Arena Three: Irregularity [III]

I followed Grey inside the building. The stairs, the debris, the dust and the wet air, everything felt exactly like it did in the real world.

"Where is the Terran* base?"

"It's underground. We have quite a few bases."

"Underground?"

"Yeah. Each side in the battle was given one technology of their choice. The Omega took a scouting technology, and we took the underground civilization module."

"You can't just dump all these pieces of information on me without any context, you know."

"Don't worry, everything will be explained soon."

I nodded and walked down the stairs with Grey while tracing the cracks on the walls.

"Stop."

Grey suddenly stood alert in front of me, pulling out his handgun.

At the same time, a groaning sound reached my ears. Something was groaning just beneath us.

"... Enemy?"

"... Not really, but harmful."

"...."

Grey's answer made no sense, but I didn't question him any more. He cautiously stepped down, peeking down the stairs. I followed him closely, taking out my own gun.

Just as I placed my hand on the trigger, my head was bombarded with information.

Information about how the gun worked, how to build and open the gun apart, how to pull the trigger with absolute accuracy. The history regarding the gun's previous upgrades soaked into my memory from an unknown place, making me dizzy.

"Ugh..."

I sat down, feeling nauseous. Grey took a quick glance at the gun in my hand, then turned back towards the sound.

"That's normal. Get up, hurry."

"..."

I somehow stood up, shocked by the urgency in his voice. Then I realized that the groans had multiplied.

There were some 'things' below us. Just around the railing.

Grey again took a glance and frowned.

"Shit... This is bad. We have to break through them."

"Break through... Who, exactly?"

I asked, but Grey didn't answer.

"[Command: Procure Item ID 5233]"

He muttered in a low tone. Suddenly, the space in front of him distorted and created a vacuum. Grey put his hand inside the vacuum and pulled out a rifle. He pulled out another one, and the vacuum closed itself.

"I'll explain everything later. Don't stop running. No matter what you see, don't stop."

He said in a hoarse tone, handing me a rifle.

"... Got it."

I nodded and took it. Information flowed inside my brain, but it wasn't as painful as before.

"Now, run!"

Grey shouted as he dashed forward. I sprinted forward, staying close to him.

The first thing that I noticed was a rotten smell, and the blood smeared on the walls and the ground. That was absurd, and creepy.

Stigma didn't keep corpses and traces of blood would disappear after the individual logged out, then why was there blood?

I almost stopped, but a shout from Grey spurred me on again.

"Arnold, don't you dare stop!!!"

He yelled as he ran faster. Then I heard footsteps behind me, coming from the stair leading to the floor under the one we were in.

A small head peeked from behind the stair, looking at me with completely white eyes. It was a little girl, with long chestnut hair. She looked normal except for her eyes. Her face was pale... And a bit blue.

But then she stepped up, and her full body came into view.

Her stomach was ripped open, and her guts were stretching along the stairs. Her ribcage was showing through her torn clothes and skins, and one of her hands were missing. She didn't look in a state to be alive, let alone to walk. Yet she stepped forward again, her entrails trailing behind her.

I felt nauseous again as the intense smell of rotten flesh and blood hit me. I held my stomach and put a hand on my mouth as I stared at the girl.

"Move!"

Suddenly, someone grabbed my collars and threw me forward.

Grey, who looked anything but calm, open fired on the walking corpse.

The little girl... Or the zombie let out a shrill cry and sprang forward. A few more dismembered corpses leapt up behind her, rushing forward.

"Damn it!"

Grey was cursing and firing. The rifle bullets shredded the little girl in the front apart. As a flower of blood bloomed, the other zombies stopped for a moment, then fell down on the girl.

The girl... Or the corpse of the girl was still screeching and screaming as the other zombies bit into her.

"What... What are they doing?!"

I turned to Grey, who reloaded his rifle.

"Replenishing their memories and broken soul."

"... What?"

"..."

Grey didn't answer anymore, but open fired again. Even as the bullets hit and made several more zombies fall, they kept eating the girl.

"This is..."

It was horrifying. I crouched down and vomited. I couldn't bear it anymore.

But Grey didn't have the time to look at me. He pulled out something like a phone from his pocket and muttered some words to that.

"We're lucky."

He sighed as he heard the reply from the other side.

"... Lucky?"

How was this lucky? This was hell, even worse than that. I knew that it was a virtual world, but I had already stopped pulling the line between what was real and what wasn't.

"Come... Hah. You... Fine."

Grey was going to ask me to follow again, but then stopped. He picked me up and put me on his shoulders.

My body felt heavy and numb.

"We're going to jump. Be prepared."

"... Jump?"

I weakly muttered, but he didn't give any reply.

Instead, he suddenly shot at the windows in front of him.

It took me a moment to realize what he was about to do.

"W-wait... Aren't we..."

"15 floors high? Yeah. But we have no choice."

He frowned and sprinted forward. At the same time, the zombies stood up after eating the corpse completely.

Only the girl's bone remained. I again vomited seeing that, ruining Grey's suit. The zombies ran forward, trying to catch us.

"Tsk..."

Grey clicked his tongue before jumping through the windows.

"Hold tight!"

He yelled as we fell down from the 15th floor.

