Second Genesis

Grey pressed a hand to his chest, half expecting it to be impaled. He was used to dying in ridiculously stupid ways by this point. But rather than there being a hole there, his chest was perfectly intact. It was like nothing had run through him at all.

And then he heard a revving echoing through his skull itself. It was like the bike was...

’Inside of me? What the fuck?’

This was very different from what he had experienced before.

The inventory was "in" him but still separate. But this was just like the fang daggers. The bike was quite literally in him.

The difference was that the bike practically had its own mind. While the fang daggers only gained a bit of sentience through the Wolf Spirit itself, and it could be said that the Wolf Spirit was the actually sentient thing amongst them, the bike was its own master.

Well... sort of. It clearly just obeyed what the Wolf Spirit said as well, and that was definitely no coincidence.

Grey didn’t know how many different types and kinds of Dark Kin there were, but it didn’t seem to matter. And now that the bike was in his body...

’Looks like I probably shouldn’t have to steal it again.’

Grey’s palm rested on his chest for a long while. He just seemed to be standing there, lost in his thoughts. It was like he didn’t feel how many gazes were on him at all.

He felt so distant from the world now. Maybe that was the price to pay for infinite lives.

’Well, is it really so infinite?’

Chi.

There was a crack in the air and Grey looked up.

The Syrn appeared, wreathed in black light, its body just as sickly pale as always. It looked down from above with that smug look on its face.

Reading an alien’s expression was harder than it seemed. But by this point, Grey could translate a sentient flame, let alone an actual face.

"Might anyone be able to tell me where Joaquin is?"

Grey ignored him as the others froze, their bodies feeling like a meteor was bearing down on them.

"Tell me why." Grey said, his gaze landing on Amunet who was still on the ground. She lay between his legs and he looked down at her like he would smash her head to paste if she dared to not answer.

Amunet froze. "Grey, the—."

"I asked you a fucking question." Grey said coldly.

Amunet’s eyes darted from the skies to Grey, and then back and forth again. To her shock, her heart came to a realization she didn’t know how quite to put into words...

She actually... feared Grey more.

"If you want to talk about this later, fine. But we can’t—."

"I’m going to give you one more chance," Grey cut her off. "Don’t answer with bullshit. Don’t answer with shit I didn’t ask. If you say one more word of nonsense, I’m bashing your head in."

Amunet’s pupils constricted. Grey really... didn’t care about the monster in the skies at all.

The gaze of the Syrn had long landed on Grey, confusion coloring its long, slit-like eyes. But even then, Grey didn’t seem to notice it.

"I..." Amunet didn’t know what to say for a moment, the cold intensity of Grey’s words making her throat feel tens of times narrower than it should have.

She grit her teeth. "I don’t have an explanation for you. I needed it. I needed it badly. So I took it. That’s all. If you want to kill me for it, then do it."

"You didn’t think to just ask me?"

Amunet froze. She didn’t even know how to process those words.

"You didn’t know how to have a conversation with someone you just went through life and death with? Did I come off as someone that unreasonable to you?"

"I..."

Amunet didn’t know what to say. Had she thought of just asking? Yes, she had. But back then, she had to act fast and she couldn’t accept the possibility of a "no". If you asked, expecting the answer to be yes, then you were just a hypocrite.

If Grey had said no, she would have had no choice but to fight him for it, and back then, it would have been too close a proposition.

Now, somehow, even without the legacy, Grey had surpassed her by such a large margin it felt like a joke that they had ever been equals.

"I... don’t know what to say Grey. I made a split moment decision. I would tell you I regretted it if I did, but I had to do what was best for me at the time. I already had a half of the legacy, and it would kill me if I didn’t have the other half. You were too strong and I was too tired after the battles to get into another.

"I made the choice before I had time to think it through, but right now I can tell you I would have done the same thing. We were cordial, but I hadn’t known you for long, I had no idea how you would react to something so important showing up."

She didn’t want to say it, but Grey sounded very naive right now. She could apologize, but she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted. Part of her felt that it was because he was truly too young. He was the strongest of them all, but he had said it before, he was only 16 years old, maybe 17 years old by now.

He hadn’t seen any of the world, and his talent was the only thing keeping him alive right now.

"Maybe I would have reacted the same way I did when I handed you a Legendary Nexis Suit." Grey replied.

There was something cold and detached in his words now. The emotion that had been there had vanished. He had reached a new point... a point of simply not caring anymore.

Amunet felt like she was watching something burn to ash in front of her.

"You... you... you couldn’t use it anyway—." She regretted the words as soon as she said them. She would have never said something so defensive usually, she had already felt like she was in the wrong, what were the point of those words. Wasn’t she the one being immature now?

"Is that so? I guess your bike just chose me for shits and giggles, then."

Amunet’s eyes went wide and her face turned ashen white.

Grey had already turned away. "Have a shit life, Amunet."

He had aliens to tear apart.