“Miyabi!
Don’t fall asleep!”
Cael raised his voice, desperately trying to keep Miyabi conscious.
Someone this badly injured might never wake up again once they lost consciousness.
“Miss Hoshimi?”
Several seconds passed before he felt the person on his back move ever so slightly.
Then a voice so weak he could barely hear it sounded beside his ear.
“Why…
did you…
come…?”
Cael didn’t answer.
He didn’t know how to.
As he passed through the rift, his foot slipped and he nearly fell.
His knee struck a rock, sending a sharp jolt of pain through him.
Cael sucked in a breath, gritted his teeth, forced himself upright, and kept running.
“You…
shouldn’t have…
come…”
Miyabi spoke again.
As an experienced combatant, she understood exactly what condition her body was in.
Her injuries were fatal.
Whether someone tried to save her or not, what difference would it make?
“Save your strength,” Cael said between ragged breaths.
“Don’t waste it talking.”
“Why…
did you come…
to save me…?”
Cael fell silent.
He didn’t really know how to answer that question.
Why?
Miyabi had once been nothing more than a character in a game.
But now she wasn’t some cold NPC.
She was a living, breathing person.
And as someone who had played the game, Cael had subconsciously thought of her as someone familiar.
She’d also been one of his favorite characters.
So was it favoritism?
Or something else?
Whatever feelings had crossed the boundary between worlds and fiction were impossible to explain.
Even if he tried, Miyabi probably wouldn’t understand.
And even putting all of that aside, there was one undeniable fact.
Miyabi had saved his life from an Ethereal.
He owed her his life.
Was it really so strange that he’d risk his own to save hers?
“Why do you need a reason for everything?
I wanted to save you, so I did.
Besides, didn’t you save my life first?”
After thinking for a long time, that was the answer Cael finally gave.
Several seconds later, he spoke again.
This time, his voice softened, carrying a faint note of nostalgia.
“You know, Miss Hoshimi…
I’ve actually known you for a long time.
I know a lot about you.
I know that probably sounds strange, like I’m some creep who’s been spying on your life, but trust me, I’m not like that.
“I know about your past.
I know what you like.
I know how determined you are to protect New Eridu, and how you want to protect every citizen you can…
“So if I really had to give you a reason…
I guess it’s because you’re Hoshimi Miyabi.
“And that makes you worth saving.”
Miyabi didn’t answer.
Her breathing grew even fainter.
Worth saving…
Yes.
It was precisely because New Eridu still had so many kind people like the young man before her that she picked up her sword again and again.
She entered Hollows.
She rescued civilians.
She eliminated Ethereals.
She suppressed Hollows.
Because those people were worth protecting.
Miyabi slightly raised her eyes and saw Cael’s arm.
The green specks beneath his skin had already joined together, spreading like a spiderweb.
Several small, translucent crystals had even begun protruding from the outside of his left shoulder.
The Ether corruption was accelerating.
They were deep inside the Hollow, and because of the explosion, the Ether concentration in this area had skyrocketed far beyond safe levels.
Cael had no Ether aptitude.
His body was visibly being assimilated.
Yet after taking a brief glance at himself, he simply quickened his pace again, as though the Ether corruption didn’t matter at all.
How strange…
Miyabi couldn’t understand it.
There was actually someone who wasn’t afraid of Ether corruption.
It was one of the most terrifying things inside a Hollow.
What a…
strange person.
That was Miyabi’s final thought.
“Miss Hoshimi, hang on.
I’ll get you out of the Hollow.
I promise.”
Cael’s voice had started trembling.
“Talk to me…
Tell me what you usually like to eat, what you watch, what you do for fun.
Is there anything—anything you still haven’t gotten to do?”
Miyabi didn’t answer.
Her breathing weakened again.
“Hoshimi Miyabi!”
Cael practically shouted her name.
“Want…
honeydew…”
Her voice was barely louder than a mosquito’s hum, disappearing into the wind.
“Okay.
Okay, when we get out, I’ll buy you honeydew.
How does that sound?”
Cael’s voice choked slightly.
“You can have anything you want.
Cake, ice cream, whatever.
All honeydew-flavored.
Just don’t fall asleep, okay?
Don’t fall asleep—”
Please.
Before he could finish, his leg suddenly gave out.
Everything below his right knee had started going numb, as though countless tiny insects were crawling through his blood vessels.
Cael looked down.
A patch of green Ether crystals had already grown across his calf.
They were clear and beautiful, like some kind of diseased gemstone.
Every step he took made the crystals scrape against the fabric of his shorts with a faint rustling sound.
His vision was beginning to blur as well.
