How Much Time Has Passed?

--Boo's Perspective--

I hadn't found anything in town yet, and still no signs of people even though I was walking for over two minutes now.

The Tower above me started to shake and drop blocks of cement onto the ground, which made a loud noise, but there were still no screams.

"BOO!" I heard a voice yell out from across the moat in front of me.

"Belle?! You're okay!" I yelled out, running to the edge of the opposite side of the moat.

Belle pushed her foot into the ground and summoned an ice bridge over the moat... which was weird, considering how Ultima's Strand Barrier blocked that from happening before.

"What? Where did the barrier go?" I asked her, looking ahead to see what was going on.

"That's the thing! There was never a barrier! Somebody was purposefully blocking our strands," Belle said, lowering her tone as I got closer to her.

"I don't understand... somebody was blocking us? Oh, we need help on that Tower, we're fighting Genesis and Hikari, and have two more people who joined us now. If you could launch ice up there and have them slide down, we could probably catch them like that," I told her.

"I know, Shike already suggested it," Belle said, waving her radio around.

"Perfect! Wow, he really is handy when you need him to be. We weren't up there for too long, were we? Only a week at most or something like that," I said, but Belle shook her head.

"No Boo... you were gone for about a month. It's March twenty-ninth," Belle said.

I turned my head to her in total shock.

"Belle... that's not funny... we weren't up there for a month, I was counting the days," I told her, worrying about Quake and their arrival to Zealous.

"Boo... she's not kidding. Belle and I were hiding out in the forest for over a month waiting for a signal. We couldn't get Sky because they were patrolling, keeping us locked down. Earlier today, they left... in the direction of Zealous," Belle told me.

I shook my head again, there was absolutely no way that much time passed up there.

The only time we couldn't observe the time of day was while we were in that room, but we only slept seven separate times. I could tell if we slept over a months worth...

No... Shike and I were knocked out in that crate, being pulled by Chi-Chi and Asoh.

They said we were only out for a few days... I assumed that meant three days... but that could've meant much more...

"Get them down here! We need to head back to Zealous immediately! If the fight with Quake is ongoing, we can be a huge asset!" I yelled out to Belle.

Belle summoned the obelisk of ice and everybody started to fall down it, capturing them as the Tower and the balcony collapsed underneath the sky.

Shike hit the ground and jumped back, healing his arm with the strands we could now use, and Genesis and Hikari followed right behind him.

"You guys are screwed if we can use our strands now. I would just accept both of your deaths without any resistance..." I told them, summoning a purple saber.

"No, don't tell her, I think it's cute that she's still trying to fight me," Genesis said.

I used my speed to close the distance as fast as I could, but Genesis grabbed onto my right arm and stopped my attack.

"Strands don't work on me, you'll make a fitting vessel-" Genesis started to say, but he was quickly cut off by a blade hitting his arm and freeing me from his grip.

"Strands don't work, you're right, but metal does!" Lily screamed out, kicking him in the stomach and pushing him back.

Genesis wasn't even launched because of the strength of the kick, but Lily's eyes were lit up in a fiery passion.

Lily followed up with another attack, slashing upwards at Genesis, and stepping closer to him.

Hikari rose her gun and Shike caught it again, launching the bullet backward and almost hitting Hikari in the shoulder.

"No attack works on me twice," She mumbled, holding the weapon widely. A blade appeared on the end and slashed Lily's face wide open with laceration.

She held onto her cheek as it started to bleed rapidly, and Hikari aimed at Belle next.

"You have no idea what this is, can you dodge it?" She asked. I tried to use my speed, but that trigger was pulled too fast for me.

To my surprise, Belle was still standing after a second...

Alex had caught the bullet?

Did he move faster than my speed? That's physically impossible...

Alex opened his hand and the crushed bullet fell out, followed by white strands moving down his right hand.

"You're an Asterio... and that bullet is made from strands... I did it! Essence Strands stop her!" Alex shouted out.

Amazing... I couldn't speed over to Hikari to stop her gun, so Alex caught the bullet.

I want to chalk it up to him being extremely lucky, but he isn't exactly stupid. Alex is plenty capable... but catching a bullet?

No matter, I'll ask him about it later.

Hikari jumped back toward Genesis and narrowed her eyes toward Charlie.

"Master, I barely have enough stamina to take on all nine of them. We should retreat for now... also, your eye wound isn't healing, you may have hit your limit," Hikari told Genesis.

"Running again? Man, is that all you guys do? Run and run, when you can't fight, you run, and when you lose a fight, you run. Damn, Genesis, you sure do talk a lot of shit for being so useless," Shike told them. I perfectly agreed with him on this and scoffed at the first indication they wanted to leave.

"We talk shit, do you hear that, Master? Okay, fine then, I'll have to use one last thing before we go," Hikari said, pointing her eyes directly at me.

"You'll regret this one, Buusu Achamo," She mumbled.

"System Punishment," She said.

My body exploded in pain and I instantly fell to the ground as my muscles went weak. In my eyes, I saw another message.

[Internal Body Temperature: 106 Degrees Fahrenheit]

[Blood Loss Percentage 44%]

[SHUTTING DOWN...]

I gasped for air as blood started to leak out of my mouth, and fell to the ground in a puddle of my own blood.

This is just like that one time...