The five that Chase and Kairos were leading were a little afraid, but there were no complications with climbing down the building. Liam had quite a bit of trouble, but he was able to manage to dig his claws into the wall as he fell.
From there, Kairos led the way back. There were fewer monsters than before, so though he had to get a bigger group through, there was little trouble for them to get back. The biggest problem was that the other four were on the verge of stabbing Liam at any moment because of their distrust.
Once they got close to the city, one of the men in the group let out a small gasp upon setting his gaze on the wall.
“Wait, this couldn’t possibly be the city you were talking about, right?”
Chase chuckled.
“Of course, what else would it be?”
The woman’s eyes widened.
“I… I thought that some kind of monster made this! There was a city full of people this close by?”
Another man rubbed his chin with confusion.
“This… was this created by humans? But that’s impossible!”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“We aren’t the ones that made it, but the one leading us did. She’s quite strong and can single-handedly protect everyone, though she also has some others doing that job too.”
Liam let out a faint gasp of shock.
“Woah… I might actually be able to…”
Kairos cleared his throat.
“Anyway, let’s go inside.”
The wall raised, which made everyone else surprised. The group proceeded to walk in. Though, there wasn’t a single person in sight, which unsettled them.
The woman turned to Kairos.
“U-Um, where is everyone?”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Remember the red light from earlier? The farmers that survived were all evacuated to the top of the walls, and most of them are still sleeping on top right now.”
Chase pointed towards a section where a few people were standing up.
“Just look over there. Some of them are currently up on the walls.”
The other five in the group narrowed their eyes to look, and there were indeed hard to see people in the distance, standing on top of the wall.
The woman let out a sigh of relief.
“Ah, that makes sense. This… is so much more than I imagined!”
Chase smiled brightly.
“Haha, we’ve heard that a lot!”
Kairos took a quick look around and noticed that both Tiana and the other members of his group didn’t seem to be anywhere nearby. He cleared his throat.
“Anyway, let me first show you four the rooms that you will now have. As for you, Liam, there will be special arrangements made because of your condition.”
Liam nodded.
“I understand.”
Kairos gave a casual wave.
“Now, follow me.”
He led them into the center of the building and began walking up the stairs. He remembered before that most of the floors seemed to be unoccupied if they were above the third floor.
He planned on using some of the floors near the top. Upon getting to a floor close to the roof, Kairos paused.
“Alright, you four can go in here and each of you can take a room on the left with an even number as those are the ones available. Please stay in there for the time being. I will come back to discuss things with you.”
They gave small nods.
“Thank you once again!”
“…Wow, we even get our own individual room?”
Kairos turned to Liam.
“As for you, we will continue going up.”
Liam slowly nodded.
“Alright.”
Once they walked up two more floors, they were now near the roof.
“You will be granted the first room on the right. Just stay there for now, and be aware it may take a little while for me to get back to you. Make sure to be patient.”
Liam gave a small bow.
“Understood!”
After confirming that he went into his particular room, Kairos began walking down the steps with Chase.
Once the two had gotten close to the ground floor once more, Chase gave Kairos a look.
“Why did you decide to bring the one that was clearly a lost cause?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Although he may be a lost cause, I want to see if there really are any methods to reverse the effects of becoming a monster.”
His eyes narrowed slightly as he began thinking about Sydney.
“After all, one of our party members may end up being affected in the same way, and having at least some method of treatment could stop the problem before it gets… out of hand.”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“Truly thinking ahead I see.”
Kairos nodded.
“Worst case scenario, I can just kill him and pretend he fully transformed into a monster and couldn’t be helped anymore.”
Chase chuckled.
“I also noticed you made the four pick rooms that were all apart from each other.”
Kairos shrugged.
“…Can’t have them talking to each other through the walls.”
Chase sighed.
“So what’s your plan for keeping them in the rooms after you start… doing things?”
Kairos cracked his neck.
“I’ll get Tiana to handle that. For now, could you go find Quinn and bring him to the entrance of my room?”
Chase gave a small nod.
“Alright.”
He then went off on his own, onto the third floor, while Kairos went down to Tiana’s room. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but the mana seemed to be gravitating there, so that was his best guess.
Kairos knocked on the door.
“Hey, I need your help.”
Soon after, Tiana opened it.
“You already got the people?”
Kairos nodded.
“Yes. Could you make sure they don’t leave their rooms? You can just directly change their doors to a wall of metal if possible.”
Tiana smirked.
“Alright then. I’ll leave the experimentation to you.”
Kairos cracked his neck.
“Well, I’ll be outsourcing a little bit of help.”
Tiana raised an eyebrow.
“And who exactly is that?”
“I assume that will be me?”
