Kairos’ mind worked quick, as every single second was one that he could not afford to give.
The red eye would control anybody that looked at it.
That is, unless it was him.
And when he slammed his forehead against Chase’s, it seemed to make his eyes dull slightly.
Dots connected one after another, until Kairos felt he was quite stupid for not getting it earlier.
His glasses.
Kairos grabbed onto his glasses by the bridge before forcefully pushing them onto Chase, focusing on getting the lenses as close to the eyes as possible, and nearly getting them to touch his eyeballs.
Chase had an immediate reaction, gradually closing his eyelids. His body seemed to fall limp too.
Then, he lost consciousness entirely, falling down towards the ground.
Kairos quickly put the glasses back on his face just in case and stuck out his foot, letting Chase’s head land on it. Though he wasn’t sure if Chase could still get injured from falling on his head, Kairos recalled him mentioning it, so he helped out.
And immediately afterwards, he rushed over towards Sam, who was still trying to cut up everyone else.
It did not take long for Sam to get within range to attack the others. Tori seemed to instinctively realize this, as she spun around and decided to face him head on.
Sam recklessly swung his sharpened bone as a faint white light coated it, while Tori raised her katana to block.
An ear-piercing clang rang out.
Tori had raised her katana in time, but Sam was still pressing down on her with the sharpened bone. Uncomfortably loud screeching sounds filled the air as the white light grated against the katana.
Tori was almost immediately pushed back. She grit her teeth as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Though she was trying as hard as she could, the katana continued to press down onto her. Her hand was trembling, and a few tears even formed on her palms.
The difference in strength was just too huge.
While Tori was gasping for breath, she was beginning to lose focus. That was when Sam suddenly backed up, causing her to stumble forwards. Then, with both hands around the bone blade, he traced a vertical arc right towards her neck.
Tori’s eyes widened considerably, and just before the attack connected, she suddenly disappeared, turning into a red mist.
The sharpened bone tore through the air, making a clear whoosh. But that was it.
Tori reappeared at the next moment, heaving even more violently than before. Sam did not delay in bringing down his sword once more, except it didn’t reach Tori.
In fact, it wasn’t even close.
Because he was swinging behind him.
Kairos suddenly stopped in his tracks and leaned back, letting the tip of the sharpened knife pass right by his neck. His pupils were shaking slightly, because he saw his head come off in his future vision.
Kairos sucked in a cold breath as he continued forth, trying to shake off the nervousness. He pulled the glasses off of his face with one hand and grabbed onto Sam’s head with the other.
Naturally, Sam, or more accurately the thing controlling him, wasn’t just going to let him do what he wanted. The sharpened bone once again flashed through the air.
In all honesty, Kairos was a little nervous because of what he just experienced earlier, but quickly calmed down. Neglecting the sharpened bone completely, he pushed the glasses towards Sam’s face.
Nicole was paying attention to the fight a few meters in the distance and noticed that. She ended up taking a step forwards and reaching out with her hand.
“Watch out!”
However, Kairos didn’t react in the slightest.
And right when the bone was just a few centimeters away from his neck, the entire thing self-destructed on itself, turning into several tiny fragments. A few of them scraped into his neck, but were more or less harmless.
With probably more force than necessary, Kairos pressed the bridge of his glasses onto the bridge of his father’s nose. The lenses got right next to his eyes, and the effects were immediate.
The strong red color of his iris turned to hazelnut, as his eyelids fell.
His father was about to collapse, but Kairos caught him before he fell. Right after, he put the glasses securely onto his face and turned to the others.
“We have to run now! Someone pick up Chase.”
Tori dashed over to Chase and picked him up in a princess carry once more. She muttered to herself.
“…He really is a damsel.”
If Chase was awake right now, he would’ve pretended that he was actually asleep so that he wouldn’t have to acknowledge her statement.
With that, the group began running.
However, it didn’t seem like the person behind all of this was going to let them go so easily.
A giant eye appeared on the road, and two more appeared on the sides of two apartment buildings, each nearly taking up their entirety.
Tori, Nicole, and Sydney ended up catching a glance of the eyes, but quickly turned away. They were able to see that there were eyes to the sides and below them in their peripheral vision, thus they naturally looked up towards the sky.
However, there was another surprise waiting for them.
A giant eye, staring down at all of them, far up in the sky.
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“Just close your eyes!”
They all did as told. While Tori was intently keeping her eyes shut, she couldn’t help but raise a point.
“How do we know where to run?”
Kairos furrowed his brows.
“Just follow my voice!”
He looked over his shoulder and continued to call out, saying various variations of ‘over here’, or ‘keep following’. Eventually, Kairos ended up needing to step on the eye and felt quite uncomfortable doing so, however, it was solid enough to the point that he could ignore it.
