As the early rays of dawn cast themselves onto the girl, the coming of a new day was undeniable.
The creaking sounds of the swings gradually stopped. The look on her face was blank.
After a few minutes, she began silently crying, the tears only visible by a faint glisten against her cheek.
In five seconds, her expression warped into one that was of pain. Faint sniffling could be heard. From there, it did not take long for her to break down further.
The girl began sobbing. She weakly wiped the tears on her face, but it did little to actually dry her face.
After a few more moments, it became less sobbing, but more so screaming. The girl didn't even know she could've screamed that loudly before then.
Kairos continued to watch her scream as it gradually blurred. Then, it showed a brief image of Tori. Then, he was taken back to the realm of nothing.
After returning, Kairos cursed under his breath. Now that he thought about it, Tori felt a little familiar because she was essentially an embodiment of his younger self. All of his habits from a kid as well as his ideologies were firmly imprinted into her mind.
Maybe that's why he decided to let her join the group. Though, with how long ago it was, he wouldn't really know.
A small sigh echoed from next to him. It was Sara.
"This one was wrong too, huh? Well, at least there's only one option left. Take three steps to the left then five steps forward and you will reach the last place. Just smash the wall and it should be fine."
Kairos took a deep breath and shook his head before following her instructions. From there, he shot out the spear like all those other times and the wall did end up crumbling. The moment he did, a sense of unease filled him.
It was pretty strange considering the other times he would feel uneasy as he approached, while this time it was afterwards.
Sara's voice urgently called out at this point.
"Alright! This is the right place, but you have to be very careful about this specific part. Where you are allowed to touch is very specific, but it should be based on the size of your foot, so it shouldn't matter too much."
Kairos listened intently. By now, he was emotionally drained and just wanted to get out of there.
Sara continued on.
"So when you do it, make sure you walk as you would normally. Also, shift yourself just a little bit to the left. I will tell you when to stop."
Kairos did as said, taking a step to the left.
Sara called out with a bit of panic.
"Erm... Too far! Too far! Ok, now just go to the right very slowly, and less than a step."
Kairos' eyelid twitched. He didn't realize that it was this specific.
While slowly sliding himself to the right, Sara called out a few moments later.
"Ok, stop! You can take a step forward now."
With that, Kairos closed his eyes and took a step forward. He knew that the best way to do it naturally was not to think about it too much. Yet, when he did end up setting his foot down, he felt a... strange sensation.
Within that split second, he realized that there seemed to be a hold that was in the shape of a foot, however, he currently had paws. As such, he stepped out of bounds.
Seeing this blunder in his future vision, he tried to stop himself. However, a sudden strong stimulation frayed his mind, stunning him.
He felt the world distort. No, more accurately he could feel himself distorting. A loud static buzz filled his mind like he had suddenly become an extremely old broken-down computer.
Pain like no other filled his entire body, making it incredibly difficult to think. If that wasn't enough, he had to experience it twice because of his future vision. While in this state, he could faintly hear someone yelling, though it sounded terribly far away.
"Take...back..."
After a few moments, he was just barely able to make out the words.
"Take a step back right now!"
Kairos couldn't even process the location of his limbs, but instinctively did the action, and lifted his foot up. Suddenly, he broke out of the distortion, holding his paw out in the air. He felt like he was spinning, but was able to calm down enough to put his paw back where it originally was.
His body trembled rather violently, and there wasn't much that he could do about it. It took him a while, but he was finally able to calm down.
Sara seemed to notice this and spoke after he was ready to listen.
"It seems you took the wrong step by accident. It's been a while since I've been at that place... Regardless, try to be a little more careful next time. To be honest, I thought you had made the proper step, so I was rather surprised that you triggered it. I can only hope that you are more precise this time."
Kairos sighed.
"What the hell is wrong with this place..."
He realized that it seemed to be designed for his human form. As such, he deactivated his Abyss Form. Kairos felt his body contort strangely. His spine was both bending and cracking along with the other bones, but there was no pain.
He was honestly a little scared of reverting, but those worries were unfounded. The spear he had stored in his body dropped to the ground. He quickly picked it up.
