The Earth After Rebirth

After the system crashed their meeting to confirm the truth in Kiro's story, those who didn't want to believe him were left in utter shock.

The silence made the hall seem a little bigger than it actually was — everyone alone in their head space, with their thoughts.

Kiro understood the dilemma they were in, but at least they didn't get to witness the end of humanity like he did. He was mostly recovered though and was waiting for them to come to their own senses.

"Well, I need to go." He finally said when nobody moved for over an hour.

"Go? Can we even..."

"Ishaan don't be crazy. The system clearly said at least two hours in a day. I don't know about you but this game, this world just became a whole less interesting. It feels like a chore now." Nikolai reasoned.

"We have a lot of those — chores — But I need to make a post as soon as possible about the tournaments — Yes there'll be one held every week. We need more power. I'm thinking maybe, Sundays?"

"A leader for a reason, so put together." Viktor complimented.

But Kiro didn't take it to heart. He had plenty of time to accept this as their new reality. It had only been a little over an hour, their seemingly unending shock was absolutely normal.

"So gods are real." Felix mumbled.

With everything they were fixated on, the fact that gods were real wasn't something that took first priority in their heads. They weren't a particularly religious society, so it wasn't too strange that they didn't stop to consider what the revelation may actually mean.

"Oh fuck, what do we do?" Ishaan was panicked, as usual.

All eyes fell on Kiro, as they always seem to do. He sighed bitterly.

"What should we do? Chronos didn't seem like the kind of guy that wanted to be worshipped."

"Thank fuck, I wouldn't know where to start." Viktor chimed in.

"If that is all, I'd like to leave you guys. I have no time to sit around thinking about this, if you'd seen what I'd seen, you'd want to act as soon as possible too."

"I'll go with you." Hiro offered.

Kiro nodded at his direction and logged out before Ishaan could complain any further.

Breathing air that wasn't in Asgard actually felt refreshing, if there wasn't a storm going on, he would've considered going outside to bask in the sun — but he imagined the sun was buried underneath grey clouds.

He'd forgotten for a moment that they were under the same roof. Isla was right beside him, still very much immersed in the game.

He was excited for but only a moment, that's when his stomach churned and he remembered what he knew, and all she needed to know.

"Fuck." He let slip quietly.

One of the reason he never mentioned the sanctum to her, the fake one, was because he didn't wish to burden her. Especially when he thought her father was a part of them, dealing with Ishaan having to go against his father was already enough.

But this, this was much bigger. Bigger than himself, bigger than the sanctum, bigger than the entirety of their world — their entire universe was concerned.

His mind zoomed away from the problems, and straight to the girl he was sharing a bed with. He caught himself smiling.

'Is this really okay?'

She looked so still, so beautiful and so unbelievably out of his league. Kiro couldn't understand why she was even with him, yes he's had people gushing over his looks but he didn't see it. He didn't see it the way he saw her.

His phone jerked him out of his lustful, hopeful and peaceful thoughts. The disturbance was met with a very hostile attitude, wasn't he allowed to daydream?

"Philip? What is it?" He couldn't exactly hide his annoyed tone.

Philip smiled knowingly. The only thing that would get a teenage boy this worked was nothing but a single thing.

"What am I disturbing?" He tried to poke for answers but Kiro didn't say anything and waited for him to say what he wanted.

"Onto more important things. The launch for Waynworth Enterprise happens this Saturday, you'll of course be expected to be there. I'll send the invitations." He winked.

"Another thing, since we have the number one Asgard player on our side, we hoped you'd use your popularity to advertise our product."

"Okay, that is a brilliant idea. I'll do that right away."

"I thought you'd like it and by the way, I know you're active be sure to use —"

Kiro cut it off immediately. He didn't want to hear that from him, not from anyone. He wasn't a child, he could do it, without experience, he can figure things out.

"You shouldn't be so embarrassed talking about stuff like that, you know."

The voice came from behind him, at the same time two arms stretched out in front of him. Hugging him from behind. His heart hammered in his chest for a split second until he realised who it was.

Unintentionally, he smiled, turning his head only to meet with her lips. The butterflies came back, as he sank deeper into the chamber of nothing but sundogs and bliss. If it were up to him, these were the moment he wanted to live in.

The thought of the world being at stake shook him back to reality.

"I need to tell you something, but first we need Saanvi here too."

Isla looked at him with the most accusatory expression he'd ever seen in his life. He apologetically kissed her on the forehead, he got up and left for the lounge the place had. She followed, unwillingly.

It was by chance that they all opened the doors to their bedrooms at the same time. After Dark had gloomy faces, all except for Kiro and Hiro. People who seemed to have accepted that their fate was this.

Without wasting precious time, Kiro let Hiro tell it to them. He occasionally corrected here and there but otherwise he'd gotten the gist of it all.

"What the fuck?"