Kairos and Nyoka eventually got to a rickety building that looked rather familiar. It was the same one that the flower had previously imitated in order to trick them, except this time it wasn’t a trick.
The moment the two of them got within ten meters of the house, the front door suddenly burst open, its hinges creaking dangerously, threatening to break off.
“There’s a monster behind you, Nyoka!”
A young teenage boy with long white hair and hazel eyes threw himself out of the door and pointed a finger at Kairos accusingly. He held an abnormally wide greatsword in his other hand, which was raised, ready to attack.
Nyoka and Kairos both looked at him blankly. After a few seconds of staring at each other, Nyoka cleared his throat.
“Um, Jeff, this guy next to me isn’t a monster. Not to mention, he’s right beside me not behind. His name is Kairos.”
Jeff’s jaw slowly dropped, while his brows furrowed in confusion. While he was still lost, Nyoka turned to Kairos with a bitter smile.
“His name is Jeff. He isn’t the brightest bulb but acts as a mountain in time of need.”
Kairos held his chin and raised an eyebrow.
“In other words, he’s basically as durable and as dumb as a rock.”
Nyoka shrugged his shoulders.
“Pretty much.”
Suddenly, another person peeked out from behind Jeff. It was a girl with short white hair and bright green eyes. Her eyes were teeming with curiosity, almost like how a small animal would look at a new person that was trying to pet them. She sheepishly stepped to the side and gave a small wave.
“Eh? There are monsters that can talk? That’s… so cool! Kairos, was it? Hi!”
Nyoka smirked and gestured towards the girl..
“Her name is Sara. She’s a little… innocent, but you don’t have to doubt the fact that she has seen things.”
Kairos gave a small nod.
“Hello, Jeff and Sara. I’m a little new to this place in general, but I hope you can show me the ropes. And afterwards, I can help-“
Out of nowhere, he suddenly felt a strong headache. And what was even stranger than that, was that his future vision didn’t seem to predict that. With a groan of pain, he fell down to one knee, while his mind felt incredibly muddy.
Visions flashed through his mind. Everything was blue, but within that blue was what looked like an ethereal girl made out of white mist. She was looking back at him in terror. This was nothing like the visions he had before, which had warned him of his death. Those were eerily sharp. On the other hand, this one was incoherent, just like an actual dream.
But as soon as they formed, they disappeared.
His thoughts were incredibly slow, but despite that, he was still able to come to a conclusion.
This was a trap. For whatever reason, Nyoka, if that even was his name, had lured him over. It was all a setup to lower his guard before killing him off for whatever reason they needed him dead.
He grit his teeth as he felt egregious amounts of adrenaline fill his body. He refused to die here, not because he trusted someone else with his life. He forcefully shook off the muddiness in his mind, though it worsened his headache several times over.
All of his muscles tensed up as he forced himself up to his feet and raised his spear. His eyes flew open, and his blurry vision rapidly cleared up.
Yet, when it did, he couldn’t help but feel a little strange.
Sara was rolling over on the ground from side to side, yelling out in pain with both hands on her head. Jeff looked rather concerned, down on one knee and one hand outstretched, though it seemed as though he didn’t know what to do.
Soon after, he looked up at Kairos while his expression morphed into fury.
“You! You did this!”
Kairos’ eyebrow twitched. He felt like the guy was definitely jumping to conclusions way too quick, but he also couldn’t judge since he also jumped to the exact same conclusion.
“Uh…”
Jeff raised his greatsword with both hands. His arms suddenly bulged, giving him strangely large and veiny muscles. Without hesitation, he brought it down on Kairos. However, the person in question wasn’t fazed.
Before the greatsword moved more than a centimeter, Nyoka’s arm extended outward like it was made of slime and caught the greatsword, holding it in place. He looked at Jeff with a stern expression.
“Hold on. Something… strange is happening.”
Kairos narrowed his eyes as he gradually processed the situation and what could’ve possibly happened. It obviously wasn’t something that he was responsible for as he was just looking at her. If it was something caused by a third party, then they have yet to make themselves known.
And if so, they should’ve taken the opportunity while he was still dazed to do something.
Unless Nyoka and Jeff were just good at acting, then they were also clueless as to what happened. And with that, it only left one person in his mind.
Sara. She had done something and faced backlash because of it.
Kairos narrowed his eyes and pointed at her while she was still writhing on the ground.
“What did she try to do to me?”
