There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 574 - 568. The Saint’s Call

Chapter 574: Chapter 568. The Saint’s Call

The first time it felt that dangerous presence, it tried to run.

It ran to a place with a lot of tall walls, thinking it would serve as protection. Instead, it became a trap. The complicated layout made it hard for it to navigate, and before it could look for a way out, that dangerous presence caught it.

It struggled, repelling the presence it remembered as an enemy. Thankfully, it seemed like they had the opposite cosmic energy, making it easier to resist. It just...didn’t think the enemy would do it consistently for years and years.

Years and years, its defense was wearing thin and it was tired. Oh, it was tired and at one point, it got distracted enough for the enemy to pierce its defense.

And it burns. Oh, it burned for both of them. It screamed and the enemy was furious. It could feel the enemy’s anger for those years of useless attempts. For a while, it felt good, it felt glad. Surely, the enemy would leave it alone after this.

Oh, how wrong. How naive. In the wake of the enemy’s pain, anger, and frustration, multiple swirling portals appeared around them, bearing thicker miasma than the one surrounding them. It was confused at first, but that confusion turned into dread when the enemy roared and cracks appeared on the swirling portals.

And then, they exploded.

The swirling portals broke, and thick miasma poured out. Like a whirlpool, the accumulated miasma sucked even more miasma around. More and more miasma crawled into where it was, shackling it, crawling into it.

It hurt; it was painful and scary. But no matter how loud it screamed, nothing happened. And so it screamed and screamed and cried for years and years, as more and more miasma crawled and eroded its existence.

* * *

"I see...how unfortunate," Tian Yu closed his eyes when Zein finished his story. The shard in the guide’s hand was letting out a soft vibration as if wailing, while the other one’s light had turned even dimmer. "But you said there’s a way to get it back, right?"

"Right," Zein nodded while caressing the wailing shard. "It’d be impossible if it got corrupted completely, because the only way to solve this would be to destroy it."

"So it’s not completely overridden?"

"That’s why it could still send its memory to me," Zein nodded. "But the transfer was done too abruptly that it became painful."

Han Shin gasped. "Ah, so that was why you were..."

"Mm,"

"That’s why mental healing also couldn’t help," Han Shin nodded, feeling relieved. "Because it wasn’t an injury in the first place."

Zein nodded before taking a bottle of water from Bassena. He didn’t realize how parched his throat felt after enduring that twelve minutes and talking about it. But thinking about how it was only a tiny fraction of what the shard must have been feeling made everything bearable. If anything, the pain just turned into anger.

"So? What should we do now?" the old man asked.

"...there’s nothing you can do," Zein replied dryly.

"What?! But earlier you said--"

"There’s nothing you can do."

The espers tensed at that answer, frowning as they stared at the guide and waited for an explanation.

Zein took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "It’s a bit different, but in the end, it’s an extreme case of corrosion."

They widened their eyes at the implication of that one word; corrosion. And the fact that Zein said they--the espers--couldn’t do anything...

"So you’re saying..."

The only one who could treat corrosion, which was also deadly for espers, was a guide. Bassena gritted his teeth--he already had this bad feeling ever since Naoya said it might be a shard.

Must it be like this? Must everything be solved by Zein again? Must he let the love of his life venture into danger without him again?

"But this time...I don’t think I can do it alone."

Those who knew Zein enough widened their eyes. Zein...wasn’t the type who asked for help easily. If anything, he usually ended up to be the one helping. Perhaps due to his upbringing and leftover habit of doing everything by himself, he always tried to solve things by himself first.

Thus, the fact that he said he couldn’t do it alone meant it really was that dire. The condition was that overwhelming.

Zein took a deep breath again and said with a frown. "I need the other guides."

* * *

A few hours after Zein finished his explanation, a portal opened on top of a medallion that Han Joon placed on the ground. As usual, Radia came out of the portal with Nyx; but this time, he also brought someone else.

"Long time no see, Captain," Nadine tilted her head and curled her eyes at the sight of Zein, whom she hadn’t seen since the funeral after the war.

