Kairos began panting as the visions stopped.
He shook his head, and realized he had to act fast.
Yet, right as those thoughts flitted through his mind, he collapsed to the ground once more, groaning as even more visions flashed through his mind.
He saw that Tiana had broken down into tears while they were in the middle of the city, with countless monster corpses around them. She was saying something, but it was a little hard for him to make out. But from what she mouthed, Kairos was able to gather she was talking about something related to food.
And after that, he saw himself staring at his arm, which had taken the form of a claw. It seemed that he was still in control of himself, but he was fairly certain that he had been irreversibly changed into a monster.
Then it flashed to him holding onto a red prism that was glowing with a bright red, indicating it was fully charged.
Then, the visions ended.
Kairos’ breathing was heavy, while sweat poured down his face. In total, he received six visions of the future, when normally he would only experience three or less. It seemed that upgrading his inborn ability had even more merits than he had thought.
Nonetheless, that was not his focus. He took in deep breaths until he calmed down, then closed his eyes, gathering all the information he could.
For whatever reason, it seemed that the ground would suddenly emit some sort of red light that would transform people into monsters, just like the red sun. Not only were all the farmers transformed, but also he and the people in his group were too.
It seemed that because of his higher rank, he was able to withstand some of the effects, since higher ranks needed that evolution energy to evolve anyway.
In general, that just meant he had to get everyone away from the ground.
However, that was not all of what the visions showed him. Even after all the monsters were dealt with, Tiana seemed extremely perturbed by something else. If it was about food, that must mean that the red light somehow ruined the food.
His first thought was the farm, and all the potatoes that were planted. Unfortunately, he didn’t think that those could be saved anymore. But as he was on that train of thought, he remembered something Tiana had said to him long ago.
That there was some sort of backup food storage she had which made her super confident in supporting the entire city.
And there was also charging the red prism, which was shown in his vision. He figured all he had to do was leave it somewhere on the ground, and then it would be fine.
For one, he had to get everyone above ground. The second thing was that he had to somehow save the food supply.
But regardless of which, he had to go to Tiana in order to do all that.
He rushed out of his room. Nicole was walking down the hallway at that moment and waved to Kairos.
“Oh, hey!”
Kairos did not stop running, but did speak briefly.
“Get ready to move!”
He knocked on Tiana’s door rather loudly. He waited a few seconds, but nobody had come to answer.
Kairos furrowed his brow.
“…Is she not there?”
Of all times for her not to be in her room, this was definitely the most inconvenient.
Nicole looked quite confused.
“I-Is everything ok?”
Kairos clenched his fists.
“Tell everyone else to get onto high ground.”
After saying that, he proceeded to rush up the stairs. He suddenly remembered that Tiana didn’t have any clear monster-like features across her body, meaning she was already above ground when all of that had happened.
He didn’t know what the purpose of the second floor was, but he was pretty sure that Tiana would only be on the third floor if she was above ground. Upon getting there, he called out for her.
“TIANA!”
He did so very loudly, as there really wasn’t any time. A door opened, but unfortunately, the person behind it was Chase. He looked a little weirded out.
“What happened?”
Kairos shook his head.
“No time to explain. Just get above ground.”
He massaged his temple with the tip of his finger. Tiana had to be somewhere, but he doubted that he would be able to check every floor of the building. And what if she wasn’t even in the building itself?
Kairos’ eyes widened ever so slightly as he came to a realization.
“…The roof.”
Though he doubted Tiana would be there, he could at least get a vantage point to check out the rest of the city. Perhaps she would be there.
And so, Kairos left Chase who was still a little confused before rushing up the steps with all he had. In less than a minute, he had already reached the roof. He pushed open the door and got ready to scout out for her.
But it turns out that she was just sitting at the top of the roof by herself, with her arms wrapped around her knees.
She turned around curiously when she heard the door burst open.
“Kairos? …Why are you here?”
Kairos gasped for air for a little while before shaking his head.
“You need to get all the farmers above ground… and also move the storage of food.”
Tiana blinked a few times.
“What are you talking about? Explain from the start.”
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.
“Something is going to happen to all of the things at the ground level. Also… we need to move the food that you’re storing.”
Tiana furrowed her brow.
“You know where it is?”
Kairos shook his head.
“No, but I’m assuming that it’s either underground or close to there.”
Tiana sighed.
“And why exactly should I listen to you? If you need more food, you can just ask me.”
Kairos frowned.
“This is not the time! I don’t know when exactly it’s going to happen, but the entire damned city is going to fall apart if you don’t listen to me. Are you really going to screw everything up now?”
