The air rushed violently into his lungs.
Seth gasped, his chest rising and falling as if he had run a marathon in flames. His eyes opened wide, staring at the white ceiling above him. It was still. Clean. It smelled of antiseptic and cold metal.
"Where..." he muttered, trying to get up.
A sharp pain shot through his ribs, making him recoil with a grunt. Every muscle ached as if it had been ripped out and sewn back together with threads of raw energy.
He was on a bed, attached to sensors, his chest bandaged and a series of floating crystals glowing above his head. To his left, a window let in the pale morning light. There was silence... the kind of silence that precedes difficult questions.
A soft voice broke the calm. "You're awake"
Seth turned his face slowly. A woman in a white coat with long silver hair entered the room. Her eyes were an almost ethereal green, and her presence was more reminiscent of a priestess than a doctor. Although her clothes were quite sexy for a simple doctor.
"Where... Who..." Seth muttered.
"You need to rest, you're full of internal injuries. Lie down. Now." She ordered as a green light pushed him backwards. "You're alive. Which, under the circumstances, is a miracle," she replied with a slight smile, but kept a serious look on her face as she adjusted her glasses.
Seth tried to sit up again, ignoring the pain, but again, she pushed him away. "Seth Chambers, I'm only going to speak once. Do you want to die? Because you currently have more than six hundred internal injuries in every part of your body. One sudden movement and you're dead." She said angrily and Seth swallowed dryly, obeying her.
"Do you know what happened to the Shapeshifter?..." He asked, clenching his fists. His memories were completely confused.
The doctor hesitated for a second. Too short for a layman, but Seth understood. "Neutralized," she said, measuring each syllable. "What's left of it has been collected and... is being studied by the association"
"Didn't I... destroy it completely?" He asked.
She didn't confirm it. But she didn't deny it either.
"..." He was silent before two people came to the door of the hospital room. They were two men dressed in expensive suits and dark glasses. One was tall with short blond hair and the other had messy black hair.
"You're finally awake." The blond man said as he approached. The Doctor stepped aside and let them in, then closed the door.
"And you would be...?" Seth asked, looking at them and analyzing. 'Two Rank-A... I've really evolved enough to be able to feel their strength. Besides... that blond man... I saw him when I came out of the portal after the punishment...'
"Sorry if we startled you" and handed him an ID card. Seth then held up the card and read it carefully.
"Head of Division Alexander Ghuthar..." he said and looked at him, "Why is the head of division of the British hunters' association here?" Seth questioned.
"You slept for a month." He said.
"..." Seth was silent for a few seconds, before asking, "I... slept for a month?... and what happened to the woman who was with me, Kaguya? Is she all right?"
"The Japanese Slayer, Kaguya Blank is fine... she was responsible for contacting our association during the incident. We apologize for taking so long to act... but almost all of our sensors around London were out of order." He reported and Seth let out a sigh. At least Kaguya was okay.
"However... unfortunately we lost some citizens because of the portal breach." Alexander said clenching his fist nervously. "Even though hunters are always in danger when they hunt, a dungeon breach like this is rare without having hunters to stop something like this..." He said.
Seth looked at his expression and realized that he really did care about events.
"When the association and the Reaper Guild arrived on the scene, there were only dead, but no monsters left, apart from a purple goo on the ground..." He continued, "We wanted to know what happened before we arrived, please." He spoke looking very seriously at Seth...
Seth didn't have much choice and he didn't even want to hide something like this. It would probably be good to keep his identity a little lower than it really was. But people died. He at least wanted to explain their deaths to at least lessen the burden on his friends and family.
He wasn't so selfish as to lie about himself while everyone around him suffers without knowing what happened. He wasn't that kind of person.
So... he explained everything that had happened. From the attack on the side of the car, to asking Kaguya to call the association and even about him killing the Shapeshifter...
"I see..." He spoke as he looked at the ground, "As we suspected, it was a shared consciousness..."
"Shared consciousness?" He questioned and Alexander showed him an image on his cell phone. "When we arrived at the scene, the testimonies were that suddenly the purple goo monsters died immediately, all together, so when we analyzed the substance..." He showed that the goo reacted next to each other, same consistency, same electromagnetic signals, everything.
"So he wasn't fighting with all his strength... his mass was attacking the city around the portal that broke..." Seth muttered.
Alexander stood up, "I believe you know why we're here. Seth Chambers" He spoke much more seriously. "How did you defeat a Rank-A monster?" He asked.
Seth still stared at Alexander, but was interrupted before he could answer.
"You know why," said a voice laden with malice, just as the door to the room opened with a soft bang.
Two female figures crossed the threshold with an aura that immediately dominated the room.
The first was a woman with tanned skin and pink hair in unruly waves that seemed to dance with her every step. She wore a tight white dress that hugged every curve as if it had been molded directly onto her body. The fishnet stockings added a dash of sensual rebellion to her already provocative look.
"Sorry to intrude," said Vixen, with a lazy, dangerous smile, as her eyes roamed the room with the naturalness of someone who was always in control.
Right behind her, gliding with the lethal grace of a serpent, came Connie.
She wore a black dress with daring side slits that revealed her skin like sharp blades of temptation. The deep neckline, the dark tights that hugged her legs and the heels that sounded a warning with every step - everything about her exuded power and menace. Her smile, devilish and wide, contrasted with her eyes still closed, as if she didn't even need to see them to know they were about to make a mistake.
Alexander paled.
"Hello," said Connie, her voice as sweet as poison. "I'm sure I made it clear: no interrogations without my presence."
She opened her eyes slowly, and the smile grew into something that made the air seem thicker. "Or do you really want to die, general manager?"
The silence that followed was almost painful. Connie was still smiling, but her eyes - now open - burned like blades pressed against Alexander's throat. Vixen just crossed her arms, her hips resting lazily on the side of the wall, but there was tension in every line of her body.
Alexander hesitated for a second. Just one. But it was enough.
Seth sighed and broke the moment as if blowing away thick smoke with a wave of his hand.
"Ignore them. They're just... worried." The words fell like a stone into a calm lake.
Connie and Vixen, taken by surprise, choked at the same time - Vixen almost tripped over her own relaxed pose, and Connie narrowed her eyes, as if the bold comment had torn her composure for an instant.
"Worried?!" muttered Connie, as if she had swallowed gall.
Seth didn't look away from Alexander. The lightness disappeared, replaced by a direct, dry and firm tone. "I know what you want to know."
Alexander closed his eyes, waiting. Vixen pulled herself together with a sigh, while Connie kept quiet out of respect... or perhaps so as not to kill anyone by mistake.
Seth then spoke, with a calmness that seemed to weigh tons.
"Yes. I had a double awakening."
...
[STATUS]
[Name: Seth Chambers
[Class]: [None]
[Title]: Sovereign of the Desert (Rank-S), Rank-Sex (SSS)
[Level]: 33
[Strength]: 96
[Speed]: 104
[Intelligence]: 71
[Endurance]: 74
[Extra points]: 3
[Skills: The End (Rank-SSS), 'Usurper' (Rank-SSS), Killing Blow (Rank-E), King's Presence (Rank-D), Fleeing Instinct (Rank-E), Storm Spear (Rank-A), Void Shapeshifter (Rank A), Lightning Rise (Rank-S)]
[Storage] [Skill space: (3 of 3)]
[Temporarily stored copied skills: [Lightning Manipulatio (Rank-A), [Titan's Fury (Rank-C), Authority of Love (Rank-S)]
[Next Slot: Level 50]
[Gold: 34,198]