"Seventy-two hours?!"
Jenna exclaimed, her face stunned by how close the time was.
"Yes. From our calculation the Shift would happen then."
"S…So what do we do? How do we counter it?"
"Exaclty, how do we do that?" the female student with cyan hair spoke.
The room fell silent as the words left her mouth. It was as though she had just proposed a question that had no answer.
"We can't," Sinon replied.
Sinon stood up from where she was seated, her hand leaning on the sheathed sword at her waist as she walked to the window, while all eyes followed her.
"W…what do you mean?" Jenna asked, curious as her eyes were fixed at Sinon. "What do you mean we can't?"
"It is not that we can't, rather it is impossible," Sinon responded. Her eyes steadily fixed at the bloody moon; the night was young.
Then she turned, her expression fierce while she stared straight at Jenna's eyes.
"There is no escape. Didn't you hear what Reynold just said? Your world is doomed and there's no way to save it even though you wanted to. You are all going to leave it just as we also did ours, whether you like it or not."
Seeing how she spoke and how her expression was locked in, they all knew she meant business. There was truly no way to go back.
"Then what do we do?" Jenna asked, as she didn't or couldn't just leave it like that. "Since we all have abilities, isn't there something we can do?"
As she said this, the words echoed in Hitori's head.
Abilities.
He had none. And with no abilities or power whatsoever, he began to think on how he was going to survive what was to come next.
"Yes, there is." Sinon responded.
"You have to hone your skills. Within the coming days we have left, we will train and know each of our abilities so we are able to work together."
As soon as she finished saying this, Alex stood up.
"Hmph. I don't have time to train with weaklings." he spat, and left the room.
Meanwhile, the young prince knew exactly what he meant. It wasn't that they were not worth training but rather they would die no matter what.
"H-How are we going to train? We don't have any formal knowledge of fighting." The girl with the cyan hair spoke out.
Sinon turned to her, and asked. "What is your name?"
"E… Erza."
"Okay, Erza. Do you want to survive or not?"
"I…I do."
"Good. Now hear me. This isn't a game or some fun as it might seem to you. This is reality. And it is just as new to you as it is to anyone here. So If you truly want to live and survive this hell, you will have to train and build your strength."
"You have an ability. Have you known what it is yet?"
Erza shook her head clueless.
"Exactly, so you have to know what it is and hone it within the coming hours."
"I guess that sums it. Are there any questions anyone would like to ask?"
The room fell silent as the words were proclaimed. At the same time, Jenna looked at Hitori. He didn't give any expression, just his usually gloomy face.
'What was he thinking?' she wondered in her heart.
_
Time passed and everyone had found themselves doing their own things. Some were inside learning of what was to happen, while others were outside honing what they thought they needed to defeat an Echo.
Powers of different kinds were blasting, some were elemental powers like fire, water, and wind, while some were weapons to be welded and channeled using Othir Essence.
Jenna, at this point was with Sinon, her normal form had come back and she was no longer wearing the armor she had on during their awakening, but rather a decent clothes.
Although that didn't bother her as much as it was supposed to. It had already been more than twenty-four hours since they were saved, and after what Sinon had taught her, Jenna was able to control her morph.
Although, it wasn't only Jenna. The other students were also able to have a sense and control over their powers.
However, there was one who couldn't, or rather who hadn't.
Sitting on the ground in an isolated area near a tree half a mile away from the building, there he was; deep within his thoughts, his eyes gazing upon the bloody moon.
The moon hung swollen bright, bathing everything it touched in blood.
Every tree, every rock, every inch of ground looked soaked in red like the aftermath of something terrible. Although it couldn't be helped, it was indeed terrible.
It looked as though the world had come to an end, and the only ones left were the group of humans within this forest.
As Hitori sat on the bare ground, eyes fixed at the bloody moon he wondered:
'What is this really? How has the normal earth that I once knew turned into this? How did it happen? What caused all this?'
The questions hanged in his mind without an answer. And there wasn't anyone who could answer it. Back when Sinon spoke, she clearly stated that they were also new to all these even though they had experienced a lot.
The thought of seeing what he had read in comic books and read in fantasy novels just hit him. Powers? Abilities? Monsters? But here, they all had their own different names. However, what difference does it make? It's still the same as any novel out there.
Although Hitori was thinking about all these and what Reynold had said about the Shift; he didn't put his mind there because he had other things to think of. But, no matter how he tries to remove it from his mind, the thoughts always come back.
"What's this 'shift' they talked about? Is it actually real?" Hitori mumbled to himself. The thought of someone moving between realms was just so unreal and absurd.
However, there was no helping it.
"I mean, it is obvious they aren't from earth, even from the way they speak. But still, in the next three days we would be shifted into another world? Another Realm?"
It didn't make sense.
Hitori turned back and saw those who were outside training with their distinct powers, then his gaze met Jenna. She seemed to be walking up to him. Although she was still in the distance, Hitori turned away and faced the flowing river in front of him, his eyes following it on every stream.
Then he heard the sound of her footsteps; she was close.
"What are you doing out here all by yourself?" Jenna questioned, as she walked up to Hitori.
Hitori didn't give her an answer, but that didn't bother her as this was normal. Back in their classroom whenever she would bring out a topic or ask a question, he would never answer it. It hurt her feelings and sometimes she would hate him for it, but what could she do?
Hovering her head above Hitori, Jenna glanced as he was holding his injured hand. He really doesn't want to get that checked? She thinks. It would have been the right time to bring it up, but seeing how he didn't respond to her earlier question, there was no guarantee that he was going to answer the next.
"What do you want?" Hitori uttered, his voice carrying with it a slight hint of anger and sadness.
For a moment, Jenna think to listen to the flowing river, and then spoke:
"Reynold has called everyone to come in so we can have a plan for when the next shift happens. Although he says he doesn't know where we would be shifted to since it basically just shifts a person to wherever. For all we know, it could shift us into a volcano of mad sharks… hehe."
Jenna laughed as she said this, thinking she had cracked a joke, but there was no reaction on Hitori's face. Seeing this, her face turned pale, the smile on her face already disappeared.
At this moment, she already had enough. Without any response, Jenna turned and left Hitori.
Realizing that Jenna was already heading back, Hitori turned and stared at her. Her elegant curves displayed in the fitted dress she had on. It wasn't what she had on after the awakening and it definitely wasn't their school uniform.
"Did she get it from those knights?" Hitori wondered, and then a random thought came to his head. 'Did she not only come here to relay the information, but also to show her dress?'
It was a random thought and he had never actually had any interest in these kinds of things, but why did it come to him?
Maybe it was Phillip's words that had been rubbed on him.
Hitori stood up, dusted his butt and was about to head back to the building when suddenly he began hearing strange whispers of words he couldn't comprehend.
~Whisper~Whisper~
And in a heartbeat.
SNAP!
The world instantly became dark, everything around Hitori seemed to have gone silent, then, in a flash it regained light.
However, this time it wasn't lit by a red bloody moon, but rather a grey and black moon.
Hitori found himself in a strange place and as he tried to move, he stepped on something; he looked down and to his gaze he was standing in a pile of bones. Not just any bones, but human bones.
Hitori panicked, his breath heavy and cold as he thought to himself:
'Where am I?'