Running through the dark tunnel, I was thinking what exactly just happened.

He definitely just killed a bunch of people.

While him being a bit ruthless wasn’t the news for me, it was still unsettling. A little bit.

Honestly, it was worrying. Not the fact that he killed, more the fact that I didn’t care. That’s something I didn’t really think of before…

The truth is, recently I’ve been doing everything almost out of habit.

There was no emotion in me. Or, well, no emotion is not correct. It was just that my emotions were always somewhere far away from me, behind in the background. Even though they were definitely there, I was just ignoring them completely. They were an afterthought of everything.

Was that because of the Crystal?

Honestly, I can’t really blame it on that, after all I was no longer in that body. I was different now, and honestly not sure how I was even conscious.

Or for how much longer I will be.

Was that the sign of assimilation? I thought that I was going to start losing myself, uniting with whoever Mike was right now. But it was more like I was getting devoured partially.

The question was, why would the… attachment be first?

Maybe to reduce the resistance of the target? If someone is not afraid, then there is a lot lesser chance that they are going to resist, after all…

I wondered if I should ask Mike…

Hell, the lone thought of asking him made me realize that I was more detached than anything.

Who in their right mind would think that they’ll get an answer? He’s going to keep his cards close to the chest all that time.

Not like it matters.

After all, the assimilation was going to happen, sooner or later.

I was only hoping that it’s not going to be a one-way exchange.

Yeah, after I learned a long time ago that I was getting absorbed by something else, I thought that there’s a possibility of that.

If someone is hosting multiple minds within themselves, or multiple souls, and absorbing them one by one, there’s a possibility that the pieces of those people are going to make some kind of influence on them.

Sure, I heard that the main method to this madness was to convert them to energy first, then absorb it, but it’s not like it was a flawless method.

Hopefully, that is.

During all of those divagations of mine, Mike was still running.

Where was he going?

We were in the sewers, so I guess it could be anywhere in this city.

Speaking of, what city was that? I mean, I didn’t even know what country that could be. After all, I’ve been gone for a while and I was not going to guess by just looking at the dirty pipes and a few buildings that I saw before.

Sure, some buildings were familiar, but who knows. After all, a bunch of places were destroyed thanks to us, and most likely were rebuilt differently. My prior knowledge was useless.

But… How much time has even passed?

Judging by the stories and everything I knew, it had to be years at least.

Sure, what I’ve heard inside the barrier was a different story: according to those tens or even hundreds of years has passed.

Hell, even Mike thought so.

But if that was the case, why did everything else look… so normal?

After that much time I would’ve thought that both technology and magic went so far that I wouldn’t recognize modern society.

And yet, everything was so familiar…

I mean, I know, the technology was somewhat stagnated, but not to the point where we were just… stop.

Did that catastrophe destroy that much…?

I decided to not think about it. Instead, I should focus on the problem at hand: Mike and our… relationship.

That was going to be a bit complicated.

Sure, I was already in a similar situation before, but not as the other… suppressed party. But I was still the one that was going to be absorbed nonetheless.

The only difference was that the offensive person has changed.

Or did it really?

I mean, we knew that ILMA was not going to be lost that easily.

I was pretty sure that it was only a matter of time until she surfaces again, be it from him or any other person outside.

Despite what they claimed, our “jail” was not unescapable.

We were the living proof of that.

Still, no matter the end, I needed to somehow now get to some kind of understanding between me and him. Or them. Or whoever was the host.

-Where are you running to? - I asked, breaking my long silence.

I didn’t get an answer at first. I even though he was ignoring me, so I was going to start talking more, but I noticed that he started slowing down.

Whatever was his target, he finally was somewhere close to it.

He stopped.

In front of us there was a small ladder and a hatch.

-Here…?

I never noticed, but as he was running, the tunnel had widened and was a lot taller than before. And I think we went down a bit…

It no longer looked like a sewer. It was more like some ruined basement.

If we were back in the barrier, I would’ve said we found some kind of catacombs, it had that old look.

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But, the ladder up and the hatch was definitely modern enough that it almost didn’t fit.

He didn’t think much about our surroundings, though. Instead just climbed up without hesitation. Did he know this place that well?

I thought he spent most of his time away from here. If not all, really.

But… was that him?

Nah.

Probably it was memories of ILMA. Or anyone else, really, that were helping him get his bearings and fueling his confidence.

The hatch was pretty heavy.

He had difficulty moving it aside to the point that he had to use some magic to help himself.

A quick enhancement and it was done.

Speaking of. I started recognizing when he was using those abilities of his. What was that called… Biological infusion? Something like that?

I don’t know if that was only because I spent enough time with him, or just because I used it by myself, but I could recognize it.

I mean, I still wasn’t seeing mana change, but I could tell when his movements started getting sharper and faster, even when he tried being slow.

Better than nothing, I guess.

With his enhanced hand, the heavy hatch had slowly shifted away, and with a grinding noise, we emerged outside.

Or rather inside.

We were in some kind of building.

Seeing as the hatch was circular and almost looked like a manhole, I thought we were going to end up in some kind of dark alley in the slum or some shit. At best in some old town or something like that, but not in a basement of some building.

Well, I was somewhat right: the basement definitely looked deserted and half-ruined. The hatch itself was heavy and thick, but that was not why he had the difficulty opening it: it was because of some rubble stack on top of it.

Old bricks, ruined furniture, you name it. It looked like half of the room was dumped on top of it.

