Lost Origins: SS Ranked Awakening-Chapter 167: Click

"You should take some time to test."

Jake said, pointing out the dark circles and eye bags under Kieran’s eyes.

"You’re one to be talking!"

Kieran retired with a snort, looking at Jake who looked just as bad, if not worse than him.

"What’s with the attutide?"

"I’m sorry."

Kieran sighed, turning away to the side.

They had decided to rest for sometime before going out go investigate the facility. The soldiers had just gone out recently with Orion’s team so they had some time before they came back.

Despite hearing all this from Jake who saw them march out and knowing this to be true, Kieran couldn’t help the intense feeling of irritation which welled up in him.

The itch in his mind only made it worse, pushing him close to the edge.

The uncomfortable feeling of something clawing at the back of his mind, watching him as he fell and fell again, while missing the most important clues.

’No! I can’t do this anymore!’

Kieran pushed open his closed eyes and got to his feet walking out without informing Jake.

"Where are you going? We need to get some rest, especially you. I doubt you can even fight in this condition!"

"I don’t know about you, but somethings is seriously wrong and we’re missing it. I’m going to find out what the hell is causing this unbreable itch!"

Kieraj whispered the last part to himself, stepping out of the room without hearing Jake’s reply. He obviously have no regard to what his teammate thought anymore.

"Whats up with him? I better recover my energy before something happens because of him."

Jake muttered, closing his eyes once more, returning to a meditative stance.

....

"Ughh!"

Kieran clenched his jaw hard, resisting the urge to groan in frustration.

That annoying sensation in his mind had increased, becoming almost unbearable as he stepped into the main facility and checked all the rooms he cane across.

Rooms which were all empty for some reason, a reason he couldn’t figure out. Yet he wasn’t suprised.

’Why am I not surprised?’

Kieran frowned, gaugung his own strange reactions shivh only fuelled the singular thought which rang clear in his mind.

’Something is wrong here!’

With this, he ventured further into the facility, searching for whatever it was that could rid him of the madness chewing at him.

And it didn’t take him long to see it again.

"What was that?"

Kieran’s head shot the side, but whatever it saw, it was gone as everything looked like.whem he had first seen it.

’Can’t be a guard. I’m pretty sure this place is empty!’

A conclusion he had made after experiencing the cold and errie silence which was accompanied him all the way in this place.

The lack of presence also helped him confirm that thought. He coukdnt sense any soldier, nor could did his eyes reveal anyone who could have been hiding.

Still, he couldn’t shake of the feeling that he haf seen something for a split second there.

He was sure of it!

So he drew closer, approaching what appeard to be a simple window.

"Hmm. There’s nothing wrong it. Looks oka—"

CRACK!

SHATTER!!

Kieran knocked his finger on the glass window panel while talking, only for it for shatter upon contact.

"What the he—Ugh!"

The sight of scattered window shards on the floor was like a bomb going off in his mind, the pain bring him to the ground as he clenched his head in agony.

Flashes and blurry images streaking across mind.

"Tss!"

He suddenly drew in a sharp breath feeling pain in his left palm.

"Huh? When did this get there?"

Uuerab muttered, still feeling disoriented from what he had just gone though a moment ago, but the shock was far from over as his eyes widened upon landing on the glass shard that had pierced deeply into his palm.

There were several puncture wounds present with some about to heal completely and other still fresh, telling him that it had been in his hand for a while now.

His focus shifted from the glass back to the injured plam with was already healing, before it all hit him at once.

"...."

The agonizing feeling in his mind had completely vanished without a trace.

"This!!"

’The core!’

His eyes flashed and he bloted in the direction of the center of the outpost. A place he had been avoiding unconsciously all this while.

Now that he knew what was going on, he knew that was the only place he could get his answers.

’I need to wake Jake up, fast!’

.....

Back in the warehouse.....

’He isn’t back?’

Jake’s eyes opened, looking around with a weary light shining deeply within.

"He’s been weird lately. Every since we came here"

’That’s strange.’

"When did we come here?"

Confusion washed over Jake as he looked down onto his watch.

It’s functions like communication had been affected, but still had some independent functions, telling the time was easy work. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Huh? How the hell?"

"No way, something must be wrong with it!"

His confusion morphed into denial as he tried go find something wrong with the watch, but there was nothing ti be found.

It was telling the time correctly and the problem lied with him and not the gadget.

"We’ve been here for two days??"

From confusion to denial, then acceptance. And witch acceptance came a corresponding amount of shock as Jake struggled to wrap hisnhead around this.

"I have to tell Kieran, now!"

He rushed to his feet.

He couldn’t use his watch to contact him, the only way wss to find him and let him on this development. It was quite clear now that he just have had his own suspicions when he stormed out earlier.

SNIFF! SNIFF!!

"Whats that?"

Jake paused, catching a Saint which stood out too him.

’Blood?’

"This is Kieran’s"

He muttered, crouching to inspect the trail of blood which lead out from the warehouse.

"When did he start bleeding?"

Jake muttered, rushing out immediately.

He hadn’t completely figured what the hell was going on yet, but he somehow knew what to do, where to go.

.....

"Let’s see what exactly is going on here"

’You better have answers!’

Kieran said looking at the sole building in the center of the outpost, the only building he had Jake had never thought of going close to.

Once they did, they all forgot about it and went back to the start, repeating the dreadful cycle of finding out and forgetting over and over again.

They had fallen into this illusion, this web, the moment they stepped into the outpost and whatever it was that was behind this, it clearly didn’t want them to come close to the center.

It wouldn’t have wiped their minds off if not.

"Hmmph!"

Snorting, Kieran approached the building directly, his bloodshot eyes extremely tense.

Even now, there were no signs of any soldiers present, but he was still on guard.

He hadn’t been able to see through the illusion back then and even now that he had regained memories of what had happened, he still couldn’t see that he was in an illusion.

It just seemed perfect.

The only glimpse of what he suspected to be reality he had seen was back at the place where he saw the broken window, and even that vanished when he looked again.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see it.

Proof that this ability of his wasn’t absolute.

’I have to be careful.’

Standing in front of the building, he inspected it up close.

At the center of this facility was type of structure Kieran hadn’t seen in a long while, not since he last visited the library in the underground cavern of the camp.

It was one of those buildings made of a strange black material. A material he had seen monsters weild once, he had even witnessed them minning this material on the moving outpost.

The building was a in the shape of a cube with sharp edges and a smooth surface as if carved out perfectly from a larger block.

There were no openings visble, leaving him wondering how he was to get in.

’I find out what this is when I get back.’

Kieran thought, dragging his fingertips across the block.

He had seen this material enough times to assume that it was something of worth, something be might want to know about.

"Hmm?"

The frown on his face deepened and he came to a halt, looking at a particular spot on the huge black cube in front of him.

He could feel his energy getting sucked in by the block at the point where his finger was.

’Let’s try this...’

Turning to face it properly, Kieran pushed his plam on it and pumped his energy towards his palm, increasing the rate of adsorption from the block.

CLICK!

After a while, it stopped absorbing his energy and a small part of it, about the side of a door clicked, moving inwards to reveal a passage which lead downwards.

"At least I found a way in."

Kieran muttered, taking the path he had been searching for.