as he lamented over how helpless he was in this situation.
"It's me! Your family is right here! You care about us, right?"
Countless beads of sweat formed on his forehead, especially because he saw in his future vision that Ananta didn't even flinch. As she got even closer, nobody was able to even move.
In fact, they could hardly stand.
Chase grit his teeth, and tried to will whatever power he had seen in his memory into reality. Though he wasn't sure that it would even be close to enough, it was better to try anything at this point.
Unfortunately, it just wouldn't activate.
Chase didn't understand what the conditions were for it to trigger, so he just stood there helplessly. He kept trying to urge his mind, almost like a little kid trying to activate their final form.
But it felt pointless, in fact, he couldn't even marginally sense something.
Kairos was beginning to despair as he watched Ananta close in.
The pressure even began to make his vision blurry. And then, for whatever reason…
His future vision paused.
It wasn't that the ability deactivated, but just that the future vision he was seeing was actually just a stationary frame. Almost like he was lagging really badly in a video game.
He was quite confused as nothing like this had happened before.
And before he knew it, his own body froze up as well.
It was at this point Kairos connected the dots to realize that it wasn't his future vision freezing, but that he himself had frozen in time.
The others behind them weren't able to even comprehend that as their expressions were still frozen on their faces.
As for Kairos, a mind-numbing pain assaulted his eyes.
In fact, they even began to bleed.
The frozen frame that he initially saw suddenly shifted to another frozen frame after a second. In this frame, he saw Ananta right next to him, while the red tentacles surrounded him, making it look as though he was in a death trap.
Kairos felt that he had the ability to move, and he really did want to move, whether that was to make another attempt to talk, or to nudge Sam awake. However, he also felt that the consequences of such an action would be dire for his body.
Everything in his mind was telling him not to do so, similar to how it does when one begins to overuse their muscles, but on a larger scale.
This strange fear was quite crippling, and in the end, Kairos didn't act in that second.
Two lines of blood fell down from his eyes, and connected by the chin. And then, he saw another frame.
This time, it was of all the tentacles swarming towards him, while Ananta herself had stepped up right next to her face.
At this point, Kairos felt like he had to move.
He desperately tried to command his mouth to open and speak, but his mind continued to hold him back, making him unable to do so.
In the end, another second passed, and the frame shifted once more.
However, he was not dead like he expected.
Rather, Anata was standing right next to Sam, looking at his face. Kairos' vision was blurry, but at this distance he could still make out her expression.
While her mouth was still open, showing off her fangs, there was more of a curious expression.
The red tentacles were still nearby, but they had relaxed by now.
By the next second, Kairos saw Ananta smiling, while staring intently at Sam. This alleviated a great amount of anxiety Kairos had, though the pressure bearing down on him was still hurting him quite a bit.
He then saw a series of frames where Ananta had a variety of child-like expressions. Sometimes joyful and sometimes curious.
There were times when she was clapping happily, while other times she tilted her head to the side with beady eyes.
Ananta then pried Sam out from Kairos' grasp using her tentacles. She looked at her newly acquired person almost like it was a toy. With her actual arms, she hugged the man as though he was a stuffed bear and rubbed her face against his.
From there, she abruptly took off, heading out towards the distance.
Kairos thought that there might've been a case for him to do something to improve the situation, but frankly, he was just too afraid of pissing his mother off.
It seemed that her mind had regressed tremendously, but despite that she still seemed to remember Sam. Whether or not that was some sort of instinct, Kairos did not know. However, the threat was finally gone now.
Unfortunately, so was his father.
At the very least it was unlikely that Sam would be in any danger, assuming he did not upset Ananta. Kairos doubted that there was anybody even close to Ananta's strength right now.
This strange state of half frozeness continued for a while, even after Ananta had left.
It lingered for about ten minutes or so, which was pretty tortuous to Kairos, but his increased willpower just barely let him stand it.
Though he definitely didn't want to experience something like that again.
Then, everything became normal once more.
Kairos' future vision returned to normal, and made it very clear to him that his eyes hurt. He hurriedly took off his glasses, letting the blood spill out from his eyes naturally.
"…Fuck."
As for the rest of the group, they were all stunned.
They had their eyes wide open in shock, standing in place. That shock turned into confusion just a few seconds later.
Nicole looked around.
"What? Where did it go?"
Sydney had one hand over her heart while gasping for air.
"Was it… a dream?"
The corner of Tori's lip twitched.
"How can we all just have a dream together like that?"
Chase frowned deeply.
"…One of our members has gone missing."
Kairos was taking deep breaths one after another.
"Yes."
He slowly turned around, and once he did, a few shocked expressions appeared.
Nicole ran over to him.
"Are you ok?"
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm fine now, though the blood that is seeping from the tear in my cheek tastes really bad."
Chase blinked a few times.
"Do you know what happened?"
Kairos frowned.
"…It was my mother."
Tori nodded.
"I do remember your father talking about the tentacles… they are much scarier in person compared to a story."
Kairos sighed.
"I'm fairly certain she has the ability to pause time. That's why it looks like everything suddenly changed."
Chase sucked in a cold breath.
"That… is just too strong of an ability, no? We wouldn't have even been able to know that we died if she killed us."
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.
"I was able to sorta see what happened, probably because I was right next to her. She was about to kill me, but then suddenly stopped after looking at Sam. I think that was what saved me."
Sydney looked quite downcast.
"Ah… then she took him away?"
Kairos took a deep breath.
"She took him away after staring at him for quite a while. The way she made expressions made it seem as though she was a child. She even rubbed her face against his like he was a toy."
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"Her intelligence has regressed?"
Kairos nodded.
"I think so. Though considering how much power she has, that is probably a pretty small price."
Chase chuckled.
"That's… very true."
Nicole furrowed her brows.
"Why did she take him away?"
Kairos shook his head.
"I don't know. But thankfully, it seems we survived because of that."
Nicole blinked a few times.
"…Will you be ok?"
Kairos took a second to respond.
"My father is now with my mother. If nothing else, they will both be fine."
Though he said those words, it didn't sound like he was all that reassured. It was almost like he was saying that to try and convince himself.
Kairos shook his head.
After a few moments of deliberation, he spoke.
"We need to become stronger."
He narrowed his eyes.
"Much, much stronger."
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't think we've been doing that bad lately, no?"
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"The progress is still far too slow. Just compare us to the two things we fought earlier. We were completely outclassed."
He then grit his teeth.
"But each time we increase our rank, gaining points also becomes harder, as everything we kill gives less points."
Chase looked rather solemn after he said that.
"But there is nothing we can do about that."
Kairos frowned slightly.
"There has to be some other way. This is way too slow."
Tori ended up opening her status panel and let out a small gasp.
"Speaking of… I can evolve now."
She reached out with her finger, about to press the button.
That was when Kairos called out.
"Wait."
Tori looked at him with a bit of confusion.
"Didn't you say we should evolve to become more powerful?"
Kairos nodded.
"Yes… but could you let me try and look at the status panel?"
Chase raised an eyebrow.
"And why is that?"
Kairos blinked a few times. He hesitated for a moment.
"Well, I can see other options in the status panel for evolution."
Report chapter
