ENERGI: THE PRIMORDIAL CONDUIT[OP MC, APOCALYPSE, SURVIVAL, AND LITRPG]

Nathan's auburn hair was slick with sweat, his face pale and his emerald eyes leaden from exhaustion. Still, he bore through the fatigue, moving quickly down the stairwell toward the first floor.

It had already been five minutes since the horde of leeches they were facing had suddenly vanished. They attributed the disappearance to Kael killing the main body, yet after so much time had passed, Kael had still not returned. In this wretched apocalypse, five minutes was more than enough for a person to lose their life over and over again.

Left with no choice, Natalie had used her ability to seek him out, which brought Nathan to the ruins of the ground floor.

The room was utterly decimated, the ceiling,  a jagged ring of molten concrete dripping like cooling wax. Scorched black and smelling of ozone, the walls were gouged with deep furrows where something massive had been violently dragged.

Nathan's face turned ash-white when he saw the corpse of the forty-meter-long worm lay in a tangled coil, its grey hide ruptured by craters of golden fire that still hissed with a dying, caustic heat.

But Kael's condition swiftly drew his attention away from the monster.

"Kael!"

He had already been told about the injuries Kael had suffered, but seeing them in person was different. The wounds were ghastly—a map of torn meat and exposed bone that should have been fatal.

'No wonder Natalie burst into tears!'

Nathan arrived before Kael's prone figure, gently turning his body before raising his head.

"K-kael?"

Nathan's jaw clenched tight. He parted Kael's dark hair, which was matted and heavy with blood. His eyes moistened when he saw just how pale Kael’s face had become—a ghostly white that made the blood smeared across his features look even darker.

"I am sorry, man..."

Despite only knowing Kael for a day, Nathan's shoulders slackened as a wave of guilt nearly overwhelmed him.

'If only I was stronger...'

The thought had barely formed when Kael's eyes suddenly snapped open with alertness, his muscles tensing to react to any danger.

"It's okay, man," Nathan quickly consoled. "I got you. I got you."

Kael took deep breaths, his eyes focusing on Nathan's face. Slowly, his body relaxed, only for his expression to twist as a wave of agony hit him.

"HUACK!"

Spit and bile flew from his mouth. The movement agitated his shredded back, where the skin had been grated down to raw, red meat. His ribs groaned with a sickening, wet click.

Despite trying as hard as he could—his pride unwilling to allow a stranger to see him in such a miserable state—Kael’s eyes grew wet from the pain. Small golden embers flickered around his body, but with his Energi reserve having only regenerated a single unit, his passive couldn't draw enough fuel to heal him.

"Huff... huff!"

Kael took deep breaths, the pulse in his neck throbbing in a frantic, uneven rhythm, betraying the shock his system was enduring.

"It's alright, man. I understand."

Kael's eyes suddenly snapped back onto Nathan's face when those words drifted into his ears. His dark-as-night eyes locked onto Nathan’s slightly dim emerald ones, and the comforting smile on the latter's face made him slightly relax.

Before he knew it, two lines of tears slid down his face. His arm rose quickly to shield his features, only for him to wince. It seemed even his remaining limb had not gone untouched.

"It hurts, man..." He spoke through clenched teeth, forcing a smile of mock bravado to cover his weakness.

Nathan moved his body to rest against a section of the wall yet to collapse before looking at his junior.

"You know..." He started, "I have always seen my father as the strongest man." He smiled before quickly adding, "Of course, I didn't mean in physique. But..." He pointed two fingers to the side of his head. "...in mind. Despite how his friends and others in the government try to convince him otherwise or outright stand against him, he keeps fighting for the common people. He built orphanages, ran food banks for the destitute, and risked his life on several occasions to expose the rot in the upper districts."

"However, after meeting you..." Nathan's eyes turned back to gaze at Kael's weary figure. "I realized what it meant to truly have a strong will."

"Huh?" A dumbfounded look found its way to Kael's face despite the pain, but Nathan continued, not caring for the reaction.

"I don't think I could bear through all the pain you have experienced, man..." Reaching this point, Nathan suddenly shivered as he remembered how that Level 23 zombie had torn into Kael's neck, feasting on his blood. A normal person shouldn't be able to fight through that pain, especially just a day after the apocalypse. Yet Kael had still erupted with enough will to deny death's claim.

"I admire you."

Seeing the look of sincerity on Nathan's face and feeling the raw emotion in his voice, Kael blushed in embarrassment. He forced out weakly:

"What nonsense are you suddenly talking about? You are creeping me out, man."

"Haha..." Nathan rubbed the back of his head, an awkward smile surfacing on his handsome face. He had simply blurted out his thoughts, the emotions clouding his mind for a moment.

Feeling the air was now less weird, Kael spoke, unwilling to let the others—especially his sister—see him in such a condition.

"Give me thirty minutes to rest. I should be in a better condition by then."

"No problem." Nathan nodded without hesitation.

Kael closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, waiting for his Energi reserve to tick up enough for his passive to function.

*****

After thirty minutes of waiting, Kael felt better as he recovered six more units of ENERGI. He had severely underestimated how severe his injuries were. His passive was only able to close his flesh wounds, especially the ones on his back. But as for the internal injuries—his broken ribs and his cracked arm—it would still take time to recover.

Unwilling to make the others worry, Kael had no choice but to allow Nathan to piggyback him toward the third floor. He would have been embarrassed by the situation if his mind wasn't occupied by a grave thought.

'Why are no more undead coming?'

His fight with the main body had caused a massive amount of noise, yet none had appeared.

'In fact, ever since that Level 23 zombie appeared, only two more zombies have shown up despite the ruckus. That’s not right.'

He found the situation weird and alarming. He had asked Nathan to check outside, but Nathan hadn't needed to.

"We know. We have the same worries, which was another reason I came to look for you quickly," Nathan replied.

"What do you mean?"

"The perimeter is empty. There’s no zombie in sight, and the school looks deserted."

The response should have made them happy, but instead, it only made them uneasy. Without answers, they could only regroup and wait.

Nathan struggled through the half-collapsed third floor before finally arriving near the door at the end.

"We are here."

The words brought Kael’s churning mind back to focus. He had barely come to when his senses picked up voices filled with worry. Several figures rushed out of the room.

Kael's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the first person who rushed to hug him after Nathan silently let him down. It wasn't who he expected. It wasn't his sister, Sophia, or even weird Natalie.

The person who appeared first was the one who always wore a stoic mask—the one who rarely appeared flustered, with eyes that were usually a placid, emerald pool of calm.

'Alice?'

*****

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