Salvation Through Delusion C86

Chapter 86

I hurried to Tyroc’s side and grabbed his shoulder, rolling him onto his back.

“Shit—if you die like this, what’s Earth supposed to—oh. You’re alive.”

He was.

He looked every bit a corpse—pale, blood-soaked, breath shallow—but he was still breathing. Relief washed through me… though the danger was far from over.

“Kkirrikh!”

That sound—the cry of a monster—cut through the air, and every hair on my body stood on end. I’d forgotten. There was still an enemy here.

Where the hell was it hiding?

I staggered to my feet, scanning the area. Nothing. The air was still, silent, but that sound—louder now—was unmistakable.

‘Mo, did you locate the monster?’

[Negative. Visual confirmation unavailable. However, there’s an abnormal disturbance beneath the lakebed, at four o’clock.]

The lakebed?

I turned, and within seconds, I understood what Mo meant.

The dry, blood-stained ground was quivering. Cracks split open, the soil heaving as if something massive was clawing its way up from below.

A chill seized me, crawling up my spine. My instincts screamed at me.

It’s under there.

Dorugo’s last words echoed in my head.

“The land of Borhumi shall be the cradle of a holy monster’s descent.”

“Holy my ass.”

I swore under my breath and forced my trembling legs forward. The monster couldn’t be allowed to emerge—not now.

Tyroc, my last damn shred of hope, was unconscious, and Haas was down too. If the monster came through, we’d be nothing but sacrificial offerings.

I grabbed Tyroc’s arm and dragged him with all the strength I had left.

“Haah… haah…” My breath rasped harshly in my throat. I had to move him—anywhere, just far enough to hide. Even if it didn’t matter once the monster came through, I couldn’t leave him in plain sight.

By the time I hauled Tyroc to safety, I was drenched in sweat. When I turned to move Haas next, Mo’s voice cut sharply in my mind.

[Warning: Severe fatigue. Continued exertion may result in full physical shutdown.]

I ignored it, gasping as I dragged Haas behind a rock. My limbs shook uncontrollably, and I nearly dropped him several times.

So much that Haas even stirred, his eyelids fluttering open.

“Urgh… what are you…”

“I’ll hide you.”

“Wha—?”

“Just sleep. The rescue team will come. You just have to hold on until then.”

The words slipped out automatically. I’d said them a hundred times before—to dying teammates, to people who never made it back.

It had always been a lie.

But maybe here… it wouldn’t be.

And if it was—well, I’d deal with it.

Once they were both hidden, I could barely stay upright. My body screamed to collapse, but I forced my legs to move.

Then the ground shook again—louder this time.

Rrrrmmm—

The earth split open. A jagged shape speared upward through the soil—an enormous limb, slick and dark. The monster’s leg.

I laughed, breathless and disbelieving.

“Hah. Really?”

[Motor function severely impaired. Movement not recommended.]

“Not recommended doesn’t mean impossible, Mo.”

I gritted my teeth, clutching my club. There was no way I’d stand here and just watch it crawl out.

“Activate combat mode.”

[Engaging terrain scan. Maximizing adaptive response.]

My skull burned with the overload of data, but I ignored it.

“You think you can just crawl out, huh? Not on my watch.”

I limped toward the shaking ground, dragging my leg. The fissure wasn’t wide yet—if I could destroy that leg, maybe I could buy us time.

But I never reached it.

Grrrrrk…

The ground pulsed again.

[Danger! Source of the sound confirmed—directly beneath you!]

Before I could react, Mo seized control of my limbs, jerking me backward. The ground erupted, and a clawed leg shot up exactly where I’d been standing.

Thanks to Mo, I wasn’t impaled. But I wasn’t unharmed either.

Blood spilled down my side where the edge of the blast had torn me open.

“Urgh…”

I staggered back, gripping the club tighter.

Haah… haah… I have to stop it. I have to stop it here.

