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

A deafening shriek just like the previous moth's resounded throughout the hallway, even more concentrated because of how narrow the place was.

Kairos could feel the sound ripping through his flesh and skin to get out there.

Despite knowing it wasn't going to be pleasant, it was more painful than he expected. It was a kind of pain that was hard to understand, simply because it didn't feel like a cut or a bruise.

However it seemed like he wasn't the only one that was under these effects. The warlock-like monk fell to one knee, holding onto the sides of his head with a deep frown. While he may have not cried out in pain, it may as well have happened given his state.

Kairos wanted to take advantage of this state, but he was genuinely not much better off, considering both he was at the center of the attack, hurting himself the most, and also the fact he felt it twice over, racking him full of pain.

Regardless, he desperately pulled himself together realizing how big of an opportunity this was.

It simply wasn't one that he could give up, regardless of how mind-numbing the sensations were. After attempting to take a step up, he saw that he would stumble. Despite attempting to correct his posture, he overcorrected it and fell anyway.

While the warlock-like monk was still down, he was visibly gathering his bearings. There was very little time.

Kairos caught himself, getting onto one knee. With some struggle, he pushed off the ground to get up on his feet.

Just as he finally got up, the seed that he had tossed into the mound of flesh earlier suddenly sprouted, causing a giant beanstalk to rapidly grow. However, just as quickly as it grew, the entire thing withered into a thin bent black dead plant.

It appeared Kai truly did try to help, but was unable to in the end due to the nature of this place.

This simply reaffirmed him into realizing that this chance mattered so much more. With what focus he had left, he conjured two blades out of living stone that went for the man's neck.

Flowers of crimson red sprayed out into the air.

However, the man's action of covering his eyes inadvertently protected him from the blades. Kairos simply did not have enough coordination in his overloaded state to thread the needle when this fight was his first experience with commanding objects via his mind.

While two ugly wounds had formed on both of the man's forearms, they were far from lethal wounds.

As that happened, the plant attempted to grow once more, with extra vigor this time, but died once more.

Unfortunately, those injuries appeared to help snap him out of it, ironically doing more harm than good for Kairos. With only the blade left in his own hands, he decided to rush forward with both hands clasped around the handle, thrusting it forward.

Although incredibly unstable, he was able to get in between the arms, and landed right into the man's neck. However, the toughness of the neck was far more than what Kairos expected, and he simply couldn't muster the strength to do much better than a relatively shallow wound.

In the next moment, the warlock-like monk would grab onto the blade, pulling it out before tugging on it in an attempt to cause Kairos to fall forward. Seeing this, he immediately let go of the blade and stumbled backwards.

However, it was not enough.

The monk took advantage of the close distance before lunging forth, throwing a palm at him. Kairos simply couldn't get away at this point. He quickly came up with something that could possibly help him.

He held out his arm in front of him, letting the palm strike powerfully into his forearm.

What appeared to be a sonic boom resounded as a clear crack resounded, signaling the snapping of Kairos' bone.

Immediately afterwards, Kairos let his arm fall limp and directly ripped it off by the elbow.

He thought that this would inhibit the evolution energy from going through the rest of his body. However, his arm had regrown in a matter of seconds. And it was bright red, with little difference between muscle and skin.

The fingers were longer and thinner than usual, with sharp fingernails that he was awfully familiar with. The ones that a monster had.

In a panic, Kairos opened up his status panel, confirming his suspicions.

[Rank: 16231/15000 Energy]

Unfortunately, Kairos assumed that evolution energy worked on a similar principle to other things such as poison. However, from how it instantly spread throughout the rest of the body showed that it was even more bizarre than it initially seemed.

Though the mechanisms behind them weren't exactly his biggest problem right now.

He had seen how just being on the cusp of the maximum energy had quite the adverse effect. And obviously, after exceeding that amount was when the transformation into a monster began.

Something that was happening to him right now.

More than anything, his will was challenged. Without even realizing it, he had fallen down onto the ground, no longer aware of anything happening in the world around him. The warlock-like man appeared rather eager about this opportunity, dashing above Kairos and lifting his palm up.

Yet, right as he was getting ready to deliver a lethal strike, a massive vine formed from the seed, almost immediately covering most of the hallway. It was withering rapidly in real time, but the growth was so aggressive that it outcompeted that decay, and by a longshot too.

The man was immediately bound, finding himself soaring extremely high up into the air, unable to do much about it. The vines themselves seemed to be trying to squeeze hard enough to be a lethal threat, but the decay was simply too fast.

Regardless, through the pure mass the vines had behind them, the warlock-like monk was helpless to do anything. Despite attacking the vines, that did little considering how fast they were dying anyway.

It was like attempting to stop a hurricane and tidal wave from meeting with just one's bare hands.

As for Kairos, he didn't know that the seed he had planted earlier was actually what saved his life. However, even if he was by definition, alive, the situation wasn't all that much better.

For perhaps the first time, he was consumed by fear.

Even if he was in potentially more threatening situations before, as an extremely logical person, simply thinking about solutions was enough for him to overcome emotions or subdue them altogether.

But now, it was already too late.

He tried to think ahead, decisively ripping off his own arm. But with this unforeseen outcome, there was no solution he could see. The only thing he could do is watch as his features began to morph.

The black blood and monstrous features combined together, forming some strange monstrosity, bright red flesh coated with stretched out black skin overtop. It was a strange combination, almost making it seem as though it was a heavily parasitized monster.

Kairos continuously felt his consciousness blurring, getting replaced by something incredibly primal. He thought that it was bad when the wolf shared a consciousness with him, but he got slapped in the face and was shown what it really meant to fight over his own body.

While it may have not been pleasant before, having his mind taken over by others had given him a fighting chance here. Though normally, he was the one in the dominant position, given that it was his own body.

But now, the roles were reversed.

Unfortunately, while he did have a fighting chance, he could feel his entire consciousness quickly disappearing. This wasn't a problem he could just solve through brute force, or by killing the enemy. Because he had become his own enemy.

Despite a tiny part of him falling into despair, he still continued to try to think of solutions, mostly to maintain his own sanity. Most of his options were cut off simply because it was solely a mental battle.

But that was a blessing in disguise, as he remembered what let him gather some semblance of control over himself in the first place.

Remembering what defined himself as a person.

It was something he had put off before, but at this point, it was now or never.

He forced himself to recall some of his old memories, deep in the back of his mind.