“Did she save me?”
This one question sent Leo’s thoughts into disarray.
And as quickly as he managed to wake up, the young man started to feel his body growing heavier by the moment.
The wonders of the nanites weren’t free.
As every child knew, one could either offer the nanites the energy directly from their body… Or by burning the pieces of the swarm itself.
The switch from one type of operating mode to the other was automatic, and controlled by the swarm itself. Judging from Leo’s rapidly blurring vision…
Even if his nanite swarm ended up consuming itself to keep him alive, it didn’t do so before extracting a heavy toll upon his flesh first.
(Hey, are you…)
‘Even though I have no idea what she says…’
A sense of regret filled every nook and cranny of Leo’s soul. For some reason, he longed to hear all that girl had to say, even if he couldn’t tell a single word of her language.
‘Right, without nanites, learning the language…’
The world blacked out.
And when the light returned, merely a second later, the situation changed.
The narrow smudges of light that made it past the shuts were now all gone, depriving the room of the little light it had before. And more importantly…
The girl was gone.
‘Wait, how long was I out?’ A simple question sparked up in Leo’s mind. Yet, as it sounded out in his mind, the young man’s eyes suddenly turned wide.
‘No, how long was I out of it… all in all?’
A sense of existential dread shook Leo’s soul.
The only way back home, the only possible path that led back to the brutal but certain reality of life on earth…
Was through the porting device hidden at the bottom of the trashcan within the inner compartment of the truck. Right at the top of the cliff where Leo threw himself to his fate.
‘By now they are likely taking it apart already,’ Leo thought, gritting his teeth in silent frustration.
‘Still,’ after a few moments of sorting his thoughts, Leo suddenly calmed down, faced with a much bigger issue. Not only was his only way home stuck on the hill likely occupied by those monstrous cultivators…
It would tick out a total of four times.
The first window for return, Leo’s entire team instantly agreed to pass over, not knowing a mere moment later they would all lay dead on the ground.
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Judging by how at least one full day passed for the sun to go down again, the second ping has long since came and went.
‘That leaves a week and a month.’
There was no doubt in Leo’s mind that going back to earth and even trying the rift again was the best course of action.
In a brutal world where might made right, his life would be forfeit within the span of weeks, maybe months if he could hope for lady’s luck assistance.
On earth, he could try to gamble his life away if necessary… But for that, he had to return alive.
‘I need to know how long I was out…’
Powered by this singular thought, Leo dragged himself to the edge of the bed before throwing his legs down.
The nanites dug deep into his flesh to compensate for all the harsh, mechanical labor they had to perform. And even after sleeping a full day… or more likely, a few of them, Leo’s muscles were all sore and nigh powerless.
‘I need to know…’
Upon forcing his body down, Leo exploited his heavily ingrained instincts and muscle memory to force his body to perform the simple task of taking a step. Then, ignoring the sense of powerlessness, Leo pushed through for the second step.
In a short time of measly few minutes, the young man reached the doors and reached out for the handle.
Only to stop his hand a single inch shy of the knob.
(…everyone like that! He’s a danger and you know it!)
A shadow of an unfamiliar voice came from beyond the doors. It somehow sounded just like what that girl from before sang… but different.
‘The same language?’ Leo tried to guess, carefully leaning over the wall to decrease the burden over his muscles exhausted by the long trek across the small room.
(I helped him just like I’ve helped all of you,) the familiar, soothing voice returned, proving that the event from earlier wasn’t just a memory fabricated by Leo’s oxygen-starved brain.
(What gives “you” the right to stop me now?)
Leo’s face twitched.
‘Wait, so it’s not all gone?!’
This was… certainly a boon.
The fact that in the midst of that weird girl’s beautiful poem, Leo understood one of the words…
It could only mean one thing.
His nanite swarm wasn’t all gone!
‘With this, it should be at least possible to ask for the time…’
A sense of relief washed over Leo’s entire body. And this mere moment of relaxation brought his exhausted muscles over the edge of their reduced durability.
Stumbling down, Leo tensed his hand in search of some support, only to push the door open with his weight, falling through it.
Desperate, Leo reached out with his other hand, catching the door’s frame just in time…
But his arm gave up as easily as his legs, making him plant his face straight down…
Not yet.
Halfway down to the floor, Leo finally gathered either enough strength or enough determination to manifest strength out of thin air. His fingers clutched at the door’s frame, stopping his fall while he desperately fought to pull himself back.
‘Shit…’ Leo felt the burning gazes of the two in the other room. He could tell just how startled they were…
But while he could do all that… he couldn’t hold on.
The desperate attempt worked, but only for a single instant. As soon as Leo was stuck between the burning awkwardness of the situation, not sure whether to look up or, quite the opposite, look away, his arm gave up once more.
Stumbling down towards the floor, Leo scored the first loss in a row of desperate victories thus far.
Thump!
The sound his face made upon hitting the floor, Leo felt in every last bone. And as the explosion of fresh, numbing pain took over his mind, the world around him started to fade once more.
(Look at “him!”)
The familiarly soothing voice appeared right as Leo’s consciousness dissipated into the darkness.
(And “you” call “him” a danger?!) Even though this unknown, caring lady raised her voice, it only made it more pleasant to Leo’s tired ears. (And I told “you already!” The look he “gave” me when he saw “my face…”)
The silence following the beautiful, warm song of the girl’s voice felt like an empty void, a world deprived of the one good quality that made all of its negatives a worthy price. And now that Leo’s nanites worked hard to decipher the girl’s language and ingrain it in his brain, it was only a matter of time before he could ask for the time!
(Now that I know it was that witch who made “him” like this…)
The girl’s voice returned, soothing Leo's passage into the world of a dream-deprived regenerative sleep.
“I will take care of him.”