Kairos fought back against the cloaked monster desperately. He didn’t know when, but at some point, the invisibility from it was dispelled. That kinda made sense, as it didn’t really matter at this point, now that they were in this deadlock.
Unfortunately, that deadlock was going to be broken soon, and not in a way that was advantageous to Kairos.
The dagger continued to split his hand apart, and soon, he wouldn’t be able to hold on anymore. Despair was settling in the back of his mind, but he hadn’t given up just yet. His thoughts were chaotic, to the point it felt like he was scrambling for any solution he could get.
More and more of his muscles were being cut through. Eventually, he no longer had the confidence to hold onto the dagger, feeling that it would slip at any moment now.
His thoughts got even more chaotic.
But then… they suddenly stopped.
At that moment, Kairos’ hand relaxed, unable to keep his grip on the dagger anymore as the remaining muscles were too weak. But before his neck got slashed apart, the cloaked monster suddenly jumped backwards.
And once it did, a clear smash resounded on the ground, forming a few small cracks on the roof.
Kairos gradually widened his eyes in surprise.
A translucent figure gradually became more visible, until it revealed Nicole. The moment she reappeared, she fell to her knees and began taking in breaths as though she had just been drowning.
He walked over, but didn’t go down to comfort her. Instead, he held his spear up and stared down the cloaked monster. He wasn’t going to let his emotions get the better of him and make a stupid decision. As confused as he was, the questions were for later. Right now, he needed to defend Nicole.
Though she was the one that saved her, the fact was that she was still only at the E rank.
The cloaked figure’s eyes were clearly damaged, but that didn’t seem to impair its vision at all, as it stared directly at the two of them.
It seemed hesitant, and eventually leaped off the roof, fleeing resolutely.
Kairos did not drop his guard immediately, still looking around himself in case the cloaked monster was trying to sneak up on them. Though he did feel like the presence had left, he still wasn’t too sure about it, especially not after the thing proved it could create fake sounds of wind, and make the actual attack silent.
He decided to stop extending his future vision so that he wouldn’t tire himself out.
As for Nicole, she was gradually recovering. Amidst a little bit of choking, Nicole finally began to speak.
“A-Are you ok?”
Kairos nodded.
“Yes. What about you?”
Nicole held onto her neck lightly.
“I… I think I’m fine.”
Kairos continued to slowly survey the area while continuing to talk to her.
“How did you get over here, anyway?”
Nicole scratched the side of her head.
“I… I just had a bad feeling. I was watching from a room that was really high up, then without really thinking, I ran out, then passed through the wall.”
Kairos’ eyes widened.
“…You didn’t feel scared at all?”
Nicole tilted her head to the side.
“Hehe… I guess I didn’t really think about it.”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched. He wanted to chastise her, but he didn’t want to stifle her confidence, even if it made her do really strange things. He preferred someone that would at least try, even if it was not the smartest. Those that at least tried would learn, while those that cowered in fear would always be useless.
“How did you even get here in the first place?”
Nicole scratched the side of her head.
“Um, when I phased through the wall, I thought I was going to fall, but then I just kept moving forward. I continued moving forward through the air, which was a little scary, but it was bringing me to you, so I felt a little relieved!”
She let out a small hum.
“But I couldn’t breathe the entire time while that was happening, which made it really hard.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“Ah, it seems that’s a limitation of your ability. However, the fact that it will literally let you ignore gravity is quite a powerful strength of it.”
Nicole blinked a few times.
“A-Ah, yeah!”
She then raised her finger.
“Oh, I was also practicing turning invisible, so I wasn’t seen the entire time I got over here, then after seeing you in trouble I swung my ask at the kid attacking you!”
Kairos nodded.
“Alright. It seems everything is ok on our end…”
He then turned to look at the city walls once more.
From what he remembered, there were two giant monsters that were still alive, albeit injured. When he looked towards the city walls, he noticed that one of them had their head blown open, probably by Chase. However, there was still another one that was currently banging against the walls.
Overall, Kairos wasn’t too concerned. He knew that if the situation got really bad, Tiana could easily deal with the monsters if she was willing to put a bit more strength into it. Not just mentioning her stats might be enough for her to directly take the monster on in a physical fight, she still had the ability that one ability that would let her use the power of a rank above her.
Just the gap between F rank and E rank was quite large, but the difference was even bigger between E rank and D rank.
As such, it would be natural to expect that the power granted from boosting up a rank should be enough to wipe out all the monsters. Obviously, since the cost was great, using both 50 evolution points and experiencing the period of weakness would not be the best.
By now, the normal monsters have more or less gotten next to the wall as well.
