Date: January 11, 2018 | Time: 5:37 AM | Location: The Scarred Crater — Deep Abyss
Perspective: Celia
My chest felt unusually tight.
Every breath I took drew in a sharp, metallic taste that settled heavily at the back of my throat. My fingers were slightly numb, and a persistent, dull throbbing echoed behind my temples. I had already cycled my cursed healing magic three times, but the exhaustion refused to fade. It was just fatigue from the fight. Nothing more. I was perfectly fine.
I leaned against the damp, rocky wall, forcing my breathing to steady as I walked deeper into the abyss.
The dark, winding path eventually opened up. The rocky terrain gave way to a strange, vine-covered area, the walls wrapped in thick, dead foliage. I pushed through the brittle vines and stepped into what looked like an abandoned storage room.
Everything was rusted, old, and ancient in a way that felt entirely out of place in a monster's lair. Something had survived the bombardment here.
But why didn't Lana herself come here? Why send me here with her final pointer?
I ran my gloved hand over a rusted iron beam, feeling the cold, dead metal.
Wait... what if she couldn't leave the chasm or else the Ash Bomb exploded? Did she restrict and tear her own freedom so the people above wouldn't have to suffer?
I walked further into the room. The air was incredibly stale, smelling of century-old dust. Toward the back, covered in a thick layer of grey soot, sat an abandoned wooden table.
I approached it, brushing the dirt away. Scattered across the surface were a collection of small, hand-carved wooden toys—a little knight, a disjointed wooden horse, and a tiny sword.
Are these... her son's toys?
My heart sank slightly. I moved the wooden horse aside and noticed a folded piece of parchment tucked underneath. The edges were browned and crumbling.
I carefully unfolded it. It was a letter.
...I'll be returning home soon, Mother. The Celestial Kingdom has promised us a relief rescue soon. Mio's birthday is soon...
[ My Queen... if you don't mind, can you tell me why you care about these pasts so much? ]
It was Crownless. The A-rank demon shifted uneasily within my shadow, his deep voice echoing in my mind.
I know I shouldn't care, I replied silently, staring at the faded ink. Even if Lana tried to manipulate me with those memories, those emotions were true. She was mercilessly betrayed by all the races... even her own. Humans. They left her to die in the crater to be bombarded. That's what I hated. People turning on those closest to them.
I gripped the edge of the table, my knuckles turning white.
"I got turned on by my family, friends, village, everyone," I whispered aloud, the anger bubbling in my chest. "Because I looked different. The world is cruel and heartless... and those with hearts are broken down."
I looked down at the toys. "In this world, nobody notices your pains. Everybody notices your mistakes."
I knelt down to hold the letter closer to the dim light. As I did, a small, faded photograph slipped from between the pages and fluttered to the floor.
I picked it up. It was a picture of Lana and her party members. Everyone from the memories she had forced into my mind was there... except... who?
There was a man standing in the background. A man with golden eyes.
Emeric...?
Who was that? His part was left completely vague in my mind. The memories Lana showed me ended on the exact moment she died. Nothing more...
Hmm...
[ My Queen, I sense a rather large presence coming close towards us. ]
It was Lurk. The small, spindly assassin shadow crawled up my leg, its dark form vibrating with anticipation.
[ May we go take them out? ] Ronan asked, his fiery presence flaring within my soul. Mirage and Glaze chimed in, their bloodlust equally eager.
"Okay," I said softly, not looking up from the photograph. "It's probably Lucas or something. Just deal with it."
Crownless and Ronan detached from my shadow, manifesting into the physical world. Crownless took on his massive, grotesque armored demon form, gripping a toxic blade. Ronan materialized as a towering figure of pure flame.
Crownless took exactly one step toward the tunnel entrance.
Then, he froze completely.
The massive demon's physical form began to tremble. His heartbeat—a sound I rarely heard—pounded erratically.
[ I... I have felt this presence before, ] Crownless stammered, his voice laced with pure, unadulterated terror. [ I've died to this presence. ]
I looked up, surprised. "What does that mean?"
[ My Queen, you must hide! ] Crownless urged, taking a step backward. [ The person coming isn't normal. I cannot sense any magic! ]
"No magic?" I repeated. The realization hit me like a physical blow.
Oh. Then it's him.
Why him?
A deep, bitter upset coiled in my stomach. He even found me here. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? Why does he always have to intervene?
"Come back to my shadow, Crownless."
