(Paul POV)
"Paul! Paul!! Stay with me!"
"Nnngh… wha—"
The pain hit me like a landslide. My whole body ached, sharp, burning jolts running through my arms and chest. Everything felt too hot, too heavy.
When I forced my eyes open, the first thing I saw was a blurry figure leaning over me, hands glowing with soft, familiar light.
Zenith.
She was pale, her face streaked with tears and sweat, but her hands never faltered as they hovered over my chest, mending whatever mess was left of me.
"Damn it, Paul," she scolded, her voice trembling but tight. "You reckless idiot. You… you were supposed to get everyone out once it got this bad!"
I opened my mouth, but all that came out was a ragged breath.
I forced myself to look around. The others were scattered across the ground nearby — burned, bloodied, some barely conscious, some completely still.
Ghislaine's side was streaked with burns, Elinalise's leg twisted unnaturally. Roxy was next to Ruijerd, using one of the Healing Bracelets. Eris lay nearby, her face pale, a thin cut across her cheek.
Zenith followed my gaze, her hands pressing against my ribs again. "We were lucky," she whispered. "No one's dead, but they're hurt bad… too bad."
I winced. The guilt hit even harder than the pain.
"I'm sorry," I managed, the words rasping out. "I… I should've pulled us out sooner."
Zenith's face softened a fraction, but she kept working.
I let out a ragged breath, nodded faintly — then it hit me. The monster. I don't remember the details, but I vaguely remember having defeated it.
"Rudy."
The word left my lips like a spark in dry grass. My heart pounded, panic cutting through the fog.
I pushed myself upright, groaning as my body screamed in protest. "Where—"
"He's still in there," Zenith said softly, sorrow in her voice. "In the crystal. Once the explosions stopped, I headed out to find you all here wounded all over youselves."
I didn't even wait. It's like all my pain went away and my body moved before my mind did, stumbling and half-crawling through the wreckage toward the chamber.
***
When I reached the room, my heart stopped, the sight before me freezing the blood in my veins, a cold dread knotting in my gut as I saw the figure still trapped inside that cursed crystal.
Rudy. Still in that damn grey crystal.
I dropped to my knees in front of it, my whole body trembling. We'd won. We'd killed the thing, we'd fought through hell itself—and still, he was trapped.
"Why…?" I whispered.
The others began to gather behind me, moving carefully on battered legs. Zenith reached out, her fingers brushing my shoulder. "Paul…"
"I don't get it," I choked. "What more… what else do we need to—"
But the words died in my throat.
A thick, unnatural silence clung to the chamber, pressing down on us like a smothering hand. The air was heavy, charged — like the moments before a lightning strike. Shadows danced uneasily on the cracked walls, thrown by the flickering remnants from the destruction our fight caused. Dust hung in the still air, suspended, as if time itself had forgotten to move forward.
The others began to gather behind me, moving carefully on battered legs, their faces pale and drawn. No one spoke. Elinalise's face twisted as she limped in, her arm clutching her side. Eris's eyes darted around the room, her hand hovering near her sword even though there was no enemy left to fight. Roxy's lips were tight, her eyes shining in the dim light, like she already sensed what was coming.
Zenith reached out, her fingers brushing my shoulder.
"Paul…"
Her voice was too soft, almost distant — like it was coming through a wall of thick glass. My pulse thundered in my ears, matching the phantom ache in my chest.
Then—
Ghislaine stiffened. Her ears flicked sharply. The movement was sudden, predatory.
"I hear something," she muttered, voice low and grim.
We all froze.
She slowly reached up and pulled away her eyepatch—the pale light from her other eye cut through the gloom like a dagger.
"The mana…" she said, her brow furrowed, her gaze locked on the crystal. "It's being pulled in. I think he's… absorbing it."
A faint hum, so soft I almost thought it was in my head.
Then, slowly, inexorably, it grew louder.
And then—*thump*
A heartbeat. Deep, resonant, and wrong somehow. I felt it as much as I heard it, like it had rippled through my bones.
Light gathered inside the crystal, threads of silver-blue pulling in toward Rudeus's chest, drawn by invisible strings.
Another heartbeat.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the crystal's surface, too fast, too precise.
The hum swelled, filling the air with a sound that wasn't quite a sound — a vibration in the marrow of my bones.
And then, all at once, the crystal shattered.
I lunged forward and caught him before he hit the ground, his body too light, too pale, but real. Solid.
His breathing was shallow, his heartbeat weak — but it was there.
