Conrad felt strange, as if his whole body was enveloped in something so familiar. Opening his eyes, he saw an ordinary ceiling, and looking around, he realized that he was in a hospital room.
The warrior could not understand what was happening, because quite recently Zero had destroyed the last city of human civilization. A thought arose in his head:
«So I was still able to kill Zero. Apparently, my body was picked up by survivors, because people have always been distinguished by their survival, so, probably, monsters could not destroy all of humanity.»
Conrad looked at his hands, which were completely covered in bandages.
«Apparently, the survivors were able to revive civilization, and my body was in a coma all this time. Well, fine. This is a good ending.»
The warrior put his hand on his face to hide his tears. The bitterness of the loss of everything that was dear to his heart resonated with unbearable mental pain.
A young nurse opened the door to the room.
- I see you have already woken up.
She unceremoniously entered the room with the IV and looked contemptuously at Conrad:
- Since you have come to your senses, hurry up and pay. Now, in addition to paying for your parents, you will need to pay for your own treatment.
- Which parents?
Conrad did not believe what he heard. He looked in surprise at the nurse, who removed the bag of medicine from the IV and put it in her pocket.
- But there's no need to turn on the fool here. If you don't want to pay, we'll take them off life support. It is up to you. And, by the way, you will also need to pay for this IV, it's not in vain that I dragged it here.
- What are you talking about, my parents have been dead for a long time.
Conrad tried to get out of bed. Having examined himself, he noticed that he was covered all over with dirty bandages, which, apparently, had not been changed for a long time. He pulled the venous catheter out of his right hand, and then stood up and grabbed the leaving girl by the shoulder.
- What are you allowing yourself to do!
She hit him on the arm.
- Where are we? What about Zero? Did anyone from my team survive?
Conrad was confused.
- I'm telling you for the last time, don't play dumb.
The girl approached the warrior and looked at him arrogantly.
- If you can walk, then you're already healthy, so quickly get out of here and go pay for treatment.
In Conrad's head appeared images of Numbered and Zero, how they killing his comrades. The warrior was angry that his questions were not being answered. Realizing that the nurse did not want to talk to him, he began to gather an aura of wind around himself to intimidate her.
- Agh!
But a sharp pain reverberated throughout his body.
- You've gone completely crazy, you think that if you become a Hunter, you can scare ordinary people!
The nurse got angry and ran out into the corridor filled with many people.
- Kairos, come here!
She shouted loudly, calling someone.
Conrad did not waste any time; he decided to figure out why his body could not withstand such a small amount of energy. Checking his internal energy flows, he noticed that in his body, in addition to wind energy, three other elements were again present.
A tall bald man who looked like a typical bandit approached the nurse.
- Baby, what happened?
- This cretin harassed me!
The girl pointed her finger at Conrad.
- What the …?
- What the …?
Looking at the warrior, she and Kairos were surprised by what they saw.
More and more wind energy gathered around Conrad, which left cuts on his body and penetrated inside through them. The bandages were covered with fresh blood. Blood was flowing from the warrior's closed eyes and mouth, but the energy around him only became stronger. Gradually, Conrad's regeneration became stronger and slowly healed his wounds.
Kairos hastened to attack the warrior, sensing something was wrong, but was thrown back by a powerful gust of wind that poured into the corridor. People grabbed onto everything they could to avoid falling under the air pressure.
When Conrad finished, the wind died down around him. The bandages that covered his body had multiple cuts and fell to the floor. The wounds on the warrior's body were healing right before his eyes. A green glow flashed in his empty eyes for a second.
[Path of Fire: Flame Strike]
The man, who just a second ago was holding onto the doorway, resisting the wind, rushed at Conrad. He made a direct strike, and a faint stream of flame came out of his hand.
Conrad dispelled the fire with a slight movement of his hand, and then grabbed Kairos by the outstretched arm, pulled him towards him and grabbed him by the neck with his other hand.
- What date is today?
- Fuck you!
