"2525?! Last I can recall, I was in the 1980s or something! I had been dozing off for the past five f*cking hundred years?!"

"It's 550 years if I'm being accurate! But, whatever you say, kid! Huh!" 

Ryan gave his opinion without being asked, remaining his usual never-afraid-to-stick-his-oar-in self as always. And his comment got neglected just like his person like always. 

"If I may ask, you're a cranker like all of us, aren't you?! Then why are you talking like you're some sort of, I don't know, a mental patient in an asylum or something?! Excuse me for my dated out analogy!" Sir Nick said to the boy. 

"I dare you to say that again to my face!" The boy's temper had risen up like never! Maybe he didn't like the word mental, either that or he didn't like someone calling him crazy. It should be one of those two. Because he had repeated that set of three words, stressing and accenting  each word. "I DARE YOU!"

"Calm down, boy! What Sir Nick asked is one hundred percent reasonable and legit! The apocalypse didn't even start until the early 2000s! And you're saying that you are from the year 1980! That doesn't make any damn sense!" Ryan lashed out at the boy at which the latter got taken aback. 

"That makes two of us, asshole!" the boy got angry and raised his voice to the full, aiming at Ryan. "You want a piece of me, sucker?! Huh?! You want a piece of me?! Come and get it then, d*ckhead!" 

The situation was escalating at a rapid rate and to dissolve the tension in the atmosphere, Zoe did something unthinkable. She hugged the boy tightly and suddenly, and her chest was rubbing against his as he cooled down like he was in a refrigerator, or a sixteen degrees air conditioner. 

She began to explain the situation the earth was in right then. "Approximately, it was 500 years before when souls took control over their human bodies, and started turning into hideous monsters. We lost appetite, couldn't procreate anymore, and many other changes happened inside our bodies. We who were the last generation of humans had developed powers called cranks to fight those monsters and we crankers are the last human species left on the planet earth."

"We thought you were a cranker like us by seeing that scythe you used before but if that were true you couldn't be from the year 1980. That's why we got confused with your words."

"Oh that! That wasn't my crank or anything! That was Leela! When I converted her into my armor, a pack of her soul was left out so I used it to make myself a weapon!" the boy explained. 

"And you thought scythe would be cool! You were an otaku in your past wake, weren't you?! A serious one at that too in my guess! Cause only anime and manga can imprint scythe as a freaking weapon in the readers' minds!" Ryan said. 

"How did you know!" the boy said to Ryan, surprised but immediately got back to Zoe to listen to what else she had to clarify. She was like a chemistry teacher in the high school to the boy. 

"So, you're not a cranker! Then who the abyss are you and what are you doing in this dungeon?!" Riley asked, talking to the boy out of the blue. 

"Oh my! Look who's curious! I'll be damned if it isn't the icy cold queen!" The boy taunted Riley like a newly married couple fighting over the bed portion occupancy where the husband and the wife fight over who should sleep on which side of the bed. 

"Ha! That's funny coming from you, pervert!" she said,  with a contemptuous and a mocking smile on her face. 

"I was a human like you once, but not anymore! I've been given an update by some evil organisation called… wait... shit I forgot what it's called, ahem, anyway I'm experimented on, tortured, mutilated, injected with shitty viruses that hurted like hell and all that lasted for centuries! I don't even remember when I was even born! 1980 was my last wake but it was not the year I lived my life as a normal human!"

"I could have had loving parents, teasing siblings, annoying grandparents but it was just that, a desperate yet never ending thought!" The boy said, tears rolled down his skinny cheeks for the first time. And without realizing it, the four had started welling up their eyes as they listened to his awful life story. 

"That's enough of my info, don't you think?!"The boy said as he wiped his face cleansing it of the salt water. "You're far due for a big explanation!" 

Sir Nick started to explain why they were there in the first place. "My daughter Liss got infected by the virus-X, so we rushed towards the nearest dungeon ws could find to perform the purification ritual on her to get her out of her abyss."

"What's the abyss!" the boy enquired. 

"It's the place where the soul of a human resides. It's also the place where the human would fall into when the soul gets a hold of him/her in his weakened state. If that happens, when that happens the soul will take hold of the vessel and cross over into this world from the abyss!"

"Every human has their own abyss then! Cool! I'm hooked! Keep going!" Interest had piqued the boy as he bent forward to listen to the next sentences more carefully. "So, it's just like hell! As the saying goes each person has their own hell to deal with when at the end of the world!"

"Yeah, dude! You sure are sharp for a brain dead immortal in a high school kid physique! Haa!" Ryan commented on the boy. 

"And from entering the dungeon, I'll take the steering of the story if you don't mind! Hell, what the heck?! I'll take it even if you mind! Suck it cause I'm the one who contributed the most to the team from then onwards! I have my basic human right to tell my own story as I want, haven't I?! Get ready for a bumpy ride, because it is! Haha!"

... to be continued.