Chapter 180 A Dream, An Illusion Or...??

"Well. To be honest, I can't even confirm what happened. Though, I will try to explain everything that I saw," he spoke as he looked at me with a bit of an anxious expression.

With his finger fidgeting and his shaking eyes, it seemed like things were a bit more complicated than I anticipated.

"Sure. I will listen," I spoke as I observed him and his expression firmed as he spoke,

"When we first reached my uncle's location, unsurprisingly, I found the apartment empty, but using my gift of abnormal senses, I was able to sense some living beings not too far from the apartment.

At first, I told everyone about what I sensed and after considering it properly, we finally reached a conclusion that we should take shelter for the night and begin our search from the next day. Though things started changing from that night onwards…"

His eyes started getting a bit more confused as he continued,

"So, at first, when the initial few hours passed. There was not a single Nightcrawler in the vicinity, not even a single one. Ironically enough, rather than feeling safe, a sudden creepy feeling enveloped us.

Though that was only the beginning of the strange turn of events. As time passed, we started witnessing ghosts, monsters that seemed out of this world. It wasn't zombies; I confirmed it with my ability and the others agreed as well.

The ghosts were roaming on the streets, while the monsters hunted other monsters, and everything was quiet… unique to us. Though we hid behind the walls, and only observed through the window as we observed the scenes, waiting for the sun to come up.

However, that was the start of our nightmares. After 12 hours passed, the sun didn't come. Even after waiting for another 4-5 hours, there was no sign of dawn in the distance.

We started getting hungry and anxious. Soon we decided that we must move out of this place and find a safe spot. Or else things will only get worse."

Hearing up to here, I looked at Miya as I asked,"Can a hallucination ability cause this?" and she nodded,"if they are strong enough."

"SS-Grade?" I asked again, and she pondered a little as she looked at Alex before speaking,"It has to be a unique monster, to make one forget even the sense of time."

I nodded before I pondered a little as I continued,"Continue."

"We then started to move slowly, as we traveled, hiding from the monsters and the ghosts. At first things were going smoothly, but sooner something felt off about that as well. It wasn't just smooth, it was too smooth. Despite there being dozens of ghosts or monsters, there was always a way to avoid them.

The more we walked, the more we felt like we were being led somewhere, and the answer came to us a few turns ahead. It was a strange tunnel. A really, really odd one.

It didn't seem like a tunnel built by the natives of this planet but more like an alien high tech stuff. As we were deciding whether to enter the tunnel or not, we were surrounded by monsters and ghosts from all around, leaving the tunnel the only way out.

Some of us tried fighting, only to realize that we were no match for the monsters. Even our most powerful attacks could barely graze them. Running out of options, we hastened our steps into the tunnel.

The tunnel was dark. We could barely make out the surroundings. Still, we kept traveling, making sure all of us were still there. Though as time passed, one of us stopped speaking. In panic, we shouted her name as much as we could, but there was no answer.

Though we were scared, we kept moving forward, soon finding a light on the other side of the tunnel. Hastening our steps further, we reached the bright light that consumed our sight for a few moments, before we found ourselves… back at the start.

The same room where we were supposed to stay the night and move onwards the next day."

I could see sweat beads forming on the face of Alex as his shaking eyes observed me. I looked at him with a serious face as I patted his head while reading his description. He didn't lie about anything.

"It must be a Mind Demon,"said Miya as she looked at Alex with pity in her eyes. She then continued,

"When the last war was fought, we faced a certain type of zombie that had the ability to control the mind of other beings lower than him. We called them Mind Demons. It had the ability to inflict harm beyond the illusion and any damage done on the body within the illusion is reflected to the real body."

"Are you sure it's a Mind Demon?" I asked as I looked at her and she shook her head as she spoke,"we can only hope it's a Mind Demon. If it is any other being, then we are dealing with an SSS-Grade Zombie at minimum."

I nodded at her before turning to Alex,"what happened next?"

Alex was observing Miya carefully before he spoke,"nothing much. We kept trying to escape from every path possible, but no matter what path we took, we ended up getting back to the same place, the same tunnel over and over again. And each time we reached there, we ended up losing another one of our members.

By the time it all ended, I was all alone by myself. Not even Erika was there with me, as I had lost her as well. And surrendering myself to my fate, this time I simply walked into the tunnel,

However, this time, things were different. I didn't wake up in that apartment, but in a circular arena, where there was a zombie sitting in the center."

"What did the zombie look like?" I asked with my eyes concentrated on Alex and he answered,

"Ugly. His entire face was covered with eyes, even some of his body parts had eyes. And all those eyes looking at me creeped me out to no end."

"Did that guy take your eyes and your abilities from you?" Spoke Miya with an understanding smile as she looked at him and he nodded with a slightly terrified look.

"How long were you there inside that circular arena, with that zombie?" Miya asked to understand something and Alex observed her with a slightly broken smile,"1 year? Maybe more…. He wasn't fighting me and neither was he something I could defeat. All that time he was just staring at me, slowly walking towards me. At first, I was just escaping from him, but as time passed… I started losing my mental state… and before I could turn insane… I just let him come and get me. So that all that pain would be over."

"You did good holding o  for so long," Miya spoke as she gave Alex a small smile before she asked,"must have been nauseating to let a demon take control over you."

And he nodded at that.

"When I woke up after that, I had already lost my abilities and powers to that demon, including my eyes. However, with my enhanced senses, I could still 'see' things around. So I covered my eyes with bandages as I felt my insides still churning. No, I think even my insides were missing at that time," he explained and I asked with a bit of curiosity,

"What happened to the others?"

"They weren't there when I woke up, or more like, I didn't wake up in that apartment, but a bit far away from there. It was Erika who saved me," he spoke as he sighed before explaining,

"While I was going through that nightmare, according to Erika, there were many Nightcrawlers around the night, which she 'consumed' and because of that, she 'grew up'. Don't ask me how, cause even I don't know what happened.

Later on, Erika told me that there were a lot of men who came, one of which was our uncle, and he took all the sleeping guys with them. According to her, the men were strong and really scary, and it didn't look like they were going to help the sleeping men."

"Miya… what are the chances that it's not a zombie but a human with that much power?" I asked as I looked at her and she pondered,

"If the circumstances allowed then, there is a really really low chance of something like that happening. Somebody might have obtained a blessing from a God, or perhaps from the Universe themself?"

'Ah! There is that too,' I thought as I too had received some blessing from the Universe.

[God Power: Time Shatter] was one of the powers that I got from the Universe. Plus, I also received that [Blessing of the Universe] that allowed me to have infinite energy.

It would be quite odd to think that another person won't be able to get a blessing from the Universe when I could.

"Is there anything else that happened?" I asked Alex as I looked at him and he nodded as a slight fury appeared on his face. It felt like he could murder a couple of people right now, as he looked at me and spoke,

"While I did get weakened, I felt like not all of my powers were gone. Some of it was still left inside me and if I concentrated enough, I might be able to get the powers back… however… those bastards… my so-called family members…"