DOTD Chapter 10

But I didn’t even have the strength to protest and ask for treatment.

 

Behind me, I heard the door close with a squeak and lock from outside. It was pitch black except for the faint light coming through the cracks.

 

So sleepy. The floor was hard and rough, but having something to lean on made me suddenly feel drowsy.

 

I have no energy left. My willpower is at its limit.

 

How could I stay awake?

 

‘If I let go, won’t I never wake up again?’

 

It’s been so long since I came back from the brink of death…

 

Why would someone, who was meant to die, survive to face such a trial?

 

My mind was in a daze and my thoughts were all over the place.

 

One after another, the faces of my friends flashed through my mind. Adrian, Sion, Louis.

 

Then, somewhere in between, Evan’s face came into view.

 

As I stared at the faces of the four of them, another thought struck me.

 

‘Why did this happen?’

 

And with that thought, the memory cut off like a fuse blowing.

 

🦋

 

Evan tossed and turned in pain, as if his insides were being ripped out.

 

In the distance, Rowan rushed over and helped him up.

 

It was Rowan who carried Evan to safety, just as Yzmel had disappeared with a teleportation spell.

 

Rowan was horrified to find that their lodgings had been attacked while he had been away for food.

 

Even Yzmel, who had helped them, was battling Evan.

 

‘What the hell is going on?’

 

Rowan hid Evan in the bushes away from the scene of the incident and went back to look for Bella, only to see her being taken away.

 

Stopping himself from jumping to his feet, he turned back to Evan.

 

‘I almost went to rescue her there, I should have put Evan first.’

 

Kicking himself for his stupidity, he realized that he should probably move quickly to another nearby town.

 

“Ugh…”

 

“Evan, hang on.”

 

Rowan gently helped Evan back to his feet and prepared to move on.

 

“Pia.”

 

At Rowan’s call, a small fire bird appeared in the air. 

 

Called Pia, the fire spirit circled around Rowan and Evan as soon as it appeared. Each flap of the little bird’s wings spewed sparkling red powder.

 

“Find me the fastest path away from the crowds.”

 

The bird gave a small nod, then lifted itself into the air and disappeared.

 

“Bella, find Bella…”

 

Evan muttered her name through the pain.

 

“No, no. They’ll take us, too.”

 

And she wouldn’t die, somehow, he was sure of that. Evan patted his unmoving body.

 

“Stay still. You’re going to get better, and I’m not going to go save Bella.”

 

Evan’s body ached from overexertion. He’d heard it wasn’t like this when he was a kid, when he didn’t know anything.

 

Rowan had first met him when he was ten, but he was already like this even then.

 

Perhaps he was trying to suppress his powers, and this was a side effect.

 

There was never an exception to what Rowan had witnessed. Evan always collapsed when he drew more than a certain amount of power.

 

‘But why then?’

 

During his first encounter with the creature, Evan had used his power and, unsurprisingly, collapsed in pain, but he had returned to normal shortly afterward.

 

He had never felt better in such a short time, I swear. I still haven’t heard a proper explanation for that day.

 

‘There’s something about her.’

 

Rowan followed Pia’s reappearance and continued to think, but there was only so much he could guess on his own.

 

Everything about Bella has been a mystery since meeting her.

 

From why, she suddenly fought Yzmel, to why she was taken, to what her connection was to Evan’s abilities.

 

‘One person who could answer these mysteries is gone now, and the other is…’ 

 

Glancing back at Evan behind him, Rowan resumed moving diligently.

 

Regardless, finding a safe place to stay was the priority for now.

 

🦋

 

The loud screaming and shouting of people in the distance grew increasingly louder.

 

“Aaaahhh!”

 

A loud, panicked voice pierced their ear drums.

 

Thump—!

 

The carriage shook as something hit it, making a crunching sound.

 

Something hit me, rocking the carriage and causing it to shatter.

 

“What’s going on…”

 

After the noise I had just heard, all was suddenly quiet.

 

There was a strange rush of air. Goosebumps rose on my arms. Although I couldn’t see outside from inside the carriage, I knew something was happening.

 

Ears pricked up and body tensed.

 

I stared at the door in front of me, which was firmly closed.

 

Screech—

 

A low animal cry broke the silence.

 

I snapped my head to the right, away from the front and toward the wall.

 

With a bang, one of the long, sleek arms that pierced the wagon grazed the side of my ear.

 

A cold sweat trickled down my spine. I was still in mana restraints, and the combination of external and internal injuries made it difficult to move.

 

‘This is going to kill me.’

 

The fear of actual death rose to the top of my lungs.

 

Biting my lips, I flung myself to the other side.

 

At that moment, the ruthless monster’s claws tore the wall of one side of the wagon into tatters.

 

And the situation outside, looking through the hole, was even more hopeless.

 

“…!”

 

Crap, how many of these are there?

 

The bodies of the people who had brought me to the carriage were strewn everywhere, and the towering black monsters in between were too numerous to count at a glance.

 

As soon as the sight caught my eye, I forgot about the restraints and powered up my mana.

 

Gritting my teeth, I managed to get it to move, but the spell was difficult to cast.

 

My clenched fists trembled beneath the mass of iron.

 

The monsters didn’t wait. My vision flipped one last time as they all lunged at me at once.

 

“Ack!”

 

The steed screamed, its body shaking from the force.

 

The carriage ripped like a sheet of paper, and I was thrown away as the wall I was leaning against shattered.

 

With my hands tied, I had to take the full force of the impact.

 

“Ugh…”

 

Tears welled up in my eyes as the pain took my breath away.

 

Without even a moment to process the pain, I raised my arms to block the next blow.

 

Hoping that if I blocked it with my bindings, it wouldn’t break, but I quickly regretted doing so.

 

“Hmph.”

 

The restraints cracked, thankfully, but my wrist took the brunt of the blow.

 

Ouch. It hurts so much, oh, this. Did I break my wrist? Tears streamed down my cheeks from the unfamiliar pain.

 

But there was no time to waste, and I realized that another barrage of attacks was coming at me from all directions.

 

I poured mana into the cracks in the restraints.

 

‘Please break, please break!’ 

 

With a crack, the restraint shattered under the enormous amount of mana desperately drawn from it, and the frozen mana began to move with great force.

 

And then, almost as quickly as that, countless arms swung at me.

 

Boom!

 

A huge explosion erupted in a huge circle centering on me.

 

There was a deafening roar and a gust of wind that lasted for a moment, but soon subsided.

 

In the silence, I heard a series of loud crashes as the creatures fell.

 

Standing in what must have been a 10-meter radius, I was the only one left alive. But soon enough, I was grunting, coughing up blood, and hitting my head on the ground.

 

The ground spun around in front of me.

 

“…Bloody hell.”

 

Though I didn’t have the strength to roll my tongue, the curse words came out reflexively.

 

It was directed at everything that had made me suffer.

 

That’s it. Suddenly, I heard footsteps in what was clearly only me.

 

The footsteps seemed to stop in front of me before I could even open my eyes, and a very careful hand wiped the tears from my cheeks.

 

I squeezed out the last of my strength before letting go of the strings of consciousness and looked up at the hand’s owner.

 

‘Louis…?’

 

The blurry human form looked strangely like Louis.

 

“…I’m sorry.”

 

It couldn’t be, but even that desperate voice sounded like the old Louis.

 

No, it can’t be. 

 

There’s no way you could be here.

 

Especially not like that, covered in blood.