Reaching the first cube, Percy placed his palm on its surface, much like he’d seen Gabe do before. A blue circle of runes lit up around it, though it turned red the very next instant.
“Error. Failed to identify. State your user ID.”
Percy didn’t panic, having expected this.
“I don’t have a user ID. I’m here as a guest. I’m looking for Gabriel.” he said, hoping the translation device worked on the system.
Honestly, he didn’t even know why there was an option to identify as a guest. Weren’t all the denizens of the Vault automatically registered users? But he wasn’t one to look a gift cube in the mouth.
“Authorization granted. Logging user in as ‘guest’. Contacting ‘Gabriel’. WARNING: Your identity as a ‘guest’ heavily restricts your access to most system features. You are not allowed to purchase items, start challenges or enter buildings without permission.”
Percy nodded, thinking this was only fair, if somewhat inconvenient. Next, he watched the red circle around his palm turn blue, two arrows appearing in its circumference as it began to revolve slowly. Nothing changed for a couple of minutes, making Percy wonder if his friend was even at home.
‘Actually, forget at home… is he even alive?’
Logically, the Vault’s gods wouldn’t have allowed their only specimen with two cores to die, but Percy couldn’t stop himself from worrying. Luckily, the circle flashed green at some point.
The voice sounded different than Percy remembered, and not only because he was hearing it from the outside. The owner seemed to have some difficulty speaking, the words coming out strained. Still, he recognized him.
“Gabe? How are you doing man?” Percy asked.
“I have no idea who you are, but that isn’t any of your business. Just go away. I’m busy.”
“Gabe, it’s me! Percy!” he hurriedly said before his friend hang up on him.
“W-What? What did you just say?!”
“Percy! You know? The guy who gave you your second core!”
“Shhhhhhh!!! What the fuck are you doing?! You can’t speak about that out loud!! Is this really you?!”
Percy rolled his eyes.
“Are you going to let me in, or should I jog your memory some more?”
Gabe remained silent for a couple seconds, seemingly taking it all in.
“I don’t know where you currently are, but I live in cube #3. Just head over there. I’ll let the system know to guide you to my room.” he eventually said.
Percy nodded, though his friend couldn’t see him. He circled around the cube, guessing this one couldn’t have been the third. He skipped the next one too, before approaching the one after. It had to be either #3 or #14, depending on which end they started counting from. If it was the latter he’d have to walk some more, though that wasn’t what was going through his mind.
‘He seemed surprised when I mentioned his second core. Doesn’t he know the cat is out of the bag?’
It was strange. Had the gods not reached out to him? What were they waiting for? Percy would have expected them to do all sorts of experiments on Gabe by now. Why would they have left him in the dark?
‘Oh well… I suppose I can just ask him myself in a few minutes.’
Placing his hand on the cube, he quickly confirmed this one was indeed #3. The system allowed him to enter, a series of arrows flashing along the corridor’s surfaces to guide him. Percy met plenty of natives on the way, scurrying around their legs. At least his petite body made it easier to trudge through the narrow pathways.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
‘Can they not see the arrows? Or are they just ignoring them?’
Either way, it wasn’t long before he arrived at his destination. However the system worked, it was really convenient. Percy was certain he wouldn’t have remembered the way on his own. He was about to knock, but it appeared there was no need, as the indented metal parted by itself as soon as he touched it, releasing a burst of steam in the process.
Standing before him, was a tall man with transparent skin, his organs visible as they throbbed inside his torso. He was wearing simple brown shorts, an unassuming grey bandage wrapped a couple times around his abdomen, concealing the enchanted one Percy knew was there.
However, what stood out the most was Gabe’s condition. The entire front side of his body was covered in nasty burns, his skin misshapen and – in many places – blackened. His left hand was missing entirely up to his wrist, and even his right one seemed to have lost some freedom of movement. This was Percy’s first time seeing his friend’s face, but his features were charred too, as a third bandage covered his eyes. Even Gabe’s throat appeared severely injured – no wonder he couldn’t speak properly.
‘Wow, he looks even worse than I remember… And this is after a year of healing…’ he thought, his expression grim.
