A Nexus Devil (Dxd x Multi Crossover)

Chapter 46: A Test for Time Part 2

Chapter 46: A Test for Time Part 2

Death Valley, California, was no joke. Jake thought to himself, 'This place could pass off as a literal layer of hell,' as he saw even vultures dead on the side of the road from heatstroke. He had been flying along for only 20 minutes, but he desperately wanted some water.

Thankfully, he soon came upon a small town on the horizon, just like T.A.O's note said he would. Luckily, the first thing he saw when entering the town was a diner. He quickly touched down on the hot streets and hurried inside.

Relief flooded him as he entered the town's diner, escaping the scorching sun. The air-conditioning brought instant refuge from the brutal heat. He found a seat at the counter, eager for some hydration after being so rudely dumped in the hottest place in the world!

From the back area, a waitress appeared before him and walked rigidly towards the counter. Hello... welcome to this diner. I will be right with you." She said in a completely monotone voice with no emotion conveyed whatsoever. She seemed completely apathetic to the fact that they had a customer. Although Jake figured he would be pretty apathetic too if he had to work at a small town diner in this hell hole... She was still giving him strange vibes despite that fact though.

"Welcome, traveler," she monotoned, her gaze now boring into him. "You must eat... Your body... needs sustenance after being exposed to the desert for so long. I shall bring you food and water." She turned around without even letting him speak and walked back into the kitchen.

'Well, that wasn't super weird or creepy at all,' Jake thought sarcastically to himself. He looked around the diner and was very surprised to see how almost every other table was full. He was wondering why this small town Diner was packed with people and it was 120° outside. Besides that though, there was something about the other patrons that didn't seem right upon second glance...none of the other diners were making a single sound. No Small Talk, no chewing noises, nothing. They were all just sitting in eerie silence. He decided to investigate whatever this weirdness was.

Jake hopped off his seat at the counter and walked over to a man sitting alone in a nearby booth. In Front of him was nothing but a newspaper and a cup of coffee in front of him. "Hi there," Jake said, trying to make some small talk, "Anything interesting in today's paper?"

The man didn't respond to Jake. He didn't even glance at him. He just kept seemingly reading his newspaper before he put it down for a moment to take a sip of his 'coffee'. His sip also lasted for a really long time as the mug was still in front of the man's face after 30 seconds. Glancing around the man somewhat awkwardly, Jake was able to see the man's coffee cup was empty!

"Are you alright, dude? Your coffee cup is empty." Jake was hoping the guy wasn't having a stroke or anything...The man didn't seem like it though as he still didn't acknowledge Jake and just kept acting like he was drinking.

Jake, was starting to feel that something was seriously off with this diner. Jake picked up the paper the man had discarded and found It was from over 2 years ago! Not even noticing that his paper was gone the man just held up his hands in front of himself like he was still holding it and started reading out of thin air... his eyes were moving to follow non-existent letters and everything.

Jake walked over to the other tables and saw all the other customers had empty cups as well... Some of them had fake plastic food on their plates, and each of them kept alternating between fake eating/drinking and doing a random task in between.

"What the hell is going on here?" Jake whispered to himself. "Are all these people secretly robots or something?" Jake heard noise coming from the room where the waitress had left, and he slipped back into his counter seat in a hurry.