"Hey Darian, are you awake?" said a voice that Darian hadn't heard in a long time. The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself once again inside his mind. Under him, the ice had grown; now, the platform in the empty white void was actually bigger.
The ice under Darian formed a sort of path to follow. It felt like a frozen river, as there was snow on the sides, but Darian couldn't go further because the ice path ended there.
The moment Darian opened his eyes, he noticed that Snowy was flying in the empty void and was looking directly into his eyes. "You're finally awake," said Snowy the moment he noticed that Darian had opened his eyes.
"Sno… ouch," said Darian as he positioned a hand over his head and fell to his knees, as it was starting to hurt.
"You've been unconscious for almost a day." Hearing these words, Darian tried to remember exactly what had happened since Zrelekai had used the gas on him.
"Right… I tried to save you… but he had prepared for that too…" whispered Darian as he slowly returned to his feet, realizing what had happened in this last day.
"But… if I'm talking with you right now, it must mean something important happened?" asked Darian as he took a small step toward Snowy, who waited for him to get closer before speaking.
The creature, noticing that Darian had reached the edge of the platform, nodded his head. "Exactly. Soon everything will finally be over. They have started to search for him after what happened; he will not be able to escape anymore."
Hearing these words, Darian shouted confusedly, "What? Who are these people?" Darian shouted, but the words didn't come out of his mouth.
"Soon everything will be answered. First, we need to come out alive here, then we will get closer to the truth of everything," said Snowy. Even if he didn't move his mouth, his voice shook Darian's whole mind.
'The words didn't come out of my mouth… what the hell was that?' thought Darian, confused. 'I don't think I'm supposed to ask about this…' Darian looked Snowy directly in the eyes. 'I've actually got better questions…'
"And let me know… why do you never want to use all of your tails? If I've understood correctly, you can create a projection of each of your own tails on the entry point, right?" asked Darian as he opened his arm and pointed the palm in which Snowy usually fuses with him toward the fox.
"Exactly, and I'm sure I don't even need to explain to you what each tail has done for now," said Snowy, but Darian shook his head.
"I feel like I've already used them… but rather than in the fight against Poisudonom and that thing against that huge plushie, I feel like those were the only times…" Darian pressed his fingers against his forehead. "I feel like I've used one of them another time… but I can't seem to remember when it was," he murmured. But the more he thought about this, the more he realized that there wasn't an actual solution and he couldn't remember it.
"Oh right, you will never be able to remember that for now." Suddenly, Snowy entered the path and got closer to Darian.
"Still… I don't get why you can't make me use them all the time, fights would become easier," said Darian as he looked at Snowy floating on top of his head.
"You already came to that conclusion, can't you remember?" Darian was now able to remember what Snowy was talking about without any problem.
"Oh, the fact that my body wasn't strong enough?" asked Darian. Snowy, on top of him, nodded his head.
"Exactly. And because your body isn't strong enough, I need to consume a lot of my strength; it will never be worth enough. You aren't weak, Darian; with all of this, you've already done enough," said Snowy before adding something more. "And I can't give all of them to you like it's nothing; your human body can handle only three tails. The fourth one will break your limits; it won't be possible." With that, Snowy positioned himself over Darian's head and closed his eyes.
"What do you mean?" asked Darian, but Snowy didn't reply. After a few seconds, Darian emerged from his mind and slowly opened his eyes.
"Mhm? Where am I?" whispered Darian. The moment he opened his eyes, he noticed Liro, Vane, Lily, and three other faces he had never seen. "Oh, the sleepwalker is awake," said Orechin as he laughed softly, Vane, next to him, did the same.
"Sleepwalker?" whispered Darian confusedly, as his head still felt extremely dizzy and he hadn't fully woken up yet. The moment he glanced around, he noticed Snowy laying on top of his chest.
"You were moving your hand while sleeping… it was pointing up like you were about to shoot one of your shards," pointed out Liro as he looked a bit scared, but it was clear that he couldn't contain his excitement anymore and wanted to hug Darian.
Lily, next to Liro, had both a scared look but was laughing softly, and Syrmax, who had returned with his monocle and some clothes, were both looking at Darian. Tyel was looking with a warm expression.
'It must have been because of that place…' thought Darian as he realized that because he had done it in his mind, his arm might have moved in real life too. He then looked at Snowy once again and breathed heavily. 'I really don't know anything about you, Snowy…'
"By the way, how are you feeling, Darian? What had Zrelekai done to you?" asked Lily.
Darian looked around his body for a moment and realized that his body was in a lot of pain. "Mentally well… physically, my body is hurting like hell," he said.
"I wonder how many experiments he has done to you…" murmured Tyel.
