Back in the real world, Quinn heard the annoying voice of the blonde-haired man ring in his head.
"Not quite." The man replied. "The System does not possess such a feature. The System is merely telling you what your Vampire body is doing naturally."
Quinn's eye twitched as he heard the man's voice. Given the choice, Quinn would have much rather had the robotic voice of the System be used for the AI, instead of that of the annoyingman.
Quinn let out a sigh.
"Vorden, can I ask you something?" He asked. "Are you…afraid of me?"
Vorden remained quiet for a moment. Then, he spoke.
"Scared?" He asked with a chuckle. "Quinn, everyone has their secrets they don't want others to know. Some, more than others. It's understandable why you hid yours. The Government, military, and especially the Big Four families would all try to get their hands on you, trying to use your power for themselves."
Vorden moved the metal door out of the way, pushing it into the corridor. The door made a loud "clang" as it hit the floor. With the door now gone, Quinn and Vorden werenow standing face-to-face. As they did, Vorden stared at Quinn, his mouth open in surprise at Quinn's appearance.
Quinn almost looked like a completely different person. He gave off a whole newkind of atmosphere. Quinn had grown a few inches in height, his skin looked super smooth, and he had gone slightly pale. Additionally, his face looked a bit more masculine.
Vorden continued to stare at Quinn for a few more seconds.
"Well…" He replied finally. "This might be a hard one to explain…"
Vorden then glanced back past Quinn, and saw Ian's torso, still in the middle of the floor. He walked past Quinn, and went to check up on Ian's body. He searched and searched, but he still couldn't find any trace of the Advanced-Tier Crystal.
'Where'd it go?' Vorden thought, somewhat annoyed.
Raten had been driving him nuts for the past day about killing Ian and taking the Crystal. Now, there was no sight of it. It was then that Vorden noticed the rather large puncture wounds on Ian's neck. Seeing them, Vorden's eyes narrowed. Instantly, he glanced back at Quinn. Though he looked normal right now, the memories of the Bloodsucker attacking him and Ian flashed through his mind. It was proof that everything Quinn had said was true.
***
Back in the storage container, Tsukuru motioned to his Summon.
"C'mon, let's go." He replied, as he began to head back towards the front of the container, where the door was. "There's nothing of valueleft in here."
Wordlessly, the Hobgoblin began to follow him out. As they exited the door, Tsukuru looked around. The whole hanger was trashed, filled with nothing but broken parts and scrap-metal. There was absolutely no reason for them to remain here any longer. The two of them headed back out the destroyed entrance, and back out into the shelter. Tsukuru grit his teeth. Even running full speed, it would take him over an hour to go from one side of the shelter to the other. He couldn't waste that much time.
'I guess I don't have much of a choice.' He thought bitterly.
He had hoped to be able to let his Harpie Summon rest after a while longer. He still felt guilty about unknowingly making her spend an all-nighter fighting those damned Palewalkers. Meanwhile heslept peacefully in his indestructible sleeping chamber. But, right now…he really couldn't afford to waste time. He needed to find Quinn as soon as possible. Tsukuru turned to the Hobgoblin, still standing behind him.
"I'm going to need to dismiss you for the time being." He replied in a solemn tone. "Please, rest up."
The Hobgoblin smiled, and nodded. A moment later, she broke down into pixels. Once she was gone, Tsukuru held his hand out in front of him.
"Summon." He replied.
***
Back in the training center, Quinn and Vorden continued walking around. Eventually, they came across a bathroom. Inside, Quinn walked up to the mirror so he could get a better look at himself. When he did, his eyes widened. His physical change was significantly morenoticeable than his last evolution. While he had hardlychanged when evolving into a Halfling, that wasn't the case this time. It wasn't so drastic that Quinn was unrecognizable. But he did look as though he had just got done with a 12-week model training course.
They continued to walk around, until they found their way back to the arena. There, the two of them looked around at the mess that they had caused. As they did, they both thought about something different. Quinn thought about the time he had spent as the Bloodsucker, and Vorden thought about Sil.
There were pieces of scrap-metal all around them. Multiple broken chairs littered the arena, and the stands were borderline unusable.
As Quinn thought about the Bloodsucker, it brought another thought to his mind. Blood. Quinn had taken his fill from Ian while he was transformed, and his Blood Bank was now full. After Quinn had told Vorden his tale, Vorden had told Quinn his. In it, he had revealed some information he had received from the now-dead Travelerer, Ian. Apparently, there was a Portal somewhere in this building. Only it was hidden. There was most likely a secret switch of some sort hidden around here.
Unfortunately, neither of them even had a clue of where to start. Nonetheless, the two of them began to search. Unfortunately, their efforts were…less than successful. Eventually, the two of them decided to "call it quits", and just sat down on the arena floor.
Quinn let out a sigh, and then turned to Vorden.
"What are you even doing here, Vorden?" Quinn asked. "Shouldn't you be back at the base?"
Hearing this, Vorden turned to Quinn with a gentle smile.
"We came in to rescue you." He replied simply.
Hearing this, Quinn's eyes widened.
"Wait, 'we'?" He asked. "Does that mean that-"
Vorden smirked.
"Yep." He replied, before looking straight ahead. "He's probably around here somewhere."
Quinn tried to delve more into the subject, but it seemed that Vorden really didn't want to talk about it. Every time Quinn pressed about it, Vorden would simply steer the conversation in another direction. He assumed that this had something to do with Peter. But right now, Quinn was pretty sure that was the last person that either of them wanted to talk about.
It was then that Vorden's stomach started to growl. It had been quite a while since Ian had given him that food pill last night.
Quinn turned to him, giving him a look.
Meanwhile, Vorden's cheek reddened slightly.
"Uh, you hungry?" Quinn asked.
Hearing this, Vorden raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Aren't you?" He asked.
For a second, there was an awkward pause between the two. Quinn and Vorden just stared at each other. Eventually, Vorden spoke.
"Uh, I could give you some of my blood." Vorden suggested. "You know, if you want."
There was another pause. Then, Quinn smirked slightly.
"You know, I do eat normal food, as well." He replied.
Instantly, the two of them broke into laughter.
***
Elsewhere outside, Tsukuru's Harpie flew though the air at a low altitude. Like usual, Tsukuru was on her back, his hands wrapped around her neck. The Harpie was noticeably tense. She kept darting her eyes back and forth as she flew. It was as if she expected something to pop out from the middle of nowhere. It seemed that her "encounter" with that giant bat-likeBeast had spooked her.
Tsukuru glanced down at the Harpie, seeing her stiff posture.
"Just keep low to the ground." He replied. It seemed that his sudden words surprised the Harpie, as he saw her jump slightly. "Hopefully, whateverkilled you that time won't see you if you remain low."
The Harpie grit her teeth.
"I don't like this place." She muttered quietly. The Harpie had notenjoyed her time here. First, she had gotten knocked out of the sky by that damned bat. Then, she spent a whole night fighting those weird, human-insectoid things. "The sooner we leave, the better."
Currently, Tsukuru was leading the Harpie towards the eastern edge of the shelter. It was where his head had snapped towards when he received that System message. So he had a feeling that was where Quinn was. The System message had been about him, after all.