'I'm falling…' She thought to herself.
Her hair swayed relentlessly as she drew closer and closer towards the monster. The ceiling lights, flashed brightly as they reflected against her eyes. Her heart pounding so heard it felt as if it would come out of her chest.
All this happening only because she had failed to activate her ability to get away. From the monster.
"STOOOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!!"
Her pupils dilated. 'That voice… Who is-'
*Pierce*
It's hand pierced right through her through her stomach, her eyes widening as her body slowly registered what had happened.
For a moment, just a moment, she could have sworn she could have sworn she saw her brother standing at the platform at the entrance. Just that alone was enough to make her smile in her very last moments.
"Br…Other…" She muttered with teary eyes
Before she could think of anything else, everything froze.
Whether it was the sight of the monster's hand, impaling his one and only sister after he had just found her, the feeling of having his hopes mutilated or the extreme amount of emotional stress placed on him in that one single moment, something inside of Gray had snapped.
[Quest has fai-]
In that very same instant that he saw her getting pierced. Out of Gray's sole and endless desire to stop everything and save his sister, a phenomenon that not even that system could have predicted, had occurred. Gray's core ability was invoked without the assistance of the system.
As a result…
His eyes widened as he found his sister's figure along with the monsters levitating in the air. All the other monsters were stuck in the position of eating the horned ones, as the colors in the room had became black and white, the only color being the bright yellow being emitted from his own eyes.
[Pause Level: ???]
Everything had stopped. Time itself had come to a pause.
All sense of logic which Gray was acquainted with was defied he could still move freely despite it all being frozen. It didn't make sense, if everything had stopped how was it that he could move? Would the atoms not inhibit his movement?
How was he even breathing? What about the countless of other external factors? Many questions flashed through his mind, but in reality, he didn't give a shit.
What mattered was that it happened again. Once again, they tried taking someone important away from him. His face had grown contorted from the sheer rage which could be seen on his face. His eyes became bloodshot red as blood streamed down his fists from how tightly he was clenching them.
Yes, something inside of Gray had snapped.
*Step* *Step*
Hasty footsteps could be heard as the Aurora and Violet rushed down the stairs.
"He was in a rush, do you think something bad happened to his sister?" Aurora asked.
"How would he know? Lita didn't mention anything other than her location." Violet replied.
"Maybe it's because they're siblings?" She mentioned as they were only a single step away.
"May-"
As they reached the bottom, Violet's eyes widened, her brows raised as she instinctively took a step back. She had completely forgotten about the rest of which she was going to say, as she witnessed the sight ahead of her.
The same could be said for Aurora who was both motionless and speechless.
Only one word came to mind as they stood there and stared.
A bloodbath.
Quite literally, most of the room had become a bloodied red. The walls, the arenas, the bridges. Large chunks of monster corpses could be seen lying around. It almost seemed as if they had burst from the inside out.
And in the middle of it, Gray could be seen carrying the figure of a young beauty with long pitch-black hair. The detached arm of a monster could be seen sticking out of her stomach.
What were they looking at? What was this?
So many questions passed through their minds, but those very thoughts were interrupted as in an instant, Gray appeared in between them.
"I've cleared the floor. She's paused. I'll look for someone to heal her."
Those were his last words before vanishing once more. Not even a whisper of wind could be heard.
Violet and Aurora both quickly turned back, before rushing to glance up the staircase, but he was completely gone.
"Hey… Aurora… He was only 30 seconds ahead of us, right…?" Violet asked
Aurora hesitantly nodded.
"So how… Just how in thirty seconds, did he clear this entire floor by himself? Surely it was already cleared… Right…?"
"Y-Yeah…" She replied, still somewhat shocked.
"What's this?" The voice of a female could be heard as she stepped into the Labyrinth's first floor where their camp was set up.
At the entrance, fresh blood could be seen splattered across the floor and walls but not a body could be seen. Not to mention the door had been broken open and the tension which ran across from the inside, as the group of horned ones sat there waiting with weapons in their hands.
"Two people keep watch. When he and his group returns, we'll kill them. They're not to escape."
The one speaking was an orange ranked horned one. His hair was long and a light orange in terms of color. He was one of the three who had gotten close to killing Aurora and Violet. Based on his expression and the dark flow of energy releasing from him, it was easy to tell that he was pissed.
"Kill who?" The girl asked.
"Who the hell-"
The orange horned one's jaws dropped once he saw who it was. A young lady with a gentle aura to herself. Her long black hair was tied into twin tails by two red ribbons resting on her head. Her eyes reflected golden glow as the top half of the black horns on her head shined a crimson red.
Over her shoulder, a large golden gemmed war Axe could be seen. Being almost twice her body size it was truly fascinating and unusual to see her wield it.
Without bothering to finish his sentence, he quickly dropped to one of his knees before bowing his head. "P-Princess, my humblest apologies, I-I mistook you for someone else."
A nervous smile grew on her face as she was still not used to all the formalities.
"It's fine, mistakes are normal. More importantly, what happened?" She asked.
"Ah- Right… A young man accompanied by two girls appeared and… Well… They managed to get past us towards the lower floors. F-Fret not, we have already sent some of our men after his head. They should be arriving at any moment now."
"Hm~". She proceeded to point at the small gates just behind them. "Is that him?"
They turned their heads back and their pupils dilated. Standing by the gates, the very same Gray haired young man could be seen. In his hands rested a book, with the titles [Chronicles of The Chronos]. His eyes were cold and dark as he demanded.
"Bring me a healer."
--------------------- December Goals
250 - Powerstones - 14 Ch / Week
Golden Tickets:
Every 10 Golden Tickets - 1 Extra Chapter release, end of month.