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nKairos narrowed his eyes as he looked at Nyoka. It was unclear at first, but it gradually formed to take the shape of a snake. Though he had no idea what that was supposed to be, it was obviously more than just a little party trick.

nNot wanting to find himself unprepared, he began circulating the mana in his body, attempting to recover the little bit he used with the fire spell earlier. Yet, the moment he tried, he found himself disappointed.

nThe mana in the air was unbelievably sparse, to the point that there was almost none of them at all. It should’ve been rather obvious when he couldn’t see any mana in the air whatsoever. Though while he was fumbling about with his vision, that fact slipped his mind.

nNow that he had a limited supply of mana, his confidence dipped considerably. Assuming this was actually just a spar, he didn’t want to waste any on it. Regardless, he still did want to understand how strong this person really was.

nKairos gave a bitter smile.

n“…It looks like you’re getting serious. Just a reminder, this is a friendly spar, not an all-out brawl.”

nNyoka narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

n“Ah, of course. Things would look far different if I actually went all out.”

nHe suddenly lunged forth and was much faster than before. Kairos backed up as he readied his spear, quickly finding out that their speeds were now matched. This time, Nyoka had pulled out a black knife out of nowhere. Like everything in this place, it was black. He held it like how one would hold a karambit, reverse grip to be exact, but upon taking a closer look he noticed that it was actually a fang of some sort.

nKairos clicked his tongue before lunging forth with his spear, aiming towards the heart. Nyoka responded by ducking downwards, almost like he intended on diving down into the ground. Yet, instead of crashing down like how one might expect, he strangely bounced upwards, almost like he was actually a jumping worm.

nA black fang came straight for the right side of his neck. Kairos immediately threw his head back, causing his hair to fling back. At the same time, the shadowy snake lunged towards him, opening its mouth wide and revealing two translucent white fangs, attempting to take a bite off his shoulder..

nHe twisted his spear, getting just the right angle to block its bite. With a snap, the snake bit down, but it wasn’t unable to damage the spear. As though feeling challenged, the snake continued to press down, and even began tugging, trying harder to break it.

nBut that was when he felt a strong pain in his ankle from his future vision. Following with that, he tucked his leg back despite the fact it would screw up his balance. Right after, he heard a clear snap of someone’s teeth smacking together.

nWith one foot, Kairos twirled almost like a ballerina, just at a diagonal angle. At the same time, he was able to get his spear to slip out the side of the snake’s mouth. Upon creating distance once more, Nyoka didn’t close it in order to keep the advantage. Instead, he just stood up and looked back with a smile.

n“You don’t have the instincts, that’s for sure.”

nKairos raised an eyebrow.

n“Ah, the instincts to try and bite someone’s ankles? Sorry, but I’m not a puppy.”

nNyoka let out a laugh.

n“Are you kidding me? Using your teeth is just common sense. It’s just something you find out once you stay here for a little while. And look at you, having claws but not even trying to make any use of them. Not to mention, haven’t you noticed your teeth changed as well?”

nKairos blinked a few times. One of his hands let go of the spear and he brought it up to his face to take a closer look. From there, he opened his mouth a little and lightly tapped the end of the claw against his teeth.

nThe first thing he noticed was that it was sharp. Very sharp. He could’ve compared it to a wolf’s teeth, but it was nothing like that. Rather, it was more like a piranha, sharp and long, but they still neatly fit together when he closed his mouth.

n“…Huh. It sounds like things down here really are bad.”

nNyoka chuckled.

n“Well, of course. So you really are fresh from the surface, huh? That or you are the most thorough liar I’ve ever seen in the world.”

nA bitter smile formed on Kairos’ face.

n“I’m pretty confident in my lying, but that’s unfortunately not what’s happening here.”

nNyoka gave a small nod.

n“How did you get so strong anyway? You look so lanky, but you must’ve been some sort of martial arts expert, right?”

nKairos rolled his eyes. He then began to realize that Nyoka probably didn’t actually understand the state of the world on the surface.

n“No, not anything like that. How long have you been down here by the way?”

nNyoka raised an eyebrow. The shadowy snake figure slowly retracted. He put a hand on his hip and sighed.

n“No way for me to know. Frankly, there’s no real way to keep track of time down here. But if I had to say, it’s at least a few years. And I don’t think that’s an exaggeration either.”

nKairos gave a nod.

n“Huh… so what do you even do around here?”

nNyoka blinked a few times.

n“The main thing is just trying to survive. But if you’re an ambitious one, you’d try to descend down through the layers. Though from the sounds of things, you should probably stay on this one for a little while.”

nKairos gave another nod and opened his mouth to speak once more. However, Nyoka cut him off, acting as though it was only natural.

n“Now that I’ve answered some of your questions, could you tell me how the hell you got here in the first place? And how did you… get that transformation?”

nKairos blinked a few times. He wasn’t all that keen on answering questions, but it was fair enough given that he had given somewhat decent answers and did do that spar. Not to mention, it sounded like he was willing to help him out, which he had already done.

n“Well, I should start from the beginning. To put it simply, the world on the surface is kinda plunged into an apocalypse right now. The sun suddenly turned red one day, then a bunch of people began turning into monsters and tearing people apart.”

nHearing that, Nyoka’s eyes widened all the way.

n“What? An apocalypse on the surface? But…”

nKairos shrugged his shoulders.

n“It started in the last month or so. On top of that, people were able to get far stronger than their normal selves. I’m not sure if you realized, but the strength I have now has nothing to do with my transformation. It’s a little complicated to explain how I got here, but it’s related to the apocalypse. As for my transformation, it probably has something to do with how I’m far stronger than the normal human at this point.”

nBy the end, he felt a little irked after saying all that. That was because Nyoka didn’t look like he had even heard anything. Eventually, he gave a light nod.

n“Ah, yeah…”

nKairos didn’t exactly didn’t know what to say for quite a few moments. Nyoka did not have any intention of starting up a conversation either. Though, as he was thinking of a way to break the silence, Nyoka suddenly grabbed onto the side of his head with distress, while his face turned into an ugly grimace.

n“Fuck… **… **, **, FUCK, FUCK!”

nKairos narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.

n“…Uh, are you good? I may be reading this wrong, but you can’t possibly be worried about the people on the surface right? How does the apocalypse have anything to do with you if you’re down here?”

nNyoka crouched down onto his feet. Those words didn’t seem to reassure him at all.

n“Ah…”

nKairos let out a soft sigh. He got a small idea of what he was thinking of. There were probably people up on the surface that he still cared about, family, friends, or something like that. Hearing that there was an apocalypse meant that they were probably dead. A small smile formed on his face.

n“Hey, come on. I don’t know who you care so much about on the surface, but just because there’s an apocalypse doesn’t mean they are dead.”

nHe held back his next words, holding them inside. Not saying that the chances of them being alive was next to none given how many had already died.

nNyoka slowly got back up, with a sad smile on his face.

n“I guess… but if it’s her, then she probably wouldn’t even try to survive.”

nKairos blinked a few times.

n“…Who are you talking about?”

nNyoka looked at him strangely.

n“I really shouldn’t tell you but-“

nA sad smile formed on his face.

n“I guess I will.”

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