He got himself up only an hour later.
He felt…exhausted.
Wiping his nose and eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie, he tried to calm his beating heart with shaky breaths.
Looking around the room to distract himself for the moment, he couldn't help but wonder what exactly had happened. Much of the day had been nothing more than a blur, a dream which he had blinked and missed.
He only remembered snippets of it.
In the middle of the room sat the burnt remains of what he could only guess were some wood and books, their pages ripped and blackened by a fire he had miraculously created.
Glancing beside himself, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Whilst the sun couldn't pierce the veil of dust and darkness created by the Death Zone, it did still bring warmth with it, even in the middle of winter.
Laying on the floor were the broken remains of a cupboard, panels of it sharpened and turned into sticks which he could theoretically use to create a fire.
It was a miracle that he hadn't died from the smoke the fire must have created, or from any passing abomination. The scent of cooked meat alone would have caught their attention.
He realized just how lucky he was to still be awake.
Shaking his head, he peaked into the bag lying beside the bed.
It was empty.
'Did I…eat all of it? In one sitting?'
He knew he had a large appetite, but eating a bag full of thick flesh seemed extreme even for him.
Sighing, he pushed those thoughts to the side and instead focused on his body.
Taking his clothes off, he ignored the cold of the night and began to take the bandages off, feeling some relief at what he saw.
His arm no longer had a massive hole in it and when he moved it, it didn't make him feel any pain. Similarly, his leg also felt fine, no longer leaving him with a deliberating limp.
As for his other wounds, they too had healed, closing up and leaving only various scars.
Mentally, he was exhausted. But physically, he felt the best he had in a very long time.
'Huh I even got some muscle back,'
His healing factor too had calmed down, going partially dormant inside of its body as it slowly healed the pain his head was still feeling.
He was thankful for that, rapidly healing anything related to the brain only caused more pain. It had to be done slowly and steadily.
Now, it was time to figure out what had happened-
The door swung behind him.
"Hey man, you wouldn't believe how many-"
Artorias and the stranger stared at each other with wide eyes, their mouths parting slightly as they tried to understand what they were seeing.
With his knife sitting on the bed with his clothes and a few steps away, Artorias moved quickly, pulling one of the hell hounds' horns from the pockets of his trousers and aimed it at the stranger.
"Who are you?"
"Why are you naked?"
Whilst Artorias spoke with an almost feral growl, the stranger sounded mostly confused.
Both blinked at the other before the stranger slowly began to raise his arms.
"Wow buddy, calm down now. I'm a friend," the stranger explained, a smile on his pointed face.
Artorias only narrowed his eyes.
At a similar height to him, the stranger was of a beiger skin color and had a lean body, on his hip sat a sheath with a blade. He had sharp features that seemed to have seen better days, long dreadlocks of blond hair sat on his head and sharp sapphire eyes looked at him with surprise.
"Your name?" he asked sharply.
The stranger sighed, looking almost offended.
"I've already told you remember?" When Artorias didn't respond, he only shook his head. "Seirios au Lykros, of House Lykros."
That name sounded familiar.
"By chance, do you have any relation to Vesperia au Lykros?"
The now established Seirios perked up. "She's, my sister! You know her?"
He shook his head, slightly relaxing and no longer pointing the horn at the teen. "Not personally. I only know of her."
Seirios seemed to relax as well, dropping his arms with a dramatic sigh.
"Ah, that makes sense. You're like me, aren't you? Newly Ascended that got thrown to the wolves."
Seirios disguised the question as a joke, but Artorias could hear the underlying bitterness beneath his words.
Either way, he didn't comment on it.
"I was part of Fireteam Three, we were one of the first to get sent out."
Seirios blinked at his answer, eyes widening enough for him to tell that it was a big deal.
"Buddy, I know this might be insensitive to ask…but how have you survived this long? I'm part of Fireteam Twenty-Four and we left three weeks ago."
That left him feeling a little stumped.
Just how long had he been trapped in this forsaken place?