I sat down, leaning my back against the edge of the abandoned table. I crossed my legs, waiting as the heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed closer down the tunnel.
Why do you feel like you're going to die when he is around? I asked my shadow.
[ I do not understand these instincts, My Queen, ] Crownless replied, his presence cowering deep within the dark. [ It is probably from before I turned into a grotesque. ]
Oh yeah, you said you were human before, right?
[ Yes... my name was Milo... I don't remember exactly... but I felt like I've known him... ]
Interesting... you gotta try to remember and detail me later.
[ Understood, my Queen. ]
The footsteps grew louder. Slower. Stumbling, even.
The figure stepped out of the darkness and into the dim light of the storage room.
He looked absolutely horrific. His coat was torn to shreds, and his arms and hands were covered in raw, blistered, sizzling burns. Ash was caked into his skin, eating away at the flesh. He was breathing heavily, clutching a heavy industrial mask in one hand, while coughing violently, drops of dark red blood splattering against the dusty floor.
I stared at him, my heart clenching painfully despite my anger.
"Kai," I said.
He stopped, leaning heavily against the rusted doorway. His blue eyes found mine through the dim light. He didn't speak immediately. He just let out a long, ragged exhale, as if the mere sight of me had lifted a crushing weight off his shoulders.
"You're safe."
His voice was hoarse, shredded by the toxic air.
My heart screamed to run to him, to wrap him in my arms, to heal his burns and beg for forgiveness for running away. But the moment the image of Lucas executing the Mother of Despair flashed in my mind, the cold, bitter anger swallowed my empathy.
I didn't move. I remained sitting against the table, my expression hardening into absolute ice.
"Why are you here?"
He took a slow, agonizing step forward. "The upper chasm collapsed. The air down here is saturated with century-old dead ash. It's highly toxic. I came to take you back."
"I didn't ask you to come." I gripped the edge of the wooden table, my knuckles white. "I explicitly demanded that you stay out of my fights, didn't I?"
"The circumstances have changed, Celia." He coughed, a wet, heavy sound, but his gaze remained steady and unbothered by my hostility.
"The Mother breached her third phase. The chances of you getting injured was too high. My intervention was required."
"Required?" I laughed. It was a cold, hollow sound that echoed in the empty room.
"You think I was losing? I was adapting. I was learning her patterns. I was winning."
"I know you were."
"Then why?!" I snapped, pushing myself off the table. The numbness in my fingers was entirely forgotten, replaced by a surging, furious adrenaline.
"I bled for you, Kai! I tore my own soul apart, trained until my bones cracked, just so I could finally stand beside you as an equal! And what did you do?"
He didn't defend himself. He just stood there, letting my venom strike him.
"You treated me like a fragile, pathetic girl," I continued, closing the distance between us. "You orchestrated every bullshit plan. You used Lucas to kill what I wanted to protect! You looked at my absolute hardest effort and decided I needed your babysitting!"
"I didn't do it because I doubted your strength." He looked down at his ruined, blistering hands. "I did it because I couldn't risk losing you."
"I don't care about my life!" I screamed. Tears of sheer frustration pricked my eyes.
"I only care about not being useless to you! But you still see me as the weak, helpless girl from Levinton, don't you? You don't want me... You just want a pet to protect."
Silence fell over the rusted storage room.
The Dead Soldiers of Ash were likely swarming the outer tunnels, the cavern was collapsing, and the toxic air was rotting our lungs, but Kaiser didn't rush me. He was completely mature, absorbing my rant, my accusations, and my insecurities without a single word of dismissal.
He finally looked up, his blue eyes softening in a way that made my chest physically ache.
"I'm sorry."
"I was wrong to break my promise to you, Celia," he added quietly.
He reached into his torn pocket with a trembling, burnt hand and pulled out a small metallic vial. He held it out toward me.
"This is an alchemical neutralizing agent Lucas synthesized," he explained, his breathing growing increasingly ragged.
"It will clear the ash from your lungs. Please, drink it. We need to leave."
I stared at the vial. Then, I looked at his hands. The skin was literally peeling off his knuckles, the burns seeping with blood and cursed ash. He had waded through a literal storm of flesh-eating poison just to hand me a cure, completely ignoring his own destroyed body.
The audacity. The sheer, suffocating audacity to prioritize my health over his own.
A fresh wave of rage ignited in my blood.
Smack.
I slapped the vial out of his trembling hand. The metal cylinder clattered loudly against the stone floor, rolling away into the dark.
