Chapter Ten

Dante held onto Crystal for dear life, the bike zooming forward without a moment's notice. He wondered what happened to Gilgamesh and why he'd looked so forlorn when leaving.

What exactly is going on?

Dante couldn't be sure. But he had nowhere else to go; he was over his head anyway.

I wonder how you survived this world, Alan.

But according to Crystal, Alan didn't even count as a survivor—more of cannon fodder. Dante wasn't sure what to think about that. He decided to stop thinking and take in the world he found himself in.

The landscape was bleak, and the harshness of the sun felt alien from the sun Dante was used to; it felt malicious. If he was being honest, everything in that damned world felt like they were gunning for his head. In that sweltering heat, The Graveyard felt a long way off, and Dante was shocked to realise he missed it—just a tad.

Since there were practically no sounds of insects or birds, Dante wondered how Alan survived that long. In Alan's words, "This world is mad, and sometimes it refuses to let us die," even though Dante didn't understand it, it suddenly made sense.

The terrain was sandy in some places and rocky in other areas. It was a mishmash of both. Aside from the sweltering heat, some things did not make sense, like the voice in his head in a hologram.

It made no sense, and he'd never heard of such things happening before. If he was being honest, he felt as though he was hallucinating and would wake up after a while. The fact that he was holding onto Crystal for dear life didn't make it any better.

The scenery changed suddenly, and just like earlier with the cavern, it seemed like one moment there was desert as far as the eyes could see, and the next, there was a scattering of caves and mountains with jagged edges. On one side, the sun's heat was sweltering; on the other, Dante couldn't breathe well because of the instant switch from hot to extreme cold. It was like walking bare-chested in a blizzard.

"What is this? How's this possible?" Dante asked, his teeth chattering. In one smooth move, Crystal killed the engine and removed her jacket, handing it over to him.

"Take, you'd need it," she acted so naturally; Dante wasn't sure if the place was weird or if he was overreacting.

"This is my home. I protect it with my life. We are The Renegades. And you're one of us now." That was news to Dante since it was clear that he didn't agree to anything. But he hadn't eaten in a while, and his tongue felt like sandpaper.

"Water," he croaked out, and Crystal's eyes widened suddenly.

"Wait here. Don't move a muscle, no matter what." She sounded stern, and Dante wondered if she'd ever stop being bossy. He wrapped his arms around his body, the cold worming into his system.

[BODY TEMPERATURE LOWERING, INITIATING SAFETY MEASURES]

It was that damned voice again, the holographic one. He couldn't tell if he was going cuckoo or the world around him was.

[BODY TEMPERATURE DROPPING, SAFE MODE INITIATED]

Dante felt his arm heating up, like his imagination, but the heat seemed to be coming from his legs and arms. He raised his arm and screamed—a high and girly scream.

His arms were glowing red as though they'd just come out from a blazing furnace.

Forget the cold; I'd burn myself alive at this rate.

[SAFE MODE DISABLED]

And just like that, Dante touched his body to be sure he was in one piece. Another thing he noticed was that he was no longer cold at all. He felt perfectly toasty.

"Can you read my mind?" He asked apprehensively, wondering if he'd get a response in return.

[GREETINGS, I AM A PART OF YOU, AN EXTENSION OF YOUR SOUL, YOUR DIGITAL ADVANCED SELF]

It all sounded like gibberish, especially since he asked a different question. But Dante could tell that whatever the voice was, it didn't have a hint of malice. So he could trust it for the time being.

"What is wrong? I heard you shout," Crystal said, running up to him. She had a worried look in her eyes, and he wondered why. They hadn't known each other for a long while, just a few hours tops, not counting the time overnight spent in the cave.

"I am fine; it's just the voice in my head. It helps in weird ways; I'm no longer cold," Dante said, handing over Crystal's jacket to her. A look of irritation crossed her face for a millisecond, and it was gone in a flash.

Maybe I imagined it.

"Gilgamesh is already here; let's get going." Crystal draped her jacket over her shoulder in an incredibly smooth, off-handed gesture.

He didn’t know what to think.

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