Percy was at a loss, not knowing what to say to his friend. Luckily, the latter spoke first.
“Huh, is this how you normally look?” Gabe snickered, though it trailed off into a wheeze. “I guess that explains why you go around possessing people.”
Glancing down at his half-naked body and his shoddy seaweed skirt, Percy remembered he was currently inhabiting the hairless monkey. Some heat gathered in his cheeks again, as he felt even more embarrassed meeting somebody he knew while in this state. And the worst part was, Gabe was only talking about his height. After all, he couldn’t see much else through Mana Sense alone.
“I hope you don’t actually think this is my real body!” Percy said a little more animatedly than he perhaps should have. “See? No second core!” he pointed at his abdomen.
“Shhhh!!!” Gabe got all jumpy again. “Will you stop saying – you know what – all the time?! Why did you even make me spend my credits on the bandage if you’re just going to keep shouting it out to the world?!”
“You really don’t know?”
“Know what?” Gabe asked. “And how did you even return here? I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen any beasts in the Vault.”
“I’ll explain everything in a second, but first tell me how you’ve been over the past few months. Honestly, you look like you’ve had a tough time.” Percy said, sitting on the bed.
He knew the room was rather small, but it sure looked a lot larger than he remembered, thanks to his current perspective. Gabe grimaced upon seeing a grimy monkey on his bed, prompting Percy to smell his armpit. Honestly, he stank quite badly, but only part of it was due to his host’s non-existent hygiene. The majority had to do with the fact he had just swam out of a swampy ocean.
“Well, there isn’t much to tell. My situation is about as shitty as you can see. I’ve made a lot of progress with my… affinity.” Gabe eventually said, pointing at his eyes.
Percy knew his friend probably meant his affinity fusion, but the latter was still conscious about speaking of his secret openly.
“Sadly, I can’t complete another combat challenge in this state, so I had to delve into magiscript.” he added. “But hey, it’s probably for the best! Fighting would just raise the odds of people finding out about… yeah.”
“Gabe… I hate to break it to you, but it’s a little late for that.” Percy finally said.
“How do you think I got here? Metatron gave me his Decree on the way out. I would have visited sooner, but I had to wait for the right opportunity.”
Gabe’s jaw slackened at the revelation. A moment later, he shuddered as the words sank in.
“You’re joking, right? I would have known… The gods would have chopped me up to pieces by now if that had been the case.”
“Evidently not.” Percy shrugged. “And honestly, why should they? You’re clearly motivated enough to keep improving to heal yourself. They can just sit on the sidelines and watch you practice with your air and light affinities. Why intervene with an experiment that’s already giving them everything they want?”
“No way…” it was Gabe’s turn to plop down on his bed, wiping the cold sweat off his forehead. “What happens when they have all the data they want?”
Percy shook his head, not having an answer. It was true the gods hadn’t bothered Gabe over the last year, but that wasn’t guaranteed to remain the case. Maybe they’d move on to more aggressive experiments at some point.
Gabe pointed to himself and then traced a circle in the air with his finger. Percy assumed his friend was asking him to use the Decree to take him out of the Vault, but he was afraid to say the words out loud, in case they were being monitored.
“I doubt it’ll work.” he sighed.
The Status specifically said “one-way portal”. Percy didn’t think it would allow people to exit the Vault. Even if it did, there were many other problems they’d have to solve. First of all, Percy didn’t know where exactly the portal opened. Was it a specific place inside the Vault – the very one where he had landed? Or was it randomly picked each time? How would Gabe know to use it before anybody else did?
One thing was for certain. Percy didn’t dare to open a portal on Remior. He couldn’t risk Metatron or the other gods forcing their way to his homeland. Even if he and Gabe decided to try this, they’d have to bring the latter to a different world – assuming his clones found a suitable one.
“Gabe… I really don’t know how to help you man… But I promise I’ll do my best to find a way.” Percy said, getting a reluctant nod back.
This was the same thing he had promised the last time too, and he had kept that promise. Though their problem was admittedly a little harder to solve now.
“Oh, and one more thing…” Percy added, his friend perking up.
“Can I crash here for a few days? I’m kinda homeless…”