While Kairos was asleep, he suddenly had a dream. It was one where he suddenly woke up to someone attacking him. The person who was sleeping next to him, Nicole, was severely injured in the process.
The moment he registered what happened in that dream, his eyes flew wide open. His mind was muddled, but he forced himself to wake up instantly.
Yet, when he looked around…
There was nobody. It was only Nicole, who was still clinging onto him tightly even as she gently snored. However, that didn’t mean he would suddenly relax. That dream definitely wasn’t some random thing, but rather something that his future vision had warned him of.
He couldn’t help but lament over how careless he had been. How did he actually end up falling asleep with Nicole despite being in such a dangerous place? Under normal circumstances, he probably couldn’t sleep even if he wanted to.
Kairos let out a soft sigh before shaking his head.
He decided to just let it go and resolve to be more cautious later. But for now, there would be someone that was going to try and attack him and Nicole while they were sleeping. Of course, he could just wake Nicole up so that they wouldn’t get attacked, but he wanted to send a message.
Since he knew that someone was going to attack, it wouldn’t be a waste of time.
Kairos began channeling the gale spell, keeping it as silent as he possibly could. After that, he closed his eyes and laid his head back down on the pillow. However, his hand that was channeling the gale spell was just barely under the cover, ready to peek out at any moment.
Kairos kept channeling the spell until he eventually began doing so for a full forty-five seconds. He was beginning to feel a decent amount of strain in his fingers just from maintaining the channel. Under other circumstances, forty-five seconds might already be enough to make his hand burst, for example with the pulse spell.
However, the gale spell naturally had a longer channel time which was further increased after keeping it silent.
But thankfully, the power wasn’t diminished because of that.
Once Kairos finished his channeling, he simply remained there. It would turn out nothing happened for the next hour or so, but he still maintained that channel anyway. During this time, he internally thanked himself for not trying to hold on for even longer and make the process even more painful.
Regardless, it was still quite uncomfortable to keep holding onto this position. By the second hour, he was beginning to think of just stopping this and waking Nicole up, but before he could act on that he heard someone stepping into the room.
Using his future vision, he opened his eyes to take a look at the perpetrator without actually doing so in reality.
At that moment, he was able to find out it was a middle-aged man. From the brief moment, he got a look, it seemed that the man was quite nervous despite the two of them being asleep. His teeth were grit and it even seemed as though he was sweating.
Kairos did the same thing once more and noticed the man had raised his hand, ready to cast a spell. Seeing this, Kairos suddenly moved his hand out from under the covers, all the while keeping his eyes closed.
Then, he released the gale spell. Right after releasing it, he didn’t wait to see the results. His eyes flew open as he forcibly broke out of Nicole’s grip and raised his spear. However, it would turn out that he overreacted.
An eerie crunch rang out, probably from the bones of the man.
He had split into two halves diagonally, while his organs ended up spilling out randomly across the place.
[Killed Creature – 0.1 points awarded]
Though Kairos had seen this death with his future vision, it was so unexpected to him that he didn’t even cancel his action. He only stared awkwardly at the body that was in front of him. Though, it didn’t last long as all traces of the man began sinking into the floor before disappearing altogether.
Kairos was honestly in a bit of shock. He expected the man to at least have some sort of protection. Even if it might have not been as strong as Chen’s. His eyebrow twitched. It seemed that he forgot some people aren’t just unfairly overpowered.
Nonetheless, it made him feel quite concerned about himself, as he had no abilities that directly enhanced his own survivability, save for his future vision.
As he was thinking about it, he heard someone else call out to him.
“Mm… what happened?”
Nicole sat up and rubbed her eyes, letting out a yawn soon after. When she looked up at Kairos, she noticed the fresh bloodstains on his body.
“Ah! Did someone attack? Do we have to fight?”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Someone did try to get us while we were sleeping, but I took care of him. I ended up overestimating his strength a little and got him killed though.”
Nicole opened up her arms after hearing that.
“Oh, then we can continue, right?”
There was a completely innocent smile on her face as she said that, which made Kairos think of how ridiculous the apocalypse made the situation.
“Y’know, if it wasn’t the apocalypse, it would be seriously messed up if you were that welcoming after I just killed someone.”
Nicole puffed up her cheeks.
“Well it is the apocalypse! Stop thinking about it so much.”
