The air in the cavern turned ice-cold.

The heavy gravity pressure didn’t lift. It twisted, pulsing outward like a dark, heavy heartbeat.

THUMP-THUMP.

Every time Black’s heart beat, the wooden platform beneath our feet groaned and cracked. Black staggered forward, his grey skin stretching tightly over his cheekbones. His eyes were completely pitch-black, leaking heavy crimson tears that ran down his neck.

"Yuna..." Black roared. His voice was a horrific mix of a human sob and a monster’s growl. "I have to... take the core... home..."

He didn’t care about his own body anymore. Black raised his right hand, and the dark crimson gravity aura around him surged violently.

BOOM!

The entire wooden platform split right down the middle.

A massive wave of gravitational force slammed straight into my chest. The raw force lifted me off my feet and threw me thirty feet backward, crashing hard against the solid stone wall of the cavern.

"AGH!"

I slid down onto the dirt floor, coughing up a mouthful of blood. My ribs burned, and my legs trembled as I forced myself back up.

"Brian!" Viora called out.

Viora didn’t hesitate. Her purple aura exploded around her, glowing like a dark flame. She sprinted across the falling wooden planks, closing the distance to Black in a fraction of a second. She pulled her right fist back and drove a devastating punch straight toward Black’s face.

THWACK!

Her fist hit his cheek with maximum force, shattering his jawbone with a sickening crunch.

Blood sprayed across the wooden floor. But Black didn’t fall. He didn’t even flinch. His mutated body didn’t feel pain anymore. The dark mana had completely numb his physical senses, leaving only pure, desperate grief behind.

Black swung his left arm sideways. A dense blade of red gravity energy erupted from his palm!

SLASH!

The red gravity energy cut right through Viora’s purple aura defenses, slicing deep across her stomach.

"Ah!" Viora gasped, blood instantly soaking through her shirt.

The heavy force threw her sideways, her body sliding across the floor near the edge of the pit.

"Vera!" I screamed.

Black didn’t chase her. He turned his eyes back toward the floating golden core. His black veins throbbed wildly on his grey throat, leaking dark, corrupted blood onto his clothes.

"My little girl..." Black wept, his monster voice cracking as he reached out his bleeding hand toward the core. "She was cold this morning... She couldn’t even hold her spoon... I promised her... I promised her I’d bring the medicine..."

His humanity was disappearing second by second. The dark monster core inside his chest was eating away his memories, his mind, and his soul. But even as his brain rotted from the dark mana, his love for his daughter remained stuck in his mind like a iron nail.

"I can’t... let her die..." Black cried out, blood pouring from his mouth as he took another heavy step forward.

"Black, stop!" I yelled, wiping the blood from my chin as I charged forward.

I slid low beneath another wave of red gravity force. I popped up right beside him and drove my iron dagger straight into his right shoulder.

STAB!

The blade bit deep into his muscle. Fresh, dark blood spurted out over my hands and clothes.

Black didn’t even scream. He slowly turned his head to look at me. His solid black eyes held no hatred, no anger, and no pride. They only held absolute, endless despair.

"Please..." Black rasped, his grey fingers reaching out to grab my throat. "Let me save her... She’s only... She hasn’t seen the ocean yet..."

His hand clamped around my neck like an iron vise. The gravity pressure surged, locking my airways tight. I choked, my vision going dark around the edges as I tried to pull my dagger free.

THWACK-BOOM!

Viora arrived like a purple thunderbolt.

Ignoring her own bleeding stomach wound, she drove both fists straight into Black’s ribs.

CRACK-CRACK!

The impact shattered three of his ribs, forcing Black to let go of my throat as he stumbled backward. Blood sprayed from his mouth, painting the wooden platform dark red.

"He is losing his mind completely, Brian!" Viora shouted, her voice shaking slightly as she held her bleeding waist. "His internal channels are bursting! If we don’t end this now, he will turn into a mindless beast and kill everyone in sight!"

I took a deep breath, my lungs burning as I gripped my iron dagger with both hands. "I know."

Black stood ten feet away from us, his body shaking uncontrollably. The crimson gravity aura around him began to warp out of control, pulling loose rocks, broken wooden planks, and bloody dust into a swirling, violent tornado around his body.

