Gray's eyes flashed open wide, he stretched his arm out towards the frozen black hole.
[Pause.]
Gray had cast pause for the black hole to remain frozen even after he'd resume time, but to his surprise...
"...!?"
Gray's eyes widened right after he had used [Pause]. The blackhole had began to slowly spin even in the world of stopped time.
*Creak* *Swooosh..*
The world of stopped time was slowly becoming distorted and bending as a result of the black hole's force.
For a moment, he was speechless and frozen in surprise.
[Time remaining until transformation is undone: 41 seconds.]
He was forced out of his thoughts however by the notification which brought him back to reality. He shook his head and stretched his arm out.
[Pause.]
[Pause.]
[Pause.]
The more time he paused, the slower the black hole got, it was having an effect.
He continued to spam pause repeatedly with the aims of completely stopping it. But despite it slowing down, the blackhole was continuing to expand.
It wasn't working as it should.
At this rate the transformation [Mark Of The King Second Stage.] would be undone before he could stop it.
He needed to figure something out, and fast.
[Energy Manipulation: Level 1]
[Due to the effects of the mark of the King Second Stage.]
[Limitations on Energy Manipulation have been temporarily lifted.]
He drew his arm closer to black hole and pulled it back.
"I learnt in school that a black hole loses mass as it loses its energy."
"Still, there's no way this will work... Even if I can manipulate the energy around it... There's simply too much."
"I'll be able to stop it but how will I destroy it?"
[Time remaining until transformation is undone 33 seconds.]
Gray closed his eyes as he thought up of a solution.
[32 seconds.]
[31 seconds.]
With every passing second, the further he could feel his heart sink.
Eventually, his eyes opened wide as if having come to conclusion.
[Pause Level 3: Chronos Field.]
A large spherical field, reaching just a fifth of the 100 meter diameter from the black hole manifested.
Gray grit his teeth and shut his eyes.
"Unpause Time."
[The flow of time resumes..]
The black hole's full throttle vacuum came all at Gray once again, dragging his small figure standing on a platform before it, into it's core.
Despite trying, it was unable to have it's way for it was in contact with his Chronos field.
'Now for the next move...'
[Pause!]
Despite being one fifth of the size, the Chronos field alongside pause was able to temporarily stop it thanks to the mark of the king's boost effect.
The black hole slowly came to a stop.
Despite it, there was no telling how much longer this would last would last.
'Now to find a skill that will destroy it...'
[Skills]
[Fast Forward: Level 1]
[Pause: Level 4]
[Energy Manipulation: Level 1]
[Artifact Skills]
[X-Ray: level 1]
[Future Sight: Level 1]
[Zoom In and Zoom out: Level 1]
None of his skills would have any effect with destroying it.
He grabbed onto his pouch and opened it up before pulling out a [Mystery Box.]
[Mystery Box.]
[Would you like to open the box?]
"Yes!"
[Opening the box.]
The images on the dark box with a question mark began to spin around, getting faster and faster with every second.
Eventually it came to a stop and the question mark on the top had it's shape changed onto a strange symbol.
[Congratulations! You have rolled an Energy Cube.]
Gray's eyes widened, as a blue glowing cube the size of his hand appeared above it.
Although it seemed useful, it didn't seem like something he could use now.
[Time remaining until transformation ends: 18 seconds.]
Gray became visibly more nervous.
"I planned to destroy it in the world of stopped time, but now that I think about it, it'll just absorb anything I throw at it..."
[Time remaining: 15 seconds.]
Gray looked around nervously, his eyes widened as he caught sight of something with X-Ray.
Although he couldn't see it clearly, based on the outlines and the way were they were flying it was Aurora and Violet.
'What the hell are they doing here?!'
"System. Is there anything I could use to deal with this? Anything from the shop or anything else? Maybe exchanging my stat points?"
[Name: Gray Caliber.]
[Level: 9]
[XP: 1680/1800]
[Pause Coins: 800]
[HP: 41/50]
[Strength: 38]
[Agility: 39]
[Stamina: 35]
[Sense: 27]
[SP: 22]
The status screen showed up in front of him, the timer continued on its descent but it didn't say anything else other than repeating the words.