Once again, Sara guided him to get the exact position he should've been in.
From there, he closed his eyes and began walking forwards. This time, it just felt like he was walking on solid ground. Whatever caused that strange effect seemed to have disappeared entirely.
Regardless, Kairos didn't drop his guard down as the sensation of that was still fresh in his mind. He pictured himself walking on the sidewalk, taking step after step, passing by people and buildings.
Together with the memories he had experienced, he couldn't help but feel himself get taken back to when he was a kid. Although he was able to make friends with people like Nicole, Edward, and even Tori, the reality was that it was lonely most of the time.
When he went out on the streets and began walking, he was always just a kid. There weren't many other kids that did the same thing as him, as they were usually just at home. Even if kids his age did leave the house, it was with their parents off to another kid's house.
The people he spoke to almost always had smiles, but they were all polite smiles. The kind of smile that doesn't reach the eyes, so to speak. Most people were willing to have a short chat with him, but practically nobody would give him more than five minutes.
After all, they had their own business to attend to.
It was a strange feeling to wander the streets with so many different people. Being able to reach out and talk to them, but never forming any real connection. Kairos suddenly realized the reason he was going out all the time was that he just wanted to form a friendship.
Someone he could talk to when he was lonely.
Somehow, he wasn't demoralized despite going day by day without any real success. Perhaps it was the polite conversations he had with adults that gave him just enough to keep on.
The first person he was actually able to talk to more than once was Tori. He remembered the day that she didn't show up for the first time. Though disappointed, he still showed up the day after, and the day after that.
He continued on for a full week before finally giving up.
It left him with a rather hollow feeling. When he didn't have any real conversation partner it wasn't too bad. But now that he knew what it was like with one, none of the talks he had felt real anymore.
But regardless, he kept searching and searching.
Unfortunately, he ended up getting into fights more than anything, partly because of his lack of social skills. You learn surprisingly little when all the people you talk to only cordially reply to whatever you say.
That was how he eventually met Edward.
"Ah, you made it!"
Kairos blinked several times, realizing that he was now out of that room, and instead sitting at what looked like a small lounge. The walls were made out of stone. Similarly, there was a stone table and two chairs. On the table were ten black orbs.
Sara looked at him strangely right after.
"Eh? Why is there an Untainted here?"
Kairos turned to look at her.
"...Oh."
After a second of hesitation, he activated the Abyss Form, causing his body to contort and his upper body to jerk forward. Shortly after, he became the wolf. Sara looked at him with her jaw dropped.
"You... wow."
Kairos let out a sigh as he went to the seat.
"It's a little complicated, and I honestly don't really understand it either."
He tried to sit down like a normal person before quickly realizing that he was far too large to do so. As such, he just awkwardly remained at the side.
Sara smiled bitterly.
"Anyway, since we cleared the first room, we can each get five black blood orbs! Let me now give you a rundown of the next room now."
Instead of sitting in a chair, she opted to walk next to Kairos and lean against his body. Upon raising a finger, she continued.
"This time, we will also be entering from two different entrances, but we will be next to each other. There will be a blue bar between us. So long as we both hold onto it, then we will be able to make it to the next level together."
She paused for a moment before saying the next part.
"But if someone lets go, then the bar will fall, and only the person that first makes it to the next level will be able to make it."
Kairos blinked a few times. He spoke slowly.
"So what happens to the person that doesn't complete the level?"
Sara clapped a few times.
"Oh, they just get trapped until they die."
She said it in a rather casual voice, which made Kairos feel a bit weird. He didn't mention it though.
"So just don't let go of the bar? But it's obviously not that simple."
Sara nodded.
"Yeah. This type of dungeon is quite famous for not having any monsters to kill because that's how most dungeons are. Instead, it will just give you hallucinations. I think you've already experienced some of them, right?"
Kairos thought for a moment before slowly nodding.
"I suppose so."
Though he wouldn't really call those memories hallucinations, they could still be somewhat considered as such.
Sara nodded.
"Then let's get started, ok?"
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