How To Survive A Calamity

How does everything hurt?

I slowly opened my eyes to a world of pain. My whole body was sore and hurting as if having been put through a grinder. I stared emptily into space for a while, clearly dazed. My thoughts were sloe and murky as I slowly tried to recall what happened.

[You passed out from blood loss on your way out of the cave.] A feminine synthetic voice, like an overlap of vibrations resounded in my throbbing head.

It was Meta.

I passed out, huh...I thought, feeling listless.

"... I remember." After a while I said hoarsely. My throat was dry and itchy. I felt thirsty and perched, and my lips were cracked.

My memories cut off at the moment I was in the process of fleeing the cave. I held my gaping wound while leaving a long trail of blood. Then after that, everything just went blank.

That means there was only one way I could have gotten out.

'You took control of my body, didn't you? ' I asked after a slight hesitation.

Meta's response was immediate and unsympathetic.

[Affirmative. That Bone Spike didn't come after you, but others would have if you were found laying around like that.]

When Meta said it like that, I felt obliged to be greatful. But rather than that, my nature drew me to the one unpleasant detail.

She could take control of my body even while I'm unconscious.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

But at the same time, I was too weak and exhausted to deeply pondered it. I couldn't even throw out my usual commentary and admonish Meta for taking my body without my permission again. For now I just pushed the matter to a deep corner of my heart and said hoarsely.

"... Thank you."

[...]

Meta didn't deem it necessary to respond and remained quiet.

I didn't mind the System's dismissive attitude and slowly tried to turn around. A blinding pain shot through my body the moment I attempted to lean to my side.

A suppressed wince pressed at my lips as I held my stomach and knit my brows in anguish.

[You should be careful. You are still injured.] Meta's reminder came late, I had to find out the hard way.

That was true. The wound I sustained from the Bone spike was still there, unlike the one from the Silver Knight.

"Oh right. I didn't die." I muttered in realization and instantly gave up on trying to get up. I fell back flat to the ground and looked up emptily.

There was a gnawing void in my heart.

[There was nothing I could do about your wound. So instead i brought you here.] Meta said in a cacaphony of synthetic vibrations.

"What do you mean?" My thoughts and mind were slow so it took a while before I could realize I didn't recognize the rocky ceiling I was underneath.

[A smaller cave deep inside the cavern with a higher concentration of Aether in the air,] Meta said, responding to my enquiry.

[It has been a couple of hours since you passed out from blood lost. The bleeding has receded completely within that time, and the wound is already working to close itself.]

"... Already?" I was baffled. How could my injury heal in only a couple of hours?

Even as a Mortal Ranked Awakened, a wound of that degree would take a couple of days at the very least.

[That has to do with why I brought you here. The healing and reinvigorating properties of the air caused by the higher concentration of Aether have helped to revitalize your body and heal your wounds passively.]

Just as Meta said, I indeed was in a much different place. The cave ceiling here hung lower but still shimmered with the glowing crystals rocks that were like stars in a distant night sky. A soft translucent blue glow suffesed the whole surrounding.

But what truly made this place a stark contract to the larger cavern, was the sheer amount of Aether that was gathered here.

It's amazing...I thought, unable to hide my amazement.

'So that's what is healing me? ' I recalled that the air in the cavern did indeed have healing and reinvigorating properties. I felt a part of my exhaustion lift, and my bones slowly mend.

It was the same now, but no matter how long I lingered against the ground underneath the crystal ceiling, I couldn't muster the strength to get up.

Quite frankly, I didn't want to.

If I get up, then I have go back to there again...I grumbled to myself emptily.

I had zero motivations to get killed again and zero enthusiasm to be humbled a second time.

The confrontation against the Bone Spike was still vivid in my memories and heart. And when I just thought back to the silver Sentinel, i felt the great urge to groan and bury my face in a pillow.

I felt like a middle schooler on a Monday morning who refused to get out of bed. I knew what the rest of the dey held for me, and I just didn't want to face it.

I knew I would have to fight against those monsters, and die again. I had no other option of I wanted to get out of this forsaken place.

I was tired and exhausted. Depressed and listless.

Was I too arrogant? No that wasn't it. My world had just been smaller, and I was forcefully made to see the true size.

This feeling... hopelessness and powerlessness. Ah, yes. Just like that time.

I had only ever felt this way once before; when Meta showed me a vision of the future.

Then I felt true hopelessness and despair.

Something stirred inside my dull heart.

"...I still have to also deal with that." I muttered silently as if I just realized and the urge to groan swept me once more.

Indeed, I had a rocky journey ahead. I realized I had been taking it too easy. If I couldn't even clear a dungeon where the strongest creature was only a 'measly' Hero Ranked, then perhaps I truly did deserve to die here.

Mind you, measley was only attributed when compared to what I had to face later on in my life; abominations that broke the sky and rained meteorites half the size of a moon upon the world.

'I should get up. '

I had to get up. I didn't want to, but who cares?

The world didn't give a shit. No one gives a fuck how I feel, after all, I'm in this situation; reborn, only to be forced to survive a doomsday.

If I whined, then so what?

If I died then so what all the same.

The universe was just that vast —

My existence was insignificant.

Because it was, that was why I had to keep fighting.

Reborn to survive an apocalypse... I'm fate's bitch in the flesh. I mocked silently.

My cracked lips parted slightly and my throat itched as I croaked a small voice. I smacked my lips a few times and felt my eye lids slowly turn heavier.

"I'm thirsty." I croaked in a raspy voice.

Restraining an almost non existent sigh, I forced myself to get up, ignoring the sharp pain the wound in my stomach sent through my body. With unsteady steps and trembling limbs I made my way to a small flowing stream of sparkling transparent water and gulped.

'Meta—'

[Affirmative, it is safe. This is a liquefied matter of Aether, and has properties to even further refine your body and heal your wounds. Drinking it could be one of the best decisions of your life.]

I nodded and, without another word, quickly scooped a handful of the sparkling stream water into my mouth, gulping deeply. The water felt reinvigorating as it moistened my parched throat, a refreshing relief after what felt like an eternity of dryness.

But I had underestimated my thirst, or perhaps the water's effect.

One gulp wasn't enough, and a second barely sufficed.

The cool liquid seemed to evaporate the moment it touched my tongue, leaving me craving more. Desperation set in as I realized how dire my need for hydration was.

Abandoning the effort of using my hands, I knelt by the stream and plunged my entire face into the rushing water.

The icy current enveloped my skin, sending shivers down my spine, but I didn't care. I drank deeply, the water rushing into my mouth, each swallow a burst of life. I stayed there, submerged, until I finally felt a sense of fullness, my thirst quenched at last.

As I pulled back, droplets streaming down my face, I took a deep breath, feeling more alive and invigorated than I had in days. The stream, with its life-giving water, had revived me, and I sat back, grateful, as i stared into the empty space in silence.

My finger twitched, and my heart beat rhythmically.

I felt a cold chill seep into my mind as I involuntarily sorted my thoughts.

"Time..."

I needed time.

But down here, I had enough of that

The goal was still the same, the journey hadn't changed either.

I had to defeat the Boss and leave. I had to get stronger.

And before then-

I recalled the aloof indifference of the bone spike, and the edge of my lips involuntarily pulled darkly.

"-i'll get my revenge."