Chapter 48: Red Crystal

Ethan could feel the rapid beat of Lila’s heartbeat as she held him, and the heat still faintly radiating off her skin. He could also feel the way her arms shook as she held onto him tighter, and the way her breathing was shallow and fast.

The Wolf Alpha lay where it had fallen, its black and white fur ruined in the spreading dark pool of its blood. The chamber stank of blood, scorched fur, and ozone.

Nora stood and took a shaky step forward.

She crossed the dead body, knelt and dug through shattered stone and viscera with barely steady fingers.

After a few moments of digging, she found something. It was a cluster of crystals, but they were not in the same dull blue color of Aetherite.

These ones glowed a faint red, as it they had been heated...

She picked one...

"What is that?" Lila asked.

"I don’t know." Nora turned it over to look at it. "But I feel like we should go with it."

Ethan tried to speak and produced only a thin exhale, and Lila adjusted her grip, got a shoulder under his arm, and pulled him upright.

His legs wobbled, but he was able to keep himself standing. He took one last look toward the golem and the alpha and took a shaky step forward as Lila moved.

"It’s alright," she muttered, "I got you..."

They left the chamber through the way they had entered— the group now a collection of tired individuals.. The tunnel felt longer on the way out, more tunnels broke open as Nora led the way as she leaned against the wall to steady herself.

Lila carried most of Ethan’s weight, and when they finally reached the entrance, the field instructors were already moving toward them, tablets up, and checking how much time they had spent there.

"One hour and forty-two minutes," one of the said, "we’ll be administering first aid now."

They patched Nora and Lila up but didn’t do anything for Ethan.

Not because they didn’t want to, but because they couldn’t see any serious external injuries...

Nora’s eyes watched the female instructor and spoke. "There was a Devil inside..."

She stopped. "What?" ℯℯ𝑙.

When the other instructors heard it, their heads snapped towards them. "Well at least you managed to escape..."

"But I’m intrigued. How were you able to escape? Not that we’re not relived, but a Devil class is at least as fast as a speeding car."

"We... killed it." Nora breathed.

Their eyes widened in disbelief. They couldn’t believe their ears...

They were going to ask more but decided against it, prioritizing their safety first.

They finished patching them up and took them into the helicopter.

Lila sat next to Ethan, watching him with worried eyes. His eyes were sunken, and the green glow in them dulled so much, that it looked like his eyes didn’t have color at all.

She slowly slid a hand under his, and intertwined their fingers.

Ethan moved his eyes tiredly towards her, and she offered a soft smile before tightening her grip.

***

He woke up to soft light and the familiar smell of the dorm.

The ceiling, the quiet, his head was resting on something warm that he had felt before.

For a second he thought he was still in the chamber, then the feeling of hands brushing his hair made him think otherwise...

Ahhh, he was on Lila’s lap again...

She was sitting against the headboard of his bed with his head placed on her thighs and one hand moving in his hair the same way it always did.

When his vision cleared, she was already looking down at him.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"...How long?"

"A few hours. Nora helped me get you inside, then left." Lila pressed her lips together. "You scared the shit out of me."

Ethan exhaled. The backlash had faded to a soft pain in his chest, but his Death Energy was already recovering. Even so, his body still felt like jelly...

"I was worried," Lila said, the words coming out shaky. "You’ve pushed yourself before. But not like that. You were coughing blood and still trying to give orders. I thought—" She cut herself off, jaw tightening. "I thought the backlash was going to finish what the wolf started."

Ethan looked up at her from her lap. The golden eyes that was usually bright carried a look of exhaustion.

"I’m sorry," he said.."The third chamber was my call. I wanted the extra recovery, the better score line, and the new corpse put to use. If we had extracted after two, the Alpha would have never become our problem." He exhaled. "That one’s on me."

Lila was silent for a few seconds. Then she shook her head.

"You don’t get to apologize for trying your best. We all walked in, we all wanted a better score so no one argued with that." Her fingers went slow in his hair "You don’t to burden yourself just because you’re the one who says ’move.’"

He tried to sit up, and she let him rise slowly, as he winced and sat up. Then her arms wrapped around him from behind, locking across his chest with her cheek against his back.

"You’re pushing too hard," she said, "Rank, undead, Death Link, the scores... you’re putting way too much on yourself. I’m worried, Ethan. About you."

Ethan went still. The dorm was quiet, no residual noise from outside the way it should be.

"I don’t know how else to close the gap," he said eventually.

"I know." Her hold tightened around him. "I’m not asking you to stop getting stronger. I’m asking you take it easy. I don’t like the idea of losing you and left with only tiny bits of the memory of you." She buried her face deeper into his back and spoke again in a tiny voice that almost cracked. "I don’t want that..."

She pulled him back down gently until his head found her lap again. She ran a hand through his hair and placed the other one on his chest feeling the faint beat of his heartbeat.

"Stay here a minute," she said. "Just... stay you have to do anything yet."

Ethan stayed, feeling the soothing movement of her hand in his hair.

For a long while, there was only silence so thick that they could hear the wall clock ticking from the living room.

Then Ethan’s system pinged.

```

[Ding!]

[Level Up]

[Level 3 → Level 5]

```

Ethan turned his head to look at it, and when Lila noticed the shift, she spoke with a quiet voice.

"Whatever it is," she murmured, "it can wait."

He stayed silent for a moment, sighed and closed the system.

Yeah... it could wait...