Somewhere between exhaustion and adrenaline, I forgot where I was. It didn’t feel like Tuvine anymore—it felt like Earth. Like every battlefield I’d ever bled on.

The team leader is the last line of defense.

The words I’d repeated before every hopeless fight echoed in my skull.

Just as I raised the club again, someone grabbed my arm.

A woman—fifties, maybe late fifties, with sharp eyes and calm strength. Someone I’d never seen before.

“It’s dangerous, Adeye Rue.”

I froze. “Who… are you?”

Where the hell had she come from? And this place—oh, right. Tuvine. I blinked, dazed.

Then she said, softly, “Black Bear.”

Bear?

“What—no! There’s a monster coming up! The bear’s in danger!”

I turned, scanning frantically for the animal, but my vision blurred. Shapes swam and flickered at the edges of my sight.

“B-Bear… we have to move it…”

The woman just watched me, her expression steady, almost amused.

“You’re worried about an animal in the middle of this?”

“Of course,” I muttered. “They’re precious.”

Pain lanced through me, stealing the rest of my breath. My words blurred together. Her gaze softened—warm, impossibly so.

“Who… are you really?” I managed to whisper.

“Black Bear.”

A spirit? A guardian? My thoughts tangled. The world tilted, and before I could fall, she pressed a hand to my shoulder, lowering me gently to the ground.

“I’ll handle it,” she said. “Rest.”

“What? The monster—no, you have to run, it’s—”

The dizziness hit hard. My vision darkened at the edges, sound warping like underwater static. I mumbled something—danger, monster—and then went still.

The last thing I saw before the darkness swallowed me was her silhouette walking toward the fissure, sword gleaming in her hand.

She looked small, but not fragile.

Never fragile.

When consciousness returned, the first thing that came to mind was absurd.

How many times have I passed out now?

At least in Tuvine, someone was always there to clean up after me.

That never happened back home. There, no matter how many times I woke, it was always alone. Whether it was the corner of a ruined shelter, a dirt pit I’d dug to hide in, or the ashes of a collapsed building—no one waited.

If you were hurt, you crawled.

If you starved, you endured.

Waking up was just another punishment.

But here… there were no nightmares waiting when I opened my eyes.

Strange, then, that I felt no peace—only the hollow ache of guilt.

I should’ve stayed and fought.

“Ah! You’re awake!”

A familiar voice jolted me back. I blinked, meeting a pair of gray eyes full of concern.

Dr. Kim.

“You look sad,” she said quietly, “for someone who’s home.”

Her words hit too close, and I looked away.

“I am home,” I muttered.

It really was Rue’s room.

When had I gotten here?

I tried to sit up, but a small pale hand pressed gently against my head. Dr. Kim’s touch was so soft that my whole body went rigid. I wanted to pull away—but forced myself to stay still.

Thankfully, she withdrew her hand quickly, probably because I started coughing.

“Cough, cough.”

My throat burned, my body feverish. Right. My side—injured. Probably infected. Great.

“Master, please step back,” a healer urged anxiously from somewhere nearby. “He’s contagious.”

But Dr. Kim didn’t move.

Once I caught my breath, I managed to grumble, “If I get sick, I’ll heal. But if you catch something, that’s a one-way ticket to the afterlife.”

She smiled faintly. “I’m already on that train. It’s just… a slow one.”

I frowned. “Well, that train went on strike. So you’re getting off.”

I sighed and asked the only thing that mattered. “What happened?”

“Everything’s fine,” she said simply.

Then she pulled the blanket up to my neck and called over her shoulder, “Put him back to sleep.”

“Wait—what do you mean fine? Cough, cough—what about the monster? The one rising from the lakebed? If a breach opened, the Eye of Hell could—wait, what are you feeding me—mmph!”

The healer forced a bitter liquid down my throat. The smell of herbs filled my nose. Before I could protest, drowsiness hit like a wave.

I tried to keep my eyes on Dr. Kim, to demand answers, but her voice was the last thing I heard.

“It’s all right,” she said softly. “I’ll take care of everything.”