"By any chance, you wouldn't happen to know what month it is?" he asked awkwardly, putting his clothes back on.
"Its January. You've been in this place for three months."
Outwardly he didn't display any emotion. But inside? He felt like a maelstrom.
Three months he had spent here, trying desperately to survive each and every single day. He knew Death Zones changed many fundamental rules of the world, but altering the time?
He had never heard of such a thing.
Seirios watched him wearily.
"You're surprised…why?"
Artorias didn't know how the other teen had caught such a subtle reaction from him, but he didn't bother beating around the issue.
"For me, it's only been a couple of weeks. I thought it had only just turned December."
"Shit…" Seirios closed the door behind him and leaned his back against it, his hand moving up to massage his forehead. "This is bad."
Artorias sat himself down on the bed, his throwing knife back in his hand which he idly spun.
Right now, he didn't trust Seirios enough to not be around him without a weapon in hand. Not that it seemed to bother him.
"Can you tell me…how did you find me?"
Seirios looked up at him, his eyebrow quirked before shrugging and sliding himself down to sit on the floor, his back still against the door.
"It was mostly luck," he began, "I was passing by during the day when I smelt cooked meat. Curiosity got the better of me and I went exploring, imagine my surprise when I found you, sitting patiently by the fire with this hollow look in your eyes and a broken body, cooking some food."
Seirios shook his head, a grin on his face. "Honestly, you're one crazy bastard to do that. Did you eat some bad mushrooms or something?"
Artorias winced, his cheeks subtly burning with embarrassment.
"I was going through something, it wasn't intentional."
Seirios didn't seem to believe him, if the look he got was anything to go by.
"Anyways, after that, I tried to talk to you, but you didn't even seem to notice me. So, I thought I'd stick around, get some free food and wait to see if you'd snap out of it."
Seirios grin grew wider then. "You're lucky I did, if it wasn't for me, you would have been food for some Fallen Spawn by now."
Artorias rolled his eyes. "You have my thanks, but you ate my food, so we're even."
"Huh!? That's not how it works!"
"Sure, it does."
"You're a swindler!"
"I'm a businessman doing business."
Seirios narrowed his eyes at him. "I should have let you be eaten."
"That's your mistake," Artorias responded with a shrug.
They stared at one another in silence, before Seirios suddenly exploded with laughter. Even Artorias felt a grin cross his face.
Humans were social animals and after so long of being on his own, having someone other than himself to talk to was something he had sorely missed.
Calming down, Seirios looked at him with a grin and tears in his eyes.
"So, were stuck in a bit of a sticky situation, aren't we?"
Artorias couldn't help but snort. That was an understatement of the century.
"How is the situation outside? I'm surprised their still sending scouting teams out after so long."
Seirios shrugged, his eyes distant.
"The same as before. With nobody coming back with any useful information the command centres of the East, West and South Garrisons are stuck looking at an empty map and arguing amongst themselves."
Artorias sighed. He had been hoping to either escape or survive long enough to run into a Fireteam with stronger members. But with the news that Seirios had just brought to the table, the chances of the latter happening were close to zero.
"Japan is a crumbling maze," Seirios continued, idly looking at his hands. "Even if we sent a team of Grade 7 Ascended in, they'd just be left running around like headless chickens and wasting their time."
He hesitated before he spoke. Something that caught the attention of Seirios.
The teen watched him with a curious expression, his head tilted as he seemed to listen to something Artorias couldn't hear.
"Your heart is beating faster than it should…your nervous," he observed, his eyes narrowing at Artorias.
Artorias desperately wished to lie, but he couldn't. He had information that could save thousands of Ascended lives, millions of mundane lives too.
But he knew what would happen to him if he revealed it.
He knew the city like the back of his hand, he knew where every turn led to something and where the worst abominations marked their dens and patrolled, they're territories.
If he revealed this…he'd be back in the city faster than he could blink.
Releasing a deep sigh, he met Seirios' eyes and spoke the dreaded words which would mark him as too high of an asset to ignore.
"I know where the Tartarus Gate is located."