There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 572 - 566. The Corrupted One

Chapter 572: Chapter 566. The Corrupted One

The moment they saw the old man’s expression, they knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" Bassena and Zein immediately approached the Iron Mountain. "You’ve found the source, right? Is there any problem with it?"

"We found it, alright," the old man replied bitterly. He sounded disappointed for some reason; perhaps that was why Naoya took over the explanation.

Finding a way inside a ruin was harder than just trying to find a way across the forest, even with the absence of an illusion effect. Because of that, Naoya only sent four-star espers and above, including himself. It was tricky even with meticulous planning, because the ruin seemed like the remains of an Old Age lab or research center. With many rooms and floors, it was no different than a labyrinth. Thankfully, they still managed to locate what seemed to be the source of the fog.

"The miasma got very thick in the room, to the point that only those with special vision skills could see," Naoya explained. Naturally, an archer like him had one. "It didn’t let out miasma or anything like that, but the fog circling it was fierce and almost alive, and there was something like...vibration coming out--like a pulse?"

"And?"

"And I came inside to destroy it--or at least take it away," Tian Yu took over, still with a disappointed tone.

Well, it was clear that the attempt was unsuccessful because the field of fog was still there. Naturally, they didn’t say anything--not even Naoya, who should know what happened--and just let the old man reveal it.

"We reached the chamber where what we thought to be the source was--me and this kid," the old man pointed to Naoya, who scratched his cheek when he was called a ’kid’. "We planned everything well and moved fast following the rope and markings. We were still in low green when we reached the chamber."

That seemed sufficient enough--Zein thought. It was actually remarkable, knowing how treacherous the miasma’s corruption in that part of the field was. So...why?

Tian Yu shook his head and let out the heavy sigh he had been holding. "I couldn’t get through."

"...what?!" Zein and Bassena replied belatedly from shock.

A Saint class couldn’t get through something? They looked at each other with a worried gaze. Didn’t that mean they were doomed?

"There was some kind of force that repelled me every time I tried to come close," the old man continued. "The more I tried, the harder I pushed, the stronger the repelling force I felt."

"That’s..."

"I tried too, and the same thing happened," Naoya added. "Not only that; the moment we came against that force...our corrosion level spiked dramatically. In the end, we had to give up and come out before we went into red."

Zein stared at Naoya and Tian Yu. He wondered if the heavy corrosion contributed to the bad mood. While they had already received guiding on the other side, their corrosion level still hovering in yellow.

"I’ll guide you for now," Zein told the two espers. "You first, Grandpa. Tell me the rest while at it."

"What can I even tell you," the old man shook his head while following Zein to the dining table in the camp.

As a veteran who came back to the front line after nearly four decades, he probably wished to have a spectacular result. But far from that, he didn’t even succeed decently. No--he failed. It was only the first attempt, but it was still a failure. And he couldn’t see a way to overcome it too.

No matter what skill he used, he couldn’t get past the force field protecting that source. Like the same side of a pole, he kept getting repelled. It was something that couldn’t be solved by having a bigger power.

After hearing the old man’s more detailed account--or rather, grumble--Bassena tilted his head. That feeling of being repelled felt familiar. "Hmm...that sounds like what I experienced coming close to the core," Bassena looked up in reminiscence. "In fact, I was getting pushed back until the edge of the roots formation."

"Really? You?" Tian Yu raised his brows.

"Initially, all the shards reject everyone but Zein," Bassena recalled. "They only let others come close if Zein told them to--ah, but that one allowed us to come close for having a celestial brand."

"Huh..."

For some reason, that account from Bassena slightly uplifted the old man’s mood. Naoya, on the other hand, frowned. He glanced at Zein, who caught the cautious gaze immediately. "What is it?"

Naoya flinched slightly and bit his lips for a second before shifting closer to Zein. "Uhh...this is only my opinion, but..."

"Yes?"

"I’ve been thinking about this since we came out, and hearing what Commander said convinced me a bit more," Naoya intertwined his fingers as if praying--perhaps praying that what he thought wasn’t true. "I think...I think that source is a shard."

Tian Yu felt the guiding stop abruptly and the hand holding his clenched tighter. He looked at Zein and saw the blue eyes shaking. Even in the dim light of the purification device, he could see colors rapidly escaping the guide’s face.

"What? Why are you saying that?" Bassena was the one who asked, because it seemed like Zein was at a loss for words.

Naoya became even more cautious when he saw Zein’s reaction. "When we are approaching the source and had to fight against the repelling force...I saw the shape."