"No."
"You're a liar, Kai," I spat, my voice trembling with a cocktail of grief and fury. "A manipulative, arrogant liar who thinks the entire world is just a set of problems for you to solve. You didn't come here for me. You came here to fix a 'mistake' in your perfect little plan."
I took a step back, my eyes darting to the shadows where Crownless and Ronan lurked.
"I don't need your apology. I don't need your cure. And I certainly don't need you crawling through a death-trap to play the hero for a girl you don't even respect! Look at you. You're pathetic. You're bleeding, you're burnt, and you still have the audacity to look at me like I'm the one who needs saving? You can't even stand straight!"
He didn't move. He just stood there, his chest heaving as he fought for every breath.
"I hate you. I hate that you made me believe I could be more than just your doll. I hate that you promised me a fair fight and then took it away the moment it got inconvenient. You're not a partner. You're a jailer. You're a high-functioning sociopath who treats people like tools until they break, and then you have the nerve to act 'sorry' when you snap them in half!"
The tears were falling freely now, hot and stinging against my ash-stained cheeks.
"Go away. Leave! Get out of here and go back to your perfect little strategies. Go back to Sylvia and Lucas and the rest of your useful idiots. I'm done. I'm staying here. If this abyss is where I die, then at least I'll die without your shadow looming over me."
I reached for my scythe, the heavy, dark metal thrumming with cursed energy.
"If you try to touch me... if you even think about forcing me out of here, I will stop you. I'll let my cursed magic rip what's left of your burnt skin off your bones. I mean it, Kai. I'm not your pet. I'm nothing to you anymore! Why won't you just leave me alone?!"
I leveled the blade at his throat, my vision blurring.
Kaiser didn't flinch. He didn't even look at the blade. He just took another step forward, his shadow looming over me, his presence suffocatingly absolute despite his injuries.
"I will bring you back," Kaiser said, his voice dropping into a cold, unbreakable rasp. "I don't care what you want."
"Yes, I'm a liar. A manipulator who thinks he alone can do everything," he added, taking another agonizing step closer. The caked ash on his skin cracked, revealing raw, bleeding tissue underneath.
"I'm bleeding, I'm burnt, and I'm injured to the point where any normal person would have lost consciousness minutes ago. You're right about everything, Celia."
He stopped just a few feet from me, his shadow stretching across the floor like a shroud.
"Even so, I'm not leaving here without you."
"Stop coming close!" I screamed, my scythe trembling in my hands. The dark metal hummed with a frantic, unstable energy.
"You're a sore loser, Celia," Kaiser said, his tone clinical and devoid of mercy. "You can't take a loss without crying and blaming others for your own utter, useless inferiority. Your own ego is larger than your so-called potential. Now that it's been cracked, you resort to hating me because it's easier than looking in a mirror."
"Inferiority?! You think I'm inferior because I don't have your twisted mind?!" I spat, the words coming out as a desperate snarl.
"I spent every waking second of the last year trying to catch up to you! I sacrificed my sanity, my safety, everything, just to be something more than your tool! You were born with this... this 'perfection.' You didn't 'work' for it like I did! You just dismantled everyone else's effort and called it a strategy!"
"Sorry for the mean, awful, accurate things I've said," Kaiser countered, his eyes narrowing. "But maybe if you weren't so hopeless, I wouldn't have had to interfere in the first place."
"Shut up and go away!" I lunged forward, the scythe's blade glowing with a sickly, violet curse.
"I don't want to see you! I don't want to hear your voice! Just leave me alone and die in this hole!"
"I don't know how to say this nicely," he murmured, his presence shifting. "So... I won't."
He stood inches from me now, staring down with a murderous, predatory gaze I had never seen directed at me. It wasn't the look of a protector; it was the look of a sovereign who had reached the end of his patience.
"I will take you from here, even if I have to break both of your arms and legs, your mind, and your body. At any and every cost you can demand." He leaned in, his voice a lethal promise.
"Do you have what it takes to stop me?"
I didn't answer with words. I swung the scythe in a wide, horizontal decapitation strike.
Kaiser didn't retreat. He stepped into the arc of the blade.
He moved with a fluid, haunting martial grace, using the momentum of my own swing against me. Before the blade could connect, his hands blurred—a precise, calculated parry that lured the scythe's shaft toward his chest. In one seamless motion, he reversed his grip on my wrists, twisted my forearms with a sickening pop, and redirected the energy upward.