[Path of Fire: Flame Stream]
Kairos looked at the warrior contemptuously and decided to attack him again. Fire energy gathered under his feet, which was about to erupt in a pillar of flame.
But Conrad enveloped himself in wind energy so tightly that his body was once again covered with the same aura of wind that he had learned to use in his last battle with Zero. She dispelled the fire energy and the Kairos technique did not work.
- What date is today?
The bald man looked into the empty eyes of the warrior, whose aura terrified him.
- April 18, 1261 from the Day of the Fall.
Kairos answered, gritting his teeth.
Conrad threw it towards the bed. The man stopped next to her, falling to his knees. During this, he touched a nearby IV, which fell and hit him on the head.
- Ay!
Conrad slowly approached the nurse who was rising from her knees.
- Take me to your parents' room.
People in the corridor were running away in panic. Some of them filmed what was happening, others called on the phone and asked for urgent help, saying that the hospital was under attack by a terrorist.
The girl clearly did not want to follow the warrior's commands, she was disgusted by his very presence in front of her, but in fear that he might kill her, she silently stood up and went to the elevator.
Conrad and the nurse went up two floors, and before leaving they were met by an elderly man and two young men.
- Alice, what happened? We heard the screams of people from the lower floors, and recently there was a strange wind in the corridor, what happened there?
The gray-haired man asked in a calm voice.
The girl made a pitiful face and, running out of the elevator, hurried to hide behind the old doctor.
- He attacked Kairos, and now he has taken me hostage!
She pointed her finger at Conrad, who calmly followed her out of the elevator.
- Oh, you freak!
One of the young men rushed at the warrior with his fists, but Conrad instantly hit him on the back of the head. The young fighter fell to the floor, losing consciousness.
The second young man, who was standing near the doctor, seeing this, ran deeper into the corridor, shouting at the end:
- I'll call for help, while you detain him!
The elderly man stood and silently looked at Conrad, the current situation did not surprise him. But Alice decided to run away after the young man, showing Conrad her middle finger and shouting something nasty:
- Prison awaits you, freak!
-Can you explain your actions?
The elderly doctor looked into the warrior's empty eyes without a drop of fear.
- I'm just looking for my parents' room.
-Are they in the same room?
- I do not remember.
The old man took his phone out of his pocket and opened some application, and then cordially asked Conrad:
- What is your mother's name?
- Arias Christina.
- You chose a very extravagant way of finding a patient's room, although you could have simply asked about it at the information desk on the first floor.
- It's just that your staff is very rude.
- That's right, I apologize. They are just still young and too inexperienced. Found it, both of your parents are in room 421D, I'll take you.
- Thank you.
While Conrad silently followed the elderly doctor, he decided to start a conversation:
- Do you have memory lapses?
- Yes.
- Do you remember who you are?
- Arias Conrad, Knight...
Conrad wanted to introduce himself in the usual way for his past. He was an «Alpha» Rank Knight belonging to the Frontier Division and held the title of Hero, which was awarded to him by Parliament for his outstanding achievements.
But Conrad remembered that until 1270, the Knightly units were considered the most elite army, which was engaged only in private assignments of representatives of parliament.
At this time, many element users were members of various guilds, and were engaged in hunting monsters for the sake of extracting their blood, which is a very important resource, so the reward for it was worthy.
Already after Zero and Numbered destroyed more than half of humanity, all guilds founded and controlled by the most powerful and influential element users were abolished, and all their members were forced to join the Knightly units.
- Knight?
The elderly man pretended that he had misheard.
- Hunter from the guild...
Conrad paused because he couldn't remember the name of the guild he was a member of at the time.
-Can't remember?
- Memory losses…
- In our city there is only one guild, its founder, Ortego Blanche, gave it a very laconic name - [Hopelessness].
Conrad and the doctor approached the room. An elderly man opened the door. Conrad's eyes trembled, he saw his father and mother, who were lying on hospital beds, unconscious.
They wore special masks over their faces to help them breathe. And through a dropper, medications and nutrients necessary for life were supplied to the body.