[You have close to reaching level 10.]
Gray's eyes widened as he realised it could be a sign of sorts.
"What happens, when I hit level 10?"
[You are able to evolve.]
That was all Gray needed to hear.
He instantly vanished from the scene, appearing all the way on the roads of the city before looking up at the sky.
Countless objects and pieces of debris were falling from the sky since the black hole had come to a stop.
Amongst these objects, corpses belonging to not only the Kessho's but horned ones were visible.
Alongside them were the undead, mutated zombies which as expected were still squirming around full of energy while they were falling.
[Time remaining: 12 seconds.]
Gray knew that killing zombies wouldn't result in much of a boost other than a few XP, he needed to find any Kessho's which were still alive and kill them for the hundreds.
He was only missing [120 XP].
[Pause Step]
[Pause Step]
He vanished over and appeared on top of a falling debris, [50 Meters] up in the air above him before repeating the process.
[Pause Step]
He appeared on top of another piece of debris [50 meters] above that.
He repeated, over and over again.
The more he did so, the further and further up he'd get.
Gray's eyes were scanning left and right with [X-Ray], he was doing everything he could to find it. Just a small sign or trace of life belonging to the Kessho's.
Or even a horned one if he had to, just anything slight.
Gray hadn't felt so desperate in such a long time. He was so focused on his search that he had failed to notice he was being watched.
Long scruffy black hair tied back in a pony tail going down to his hips and dark purple eyes. He stood on top of a faraway building and watched Gray with an amused look.
"He's grown up quite a bit... His energy is denser too."
The man yawned slightly before turning to the paused black hole.
"Do I deal with that first? Or do I wait for him to make his move? Hm~"
He played around with a strange gadget on his hand before laying back down.
"I'm still tired from conquering the Labyrinth. I'll just watch for now." He said.
Gray's heart almost skipped a beat as his eyes came into contact with one.
A Kessho, just barely struggling to stay alive, whilst missing the entire bottom half of it's body.
His chest was still somehow puffing air in and out showing that he was breathing, but the life in his eyes showed signs that they were soon to fade.
[Pause-Step]
[Fast-Forward]
Gray rushed towards him faster than anything he had done before.
[Time remaining : 5 seconds.]
He was praying that this Kessho would give the amount required to level up.
[3 Seconds.]
Gray appeared above the Kessho and temporarily made eye contact with him, before slashing his head off with a swing of his sword.
[You have killed a Kessho.]
[You gained 130 XP.]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 9 --> LEVEL 10]
[LEVEL UP OPTIONS:]
Gray's eyes widened, but it wasn't from the options. It was from the tab which had opened up beside it.
[EVOLUTION!]
[REQUIREMENTS MET.]
[YOU ARE NOW ABLE TO EVOLVE INTO A CHRONOS NOBLE.]
[WARNING: CHANGES ARE IRREVERSIBLE.]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO EVOLVE?]
[Y / N]
Gray grinned.
[Transformation cancelled.]
Gray's felt a strong thump in his heart, a burst of pain followed after and he instatnly lost control over his body.
[After effect of the Mark Of The King Second Stage.]
[Bodily functions seized temporarily]
[You are falling.]
"No shit... Argh... That fucking hurts..."
'My mind's going numb.'
Whilst plummeting towards the ground, Gray got a strange sense of Déjà vu.
He felt powerless and weak just like the time where tried killing himself. (A/N: Chapter 1)
'Yet here I am now... Alive and trying my hardest to stay that way while keeping others like this too.'
"How ironic..." He muttered with a giggle.
'I just keep getting reminded of this, don't I?' He questioned himself.
With his head slowly approaching the ground and his last remaining strength, he said it.
"Yeah... Evolve."
[CONFIRMED.]
[COMMENCING EVOLUTION.]
"I came all the way out here to see what the commotion was... It's stopped so Gray must have done something."
"But where is he?" Ria asked as she looked around.
"And more importantly... How does he plan on getting rid of this?" She continued as she stared at the black hole from the rooftop of a nearby building.