Jeff furrowed his brows. If it wasn’t for the fact Nyoka was still holding onto his greatsword, he definitely would’ve tried to attack Kairos with it.
“What? She didn’t do anything!”
As for Nyoka, he fell silent, deep in thought. Jeff was struggling to get the greatsword out of Nyoka’s grasp, but other than a faint tremble he was unable to do anything else. Eventually, he lashed out at him.
“What the fuck are you doing Nyoka? Let go of my sword! This guy is clearly bad news!”
Nyoka took a deep breath, but ignored Jeff completely, other than holding the greatsword in place. He turned to Kairos with a bitter smile.
“She has a certain ability. Because of its nature… she uses it on every new living person she ever sees.”
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger as he stood up straight.
“…And what exactly is this ability that she just used on me without so much as a warning?”
Nyoka didn’t respond immediately, opting to remain silent. Jeff frowned, but stopped trying to wrestle his greatsword out, after which Nyoka promptly let go. He let his sword fall to the side and looked at Sara who was now panting on the ground.
“It was her fault? But how did that even happen? Er… my bad, uh I think it was Kairos.”
Kairos gave a small nod.
“Yeah, it’s whatever. Honestly, I also thought you guys did something to me so it’s kinda understandable. But more importantly, I’d like to know what the hell this girl called Sara did to me.”
Nyoka smiled bitterly before shrugging his shoulders.
“How about we just let her tell you about it when she recovers.”
By now, Sara’s breathing had calmed down somewhat. However, she was still shivering slightly, clearly quite afraid. It seemed like she had heard Nyoka regardless, and forced herself to sit up.
“Um…”
Sara tried to look Kairos in the eyes, but had difficulty in doing so.
“I-I have this ability that lets me take a little peek into someone’s future. The first time I do that it’s supposed to not hurt at all. And if I try to do it too many times on the same person, then it hurts more and more. But when I did it to you…”
She suddenly trailed off. As for Kairos, he was rather shocked. It seemed like she had an inborn ability that was awfully similar to his. The main difference seemed to be that while he saw his own future, she was able to take peeks at the future for others. It was rather natural that the two conflicted with each other when they directly conflicted with each other.
However, Kairos noticed that the way she looked at him was strange. It was fearful, instead of the previous curious look. It wasn’t all that crazy to be afraid of that experience because of the obvious painful consequence, but the way Sara was looking at him made it seem as though she was more so afraid of him than the actual act of peering into his future.
“What happened when you tried to peek into my future?”
Sara looked down at the ground and hesitated to respond. Eventually, a weak smile formed on her face as she gave him a weak glance.
“I-It just hurt a lot.”
Nyoka raised an eyebrow and looked at Kairos with crossed arms.
“You have some sort of anti-divination powers?”
Kairos sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Something like that.”
Jeff pointed at him accusingly.
“What? She told you her power, but you can’t even tell her yours?”
Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly and stared back at him with a disdainful gaze.
“First of all, I have no obligation to tell any of you anything. On top of that, she was the one that used her ability on me in the first place and suffered the consequences. I hold no responsibility here.”
Nyoka chuckled.
“Could you tell us anyway? I would really like to know.”
Kairos turned to him rather speechlessly. He felt that Nyoka was being just a little bit too brazen considering what was just said. Though, something about Nyoka made it hard for Kairos to take anything too seriously. Perhaps he would regret this in hindsight, but he decided to tell them a little bit.
“I have an ability that lets me see into my own future. For the record, that’s the only reason why I decided to trust you, because I already knew that you wouldn’t do anything.”
Nyoka’s eyes widened.
“Wow, another seer? I was so sure that Sara would be the only one.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“I guess not. And it seems our powers don’t really work together.”
Sara smiled bitterly and looked to the side. She was still trembling slightly.
“I guess not.”
Kairos cracked his neck just as he felt the situation was getting awkward. He cleared his throat with the goal of getting everyone’s attention.
“Anyway, I would appreciate it if you could show me around the place and give me a basic rundown. I’ll owe you guys a favor if you do.”
Jeff didn’t seem all that enthusiastic to talk, but Nyoka was as casual as before. He gave a small wave with a cheeky smile.
“Hah. If we are showing you around, then the first place I should show you… is the city.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“There’s a city in this place?”
Nyoka’s smile widened as he looked off in a certain direction.
“Hahaha, I guess it depends on your definition of a city. It could also be called… a dipshit cage.”