The destroyed city almost rushed towards us at a frightening pace. I closed my eyes in fear as I waited for whatever was to come next.

But then, I heard a voice.

"Found you."

A young girl's voice echoed throughout the city. At the same time I felt an intense shock as we landed on something.

"Move!"

I heard Grey yell, and the ground or whatever platform we were on started shaking.

The groans from the zombies became distant soon. I slowly opened my eyes, and found myself staring at a red floor.

No, it wasn't a floor. A shoulder guard?

I looked to my side, and found an enormous head.

It finally came to me. The ground we were on... Our landing platform was a Regalia.

I noticed the blue glass orb peeking out from the gigantic mecha's chest region. I could barely see a silhouette inside the cockpit.

"Welcome to the Stigma, cowardly Reaper."

"..."

The voice boomed again, mocking me using my title.

But I could feel it. The relief in her voice.

...

The Regalia moved silently through the devastated city. I was shaking front and back while sitting on the shoulder guard of the gigantic weapon. The rain had stopped quite a while before, but the air was still cold. The sky was still devoid of any sunlight.

"So... What were those?"

I asked Grey, who was sitting beside me, leaning against the neck of the Regalia. He looked at me with tired eyes and answered.

"Phantoms. The dismembered souls of those who died in the sectors."

"Wait... You don't mean..."

"Not in the real world. People who were in Stigma when their sectors collapsed... Those people."

"So are those then the residual thoughts of the dead?"

"Something like that."

"Then why do they appear as zombies? And in such a broken state? There were no traces of those who were killed by the sector annexations, right?"

"Well, yes. Even I don't know why they are here... But they are everywhere in Terran."

"But can they harm us?"

"They can, and pretty badly too. Much like fictional zombies, if they bite you more than three times, your mind will be completely corrupted and destroyed."

"... At least we won' turn into..."

"No, your soul will also appear as a zombie... A phantom before long."

"..."

I looked away and traced my hand along the line of the armour beneath me. Unlike the rifle, I didn't get any information from the armour when I touched it.

I turned to Grey again, who looked oddly tired.

"Sorry that I left the rifle back there."

I had dropped it when I vomited after watching the zombie getting eaten. I hadn't picked it up, nor Grey did.

"Don't worry, it'll disappear after a while."

"Disappear?"

Grey nodded, and waved his hand.

"[Command: Procure Item ID 43]"

A vacuum opened in front of him, and he pulled out a bullet from inside it. I couldn't help but notice the painful expression on his face.

"This world is based on our mind. If we literally 'put our minds' to it, then we can distort this reality."

"What's the cost?"

I asked, looking at the bullet he had handed me over. It was a normal-looking lead bullet, much like the ones used by older generations of guns. It had a smooth texture and a slightly blunt edge.

"Well, the bigger the item, the heavier the burden on your mind. Even for me, pulling out more than two rifles and a hundred bullet is the most I can do. And we can't pull any organic objects out of it either."

"What if you force yourself to take out more items?"

"My mind won't be able to take it, and I'll suffer damage. Worst case scenario, my mind will get destroyed."

"Hm..."

"But if I don't force myself, then recovering the damage is possible."

"I see..."

I nodded and glanced at the Elliot inside the cockpit. Was it the same Elliot who had lost the battle eight years ago?

I immediately banished the thought. Elliots lived or served for six to seven years at best. After that, they would either become incompatible with their Regalia, or their minds would get destroyed.

The girl couldn't be the same Elliot... And she also sounded quite young.

"Hm..."

"What are you staring at?"

The girl's question put me off guard.

"N-nothing."

"Hm? Alright. Anyhow, Grey."

"What?"

Grey tilted his head slightly.

"The phantoms in this area has been too active lately."

"Do you think it's because of him?"

Grey looked at me with curiosity.

"That's... I don't know. The phantoms were obviously targeting us, though."

"There have been several B-tiers around. They have been eating their kin and evolving at a frightening pace."

"I saw. They are oddly infatuated with the flesh of the dead, even more so than the living. It's as if they have a goal."

"Hm... As I thought. His very existence causes irregularities."

"Perhaps."

"I'm here, you know."

Not being able to take it anymore, I spat out.

"Yeah, we know. What about it?"

The girl retorted sarcastically. I tried to argue, but seeing Grey shake his head, I went silent.

"Nevermind..."

I muttered as I watched the setting sun peeking through the grey clouds. The day was almost over.

That rose a question inside my head.

"How fast or slow the time passes here?"

"A whole day here is around 1 hour in the real world."

"That means, one real-world day is almost a whole month here?"

"How else do you think we established the empire? It isn't possible to develop the tech we have even in a thousand years, you know. We have spent thousands of years inside this world, researching everything and inventing new technologies and scrapping the old ones. Once we established the blueprint and the theories here, we would take it to the real world and build the technology there."

"That means, the empire is at least 24000 years old?"

"More or less."

"Wait. Then... Does each Elliot serve for 120 years?

"Obviously."

It was the girl who answered. I shuddered, just thinking about it.

Hundreds of years of mental trauma, fighting... Only to end up comatose... It felt unfair, really unfair.

Though, I guess my situation was the same as theirs. Bound to the shackles of the war.

An irregularity as I may be, I was not an exception to the rules of the war.