The Earth After Rebirth

"I\'ve never had a heart attack but I imagine it would be like this." Nikolai joked clutching at his chest, in hopes of calming his racing heart down.

If they weren\'t in a pain of their own, they could\'ve perhaps laughed but no one did. Not even Kiro. He was more scared than he\'d ever been in-game, what was in front them was more dangerous than anything they\'d ever faced.

If push came to shove though, Kiro admitted he\'d have to use the powers that were on a couple of months cool down. Only if they\'d let him though, he didn\'t think he had much of a choice in the matter.

He didn\'t know what other adverse consequences he would harbour if he\'d forcefully use them, he wasn\'t sure whether it was worth it or that he wanted to find out. They weren\'t fighting for themselves here either, they were just hired mercenaries.

Kiro walked with calculated, deliberate footsteps. He wanted to end this before it even started, but he had a very strong urge to not attack. Even though they were all dreading what was inside, it still gave them a feeling that, they shouldn\'t attack.

The command was so strong that they were actually fighting against it. Their will wasn\'t quite strong enough.

Though Lyle surprised them all, he somehow managed to copy Kiro\'s whirlwind, it was weaker, far weaker but he was able to create a strong wind towards the cocoon. But alas, it did nothing to move it.

"Come on you guys! This is nothing, you can\'t tell me I admire a guy who can\'t even attack at the moment." He bellowed, bringing them back to their senses.

It wasn\'t anything amazing that made him stand out from the rest, he was too much of an idiotic stubborn person. His will was almost impossible to break or sway. His idiocy helped him this time and he was quite proud of it, the fact that he had something his master didn\'t.

"Don\'t get to carried away, you\'re still an idiot." Jorge joked, having bitten his lip which was now bleeding.

"The pressure here is definitely something even I, am struggling against." Kiro commented with a half hearted chuckle.

He had an idea what the cocoon would reveal but he didn\'t want to admit it. He instead focused on the fact that the system wouldn\'t have sent normal players in here if that were the case.

But the thought kept gnawing at the back of his head, it wanted to make itself known, claw its way out of the depths of his brains. It was loud, but Kiro wanted to ignore it. He had to.

He didn\'t want to spend this time afraid out of his mind, he wanted to come up with countermeasures and that couldn\'t possibly come into fruition if his mind was in constant fear mode.

"Come out with it, what are you thinking?" Hiro asked his best friend, seeing the concern mixed with a dreaded expression on his face. He knew him enough by now to know that this face meant their odds weren\'t great.

At Hiro\'s enquiry they all looked to Kiro as they did when they wanted to enter this place, that turned out to be hell. Now they were looking to him, to hopefully get them out of the pickle they found themselves in.

"Well?" Ishaan chimed in impatiently, since Kiro was quiet and not answering.

"Well nothing! I don\'t know either, I\'ve never encountered this before, I have a theory you won\'t like though." He said his face souring, the last words felt like he was chewing on glass.

He\'d deliberated with himself and decided to just tell them, the thought won at the end, he wanted a different perspective, he wanted someone to tell him he was barking mad.

"It\'s a harbinger isn\'t it?" Nikolai said, having studied Kiro\'s face, he couldn\'t imagine anything else that could scare him to this extent.

"Yes, but worse. Worse than the Queen that almost killed me back then." Having a conversation like this took them everything just to string the words together. It wasn\'t easy.

"What the hell is a harbinger?" Lyle asked in place of Jorge, he was about the only one who had seemed to have a very good resistance against the thing.

Kiro had forgotten that there were two people who weren\'t guardians, well, three if you counted Ishaan. He wasn\'t sure whether the system would like that, but he didn\'t really care at this point.

They were about to face their worst enemy yet, Kiro was hundred percent sure that they\'d lose this one. He was ready to lose the levels, he decided against using reality warping until the cool down was up.

"It\'s these powerful monsters that can only be fought by guardians of Asgard. I don\'t know exactly how the system chooses them, or if it\'s entirely up to the luck of the individual but there are a few already." Kiro explained without missing a beat.

Jorge pondered at this, he wanted to soak in the information, all of it, before asking questions. He didn\'t want to waste his words on inane things.

"I\'ll assume since you know about them, you\'re a guardian? Then if you know, why does this scare you so much?" He was exasperated by the end of the question.

"Kiro fought two by himself some time ago, one almost killed him, we fought one together that threatened the game world. But neither of us felt something this great, this one is much worse as he said, we may not survive." Hiro explained to him sincerely.

Kiro let a light laugh slip. He didn\'t mean to, but the optimism in Hiro\'s words amused him somehow. He wasn\'t hopeful, not at all.

Just after the conversation, the cocoon started making crackling sounds.