I See One Second Into The Future: Loner In The Apocalypse

Kairos was a bit confused by the barking he heard in the distance at first. However, he quickly realized what it meant. As the barking continued on and on, he gradually felt vision return to him, or at least, he appeared to see something.

It was his room, except it was far smaller than it had been before. There was barely enough width for his bed to fit, and what was left of the room was at the foot of the bed, enough for a few people to be in comfortably. Though all things considered, it was very cramped.

Kairos found himself waking up on top of the bed, and the wolf was at the foot of the bed, barking rather excitedly. It had its paws on top with its tongue out. It seemed rather happy to see him, though, from the looks of things, it wasn't the happiest of situations.

While he understood this, Kairos still reached over to pet it. There was a small smile on his face as he did so. The wolf leaned into the hand, closing its eyes while wagging its tail. It let out a few barks.

"At least I'm not alone, I guess."

He took a look around the room while petting the wolf. It was rather bare, without anything to even distract himself. While Kairos didn't understand what was happening, he did know that things weren't good.

Yet, his ideas were as plentiful as there were interesting things on the walls.

After pondering over it for a while, he decided to keep with what he set out to do before he had become a monster. Trying to be a little happier, as hard as it would be in such a scenario. And also thinking of a way to get out of this room and into the real world.

For starters, Kairos continued smiling. He was still brushing the wolf's fur and looked down at it. The wolf had calmed down considerably at this point, resting its head on Kairos' lap. It was shivering ever so slightly, clutching onto him with its paws.

The wolf was scared.

Kairos' eyes widened slightly. It seemed as though while his mind was being overtaken, the wolf was similarly affected like him, but he was just barely able to save its consciousness.

In that silent room, he began humming a broken tune, not knowing what else to do.

...

On the outside, his monstrous body continued on a rampage, ripping monsters apart and then eating them whole. Kairos in his frenzied state didn't exactly have the finesse to be delicate and ended up destroying their hearts, sometimes even after they were dead by maiming the corpse a few times.

As such, he was not able to inherit their abilities. Though the flesh was definitely worth something, acting as both sustenance to sustain the body and improving his strength further. With every consumed monster, the black shell overtop his body expanded ever so slightly and got ever so slightly tougher.

At some point, he had exited the dungeon, going out into the world, searching to kill anything he could.

There were many fearsome monsters out there, however, he was able to tear them apart with brute strength. And it wasn't even close.

Somehow or another, he had benefited from both of the monsters he had become. The overload of evolution energy granted him extreme strength by overloading his body while also making him far more durable. The main weakness of this was that he had the same human vital parts, namely the head, neck, and heart.

The black blood had done similar things, but instead of durability, it had a strong ability to regenerate from wounds. This mitigated most of the weaknesses that the previous one had. Ordinarily, the heart would be the main weakness that came from it, but due to having multiple hearts, he wasn't reliant on one to keep him alive.

So long as one remained, the other would regenerate in due time.

There were groups that attempted to take him down but were quickly suppressed through brute strength alone. Even though they gave up trying to save his black heart and targeted it, that was not enough to kill him.

Without knowing any other weaknesses they quickly crumbled and Kairos was able to kill the majority, save for a few that ran away early on.

Although it was something unknown to him, the word of a mutant red-blooded monster spread amongst the people. A monster that was seemingly immortal with unstoppable strength.

For days on end, he wandered, killing any living thing he could find and consuming them.

As for the part of Kairos that was still sane, remaining inside the consciousness, he was starting to lose that sanity.

While he could vaguely sense what was happening to his body, for the most part, he was just in a cramped room. He was together with a wolf that was also feeling incredibly uncomfortable as well.

Since he wasn't actually in a real body, he couldn't sleep. At the same time, he was trying his best not to die of boredom as the days continued on and on again. It was akin to being in solitary confinement.

The wolf whimpered desperately, clearly wanting to leave. However, it seemed to understand that it wasn't so simple as it didn't press too hard.

In the end, Kairos and the wolf could only hold onto each other in an attempt to also hold onto their senses. It wasn't as though he hadn't tried to think of any solutions, but none had worked.

The more he tried, the more he felt like it was going nowhere. As the only thing he could truly do, it had become an obsession. It felt akin to a wild goose chase that was only fraying his sanity even further. Despite the fact he didn't have any writing utensil, nor did he ever purposefully make the actions, the walls were gradually cluttered up with big bold words, listing out his ideas, with big crosses on top of the ones that failed.

Kairos realized that the room was a representation of his own mind, and how it was gradually deteriorating. Seeing all of it was only making things worse, making him more aware of his state.

At this point, his only real options were to go insane by doing nothing or go insane by trying something.

It was just like those times when he had no motivation to do anything and couldn't bring himself to move. Except this time, he couldn't move whether he wanted to or not. As this realization settled in, more writing appeared on the walls in the still blank spaces.

All of which were saying "Save Me".

He hadn't even known those were his thoughts, as he instinctively pushed those kinds away. However, there was no hiding from it anymore when it was right in front of his face. After all the blank spaces were filled they began to overwrite on top of the previous text.

It quickly devolved into a mess.

The wolf looked around fearfully, letting out a weak whimper.

Kairos wanted to comfort it but didn't know what else he could do other than petting its fur.

...

Fueled by plenty of supply, Kairos' body continued to grow larger, taking on more features reminiscent of the black-blooded monsters due to those being his main diet. If before, the black shell could be considered a light addition, such as shoulder and knee pads, now it was more like a full set of steel armor covering almost every part.

The only traces of him being a monster were through a tiny slit for his eyes, and tiny parts around joints or the mouth would be visible if bent or open.

It ironically worked as camouflage, allowing him to blend in with the normal monsters. Though anyone who saw his eyes recognized what exactly he was. Well, at least the survivors.

However, monster or not, Kairos' time in that realm was limited.

Although not aware of it, an entire month soon passed inside such a place. While Kairos was rushing after a monster, white chains suddenly shot out of the sky, shackling around his neck and limbs.

He let out a roar, resisting the pull as best he could.

However, the bindings appeared to be absolute, firmly holding him in place and dragging him upwards. The entire time he howled aggressively, flailing his limbs and head. Though it was pointless.

After a rather long journey, he ended up being above ground once more. His last requirement for the promotion mission was fulfilled. However, his monstrous side wasn't in full control, thus couldn't do it on its own, and there was no way the still somewhat sane version of him could either.

Regardless, the monstrous side of him refused to change his strategy, rushing in a random direction, aiming to kill anything that was alive.

Even if the monsters here might not have been as weak as they used to be.