The wrath of the crowd in the Nekrolyma cave receded, while XN drifted into unconsciousness. The blue hues of the cave's walls were gradually swallowed by darkness.
XN could hear his heart beating in the absolute silence that slowly occupied his mind.
Then voices began to buzz in. The volume steadily increased, and a voice was finally audible:
"…control the anomaly!"
The darkness faded. XN could see a lab filled with monitors on the ceilings and desks fixed to the walls. A slim man—a researcher—in his late thirties pointed at someone as he issued commands.
Rapidly, heavily armored soldiers rallied. Bolts were fired in response to his order.
XN stood behind them, as though watching from a large screen. The hall flickered with red lights and alarming sirens. On the monitors, ALERT was displayed.
"What's this place?"
"Wait! I've seen this before!"
As he ruminated, a brief moment from his encounter with Eyes resurfaced.
"That's it!"
However, he had snapped out early, back then.
"This is my chance to find some answers."
He scoped the lab as its occupants maintained their frantic motions. The space was highly equipped with technology XN had witnessed once. At the center, a giant glass pillar stood firm.
Finally, he saw the person the researcher had pointed at.
"Nice?"
"Could he be the anomaly?"
His hair blew backward each time Nice dashed with explosive speed. His glare was as intense as that of a predator devouring its prey by sight. The steel surfaces bore damage—marks from his escape acrobatics.
In the squadron's desperate attempt, anxiety settled, and rapidly, fear took over.
"It's useless! We can't even touch him!"
"We aren't equipped to break a Delta!"
The soldiers were right about their inferiority. However, there was more to Nice than they thought.
The researcher knew it. His face tightened into a frown.
"Fools!"
He anxiously watched the scene through his goggles as he pondered.
"Of course they don't stand a chance—he's roughly a Gamma!"
His teeth ground against each other.
Sweat dripped from his face. His nervousness grew noticeable to the other researchers as he looked at the wary girl behind Nice.
"But her…"
XN heard everything like a movie. He saw through the researcher's eyes. His iris reflected Fionna.
XN understood the situation.
"Nice must be trying to protect her."
XN identified the features of the lab: its central glass pillar screwing upward from a lower floor; the damaged research desks and monitors; the luminous rods scattered across the floor in the chaos.
"But the ship had only researchers and skeletons. Not armored soldi—"
An ominous presence began to fill the lab. A dark ash smog narrowed from Fionna's location and progressively widened toward Nice's opponents. The metallic components of the lab began to rust alongside the soldiers' heavy armor.
XN's sight gradually became hazy. In his blindness, he could hear muffled screams and gunshots. His hearing was distorted.
Rapidly, the only thing he could see was the researcher. XN, certain he was only a spectator, didn't expect what came next.
Suddenly, the researcher's eyes locked onto him with a tense glare. His goggles fell off, and his eyes turned red as blood vessels bulged out.
In his suffocation, the researcher's lips articulated with the entity's voice:
"So far, what has power brought to you?"
Struck by the atrocious sight, XN snapped out of his nightmare, the entity's voice fading into an echo.
"Only misery and loneliness."
XN felt a gentle heat on his face. He could hear distant chatter. A soft light rushed into his eyes as he struggled to open them.
"The day's up, already?"
The surface beneath him wasn't hard, but it wasn't comfortable either. He held a piece of cloth from the surface on which he lay.
"Rags?"
His torso was naked, though draped in a blanket. He sat up. To his right, a cloth hung on the mouth of a bowl of water.
The door creaked open.
A young woman with ruby-red hair sneaked in. Her steps were meant to be noiseless, but the old state of the wooden floor belied her intentions.
Then the creaking stopped. She looked at XN, who sat on the rags with his face down. His naked torso revealed scars from lacerations on his left shoulder and sternum.
He was silent.
She walked to his right as though nothing was amiss and sat on a stool by the bowl. Their silence created an uneasy atmosphere.
Then she said,
"You're pretty quiet for someone who napped for almost a week."
"I see. It's been a week, then," XN replied. His voice was filled with exhaustion. Then he asked in turn,
"Valora…"
"Tell me—have I been feverish through my slumber?"
Shocked, her left foot kicked the bowl. The water spilled halfway as she hesitated.
"Why do you ask me?"
XN looked at the bowl. The water seemed warm, and Valora appeared embarrassed. He understood the reason but didn't want to make a fuss about it.
"I must've mistaken you for someone. Sorry."
On his back, scars lined his spine, as though multiple large syringes had been inserted regularly.
Valora hid her curiosity, estimating the time wasn't appropriate. Then she replied,
"It's alright," and continued before leaving the room,
"You need to get some rest. You're still weak."
Shortly after her visit, Sora walked in.
"Hey! You're finally awake!"
"I thought… I thought…"
His head lowered as he tried to contain his emotions.
"I'm still alive, Sora. Thanks," XN responded. A smile unconsciously stretched from his left cheek, sending shivers through Sora.
"He looks so much like… Vlad."
Sora's face softened with relief, and a gentle smile formed on his visage.
"I'm glad you're alright."
In his mind, Sora soliloquized,
"I get it now, Valora."
Together, they walked out of the room. Through the corridors, XN remembered that Reynolds' home hadn't been destroyed by the previous threat.
"So we're in the old man's house," he murmured.
They walked to the exterior at XN's fatigued pace. Daylight brushed the doorway. Behind them, laughter circulated on a wind of joy.
Outside, the ruin left by the previous encounter was gone—replaced by smaller abodes. The pavements were renewed, and the smiles of the residents were restored.
"That was fast," XN exclaimed in bafflement.
"Huh?" Sora replied.
"Oh yeah, I forgot—you're new to this."
Sora began to explain the rapid recovery.
"…We've expected such attacks, so our building system is suited for rapid reconstruction."
In the front yard, Reynolds discussed matters with some residents. By his side, Manson stood silent.
"HEY!" Sora called out.
A crowd heeded the call, and whispers spread the information. Rapidly, news of XN's awakening disseminated. A gathering led by Reynolds steadily advanced toward XN.
The expressions on their faces birthed a strange sensation in him.
"What's this feeling?"
"Could it be…?"
Suddenly, his heart raced, each beat pounding against his ribcage. The chest pressure was accompanied by severe migraines.
However, XN couldn't let it show.
"They already think ill of me."
"If I'm perceived as an omen… my answers… they'll be lost!"
As he pondered, he stumbled upon Manson. His calmness concealed guilt and shame. His timid eyes shattered XN's moral resolve.
XN's mental state deteriorated. His vision flickered between a joyful crowd and a raging mob. The atmosphere alternated between soft daylight and a chaotic evening.
He couldn't differentiate reality from memory.
His breath became rapid and shallow as his right hand clutched his chest.
The cheers of the residents faded beneath the noise of a conflicting mob from a lost memory.
As the confusion grew obvious, wrath crawled up his heart. A faint light flickered in XN's iris. His visage resembled Nice's—the predator in the alerted lab.
XN began replaying the memory, this time in Nice's body. Asphalt and sand-crusted cement abodes were replaced with steel surfaces. Pavement mosaics rearranged into a smooth floor.
Red siren lights flickered in his eyes as he silently approached the villagers, mistaking them for heavily armored soldiers.
"It all ends now."
He murmured repeatedly.
Anxiety gradually built among the residents as the dread emitted by XN became noticeable.
One week had passed since the previous disaster. They had survived the destruction caused by their comrade. This time, they might have to survive their hero.
Conscious of the prowess of his doppelgänger, XN realized—
"This is bad!"
"If I break down now, what will happen to these people?!"