"He's alive," I murmured, my voice cracking.
Relief hit me like a wave, drowning the terror, the pain, the weight of everything we'd barely survived.
Zenith fell to her knees beside me, her hands trembling as she touched his face.
"Rudy," she whispered, breaking apart, pulling him close.
I swallowed hard, blinking back the burning in my eyes.
After everything… we had him back.
***
Without a second thought, we left the place behind.
The corrosive fumes still hung thick in the air, clinging to our lungs and clothes like a sickness we couldn't shake. It wasn't worth lingering, not with the threat of some incurable toxin waiting to claim us if we stayed too long.
There was no loot left to claim — not after the Labyrinth crystal vanished along with everything it controlled. In a way, we expected that. It was never a natural Labyrinth to begin with.
We made our way through the silent, shattered tower, climbing its broken stairways with what little strength we had left, our bodies heavy and battered. When we reached the floor where the Treants had once stood, we collapsed. There was no more fight left in us.
We chose to rest there, if only for a little while.
Some of us were barely conscious. Others needed urgent care — the acidic explosions had left burns on skin and cloth alike, and our wounds bled into the dust.
Roxy moved first, tending the minor injuries with careful, steady spells of intermediate-rank Healing Magic, while Zenith handled the more grievous ones with her high-rank arts. Even then, it wasn't enough to erase the pain.
While most of us lay scattered in exhaustion, Eris knelt beside Rudy, carefully resting his head on her lap. A strange tenderness settled over the moment — her face almost as red as her hair as she quietly brushed her fingers through his hair. She tried to look casual, but the tremble in her touch betrayed her.
I almost smiled. Whatever was between them, it was real.
Phillip had told me they were betrothed, or nearly so. It was only a matter of time before Rudy made his move. He was my son, after all.
But what haunted me more than that were the things I hadn't seen before.
Rudy's body was scarred. Beneath the dirt and dried blood, his left arm below the elbow, his right shoulder, even the skin under his eye… riddled with old wounds. Thick, twisted tissue marked him like a battlefield survivor twice his age. A jagged line ran down his left eye, nearly erasing the small mole that once sat beneath it.
He'd gotten those during his fight with the alpha of the Black Dragon horde. I could still see the flashes in my mind — the way the earth split, the cries of the dying, the sickening crunch of bone. The memory of those wounds wasn't distant. It was too raw, too vivid.
But even more than that… I was afraid.
Afraid of what might be growing inside him.
Curses didn't always manifest in the body first. And neither did the worst kinds of wounds.
I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, grounding me.
"You're thinking too much," Ruijerd's steady voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. It wasn't a scolding — just a quiet truth.
I sighed, dragging a hand down my face. "I just… I have to be ready. If he wakes up, and he's… not the same—if we lost more than we realized—what do we do then?"
Ruijerd didn't answer right away. He looked down at Rudy, his gaze somber, unreadable. "First," he said finally, "we get him to safety. That's the only thing that matters right now."
I knew he was right. But it didn't quiet the storm inside me.
"Ruijerd," I started again, hesitating, but forcing the words out. "You've fought in wars. You've probably seen soldiers break. How do you help someone like that?"
For a moment, there was silence. His eyes grew distant.
"There's no sure way," he said quietly. "Some heal, given enough time. Some… don't."
It wasn't the answer I wanted.
"But," he went on, "the ones I saw were hardened warriors — men shaped by a lifetime of battle. Your son is still a child." He let the weight of those words settle. "What he's endured… It's not the same. It shouldn't be."
I clenched my fists. And yet it was. It was worse.
I forced myself to look again at his thin, scarred body, his too-still face. The rise and fall of his chest was shallow, uneven, but at least it was there. Alive. But being alive… wasn't the same as being whole.
I raked a hand through my hair, the frustration gnawing at me. "There has to be more I can do," I muttered. "Something to make sure he's okay… when he wakes up."
Ruijerd met my eyes. "You're already doing it."
I scoffed bitterly. "Just carrying him out of here isn't going to fix this."
"No," Ruijerd agreed, his expression softening just slightly. "But it was never about fixing him. The men I fought beside, the ones who survived the worst battles — they didn't make it because they were simply strong."
My throat tightened. He didn't need to follow up with anything. I know very well that even the strongest swordsmen get troubled once they get outnumbered. Rudy had to figure things out on his own before he got cornered into using somthing he himself doesn't understand yet.
"Your son isn't alone anymore," he said gently. "That's what matters."