The scythe flew from my hands, clattering across the stone room and skidding into the darkness.
Before I could even register the loss, he lunged forward, his fingers clamping onto my wrists like iron shackles, pinning me against the rusted table.
"Let me go!" I thrashed, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Go away! I hate you! I hate you more than anything!"
Why won't he just leave me alone?! Why is he still the one in control even when he's dying?!
"Let me go, you pathetic, stop—"
Smack.
The sound of the slap echoed through the storage room.
My head snapped to the side, my mind going completely blank. A sharp, stinging heat radiated from my cheek. I stared at the floor, my breath hitching in my throat.
He... he hurt me? Kai actually...
The world went silent. The anger that had been fueling me for the last hour suddenly vanished, leaving behind a hollow, terrifying void.
Kaiser reached into his pocket and pulled out the metallic vial again.
"Open your mouth," he commanded.
I looked down, unable to meet his eyes.
Why can't I argue back? Why can't I fight? I should be screaming, I should be calling the demons to tear him apart, but I can't even think. My brain is just... empty.
"Open your mouth," he repeated, his voice lower, more dangerous.
I shook my head slowly, my hair falling over my face.
Kaiser didn't ask a third time.
He flipped the cap off the vial and drank the entire contents in one gulp.
Before I could process what he was doing, he grabbed my chin with his burnt hand, forcing my head up.
He leaned down and crushed his lips against mine.
It wasn't a tender kiss. It was an act of absolute, dominant reclamation. He pinned both of my wrists against the wall with one hand, his weight pressing me into the stone, and used his other hand to lock the back of my head in place.
He forced his tongue past my teeth, pushing the bitter alchemical fluid directly into my throat.
I felt the liquid burn its way down my throat, the neutralizing agent instantly fighting the ash in my lungs. My knees went weak, my entire body going limp under the sheer intensity of his presence. I could taste the metallic tang of his blood mixed with the medicine.
He ended the kiss as abruptly as he had started it, pulling back just enough to look me in the eyes. His gaze was dark, possessive, and utterly overwhelming.
"Swallow it," he ordered, his voice dripping with a dominance that left no room for the Queen of Curses.
"All of it."
I swallowed reflexively, my eyes wide and unfocused as I stared at him. I couldn't help it. I was suddenly, terrifyingly obedient.
"I will break more promises," Kaiser said, leaning his forehead against mine, his hot breath ghosting over my skin. "Tens, hundreds, thousands of promises I made with you. Not because I don't care. But because you are more important to me than any word I've ever spoken."
He tightened his grip on my wrists, his eyes burning with a singular, mad devotion.
"Even if it's just a fraction of a percent chance of you getting hurt, I will be there. I won't allow it to happen, even for a second."
He pulled back slightly, his hand moving to cup my slapped cheek, his thumb tracing the reddened skin.
"Yes..."
I whispered, the word barely escaping my lips.
Kaiser didn't wait for a further explanation. He knelt down before me, his movements stiff and pained, but his focus absolute. With a cold, methodical efficiency, he reached out and took off one of my red heels. Then the other.
"I will carry you back."
Before I could even think of a protest, he scooped me up into a bridal carry. I felt the heat of his body, the rough texture of his torn clothes, and the stinging scent of blood and ash. In his burnt, blistered hand, he held my heels, his grip tight.
I instinctively hid my face in his chest, too embarrassed to look at the storage room I had just tried to turn into my grave.
What is happening to me?
My entire body felt like it was being electrified. The feeling of being completely possessed, of being owned by the man who was currently bleeding for me, was overwhelming. It wasn't just love anymore. it was a visceral, physical realization of my own helplessness.
Why am I so obedient? Why did I just... let him kiss me like that?
I thought about the way he had crushed his lips against mine, the way he had slapped the defiance right out of me. He had seen my "bratting" ways, my desperate attempt at control, and he had simply dismantled it. It made my legs feel incredibly weak, a strange, flustered warmth spreading through my core. I reached down, my hands trembling as I rubbed my thighs, trying to ground myself.
He didn't stop walking. He moved back through the dark, vine-choked corridor, his pace steady despite his injuries.
It feels like... the first time.
The memory hit me with the force of a physical blow.
"This is just like the first time," I murmured, my voice muffled against his chest. "When you saved me from the Noctis Graspers... you carried me then, too."
Kaiser looked down at me, his blue eyes reflecting the faint, bioluminescent moss on the walls. "I remember."