Kairos let out a sigh before getting back down.
“Alright, alright.”
Nicole immediately wrapped herself around him again, all the while nuzzling her head against the base of his neck.
“Hehe…”
Kairos rolled his eyes before looking up at the ceiling. He didn’t plan on going back to sleep, at least not for now. As for Nicole, it didn’t seem like she did either, but that was for other reasons.
She began feeling his body all over, though at the very least she avoided any of the more uncomfortable spots. Kairos didn’t particularly like it, but also didn’t hate it all that much either. She even avoided his chest which she was normally very aggressive with.
Nicole constantly took deep breaths. There was a wide smile on her face as she occasionally giggled. It almost seemed like she was on drugs, and maybe that wasn’t even far off.
As for Kairos, he simply began sorting out all the things he wished to do after he got out of here.
Naturally, one of them was going to this Abyss realm, but he wasn’t just going to suddenly leave without notifying anyone. The first person that came to mind was Tiana. Along with that, there was also the strange plant man, Kian.
If he was going to some unknown place for a whole month, he definitely wanted as many of the nature cores as he could get.
Furthermore, there was Edward. He was definitely in the back of his mind and far less of a priority, but it was a thought nonetheless. After all, they were still technically an alliance. While thinking about that, Kairos took out a blue stone from his pocket. It was how they were supposed to communicate with each other, though they still hadn’t talked after quite a while.
He thought for a bit, but then put the stone back.
Nicole noticed his behavior and looked a little upset.
“I’m right here but you’re still thinking about other people?”
Kairos let out a soft sigh.
“I’m thinking of what I’m going to do later.”
Nicole let out a dissatisfied hum.
“But I’m right here! Did you even notice?”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“I did, I did. I’m just trying to plan things out while we’re here, alright? Normally I would’ve just gotten up and got to it, you know?”
Hearing that, Nicole immediately retracted her attitude. She let out a few weak awkward coughs.
“Um, r-right. Sorry.”
Kairos patted her twice on the head.
“It’s whatever. Don’t worry about it.”
Nicole smiled brightly and closed her eyes to focus on the pat. Afterwards, her eyes opened slightly.
“So um, why did you decide to stay here with me?”
Kairos blinked a few times all the while staring at the ceiling. He didn’t respond for a good while, like a person that ghosted others all the time. But eventually, he did open up his mouth.
“I don’t really know, honestly.”
Nicole put the tip of her finger on her chin, clearly quite curious.
“Hm… I guess whatever the reason, it’s a good one.”
And just like that, she casted aside her curiosity before snuggling with him once more. Kairos only smiled bitterly because of that, before continuing to look at the ceiling, almost like the most compelling movie was playing right there.
After a few more hours had passed, Kairos decided it was enough.
“Alright, we should get up now.”
Nicole looked rather distraught.
“So soon?”
Kairos sighed.
“We’re not going to lay there all day. Plus, aren’t you getting hungry? We have to get out of here and get some food soon.”
Nicole looked to the side.
“Mm… I can still go on.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Well, we should first get out of here before sorting all that out, alright? We don’t know how long this will take.”
Nicole clearly looked displeased, but still went along with it.
“Ok…”
Once the two of them got up and out of the room, there was a clear crunching sound. Kairos looked over, expecting someone’s bones to be crushed in, but instead, it was actually Oliver. He was eating the shells of oysters directly.
Kairos raised an eyebrow when he saw this.
“Aren’t those like, expensive?”
Oliver turned back to him with a gloomy look. He didn’t seem to want to answer, but forced himself anyway.
“It’s actually the most cost-efficient thing to buy. None of the food actually helps all that much. However, the most expensive one is the most filling. It still isn’t comparable to actual oysters, but at least it’s something.
Hearing that, Kairos nodded.
“Ah, thanks for the info.”
Oliver simply sighed.
“Yeah, whatever.”
After that, he continued walking. From the direction, it was fairly clear he was going back to the caves to search for more of the red crystals. Kairos did a simple stretch before glancing at Nicole.
“Well, let’s go too.”
Nicole gave a small nod.
“Ok!”
Though, as they were about to set off, someone called out to them.
“Wait!”
It ended up being Kaede. She looked a little panicked and awkward. There was a forced smile on her face.
“U-Um, can I come along with you as well?”