In the darkness of the room he easily made way up, like he’s done it multiple times before. Skillfully weaving his way between piles of trash and other crap, he headed towards one of the further corners of the basement, towards the staircase.

The staircase also looked old. Definitely like it belonged to the last century at least. Where the hell were we exactly?

The upstairs, or rather the ground level was even stranger.

It was a wooden cabin. Barely even standing. Rotten wood glued together by random rusted pieces of metal. In places, patched up with something that looked like roof tiles. Why would someone use that of all the things to fill holes?

Inside, there wasn’t a single piece of furniture that looked like it wasn’t scavenged either. Not like there was much of anything inside.

A bed. Or a metal frame with a piece of plank on it, standing on some bricks to not fall completely on its side.

A stack of boxes that was definitely placed next to it as a table, plus a stool. Or rather a wooden stump.

On top of that, a pile of various garbage right next to the stairs that we just ascended.

He even had to shove some away to even get up.

He didn’t pay any attention to the room, just went past everything and outside.

Ha. I didn’t expect it, but I was spot on.

We found ourselves in a trash heap.

A literal dump.

Why was this his destination?

Apparently it was not, because he didn’t stop at all. Not to even check the place out.

It seemed like he knew this place like he lived here for ages as well. Half-running, he went right towards the exit. Or I assumed so, because I doubt there was anything worthy of notice here.

Well, he almost did.

Sure, we were headed towards the exit, that was correct. But just as we reached the gate, he stopped and finally took a glance in every direction.

Were we looking if we were followed?

I mean, there was no way that someone would even manage to keep up with him if he didn’t have the same ability. While it was possible, I definitely didn’t think it was the case. Especially after the whole fire and explosion underground.

Anyway, he confirmed that we were indeed alone and grabbed onto the bars of the gate.

With a screech, he pulled them away, making an opening roughly the size of a person to squeeze through.

I was confused.

As he was pulling those and making an ungodly amount of noise, the gate itself was moving. It was clearly unlocked. Why the hell would he even try this? Maybe just open it? Fuck, if not that, jump it. You surely can do that. Or climb. Or anything! We are alone.

Well, maybe not for long if you make so much noise…

But, he didn’t even exit.

After making the noise, he quickly stepped back and started retracing his steps. Where were we going now?

When I was about to think that we were going back to the ruined house and the sewers, he stopped and I quickly realized that he enhanced himself.

Then, he jumped.

What the fuck.

I know we were alone here, but still. Doesn’t he think that someone suddenly leaping tens of meters into the air is not visible from everywhere? What, people jumping like that is supposed to be normal here?

In any case, his leap at least gave me a better look at the local layout.

We found ourselves on the edge of the city, if the fact that it was a garbage dump wasn’t making it obvious enough.

Honestly, it could’ve been even somewhere more on the outskirts, but this looked more like just a slum. And a slum pretty close to a regular residential area.

I could see some sets of flats looming in the distance, along with skyscrapers behind. Somewhere out there, there was a rather large fire going: the heavy and thick plume of smoke was visible from everywhere.

I think I might know what was on fire right now…

Enough of the sightseeing, though. Mike definitely didn’t jump to see the views, that I know. He wanted to make distance.

And so he did. With a single jump he covered half the length of the junkyard and landed on something that definitely reminded me of a ruined car.

With a grinding noise, it got compressed under his weight and surprised him, almost making him lose his balance.

Ha. I bet he was used to his other body and the weight. I did add a bunch of crystal on it, so you bet he was a lot heavier than before.

He regained his composure and leaped once more. This time, even further away.

It was enough for him to clear the fence on the other side of the trash heap even. I guess that’s what he was aiming for?

I mean, it was in the middle of the slum, so it didn’t matter either way. I bet anyone who’d see him like that would steer clear of him anyway.

The landing was pretty smooth.

We didn’t land on a pile of metal this time, so that definitely helped, but we also left a rather sizable set of footprints, or rather a small crater where we landed.

Quite unavoidable, really.

Luckily, that was not a pavement of any kind, just a regular pathway, made of just plain old dirt. One spell was enough to move the ground and make it as inconspicuous as anything else in this place.

He didn’t even move ground using earth magic, instead just used wind to pick up the sand and loose soil to cover the spot. Unnecessary, in my opinion. If anyone would try to track us, they would notice the tracks in the dump and…

Well, maybe not.

I realized that those jumps and fucking with the gate were his attempts to make people loose track of him and maybe put them on wrong track.

It might work. It would definitely buy some time, though.

Time to run away apparently, because the moment dirt was settled, he sprinted away.

Enhanced with his ability, he quickly went past all the slum and was running towards an area that looked less and less like a town.

Yeah, right… that was interesting…

The time I spent inside the barrier almost made me forget one crucial fact: that the world outside was not as green as our “prison”.

Or, used to at least.

When we were running away, it made me realize that Mike was heading towards something that looked like a pretty dense park, that half way was turning into a forest.

The sight was so normal for me that I almost didn’t realize that it was actually the furthest away from being regular.

The trees were a rarity after all, I mean, used to be. Barely few in cities, and definitely no parks were to be seen anywhere close.

Was this some kind of nature reserve or something?

Isn’t that a bit too close to the city? And the park…

Soon I realized that the park wasn’t actually the park.

It was an overgrown area of the city.

It was somewhat similar to the slum, but if you were to add a massive amount of trees on top of that.

Honestly, it somewhat reminded me of the villages I’ve seen near Arbo. That is if we were to replace log cabins with ruins of brick buildings.

Where were we?