Ling seemed rather offended by Chase’s statement.
“I-I’m not naive!”
Sydney smiled bitterly.
“Chase, he’s just a child. What more could you expect out of him?”
Chase let out a soft sigh.
“He may only be a child, but it’s not about what one should expect from a child. It’s about what is required from him because of the environment.”
Tai sensed the tension in the air, but could only look back and forth between Ling and Chase awkwardly due to his lack of understanding.
Tori cleared her throat.
“I uh… do think that you won’t be able to stay alive long with the way you are right now.”
Ling clenched his fists as they rested at his sides. There was a clear frown on his face.
“But… but…”
Kairos decided to interject.
“There is a miniature city that we came from.”
Everyone quieted down somewhat, letting his voice come out a little clearer.
“In that place, people that are at the lowest rank have the opportunity to farm in order to live. It won’t be the easiest as you will have to give ninety percent of everything you farm to the city, but it is the best way to guarantee a food supply.”
Ling pouted.
“I don’t need to become a farmer!”
Chase spoke up.
“Have you ever killed a monster yet?”
Ling crossed his arms.
“Yes!”
Chase followed up with another question.
“And was it with your old man’s help?”
Ling did not respond.
Chase spoke passively.
“You can either choose to go and be a farmer for the rest of your life, or learn how to defend yourself.”
Ling still seemed rather angry.
Chase continued.
“You can’t rely on him forever.”
Ling’s expression froze on his face. It took him a little while, but he did respond.
“I… I know that.”
Tai seemed to be unable to stand it at this point, grabbing onto Ling’s shoulder and anxiously asking what they meant. Though he didn’t seem to be the most willing, Ling complied.
He was rather timid while explaining, and by the end, Tai gave him a hug.
Nicole had calmed down somewhat and muttered lightly to Kairos.
“I’m kinda jealous, to be honest.”
She sighed.
“…Are you also jealous?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Not really. Their situation isn’t all that different from ours.”
Nicole seemed a little confused.
“Eh? What do you-”
“Uh, you name Chase?”
Tai spoke up over Nicole.
Chase let out a soft hum.
“Yes.”
He looked a little heavy-hearted and gave a small bow.
“Ling is… only family. I can protect.”
Chase sighed.
“Ling, tell him that even if he wants to protect you, he can’t. Assuming you want to live for longer than a few days, this is a choice you have to make.”
Ling seemed a bit perturbed, but did so without much restraint.
Tai seemed rather worked up first, but fell silent soon after. It seemed he wanted to declare that he would be able to protect him, but soon realized that would be a fake promise.
Ling ended up asking Tai for his opinion on what choice he should make.
Tai opened his mouth.
But no words came out.
Chase did not understand the language they were speaking but was still able to make all of that out.
“You have to make the choice by yourself.”
Ling frowned slightly.
“Alright! I… I will become strong enough to protect myself!”
To such a determined answer, Chase seemed rather disdainful.
“No.”
Ling seemed quite confused.
“E-Eh?”
Chase sighed.
“You have made your choice far too early. This isn’t something you can just make a decision on.”
He paused.
“First try and see what it is really like to go out and fight. Only if you understand how that works, will you ever be able to come to a decision.”
Tori tilted her head to the side.
“It almost sounds like you are the mother of that child or something.”
She smiled soon afterwards.
“Hehe, glad to see my fair maiden is so caring.”
Chase didn’t snap back this time, opting to remain silent.
As for Ling, he took a deep breath.
“Then… I will try.”
Chase closed his eyes.
“Mhm.”
Then, he fell asleep.
The tense situation seemed to die down rather fast, with most of the people deciding to try and get some sleep. Nicole clenched onto Kairos’ hand a little tighter.
“I guess… everyone is struggling.”
Kairos muttered.
“That was always the case, even before everything went to crap.”
After saying that, he decided to get some rest. Rather than tired, he was more so hungry. However, Kairos imagined that it would be really annoying to try and eat while his cheek was torn open. As such, he just hoped that it would heal by morning and that he could try again at that time.
Nicole coughed awkwardly.
“Um, I will take the first watch then.”
With his head down, Kairos then tried his best to fall asleep. Though it didn’t come easily, it came soon enough.
He found himself in a dream. When he first came to that realization, he couldn’t help but feel afraid. After all, his previous experiences with dreams were all fairly bad and consisted mainly of the red sun.
Ironically enough, Kairos had been getting the best sleep in a while when the apocalypse had started.
Nonetheless, as unpleasant as those dreams of the red sun were, they were also a warning. As such, Kairos snapped to attention, paying close attention to his surroundings.
Though, his surroundings made it hard to care that much.