Quinn answered the question for him while rubbing the back of his neck.
“So, what’s going on?”
Kairos turned to him.
“Basically, the food that all the farms had been growing have mutated into strange red versions.”
Quinn narrowed his eyes.
“I suppose becoming a different variation makes sense because of that red light. And I assume you want my opinion on how edible it is?”
Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Not exactly. I’m asking you to help me find a way to eat these with minimal side effects.”
Quinn blinked a few times.
“And how am I supposed to know that?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ve got four people that we can test it on. If they aren’t enough, then I can just find some more. In essence, it’s like an experiment, right?”
Quinn stared at him for a good few seconds.
“I believe that violates many ethical guidelines provided by the scientific community.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like you are a scientist, so why should you follow them?”
Quinn gave him a long look. He silently deliberated over it for a minute before responding.
“…Alright then.”
Kairos smiled.
“Then let’s start.”
He went to one of the farms and took a potato from it. Then, he showed it off to Quinn.
“This is what we’re working with. The heat that it’s emitting almost makes it feel like it was just cooked, despite the fact it’s freshly pulled out of the ground.”
Quinn frowned when he looked at the potato in front of him.
“For all intents and purposes, I would not eat that, even if I was starving.”
Kairos took a deep breath.
“Well, you won’t have to. At least not for now. Do you have any ideas that could counter these effects?”
Quinn rubbed his chin.
“Well… first I would need to look at the effects of when it gets consumed under normal circumstances to understand the basics of the problem with it.”
Kairos slowly nodded.
“Alright, come up with me then and we will try just that.”
Chase gave a small wave.
“Need me to come with you?”
Kairos shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it for now. Though, I may need your help later.”
With that, Kairos and Quinn walked up the steps, all the way to the floors holding the four people. He knocked on one of the doors, which was opened promptly, revealing a man behind it.
Kairos cleared his throat.
“Hello, we are here to provide you with something to eat.”
He handed the man the red potato. The man was initially expectant after hearing those first words, but looked worried when he saw what the “food” was.
“Um… are you sure that’s safe to eat?”
Kairos nodded.
“Several of our other farmers have already eaten it, and they were fine. If you don’t want anything to eat, please tell us soon, because this potato spoils relatively fast.”
The man furrowed his brow.
“W-What? But just look at it, doesn’t it look strange?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Actually, if you noticed, most of the food in the world has actually already changed significantly because of whatever this red light has done to it. Realistically speaking, this potato may look weird, but it’s no different from any of the food you’ve already been eating.”
The man blinked a few times.
“Eh? Really?”
Quinn smiled bitterly.
“Well, even if there are any long-term side effects, it’s not as though we can do anything about it. There is no longer food unaffected by the properties of the red light after all.”
The man frowned deeply.
“…I guess so. Then I’ll take it.”
Kairos held it out, and the man took it with a bit of hesitation.
After that, Kairos cleared his throat.
“Because it spoils soon, I hope that we can see you eat it to confirm you haven’t wasted anything.”
The man blinked a few times.
“Can’t I cook it?”
Kairos shook his head.
“Don’t you feel how hot it is? It’s already cooked.”
The man looked down at the potato.
“Ah, I see now. Thanks.”
It took him a few seconds, but he eventually worked up the courage to take a small bite from the potato. Almost immediately, a frown formed on his face.
“U-Um, are you sure this is cooked? It tastes weird.”
Kairos sighed.
“In truth, it’s already past the expiration date, but this is the best we can do for now”
The man furrowed his brow.
“Um… I think I’ll hold off on eating it then.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
“But you’ve already taken a bite out of it. The others wouldn’t want to eat something that has been touched by someone else.”
The man scratched the side of his head.
“T-Then I can cut off the part that I bit into and eat that, while the rest can go to someone else.”
Kairos shook his head.
“But what if there is some sort of virus in your body that has spread into the food? Then it would spread that sickness. These kinds of measures are necessary to prevent a plague from spreading.”
The man grabbed onto the side of his head with distress.
“…Then can I at least eat it later?”
Kairos shook his head once more.
“I told you before that it will spoil soon. We don’t have that much time to watch over you, so we would prefer if you ate the potato quickly.”
The man looked quite troubled, but eventually he gave in.
“Ok… ok…”
He took a big bite out of the potato, but the expression on his face clearly showed that it was unpleasant. Nonetheless, he kept going.
Quinn observed him silently, but his eyes were hardly blinking. He was taking this rather seriously.
By the time he was almost finished with the potato, the man’s body heated up considerably.
“…I feel strange. Is this normal?”
Kairos nodded.
“It is a little spoiled after all.”
The man shook his head.
“No… this is definitely not normal.”