*step* *Step* *step

The sound of footsteps came to a clear stop as Gray found himself standing before a large metal door.

"This must be it..." He muttered before glancing through with [X-Ray]

On the other side of the door there were two men armed with katanas. He recognised the Katanas as one manufactured by the angel opposition corps.

It was definitely them.

"Took me long enough to find this place." He remarked as he glanced back.

The Sewers he had just gone from contained many puzzling turns, it amost felt like a maze created to keep the people who planned on searching for this place out.

But neither of that mattered any more, especially now that he had made it.

*Clang* *Clang*

Gray knocked on the metal door from the other side and waited.

*Clong*

An eye socket slid open from the metal door, showing a pair of eyes glancing at him.

"Hey, do you mind opening this door?" Gray asked with a smile.

"I don't know how you got here, kid. But leave we're not taking anymore survivors."

*Clunk*

He shut the eye socket.

Gray just stood there for a few moments trying to register what had just happened. The smile remained on his face.

*Knock* *Knock*

Gray knocked again, the smile still present as he waited.

*Clunk!*

The eye socket was opened with great force.

The nuzzle of a pistol slid out of it and was pointed at him.

"Are you fucking deaf? I said-"

*CRASH!*

Something crashed into the door from the other side, creating a dent as it slammed against the guard's face.

He dropped to the floor with a swollen red cheek.

The other guard was quickly alerted and readied his sword.

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"What was that!?" The guard beside him asked.

The dent sticking out towards them from the door was massive, it was as if someone had slammed a giant metal hog at it from the other side.

"A... Kid...! I was right! It was another one of those Kessho's the new commander talked about!"

Gray who was on the otherside heard their words clearly through the open socket.

'New commander? Ah... He must be reffering to Ria. I told her to take my place, didn't I?' Gray asked. 'I see now... They misunderstood me for being a Kessho.'.

"Sorry! I thought you were just being an ass. Looks like you mistook me for the enemy so all is good."

"It's a bit cold out here, and I don't want to break this so could you open the door?"

"I'm Gray by the way."

The guards shivered in fear as they heard his words.

"Did he say Gray?" The other guard asked.

Gray? That could only mean one person in their books. The new supreme commander.

They needed to confirm it, especially when one of them had rushed to point his pistol out without checking so he didn't make sure who it was.

Upon getting off the ground, he treaded carefully towards the eye socket. When he reached it and glanced through, his eyes widened.

Short Gray hair, a young man with golden yellow and silver eyes.

The characteristics matched the Gray he had once seen perfectly, the figure as well. He felt chills rush down his spine as he had just recalled the way he treated him.

*Swish*

The one on the floor quickly swiped his card and put in the code.

A few seconds after, the door slid to the left as it opened. Even with the new dent, it was able to perfectly slide in an out.

He wasn't sure how many layers of steel it was, but the door was around 30 centimetres thick.

For Gray, someone relatively shorter with a much smaller build than him to create such an impact on it. It was terrifying.

Gray entered as soon as the door opened. Ahead of him were two men.

One short olive drab haired man wearing the black military cap and uniform and the other, was a brown-haired man with the cap and the uniform.

Both were taller with larger builds than Gray, they were without a doubt reaching two meters tall.

That's what made it all the more of an unusual sight when they both bowed down to him.

"Supreme Commander! We are proud to welcome you!" They said so clearly.

"Haha... Thanks?" Said Gray, nervously.

The olive drab haired one before Gray with a swollen cheek glanced at the brown haired guard to the side gesturing him to inform the others that Gray had arrived.

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He was stopped by Gray however, who told him to wait.

"Just a moment. I'd like to keep it under wraps that I'm here for now. I just want to check things out so don't tell anyone other than who actually needs to know."

'There's going to be a lot to be managed... But before I can do that, I need to put my priorities in check. Ruby, Aurora and Violet, I need to see how they're doing.'

The guards nodded in understanding, their eyes sparkled as they looked at him.

"I see... You must have a very good reason. I understand!" Said the other guard as he suddenly saluted.

The one with the swollen cheek remained bowed as he nodded.

"You." Gray called out to him.

The guard's heart began to pound loudly in fear. Sweat was pouring out of him.

'H-He's mad about how I told him to go away isn't he...?'

'Ah shit... He's going to kill me...'

'Do I... get on all fours and beg for him to spare me? T-That might actually be a good idea... I-I'll do it!'

The olive drab haired guard was about to kneel when all of the sudden.

*Tap*

"Punch me." Said Gray as he appeared crouched beside him while pointing at his cheek.

"Eh?" He asked with a dumbfounded expression.

"Punch me." Gray repeated. "I punched you through the metal door so it's only natural."

'T-T-That dent was caused by a punch!?'

"I-I'm good... Thank you very much for being considerate but it's fine." The guard replied.

'A Test... T-This is a test isn't it? I-If I say yes and do punch him...'

An image of the man being buried underground in a coffin flashed by the guard's mind. He shook his head.

'I-It's suicide!!'

The guard began to sweat even more, the other guard was trembling as he tried holding back his laughter.

Gray sighed.

"Alright, but if you ever feel like doing it. Just let me know."

The guards were both surprised. They expected Gray to be a ruthless, mindless killer but he was surprisingly level headed and fair... If it wasn't a test that is.

"Well then... Take me to our new commander while giving me a slight tour of this base." Said Gray with a smile.

Just as he had requested Gray was taken to the base.

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The entrance where he had come from was one of the few entrances to the base, it was the least guarded one and also the one least frequent because of how confusing the maze was.

They were surprised by how Gray had even found it.

But it wasn't like the others were that much simpler to get past in the first place.

This base was surprisingly smaller than the other one.

There were sections just like a regular refugee. The outside sections were where they conducted the tests.

The inside sections were where most of the settlements were.

Gray was instantly taken into the inside settlement, not only because he was supreme commander but also, if he did turn out to be infected, they'd be fucked either way so they didn't bother with the lengthy process.

*Step* *Step*

'There's a lot of tunnels here... I mean it makes sense, we're still in the sewers after all... Even the tests were being done out here. ' Gray thought to himself as they approached the first inner section.

Fortunately, they were just approaching the base and there was no more sewer water here and it felt like they were just in the sewers but it was much cleaner.

"Waaaaa."

The sound of a baby wailing could be heard in the distance. It was coming through the door at the end of the tunnel.

It was clear that it was the inner section.

"I'd like for you to know that things may not be in the best condition because we've had to rush."

"We're still trying to get everything under control."

Both guards reassured him

Gray nodded, understanding their point.

"I never expected them to be anywhere near perfect with all that's happening. At least the base seems somewhat secure."

The guards sighed in relief as they heard him.

*Swish*

He swiped his card on the door, and it beeped green.

The wailing grew louder as the steel door shifted to the right, opening the path for them.

Gray's eyes widened as they saw the conditions of things on the other side.

A large hall, unlike the other bases, there weren't any large tall attractive buildings.

Just a large hall with a few stalls serving out food to the people.

Countless people were seated alongside one another and the cold rock stone floor with drained and dead looks on their faces.

Starvation. Sleep deprivation. Lack of personal space.

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These were just few of the apparent problems that they were all suffering from. Gray had expected bad but this...

'This is horrible.' He thought to himself.