204 Chapter 203

'What kind of mutation... Is that!?'

The faces on the heads embedded into it's body showed cries of pain and agony. The dark hollow mouths and eyes which almost seemed to have been turned to them sent chills in their direction.

With the floor beneath them collapsing and their figures beginning to descend and sink back down, Gray quickly turned to the entrance.

Within half of a second he grabbed both Aurora and Violet before [Pause-Stepping] right there.

[Pause-Step]

Their eyes widened after they appeared on top of the station's gates.

Right before their eyes, a glowing spherical ball could be seen.

It glowed orange and was in the path towards them at incredibly high speeds. Gray only got a small glimpse of it before reacting.

[Fast-Forward]

Their figures vanished right before the ball collided with them.

The three of them appeared right outside the station with their eyes turned back to the ball.

They watched as it collided right against the inside of the station's walls.

*BOOOOOM!!!!!*

What resulted after shook them, a strong shockwave burst in their direction, sending them flying away before a strong blast burst in their direction.

The sound of explosions echoed throughout the air, Gray had barely any stamina or time to use his [Pause-Step] or [Fast-Forward] again.

Whilst glued to the the wall in front of the station's wall with the three, he had no choice but to use his signature move.

'TIME STOP!' He shouted inwardly.

[Time has been stopped.]

Everything came to a freeze, silence permeated throughout the air, the colours in the scene vanished leaving behind nothing but black and white.

Time had indeed stopped once more.

In this world of frozen time, Gray's heavy pants vibrated across the scene

He wanted to speak and make sense of what was happening but he knew he couldn't, for any movement he were to make as of this moment would result in a backflash that he could only imagine.

The reason? He had exhausted all of his energy and only his life energy could make up for the amount of power required to move in the world of frozen time.

'Open the level up options, select option one, full body recovery for one of them.'

[LEVEL UP OPTIONS.]

[FOUR LEVEL UP OPTIONS AVAILABLE.]

[OPTION ONE SELECTED: FULL BODY RECOVERY]

A strange green glow was emitted from Gray's body, a powerful and relaxing surge of energy flowed through his body.

The wounds had disappeared, along with his exhaustion.

His health was right back up to where it was meant to be.

[LEVEL: 14]

[HP: 70/70]

'Perfect... All that's left now is...'

Gray's expression grew dark, he looked to the right glaring at the two figures beside them.

The one to his left was a mutated zombie which had lunged at him.

Long fanged jaws and blinded by hunger as it had it's eyes set on them.

But the one to his right, it was simply stood there stuck to the wall with it's mouth opened wide in their direction.

The way it looked was unique, it looked like one of the beasts.

A long reptilian tail and scaly body but it's body and face were that of a human, well an undead human.

Before it's large open mouth was an orb which was slowly expanding, it was what caused the nuclear like explosion to take place in the station.

Upon staring the station's direction, he noticed something.

The frozen figure of the giant zombie with countless heads and body parts attached to it, it was trying to get out before the station could collapse from the sudden explosion.

Based on where it was frozen, Gray could tell it wasn't going to make it out.

He sighed.

"These beasts... Just when you think they couldn't get any worst too..." He muttered as he stared in the Labyrinths direction.

"I'm really going to have to clear that otherwise we may not stand a fighting chance..."

He Looked over at the two frozen beside him before looking back in the direction of the first base.

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"What should I do now... The base isn't ready and staying in the city isn't safe... Priority should be to go there now will help speed up construction..."

Gray stretched his arm out to the side and sighed once more.

"Guess that's what we'll do."

[Pause Level 5: Authority Over Frozen Time.]

[Break.]

*CRACK!*

-

[The flow of time resumes.]

Aurora's eyes widened, her ears twitched in confusion as she looked around around.

To her right was Gray leaned against the back of a dark fence. Violet was leaned against him to his right.

She looked around once more and concluded that they were on a roof. The conditions of said roof were... A work in progress.

Their were countless holes around along with shattered pieces of debris and all kinds of shards.

But the air was surprisingly relaxing here.

*CRASH!* *CRASH!!* *CRASH!*

The relaxing air only lasted for what seemed to be a few seconds as the sound of more buildings collapsing down the street, echoed all around.

"..."

Aurora stared at Gray with narrowedc eyes, she had yet to say anything.

Gray who was looking at the three level up options in front of him, grew increasingly more nervous with each passing second.

He couldn't focus.

"So, what is it?" He asked.

"Just making sure..." Aurora replied.

Gray cocked his head to the side with a confused look.

"Making sure of what?"

"That you're not hurt..."

"Oh..."

Gray turned to Aurora and smiled as he gave her a quick pat.

"Don't worry about that, I'm much more resilient than I look."

Aurora pinched his cheek.

"Ouch."

"I told you using your ability in this way would make me worried but you continue to do it anyway."

"We didn't have much of a choice, if I didn't we'd be buried under all that rubble."

"I know... But still... Whenever you do this you always look like you're about to die... Lara isn't here with us and I don't have the ability to heal... I don't know where you get your mysterious bottles from but what if it fails?"

Aurora was referring to Gray's healing potion, she knew his supply of it wasn't unlimited but that was it. To her Gray was still very mysterious, his ability worked in a strange way, the way he did things were strange and even his power.

"That pinch was for almost giving me another heart attack..." She muttered before lowering her head.

There was a lot she didn't know and a lot she avoided asking.

She wanted him to give her a better explanation or logical explanation of the things he could do, so she could at least understand better in order to know whether or not her worries were pointless or not.

But she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"..."

The two stayed quiet for a while longer.

Gray's ears twitched as he noticed something in the far distance.

The sound of digging, something was digging into the walls and climbing it's way up towards them.

'That sound... I'm guessing it's another monster or beast scaling up the building if not Zombies? But how did they find us so fast?'

"...Let me tell you a little secret" said Gray as he got up.

Violet who had been leaning onto him fell on top of Aurora's lap. She was fast asleep.

Aurora looked up at him and staring at his back which were turned to them.

The sun which was rising in the far distance, made it harder to stare right at him, but made the sight all the more better.

She was used to watching his back from behind, he was always standing ahead of them keeping them safe, regardless of the situation.

Even if his life was at risk, even if it meant going through unbearable strains of pain, he'd still protect them.

It was the back of an odd person.

But strangely enough, just staring at his back alone was enough to rid her of all her worries and fears.

But it made sense, after all...

It was the very same back of who she loved the most in the world.

'This is bad... When I think about what we talked about a while ago in the station...'

'...I love him so much...!!!!' She squealed inwardly as she clenched the cloth of her shirt above her chest.

She who was so focused on her had failed to hear his first few words as a result.

But next few words which had come out were heard clearly by her.

Rather there was no way she couldn't hear it.

"My ability is the ability to control time... To a certain extent... And the more I use it, the greater the risk." He explained as he turned to her with a bright smile.

Gray's smile looked just as bright if not brighter than the rising sun behind him, Aurora's heart skipped a beat.

Her cheeks reddened and at that instant, the figure of not only beasts but also zombies came lunging at them from the sides.

But the smile in his face didn't fade.

And she witnessed it, without so much as having blinked. She witnessed the figures of the Zombies burst away without him having moved a muscle.

"I can stop time."