Reborn: Apocalypse

"Control your breathing as you feel the pulse in your veins, just like last time." Micheal's voice was calm as he spoke out loud, his hands resting on Sophia's bare back. Her skin was tanned, dotted with small freckles.

As he spoke, he focused on his own hands, feeling the pulse of Ki within him. Faintly, he could also sense the pulse of Ki within Sophia. It was like feeling a vibration within her body, one that was warm and comforting.

They were currently sitting down in Sophia's room on her bed, working on one last thing before they left. Sophia had lifted up the back of her shirt, revealing a supple back that was currently hunched forward as she sat down in meditation.

Micheal focused on the feeling of Ki, his eyes narrowed.

The miraculous energy flowed in their veins like blood, powering the body and allowing it to reach a superhuman status. The energy reinforced their body, regenerated cells, and had a plethora of capabilities, one of the marvels of the 7 Layers.

It had been intensely studied by scientists and researchers, but little had been found out about it. The energy seemed to exist beyond the normal dimensions that humans could observe, having inexplicable properties. Micheal wasn't too sure on all the specifics, only knowing that the energy of Ki could be absorbed from the surroundings, building up in strength and purity.

As he sensed the pull of Ki within Sophia, he could faintly feel it began to move at a slightly erratic pace. He frowned slightly when he felt this.

Using Dragon Building Liquid required a very fine-tuned handling of one's Ki. Without years of practice and experience, or without being a freakish genius, this would normally be impossible for most people to have.

There was another way to use Dragon Building Liquid. Instead of injecting the liquid directly as a shot, one could swallow it as if it was a drink. The Dragon Building Liquid would need to be prepared in a slightly special manner and the cost would increase from 4,000 Points total to roughly 10,000 Points total to fully upgrade.

However, by doing so, one could safely upgrade their Physique.

The downside was that it would take several months for this to come into effect. Not exactly a feasible option for Micheal or Sophia.

'It is an option that regular people can take on, though.' He nodded. Obtaining a 1 Star, or higher, Physique would have large benefits in the long run.

'Focus.' He stared intently at her back as he looked beyond it, his senses centering on the erratic pace of Sophia's Ki. He began to inject some of his own Ki, causing it to interact with Sophia's.

Whoosh

The air around them stirred ever so slightly as he emitted energy from his hands, carefully guiding it into her body.

"Stay calm, perfectly calm." He could feel her start to sweat, taking deep breaths. Her heart rate had picked up, indicating a state of nervousness or excitement.


Gradually, the erratic pace of Ki in her body began to simmer down, slowly returning to a normal state. Micheal kept his focus up the entire time, not letting himself slack off even an inch.

Soon, her body returned to a normal state. At this point, Micheal sat backwards and let out a breath, his Ki returning to normal as well.

"All done."

He leaned back on the bed, pulling out a water bottle from his Spatial Ring. He took several gulps, feeling slightly tired. Using his energy like that took a great deal of mental focus. It would be very difficult to do it more than once or twice a day.

"Thanks, Micheal!" Sophia quickly pulled her shirt back down as she turned around, her eyes eager. She stood up, looking down at her hands. She then waved them in the air.

"It'll be a few hours for it to fully settle and assimilate with your body." Micheal explained to her as he stood up as well, stretching. Unless you took it on your own with no help, the Dragon Building Liquid would take time to fully meld with one's body.

"Once it finishes, you will gain a 1 Star Physique, just like me." He grinned, giving her a thumbs up. She nodded and smiled back.

"Alright. Now, for the main course." He stepped over to the window, looking outside. As he moved, he picked up his backpack from the floor, grunting at the heavy weight inside. He slung it on and added,

"The morning light has fully come in. Let's get moving! We have an Open Market to get to!"

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Sophia and Micheal were situated in the western portion of the central area of the Stardust Cluster, relatively close to where the Tobagin Party was headquartered. They controlled several dozens of skyscrapers in the western portion of the Cluster, only allowing their members to live there.