"Yeah. If you feel like it, I'm curious to know about what happened during these days, but only if you can speak, don't wor—" said Liro. At the end of the sentence, he was starting to speak with a slower and calmer tone when Darian, with his head still lying on the sofa, interrupted him.
"Yeah, don't worry. As long as I'm laying here, I can explain," said Darian. Suddenly the room turned quiet, and everyone waited for Darian to explain.
"So you had to tell him all of the stuff about your past because he was threatening you with a pistol…" whispered Liro as he felt more relieved knowing that Darian hadn't turned into a traitor.
"Still, I find your story extremely interesting… I couldn't understand how you were able to survive for over five hundred years on another planet… some other day, would you mind explaining it to me?" asked Orechin. Currently, his body wasn't bleeding anymore, and he was playing with a red crystal in his hands.
"I'll explain it to you another day," said Darian with a big smirk. Talking about what happened these days had made the pain in his body lessen, even if his head was still giving him a lot of pain.
"And this is only what happened while Zrelekai was still nice to you. After that?" asked Tyel, as he already knew most of those things, but he wasn't familiar with the newest things that had happened.
"Exactly. After I fell unconscious, a lot of other things happened…" With that, Darian started to tell about what happened the day Zrelekai had put him to sleep after he tried to save Snowy.
'Damn, my head hurts… where am I…' Darian was still with his eyes closed and didn't understand what was actually going on, as he was feeling really weak. As he slowly opened his eyes, he found himself in the same gray room he had spent these last few days in, but currently, he couldn't move and had different syringes taking blood from his body.
Snowy was laying on a smaller table next to him, totally unconscious and unable to move. Darian looked in front of him and noticed Zrelekai sitting at the desk, looking at the monitor with his back toward Darian.
"Hey, you! Free me!" shouted Darian as he tried to move his body, but nothing. The more he tried to free himself, the more he failed. 'Hey, this metal is stronger than the last time…' noticed Darian as he realized that it didn't look rusted like the last time he was stuck; it felt like Zrelekai really wanted to keep him stuck there.
"I could tell that you were awake, my experiment," said Zrelekai playfully as he slowly turned toward Darian. Behind him on the monitor, there were some variables as the blood arrived; Darian understood immediately that Zrelekai was measuring the values of his blood.
"My experiment? Just fucking free me! Hey Snowy, let's kick this guy's a—" Darian couldn't finish the sentence before Zrelekai gave him a strong slap on his cheek. "Shut up. We're in a laboratory; no one should ever scream in a workplace," said Zrelekai with a dead-serious expression.
Darian, seeing that, slowly turned quiet and looked down, falling silent. "From now on, you'll do exactly as I say…" Suddenly, with a knife in his hands, Zrelekai used it to completely cut off Darian's clothes and reveal his chest.
"Mhmm…" Suddenly, Zrelekai used his knife to create a small cut on Darian's chest and gathered a small drop of blood in his hands. While the injury was still open and Darian's body was crying in pain, Zrelekai returned to the monitor and placed the blood drop into something that Darian didn't recognize at first.
With the mouse next to the keyboard, Zrelekai changed the screen on the monitor and started to analyze the DNA. "Mhmm, interesting. It's totally different from that of an Alterid or someone who can use magic," pointed out the scientist as he remained focused on the DNA on the screen, while Darian could only look on as blood dripped from his body.
"What do you hope to find…" whispered Darian as he spoke with some of the strength remaining in his body.
"Nothing too important, I'm just curious to see how your body reacts…" With that, Zrelekai got up, took a small patch, and applied it to Darian's injury. After that, with all the strength in his body, he gave a strong punch to Darian's chest.
Darian could feel a small crack in his chest and was sure that something had just been broken. "Mhm, I heard something cracking. You haven't got the same resistance as an Alterid or someone who can use magic normally," pointed out Zrelekai.
'No human could ever survive that punch… is it because he's half-krukin too?' thought Darian as he looked over at Zrelekai, who remained still for a moment.
"Well, at least I know that the bodies of people five hundred years ago were definitely different from the ones of our times. Then something definitely must have happened while you weren't there that changed the bodies of everyone," murmured Zrelekai as he grabbed a small paper and began to write down everything he had just discovered.
Darian was slowly losing his strength as it had become harder for him to breathe. 'I can't fall unconscious now…' thought Darian. "Hey, is everything alright? Maybe you should eat something?" In Zrelekai's hand, a cookie appeared, and he tried to insert it into Darian's mouth, but it couldn't enter.
Darian, before passing out, looked at Snowy one last time. 'I promise… that we will come out of here…' With this thought in mind, Darian closed his eyes and fell unconscious.