Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

"..."

Ruby silently gazed into the distance from the top of the Airship. As her hair swayed backwards from a passing breeze, three familiar figures turned up behind her.

"Ruby...?" Lara called out to her.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Ruby turned only to find Lara standing there beside Kylo and Lita. Charlotte had managed to bring them over as she had requested.

A small smile grew on Ruby's face after seeing them.

To all of their surprise, Ruby suddenly bowed before them.

"As the empress of this kingdom, you have my deepest gratitude. Even though you have nothing to do with my people, you still helped fight back the enemy whilst also healing the injured." She said.

Lara who was surprised and taken aback by this sudden action, suddenly ran up to Ruby before raising her up and hugging her.

Lita who was one step behind also hugged her tightly from the side. Kylo watched from beside Charlotte.

"Thank god you're safe..." Lara quietly cried as she embraced her even more tightly.

Lita repeatedly cried out Ruby's names, just like the time she'd hold onto Gray, she had completely latched herself onto Ruby's legs and showed no signs of letting go any time soon.

Ruby was shocked by this sudden reaction, she was at a loss for words.

'E-Eh? W-What is this...? Was she.. Were they worried about me?' She wondered

"La-"

Whilst drowning in her chest from the hug, Ruby was interrupted by Lara who suddenly let go of her.

"Ah- Sorry, that was too much, right?" Lara asked with a nervous chuckle.

"I heard that you went to the front lines on your own to take over one of the ships. Since you're the empress, I was worried that something bad would have happened since the enemy would naturally be aiming for you..." She explained with a flustered expression.

The two weren't particularly close so that reaction was quite a surprise for Ruby, but she didn't find anything wrong with it.

In fact.

"Thank you for worrying about me..." She responded with a warm smile.

"F-Fortunately, everything worked out well thanks to Gray... Forget me, how are you still standing? I heard that you were going from ship to ship helping the injured recover?"

Lara quickly shook her head.

"There's no need to worry about that, I've gotten much better at using my ability thanks to practice."

Ruby was truly impressed, on top of her stamina having improved significantly in the past few days, so had the air around her.

She looked much stronger than before, not just her but also Kylo.

Ruby made eye contact with him for a while but he ended up looking away towards Charlotte instead. The two were engaged in their own conversation.

Looking at them from a far, their relationship resembled that of a master and her student.

"So... Has there been any news from them?"

Ruby shook her head.

"We've managed to get into contact with Ria through some sort of device made in this planet but... It only works during certain times so we haven't had much of an opportunity to talk."

"The problem is that... Gray, Aurora and Violet are nowhere to be seen..."

Lara's heart skipped a beat as she heard this. Her chest was flooded with worry after hearing those words.

But the worry and shock only lasted a short while as she remembered who they were referring to.

"What!? Gray, Violet-Sis and Aurora-Sis are missing!? We need to go find them!!!" Shouted Lita as she let go of Ruby's legs.

Lara could tell from the saddened expression on Ruby's face that she was worried and wanted to go search for them, but with the situation in hand, it was clear that it wouldn't be that easy.

"This is Gray we're talking about... There's no way he'd fall over in a situation like this. Aurora and Violet left together, when those two are side by side, there's nothing that can stop them." Said Lara, fully convinced.

"But... But what if something bad happened...?" Lita asked with teary eyes.

Lara suddenly crouched before her daughter. She stared at her, right in her eye before patting her head.

"Nothing bad happened... I'm sure of it..."

With her mother's measurement and confident expression, the convinced Lita nodded while sucking up her snot and wiping away her tears.

Ruby watched their interaction with a slight ache in her heart. The way they interacted reminded her of something from the past.

*BOOOM!*

An explosion came from the city below, ruining their short moment.

They peaked over the ship's edges and stared at the city below.

Even with the enemy gone, the zombie virus pandemic was still out there. Countless Zombies were roaming around in hoards, growing stronger by the day.

The mutated beasts were also doing strange movements of their own as they searched for food.

Fortunately, the two sides were fighting each other and would eventually dim the other side down, the question was, how would they deal with the situation then?

"So... What's the plan for now?" Lara asked.

"I've sent a few groups of nobles into the only remaining unconquered Labyrinth in the city. If they're able to clear it, then we won't have to worry about more monsters coming out whilst also strengthening ourselves."

"I've discussed this with Ria and she's agreed to it. She also sent some of the highest ranked officers from the angel... Opposition something... The organisation which she is now leading in order for them to collaborate and clear it as soon as possible."

Lara was surprised to see that the two had already taken so many steps for the situation.

'They're young and are shouldering all this responsibility and yet...'

Lara was deeply moved. She wanted to do everything in her power to help. She planned on doing whatever it took to help them.

-

-

-

Infested Apartment, third floor.

Inside of the cocoon.

[The Flow of time resumes.]

The single figure of a boy appeared before the snake-like monster. It's head shifted from the floor above, down to the front of it as the single figure of a young man appeared before it.

Long Grey hair with silver and golden eyes. A glowing mark radiated energy from his forehead throughout his body, it resembled a maze.

{Foolish being... I do not know how you've made your way here, but it seems you've chosen death.}

{Very well... I shall grant that to you...} It spoke as the smile on it's face widened.

Gray stuck twirled his finger on the inside of the ear with an unamused look.

"It could talk? Maybe I shouldn't have killed it so fast. I've only seen one monster which could talk before and that was a zombie."

*Sigh*

"It's a shame this one is dead." Said Gray as he turned his back to it.

{!?}

The confident grin and expression on the monster's face grew into that of confusion as it's vision split into countless different parts.

{Wh-}

Before it could even manage the word, it's entire body shattered into pieces, collapsing onto the ground.

But it wasn't just it's body, the entire cocoon and space in the room had completely shattered as if it were fragile pieces of glass.

With it's last breath it watched Gray walk away, in that instance, the grin on it's face widened once more.

{I know... You have a special ability... But even if you have managed to destroy this body... You will not be able to stop me... This isn't even my-}

"Real body. I know. Don't worry, I destroyed all of that too."

Gray had gone down to the second floor and first floor while time had been stopped just to be sure. It was definitely much more of a challenge to get past but not impossible.

Regardless, it wasn't wasted effort as he had discovered something.

Gray raised a special glowing green orb out of the pouch on his waist before showing it to the shattered remnants of the monster.

{You...! How do you have that!?} The monster asked with a mixture of fear and rage in it's face.

"What? This?" Gray asked as he tossed it up into the air and grabbed it.

"I wonder..." He continued with an amused smile. "This was your core right? Do you know how much of a pain it was to find it?"

'The cocoons were all set ups... The real core was hidden beneath the building the whole time. I only managed to come across it thanks to Luck, [X-Ray] and [Detect].'

'Looks like finding it made things turn out much easier.'

Whilst Gray was focused on his thoughts, the creature had sent an attack from all the remaining gooey flesh stuck to the walls at him.

They all melted down into acid as they were launched at him, from the speed at which they were launched to the distance, there was no escaping it.

Furthermore, it was clear that he was drained from having used his ability, his legs were trembling just keeping him up.

He was putting on a brave front.

{Die!!!}

Even so... The fearless expression in Gray's face did not change.

"Right back at you."

[Future Sight: Level 1]