I looked around, really looking.
Zenith sat nearby, tending to one of Elinalise's last wounds. Her eyes occasionally glance over to Rudy like he were some fragile, precious thing she was afraid might disappear.
Eris sat stiffly beneath him, her hand never leaving his head. Every so often, she'd stroke his hair again, pretending it meant nothing, though her face burned with unshed tears.
Roxy sat a little apart, her staff propped against her shoulder, silent and thoughtful. Ghislaine's eyes were tired, scanning the darkness for threats.
Every one of them had risked everything to bring him back.
"You see?" Ruijerd murmured, like he could hear my thoughts. "He already has what he needs."
I let out a long, unsteady breath.
"...Yeah," I whispered. "Yeah. You're right."
For now… that would have to be enough.
Then Elinalise's alarmed voice cut through the fragile peace. "What's going on over there?"
I followed her gaze and immediately felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck.
The Treants — those eerie humanoid trees — were moving again. But not like before.
They lined up in rows, the front-most pulling at something buried deep in the earth while the others gripped one another in a grotesque tug-of-war.
We'd barely scratched the surface of their behavior, but this… this was wrong.
Their branches creaked and groaned, moving with a terrifying unity, their wooden limbs cracking under the strain.
Then something began to glow.
"What the hell are they doing…?" I murmured, standing shakily.
I watched as the object they struggled with finally tore loose, launching into the air. The Treants scattered, some breaking apart under the force, wood splintering across the ground.
A blinding, white light filled the entire room. I shielded my face, but it was like trying to block out the sun with my hands.
When it finally faded, a deep, bone-rattling rumble rolled through the earth beneath us.
The floor cracked.
The roots of the colossal tree that made up the heart of the Labyrinth split apart with a sickening groan, splinters and debris crashing down in deadly, unpredictable waves.
"Ghislaine—!"
A massive root snapped free and hurtled toward her, but she moved with inhuman speed, leaping aside in time.
"Move! Get to the exit!" I roared, instincts snapping into place.
Everyone scattered, dodging debris as the entire world seemed to tilt and tremble.
You have to be kidding me! A last resort for anyone who got victorious? This better not be one of Rudy's doings, even if he was in a trance.
Then came the worst realization.
"Rudy!"
My stomach dropped.
He was gone.
I spun, frantically searching — Eris was doing the same, panic written plain across her pale face.
Then, through the haze and the dust, I saw him. Standing. Among the Treants.
His back to us, hair wild and clothes torn, but standing nonetheless. A soft, unnatural glow surrounded him.
My breath caught.
In his hands… was a staff. White wood, a dark orb set into its crown, wrapped in a single wide grey ring. Its surface etched with ancient, unreadable symbols, pulsing with a strange, warm green light.
The roots beneath our feet quivered, and before I could even cry out, they moved.
Like living things, they slithered upward, enclosing us in separate cages of wood. Thick, gnarled, impenetrable.
I slammed my fists against them.
"Zenith! Eris! Anyone!"
I heard Zenith's voice, strained but alive, but I couldn't see her. Couldn't reach anyone.
And then — everything shifted.
A terrible, floating sensation, like the ground itself was pulling away from us. The roots coiled tighter. Darkness swallowed everything.
And we moved.
Time and gravity lost all meaning. I could feel my heart pounding, but it no longer felt tethered to anything.
Then… stillness.
Faint warmth spilled in through cracks in the roots. Slowly, golden light crept through, blinding after so much darkness.
And then, with one final groan, the cages opened.
The first thing I saw was the sky.
Clear, impossibly blue. The sun was blazing down on us, pure and untainted.
I drank in the air, like a man surfacing from drowning.
The others emerged, dazed but alive.
And there, standing alone atop the highest root… was Rudy. Staff in hand. Motionless.
I took a step forward. My throat went tight. "Rudy…?"
He didn't turn. Didn't move. His presence felt… wrong.
I reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, kiddo. It's me."
No response.
Then Zenith appeared beside me, her breath hitching.
And when I finally saw his face, my world cracked. His eyes… were black, no longer the green ones he got from me. Pitch, hollow black. Empty, like the light itself in him extinguished.
I couldn't breathe.
"Rudy… no…" I whispered.
Zenith dropped to her knees, reaching out for him, her voice breaking. "Rudy… please… look at me."
Nothing. His chest rose, his heart still beat. But something was gone. Something none of us knew how to bring back. Not yet.
///