They had ended up here through their hunting expeditions, switching skyscrapers each night. While most people in the Cluster would avoid living in the lower levels, Sophia and Micheal were each more than capable of handling stray Morenkai. Thus, finding rooms to stay wasn't difficult at all.

The Open Market started today, but wouldn't get that crowded till around midmorning. They set off early to make it there around then.

In the first hour of their travel, they crossed more than 40 skyscrapers. They moved cautiously and several times doubled back to avoid running into active battles between Morenkai.

'It'd be better to avoid having people think we're trying to steal their kills.' He'd thought at one such occurrence as they avoided a large group taking out several Morenkai.

Due to the strange mechanics of this world, one only got the Points from killing a Morenkai if they were the last one to affect that Morenkai, in some way, before its death. Sophia killing the first Golden Morenkai after Micheal disabled it was a straightforward example.

The way this got measured was theorized to have something to do with the soul, though the exact workings of how it functioned were still unknown.

If one lured a Morenkai to fall to its death without touching it, one would still get Points for killing it. The damage they caused it to sustain seemed to be connected almost through fate, as if one's actions that affected others were tracked and connected to them on a tangible level.

As a side effect of this, it was possible for someone to do a tremendous amount of work taking down an Abnormal and, right as they were about to make the kill, someone else kills it.

In this scenario, the person that did all the work to get the kill would score nothing, while the person that jumped in and killed the vulnerable Morenkai would get everything.

Thus, most groups would be rather territorial when it came to defending their kills, willing to get in fights with anyone approaching them. Humans were far easier to kill than Morenkai, after all.

On the bright side, their outfits had the bonus of making people avoid trying to mug them. After all, if one saw two people running around with mildly creepy masks on their face in a world where people had superpowers… very few people would want to have anything to do with them.

They had made it two-thirds of the way across the central zone when they finally ran into something that gave them both pause.

"…and where your Artifacts are stored. Don't be stupid!" They caught the back half of a statement as a man's voice carried onto the wooden bridge they were crossing, in between two skyscrapers.

The bridge was bowed, meaning they couldn't see what was going on ahead of them.

Micheal and Sophia exchanged glances. Without hesitation, Micheal stepped forward, a frown appearing on his face, beneath his mask. He motioned for Sophia to follow him, telling her to walk carefully.

"I-I-I-we don't have a-anything else! P-please!" A high pitched voice responded, a man stuttering in fear. Micheal could practically feel the sheer terror coming from the speaker.

In just a few seconds, they crossed over a majority of the bridge and got a clear glance at the roof of the skyscraper.

There were two standard sheds leading downstairs into the skyscraper. The roof was a plain white one, with checkered lines covering it. There was a trio of men standing on the roof, and a man and a woman cowering on the ground.

The standing men all wore jeans and t-shirts, two of them in plain green shirts while the speaker wore a grungy blue one. They all were white and looked to be in their 30s.

All three held handguns in their hands.

In addition… all three of them stood with a type of familiar grace despite their brutish demeanor, a faintly bloody aura surrounding them.

'Vampires.' His eyes narrowed. They were all likely Lesser Vampire Types. The Ability boosted one's reaction speed, Strength, Endurance, and Recovery by a decent margin, instantly making one superhuman.

The speaker was wearing a green shirt, a man with dark brown hair and a slightly chubby build. He towered over the two cowering figures, his eyes merciless.

The man on the ground had dark skin and wore a set of jeans and a white shirt, while the woman was much paler and wore an almost identical outfit. Neither one of them had a gun, but they both looked miserable.

"No one in the central zone has nothing at all. You want us to go away, it's simple. All you hav-" The speaker cut himself off abruptly as he noticed the arrival of Sophia and Micheal.

"The fuck are y'all freaks looking at?" The man's voice echoed as he turned and pointed the gun at them.

"Turn the fuck around. This has nothing to do with you."

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Next chapter on Tuesday, I'm driving back home on Monday!

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