They were smashing themselves into it, making loud banging sounds that were just barely audible to Kairos from where he was. As for the walls, they seemed to be holding up more or less, but it looked like they were slightly damaged, from dents and such.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
“…I think I still have enough mana to do one more spell. But… will I need it later?”
Yet, right after, he realized a problem.
The ‘Alone’ skill wasn’t going to be activated if Nicole was next to him. In other words, the power of his spell would be lowered by half, meaning it would more or less be useless.
He then turned to Nicole.
“How much mana do you have left?”
She jumped slightly.
“Um… I think there’s enough for me to be invisible until I get back to the city.”
Kairos slowly nodded.
“Then try going back.”
Nicole furrowed her brow.
“But… what about you?”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively. Though, that was the hand that was nearly torn apart, making it look a little jarring.
“I’ll be fine.”
Nicole puffed her cheeks up.
“But you were very clearly not fine!”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched. He didn’t really know what to say to that, since it was true.
“…Um. I guess that’s right, but it seems like the city isn’t in the best condition right now.”
Nicole grabbed onto his arm.
“Then let’s get over there and help them!”
Out of nowhere, Nicole tugged on Kairos hard, prompting him to question just exactly what the heck she was trying to pull off. He initially intended to go with it slightly, so that she wouldn’t have trouble moving his arm.
Yet, for some reason, it felt like Nicole’s grip was even stronger than steel, like something invulnerable. In fact, it even hurt him physically.
She didn’t seem to realize this as she leaped off the edge of the building. Kairos was pulled along almost like he was actually a purse, hanging off Nicole’s hand. Seeing them defy gravity surprised him quite a bit.
On the other hand, Nicole looked to be in bad condition.
She was furrowing her brow intensely, and even gritting her teeth. It was fairly clear she was under intense amounts of pain, but she was ignoring it.
Her mouth moved, like she was trying to talk, but she couldn’t do it anymore. At least, not in this state. Once Nicole realized this, she frowned slightly in frustration, but continued maintaining this form.
As they continued forth, Nicole’s body gradually became transparent, though it did take quite a while. As for Kairos, he continued to feel the tight grip drag him on ahead. He also tensed his own muscles as hard as possible to maintain his own hand.
However, the place where Nicole was grabbing was still reddening significantly. In fact, the skin had been torn off, almost like it was actually a wrapper.
While Kairos was being dragged along, he should’ve been more concerned about the condition of his wrist, but he couldn’t help but think of the potential offensive power that this ability had secretly brought Nicole.
He didn’t really understand how, but it seemed like she had technically become unbreakable, in a sense, which meant she could potentially become the strongest weapon. Or at least, it should let Nicole overcome logical restraints as she was wounding him despite the difference in stats.
Kairos couldn’t help but grit his teeth as this continued. Although the wounds from being cut also hurt, this was a different pain he was not used to. He could feel his flesh getting pulled off his bones, while his muscles felt like they were being pulled off his bones.
But he made sure not to bring it up to Nicole. He doubted she could even hear him in this state, but just in case, he remained as quiet as possible so that she wouldn’t notice.
After all, she might just end up dropping him in a panic, which would definitely be way worse than getting a little injured.
And so, Kairos was continually dragged all the way back to the walls. By the time people noticed him, it just looked like he was somehow flying awkwardly with his hand raised in the air. Despite being covered in cut wounds, the pulled up flesh near his hand was still most noticeable, as it looked quite grotesque.
The people standing on top of the wall couldn’t help but look at Kairos with bewilderment and confusion. Tori had the ability to fly, but she didn’t even think about it as she witnessed the strange scene in front of her.
Almost like he was on a conveyor belt, Kairos was moving at a constant speed. Then, once he had gotten above the top of the wall, Nicole’s figure gradually appeared, and the two of them began falling.
Chase turned to Tori.
“Hey, catch them!”
With that, she snapped out of it, bringing out her wings and flying upwards. She spread her arms out, and caught the two, but was quickly weighed down by the force, rushing downwards rather quickly.
The three of them soon slammed against the ground fairly hard, but none of them sustained any bad injuries from the fall.
Nicole began desperately gasping for air, while clutching her head tightly with both hands. Mixed in with her desperate breaths, were also her cries of pain.
As for Kairos, he felt a little dizzy, but still forced himself to stand up. The wall was shaking, which nearly knocked him off balance, but with his future vision, he was able to keep standing.
Though it wouldn’t be too strong because his Alone skill wasn’t activated, he pointed his finger towards the giant monster smashing the walls and began channeling a fireball. He had a little difficulty keeping his eyes open, but did it anyway.
“…This…probably won’t be enough…you guys do something.”
The corner of Eric’s lip turned up.
“Of course, I haven’t been waiting all this time just to sit on my ass!”