After my daily routine, there wasn't much to do, so I ended up trying my best to just pass the time. Fortunately, by the evening Will and the rest showed up. I was notified about this by one of Wuxia's soldiers, who found me in the pub.
With this knowledge, I rushed to Hatta's office. Will, Nobuo, Boris, Hatta, and Amit were standing just a few steps from the door, already talking. They became silent as soon as they noticed me.
- It better be something important - said Boris.
- It is - Hatta replied. - Sit guys. Trust me, you will need that.
He pointed at the couch on the side.
- Good or bad news? - asked Will, slowly walking towards the pointed spot.
I followed him.
- I'm unsure what to make out of it all yet. I hope we can get to a conclusion together. How was the hunt?
- Bad. You interrupted in the middle - said Boris. - We had to leave people, and rush here. I hope it will be worth it.
- I believe, just like Peter, that's something we need to digest together - said Hatta.
We sat down and waited, exchanging just a few more words. After couple more minutes Blue showed up, followed by Aisha. Everybody gathered around the table.
- Now grab each other hands - I said to them.
The first response that I received was a bunch of weird looks, but eventually, they did what I asked for. I grabbed Hatta's and shadow walked us close to the ogre cave.
Everybody, except me and him, just dropped to their knees. Aisha puked on the ground.
- What the fuck was that?! - yelled Boris.
I didn't know what just happened.
- Oh my god, holy shit - wailed William.
- What the...? - Hatta looked at me like I had an answer.
- I have no idea. I did it with other people already, and it worked just fine - I looked at Blue, who was trying to pick himself up from the ground - I brought Blue back with this skill.
- Whatever it did, it didn't do that to me - Hatta pointed out. - How many people you moved to one before?
- Just me and somebody else.
- Then it clearly is limited to just one more person except you.
Then I thought about that one Shadow pilgrim's skill I didn't figure out at all and didn't upgrade more than once. 'Shadow permit'. Now It all had sense.
- You will be fine. I think I know what happened. It was The Void. I know how it feels.
- Fuck you, Peter - said Boris.
He managed to somehow crawl to a tree, and sit underneath it. People clearly needed a moment to get back to their senses. I never expected such a situation to occur.
How the hell didn't I predict something like that might happen? - I thought to myself. It wasn't like this whole thing was something new to me. I already experienced it at first. The presence of The Void, the hunger, and fear. Now they knew.
- I hope that's not what you wanted to let us know - said Nobuo, as he picked himself up.
He was a bit pale, but except that rather fine. One by one, people started to get up. And after few more moments, we were ready to talk.
- Sorry for all of that. I didn't predict something like that would happen, but I needed to get us all out of the city, so we could talk properly.
- What do you mean by that? - Asked Aisha, still feeling unwell, as her twisted by emotions face, was clearly telling.
- I'll start from the beginning. After the invasion, I went hunting and was contacted by an agent of Xuvi. She is a small lizard-like creature that can change her form, and her name is Ki'rai. Xuvi calls her C-27 though. She was the chicken that you saw with me - I said turning myself to face Blue.
He nodded slowly. Nobody in this short moment of silence tried to sneak any questions, although they clearly had a bunch of them.
- I was offered a deal to meet with her masters, and talk about our situation and The Great One, who, as I've been told, was behind the invasion. I was to keep everything a secret, prove myself, and on top of that bring them a bunch of crystals. Which I did during my little escapade to the wastelands.
- I knew you were hiding some stuff. You were getting too strong too fast. Too much class points out of nowhere - said Amit.
I nodded, confirming his words.
- What did they tell you? - asked Blue.
- A few things, but let's start from the beginning. I was led to their underground base, and there I met with three of them Shu'ah Oot Atso Yeingem, Lott Ghiabba Mer Uh'uni, and Moozo Ire Xei'beim Tsasheing, although I talked only with the first one.
The fact that I remembered their names so clearly was surprising to me, and probably had something to do with my skills, or maybe even upgraded intelligence.
- He brought me to a room that looked like taken from the earth and told me basically the same story Uhm's told us previously. With few more details, like them escaping the massacre and the fact that it was The Great One behind it all. They are hiding from him. Then they also offered me a gift. I was led to their research facility, where they had a bunch of crazy and strange stuff. Machines I never saw before. They also had a seed, something even smaller than the sapling, but basically, it's the same thing. They are experimenting with it.
Then I took a deep breath, before telling them what I had to tell, and knew how much of an effect it will bring.
- My gift was ten days back on earth.
Just as I predicted. I saw everybody's both mouth and eyes opening wide in shock.. It lasted few seconds before I was bombarded by dozens of questions.