Evolving Classes In The Apocalypse-Chapter 10: Escape [pt 1]

[You have reached the maximum Essence, your Class is about to evolve to a new rank, do you want to commence evolution now?]

[You can delay the evolution but after twenty-four hours the evolution will automatically kick in, forcing you into deep slumber]

I blinked. Read it again. Then a third time, because what I was seeing wasn’t just strange. It was impossible.

’Class evolution?’

If I was reading this right, the Axiom was simply telling me that my class would evolve into a new rank. Which meant that I was going to stop being a Transcendent Mundane.

’If I can evolve, of course I want to evolve right away.’

[After absorbing a Class, in order to fully assimilate with the class, you will be incapacitated by agony as the Hollow fully digests the Definition and makes the Class your own]

[By delaying Class Evolution, you can delay this process. If Class Evolution proceeds, this procedure will automatically follow, and cause you to be unconscious for 8 to 12 hours]

My face twisted the moment I finished reading.

’Eight to twelve hours? I can’t even spend one hour here!’

Anytime from now, the Enforcers would start coming around. They were Awakened Novice too, but with far more experience than Desmond, who had not awakened for twenty-four hours and wanted to prove a point to me. Those ones had been Defined for over five years. They’d been to the wilderness, had to survive the brutal environment that only sought to kill them. Every last one of them was a hardened killer with real combat behind their eyes.

I better not be here when they showed up.

’Alright, I will postpone.’

Hearing my response, the Axiom replied accordingly.

[Postponing Evolution, after twenty-four hours, evolution will happen automatically]

I exhaled.

’So, I have twenty-four hours to get out of this hell hole.’

I scrambled to my feet somehow and stepped away, then stopped. Against every instinct screaming at me to move, I threw one last glance at Desmond’s body. His eyes were still open, staring up at the boundless night sky with millions of stars staining its dark silk. He looked like he could have been stargazing. Peaceful, almost.

Yet he was so lifeless.

I clenched my fist, coldly steeling my heart.

’It was kill or get killed.’

Not that this excuse made me any less of a killer. I had killed a Defined and diminished humanity’s resources for surviving this hazardous world by one life. One Defined life that could have fought for people, protected them, done something that mattered.

’Fuck humanity.’

I turned away and hurried, breaking into a run. My body weighed me down at a moment like this, lungs burning within the first thirty seconds, but I pushed through.

’Tsk, I should maybe start a weight loss journey.’

This had to be the four hundred and seventy-sixth time I was making such a statement. The follow-through rate remained a perfect zero.

I exited my parents’ estate through a gap in the fence. The government had their hands all over most of the building, yellow metal tape stretched across every entrance, telling people it was out of bounds and they should keep off. Even the gate was sealed.

Stepping out, I cast a wistful gaze back at the gate, and little memories of my mother played into my head. Her coming home from work at the Academy, the way she’d wave before she was even close enough for me to see her face clearly. I exhaled heavily, let the image dissolve, and turned around.

As I turned, I slammed right into someone who seemed to have been hurrying towards me. We both staggered back from the collision and I heard the voice before I saw the face.

"Oowwwhhh!"

I steadied myself and stared, blinking.

"Ysor?"

She straightened, rubbing her forehead which was already reddening.

"What’s wrong, why do you look so... why are you in a hurry, what? Is that blood on your face? Axel, what happened? Did you get attacked? Who?"

"Ysor! Stop!" I shouted.

And her voice froze. So did her face. It seemed to be coming apart bit by bit as her expression contorted like she was about to cry.

"Listen... I’m, I’m sorry okay. But you’re asking too many questions right now, and I need to leave. Besides, should you even be here? Why are you?"

She looked down and held her right elbow with her left hand.

Her entire disposition... this was how she was whenever she did something really bad. I recognized the posture immediately. I narrowed my gaze.

"You didn’t kill anyone, right?"

She flinched and frowned.

"What? No! Why would I do that?"

I sighed in relief. ’Well, that does not make two of us I guess.’

But I fixed her with a renewed gaze, demanding her response.

"Well... uhm..."

I was getting quite impatient.

She raised her head and managed to look into my eyes with something that might have been determination, or might have been desperation wearing determination’s face.

"Take me with you."

"Uh?" The words caught me off guard.

"You’re running away, aren’t you? I want to go with you. I don’t want to die! I want to live, I want to live so much. So if you will, please Axel, kidnap me!"

I never knew someone asking me to kidnap them could put such a wide smile on my face.

I wasted no time and grabbed her hand, and we both broke into a run.

"First, we have to make it to the outer ring."

She ran beside me and asked, "And then what?"

My gaze was strong as I ran across the dark and ruined streets of the middle ring.

"Well, what else? We find a way to leave Earth and go to another Dimension."