Everything around him swayed and distorted as though submerged underwater, and the path ahead grew harder and harder to see.
It no longer felt like he was running.
It felt like he was struggling forward through a thick liquid that never stopped flowing.
Miyabi’s weight on his shoulders seemed to grow lighter and lighter.
Not because she had become lighter.
He was simply losing his sense of weight.
“Miss Hoshimi?”
He called softly.
No response.
“Miyabi?”
Still nothing.
Cael turned his head, trying to press his face against hers and feel the warmth of her breath.
Their faces touched.
Her skin was cold.
Cael stopped for several seconds.
Then he took a deep breath.
He couldn’t stop.
He told himself that she’d only passed out.
Her injuries were so severe that her breathing had temporarily become too faint to notice.
As long as he could find a way out of the Hollow, New Eridu’s medical technology would take care of everything!
He was still carrying her.
Her body was still warm.
Although by now, Cael couldn’t even tell whether that warmth came from her body or from the burning heat of his own back after pushing himself past his limits.
Cael wanted to say something.
But his throat was too tight for words.
He couldn’t tell whether the grief or the tears came first.
Forward.
One step at a time.
Cael’s consciousness was like a candle about to burn out, its tiny flame desperately flickering in the wind.
He could no longer feel his feet.
Then his knees.
Then his waist.
He was nothing more than a body still moving mechanically, carrying someone on his back whose growing coldness he refused to acknowledge.
There was less rubble ahead.
The ground gradually became smoother.
He felt like he’d reached the edge of the Hollow.
He thought he could see people from Public Security.
Then rescue teams.
Just a few more steps…
A few more steps and he’d be out.
Cael kept encouraging himself.
Just a few more—
When he came back to his senses, there were still only ruins in front of him.
He had no Carrot.
No Hollow spatial route data.
Miyabi’s wrist device had already been destroyed.
Inside a Hollow where space constantly shifted, there was no way to find the exit without a Carrot.
Cael knew that.
But he didn’t want to stop.
Then his knee buckled.
Cael crashed heavily to the ground.
Miyabi slipped from his back and rolled beside him.
He lay facedown, his cheek pressed against the cold ground.
Ether crystals spread across his back like vines.
He tried to push himself up with his arms, but the joints had already gone completely rigid.
Crystals had grown into the crooks of his elbows, locking them in place.
“Miya…”
He couldn’t even turn his head anymore.
But he heard something.
Heavy.
Slow.
Footsteps that made the ground tremble with every step.
The Ethereal…
It had caught up with them.
A crushing sense of helplessness settled over him.
Of course.
He was just an ordinary person.
Even after giving everything he had, he still couldn’t accomplish anything…
At the edge of Cael’s vision, a massive dark-red foot covered in crystalline armor stepped into view.
Then a shadow descended over him, blocking out all the light.
An Ether blade rose into the air.
Its edge gleamed with a blinding crimson light.
Cael tried to lift his head and see Dullahan clearly, but even as his gaze moved upward, he couldn’t see its head.
This Dullahan was even larger than he’d imagined.
The blade drew closer and closer.
Cael forced his body to move with everything he had left.
Crack.
Something popped in his neck as he finally managed to raise his head.
At last, he saw the nearly four-meter-tall Dullahan in full.
And in that final moment, he seemed to notice something.
A line of text he’d never seen before appeared in front of his eyes.
A cold, translucent information panel.
[Name]: Dullahan
[Race]: Ethereal
[Level]: 37
[Aberration Traits]: [Evolution] [Gigantification] [Deathrattle] [Rebirth]
[Gigantification]: Greatly increases body size and physical durability.
Base strength and Ether capacity are doubled.
[Deathrattle]: Upon the individual’s death, detonates the Ether within itself and the surrounding area, causing an extremely powerful large-scale Ether explosion.
The higher the individual’s level, the greater the explosion’s power and corruption intensity, increasing exponentially.
[Rebirth]: After suffering fatal damage, reconstructs its body using free Ether within the Hollow and revives after a short period of time.
[Evolution]: …
Cael stared at the lines of text.
The fog clouding his mind was suddenly split apart as if by a bolt of lightning.
So that was it.
The reason everything in this world felt wrong was because something like this existed here.
Something that had never existed in the game.
The reason Tyrfings were two meters tall.
The reason Dullahan had recovered after exploding.
The reason Miyabi had lost—
The blade came down.
Crimson light filled Cael’s entire vision.
He forced a grin onto his face and strained to raise one hand toward Dullahan.
Then he gave it the middle finger.
“…Piece of shit…!”
It really helps the fic grow!