I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

Not long after, Nyoka and the others had finished killing and looting the monster in the room they had gone into. When they came around, Kairos turned around with a forced smile on his face.

All three of them showed surprise and concern, even Jeff who usually had a hard time showing any emotion at all.

Nyoka exaggeratedly raised a finger for a second before pointing it at him.

"Are you alright? You seem to be even more unstable than last time."

Kairos couldn't help but roll his eyes. He waved his hand dismissively.

"I'm fine, alright? Stop overreacting."

Sara was smiling, though the corners of her lip twitched. While tilting her head to the side, she questioned him, clearly not believing that everything was fine.

"Haha, maybe you should take a bit of rest before continuing on. Just for a little bit."

She pressed her hands together, almost like she was trying to console a child. Jeff gave a few nods, clearly in agreement.

"It seems like you are a bit tired, and need some time to cool off."

Kairos couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Despite the fact they had only known each other for a few days or so, it appeared that the kind of person he was had been quite clear to them. They already understood that this was extremely out of character for him.

"Seriously, I'm fine. I get that it looks a little weird, but I'm trying something out. Maybe it's a little bit unsightly, but I'm going to try and smile. Please just bear with it even if it makes you feel like throwing up while looking at it."

Nyoka and the others looked at each other, almost like they were confirming that the words they heard were real. It was as though they simply couldn't trust the fact that they didn't mishear.

This wasn't lost on Kairos, who felt like they were overreacting a little too much.

"Look, I get that I've been acting a bit unhinged lately. To be honest, I can't even be too sure if I was in control, or some sort of other personality at any point in time. However, one thing I can be confident in is that this decision wasn't because of some bout of craziness. At the very least, most of it was made while rational."

Jeff rubbed his chin a little before bluntly speaking up.

"Crazy people are always the first to say that they aren't crazy."

Kairos shrugged his shoulders, the corner of his lip turning up slightly.

"And so are the ones that are accused of being crazy when they really are in full control... Er, well maybe not full control, but close enough."

Sara blinked a few times. She didn't say anything, only looking at him with a puzzled expression. It seemed that while she didn't fully disbelieve Kairos, it was also hard for her to completely believe him either.

As for Nyoka, he let out a laugh before pointing at him.

"But I'm going to miss the old you after a little while if you suddenly change like this."

Kairos crossed his arms and let out a forced laugh.

"To be honest, if you actually do notice a difference in the first place, I'd be really surprised. It's really still going to be the old me, just one that's desperately trying to make a change."

Jeff stared at him blankly for a while.

"But it's not like you can just smile and be happy all of a sudden. From what I understand, you should understand that very well."

Kairos' smile ended up widening slightly, as well as becoming fairly natural. Despite his monstrous appearance, it appeared quite gentle.

"No matter how you put it, smiling while you don't actually have a reason to is a lie. But I'm smiling not because it will make me happy, or to try and convince other people that. It's to lie to myself, despite knowing it. That way, at least if one day I am happy, then I won't be lying to myself and denying that fact."

A moment of silence lingered between them. Sara couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

"When you put it like that, it really... really, makes me question... some things."

She trailed off, her voice quickly turning into a whisper. Though a rather bright smile remained on her face the entire time.

Kairos looked off down the gloomy and dark corridor. He spoke in a somewhat upbeat, but strained tone.

"So, where are we off to next?"

It was a strange tone he had, half filled with excitement, while the other was apathetic. Still, regardless of how it came off, he was looking ahead. He began walking, not really at a brisk pace, but not at a slow one either.

Nyoka let out an awkward laugh as a bitter smile formed on his face..

"Actually, we were thinking of taking a break to recover. Our avatars were all either injured or at least a bit tired now. Yours especially so."

Kairos stopped his walk awkwardly, before letting out a laugh.

"Ah, you're probably right. That's my bad."

Nyoka crossed his arms and looked at him silently for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"Yeah, I already miss the old you, I can't lie."

Kairos chuckled while waving his hand dismissively.

"Anyway, would it really be safe to take a rest right here?"

Nyoka shrugged his shoulders.

"Monsters won't bother coming to the hallways due to the thin density of black fog. However, there's always the concern of other people. While we don't really have to sleep, it will increase the recovery of our wounds. We can always just have one person awake to notify the others if someone really does come."

Jeff pitched in with his own statement.

"Though the probability is low unless someone had followed us since this dungeon is essentially a twisting maze."

Kairos nodded a few times.

"Alright then, I guess I can take the first watch."

Sara sat down on the ground and got as comfortable as she could.

"Thank you then."

Without waiting another second, she closed her eyes and seemed to doze off in a moment or so. Both Nyoka and Jeff followed suit, falling asleep in a matter of seconds. Kairos couldn't help but feel astounded by the sight.

It wasn't just the strange trust they had for him, but also simply the fact that they were even able to fall asleep that quickly. Even at his fastest, he needed a few minutes at least.

Kairos let out a weak laugh before he sat against a wall, with both sides of the hallways within his peripheral vision. The faint sounds of breathing and occasional roars in the distance were all he heard. Though after sitting in silence for a little while, he felt like it might've been better to start humming.

So he did, though without really any kind of tune to follow, since the only songs he could remember were from the strange trio he had met a while ago. And he frankly only heard snippets of those songs.

Still, he did his best in just having fun with it, singing random tunes that didn't make the most sense, but it didn't really have to.

However, his broken melodies would have to wait, as he caught someone walking by themselves slowly approaching from a distance. Kairos went over to wake up the others.

"Hey, there's someone here."

The three of them woke up, Jeff immediately springing up to his feet, while the other two were a slight bit slower and groggy. Nyoka didn't seem particularly concerned, scratching the back of his head.

"I didn't think that this would happen so soon."

It did not take long for everyone's eyes to land on the person in the distance. By now, their features were clear enough to make out.

The man had long black hair and a healthy peach skin tone. All things considered, the man looked quite similar to a normal person.

Which was a huge red flag.

Because the general person here had pale skin and gray hair. Kairos was a monster currently, but he was still less of an exception since monsters weren't exactly a rarity in this place.

The man had his eyes closed, but there was some still slightly wet black blood smeared on top, looking almost like a blindfold. He was walking very deliberately, making sure his feet didn't drag against the ground, or even slide against the ground at all. It would be incorrect to say that it was floaty, but they were completely silent.

The man himself was wearing robes that were fairly loose, swinging about as he moved around.

Kairos stepped up with a smile.

"Hello there, do you have any business with us or are you just passing by?"

The man looked over and had a rather calming voice.

"I am looking for something. Have you seen it?"

  Kairos blinked a few times.

"Um, what exactly is it?"

The man lowered his voice slightly.

"Artifacts. Red in color, and tends to take on basic geometric shapes. I can sense multiple nearby."

The corner of Kairos' lip twitched as he realized what he was talking about.