The Earth After Rebirth

Kiro braced himself for the jump—that's what he decided to name it, it was eerily similar to his jump skill. He expected to be transported out of the battlefield but that was not happening. He remained rooted where he stood.

He looked over his shoulder for a brief second only to see Chronos wincing. He looked to be having troubles with something, was his skin colour always that pale? Kiro couldn't be sure.

He wasn't willing to leave the war anyway, he wished he could watch it until the very end. But now he was noticing a god malfunction, tried as he did to hide it, his eye was keener and it caught him.

'How do you go about asking whether a god is okay?' He wondered expecting Chronos to read his mind, but that never happened either.

He was battling demons of his own, he had little time to mess around in the boys mind. The effects of using his abilities to meddle in the world against his Lord's approval were catching up to him—to be fair he didn't know whether his Lord would agree with this decision.

He was still in his slumber, ever since the near extinction of humanity he'd been weakened. But the world managed to be saved, no matter how little that world was now. Something that came at a steep price, a godless world.

Chronos knew in his heart that his Lord would approve of this. He risked his own life to protect the world and he, Chronos, was doing the same.

Though he couldn't run away from the fact that he was a corpse within. Only being held together by strands of time and hairs of fate, ones his oldest friend gifted to him.

'Why am I thinking of that idiot of all people? He'd only say, I told you so. Making me feel like crap even more.'

Kiro could see the being was deep in thought, even though his eyes were unseeing he could see the dilemma in them. But he wasn't about to ask him what was wrong, this thing he was doing must've been important enough to sacrifice himself like this.

He swore in his heart that Chronos' sacrifice wouldn't be for nothing. He was however curious about gods dying, it was a strange concept. The things he knew from the old earth told him gods were immortals, beings death didn't dare to interrupt.

Chronos awoke from his stupor with Kiro staring at him. He sighed, not really wanting to explain what was going on with him, he didn't want this kid to carry even more of the burden. He may even blame himself for what was happening to him.

"I'm fine, just a setback." He made his excuse and Kiro accepted it without a moment's hesitation.

The battle was still going on, taking a look at it Kiro hadn't missed much. Humans were actually driving the enemy into a corner.

They were emitting a noise Kiro had never heard before in the game. Probably because he hadn't had many encounters with harbingers.

"Creating such a thing based on this, creating Asgard Online as the middle ground, giving us unlimited power, power we lose when we go out into the real world ensuring this doesn't happen again. Chronos, you're a genius." Kiro found himself saying, it was all very impressive.

He was wrong before, gods never gave up on them. They instead gave them a medium where humans couldn't possibly affect the real world while fighting to save the real world, it was simply genius.

"It's not, I'm not even in the top ten smartest. It's just accumulated life experience." He said solemnly.

"What happens if Asgard is overrun by Harbingers?" He asked, for the first time since they came here they were focused on each other instead of the war.

"They'll be able to get into the real world, in which case you guys will be screwed."

"Royally."

"You have such a strong spirit Kiro Waynworth, don't take that for granted. It was annoying when you gravitated towards me a lot and you'd eavesdrop." He chuckled.

"Not like I could understand anything, but now I guess it makes some kind of sense."

Kiro didn't think distracting him would work, but it did. He seemed back to his old self, well the self Kiro knew anyway.

After a few seconds, the scene before them morphed into nothingness. Revealing a cave with a grand entrance.

"Is this?"

"You have quite the observant eye."

"Uh-huh. Yes."

It was the same cave they encountered on their way to the capital. Only the entrance was even bigger. He wondered why they needed to make the entrance so big, harbingers were only a few meters taller.

"Ancient Ones, imagine something insanely big, now imagine it bigger. They don't have a fixed physical appearance, they can be as tall and as big as the universe itself or they can be the size of a particle."

Kiro couldn't imagine fighting such beings. Something that can change its size at will couldn't have been an easy enemy to fight.

'When I get back, definitely we should work on this true blood potion tournament. Holding one weekly should also be a good idea. We can't choose just anyone, it may just be a game but if we fail in it the real world will be doomed.'

All sorts of thoughts were swirling within him, while waiting for the scene they were here to see. It wasn't long until they saw the hooded people, going into the cave.

Kiro groaned, predicting exactly where this was going. He walked closer to the entrance. He was about to enter when Chronos stopped him.

"This isn't part of your world."

"None of this is!" He was confused.

"That cave, it's not, how do I put this, earthly? It's akin to a pocket dimension. It's like their very own spaceship or something. If you enter that, even though it's in the past, I can't protect you."

For a second, he had a very dumb idea. Entering this cave and possibly changing history.

"You'll be smited before you can even breathe in. Remember, you're a normal human right now, you're not your avatar."