Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

"Gray...!!" The voice resounded on the other side of the door.

Aurora who was seated in the living room sighed in relief and lowered her head. A few seconds after, droplets of tears crashed down onto the floor one after another.

"Thank god... She's finally awake.." Aurora muttered with a joyful expression.

Her cheeks were bright red, her eyes which had been draining out their tears all day continued to make it rain.

She smiled happily to herself, feeling as if a large boulder of weight had been lifted off her back.

"If something had happened to her... I don't know what I would have done..." She muttered.

To Aurora, Violet was like a sister. Having thought of herself as the root cause of her sister's death, if she were to lose another like Violet, she wouldn't forgive herself.

That's why, when she heard her voice, she was filled with joy. Joy which couldn't be expressed bywords.

Aurora wanted to rush into the room to check on her, but she held back.

'I've had Gray to myself for long enough... I'll let the two catch up..'

-

-

-

Meanwhile, the two...

"..."

"..."

No words were exchanged by the two as they embraced one another. There wasn't a need to.

Gray could hear Violet's quiet sobs, and through it, he got a much better understanding of the situation than words would ever give him.

Despite that being said, it wasn't just the sobs which had made him understand. In other words... He experienced it.

"I'm finally awake, huh...?" She asked as she clenched his shirt tightly.

"Yeah.." Gray responded in a quiet tone.

"...How do I know I'm awake...?" She asked, still shivering.

Gray's pupils dilated as he saw Violet in this state, she was completely terrified, trembling in fear. The storng willed Violet who he had known had never looked so pale.

It only went to show just how much she had gone through while in there.

"Because, I'm here..." He replied.

"...That doesn't prove anything.. I'm used to dreaming about you..." She responded in a quieter tone.

*Thump*

Gray's heart skipped a beat.

"...Well then how should I prove it?"

"Let's stay like this for a while longer... That'll prove it..." She replied with her eyes shut. She was still shaking, but it seemed to have grown calmer the longer he embraced her.

Gray smiled. "If that's what you want..." He whispered in her ear as he embraced her even more tightly.

"..."

-

Shortly after he deemed, she was calm enough, Gray finally decided to ask her the question which had been on his mind.

But before he could, Violet ended up asking hers.

"It was thanks to you, wasn't it?"

"What was?"

"Waking up... You woke me up, somehow... How?" She asked after slowly pulling away from his embrace.

Gray placed his hand beneath his chin, thinking of how to explain it.

-Memory.

[Violet's energy capacity is... Far Greater than any human you have ever met.]

[I find it hard to believe she's human with the amount of energy she holds.]

[But she is without a doubt, a human.]

[The probability of meeting a case like hers, due to the lack of information this may be inaccurate, but I would suspect it's 0.001%]

Gray was taken by surprise. He knew she was gifted, but this was truly something he didn't expect.

And it didn't make sense, Gray had seen her get exhausted countless times before, if her capacity was truly that big, how was it that she was in her current state?

"If it's truly as great as you say... How did she end up that way?"

[She is unaware of her potential and how to bring out that energy.]

[It is suspected she is only able to tap into small portions of it at specific moments, these being upon experiencing intense emotional trauma.]

[I am not sure if the User is able to sense it, but after losing consciousness, a crack was formed in her closed box which held in all of her energy.]

[A vast amount of energy is flowing out of her as we speak, this energy is what is attracting the monsters.]

"You're telling me her energy is spreading throughout the vicinity and drawing monsters to it? Just how much is it? And how much is mine?"

[If we were to quantify it, it would be hard to say for sure. However it is in the same league as yours.]

"...I see..."

"So...? How do we wake her up..."

[There is only one way.]

[You must close the energy breach.]

-Memory end.

"Hm... have you ever read that story about the princess who woke up after a kiss from the prince?"

At first she was confused, but shortly after... Her cheeks suddenly flushed red.

"Y-Y-You don't mean... That worked?" She asked, somewhat embarrassed.

