The blood wouldn't stop flowing like a river.
The more I tried to suppress it by holding my hand on the wound, the more it came.
As if the blood had its own feelings and chose to be petty that day.
Three minutes.
System time ticked on like crazy.
180 seconds.
170 seconds.
160 seconds.
Her golden eyes were wet while she lay on my chest.
"I just wanna get you out of harm, okay?"
"No. You need to leave.
I'll be okay. If your absence is noticed, it'll trigger a chain reaction bigger than any of us."
"You ain't dying.
And we've got to get out of this hell hole.
You promised to always be there. Don't do this to me. To us."
Before I could say more, her eyes changed. They were now glowing golden.
Light poured from her eyes like the sun onto earth.
"Wanwei?"
"What's happening to you?"
She was completely quiet.
Tears rolled from her eyes.
They were no longer just any ordinary tears they were golden tears.
The moment one dropped on my wound, the pain disappeared.
The wounds and flesh started working, knitting the skin back together.
[Critical wound healed.]
[Survival time restored.]
[Healing source: Unknown healing and energy signature.]
[This energy belongs to higher realms. It's overkill for the current realm.]
I stared at her.
But now the lights were dimming. I was in awe of her.
"Makena, how did you know to do that?"
"I don't know. I just tapped into my pain."
Her body went limp. She collapsed on my chest.
"Now it's my turn to say stay with me."
I held and hugged her in the tunnel, surrounded by dead bodies I was set to refine.
She woke up in her room, panicked and in shock. Her hands were all over her own face.
"My eyes have been acting funny."
"Well, they were glowing as bright as the sun."
"What joke are you making, little ghost?"
"Golden lights from your eyes."
She stared at me, waiting for a punchline. Then she realized I was serious.
"Wait. You're fucking serious?"
"I'm not stupid enough to joke about our near death.
Bringing you in without being noticed was a big challenge.
I slept here till you woke up.
But I need to go back in there and sleep like I was always there."
She felt her cheeks, around where her tears had come from.
"Why don't I remember anything?"
"You killed a Shadow Walker with one slice of the Lovers' Dance."
"I don't have memory loss, ghost. Just some missing pieces of the story. I remember all that."
"Then you healed me with your tears."
She went quiet for a few minutes, clearly lost in her thoughts, trying to remember how she was able to do that.
"I remember now," she said finally. "I told myself you wouldn't die.
I poured all my willpower into making you survive no matter what happened.
And then something happened.
A door opened. There was overflow."
"System, what do you make of this?"
[Analysis of golden tears incomplete. My Divine God System tier is too low to fully give you all the information.]
[She contains dormant overflowing energy and power on a super high tier of cultivation. If she ever detonates, an entire civilization type could be wiped clean.]
[Her power is a super bloodline related and at the 11th or 12th tier of supreme bloodlines.]
[Full extent of her power can wipe out three entire civilization types. Its full power is still unknown. Please make sure it never gets to that point.]
[If you know me, I encourage taking risks. And I never tell you to be careful. So be careful.]
I dismissed the notification.
It didn't matter to me who or what was inside her. Whatever she was.
She gave me that innocent stare with her now normal golden eyes, searching my face to see if I was telling the truth.
"Are you sure I don't scare you, little ghost?"
"I meant everything I said. And I'm sure, okay?"
She kissed me slowly and gently, as if fearing I would disappear.
"I don't know what's happening to me," she whispered. "But I'll die and go down with it before I let it ever harm or kill you."
"Don't worry. We'll figure it out as a couple, okay? It's a 'we' problem, not just you. We are one."
I stayed in her room, listening to all the tears. The beatings. The killing of helpless human slaves with zero cultivation.
Before she could talk, I stopped her in her tracks.
"What happened here stays here, okay? So don't worry your cute head thinking about that."
The 36,000 souls then spoke: You have to protect her. Or die trying.
"I'm doing all that, annoying people."