"And...it looks like the shard?"

Naoya nodded silently and Tian Yu exclaimed. "Ah..." he finally remembered. Since he tried to breach the repelling force more than Naoya, he saw the source more than the archer too. "Now that you said it...that’s true," he nodded. "But the color was..."

"It’s black," Naoya let out a sigh. "It looks like a black crystal, as if..."

"As if it got corroded?" Bassena muttered heavily, glancing at the man who looked even paler than the time he saw a shard getting eaten by the Fallen Star.

* * *

The guiding session was being paused because Zein’s mind was too preoccupied to do it. He sat at the edge of the camp, staring at the void blankly with his fingers intertwined against his lower face.

What is this? A corroded shard? A corrupted shard? How could it be?

The shard was supposed to be the one thing that countered miasma. If a shard could be overwhelmed and succumbed to miasma, even turning into its source, that was...

Zein chewed the inside of his cheek, glaring at the void. Suddenly, he stood up and walked toward the fog, prompting Bassena to scramble and follow him in haste. "Zein--"

"I’m going in," the guide said. "I need to see it with my own eyes first."

Bassena opened his mouth with a frown--naturally, his first instinct was to prevent Zein from doing so. But he closed his mouth quickly when he saw the guide’s hardened eyes. Ah...he knew that Zein wouldn’t change his mind no matter what. He understood though--there was no way Zein wouldn’t want to go in after hearing about how it might be a shard.

"I’m coming too then."

Zein didn’t say anything and just called out the shards from his ring. The shy one from the cavern already whined at the sight of the field of fog, while the smart one kept its silence. Realizing Zein’s grim expression, however, the shy shard stopped its whine and stuck to Zein’s side, as if asking what was wrong.

"I need to go inside," Zein said, and the shard immediately made a barrier without protest. He looked back at Cohen, who was also following him, and shook his head. "I’ll just go with Bas."

"But--" Cohen pressed his lips at the sharp blue gaze, before lowering his head. "As you wish."

"He’ll be safe in our hands," Bassena reassured Cohen--although the shard had no hand--and followed Zein. The barrier spread to envelop him too, double this time, with the smart shard putting on the barrier too.

With that double insurance, Zein took a deep breath and stepped inside the fog. He held his breath instinctively from the memory of choking the first time as the thick darkness greeted him. Even after getting used to the Deathzone, the darkness was still hard to overcome. It felt heavy and sticky, and despite being protected by the glowing barrier, he couldn’t see anything past a meter around. It was suffocating in a different way than the lack of breathable air.

But a hand, warm and reassuring, held his hand. The owner of a darkness that was calming instead of suffocating. Slowly, Zein started to breathe--it was thin and heavy, but he didn’t choke at least. He nodded at Bassena, and they resumed their walk following the rope to the ruin.

The last time, Bassena only met the tall outer wall. This time, the rope guided them to what seemed to be an entrance in the past; a crumbling pillar and canopy in front of a hole that led to a lobby. They could see some devices were installed here and there to prevent the ruin from collapsing suddenly, making them able to continue with more ease.

The moment they stepped inside the main building, however, the two shards started acting weird. They buzzed and swayed, sending confusion signals to Zein.

"What’s wrong?" Bassena asked.

"They are...confused..." Zein muttered, gripping Bassena’s hand tighter.

That kind of reaction from the shard...seemed to strengthen Naoya’s conjecture even more. Zein pressed his lips and followed the markings in silence until they reached a chamber. It looked like a conference room of some sort, with tiered seats and a small stage at the edge.

It was at that stage that a storm of miasma swirled around something.

They stopped at the entrance of the chamber; the top of the seating. Zein stared hard at the storm of miasma that started to weigh on his body, but he gritted his teeth and stepped forward. If he stopped any longer, he felt like he wouldn’t be able to continue.

The shard stuck to Zein even more, strengthening the barrier so Zein wouldn’t feel the heaviness too much. Thanks to that, Zein didn’t have to feel like he was walking through a bog. He followed Bassena, who walked in front to make sure things were safe enough.

"Ugh--" Bassena grunted when a familiar sense of repulsion forced him back. Having the shard’s barrier didn’t seem to help much. Curiously, Zein stretched out his hand to where the repelling force field should be.

But there was no resistance. Not for him.

He looked at Bassena with shaken, hardened eyes. The esper nodded and spoke at the shard. "Don’t mind me--just protect him."

The barrier retreated and Bassena covered himself in scales, watching Zein step inside the storm of miasma.