There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 596 - 590. Men Can Only Plan

Chapter 596: Chapter 590. Men Can Only Plan

At the start of ’phase two’, while the rest of the espers were fighting the Fragments, Iore and the Spirit Queen worked together to get rid of the ominous fume above the palace rubble.

With the espers working hard to separate the Fragment and the Chimera, this fume became a curtain between two battles and once again, Zein had to grit his teeth because Bassena was alone again, separated from the rest of them; away from healing and guiding. He had to step back and move to a safer location, which was closer to the Fragments than the Chimera.

The cloud itself was letting out a dark rain that melted the debris it touched. It was hard to watch the battle of the two giants behind the curtain of the dark rain, and it was even worse when the raincloud started to actively look for things to melt.

Thankfully, they had the Spirit Queen by their side. Even though Eleanor wasn’t with them this time, the Queen had gotten used to their language and understood what they said. "Your Majesty, please help me freeze the cloud!"

Iore let out strands of mana toward the cloud, and the Spirit Queen strengthened the power threefold. She attached the strands of mana across the cloud with careful calculation and gradually, it froze over while the other espers were wrestling with the Fragments.

Soon, the rain turned into hail as the cloud crumbled bit by bit. The half-melted palace ruble gradually littered with frozen toxic crystal that Han Shin wittingly told the Queen to gather.

"We’re done with the cloud!" Iore reported with bated breath, collapsing beside Zein, who told her she did a good job and immediately guided her.

This was when Zhan started to chase the two fragments and Han Shin immediately ran toward the spearman before he could heal Iore. Thankfully, the magician had no serious injury and soon felt better after drinking a rejuvenation serum. She almost dropped the vial when the ground suddenly shook, however, and they shifted their gaze to the giant clash on the other side of the dungeon.

Bassena had tackled and shoved the dragon to the wide plains at the edge of the dungeon. The Giant Serpent, now with Bassena acting as its core and controlling it, moved even better than before. It tackled and bit the dragon with its head, and swiped its shredding tail to the dragon’s side.

Of course, the Chimera fiercely fought back. But the Serpent was made of weapons in the first place, so even if the dragon attacked back, the Serpent did not feel pain. It never faltered.

And the Chimera started to feel a looming crisis.

At that point, the Fallen Star suddenly felt the presence of two of its offshoots, and immediately took a defensive stance while sneakily snatching the Fragments from the ground.

And thus, the ground once again shook as the Chimera roared and took back the power it had birthed before, managing to shove the Serpent away.

"Hey, I lost the two..." Zhan uselessly reported to Zein while scratching his neck.

"I can see it," Zein let out a sigh. Well, they could plan, but something would almost always go wrong anyway. At the very least, he was grateful that only two got absorbed instead of seven. "Nothing we can do about it--just take down the remaining three."

"Okidoki!" Zhan saluted the way Dheera and the other guides usually did before rushing back to the three Fragments that Agni and Cohen were trying to stop with Sierra’s support.

Iore looked at the battle restlessly; she wanted to help, but she wasn’t allowed to move until Zein told her so. Taking care of a natural disaster spiked her corrosion level more than that warrior, so she couldn’t help but stay put.

"It shouldn’t be long now," Zein muttered.

"Yes?"

"The outside," the guide cocked his chin toward the dungeon entrance. "With two Saint class espers and Radia overseeing everything, they should be able to clean up the field by now--maybe even the lake."

"Yes, I believe so," Senan nodded at Zein’s conjecture. "The fact that the Fallen Star did not call back the creatures outside meant they were either too occupied with the battle or had been annihilated already."

"Oh!"

Iore perked up and nodded. Her Captain was also there, so taking care of the Fragments and the minion outside shouldn’t be very hard. "Do you think they had placed the bridge?"

"Probably," Zein nodded. Probably for himself too. He turned his gaze toward the battle of giants on the other side and sighed.

Is his corrosion level alright? Zein chewed the inside of his mouth, feeling stuffy. He reassured himself with the fact that Bassena hadn’t been using any skill other than the black armor and the giant serpent. The esper didn’t even summon his children of darkness, so it should be alright.

Still, Zein couldn’t help feeling worried because the situation was almost similar to the battle against the clone before.

