Chapter 603: Amara

Grey escaped the meeting the moment Elowen and Mauve started arguing about population distribution, then caught Amara before she could disappear with everyone else.

He was genuinely curious about her, not only due to what he had seen during the recap, but also due to the fact that she was the only Earth candidate Amunet had approached who had agreed to come without turning the whole thing into some complicated mess. Grey led her toward one of the quieter Palace balconies, leaned against the railing, and looked at her directly.

"So why’d you actually come?"

Amara didn’t seem offended by how bluntly he asked it, and after taking a moment to consider her answer, she rested her forearms against the railing beside him.

"I have no desire to become a martyr. I want to go home, and from what I have seen so far, joining a group of powerful people sounds like the smartest way to make that happen."

Grey nodded slowly.

That was probably the most normal answer he had heard from another participant since the Genesis Games began. Most of the people dragged here weren’t soldiers or warriors, they were ordinary people who had suddenly been handed ridiculous abilities and told to survive, and even among the people who had served in militaries back home, most probably didn’t have any delusions about becoming some lone hero.

The problem was that anyone powerful enough to stand out during the Genesis Games was probably far more likely to develop a complex along the way.

Which explained why most of the candidates Amunet had approached had refused.

Some probably thought they were better off alone, some had their own groups already, and one apparently thought being invited to join an alliance meant he could celebrate by grabbing Amunet’s ass.

Grey still wasn’t sure whether he respected the confidence or thought he was mentally disabled, though considering Amunet had left him curled around his balls somewhere in another Zone, the answer probably didn’t matter much.

Amara turned her head slightly. "Is that really why you wanted to speak with me?"

Grey blinked.

Then he looked at her.

"What, are you implying something?"

"You have not exactly left the best first impression."

Grey’s brows lifted.

Amara remained perfectly calm as she continued, her tone so matter-of-fact that Grey couldn’t even tell whether she was trying to insult him. "From where I am standing, this looks less like you are gathering powerful people to resist a common enemy and more like you are gathering women you intend to sleep with."

Grey stared at her for half a second.

Then he burst out laughing.

Amara didn’t join him, nor did her expression change while Grey leaned forward against the railing and tried to get himself under control. Her seriousness somehow made the accusation funnier, and when Grey finally managed to straighten again, he wiped at the corner of one eye without showing the slightest embarrassment.

"Alright, I can see how it looks that way."

Amara continued watching him.

"But I did try to bring everyone from the recap episodes here," Grey said. "They just didn’t want my protection, one of them turned out to be a butt-grabbing pervert, and the one girl I actually kissed isn’t even a participant."

He paused while thinking about Elowen.

"She’s a princess from inside the Genesis Games, actually, so I’m still not entirely sure whether she’s one hundred percent real or if I just made out with some extremely convincing pixels."

For the first time, Amara’s expression changed slightly.

It wasn’t quite a smile.

Grey pointed at her immediately. "See? That almost got you."

"It did not."

"Bullshit."

Amara looked away from him, which Grey chose to count as a victory. He pushed himself off the railing a moment later and started walking past her, then slowed just enough to add, "That said, if you’d like to crawl into my bed, I’m not gonna say no."

Amara looked at him again.

Grey continued past without waiting for an answer, though his gaze dipped as he moved behind her and caught sight of the curve filling out the back of her dress. He sucked in a slow breath through his teeth, shook his head with genuine appreciation, and muttered, "God bless."

Then he started laughing again and sauntered off.

Amara remained where she was, watching him disappear through the doorway with the exact same calm expression she had worn through most of the conversation. A long moment passed before the corner of her mouth finally lifted, just slightly, and then she pushed away from the railing and headed in the opposite direction.

Grey, meanwhile, had already put the conversation out of his mind.

There was work to do.

He left the Palace and made his way toward the familiar guild he had used before, though his treatment this time was considerably different from when he had needed to hide away inside one of the private rooms on the first floor.

Word had apparently spread quickly enough that nobody even questioned him when he asked for somewhere isolated, and not long afterward Grey found himself with the entire top floor to himself.

Sunlight streamed down through the high windows and across broad worktables that had already been cleared for him, while the city stretched beneath the floor-to-ceiling glass along one side of the room.

Grey stood there for a moment, enjoying the silence after spending what felt like far too long dealing with Emperors, migration plans, political bullshit, Elemental invasions, and whatever else everyone had decided should suddenly become his problem.

Now he could finally do something useful.

The attack from the Wind Elementals had made one thing painfully obvious, and that was that he didn’t have as much time as he wanted. If they had already reached Melix on the same day he woke up, then more were definitely coming, and Grey doubted every future attacker would be polite enough to bring three mediocre Elementals and a conveniently destructible hurricane.

He needed the Prometheus Vessel. He needed the Mechanical Jaw mech. He also needed to start figuring out how the hell the Second Arc was actually cleared, even if the angel lady insisted there wasn’t some easy checklist waiting for him this time.

The faster Grey pushed forward, the less time everyone trying to kill him would have to prepare their next brilliant plan.

Grey cracked his knuckles and approached the nearest worktable.

"Now, where do I start..."

His gaze flickered as he pulled up his interface, deciding that checking his current status was probably the easiest way to figure out what had changed while he was unconscious. Numbers, abilities, Frames, and notifications began unfolding in front of him, and Grey skimmed over the familiar information before something farther down caught his attention.

His eyebrow slowly rose.

"Oh?"

Grey leaned closer.

"What’s that?"