Azami let out a sigh as she looked at Kairos' less than graceful position. With one hand on her forehead, she spoke up reluctantly.
"Look, I get that you're feeling pretty down, but that isn't going to help wake up the doggy, alright?"
Kairos heard her words but didn't actually process any of them. Instead, he just muttered various lyrics and gently stroked the dog. He had a soft frown on his face and a longing look in his eyes.
In other words, he looked sad.
Kairos took a deep breath before closing his eyes, somehow falling asleep within his own consciousness. Azami clicked her tongue. She took in a slow deep breath which transitioned into a sigh.
"You didn't get brain damage from doing that, did you?..."
Kairos didn't end up responding. In the end, the room was only filled with the sounds of both Kairos and the wolf's soft breaths. Azami continued staring at him for a little while in silence before sighing for what felt like the hundredth time.
"Whatever..."
Kairos slept for a little less than an hour, thankfully for Azami. Upon waking up, he began rubbing his eyes for a little while.
"Mm... I fell asleep?"
Azami pursed her lips with her arms crossed.
"Yeah. Now that you're awake and refreshed, let's actually think of a solution. I'm fairly certain if the wolf remains asleep, then you won't be able to wake up for real either, else you would've already done so."
Kairos scratched the side of his head.
"That is indeed a predicament. But there aren't many options in this place. Did you remember how the dog was able to share the mental burden with me?"
It was finally Azami's turn to be at a loss for words. She furrowed her brows for a long while.
"...I did not recall anything special. The wolf simply saw that you were writhing in pain within your mental space, and put a paw on you. Then, it similarly started to writhe around in pain until it passed out."
Kairos blinked a few times.
"Eh? So should I just touch him to do that?"
Azami rolled her eyes, gesturing with her hand a bit wildly.
"If it was that simple, then the doggy would've already woken up!"
After she said that, the wolf lifted up its head and let out a long yawn. Both Kairos and Azami snapped at the wolf. Eventually, Kairos let out a chuckle while scratching the side of his head.
"Looks like it all worked out."
Azami smacked her lips while thinking of what to say.
"...I guess the problem wasn't too serious if a nap was all it needed."
Kairos yawned and leaned against the wolf.
"So should I be waking up soon? Or something like that?"
The corner of Azami's lip twitched. She stood up, while her eyebrow began twitching.
"Don't go on acting like you didn't make a dumbass mistake, alright?"
Kairos held out his hands helplessly.
"Well, it's not like wallowing or feeling bad about it is going to make anything better. I already know that I did something stupid, and I intend not to make that mistake in the future. Since you can read my mind, then you can tell it's not a lie, no?"
Azami took a deep breath. She was in a rather grumpy mood but found herself with no place to vent it.
"...I suppose you're right. Whatever, do things as you like then. It's not as though I'll die if you end up doing so."
With that, she closed her eyes and looked away, either trying to fall asleep while standing or just not wanting to associate with Kairos anymore. He felt a little awkward seeing that. From his perspective, there was an obligation for him to comfort her, from what he knew about social standards.
Though before he could even attempt such a thing, he felt his mental world start to blur.
And the next thing he knew, he jolted up awake, along with the feeling of a pretty bad headache. He had difficulty opening his eyes properly, feeling pain just from trying to open his eyes.
"Oh, you're finally up?"
As Kairos slowly forced his eyes open, he saw Sara looking from above. She had a small smile on her face.
"You were sleeping for quite a bit. I was a little worried, but you seem fine."
Kairos let out a yawn, but this time in real life. He slowly got up while holding onto the side of his head.
"Yeah, something like that."
He looked around and gathered his bearings. He was resting on top of a rather nice couch if he had to say. One that was quite fancy, and not really expected in a place like this. When Kairos looked around some more, he realized that it was like the break room he saw before, but it was much larger.
And far more luxurious too.
Instead of just a table, there were cushioned couches and a long glass table. There were chiseled pillars around them along with statues of what appeared to be Greek gods, though while they bore similar traits, none of them clearly represented any.
Along with that, there appeared to be crystal tables containing a variety of colors at both ends of the rooms. They glimmered slightly, as though trying to shout out, 'Look at me!' with how eye-catching they were.
Though more importantly, along the glass table, were numerous black orbs stacked up one after another. Although Sara had been here for a while, it looked like none of them were touched. In total, there were one hundred.
Sara stretched her arms and let out a light grunt.
"Well, there are plenty of rewards to take from. If I'm being honest, there was no way that I would've been able to clear this test. It was all thanks to you, so I don't mind if you take a little more or even all of it."
Kairos waved his hand in front of him.
"No. I don't plan on owing you anything. Besides, while it may be true I was the one that contributed the most, you could've also just killed me and taken everything. Considering that you didn't do such a thing, I am more than willing to go half and half."
Sara looked at him silently for a little while, before letting out a chuckle.
"You're surprisingly a very reasonable person."
Kairos blinked a few times.
"I don't believe that I've presented myself to be like an unreasonable one."
Sara let out a laugh while leaning back into the couch.
"Well, you always got that frown on your face. And I guess there's also the fact that most people aren't reasonable at all. If anything, it would be shocking to find someone that even tries to be fair..."
She took a deep breath.
"You said that you'd give half to me for not killing you, but you already saw that I wouldn't in your prophecies, didn't you? It shouldn't have been a surprise, so it in turn became a surprise for me when you thought of rewarding me for it, haha."
Kairos' eyelid twitched, as his ability didn't work anything like that. Still, he decided to keep his mouth shut for his own sake. Both in terms of surviving, and not being embarrassed.
He realized that he was starting to feel quite hungry. Either because he overused his future vision, or because he hadn't eaten in a while, or both.
With that in mind, he picked up one of the black orbs and ate them directly. He could feel the black blood in his body suddenly start to roil as it prepared to absorb more of itself into his system.
While he was very sure that he became stronger, his hunger hadn't really settled down. It was at this point Kairos remembered he had taken the Consume skill, to allow him to eat the bodies of monsters faster. But it came with the downside of making him hungrier.
He furrowed his brows before deciding to just eat the black orbs, in hopes that his hunger would be satiated eventually. Although he could've kept them for the sake of buying other things later, he didn't see much of a point in that now.
At least in terms of this world's form of strength, Kairos was severely lacking since he was placed in the middle of the race when he should've been at the start. As such, he sought to increase his strength before anything else.
He ate them one after another, while Sara stowed them away by letting them sink under her skin. The stimulation that Kairos experienced was gradually increasing with each one he ate, quickly building on each other.
By the fifth orb, despite being in his Abyss form already, it became unstable. His veins began bulging from his skin, clearly showing across his entire body.
[Abyss Form (E-) -> Abyss Form (E)]
He was encouraged by that prompt and continued even further, eating even more of them. By the time he had his fifteenth one, he found himself occasionally losing control of his various body parts, as they suddenly turned numb, causing him to collapse when it came to his legs. Though after that numbness passed, he felt a much stronger weight pressing down upon them, along with a more frightening strength as well.
[Abyss Form (E) -> Abyss Form (E+)]
After seeing that, he sat back on the couch, taking deep breaths as he calmed down. As for Sara, she had already stored all of hers, not one more and not one less. She occasionally looked at the crystal table behind her but decided to wait and wait for Kairos.
Once he did calm down, his gaze was fixated on the black orbs.
He should be able to take it to D rank at this rate. He couldn't help but wonder what kinds of powers he could gain after remembering the massive snake that Nyoka turned into.
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