He decided on retreating entirely, as whatever this was, it was far too risky for them to take it on. Kairos looked over his shoulder once again, but then his face twitched.
For a second, he couldn’t help but tense up and forget to call out, prompting Tori to nervously complain.
It was because there was a monster following them.
It had a hood draped over itself just like the other hooded figures, but this one was clearly different. The monster still had its arms intact, and instead of claws, it just had normal hands. As for the redness of its skin, it was very slight. Enough that one could just mistake it as someone that was slightly sunburned.
In fact, the overall frame of the monster was very similar to a normal human, to the point that it was slightly shorter than Kairos.
However, nobody that looked at its face would consider that it was a normal human.
That was because it had seven eyes and no other facial features.
One of them was a giant eye on his forehead, taking up most of the area, while the others were in two vertical lines across its face.
The giant eye as well as three other eyes were closed. As for two of the eyes, they were open, but also furiously bloodshot. One of them even had a small hole inside it and was bleeding.
As for the last eye, it was noticeably smaller than the rest and looked somewhat shriveled.
It was almost like the monster was slowly growing an eye on its face, or something like that.
The two open eyes seemed to glow, even in the daylight.
They also seemed to hold a clear hatred for Kairos, as though it was desperately wanting to tear him to shreds.
Unfortunately for Kairos, despite the monster being shorter than him, it was faster.
And by quite a bit too.
Kairos took deep breaths and considered his options, but didn’t forget to call out.
“Run faster!”
Tori’s face was flushed, as carrying someone and running as fast as possible wasn’t that easy for her.
“I’m trying!”
Kairos grit his teeth.
“Just run faster!”
A deep frown was forming on his face as he began considering his options. He still had enough mana to cast a relatively strong pulse spell, something that would be enough to instantly kill thirty or so regular monsters.
However, Kairos was not confident that it would be enough to even incapacitate the monster behind him.
He was fairly certain that the monster behind him was the true body of what was controlling all the things from before.
There was a part of Kairos that wanted to fight it.
From what he could tell, it was a rare opportunity where this monster showed itself. Not to mention, it would probably get far stronger in the future.
And he would’ve taken that risk, as stupid as it was.
That is, if he wasn’t carrying his father on his shoulder.
Kairos wasn’t confident that he could protect his father’s life while fighting the monster, thus he stayed resolute in running away.
Seeing the monster gain on them, Kairos slowed down a little, until he was just behind everyone else.
“Keep going forward! I will tell you if something comes up, just focus on running faster!”
Then, mana began gathering towards his hand. It wasn’t enough to make it glow an intense blue, but there was still an indistinct light blue mist surrounding his hand.
Kairos raised his hand towards the monster that was rapidly gaining on them and hoped that this would be enough.
However, he suddenly stopped himself.
And similarly, the monster stopped in its tracks as well.
The four eyes that were closed on his forehead abruptly shot open, while the eye in the sky and on the terrain shut.
Kairos furrowed his brows in confusion, but didn’t stop running.
As for the monster, it was slowly taking a few steps back. There was no facial expression to read, but it seemed nervous.
Then, the monster ended up turning around and breaking into a full-out sprint, going as fast as it could.
As for Kairos, he didn’t feel too good about suddenly getting out of his situation for free.
Though he definitely thought that his chances of death were pretty high if the monster didn’t run away, he still didn’t think their current situation fared any better.
Kairos knew that the monster ran past the boundary that all of the other monsters were unbelievably afraid of. In other words, something frightened it badly.
Frightened it to the point that it began running without abandon, despite all of its hatred.
Despite how strong it was.
Kairos hesitated, but quickly came to a decision, even if it wasn’t the most thought out one.
Because he really felt like there was not enough time.
“Open your eyes and run to the left, right now!”
For a second, everyone was rather confused. They hesitatingly opened their eyes and noticed that the haunting glares coming from all sides were gone.
However, they didn’t relax, because the anxiety in Kairos’ voice was as clear as day.
There just so happened to be a road that led to the left at this junction, the reason why he said to go this way. And the group all ran down this path.
Both Kairos and Tori lagged behind slightly as they were both carrying someone, but they were still running with all their might.
Nicole spoke through heavy breaths.
“What are we running from?”
Kairos was heaving violently, but still responded.
“I don’t know.”
At that moment, a high-pitched screech came from their right, far off in the distance. It sounded like it was at least several kilometers away, but it was still clear to each and every one of them.
Kairos narrowed his eyes.
“…Just know it’s something worse than the thing we just fought.”
A solemn air hung over the group.
As for Chase and Sam, the both of them suddenly furrowed their brows, both having nightmares.