Zein smiled wrily behind his mask. "Thank you for coming."

"I hope you called me earlier," Nadine sighed and looked around. It wasn’t her first time in the Deathzone--she had come with the other guides just for a taste before--but it was still slightly uncomfortable, even with the purification device.

Zein watched his deputy looking around and acclimatizing herself, and he unconsciously smiled. For some reason, the heaviness in his shoulder eased up a bit. "I thought you were having fun with my school?"

"What’s the point of you turning me into a field agent just to make me work behind the desk?" Nadine clicked her tongue.

Well, she found that she did enjoy teaching others though, so her protest about being left behind had subsided. Of course, she also knew that Zein left her because he trusted her to keep his legacy back home, but still...how could she teach about the field well if she hadn’t served in the most brutal field yet?

So naturally, Nadine still wanted to be called to the frontline. She wanted to joke that Zein should have just put her in the rooster if he was going to call her in the end, but his expression made her switch mode immediately.

"It must be serious," she muttered.

"I’ll explain on the way," Zein simply said while leading her toward the campfire.

She listened to the concise explanation on the way, trying to patch it with the information she got about the operation and the shards. She glanced at the two crystals hovering around Zein like a pair of sentient lanterns while keeping her astonishment to a minimum.

"That’s..." the brief ended when they reached the fire, and she turned to look at the dark field not far from the camp. "I see...so that’s why you need us."

"I’ll be fine doing it alone if we can afford to do it gradually, but the moment I stop, the miasma will attack again," Zein clenched his jaw in frustration. "So I have no choice but to ask for your help."

"Captain, sometimes you are very foolish," Nadine shook her head and sighed while plopping down in one of the chairs surrounding the fire. She continued at Zein’s confused gaze. "What do you mean you have no choice? Does that mean you’ll continue to do it alone if you can?" she looked at the male guide incredulously. "We are not some emergency measure, Captain."

Zein raised his brows. He himself probably didn’t realize it because it had been so normal for him. It was normal to do it alone because he was the only one who could do it before.

"Didn’t you train us so we can help you in the Deathzone?" Nadine continued, shaking her head exasperatedly. "Why are you acting like you need to do things alone, Captain?"

For a few seconds, Zein was at a loss for words. "...it’s dangerous."

Nadine scoffed. "What a foolish thing to say after coaxing us to go to the Deathzone."

Zein blinked slowly at her words, before chuckling softly in the end. Ah...this was why he chose her as his deputy. "I’m sorry, you’re right," he moved his shoulder slightly. It felt lighter somehow. "I’m not alone."

"That’s right," Nadine crossed her arms.

"Still, I’m serious," Zein frowned. "This is way more dangerous than anything."

"Even more than that battle?"

"Even more," Zein replied without hesitation. At the very least, the guides were staying in the backline and being protected. But this time, they had to ’fight’ instead. "You’ll have to stay inside that black fog while absorbing the miasma from the shard."

"Ah..."

"We’ll be under the protection of these two shards, but the conditions will still be harsh," Zein patted one of the shards.

Even for him, it still felt oppressing, so it would be even worse for the other guides. It would be better if we could move the black shard away from the field of fog, but the miasma storm was nailing it in place. And within that condition, they would still need to guide.

"Umm...how long do you think..."

"I can’t be sure," Zein stroked his lips in contemplation. "You might need to do it until the limit."

"Our limit..." Nadine muttered quietly. For the first time, she sounded concerned. "What if it’s not enough even after we reached our limit? You said we can’t stop the process, right?"

"Yes," Zein exhaled heavily and looked up, as if praying. Perhaps he was. "Well, we just have to pray that our limit is enough."

Nadine bit her lips, but she hardened her eyes and resolved in the next second. She knew Zein wouldn’t call her there to do a suicide mission. "But it’s not impossible, right?"

"I’ll make it not impossible," Zein replied with a calm tone but a fierce gaze. He held up his hand and a beautiful white staff materialized suddenly, striking the hard ground and making the shards vibrate in excitement. "No matter what, we’ll make it possible."