With one hand on her back, and another holding up her legs, Kairos held Nicole up.

After a few moments, the trio from earlier leaped back up the wall, some of which had to get some assistance from Tiana to get up, as they were unable to jump all the way.

From there, the group gradually descended from the top of the walls, as a section of it lowered itself at a steady rate.

Tiana held onto the side of her head.

“Is there any way to prevent these monster attacks?”

That was mostly a rhetorical question, but she got some responses anyway.

“Uh, maybe get rid of all the monsters?”

Nick lifted his finger up as he proposed the idea, not even questioning for a second the actual feasibility of getting rid of every single monster.

Tiana held onto her face with a bit of resignation.

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that?”

Eric shrugged his shoulders.

“Slowly but surely!”

Tiana sighed.

“Sorry, just forget I ever asked.”

There were a few seconds of awkward silence, but Kairos soon spoke up after.

“Actually, I think that’s the right idea.”

Tiana turned to him with a look of bewilderment.

“Huh?”

Kairos sighed.

“This is gonna need a bit of context to explain, so get ready to listen to a monologue.”

Tiana slowly nodded.

“Alright, let’s hear it.”

Kairos narrowed his eyes as he recalled the past events.

“Just in the first few days in the apocalypse, I remember me and my group just so happened to come across a strange basement that expanded outwards, filled with rock that had red veins on them.”

Jenny pointed towards the spear he had on his back.

“Like that thing?”

Kairos nodded.

“Yes, I got the spear from them before, but that’s not related right now.”

He continued to recount the story.

“Upon walking further into the place, we discovered several monsters. I believe… there were six at the time. All of them were extremely different compared to normal ones. They did not lunge out at us immediately, and seemed to possess a great deal of intelligence.”

Tiana couldn’t help but look rather disbelieving, and even opened her mouth, about to protest. However, she soon shut it after looking at Nicole’s despondent and slightly frightened expression.

Kairos took a deep breath.

“Though, the strangest part of them all to me, was the fact that they could speak, albeit broken up and hoarse sounding. They told us about passing some sort of trial, and we decided to accept it. Each of us battled until we gained the recognition of the other monster, who all had strange abilities.”

He furrowed his brow.

“Unfortunately, if it was an actual duel or spar, none of us would’ve won simply due to the sheer difference in ability.”

Chase clicked his tongue.

“Hey, I broke the shield of the spellcaster fairly easily.”

Kairos rolled his eyes.

“If they were really fighting to the death, how sure are you that you’d win? What if they continued to cast even after the shield broke?”

Chase’s eyelid twitched.

“Ha… I suppose so.”

Kairos shook his head.

“Anyway, after beating that trial, we were taken to meet the person behind it all. He calls himself The Red Priest, part of some stupid religion called The Church of Evolution. He has some sort of red bead that seems to be able to jumpstart the evolution of others, transforming them into a monster. However, I’m not sure whether it’s from the red bead, or if it’s some sort of ability he has but…”

He paused.

“…The people he transforms all retain a startlingly large amount of intelligence, and they all obey him like he’s their savior or something.”

Tiana blinked a few times.

“…Huh. A crazy cult leader.”

Kairos shrugged.

“He attempted to convert us as well, but we were lucky enough that there was an active teleportation circle they had, and we tricked him into teleporting away.”

Tiana pressed her lips together.

“So… how does this relate to what we were talking about earlier?”

Kairos cleared his throat.

“I’m not sure, but I think that they are behind this monster attack.”

Tiana’s eyes widened.

“What?”

Kairos continued.

“When I was dropped off on that faraway building, I was later attacked by a small monster covered in a black cloak. Although it never spoke once, it showed intelligence that was higher than most normal people. It attempted to stop me after noticing that I had casted that fireball, which is also why I didn’t support you guys after that.”

Tiana bit the bottom of her lip.

“…Were you able to kill that monster?”

Kairos shook his head.

“Not even close. It was far too fast, and wouldn’t show itself if I started channeling any flashy spells. If that thing was focused on escaping, then I doubt any of us could do anything about it.”

Tiana blinked a few times.

“…So we just have to get stronger faster and then take out this church?”

Kairos smiled bitterly.

“That’s the gist of it, but… it’s honestly kinda unfair.”

Tiana raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

Tori frowned.

“I remember that red priest guy had some weird power that hurt a lot.”

Kairos nodded.

“It does severe damage depending on how much you’ve evolved, I believe. Nearly all of us were crippled, and that was when we were F rank.”

Tiana sucked in a cold breath.

“…What if we focus on taking out the others?”

Kairos sighed.

“Even if we assume that the red priest won’t just make more somehow, they are all way too strong.”

Tiana didn’t seem to understand the gravity behind what he was saying.

“Well, we are strong too, no?”

Kairos laughed.

“Relative to the average, maybe…”

He then closed his eyes.

“When I was gone on my own before, I ended up encountering one of the monsters from that church. It was one known for its durability. I’m not sure how, but it crawled out of some space, revealing itself to be a giant skeleton.”