"Who... who am I...?" Black muttered, his monster voice echoing hollowly. He looked at his own bloody, grey hands in complete confusion.

Then, his chest heaved, and he clutched his head in pure agony.

"YUNA!" Black shrieked. "I REMEMBER YUNA! I CAN’T FORGET YUNA!"

He charged at us with reckless insanity.

He didn’t use tactics. He didn’t use defense. He threw his entire body forward, pushing his gravity aura to its absolute limit!

BOOM!

The floor beneath us exploded outward. Giant wooden shards and sharp stone splinters flew through the air like lethal shrapnel.

"Move!" I yelled, diving to the left.

A flying wooden beam slammed into my leg, cutting a deep gash across my thigh. I rolled through the dust, my clothes soaked in my own blood and Black’s dark mana.

Viora leaped high into the air, dodging a flying stone block. Her purple aura flared up to its absolute peak, wrapping around her right arm like a blazing lance of light.

"Forgive me," Viora cried out.

She dropped down from the ceiling like a falling star.

BOOM!

Viora drove her purple-infused fist straight through Black’s back, her hand punching clean through his vest and coming out the front of his chest.

SPLURT!

A fountain of dark, corrupted blood exploded into the air, covering the wooden floor, the golden core, and our clothes in thick red crimson.

Black froze.

The violent gravity tornado instantly vanished. The floating rocks crashed down to the floor with loud thuds. The loud, terrifying monster noise inside the cave went completely silent.

Viora slowly pulled her arm back. She stumbled, falling onto one knee as her purple aura completely faded away from exhaustion and pain.

Black didn’t fall right away.

He stood in the middle of the ruined platform, a massive hole gaping straight through the center of his chest. Dark blood poured from the wound, pooling rapidly around his boots.

The color in his eyes slowly faded away. His grey skin returned to a pale, natural white. His human mind had returned for one final, quiet second.

Black fell forward, his knees slamming hard against the cold, bloody wood.

I rushed over, dropping my iron dagger on the floor as I caught his shoulders before he hit the ground completely. I sat on the bloody planks, holding his head up against my knee.

"Adrian..." I whispered, my hands covered in his blood.

Adrian looked up at me through blurriness. He wasn’t mercenary Black anymore. He was just a dying man.

"Brian..." Adrian rasped, his voice barely a quiet whisper. He didn’t have the strength to lift his hands anymore. "Is... is the core... safe...?"

"It’s safe, Adrian," I said, holding his trembling shoulder. "The core is safe."

A single, clear tear ran down his pale, bloody cheek, wiping away a line of dark dust on his skin.

"I failed..." Adrian whispered, his throat rattling as blood pooled in his mouth. "She’s waiting for me... at home... She cooked soup today... even though her hands were shaking..."

"Adrian, save your strength," I said, my chest feeling tight and heavy.

"I promised her..." Adrian choked out, his chest heaving weakly as his breath grew thin. "I promised her... I’d buy her... that blue dress she liked in the market window... I told her... Daddy would be home for dinner..."

He weakly closed his hand around my sleeve, his grip light and fading fast.

"Please..." Adrian looked into my eyes, his irises filled with endless, unbearable grief. "Don’t let her... die alone in that dark room... She’s scared... of the dark..."

"I won’t," I said, my voice shaking. "I promise you, Adrian. I’ll take care of Yuna."

Adrian let out a long, quiet sigh.

The painful, desperate look on his face slowly smoothed out. The tension in his shoulders vanished, and his weak grip on my sleeve slipped away.

His eyes stayed open, staring blankly up at the pale violet sky visible through the cracks in the ceiling.

The cavern was completely silent. Only the soft, quiet hum of the Heart Tree echoed through the cold air.

Viora sat on the bloody floor a few feet away, holding her bleeding waist. She turned her paper bag mask toward us, her head bowed in quiet respect for the fallen father.

Elian walked slowly out from the tunnel entrance, his white bow lowered. He looked at Adrian’s lifeless body, then at the pool of dark blood on the wood, letting out a long, sad breath

"He fought like a monster," Elian said softly. "But he died like a father."

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