"Why did you kiss me like that?" I asked, my curiosity finally overriding my embarrassment. "And why... why did you slap me? You've never been like this before."
"Because you weren't listening," Kaiser replied, his voice dropping into a low, predatory octave. "You were spiraling into a delusion of inferiority. I didn't have time to negotiate with your ego, Celia. I needed you back. And if that meant reclaiming you by force, then that's what I did."
He tightened his hold on me, his presence suffocatingly dominant.
"You belong to me. Every breath you take is mine to permit. Every thought you have belongs to me. I won't let you throw away something that I've spent so much effort protecting."
The words sent a shiver down my spine. He owned me.
He wasn't even hiding it anymore. The realization made me mentally weak, my analytical mind shutting down until all that remained was my obsessive, absolute love for him.
I bit his chest through the torn fabric of his shirt.
"Ouch," Kaiser grunted, stopping for a second. "What was that for?"
"I don't know," I whispered, my teeth still grazing his skin.
"You're lucky I'm in a hurry," he said, his gaze darkening as he looked down at me. "Once we are out of this chasm, I am going to take you to my room. I'm going to mark every inch of your skin until you can't even remember your own name. I'm going to claim you so thoroughly that the mere thought of being away from me will make you crawl."
My heart hammered so hard I thought it would burst. I couldn't even breathe properly. He had never said things like this. The sudden, raw seduction in his tone was driving me crazy.
"I'm going to make sure you forget how to say 'no' to me," he continued, his voice a lethal, seductive whisper in my ear. "You think you can just run away? I'll chain you to my side if I have to, and you'll love every second of it. I'll make you so addicted to my presence that you'll depend on me for your very air, Celia."
I let out a soft, broken moan, burying my face deeper into his neck.
"I'll spend all night reminding you who you belong to," he added, his grip on my waist tightening. "Until you're begging for me to never stop. Do you want that?"
"Yes..." I gasped, unable to even think.
He stopped near a small alcove and set me down for a moment, though he didn't let go of my waist. He reached into his satchel and pulled out an extra industrial mask.
"Wear this," he commanded, handing it to me.
Before I could reach for it, he began unbuttoning his own extra outer shirt, his movements efficient. He draped the heavy, warm fabric over my shoulders, covering my torn dress and my exposed skin.
"Stay in my arms," he said, his tone leaving no room for debate as he scooped me back up. "Don't move. Don't speak. Just breathe."
"Okay," I whispered, closing my eyes and letting my head rest against his heart.
I didn't care about the chasm anymore. I didn't care about the ash or the Mother of Despair.
I was his. And for the first time in my life, that was enough.
As he carried me through the dark, uneven tunnels, I watched his movements.
Even while carrying my weight, his footwork was flawless. When a Dead Soldier of Ash lunged from the shadows, he didn't even break his stride. He shifted his center of gravity, sidestepped the sweeping blade, and crushed the undead soldier's knee with a devastating kick before snapping its neck with his free hand.
His speed, his endurance, his absolute ability to fight... it was mesmerizing.
Am I finally seeing his true potential? Or is he still holding back?
I rested my head against his chest, listening to his erratic, struggling heartbeat. I knew he was right. I was just upset that I had lost, that I had failed to execute my target cleanly. But I needed to accept that to move on. I had to use my ego to grow, not to whine over a loss. I couldn't change the past, so I had to improve for the future. I had to become stronger. For him.
The air filtering through the heavy industrial mask felt terribly bitter.
Inside that cave... the air felt much sweeter... I don't know why...
My eyelids grew incredibly heavy. The adrenaline had completely faded, leaving behind the crushing weight of exhaustion and the lingering effects of the ash disease.
"Kai..." I muttered, my voice barely a breath. "I love... you."
The darkness finally claimed me.
Perspective: Kaiser Everhart
The century-old toxic ash had already penetrated the atmospheric pressure of the deeper cave system.
I tightened my grip on Celia's unconscious form as I sprinted up the spiraling, jagged inclines of the chasm. She had breathed in a significant volume of it before I arrived. Even in small percentages, the parasitic ash acted as an invasive corrosive agent, actively burning away lung tissue while leeching ambient mana.
7 Dead Soldiers of Ash blocked the narrow passage ahead, their rusted spears raised in a phalanx formation.
I didn't stop. I couldn't afford to lose momentum.
