Time is Running Short (Page 167)

~~~(POV: Scott Autumn)~~~

~~~(Location: The Nexus of Knowledge, Primordium Prime)~~~

"Are you alright!? You're not hurt anywhere..."

The holographic being I mistook for Borealis is actually Aurora. My eyes were blurry, and my mind is adjusting to the influx of knowledge. So I think a small moment of imperfection is permitted.

"Yeah... I'm okay... How much time has passed? Cause I was in there for a long time..."

I know that there was a time dilation wherever The Nexus of Knowledge took me, but my mind is still a little jumbled from everything, so I can't make the correct calculations right now.  Aurora looks at me with worry. Seeing this isn't how I normally am.

Durado, on the other hand, just chuckles as he helps me to my feet and slugs my shoulder.

"You were gone for around 20 minutes. Maybe 30."

Wow... The time dilation was that extreme? The Primordium really did master almost everything. Emphasis on almost. My mind is slowly recovering, but it'll be a few days before I'm fully recovered. Aurora is in her large holograph form. Standing just a little shorter than me.

"I learned a lot... Everything The Primordium has ever known... It's like it's been downloaded into my mind... It's making me a little slow... Let me check something..."

I open my Player Interface, and I see something that I haven't seen so far in my adventures in The Aeternus Universe.

[Implanted Information and Memories of The Primordium Information Collective]

[Time until fully recovered: 199:58:28]

[Until all information and memories have settled and installed correctly in designated locations, you will be suffering from debuffs.]

[Memory recall is suffering by a Magnitude of 75%]

[All Traits are suffering by a Magnitude of 75%]

"That's just great... No wonder the inside of my head feels so messed up... I'll be stuck like this for... Aurora... How many days is 200 hours?"

It's really rough at the moment, and I doubt that I'll be able to help with much of anything for a while. Aurora will have to pick up my slack.

"It's 8.3 days... Scott. We can't waste any more time than we have. We need to get a move one. Now!"

~~~(POV: Aurora)~~~

~~~(Location: Teleportation Network, Primordium Prime)~~~

Damn it!! I can't figure out where the portal to The Keynote is!! Nothing that I'm scanning is showing up!!

I don't want to have to release The Patient Observer, but I may not have any choice. He knows where it is.

Durado and Scott are waiting in suspended teleportation while I try and figure this out. They can still talk and move. We're just in the teleportation network right now.

"Scott... Do you know anything that could help Aurora? She can't find it on her own. And with The Primeval Inherent on his way, we don't have much time... I still don't know how he's covering so much distance."

My head darts in the direction of Durado, and I feel real wrath for asking Scott such a task in his current condition.

Scott sits down and closes his eyes.

"Let me see if I can search any of the memories I've gotten... The Player Interface is warning me that I'm risking great pain... To hell with it..."

Before I can object, he closes his eyes, and a second later, his nose starts to bleed. He strains harder as time passes. The seconds are slow to me. I watch the pain develop on his face. A Player shouldn't feel that sort of pain.

The nose bleed gets even worse, and I almost stop what I'm doing. I watch as his face becomes redder and the flexing of his temple starts from clenching his teeth.

"RAHHH!!!"

He lets out a scream as he falls to the ground. Durado catches him, and all my anger is directed at him. I stop what I'm doing and reform my holographic body next to them. I push Durado away and give him a glare I've never given him before.

"Aurora... The portal is located at the deepest part of Eternal Collective... An entire world beneath the surface of Primordium Prime... Take us to a location called The Dias..."

Before he can say anything else, he loses consciousness, and his nose bleed gets a little worse before stopping completely...