Skyler turned toward 505, his eyes kind, though his next words were anything but.
"Now, be a good boy. Take the power of their systems and override them so they will obey you. Then, sever their link to the main system, just as you severed yours."
505 nearly fainted upon hearing him, but despite the shock, it couldn’t help but ask.
("H-Host, how do you know that a system can absorb the power of other systems to grow stronger? Although systems can grow stronger alongside their host... the second method is taboo! No one is allowed to even speak of it! So, how did you know? QAQ")
Skyler blinked, his mind going blank for a second at the question. Then, he frowned.
"Right... how do I know? I just have this feeling someone told me. But who?"
He attempted to speak with the figures in his subconscious, thinking they had placed the thought in his mind, but all he received was silence. In the end, he just shrugged.
"Just do as I say. No questions. You still haven’t found a way to bring Riruru here!"
He glared in a random direction, and 505 ran off crying to do the tasks commanded by its mean host. Skyler was so scary that it couldn’t even refuse him! How unjust! It just hoped it wouldn’t die before achieving its dream of becoming the best system.
Skyler turned to join the others, who were already waiting for him at the cavern’s exit. They had also changed clothes. But just as he stepped forward, his vision blurred, and a low voice echoed at the back of his mind.
He froze, trying to catch it.
"H-Host!! Please stay awake!! QAQ. Just give me a minute... I’ll help you! Host!! You promised to create a body for me... Host!! How could they betray you—H-Host, if you are gone, then they will win! Wuwuwu-!"
The desperate mechanical plea was abruptly silenced by a quiet groan.
"Stop crying... my head is throbbing."
What followed was the stifled sound of someone trying to hold back their cries—then the noise of a deafening explosion.
Skyler felt as if his skin were blasted into countless pieces, a chill running down his spine at the sound of the explosion that echoed violently in the back of his mind.
Although it was only a memory, both his ears felt as if they were bleeding. It was sudden—and then everything went silent.
Amidst the silence, a majestic voice rang out, serene enough to leave him dazed.
"Hah, blame yourself for meddling where you shouldn’t have. It’s over. Still, they did make my task easier, so rest assured, I will allow their hopes to linger a little longer—before I crush that delusion completely."
Skyler finally snapped out of his daze, his blurred vision clearing as someone shook his shoulder. He blinked, instincts surging, and nearly struck the figure before him. His clear eyes glinted with a trace of red as his fist stopped an inch from Zack’s face.
Zack’s heart stopped for a second at the attack. The punch had come so fast—so quick he hadn’t even seen it, let alone had time to react. Goosebumps erupted across his whole body, and an icy certainty struck him: if that fist hadn’t stopped when it did, his head would have been sent flying.
The two stood frozen in place.
Skyler was the first to move, lowering his fist as the redness in his eyes subsided.
When he spoke, his voice was hoarse.
"What?"
Zack instinctively stepped back to a safer distance, slowly wiping the sweat from his brows. He wanted to curse him, to argue—
"You..."
But the words instantly died on the tip of his tongue when he saw Skyler’s cold look. He quickly changed his words tentatively.
"Everyone’s waiting, and you just stopped in the middle of the path. You wouldn’t budge, no matter how much we called out to you."
Zack frowned but didn’t say anything else. Just as he turned to join the rest, inwardly thinking this side character had finally lost it, Skyler’s calm voice echoed from behind.
"Sorry. I lost control for a second there."
Zack inwardly sneered at the words. Sorry? What good was that?? If his head had been sent flying and he ended up dying like some nameless man, then what would it matter?!
Despite the anger simmering inside him, a smile crossed his face as he glanced back.
"It’s okay. It happens sometimes."
Well, this anomaly was far too dangerous. Best not to provoke him and risk losing his second life. It hadn’t even been a year since Zack had transmigrated, and he still wanted to go and take on the Keeper of Time... For now, he swallowed his grievance. He would certainly get his revenge in the near future—once he became stronger than Skyler... wait, wasn’t he already stronger? Yet, he still felt as if he could die under the other’s hand.
Hah, life was truly unfair to some.
Skyler noticed his twisted expression but didn’t say anything. He did feel a bit guilty for attacking him suddenly, so he decided to give the next treasure their group found to him—naturally, only if the said treasure wasn’t something sparkling or crystal-like.
"Let’s go."
He patted Zack on the back and hurriedly joined the others. Charles glanced at him, asking what was wrong, but he laughed it off. It wasn’t as if he could tell him that he had just recalled something unsettling.
He didn’t even want to think about it.
At least, not now.
He wasn’t powerful enough yet. He would uncover the forgotten past in time, but for now, he needed to focus on saving Eldoria from the big calamity arriving in a month.
Still, he wondered who the mechanical voice he heard belonged to—was it 505?
He had never heard it speak before; it had always communicated through text, so he wasn’t sure. Regardless, it had worked for him so well all this time, and he had been treating such a good system so poorly.
So, he decided to treat 505 better.
Just a bit better, though.