Tiana didn’t respond immediately. She stared into his eyes for a good few seconds. It was honestly a little hard for her to believe him. The first thing she thought of was that he was doing some sort of scheme once he realized she had the ability to directly kill people.
The reason that Tiana let Kairos stay while she dealt with those people, was because she figured he was similar to her, if not the same type of person. Though, she wasn’t entirely confident in that judgment she had made.
In fact, the reason she let Kairos even stay in her city in the first place was that something within her told her that he would be crucial. She didn’t exactly understand that feeling, as it felt a little random.
It was something she remembered she felt while she was still a child. That certain people would give her a strange feeling, and the stronger the feeling, the more capable they would be.
She wasn’t the type to believe in supernatural things, so she ignored it for the most part, even though whenever she did have this feeling, that person tended to be quite competent.
However, Tiana had also felt that feeling for Kairos. Though, she really couldn’t see what was so good about a guy that had isolated himself completely. That’s why she decided to watch him while in school.
There was usually almost nothing special about him, other than perhaps his above-average grades. But Tiana didn’t value grades much anyway.
Except eventually, she picked up on one of Kairos’ strange habits. Although it was rather subtle, in gym class he would always be looking at where the ball was going to be, instead of where it actually was.
Almost like he could see the future.
Once the apocalypse had started, this feeling had become even stronger, to the point that she could feel someone approaching her city. It made her come to the top of the walls, and when she looked at what was giving her that feeling, it was Kairos.
For whatever reason, she was suddenly filled with strong emotions to bring him over to her side no matter what. After she did, it was always on her mind whether or not she made the wrong choice.
But she had to at least give this strange instinct of her a chance, along with Kairos.
And so, she nodded.
“What do you need from me?”
Kairos couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief when he heard this. He wasn’t sure what made her have that sudden change of heart, but he didn’t care anymore.
“You have to get all of the farmers far above ground soon, and also move all the food you have higher above ground too.”
Tiana furrowed her brow.
“…If I can spread the message, then I can raise all the farmers up onto the wall if they get close to it, but… it will take at least hours for us to move all of the backup food supply.”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched.
“What? Why?”
Tiana frowned.
“It wasn’t a place initially made to be a food storage area. Instead, it was supposed to be one to do various illegal things. There is only a tiny trap door that leads to the inside, and if the floor above is broken, there is a mechanism to cause the entire room to collapse in itself.”
Kairos cursed under his breath.
“…For now, show me the place. Maybe I’ll be able to think of something else.”
Tiana nodded.
“It’s in my room, let’s get down there.”
Kairos was going to go for the stairs, but Tiana directly leaped off the side of the building. It was quite the fall, but Kairos realized that this would be way more efficient than the stairs anyway, thus jumped off after her.
The two of them rapidly fell down.
Kairos lightly pressed his hands against the wall so that the friction would slow him down, though Tiana was in complete freefall, not caring at all.
Right before she landed, a metal platform was conjured underneath her.
With a bang, she slammed into it and cracked it.
Soon after, Kairos landed as well.
Tiana called out to the nearby farmers.
“Everyone go to the walls right now! Make sure to tell the rest to follow!”
The farmers all looked quite confused, but slowly began walking outwards after setting down their tools.
Tiana and Kairos then entered the building.
Inside, Nicole was talking to both Tori and Sydney.
“Um, I think we should go up, because Kairos said we should.”
Tori pressed her lips together.
“But I want to get more points! Isn’t that what we were supposed to be doing?”
Kairos sighed when he heard that.
“All plans have been canceled for now. Everyone needs to go higher up.”
Sydney looked concerned.
“Eh? Why?”
Kairos shook his head.
“No time to explain.”
Tori tapped on her chin.
“…If it’s everyone, then what about the farmers?”
Kairos was about to retort but froze in place.
“…Actually, could you all convince the farmers to move to the wall as fast as possible? Tiana will then raise you all up.”
Tiana nodded.
“Yes, please do. Use force if you must.”
Without waiting for their response, Tiana and Kairos rushed forth.
Though Nicole, Tori, and Sydney were all a little bewildered, they recovered soon after and went outside to do as told.
It was at this point that Tiana took Kairos into her room. She then opened her closet, which made Kairos rather confused, but she then pushed open a hidden door behind it. The two of them then went inside to find another set of rooms. Tiana went into one room to find a bedroom. The bed was just a mattress and blanket on top. Tiana yanked that bed to the side, revealing a trapdoor.
She opened it, showing Kairos the inside.
“…What now?”