I Reawakened as an Inferno Hero-Chapter 62: Night Natter

Axel, yawning, decided that it was time to sleep. He was still surprised by his leveling up, and it made his grin wider.

Looking around to see if everyone was asleep, he adjusted himself on his bed and started to doze off.

He was almost fully asleep when he heard the fall (with a clatter) of an instrument.

The sound quickly drove him out of sleep and onto his feet.

He wasn’t alarmed, by the way. He knew that if there was any danger, the artificial intelligence of the realm plunger would have definitely notified them about it. And so, he walked forward from where his bed lay.

The realm plunger was dimly lit by bulbs, ones that shone so low he couldn’t really see anything.

Axel flicked forward his right finger and...

Lit!

A fire torch was on. It was white in color, just like the flames all over his body, and it had a little-looking shadow that seemed to move a bit to the side and vibrate occasionally (that if even almost not noticeable).

Axel looked around but saw no one.

He squinted his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows at the same time, trying to find where it was coming from, but now, what seemed to have been making the sound had stopped.

Axel tried not to relate it with ghosts as, even though he assumed they might be real, well, they shouldn’t be near.

Or could it be the ghost of his mother or uncle?

Axel smiled at the thoughts.

He just didn’t want anything phantasmal related.

Suddenly, he heard a loud gulp!

"Who’s there?" he whispered, trying not to disturb the others who were snoring fast asleep.

He walked towards the fridge, knowing that the sound had surely been coming from there.

But who could it be?

Axel sighed and remembered that his father loved to do weird pranks and play with him when he was a kid, and now even when he was grown.

"I know it’s you, Dad. You can come out now."

He heard no response.

"Okay, good one. Now come out. You know we have to do some stuff tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day that we’ll be leaving for the Monseryans, so I say we have a good night’s sleep."

Silence... yet again.

Axel sighed and was almost walking away when...

A hand gripped his hand and pulled him near the fridge. The grip was so tight he couldn’t get out of it.

The hand pushed him onto a chair. Axel, surprisingly, saw a can of soda in his hand and himself even gripping it tightly.

He couldn’t see the figure who had held him. It seemed to be silhouetted in darkness so no one could see him or her.

"Who’s this?" he asked.

The figure only chuckled, and then coming out of the place the dim light didn’t touch, Axel saw who it was.

"Chrysa?" he asked, surprised. "What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in bed, sleeping?"

Chrysa was apparently amused by the question.

"Not just tonight I. I mean, I don’t sleep late as I value my health, but sometimes you just have to chill, ya know?"

Axel only laughed—not too loud, by the way, as he didn’t want to disturb the sleeping people.

Axel found her humor to be pretty interesting, as when they first met, they had hardly greeted each other.

Also, she had looked strict. Her appearance and the way she believed and composed herself looked uninviting, and Axel had never for once thought that he would later be friends with her, and now, he was seated, face to face with her, wanting to discuss.

He tried to hide his smile, and at times, when she looked at him in the eyes, he felt like exploding with laughter for no reason.

Axel suddenly gulped his can of soda and tried very hard not to belch (burp).

Chrysa, looking at him in the eyes, said:

"You’re not feeling like sleeping again?"

Axel nodded his head in the negative.

"No, I guess. Let me just chill too."

Chrysa shrugged.

"Well, okay, but let’s not finish all the soda in the fridge, okay?"

Axel smiled. "Noted, m’lady."

Chrysa’s lips curled into a smile.

"Seems you’re very excited your dad is back."

"You bet," Axel replied. "This seems like an impossible, unreal stuff because, well, I honestly thought my dad was dead. I had cried and gotten sad but let it be, saying perhaps that was how life ought to be for superheroes."

Chrysa raised an eyebrow and said:

"Why?"

Axel sighed. "Well, I was told by really cool superheroes and entities (he was referring to Dan {Electro Sonic Fists} and the ’Voice’) that a superhero must lose a loved one."

Chrysa seemed to have remembered something because she looked at the ceiling and then, looking back at Axel, said:

"I lost my best friend about three months ago. She was exactly like me. She had pretty much the same powers I have, only that she was more of an ancient warrior mixed with some futuristic shit. She was quite good and died when she tried to fight a very strong villain—(which she should not have been fighting. Something she had been warned against doing alone)."

The ambience suddenly became sad, and Axel, not wanting it to happen, blurted:

"Well, still better than mine. I lost my dad and my uncle the same day, after having lost my monster back when I was little."

Chrysa felt sorry for him.

"At least you’ve got your father back," she said.

Axel smiled, and yawning, looked around. He couldn’t really see anything, but that didn’t bother him. At least it wasn’t why he looked.

The reason he looked was because he found the place chilly, and he found it refreshing to his body system. Perhaps Chrysa had put on an air conditioner the realm plunger had, he didn’t know and, well, he didn’t ask, but...

He decided to ask Chrysa about the chilly temperature of the room, but when he turned to her direction, he saw that she was fast.

’Well, that was anticlimactic,’ he thought and stood, going to his own bed to sleep.

Tomorrow was going to be a very important day. It was the day they’ll truly begin the mission that sent them here and leave the comfort of the realm plunger, as they couldn’t take it along.

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