If only he could sense Bassena’s corrosion level from afar...Zein bit his lips. Even if he used the Saint’s staff, the distance was too far for him to guide Bassena, and the esper had forbidden him from using it since it might draw the Fallen Star’s attention to him instead.

But the only way for Zein to know Bassena’s corrosion level from any distance was if they were imprinted to each other, so...

Zein let out a sigh and watched silently as the giant serpent slithered past boulders that the chimera had thrown with tentacles that suddenly sprouted from its back and belly. What a messy creature--Zein shook his head and silently cheered his lover as the giant serpent swerved past the dragon and coiled itself on the chimera’s tail and hind legs, shredding half of the chimera’s body. The blue eyes lit up as the chimera’s howl filled the dungeon--although his observation had to be cut short because the ground shook again from the violent rampage.

"Ugh--at this point, I’m going to get ill from the nausea instead of an injury," Han Shin grumbled while working hard on balancing himself.

"Young Master, we should move--oh," Senan stopped as the last of the Fragments let out a loud shriek while its corporeal body dissipated into the thin air.

Once again, Agni shoved the fragmented core into the tube that was already rattling and corroding. "Fuck, fuck, fuck--" the berserker cursed at the pain crawling into his hand.

"Que--Her Majesty," Zein cleared her throat and looked at the hovering Queen Spirit. "Please provide an elemental net around the tube."

The tiny spirit raised her thumb and blew toward the tube. The wind from her lips slid through the surviving trees, and some of the vines and branches peeled off, following the wind toward Agni. The berserker let the tube go and they weaved around the dropped tube to seal it further with the Spirit Queen’s power.

Once it was done, Agni caught the net and slung the wriggling thing over his shoulder, immediately sprinted toward the corner of the dungeon--the back door. "Let’s go, Her Majesty!" he shouted when he passed Zein’s group, and the Spirit Queen followed him with a face full of disgust at the wriggling net.

It was the objective of their second phase; to throw the fragment cores away so they couldn’t be used by the Fallen Star.

Usually, Zein would destroy them with the help of the shard, but he couldn’t afford to spend the energy in the middle of the battle. How could they destroy the cores then?

’You said the Fallen Star cannot access the Star Corridor because the cosmic energy rejects the corrupted one, didn’t you?’ Radia asked them one day. ’Then, what will happen to the corrupted energy thrown into the corridor?’

And that was how they came up with the plan.

"Ron, check the condition outside--the rest of you, gather here so I can guide you!" Zein ordered the espers while running to position himself on the path between the giants and the running Agni, and they immediately turned toward him.

Together, the group created a wall to prevent the chimera from reaching the fragment cores. If the Fallen Star wanted to snatch them, it had to go through the rest of them.

That being said, it didn’t seem like they had to worry too much. The giant serpent, realizing the situation, had swirled and positioned itself to prevent the chimera from looking in the others’ direction. The battle was getting fiercer than before, but Bassena did a good job defending his position without letting the chimera leave the plains which had gotten shredded and beaten up so much it looked like a site of multiple natural disasters.

"Zein!" Zhan looked back impatiently at the guide who was stretching his fingers to guide all of them at the same time. He gripped his halberd tightly, and when the blue eyes finally opened, he lowered his body for a running stance.

"Go."

And the rest of them dashed forward, including the support magicians. Even Han Shin--because who knew how much injury Bassena had sustained while fighting alone. Zein took a deep breath behind Senan’s shield, holding himself from running forward; him being there would just become a liability for Bassena anyway.

"It’s done!" As expected of a speedy berserker, Agni quickly finished throwing out the fragment cores through the back door that the Spirit Queen opened for him. "I’ll join the attack force now!"

But Zein gripped his hand and glared at him. "You need a guiding first."

"Oh, come on!" Agni rolled his eyes. "It’ll be over soon anyway."

"You don’t know tha--"

GRAAAAH!!

Before Zein could finish or the other espers could support Bassena, the chimera suddenly went into berserk.

"Shit--it must find out we have gotten rid of all the fragments," Agni clicked his tongue. "Zein, I think you should get back a bit further."

"I agree, Young Master," Senan already raised another barrier on top of his shield. "It’ll become rougher from now--"

CRACK! BOOM!

And then, suddenly, something exploded; sending everyone flung to the edge of the dungeon.

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