Chapter 651: Responsibility

Grey stared at the crimson crack for a long while, but despite the warnings flashing in front of him and the way the thing pulsed through the surrounding chaos, nothing actually seemed ready to happen.

That much probably should have been obvious, considering there hadn’t been anyone here to interfere with it before they arrived, and two more people standing around wasn’t suddenly going to change something large enough to make the Genesis System panic.

But they couldn’t exactly stand here forever either, which left Grey with the much more irritating question of where the hell Kronos actually was. He had come here expecting some fragment they could fight, not a giant crack running through reality, but the energy leaking from it was unmistakably tangled with the same warped temporal fluctuations that had nearly separated him and Amunet on the staircase.

If this place really was connected to Kronos, then the bastard probably wasn’t sitting around waiting politely on this side.

Grey’s eyes narrowed as that conclusion settled in. "Fuck."

Amunet looked over at him, then followed his gaze toward the crack. "What?"

Grey didn’t answer immediately, but apparently his expression was enough, since Amunet’s eyes widened as she looked from him to the crimson fracture and then back again.

"Absolutely not."

Grey grinned despite himself. "Maybe if you give me a kiss I won’t do it."

"Really?"

Grey stared at her for a second, genuinely caught off guard by the fact that she seemed to have taken him seriously. Amunet’s lips curled almost immediately when she saw the reaction.

"Look at you, so easily flustered," she said. "Are you sure you’re not a virgin?"

"We can test that out if you really want."

Her eyes deliberately dropped toward the front of his sweats before she rolled them and looked back up. "Somehow I have a feeling you’ll just disappoint me again."

Grey laughed, whatever hesitation had appeared on his face disappearing beneath the confidence Amunet was far more used to seeing from him. Something in her chest quickened for half a second before she forced herself to ignore it and turned her attention back toward the crack.

"Grey, be serious," Amunet said. "The Genesis System is literally warning us that dying in there might not even be recognized properly, and we don’t know what’s on the other side."

His laughter faded into a quieter chuckle, though there was something beneath it that Amunet didn’t like. Grey didn’t seem to notice the hint of sadness leaking through when he looked toward the crimson light again, his eyes following the pulse moving through it as though he could already see the path he intended to take.

"But if I can’t do it, who can?"

Amunet’s expression changed immediately, but Grey moved before she could answer.

"TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

He heard her perfectly well and pretended he didn’t, stepping into the first warped section of space before she could close the distance. Amunet watched his body stretch apart so violently that for one horrifying instant it looked as though reality had grabbed him from every direction at once, his head splitting into several overlapping images while his torso became a dozen thin pieces and his arms stretched across impossible distances.

Then all of it vanished, only for Grey to suddenly appear directly in front of the crimson crack as though nothing had happened at all. He looked back once, and Amunet couldn’t tell whether he could even see her through all that chaos, but the idiot smiled anyway before taking another step and disappearing through the red fracture.

Amunet remained where he had left her, staring at the place he’d vanished while her mind struggled to catch up with what had just happened. This was supposed to be her burden, her father had sent her here, whatever Prometheus had done was connected to her family, and Kronos was part of the mission she’d carried across thousands of years.

Yet somehow Grey had arrived, learned barely a fraction of what she knew, and then walked into something the Genesis System itself was afraid of before she could even follow. Tears slipped down her cheeks in an endless stream, and this time she didn’t bother wiping them away.

...

The Great Udon’s enormous green face hovered above a roaring studio audience when one of the feeds behind him abruptly went black, and the cheers died almost immediately. His exaggerated grin flattened while the narrow eyeholes focused on the dead display.

Feed losses happened from time to time, but this wasn’t a normal interruption and anyone with enough experience around the Genesis Games knew how rare true anomalies were.

Then the grin returned wider than before.

"OOOH, ladies and gentlemen! It seems our favorite foul-mouthed little menace has stumbled somewhere even we can’t follow!"

The audience erupted on command as screens around the studio replayed the final available moments of Grey and Amunet, while Great Udon rolled through the air with theatrical excitement.

"Do you understand how rare this is? Entire Games can pass without a single Candidate stepping beyond the Genesis System’s sight, and now two of our most entertaining little monsters have vanished at once!"

The screaming grew louder as he continued. "Will they survive, will they return stronger, will they return at all? Unfortunately, even your beloved Great Udon cannot show you what the system itself cannot see, so while we wait to discover whether Grey Temolt has finally found something wild enough to kill him, we’ll take a short commercial break!"

Music exploded through the studio while advertisements immediately filled the suspended screens, one of the first showing Grey wearing a Best Of headband while a cheerful voice explained a new Candidate insurance package. Great Udon’s smile dropped slightly as Grey’s face rotated beneath the purple eclipse logo.

The moment the cameras stopped transmitting, the atmosphere around him changed completely, and the floating mask drifted away from the stage before opening a private line. Several silhouettes appeared across a dark screen, none of them speaking at first as Great Udon studied the connection.

"The feed is gone," he said, all of the theatrical excitement disappearing from his voice. "A genuine anomaly has appeared, and I don’t have its location yet, but if you can find it, this may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for."

One of the silhouettes leaned forward slightly, and Great Udon’s grin slowly returned as he continued. "Whatever Grey Temolt entered is outside the Genesis System’s direct influence, which means its protections may not apply either. Find the anomaly, and you may finally have a chance to deal a death blow to Grey Temolt and end this once and for all."

The commercial behind him cheerfully promised that with Best Of insurance, even disaster could become opportunity. Great Udon looked toward it for a long second before his expression soured.