When Starrk opened his eyes, he found himself back in the strange place with the endless, night sky and the insect-sized pixels. However, now the sky wasn't so clear. It was filled with dense, black clouds that continually rained down lighting.
Currently, Starrk was standing on what he could only describe as a mountain peak. He glanced over the side of the mountain and looked down. What he saw was a ravine that was so small that he had to squint just to see anything clearly. It showed just how absurd a height this mountain summit must be.
As Starrk looked forward, his eyes widened to the point of pinpricks. There was an utterly ginormous landmass, easily the size of a continent. The landmass seemed to float in the air, with the bottom of the landmass forming thick, jagged spikesbelow. It looked like an upside-down glacier. Only made of earthen stone, not ice.
The landmass was surrounded by a ring of mountains just like the one Starrk was standing on. Each one of them possessed a peak that reached high into the sky. Coming out of the side of each of the mountains, as if anchoring the landmass in place,was an impossibly thick chain. It was the most gigantic chain that Starrk had ever seen. With a single link of the chain being the size of a full-sized tank.
However, what truly blew Starrk away was what was on the landmass. Taking up near 90% of the landmass was a gigantic medieval castle. It shimmered with a brilliant radiance. As if it were out of solid crystal. Surrounding the castle was a dense foliage of trees and greenery.
"Whoa," Starrk muttered. He was at a loss for words.
***
Back in the halls of the student dormitory, Tsukuru and Quinn were walking down the hall.
"I can't believe you were able to spend an entire hour in the VR Pod in just the short time I was trying out my new Skill in the conference room," Tsukuru muttered.
Quinn glanced over at him.
He let out a nervous laugh.
"Actually, I was kind of in there for an hour and a half," he replied.
Hearing this, Tsukuru's eyes widened. Instantly, he snapped his head over to Quinn.
"Wait, what?!" he replied.
Tsukuru gritted his teeth.
'Damn, I must have really lost track of time!' he thought.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"So…" he replied, putting on a weary smile. "How'd your new Beast Gear work out?" he asked.
Quinn turned to him and smiled.
***
Back with Starrk, he jumped off the mountain's peak and landed on the first chain link. As he landed, the chain shook ever so slightly.
Starrk let out a sigh and began to step forward. He had a long way to go. The large landmass was a significant distance away from the ring of mountains. If Starrk had to guess, it was easily 30,000 feet in length.
Once Starrk reached the end of the first chain link, he jumped over the jap to the next one.
"This…is going to take a while," he muttered.
***
Back on Military Base 2, Faye and Shizuka were walking down the halls towards the main entrance of the school. Much like with the students, there was a special "Staff Dormitory" at the school, located on the far-right side of the school.
Suddenly, Shizuka's eyes widened.
She came to a sudden stop, causing Faye to stop as well.
"Oh, shit!" she muttered.
Due to the news of what had happened on Pioletic, Shizuka had completely forgotten to report back to Paul about Tsukuru's new Skill.
Fay turned to her with a confused look.
"What?" Faye asked. "What's wrong?"
A moment later, Shizuka instantly turned and bolted back down the hall.
"Sorry, Faye, but I forgot to take care of something!" she yelled over her shoulder as she vanished down the hall. "I'll see you tomorrow!"
Faye continued to stare at the place that Shizuka had occupied down the hall before she had disappeared.
Then, a moment later, she let out a light chuckle.
'I guess that Shizuka's still going to be Shizuka,' she thought.
***
Back in the hallway of the student dormitory, Quinn had been telling Tsukuru about his match with the Level 4 Earth User.
Tsukuru had an amused smirk on his face.
He was having an intense feeling of schadenfreude. He still remembered how hard a time he and Layla had dealing with that damn Earth Wallthat one of the Level 4s that Mono had brought with him to the assembly hall. So hearing about how Quinn had easily one-shot the Level 4 even with his Earth Walls active filled him with immense satisfaction.
"Looks like that chestpiece I gave you came in real handy, huh?" he asked.
Quinn smiled.
"Yeah," he agreed.
If he hadn't been wearing it, those Earth Spikes and rock fragments would have really messed him up in the fight.
Eventually, the two reached the room. As they entered it, they saw Vorden sleeping on his bed.
However, they also saw something else. Peter was sleeping on his bed, as well.
***
Almost two hours ago…
As Vorden finally reached the dorm room after his little conversation with Quinn, he stopped when he saw Peter, still sitting against the wall. He had a look of total defeat and misery on his face.
Vorden let out a sigh, causing Peter to look up at him with hollow eyes.
"You can go in the room and sleep there," he replied, as he walked past him. "Just make sure that you're gone when we wake up in the morning."
Peter did not need to be told twice. He jumped to his feet and ran into the room.
As Vorden laid down in his bed, he heard Raten talking to him over his shoulder back in the dark room in his subconscious.
"That was nice of you," Raten replied.
In the dark room, Vorden glanced back at Raten in the chair.
"We can't be worse than the people we are trying to get rid of," Vorden replied.
***
Quinn and Tsukuru continued to stare at Peter's sleeping form for a minute.
Then, they looked at each other.
They both knew that there was no way that he'd still be in here if Vorden didn't want him to be, so he most likely let him back in.
"Ah, whatever," Tsukuru muttered as he slumped over towards his bed.
Quinn's gaze lingered on Peter for another moment. However, eventually, he too headed towards his bed.
Slowly, the two boys crawled in and went to bed.
***
Back in her room in the faculty dormitory, Sergeant Faye had changed into a pair of pajamas. It was the typical uniform pair of pajamas given out by the military, having the same navy-blue color scheme as the military uniforms.
Faye sat down on her bed and brought her right wrist up to her chest, the one housing her Vampire communicator. She looked down at it and pressed the jewel.
There was a sound like crackling static, and soon a voice could be heard on the other end.
"Faye, do you have something to report?" Muka asked.
"Yes, my Leader," Faye replied. "I've successfully made it back to the Base. I told them a cover story that our group was attacked by a swarm of those Death Bats."
There was a short pause.
"I see," Muka replied. "And how did the Humans respond?" she asked.
"Fortunately, all the stuff that we were originally sent to the planet to 'salvage'can be recreated here on the base," Faye replied. "Essentially, the Base decided to take the 'Let's not and say we did' approach. That should mean that no one should be traveling to that planet on our end in the foreseeable future."
There was a slight pause, then Muka spoke.
"Good," she replied. "And what about the other situation?" she asked.
Faye's eyes narrowed.
"I think I may have a lead," she replied. "There's a particular student who was not only on the Planet when we found the body of the Human who possessed the Vampire bite marks, but was also the one who brought the student with the first case of the bite marks to the doctor's office."
There was a pause.
"...I see," Muka finally replied. "Good work. Keep me informed, Faye."
Faye nodded.
"Yes, my Leader," she replied. A moment later, the connection was severed.
Faye let out a sigh and laid back on her bed, her arms behind her back.
"With how much of a hurry Lady Muka was in sending me back here, her explanation was a rush job at best," she muttered. "I have so many questions. Like, what am I supposed to do about food? Can I even eat food? Is it only certain kinds?"
Faye let out an exasperated groan.
"I really hope I don't screw this up," she muttered.