Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

"I can stop time."

Aurora was surprised, she truly hadn't expected him to tell her any time soon and yet he revealed it just like that.

"..."

Gray chuckled slightly before sitting back down to her left.

"Surprising, isn't it? Was it that hard to guess that it was my ability?" He asked.

She shook her head.

"I already had an idea it was something like that..."

Gray was shocked to hear that. He thought his ability was impossible to deduct based on it's concept. But after thinking about it, it did make sense why she'd suspect it.

He could lock things in place, freezing both their internal and extenal body clock.

He could teleport and quickly react to things as if he had all the time in the world to think about what to do.

There were many variables which could have led her to having this conclusion.

Regardless of what it was, it at least made taking it in much easier.

Gray still felt like he had lsot the fight however as he wanted the reveal to have been the reveal to impact much more than that.

"So the bigger the use, the greater the risk... That makes sense..." She muttered as she placed her hand beneath her chin.

"When you got us out of the Labyrinth, you ended up collapsing and almost dying... The distance from the floor which we were to the entrance was no joke. Yet you got us from here to there in an instant..."

"I thought you had teleported us, but it turns out you just stopped time and carried all of us up at once..."

'...Was she a detective or something on top of being a student before te apocalypse?'

Suddenly realising that she had been going a little off track, she quickly shut up from the embarrassment and changed the topic.

"B-But more importantly... Thanks..." She spoke with a nervous chuckle.

Gray was confused once more.

"Why are you thanking me?" he asked with a concerned expression.

"For telling me..."

"Oh that? It's no problem. I was planning on telling you all sooner or later."

Aurora's ears twitched.

"Wasn't it some sort of big secret you were keeping? Won't it be bad if the enemy finds out you can stop time?" She asked.

"They won't, the zombies aren't that smart and we've dealt with all the races trying to invade so far." He said.

"Besides, even if they knew, what would they possibly be able to do? And if there was something they could do..."

Gray instantly recalled the dark haired, purple eyed man who was unaffected by [Time-stop.].

"Then knowing it wouldn't have made a difference."

Gray's last words echoed in the back of her mind.

A small smile grew on her face as she suddenly leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Isn't there anything that can scare you? You always look so fearless." She asked with a more relaxed tone.

Gray looked up at the sky.

"Fearless?" He asked.

"I guess at one point I was... When I had nothing to lose..."

"But right now... I'm far from fearless."

Aurora didn't quite understand what meant.

"So there are things that still scare you?"

"Like what?" She asked.

She has never seen him step down from a challenge, he's only retreated when there was truly no other way, but even then he's never appeared scared only nervous.

Gray being scared was something she could never picture, not even in her wildest dreams.

"Hm... I wonder~" Gray replied in a teasing tone.

Aurora got annoyed, she really wanted to know.

"Tell m-"

*CRASH!*

Aurora was interrupted as the entire building tremored from the impact, something large and massive crashed into it from a distance.

*TREMBLE!* *TREMBLE!* *TREMBLE!*

Whatever it was that crashed into it, had began shaking it as more and more tremors made their way up the building.

The two glanced off the edge, only to have their eyes widen in surprise.

The large muscular giant zombie with all the faces and heads embedded in it's chest was scaling up the building.

It was climbing up at fast speeds, leaping from floor to floor by using the windows as footings.

'Based on it's distance, there's still some time until it gets here...'

'But how did it find us? Wait... This situation.'

Gray looked around, there were other abnormal Zombies scaling up the walls beneath it, and even further below there were swarms of Zombies on the ground.

Where were all these Zombies coming from? And more specifically, why were they heading for them?"

"What's happening, Gray? Why are they-"

*CRASH!*

Aurora was interrupted as the giant zombie appeared before them with it's fist heading right at her from the sides.

The zombie, which still had a quarter of a way to go suddenly displayed incredible physical prowess and covered all of the distance in but a single leap.

[Fast-Forward.]

Aurora and Violet's figure vanished alongside Gray and appeared in the air above the Large Zombie.

Aurora turned to Gray, she knew that he had exhausted all of his energy and wasn't in the condition to fight. The fact that he had used his level up option to recover was something she was completely unaware of.

"Focus on getting away with Violet! I'll try holding it back!" She muttered, stretching her arm out in it's direction from above.

The head's on the Zombie all turned upwards with a slight cracking noise, before it leapt right up at them once again.

The power in it's legs was unbelievable, it covered the distance once again in a tenth of a second. It's large muscular arms were already in motion, aiming to slam and crush them.

[Pause-Step]

Gray appeared all the way on the other end of the roof, the two watched as the zombie went further up a few meters before descending down with it's hands grasped together.

It was going to crush them both with a down swing as it descended.

They were on the roof, there was nowhere to escape to. Aurora doubted that Gray would have enough energy to bring them down with the [Paused] Platforms.

They were screwed the moment that giant thing were to land. The entire rooftop would collapse along with them.

"Gray!! Focus on getting away with Violet! I'll hold it-"

Gray interrupted Aurora as he placed his index finger over her lips in order to silence her.

"Aurora..."

"I told you didn't I?"

[Pause Level 3]

"I hold the power to control time..."

"Regardless of how strong the enemy is..."

Veins bulged out of Gray's legs, he handed Violet over to Aurora before crouching down.

[Mark Of The King First Stage: Activated]

A glowing puzzle-like pattern emerged on his forehead once more as he kicked off the ground, leaping right up at the giant zombie which was heading down at them.

The pattern shifted as the puzzle began solving itself, Aurora watched with a dumbfounded expression as Gray stretched his arm out towards the Zombie.

[Pause Level Four and Level 5]

[Incomplete Time Stop and AUthority Over Frozen Time]

[Break.]

Her eyes widened as she witnessed the giant Zombie's entire figure shatter into pieces like glass. Blood spurted out of it before it was launched away into the far distance.

Blood rained down on the city as it soared through the air, before it plunged to it's death if it hadn't been dead already.

[You Killed a Giant Mutated Multiple Zombie]

[You gained 50 XP!]

Gray suddenly appeared before her, crouched down on top of the rooftop's fence.

The countless swarms were still there, and the abnormals which were scaling up were close to arrival, they had already reached four fifths of the way.

"...H...But...Wha... Weren't you tired!?"

Gray didn't respond, instead he focused solely on figuring out what he was going to do next.

"Aurora." He spoke in a serious tone.

"Yes?" She replied, alarmed.

"I was planning on taking us back to the base, but the Zombies seem to want something from us... And they can find us."

"We may put the people at risk if we go back now, so we'll have to find out what it is and solve it before we can even think of going."

Aurora nodded having understood clearly what he meant.

"Could it be something linked to why Violet still hasn't woken up?" She asked.

"I don't know..." He responded. "It's a possibility... But I'd like to hope it isn't the case."

Gray grabbed Violet from Aurora and placed her on his back.

"Can you keep up?" He asked as he got ready to leap over the edge.

Aurora nodded with a confident smile.

"Of course I can."

That was all he needed to hear.

"Good." He replied before leaping off the edge.

[Pause]

Gray landed on top of a platform mid-air just a few meters ahead of the building and watched as Aurora leapt and landed right behind him.

*Slip*

She landed at an awkward angle and almost slipped off as a result, but thankfully she caught herself in time.

"Everything good?" He asked as he looked back.

"Y-Yeah... E-Everything's fine..." She muttered nervously with a sigh.

"Alright, let's find a place to hide for now..."