I vaulted off the cavern wall, twisting my body mid-air to clear their spear tips. As I landed behind their frontline, I drew my custom dagger from my hip with a reverse grip. Moving with zero-waste precision, I danced through their ranks, severing seven cervical vertebrae in less than two seconds. The undead collapsed into piles of dust before they even registered the fatal strikes.
I coughed, a violent, tearing sound, and spat a mouthful of dark red blood onto the stone.
Because I had given Celia my only mask, I was breathing the raw, unfiltered ash directly into my lungs. Every breath felt like inhaling broken glass mixed with battery acid. But it didn't matter. I needed to remain completely focused.
By the time I reached the upper crater edges, the sky above the Crater was slowly turning a dull, morning grey.
Lucas was standing near the extraction zone. When he saw me emerge from the dust storm, carrying Celia, his eyes widened in sheer, speech-less shock. He immediately sprinted over.
Behind him, Navina had already called in a specialized medical team. They rushed forward with a hovering stretcher and quickly took Celia from my arms, securing an oxygen feed over her face.
"I'll find a cure for this ash," Lucas said urgently, looking at my shredded, bleeding body. "Come with us to the medical bay, now."
"No," I rasped, wiping blood from my chin. "I can't. I have to do something else."
"You're dying, Kaiser!" Lucas snapped, grabbing my shoulder. "Stop acting tough! Look at yourself!"
"It's important," I replied, my voice devoid of emotion. "Take care of Celia. Make sure she wakes up. Tell her I'm fine."
"Are you insane?" Lucas hesitated, looking at the stretcher.
"Her alveolar walls are currently micro-hemorrhaging," I stated clinically, shifting into pure medical diagnostics. "The ash is acting as a necrotic parasite. It isn't just suffocating her; it's eating the smooth muscle tissue of her respiratory system. If you don't synthesize a counter-agent to stabilize her cellular degeneration within the next 48 hours, she will suffer permanent organ failure."
"Do you understand the gravity of the situation?"
Lucas went pale. The reality of the silent, horrifying injuries she had sustained finally hit him.
He grit his teeth and nodded, his eyes hardening with absolute resolve. "I'll fix her. I swear I'll find a way." He reached into his belt and pulled out another metallic vial, shoving it into my hand. "Take this. It's a temporary stabilizer. It will stop the disease infection in your lungs for a few hours until I can finalize the actual cure. Do what you must, but return quickly."
"Thanks," I said, pocketing the temporary stabilizer and turning away from the crater.
Time: 9:38 AM | Location: Sylvaris — My Room
The desk was completely buried under layered biological analysis sheets, geographical maps of the crater, and complex chemical formulations.
I kept the vial in my pocket, feeling its coolness against my thigh. I knew that if I didn't use it, I would be the one who would die.
But if I did use it, I would be the one who would be saved.
I had to make a choice.
I trust Lucas, I monologued internally, staring at the chaotic spread of data.
But I cannot risk Celia's life on a single point of failure. I have to find the cure even if he fails. I'll use my own body as the testing catalyst.
I coughed heavily, my entire chest convulsing in agony.
I wiped the fresh blood from my lips and forced my eyes back to the equations. The papers were filled with high-level pharmacokinetic models.
dC/dt = -k_a C + (Dose F / V_d) e^(-k_e t)
I needed to calculate the exact half-life of the necrotic ash parasite within a human host, factoring in the mana-absorption. The chemistry required a solvent capable of breaking down the silica-based shell of the ash without damaging the surrounding human tissue.
I coughed again, the pain blinding me for a split second.
I stumbled away from the desk and walked into the washroom, leaning heavily against the sink. I looked in the mirror.
It was a scene of pure horror. My face was deathly pale, covered in black, necrotic veins that were slowly crawling up my neck. The sink was already stained dark red from my previous blood vomits. The deep chemical burns on my arms were sizzling, the flesh peeling away in terrible, painful strips.
But my eyes in the reflection were dead set. Determined.
If Lucas failed, Celia would die.
I would not lose her.
I won't lose her... like I lost Elfie.
I gripped the edges of the porcelain sink, my knuckles turning white. I would do anything.
At any cost.
My head suddenly zoned out. A wave of extreme dizziness washed over me, and my legs buckled. I barely caught myself before falling to the bathroom floor.
I need to get back to work and find a way...
I glanced at the clock on the wall. 9:45 AM.
But I need to deal with something first. And I also need to buy the necessary solvents from the market if I'm going to synthesize the cure myself.
I pushed myself off the sink, splashing cold water on my ruined face.
I'll go out now.