From his words, nobody was that fazed. After all, they had been dealing with giant monsters already.

Kairos cringed slightly.

“Due to special circumstances, I was able to cast a spell that had the same power as one with sixty points in magical affinity, and was able to cast it at point-blank range.”

He paused.

“…But the only thing I did was nick the top of its forehead slightly.”

Everyone seemed a little surprised, but couldn’t really conceptualize it.

However, Tiana herself had seized up, as she had a fairly clear understanding of how strong that was.

“…I can hardly believe you. You have to be joking, right?”

Kairos shook his head.

“This isn’t something I would joke about. I hardly even joke around in the first place.”

Tiana pressed her eyelids together tightly.

“So basically, you’re saying we’re **ed?”

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

“Kinda. Basically, we gotta hope for some kind of miracle.”

Nick chuckled.

“Ey, don’t need to take it so hard, yo.”

Eric raised one finger into the sky.

“It’s not about how damn impossible the goal is, but whether or not you believe in yourself.”

Tiana crossed her arms and sighed.

As for Kairos, he rolled his eyes, but was smiling.

“I guess so. That will be way more believable once you become a famous band.”

Jenny laughed.

“Then just you wait. The whole damn world is gonna know our band.”

Kairos shrugged his shoulders.

“Alright, I’ll be waiting.”

By now, the group had descended down to the ground and began walking into the city.

Though the sight made them all a little bit surprised.

Every single one of the farmers, without exception, were on their knees and bowing in their general direction. It was eerily silent, with none of them even daring to sneeze.

Tiana blinked several times.

“What’s going on?”

Kairos scratched the side of his head.

“Guess they are just grateful that we defended them.”

Eric rubbed his chin.

“Hm… but last time we defended this place they weren’t like this.”

Nicole smiled slightly.

“Maybe they realized how scary the things are, and now understand the safety of this place.”

Kairos slowly nodded.

“Ah, maybe it was because you lifted that giant head up in the air, Eric.”

Eric let out a hum.

“Ha, seems like I’m something of a genius myself.”

Kairos rolled his eyes.

“Come on, you didn’t even think of that, how are you a genius?”

Eric simply began humming a tune, completely dodging the question.

It was actually just as Kairos had said. The people didn’t exactly understand how terrifying the monsters on the outside were, so when they saw the head land on top of the city walls, and how big it was compared to the tiny people standing there, they immediately realized what kind of protection they were receiving.

Though the ones near the other side of the city didn’t fully understand what was going on, just the explosion from Kairos’ first fireball was enough to scare them.

One of the farmers began kneeling before they knew it, and soon enough everyone else followed that example without a word.

And so, the group walked back to the center of the city.

Upon getting back, Nick couldn’t help but raise his mic stand up in the air triumphantly.

“That felt so cool! So many people were in awe of us!”

Eric laughed.

“But it will be nothing compared to when they do that because of our music!”

Chase took a deep breath.

“It feels as though I’ve been taken back to the times of aristocracy.”

Tori pressed her lips together.

“I… didn’t really like it.”

Chase looked at her and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything more.

Nicole weakly spoke to Kairos.

“Um, could you take me to my room? I’m really tired.”

Kairos nodded.

“Sure.”

Though he struggled slightly, he was able to bring himself up to the third floor. The ice that had been there earlier had somewhat melted, but it was still quite slippery.

Though Kairos felt like he might be able to trek through this icy place, that was only in consideration he had his future vision. But even if he felt it was possible, it was probably going to be a huge pain considering the current state of his body.

Kairos coughed.

“Um, maybe your room isn’t the best place right now.”

Nicole pouted.

“…then how about your room?”

Kairos nodded. That was the most logical conclusion.

“Alright.”

He brought her back down to his own room and brought her in there. Since Kairos had never been in the bedroom before, he had to check a few rooms before finally getting to it. Surprisingly enough, despite being a place meant for one person, there were two king-size beds in the room.

Without really thinking about it, he pulled off the covers and set Nicole down on it. Then when he was going to put the covers back on, he found himself unable to.

Because Nicole was still clinging onto his arm.

Kairos blinked a few times.

“What are you doing?”

Nicole blushed slightly.

“W-Well we agreed that we could still have hugs, right?”

Kairos stared at her blankly.

“I don’t see how that’s related.”

Nicole puffed her cheeks up.

“You need to rest too, right? We may as well hug at the same time, then… it’s time-efficient!”

Kairos’ eyelid twitched.

“But neither of us have showered for over a week now. It’s not going to smell nice.”

Nicole smiled.

“Come on, it won’t be anything compared to what we’ve smelled before. If anything, it would be better for us to get used to bad smells.”

Kairos smiled bitterly.

“How come you’re suddenly so smart now?”

Nicole giggled.

“…Well, logic seems to be best when it comes to convincing, so…”

Kairos sighed.

“…I’m probably going to regret this, but alright.”

Nicole smiled happily and essentially dragged him in. Then, she immediately wrapped her arms around him tightly.