[Endurance – 4.9 – 5.5 | Points – 0.6 – 0.0]
Kairos had spent his points in increasing endurance due to what happened in the last fight, where the only real damage he took was from casting a spell at high power.
He let out a soft sigh.
Kairos wiped away some of the food stains still stuck on the side of the metal pot with a disinfectant wipe before cleaning his own utensils.
Sam couldn’t help but give a thumbs up afterwards.
“You guys even brought a whole cooking set with tools! That made this meal feel like there isn’t actually an apocalypse going on right now.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“Even though it is the apocalypse, it doesn’t change how hygiene is important. If you stick a bunch of dirt and blood into your mouth all the time, then you might find yourself suddenly dying out of nowhere.”
Sam nodded.
“Haha, of course, of course.”
Chase casually stomped out the fire with his foot, but raised an eyebrow when he noticed the flames started to pick up on his clothes. He batted it away with his hand and was thankfully able to get it off with just a bit of trouble.
“These fires are far more potent than normal ones.”
Kairos rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.
“I guess magic versions are a bit better then.”
Chase nodded.
“Guess so.”
Sydney went off after eating to continue eating some other foods, but she clearly had far less enthusiasm compared to before.
She furrowed her brows as she forcefully shoved down some rye bread.
Nicole blinked a few times.
“Mother, are you ok?”
Sydney smiled softly.
“Yes, sweetie. I just… feel quite full.”
Nicole put a finger on her chin.
“Then you should stop eating, right?”
Sydney looked down at her feet.
“But… I need to do this. What if we all die because I wasn’t powerful enough?”
Kairos sighed.
“Nicole’s right. If you really can’t eat anymore, don’t force yourself. If something really does happen, you will be able to respond better while not feeling sick from overeating.”
Sydney blinked a few times.
“Oh… that makes sense.”
Kairos cracked his neck.
“Anyway, we should get a change of clothes since we can. This dried blood is making me feel really uncomfortable. Then we can stock up on food and move on.”
Tori tilted her head to the side.
“Why can’t we just stay here? There is still quite a bit of food left over.”
Chase stood up straight and cracked his back.
“The reason to convince you is that those crazy cult people are still looking for us and have some weird tracking ability.”
He turned around and shot her a glance.
“The real reason is that stagnating here is just boring.”
Tori let out a soft sigh.
“That does make sense. I don’t really want to stay here anyway.”
With that, there seemed to be no other complaints. And so, everyone changed their clothes and restocked on food.
There wasn’t actually that much left in the grocery store. Most of the stuff that would last long were taken by the group, while the rest wouldn’t last for much longer, possibly only a few days.
They all set out together, deciding to go deeper into the city.
Kairos turned to his father.
“Do you remember the direction that Mom left?”
Sam furrowed his brows.
“I do think I have a general idea, but it has been a few days since then. I don’t think it would be that accurate.”
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
“Might as well follow it if we can. There’s nothing else to really lead us, after all.”
Sam shrugged his shoulders, agreeing with that logic.
“Alright, just follow me.”
Like how it was before, the streets were quiet. However, all of the torn corpses that littered the ground made it feel loud… almost like they were still screaming out in pain even though they made no sound.
Kairos would occasionally take a glance at these corpses, seeing how thoroughly ripped apart they were.
In all honesty, it made him somewhat afraid. The more he thought about it, the crazier it seemed to him. From how battered these monsters were, they didn’t even have the chance to fight back.
And on top of that, so many monsters were massacred just like that, all over the entire city.
More than just the devastation, Kairos couldn’t help but continue to think about the implications.
As in, the number of points his mother must’ve acquired.
There must be very few things that could even challenge her at this point with how powerful she must’ve become.
And while his father did tell him that she did not lose all of her sanity, Kairos couldn’t help but still feel apprehensive. What if she did end up losing that bit of sanity? Or maybe she wouldn’t remember him, thus only sparing his father.
Yet, in the end, despite thinking of various bad situations, he still wanted to see his mother.
If she really wasn’t the same, then so be it.
But if there really was part of her still left, then he wanted to reunite with her. Not because she was super powerful, but because she was his mother that cared for him.
Kairos sighed.
Sam turned to look at him.
“Something on your mind?”
Kairos simply shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s the apocalypse, so being a little disgruntled is normal.”
Same laughed.
“But that’s why laughing and smiling is even more important.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“I guess.”
As they continued to go down the streets, they came across something that unsettled them. Even more so than all of the corpses spread out across the ground.
It was… the sound of people singing.
Sam was the first to stop in his tracks, prompting everyone else to do the same. There was clear hesitation on whether or not they should move forward.
