"Dear god," Orion mumbled, looking down at the state of his clothes. "I've ruined plenty of clothes recently, but never like this. Come on, there's a whole complex for us to explore; there have to be some wearable clothes for me in there."
"You should take a shower first," Rio added. "I'll scrub your back."
"I think you'd probably stab my back instead," Orion said. "You know, I really thought we had something special going here. We could be friends who occasionally get together to blow off steam. Was it because I fucked your ass? Is that why you did all this?"
Suddenly, Orion noticed a knife passing a centimeter from his face and focused on Mai, who had a frosty glare on her face.
"What?" He asked, rubbing his cheek to check if she had cut him. "You are violent to an unhealthy level, do you know that? You could speak if you disagree with something."
"She's a ticking time-bomb, Orion," Rio said with a laugh. "She is so depressed that if not for knowing that there's a possibility of saving her sister, she would have committed suicide by now. What does our lovely Mai-san have to live for anymore, anyway? A dead boyfriend, a dead sister, parents whom she despises, and who are probably also dead. You have nothing to live for anymore."
"You can kill her if you want," Orion said. "I don't really need her alive. The dead body will also work."
"She's right," Mai shrugged indifferently. "If I can't save Nodoka, I probably will kill myself."
"Damn…" Orion said. "Let's forget—"
"Then you should kill yourself right now, Mai," she said. "The only difference between your sister and a normal turned human is that her race has completely transformed into a zombie, while the others are zombified humans. The only difference is the growth potential. Your sister is still deader than dead."
"Don't listen to her," Orion said. "I told you that I can get your sister back, and I'm going to make that happen."
Mai didn't say anything, not giving Orion any clues about her mental state.
"Forget it," he shook his head. "Come on, I need her to unlock the Origin Harvester's entrance. I've wasted enough time on this. I want to see how that damn settlement is and if they have a better theatre experience for me to enjoy."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT!" This scream was completely Claire Garcia, with no hints of Rio in it and a faint Spanish accent in it.
"Because you are a fool."
"You can't be from the Tower! I saw you use conceptual magic. It would never allow a Marquis to come to such a backward world. Let alone you, who is quite possibly a Duke."
Orion didn't say anything, creating an unapproachable aura around him as he walked into the mall while looking around for a men's clothing store. Mai followed along, dragging Claire in front of her.
"TELL ME!" She screamed, almost thrashing, but Mai's strength kept her at bay, unable to move an inch.
Orion let the woman delve into insanity and found a pair of clothes that he felt were appropriate and ripped away the rags that remained of his t-shirt and track pants, quickly putting on some new clothes. He glanced at Mai and Claire to see their reactions, but was disappointed. Claire was completely hysterical with disbelief, while Mai just seemed completely unbothered by everything, not even glancing at him.
If only I could've had a bath before this…
He felt it was a waste since he would probably throw these away once he got to the apartment. He didn't want to wear clothes drenched in blood.
I should consider getting that cleaning rune sooner or later.
With his apparel crisis resolved, he came up to the same cylinder that he'd seen Claire enter the previous night.
"Y-you can't…" She still seemed to be in shock from the events that had transpired. Orion hadn't been able to get anything beyond every contestant being assigned their respective zone, and no possibility of interfering with each other during the current stage of the apocalypse. Other than that, she didn't give him anything, even after he subtly tried to goad her. Still, even that much was enough for the time being. He would eventually come to understand how this Tower of Chaos worked once he started encountering more of those people.
"Mind unlocking this for me?" He asked her, but forcefully grabbed her arm and put it on the scanner. She didn't try to resist and complied silently, looking like she had come to terms with the situation. Looking at the tiny space inside the elevator, he said, "I'll be back in a bit; you two can stay here."
"We're coming with," Mai said, squeezing beside him such that their shoulders were almost touching while pulling their hostage with them.
Once the elevator brought them down to the bottom, Mai was the first to get out, only for her complexion to grow pale at the view in front of her.
"That was why I wanted you to stay up," Orion said with a sigh, and turned to the terminal that Claire interacted with and pressing his palm on it. Instead of getting feedback from the Origin Harvester's system as it interfaced with him, the feedback he got came from the Exile Gear.
Tower of Chaos Invasion Mechanism: Origin Harvester Rank 1
Stored Origin Energy: 128537 Units
Factional Authority Shards: 1
Devour?
Now what in the world is a Factional Authority Shard? Let me get out of this place before devouring it. Couldn't you show me this info outside?
Naturally, the gear didn't give him any responses beyond asking him for money.
Knowledge: Introduction to Factional Authority
Origin Energy Cost: 500 Units
He clicked his tongue and decided to think about it later. He had enough things to focus on for the time being.
"All right, ladies," Orion said. "Let's get going. I'm done with this place."
Mai had already retreated into the elevator with Claire, not wanting to have anything to do with this place.
"I told you to stay outside."
She stayed quiet.
"How stubborn," Orion said as they started ascending merely a minute after reaching the bottom. The duration of the ride was longer than the time they spent down there.
Once outside, Orion placed his palm on the silver metallic item and commanded his gear to devour it.
Without any significant fanfare, the ground under them started shaking, and a faint light emerged from Orion's palm. Moments later, the entire structure completely disappeared. There was no warping or absorbing of any kind. The entire structure completely disappeared in an instant as Orion received the relevant information from his gear.
[Origin Energy +128537]
Factional Authority Initiation: 0.1%
I'll need to devour a thousand of these things before I can get anything out of this factional authority thing. I'll put it on the back burner for now. Even finding a thousand of these is going to take a while, let alone devouring them all.
"What do we do with her?" Orion asked Mai, looking at the blank Claire, who seemed like everything had fallen apart. "What's wrong? Did you have some kind of debt that needed you to succeed in this mission or something?"
Orion glanced at her status panel and noticed that her second subtask about the Origin Harvester was now red and deemed a failure. It was the same with the mission about investigating him.
"Forget it," he said. "Leave her be, Sakurajima-san," he almost called her by her first name again. "Let's prepare to leave. I have a way to take care of your sister now."
Mai's eyes brightened imperceptibly as she nodded. Immediately after, her dagger went through the throat of Rio Futaba.
Orion's eyes widened as a drop of blood splashed on his cheek, making him feel a burning sensation that was far more intense than when he was getting drenched in zombie blood.
"Why?"
"This is the apocalypse, don't be soft, or people will use you up and kill you, not even leaving your corpse intact," she said. "I've run into all kinds of humans in these past few months. You can't leave an enemy alive, Orion. Especially one with such depth."
With those words, she left Orion alone and disappeared, letting Rio's body drop to the ground.
He didn't, couldn't say anything, and continued standing there with a slightly dumb expression on his face, almost as if disbelieving the ease with which Mai killed this living human being.
"An apocalypse brings out the darkest in people, huh?" Orion mumbled weakly, falling to his knees before the dead woman's body. "Honestly… The least she deserves is to be buried."
He raised his head to look at the bottomless hole left by the disappearance of the Origin Harvester. "I might be a little messed up in the head myself…"
When he touched her, he received some information from his gear, but ignored it for the current moment.
Gently picking her up in his arms, cradling her almost, he walked over to the pit and paused, getting one last look at her lifeless face as blood continued dripping from her sliced neck.
"Being buried in this place can almost be considered poetic, don't you think?" Orion smiled mirthlessly as his arms drooped, letting go of the woman's body. "I wasn't lying, it truly was a memorable night."
He turned around and left the mall without looking back, a sense of loneliness creeping into his features as he continued effortlessly killing zombies and made his way back to Mai's apartment.
***
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