Level-Up Apocalypse: Surviving With The Assimilation System

205  Regroup and Recuperate

Reaching down, he wrapped his fingers around the brass handle. It was cold to the touch, as though sitting amidst a bank of snow. He carefully twisted it, not so much as inhaling or exhaling as he began to open the door. It opened to a completely black void sitting beyond the threshold—

["The truth of it is, from the start, I've always been who I am."] The grim voice of [Nameless] filled his ears as his entire vision became engulfed in that darkness. He witnessed it all; the inception of the man erased from history, the upbringing he had, the choices he made. All of it, all at once, flooded into his mind–those memories. However, what he found did not bring enlightenment. 'No, this can't be right–it can't,' he thought. The foul memories played into his mind, showing him the finest details of [Nameless], yet none of it served to shine any light upon the stain on humanity. —Inhuman. Evil. Depraved. Irredeemable. All of it still applied, from the day the man was born; there was no difference made in the choices that led him through the years. There was no "choice"--from the moment he was born, this is who he was. It was too much to process at once, though enough of it was perceived for Finn to feel his anxiousness skyrocket. 'He's not human–he isn't. Somebody like this should have never been born,' he realized. ["You get it now. But, how does that help you?"]

Finn stumbled out of the doorway of the man's memories, backing into the dreary corridor once again. Still processing all that he learned across mere moments, he couldn't hold back the disgust piling within his body before–

"Hrk!"

He expelled the repulsiveness from his gut, spilling bile onto the floorboards as he coughed out. It was as though by peering through those heinous memories that he experienced the cruelty enacted by the man firsthand. As he picked himself up off the floor, he did his best to straighten himself up while wiping his mouth. The creaking of wood behind him forced him to turn around, staring down that grim hallway as something filled his vision. With such abundant darkness, the figure of [Nameless] approached, twisted and concealed in shadows with nothing but his eyes and teeth visible. Against that, no part of him in that moment wanted to confront the sinister silhouette—

["Dreamwalking Initiated"] The kaleidoscope materialized around himself, engulfing him in the mind-numbing influx of complexions. A sense of relief flooded his body when removing himself from that accursed corridor. He based his walk on returning to where he had moved himself from, back to the hospital–

"Hff!"

Before he knew it, he was falling as the swirl of colors was replaced by the plain, gray walls of the hospital interior. He quickly flipped himself around, catching himself before slamming into the floor. As soon as his boots slid across the tiles, he looked around in a hurry, expecting [Nameless] to be following not far behind. "Finn–?"

He was surprised to find his name callen in a much kinder voice than that of the sinister figure, glancing back to find himself not alone. The sight of the spellblade, accompanied by the knight with others scattered through the floor of the hospital, granted a weight from his shoulders. "You both–? I made it back," Finn mumbled to himself, a bit surprised that he even wound up in the same building. "The hell happened, mate? You got in a tussle with that guy, didn't you? Did you–?" Jasper asked, leaning closer. "No, it's not over yet–we need to get out of here! Away from everybody else!" Finn shouted, not wasting a moment as he began sprinting down the hospital wing. "What–?" Charlotte responded. "Hold on, mate!" Jasper shouted, following behind. There was no chance to stand around and talk as he stayed on the move, performing a quick pivot as he turned a sharp corner before finding a door leading into the stairwell. In the essence of not wasting a single moment, he didn't stop, instead launching his boot against the door to force it open. The goal was to reach the bottom floor, the lowest within the building where nobody else should be. He rushed his way down, hopping over the railings in the stairwell as he let himself drop down. To the bottom, he landed from the several story drop, finding himself before the door of the hospital's basement. It looked to be a storage area, going by the crate symbol illustrated beside the threshold. Only a few moments later did the two arrive behind him, though a bit more clumsily. "Uff–what's gotten into you?" Jasper asked, landing with a slight wince. "Do you know where he's heading?" Charlotte asked him with concern. Finn pulled open the door as a layer of dust fell through, revealing the vast, dim warehouse beneath the hospital, "Yeah. He'll be coming right for me–I know that for sure."

"You wanted to get away from everybody else, then. I gotta say, mate, you really don't place all that much value on your own life," Jasper remarked, following him in. The air in the basement was harder to breathe, abundantly occupied by dust that rained down like snowflakes from the steel shelves. After everything he'd just experienced, sifting through abstractions, there was a slight haze to his mind, yet a stronger focus. An intense air hung around him, making even his friends follow with slight concern as to his state of mind. "What happened when you left? Your arm–what's up with it?" Charlotte asked, looking at the ethereal limb attached to the assassin's right side. "I lost it," Finn calmly answered. "I'll get it back, as long as I level up soon. Don't worry." "Not very convincing there, mate," Jasper remarked. "The real issue is I can't use any of my normal skills right now. I've hit a "Mana Debt", so I likely will need to level up to use them again. I can use assimilated skills, but that's it," he admitted. "Are you sure you can fight then?" Charlotte asked with concern. "Of course," he admitted. There was nothing to hesitate for, as there was no avoiding conflict now. Running or hiding wasn't an option; no—anywhere he could go, [Nameless] would follow. "Listen…I might be able to handle this alone, so if you want—" Finn began to say. As he turned around to look at his comrades, a sharp impact was delivered to his right cheek. Somehow, his reflexes weren't alarmed, though it wasn't a punch made by malicious intent. Jasper stood there with his fist still raised, letting out an annoyed exhale, "Don't insult us, mate. How many times do we have to tell you—we're with you through the thick of it." Another, much more gentle punch was delivered to his shoulder from Charlotte, who shared the same sentiment. "We're not that weak to you, are we?" She asked. "No, it's not that…I just—I don't want to lose anybody else," he admitted. Don't try and shoulder this alone. We're with you, Finn," Charlotte assured him. He paused for a moment, feeling his cheek as it surely bruised up, "—Yeah, I probably deserved that. Thanks." No matter how he felt, it didn't mean he could dictate what his friends wanted to do. That was obvious to him now, leaving him with a renewed sense of resolve while accompanied by the two people he was closest to in the world. "I get why you came down here, but did you have to choose the darkest, creepiest place in the whole building?" Jasper questioned, looking around as he trailed close behind. "It's not like I exactly had much time to think about it, sorry," Finn responded, scoping out the basement while keeping his fingers ready around his dagger. "I wasn't trying to give you crap or anything, it's just–" Jasper tried to explain. Amidst their conversation, a sound like that of electrical humming set all three of him on guard. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand as he raised his weapon, ready to strike at the slightest instance of noise. "What's that–?" Charlotte called out. Between a sea of discarded, cardboard boxes that littered the dump of a storage room, the figure stood like a statue. It certainly wasn't human, though it resembled one only in shape; built of sleek, black steel, the mechanical presence seemed to turn itself on with a subtle, silver light shifting beneath its chest. "A robot?" Finn mumbled. "Don't be alarmed. It's just me," a familiar voice transmitted from the faceless robot. It took a moment for Finn to process where he recognized that calm, soft voice before relaxing his guard, "Nikko…?"

"Wait, Nikko?" Jasper repeated in surprise. The mechanical humanoid adjusted itself, approaching as his fingers curled and stretched as if warming up, "This is one of my sentries I've positioned in the hospital in case of emergencies while I wasn't able to be directly present. We've been unable to access the building entirely for the past hour–what's the situation inside, Finn?"