The singing wasn’t really anything creepy itself. It just sounded like some teenagers having a fun time with some trendy song. Yet, as normal as it was before, in the context of the apocalypse it was simply too weird.
Chase narrowed his eyes.
“Should we go meet these people?”
Tori tilted her head to the side.
“They don’t sound like bad people. I can’t imagine they would be that bad if they are just singing.”
Kairos rubbed his chin.
“Since these people are so casually singing, they are either crazy, or competent enough to not take the apocalypse too seriously. In the first case, we can deal with them fairly easily, and in the second case we can probably have a civil conversation with them.”
Nicole hummed.
“That doesn’t sound too bad. Maybe we can learn something from them.”
Everyone was more or less ok with this decision, even though they knew there was an element of risk. But that was quite natural, since everyone in the party had already become much stronger than what they were before.
As they got closer, they found that it really was what it sounded like. There wasn’t some special type of monster emulating the sound, but rather just three teenagers around the age of Kairos and Nicole, singing.
They all had white masks that covered the top part of their faces, almost like they were at some sort of dance. Other than appearance, these masks didn’t serve much purpose as most of the face was revealed anyway. Their clothes were nothing special, slightly worn down casual clothing.
One of them was a guy with short, but bright white hair. It was fairly clear from the shade of white that this wasn’t someone with aged hair, but dyed hair. He was twirling around a red string with a small red ball on top.
“And I… can’t see… the difference between a nightmare and my life.”
Another was a girl with long blue light blue hair, tied back up into a ponytail. She had a red paddle ball in her hand that she was playing with, though the ball was rather spiky.
“So please, just save me from myself. Cause there’s a side of me~”
The last one was a guy with hair a little longer than usual and light green hair. He seemed to be holding a red pole, but on closer inspection, one would see that it was actually a microphone stand.
“And no one sees it, I battle demons everyday. I can’t escape my mind.”
They were all sitting on the tops of the roofs of various restaurants, sitting across from each other. Their legs dangled carelessly, and they even kicked around at the very edge, clearly not concerned about the fact they were roughly two stories high.
On top of that, they all had smiles, like it was the weekend and they didn’t have to go to school.
The three seemed to notice the others, but didn’t really take much note of them, continuing to sing to themselves.
Nicole gave a small clap and nodded to herself.
“You guys are really good at singing!”
The guy with white hair snapped his finger, which smoothly transitioned into a raised thumb and index finger pointing towards Nicole.
“Haha, naturally.”
The girl with blue hair swayed her head back and forth with a small smile.
“We’ve been doing it since we were eleven, after all.”
The guy with green hair shrugged exaggeratedly.
“It was always us three with each other. Nobody else.”
Chase laughed.
“Are you guys, perchance, a rock band?”
The girl with blue hair raised her hand into the air, pulling back her middle finger and ring finger, but sticking up her pinky and index finger.
“Hell yeah!”
The guy with white hair caught the little ball he was spinning with and smiled.
“Maybe not the most popular one yet, but give us some time and we’ll be the biggest one out there!”
Tori could not help but blink a few times, pausing for a moment before speaking.
“In the apocalypse?”
The guy with green hair laughed, raising his microphone stand high into the air.
“Nothing’s ever stopped us before, and we sure as hell ain’t letting no apocalypse stop us either!”
Though Kairos couldn’t help but think they were stupid for having such ambitions, there was a part of him that could respect such determination.
A very small part of him, but a part of him nonetheless.
He adjusted his glasses.
“I don’t want to be rude, but sound has a chance of attracting monsters. I doubt you will come across many here, but there is always that small chance.”
The girl with blue hair giggled.
“If a monster really comes, then we will just deal with it.”
The guy with green hair swung his microphone stand like it was a sword.
“I’ll just bash its skull open, and that will be that.”
The guy with white hair put a hand on his knee as he arched his back over.
“And if that doesn’t work, we can always run.”
Sam smiled as he looked at those three.
“So how do you plan to become the biggest rock band of the apocalypse? There’s going to be a pretty big roadblock of exposure now that people aren’t exactly on the internet and everything.”
The three of them fell silent for a few moments.
The guy with white hair shrugged his shoulders.
“No idea what we should do, but we are sure as hell going to try.”
Sam rubbed his chin.
“Then wouldn’t you have to go around to various places yourself to make your name known?”
The three of them began thinking.
Kairos narrowed his eyes at that statement and turned his head towards his father.
“You aren’t trying to bring them with us, right?”
Sam smirked.
“Nothing wrong with taking people with us, if they aren’t a burden, no?”
The three teenagers looked at each other, and seemed to have come to an agreement despite not speaking any words.
The white haired guy turned to them.
“Sounds like one of you wants a band on your side, while the other thinks we will just be a burden. How about we show you what we can do?”