Chapter 101: Don’t Die Again

The battlefield continued roaring around Raviah in a deafening crescendo. Explosions shook the frozen earth while artillery tore through the darkness. Zerg screeched beyond the rising smoke, and Elementals fought desperately to hold the collapsing defensive trenches.

Yet Raviah heard none of it. Her eyes remained locked on the mountain of concrete and twisted steel beams where Rhyder had disappeared.

"Rhyder..." she whispered, her voice lost in the thunder of war.

Silence was her only answer. She activated her diagnostic perception, pushing her sense through the debris, but encountered only dead air.

Her internal core trembled violently from sheer terror. "No."

She took a fast step toward the collapsed structure, but a nearby soldier grabbed her forearm.

"Doctor! You can’t go in there!" he yelled over the noise. "It’s too unstable! The tower could collapse further!"

Raviah’s eyes turned icy cold as she glared at his hand. "Let go of me."

The soldier flinched at her tone and released her arm immediately.

Raviah thrust both hands forward toward the pile of rubble, unleashing her Root. A translucent wave of biological energy blasted outward, clearing dust and blowing away loose concrete fragments.

Steel beams groaned under the sudden force as concrete slabs cracked open. She expanded her diagnostic perception deep into the debris, searching desperately for one specific biological signature.

Heartbeats.

Blood flow.

Neural activity.

Nothing.

Her breathing turned ragged as sweat beaded on her forehead.

"Come on..." she pleaded, forcing her energy deeper. Her root spread through the cracks like invisible plant roots searching through barren soil.

Then, at the very edge of her perception, she felt a faint pulse.

Raviah froze, her heart hammering in her throat. It was weak and irregular, but undeniably alive.

"Rhyder!" she cried out, using her power to fling aside a shattered slab.

"Bring me equipment!" a squad leader shouted behind her.

"No!" Raviah barked, turning to face them. "Don’t move anything until I tell you!"

Her heightened sense mapped the structural collapse in her mind. One wrong movement of the rubble would shift the weight and crush him underneath.

She located his position pinned beneath a primary support beam. "Three meters down! Shift the steel beam on my signal!"

Several Earth Elementals rushed forward, carefully manipulating the rubble under her guidance.

"Left," she commanded firmly.

The concrete shifted with a scraping sound.

"Stop," Raviah ordered, pointing to another support. "Shift that beam down two centimeters."

Slowly and agonizingly, they cleared a path down to him. Rhyder lay trapped at the base of the collapsed watchtower, his armor shattered.

Dark blood covered his face and uniform, and his leg was pinned beneath twisted rebar. His chest barely rose, his breathing almost imperceptible.

Raviah’s breath caught in her throat. "No..."

She dropped to her knees beside him, pressing her hands against his chest as her root surged into his body.

The internal damage was catastrophic. Multiple ribs were fractured, his left lung had partially collapsed, and his liver was severely lacerated. Internal bleeding was rapidly filling his abdominal cavity, and his core flickered dangerously close to complete rupture.

One more minute without intervention would kill him. Raviah’s hands shook uncontrollably.

"No," her voice broke into a sob. "No, no, no..."

She pressed down harder, pouring her biological energy directly into his tissue. The chaotic noise of the surrounding war faded away as her mind locked onto his internal structure.

Every damaged organ, every ruptured blood vessel, every shattered bone, and every unstable energy pathway stood exposed before her vision. She began repairing them one by one with frantic precision.

Ruptured vessels sealed shut under her power. Torn muscle fibers reconnected, his collapsed lung expanded, and damaged internal organs stabilized.

She realigned his fractured ribs and funneled energy into his core, coaxing it back from the brink of collapse. Yet the sheer extent of his injuries was overwhelming.

Raviah felt her own internal energy reserves draining rapidly. Her vision blurred around the edges, and her limbs felt heavy and weak.

She ignored her body’s warning signs, gritting her teeth. "You don’t get to die."

Her voice trembled with raw fury and fear. "You don’t get to do this to me!"

Her root surged with sudden, violent intensity. A tremendous wave of translucent biological energy erupted from her body, forcing nearby soldiers to shield their eyes from the light.

The cracked pavement beneath her knees shattered further under the spiritual pressure. Her core flashed brilliantly, pouring every ounce of her vitality into his broken form.

"You promised me," she whispered, tears spilling down her dust-stained cheeks. "You promised we’d both survive."

Her biological power finally stabilized his last damaged organ. Rhyder’s heart thudded against her palm, once, twice, and then settled into a steady rhythm.

Raviah nearly collapsed forward from sheer relief. Beside her, Rhyder’s dark eyelashes fluttered, and his eyes slowly opened.

For several seconds, he simply stared up at her through the hanging dust.

His voice was a barely audible rasp. "You’re crying."

Raviah froze, the fear in her chest instantly twisting into sharp anger. "Because you’re an idiot!"

Rhyder’s bloodied lips curved into a faint, weak smile. "You were worried."

"You nearly died!" she snapped, glaring down at him.

"But I didn’t," he murmured softly.

"You disappeared from my diagnostic field!" Raviah’s voice cracked with emotion. "I thought you were dead!"

Rhyder’s smile faded into deep gentleness. He lifted a heavy, trembling hand, brushing his thumb across her cheek to wipe away a tear.

"I told you," he whispered. "I’m staying."

Raviah’s eyes closed as her resistance crumbled. She leaned down and kissed him, a desperate, fierce kiss born from terror, relief, and love.

When she finally pulled back, she kept her forehead pressed tightly against his. "Don’t ever do that again."

Rhyder exhaled a soft laugh against her lips. "I’ll try."

"That’s not good enough," she whispered.

"I’ll make it a promise," he answered softly.

Before Raviah could reply, her internal Core suddenly flared with unprecedented force. She gasped as a blinding wave of raw energy exploded outward from her chest.

The entire battlefield seemed to freeze in time for one impossible second. Her Root expanded beyond Rhyder’s body, rushing past the surrounding rubble and sweeping across the entire fortress.

Suddenly, her perception connected with thousands of active cores across the valley. Humans, beasts, Zerg, and zombies flashed in her mind, linked together through invisible energy threads.

Glowing system overlays flared across her vision.

[ROOT SYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED]

[BIOLOGICAL NETWORK CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]

[SYNCHRONIZATION LEVEL: INCREASING]

Raviah stared in shock as the notifications scrolled past. Her Root was no longer just treating individual bodies. It was connecting to a massive energy grid.

A final red warning box flashed before her eyes.

[WARNING: SYNCHRONIZATION THRESHOLD EXCEEDED]

Raviah’s breath hitched in her throat as she looked up at the sky. "What... am I connecting to?"