"Where... Am I...?" Gray asked in a confused tone.
His eyes were opened, but as if his eyelids had remained closed, he could see nothing but darkness.
Strangely enough, his body was still visible to him even within said darkness. But he was more focused on the fact how he couldn't feel, smell or hear anything but the echo of his own voice.
His head was throbbing, his heart slowly began to pound faster as he recalled the event of what had happened.
He remembered seeing the large cube appearing in the middle of the city and running back to the base, but after that it all became blurry.
[You are hibernating...]
A voice echoed throughout the darkness. It was a femine robotic voice which he recognised all to clearly.
Following the sound, a bright glowing spherical orb appeared ahead of him. A blue orb with systematic numbers rotating around it in a sequence.
"Hibernating? What are you talking about...? And just what are you?" He asked.
The orb drew closer to him.
[Due to lack of information, A specific answer cannot be formulated for that question.]
[However, based on my current understanding and what you call me, I am system. Your system.]
[I am the one who has been with you since the beginning.]
[The one who manages your information from within.]
'My information...?' He thought to himself.
[Affirmative.]
Gray sighed as he realised that it could hear his thoughts.
"So, you're the one who stopped me from killing myself..." He muttered.
[Negative, that was your own doing.]
Gray's expression grew visibly more confused.
He proceeded to shake his head as he realised he was going off track.
"I have many questions but I'll leave them for later. Let's start off by getting me out of this place. Now isn't the time... I need to warn the others that things aren't safe."
[…]
Gray turned to the orb of light, giving it a sharp glare.
"I said, let's start off by getting me out of this place."
[I cannot do that.]
Gray's eyes grew cold, his pupils dilated as he asked. "What?"
[You are currently hibernating.]
[This process is occurring for your body to stabilise, process and complete the evolution.]
[Stopping the process now, can lead to permanent damage.]
Gray took a step closer to the orb, watching as it floated right ahead of his face.
"Oi, system... Things have just finally started going good for me... I found my only remaining family member, I've made trustworthy companions... I've gotten strong enough to protect them... And you're telling me to sit back and wait while they're all put in danger?"
[…]
Gray's eyes grew darker, the yellow glow within them dimmed down, as he calmly muttered.
"Stop fucking around... Schedule the hibernation process for another time once things have calmed down... You felt it too didn't you? That ominous feeling being emitted from the cube..."
[They aren't in danger.]
"!?"
Gray's pupils dilated, as the scenery around him suddenly changed.
Instead of darkness, he could now see a room. He recognised it clearly, it was his room. Inside of the room, he could see it. His body lying on the mattress on the floor.
But that wasn't all.
At the edge of the mattress, he could see Lita on her knees with her hands grasped together as if praying for something.
Beside him was Lara who seemed to have been performing a health check on him.
Meanwhile by the door, Violet and Aurora seemed to be arguing. Aurora looked as if she was trying to stop Violet from doing something but Violet was refusing. Kylo was in between them, trying to stop them in a way.
"What are they saying...?" Gray asked.
[Arguing.]
[Enabling Audio...]
"Can you two please calm down...?" Kylo asked.
"Stay out of it, Kylo." Said Lara.
"Violet, it's too risky to head out right now! You know that better than anyone!" Declared AUrora.
"We're running low on supplies! And Gray needs medicine for all we know! Lara's healing isn't working!"
"We don't even know what's affecting him! What type of medicine are you even going to look for!?" Said Aurora as she grabbed Violet's arm.
"What else am I supposed to do!? We were too distracted by the Labyrinth that we failed to realise how we could need supplies on the way back... I'm at fault for forgetting... We can't survive without food..."
"It's not just your fault... I also forgot! If that's the case I'll come with you!"
"Aside from me and Kylo, you're the only one that can fight here. Gray's sister, Ria still hasn't woken up... She's also mentally and physically exhausted from the Labyrinth.
If we both leave who's going to keep the base protected? Didn't you see what was happening outside? Even more of those horned ones began falling from the sky again!"
Aurora clenched her hands into a fist. Squeezing it tightly before lowering her head. She bit her lips as her eyes grew watery.
"But..."
Before she could say anything else, she was interrupted by Violet.
"I'll be fine... If worst comes to it, I can fly away. I'm a psychic esper remember?" Violet asked as she gave Aurora a forced smile.
Aurora didn't say anything else after that.
She only gave Violet a slight nod. But before, Gray could see anymore, the darkness returned.
Gray didn't say anything and simply sat down.
"Why can't I see them anymore?" He asked with his head hung down.
[I am unable to show anymore.]
[I've reached the viewable limit.]
[Using anymore energy to maintain it would have been dangerous.]
"...Where is my sister...?"
[She is in her room. She still has not awoken.]
"..."
Gray stayed silent for the next few moments. The air around him had changed.
"...How long am I waiting?"
[Depending on how fast the body can complete the process of changing species.]
[Time is estimated to be: 22 Hours and 49 minutes]
Gray grit his teeth as he heard those words.
"...I understand... I'll wait."
[…]
"...You already know that I don't care what happens to me... But If anything, bad happens to any of them."
The air around Gray grew darker as he turned to the System.
"Even if you're helping me... I won't forgive you."
Gray knew that he couldn't completely trust the system. It had never mentioned anything about a hibernation process after he evolved.
Maybe it's because he never asked or it never considered it something worth mentioning. It didn't happen after he evolved into a Chronos halfling so why was it happening now?
Was this thing in his body really trustworthy? In the first place what even is the System? It said something about lacking information so he could only assume that it too didn't know what it was itself.
But there was no denying the fact that he wouldn't have gotten this far without it, so he decided to wait.
[…]
-
-
-
*Clang!* *Clang!*
*BOOM!* *BOOM!*
Explosions reverberated throughout the underground refugee, making it more and more unstable. Dark flames had began to spread from within.
A joyful expression could be seen on the glowing horned ones face as his wounds regenerated.
A troubled look could be seen on Delta's face as every time she attacked, the place what get closer and closer to collapsing.
"Why'd you stop attacking!? Things have only started to get fun!" He shouted before leaping at her.
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