Lifespan Reduction

The walk through town was strenuous on my muscles, as it felt that actually using the muscles this often ignited my body in a wave of pain. I felt that I needed even more rest than we initially had... but nobody was in the same boat as me. They all looked fine, while my body was screaming at me to stop. Not even Lily shared in my pain.

Once we arrived at the place Dani brought us, a big man in a black coat opened up a gate to a big fence, allowing us to travel underground through a stone staircase that traveled down and to the right with a curve the further we got into the ground.

We walked past all of the stone markings and bland wall patterns until we finally reached a cell with both Sky and Illya sitting inside of it, with their backs facing each other, and in complete silence.

"Still holding up?" Dani asked Sky, crouching down by his bed and smiling while looking at his face.

"Did you guys sleep for two days?" Sky suddenly asked, which was almost too exact to be a coincidence.

"Yeah, did you? I was impressed we were out for so long." Dani replied, but Sky's look was fixated on the wall in front of him.

"Why can Avie tire them out like that?" Sky asked, tilting his head back toward Illya without acknowledging our presence.

"Anything to revive herself, I guess. I don't know, she's your damn A.I., you should figure it out yourself." Illya said. Was she being short with him, in a place like this, and in her current situation?

The more I look at her, the more I agree that she does, in fact, look better behind bars.

"Oh... I get it! The reason you guys slept for two days, is that Avie was extracting your power during Sky's fight with Dani. I thought I felt a ton of strands moving around." Faith commented.

"One-hundred twenty-five hours, thirty minutes, and six seconds. That's my System Awakening. I have no idea what that means, but that time is getting closer and closer, too close." Sky admitted.

"It's not like we won't solve it without you, we will be right beside you," Dani told him, which was the blatant truth.

"That does sound nice, but I'm afraid Ruby has something else in store for me." He bluntly said, giving no context to what he meant after that.

"Since he doesn't want to explain, Ruby's going to move him to Karia, a city that will accept him. What she didn't plan for, was you guys." Illya stated, turning her body around, and putting her elbow to lean up against her knee.

"You're damn right she didn't plan for that. He's not going anywhere, and if he is, then we follow." Dani explained to Illya, and she smiled, nodding.

"I tried to tell her. I'll work with you on this. I'll do my best to convince Ruby to let us stay, but she's pretty adamant about getting Sky out of this city." Illya added, looking back over to Sky.

"So much hard work, so much death, all to be hated. It pisses me off." He said with a straight face. He didn't waver once, and I could feel anger pulsing off from his body.

"Illya's right, we'll figure it out. In the meantime, have you been doing okay?" I asked Sky finally. He turned to look at me with his straight face and nodded.

"They're feeding us okay, and I'm just getting a ton of sleep that I've been missing out on. How is the city looking? Is it promising to live in?" He asked me, to which I nodded.

The city itself was sustainable enough to have Orion's level of technology, without his level of tyranny. They were doing something right if anything. We had to engrain ourselves into this society, but without Sky here to help us out, it wouldn't be worth it.

And, I can't become ignorant. I know there's danger on the horizon, but for the time being, even if only for a day, if I can work and earn a living just like my parents had always wanted me to, I would love it with all of my heart. My body may be screaming in pain for whatever reason, but I was prepared to use it more just to feel the satisfaction of fulfilling their dreams.

"Shike, Belle, Alexia, Boo, can you come here for a second?" Sky asked, looking out of the bars and waiting for the four of them to move to the front.

"Yeah, this is in the way." He muttered, grabbing onto the bar, and ripping it out of place in order to get the four of them closer.

"Your abilities, can you use them?" He asked them.

"No... not even a little. Did we lose them since we aren't in The First Trial anymore?" Shike asked, but Sky shook his head.

"I have them. Illya, how can I give them back?" He turned to the brown-haired loser sitting on her bed, but she shrugged.

"It's not really a thing I could do by thinking about it. However, you can give them strands that let them use their old abilities." Illya confessed, turning her head upward toward the ceiling.

"You can hold onto them, Sky. We don't need them anymore, not for the time being." Belle suggested, moving beside Shike.

"That won't do... dammit, I didn't want to tell you guys this... but I can't use my strands as effectively anymore." Sky said.

Illya turned her head up in a nervous fashion, which struck the rest of us with fear as well.

"Don't tell me..." She muttered, and Sky nodded.

"Lifespan reduction... twenty-four minutes." He said bluntly.

"Lifespan... reduction...? I don't get it, what is that?!" Carl shouted out.

"Exactly as it sounds. When I deflected that Isle with my stone, I broke it." Sky said, putting up the shattered stone in our vision with his limp left arm, and then continued, "And after I broke it, Avie screamed in my head so loudly that my vision went black, my left eye exploded, and my ribcage broke, all from the impact. And finally, I was told that my lifespan was reduced by twelve minutes. After using Belle's ability twice to prove a point, it's gone up to twenty-four minutes. I lose six minutes of my life every time I use her ability." He admitted.

We were all completely silent after hearing those words from him.