"Ah no, I didn't try it." Gray responded. "Did you want me to?" He asked with a playful tone

"Ah-"

Violet suddenly smacked flicked her finger at his chest before leaning onto it while they were both still on top of the bed.

"Don't tease me..."

"Oh~ That's a cute reaction."

Gray couldn't help but giggle upon seeing her reaction, making her feel even more embarrassed than she already was.

"G-Gray!"

"Alright, alright. Good to see that your energy is back."

"You asked how I got you out right? I guess you could say I went inside your dream and pulled you out."

Violet's eyes widened.

"Went inside... Did you see?" She asked with a worried look.

"See what?"

"That nightmare..."

Violet seemed quite worried about him having seen it. Gray sort of understood why, it was her privacy

"Yeah, I saw it... I'm sorry, there was no other way." He responded with a dejected look.

Gray saw everything, from beginning to end. He had been there throughout the whole time, as a ghost watching...

Everything.

-Memory

"Mama... Papa... Why...?" The young purple haired girl asked herself as she repeatedly slammed her head against the cushioned wall.

*Thud* *Thud*

The entire room had been modified in a way to prevent the girl from both harming herself and being harmed by anything around her.

"Why won't you come and save me...?"

"Why did you leave me...?"

"Why...?"

In the very corner of the empty room, Gray's transparent figure stood there, watching her every move.

His eyes were opened wide, veins bulged out all the way down his neck to his arms trembling arms.

With his own two eyes he watched a girl who had done nothing, despair right in front of him.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

There it was once again, the knocking.

*Slide*

The slider on the door slid open and a meal on a plate came through once more.

There it was once again, the signal that she would be taken in for testing.

Gray had seen it happen twice so far, he had seen her get taken in to the other room and heard her screams for help.

*Swoosh*

He tried grabbing the girl in order to stop her from taking the meal, but his hand went right through.

He wasn't there.

These were just memories, her memories. He had realised it.

But even still...

-

-

-

"PLEASE!!! STOP!!! IT HURTS!!!"

All it took was the third time.

Upon witnessing them conduct the test on her for the third time.

Something within him changed.

"What is this... What the fuck is this system?"

[As you've realised, you are currently inside Violet's dream.]

[These dreams are memories of her past.]

[Currently, she is twelve years old and is being experimented on by scientists.]

[Perhaps the reason she is yet to wake up in reality is because of-]

Before the system could finish the explanation, darkness clouded Gray's mind.

The mark of the King activated on it's own and then...

[Mark Of The King 3rd Stage: Activated.]

*Shatter*

The dream ended.

-Memory End

"...W-What you saw... It... It doesn't change anything between us... Right?" She asked with an expression filled with worry. Her body still trembled in fear.

Gray didn't understand. Why would it change something? What was she worried about? She was just a kid. Just a six year old kid and yet...

She was put through hell, all because she was born with a special ability.

Treated as a lab rat for the greed of the scientists and people who wished to learn about her power.

Gray embraced her one more time, this time with a much tighter hug.

"What i saw won't change the way I feel about you. To me you're still you, regardless of your past."

Hearing Gray's words really hit her, she teared up once more before hugging him back and crying out his name.

"Gray.!! I... I was so scared...!!"

"Even after getting out of that place...!! Just when I managed to forget..!! The nightmares came back...!! I hate it..!!! I really really hate it...!!"

Violet cried her eyes out once more in his embrace. She still didn't fully understand the situation, a lot of things didn't make sense to her.

But all she could think about was about how the nightmare finally ended and the comfort and warmth brought to her from being in the embrace of the man before her.

Whilst she cried her eyes out in his arms, Gray stared at the wall with but a single objective in mind. The expression on his face was even more sinister than it had ever been.

He was truly enraged.

'If there's one thing that changed...'

Gray bit his lips, his eyes grew dark as he glared at the wall behind her, all whilst thinking about the scientists behind her torture.

'If there's even a trace of their life left on this planet... I'll hunt them down.'

'Killing them? No... I'll forcefully drag them into hell.'

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