He was sitting on a bench, in the middle of a city. The streets were dirty, but they were also filled with people walking to and fro. It was definitely not the apocalypse, that was for sure.
After watching all these people walk past, Kairos gradually lost interest. He gradually discarded the possibility of this dream being a warning of some sort.
“…Huh, is this a normal dream?”
Kairos wasn’t familiar with this kind of dream as it was either nothing, or a painful dream. He heard somewhere that some people thought of dreams as some sort of representation of their life or concerns.
Though he didn’t see anything like that, so he just decided to lay back on the bench and relax. He figured that it might be one of the few times he could do so, even if it was actually just in a dream.
His eyes gradually shut.
Just a few moments after, he could hear someone sitting down on the bench next to him. Kairos slowly opened his eyes to be greeted by a blurry figure. It was a person that was a little taller than him, but had a similar hairstyle. As for the clothes, they were pure black and slim.
This blurry figure was quite noticeable considering that everyone else in the crowd was clearly visible.
He was looking at Kairos and waved his hand in greeting.
“Mhhm.”
Like his overall appearance, even his voice was extremely blurred, making it hard to make out. Kairos blinked a few times, wondering if this was to represent something to him.
“Um, who are you?”
The blurry figure made various gestures and let out various words that sounded like intense vibrations rather than anything coherent.
After not getting a response, the figure seemed to realize that there was a problem in his form of communication. He rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. After a few moments, he raised his index finger and let out a muffled gasp.
The figure seemed to come up with an idea.
It turned to look at Kairos and grabbed onto his chin. As the person being grabbed, Kairos couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable with how touchy that person was being. Before he could say anything else, he suddenly found himself locked in place.
Suddenly, the figure’s eyes lit up. They had become exceedingly clear, to the point that it was somehow more visible than everything else. They shone with a myriad of bright colors that constantly alternated and shifted. It was similar to a rainbow, but the saturation of the colors were too low for it to be considered as such.
Nonetheless, they were exceedingly bright, but not in a way that would make one want to squint. Instead, they just seemed to hold a strange kind of beauty.
It did not hold the kind of appeal that made one admire it, but rather the kind that would make one want to stare at it for a little longer, almost like they were fascinated.
That was what happened to Kairos, but right after, a mind numbing pain traveled through his entire body. It was incredibly horrible, especially so for his eyes. The pain was far greater than the time he had those dreams of the red sun. This was also taking into consideration his increased willpower which surpressed the pain by a considerable amount.
Kairos thought he would be able to finally escape those painful dreams, but it turned out that he still had one in the end.
During this painful experience, he saw many things flash by one after another. They hardly even stayed for a tenth of a second, making it extremely difficult to pick up on them as well as remember what they were. But despite the torturous pain, he focused as hard as he could on them. Kairos was able to make out a few events.
It was him in the apocalypse.
But the key thing was that they hadn’t happened yet.
He could just barely make out various giant monsters, and many different forms of explosions and spells colliding with one another.
And he also saw dead people.
In particular, the ones that were in his group such as Chase, Nicole, and even Tiana.
By the time they all settled down, Kairos felt rather exhausted. There was a still lingering headache, and when he began to understand his situation, he realized that he was crumpled down on the floor.
He took in a few deep breaths as the world gradually came back into focus.
“Hey, can you hear me now?”
There was a voice from above that was quite nonchalant.
With one hand on the side of his head, Kairos looked up to see that the blurry figure had become quite clear. His eyes were still the same alternating colors that he had seen before and a cocky smile was on his face.
The people that were walking on the street didn’t seem to notice Kairos’ state, walking by as though they hadn’t seen anything. Though, he wasn’t sure if they actually couldn’t see him, because he doubted anyone would actually bother sparing a glance even if they did.
With a sigh, he got back on the bench and turned to the young man sitting next to him.
“I can hear you now.”
The young man clapped a few ties.
“Ah! That’s great, that’s great.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“It’s not the greatest for me.”
The young man had a shocked expression, though it was fairly clear to see that he was faking his shock.
“Well whatever could you mean by that?”
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.
“Making someone go through that experience isn’t exactly the most courteous thing.”
The young man held onto his chin and looked like he was pondering.
“That’s strange, I would actually think of it as a very kind thing.”
Kairos waited in silence for a few seconds.
“Are you really a person in my dream?”
The young man switched back to his cocky smile faster than someone that was bipolar.
“Sort of, but not really.”
Kairos clicked his tongue.
“Could you give any more of a vague answer?”
The young man laughed.
“It’s complicated, alright.”
Kairos sighed.
“What the hell do you want?”
That was when the young man awkwardly fell silent. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth, but then closed it again.
“Haha…”