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nKairos transformed into his human form and entered the door while Sara entered the other one. As Sara had said, there was a random blue bar between them supported by a separate grey bar that seemed to keep it up.

nSara grabbed her end without much concern. When Kairos grabbed onto one end of the blue bar, he felt his fingers meld into the bar for a moment, which was a rather strange sensation.

nAnd right after, a whistle rang out through the air, while the grey bar suddenly disappeared. The weight of the blue bar was nothing special, easily supported by both Sara and Kairos.

nFrom there, they took steps forward. Karios saw his foot touch nothing and lose balance before falling forth.

nHe quickly stopped himself and spoke up as Sara took a step forth.

n“There appears to be no floor ahead of me.”

nSara seemed fine as she took a step forward though. She turned to look at him and chuckled.

n“Oh, right, you also have to walk on a pole to move forth, but you can’t see it.”

nKairos furrowed his brows and decided to do as told, and when he did take a step forward, he did end up finding the pole.

nCalmly, he put his other foot just ahead and slowly began inching forth. Other than the uncomfortable walking, there was nothing for the first five minutes.

nKairos was starting to feel lax, yet right when he did he heard voices.

n“Hey, come over here”

n“What are you doing over there? Come here!”

n“Come onnn!”

nThey were the voices of kids. Kairos ended up looking at them, but there wasn’t anything there other than a black void. The corner of his eyelid twitched. For whatever reason, those voices felt vaguely familiar, but he wasn’t able to attach any people he knew to those voices.

nAfter concluding that they all must’ve been illusions, he shook his head and focused on moving forward. Though, the voices still called out to him every now and then, which was becoming more annoying than anything to Kairos.

nThankfully, they eventually began dying down, allowing him to relax somewhat.

nAfter another few minutes though, he heard a voice again. But this time, it was more than just familiar.

n“Kairos.”

nThe voice was gentle. But contrary to how unhurried that voice was, his head snapped to the side like a magnet. Though half expecting to just see a void, he ended up seeing his mother.

nThere was a neutral smile on her face, while both hands were in front of her like she was standing for a presentation. Her eyes seemed to hold little to no emotion, almost like she was actually a doll on the inside.

nMost normal people would look at that and say that was not how a mother would look at their child. However, Kairos didn’t sense anything strange. In fact, if anything it was too normal.

nHis lips parted, about to say something. However, his rationality quickly came back to him, holding him back in place. Right, this wasn’t his actual mother. After all, she had already become some giant mess of obscenely large tentacles and was also absurdly strong.

nKnowing that made it far easier to ignore.

nAnd as though the hallucination knew that, it disappeared promptly. Kairos narrowed his eyes slightly. From what he gathered, the hallucinations somehow or another found a way to prey on his psyche. Perhaps they were actually made by himself, but the visions were starting to dig into his memory.

nAs he thought that, he saw visions.

nFirst, it was his parents covered in blood and with their eyes missing. They were reaching out to him.

n“Save us… Save us…”

nKairos clicked his tongue, but other than that was rather unfazed.

nThe hallucinations disappeared a little while later. He let out a small sigh and focused on walking on the pole while supporting the beam.

nThere was a bit of trembling coming from the other side, as though Sara was struggling herself. However, not once was the beam ever let go of. Although it might’ve been too early to conclude, it didn’t look like she would fail here.

nWhether it was because of her will or she had practice.

nKairos took even breaths while walking. While going, he suddenly thought of just closing his eyes, so that he wouldn’t be able to see anything. Yet, a few moments after doing just that, he saw everything normally. He was very sure his eyes were closed, but it didn’t matter whether they were closed or not.

nIn the end, he just reopened his eyes.

nA few moments later, he saw Nicole. She was just a few steps away but was crawling on the ground. One of her legs was ripped off, while the other was being pulled back as well.

n“K-Kairos! Help me! Please help me! You love me don’t you?”

nHis eyelid twitched. It was a rather jarring scene for him, but he still didn’t budge. He was able to ignore it since he knew that Nicole wouldn’t say something like that, even if she was dying.

nStill, the hallucinations were rather persistent, starting to show the entire team he had all dying in front of him one after the other. However, Kairos had already mentally prepared himself for their death.

nNot that he would be able to walk it off completely, but he also understood it was very possible for one of them to die. As such, he came to terms before it happened, instead of being blinded should it suddenly happen.

nAdding on top of that they weren’t even real in the first place.

nThe visions continued for quite a while. However, with every passing second, Kairos only grew more confident. He imagined that it wouldn’t be too hard for him to deal with them if this was the worst that they had.

nKairos wasn’t paying much attention, just continuing to run on by as the faces of people he knew continued to die in various gruesome ways. Though at this point, gore scenes couldn’t be considered anything new to him, so it was more or less manageable.

nBut eventually-

n“Kairos!”

nThe sounds of giggling came from his side. Though he knew he shouldn’t, he couldn’t stop himself from looking over. It was Nicole and Edward. Except instead of them at their actual age, he saw them as kids.

nThey both had bright smiles on their faces and were looking at him with excitement.

nAlthough it took him a second to realize, he saw himself as a kid as well, while his glasses were gone. For some reason, even the pain he would normally feel from seeing the future was gone.

nEdward tilted his head to the side innocently while waving at him.

n“Hey, Kairos! What are you doing?”

nNicole let out a giggle and reached out to grab his hand.

n“Come on, dummy! Let’s go play!”

nKairos was rather surprised, as he felt a physical tug. He furrowed his brows and decided to do everything he could to remain still, resisting against the pull. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry, he didn’t even walk forward. Although Sara seemed surprised, she stopped to match his pace.

nHe was afraid that the feeling of being pulled was actually a hallucination, and then his resistance to the tug would actually lead to him falling off the pole.

nSeeing his resistance, Nicole pouted and tugged a few more times.

n“Kairos? Come on! Don’t you want to play with us? We wanted to try that new game you thought of! Pleaseeee?”

nEdward clapped his hands a few times as a somewhat goofy smile was on his face.

n“Do you need to go to the washroom? Hurry up and go, so that we can play! I’m really excited!”

nKairos took a deep breath, muttering to himself.

n“So… they can even use this kind of thing.”

nNicole leaned in closer, putting her ear next to his face.

n“Eh? What did you say? I didn’t hear!”

nA bitter smile slowly formed on Kairos’ face.

n“Sorry, I have something to do. I can’t go and play with you today.”

nNicole let out a gasp, retracting as though she heard someone died.

n“Ehhh? But you promised! I was looking forward to this day for so long!”

nEdward let out a whimper.

n“No fair! You said that you would! You don’t have to do that now, play with us instead.”

nKairos averted his gaze and blinked a few times. He slowly shook his head.

nƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

nEdward pursed his lips with frustration.

n“You… really can’t come?”

nHe had puppy dog eyes as he looked over. As for Nicole, she no longer tugged on him. However, she looked at him with a distraught expression.

n“B-But it’s not the same if you aren’t there! I… I…”

nShe interlaced her fingers together and looked down at the floor.

n“Please don’t leave…”

nKairos took another deep breath before he slowly moved on forward again. He muttered to himself once more while furrowing his brows.

n“I underestimated the hallucinations.”

nHe shook his head, trying to settle down some of his emotions that were getting restless. Now he was a tad bit afraid of the hallucinations. Though there was no worry about that since he was starting to near the end. He could already see the other end of the platform.

nBut before they made it, Kairos suddenly felt the beam begin to fall, while Sara herself bolted for the end.

nKairos’ eyes narrowed, while his adrenaline suddenly surged in his body.

n“Was this all a trap?”

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