868 If this is the end...

In the endless dark space, a light beam shone for a moment before disappearing.

Inside the 'light beam', Enigma used her gravity power to fix the feet of Sarah and herself to the tunnel. On the other hand, she let Varian 'stand' with her power.

Oddly enough, Varian didn't lower his head even though he was unconscious. He stood in an alert posture. This was all instilled into him during his training so much that it became an instinct.

"Hold tight," Enigma said and increased the gravity power on the two.

The next second, the tunnel shook violently and Sarah felt as if she was hit by a bullet train. Thanks to Enigma, she didn't crash onto the wall.

Since the tunnel was left without any maintenance for thousands of years, its condition was pathetic. Naturally, the safety measures were nearly non-existent.

"Hah. Would anything be different if we had Boo here?" Enigma wiped the sweat off her forehead and muttered.

"I don't think so. At least Boo doesn't have to worry about safety." Sarah said as she raised her palms and adjusted the shining light shield around them.

Rather than being completely isolated and safe, some space currents from outside were seeping inside the tunnel.

These gray currents were capable of seriously damaging Varian's body and given time, they'd also destroy them.

So, Sarah put up the light shield. But with each passing second, countless gray particles continued to smash the shield and cause cracks on it.

Even for Sarah, maintaining this shield was a difficult task.

Just now, the shield had completely cracked and was about to collapse. Sarah pushed out the light power in her body and reinforced the shield. Then, she turned to Enigma and rolled her eyes. "And you're saying the death rate here isn't 100%?"

"…" Enigma looked away with a guilty expression. It's not really her fault though. What other choice was there?

Sarah knew it too. She was just trying to alleviate the depressing atmosphere. Because they could indeed die at any moment.

The tunnel could break down, the space currents could grow crazy, some enemy might appear—anything could happen in this place of uncertainty and they'd be

dead.

Heck, even if they did survive, they had no idea where they were going to end up at. What's at the other end of the tunnel? What if it's even more dangerous? Would it kill them instantly?

Sarah grew very cold and indifferent after learning about her father betraying Sia. During the vacation, people feared even looking her in the eye because of her frosty temperament.

But towards the people she cared about, Sarah poured out all her emotions.

In this situation, the rational choice to survive would be to abandon Varian. He's just costing more to defend while not contributing anything.

If it was anyone else, Sarah might've had that thought. But for Varian…she decided if push came to shove, she'd remove the shield around her first. If their roles were reversed, Sarah was certain he'd do the same.

'I want to hear your voice, I want to look into your eyes and spend the whole day…' Sarah locked her fingers with the unconscious Varian and leaned on his shoulder as she bit her lip. "Come back soon, idiot."

Time passed, waiting for no one.

Seconds turned into minutes and minutes into hours. Sarah and Enigma had exchanged their roles by a dozen times already.

Their faces were pale and their tired bodies were slowly becoming stiff. Even as they sweated from head to toe, the journey seemed to not end.

The scariest part of this journey was neither the space currents nor the speed bumps. It was the uncertainty. The ignorance. They didn't know if they'd reach the destination in an hour, in two hours, in ten hours, or not at all.

Slowly but surely, their reserves started running thin. Sarah and Enigma now had to strategically thin up their shields to last longer.

As a result, the shields cracked up faster and a few space currents even managed to sneak inside.

A drop of bright red blood floated in the air as a space current made a cut on Sarah's arm. A few minutes later, a drop of blood floated from Enigma's shoulder.

Just half an hour later, there were quite a few clumps of blood floating around or sticking to the walls.

As opposed to Sarah and Enigma who had many small cuts, Varian didn't have a single injury.

"My turn." Enigma stood up and created a shield of darkness surrounding the three.

Sarah's light shield collapsed the next second and she collapsed onto her knees. Her whole body had already been injured, fatigued, and weakened.

'Don't think about anything.' Sarah leaned her back against Varian's and closed her eyes.

She should've collapsed long ago. But she's still active. She didn't know where she was getting the strength from.

Enigma maintained the shield for the three, while deliberately keeping her side of the shield thinner. As a result, in just ten minutes, she got three cuts—one on her palm, one on her cheek, and the other on her foot.

Thankfully, her healing speed was alright and the injuries themselves wouldn't be a problem. But losing a bit of blood for every injury surely was.

Enigma looked up at the end of the tunnel and only saw endless darkness. Her violet eyes shook.

A spark…no, a small light appeared in the darkness. As they approached at great speed, the light quickly magnified and before she even knew it, Enigma yelled in delight. "Sarah! Varian! See!"

Sarah turned around with hope. Her pale face brightened like a glowing sun. "Finally…"

Like a thirsty person gazing at an oasis, Sarah gazed at the 'gates' surrounded by white barriers.

After all the struggle, after all the pain, finally, they reached somewhere.

In the blink of an eye, the tunnel reached the gates and stopped after touching the barrier.

There were more than twelve gates and each of them had barriers with varying defense.

Sarah picked the weakest barrier and shot a light arrow. But the barrier barely shook before stabilizing.

Sarah's eyebrows shook as an ominous premonition flashed in her mind. But shaking her head, she cheered herself up and used her full strength this time.

With a wave of her hand, a giant light trident struck the barrier.

This attack was at least three times more powerful than her previous attack. But even it failed to produce any reaction other than a slight disturbance on the barrier.

Sarah didn't give up and kept trying. But as the price for repeatedly using her full power, she was quickly losing the last of her power reserves.

But Enigma understood her actions.

The air, no, the space around them was still hostile. Enigma was still keeping up the barrier around herself and Varian to stop the gray space currents from injuring them.

If they didn't break this barrier and enter, they'd die here.

"Let's do it together," Enigma said from behind and snapped her fingers.

A giant arrow of darkness floated above Sarah's light trident.

With a flash, the two weapons struck the barrier…and barely created a ripple.

That was enough for Sarah and Enigma to realize that they were too weak. But they didn't give up.

To the point of being totally irrational, they kept attacking the barrier with all their power. In the end, they even lifted all the defenses on themselves and redirected that power to destroy the barrier.

Yet, they failed all the same.

Enigma even tried waking 'her' up. But even that woman's unconsciousness also didn't respond, much to Enigma's despair.

Yet, she fought on.

Maybe the barrier would break after repeated batterings. Maybe it's too old and could break down at any moment. Maybe the tunnel would do something.

Maybe…

One way or another, they kept going. Their bodies had long reached the limit, but their minds refused to surrender.

After nearly two hours of unending effort and squeezing out every last thing in their body and soul, Enigma and Sarah hit their limit.

As their consciousness turned hazy, Sarah injected the last bit of time power into Varian's body and collapsed to his right. "Don't die before me."

Enigma turned to Varian and gave away the last bit of her power to create a darkness and gravity barrier around him.

Her legs felt weak and she collapsed right next to his left. It was so close that Enigma could even feel his weak breath on her face.

Looking at his peaceful sleeping face, Enigma smiled wryly. "Is this how it ends?"

There was no reply.

Feeling her consciousness slipping away, Enigma realized it was likely the last time she'd be ever awake. This was truly the end of it.

All of them are going to die.

Enigma's weak eyes flashed and glanced at Sarah who fainted with her fingers interlocked with Varian's.

Even in death, she wanted to be with him.

'If it's really the end of everything…'

Enigma stretched her trembling, bloodied hand towards Varian. Since it was her own barrier, she easily passed through it and held Varian's hand.

Then, she awkwardly intertwined her fingers with his. It was the first time she did anything like this. It was also the first time she felt the warmth of his hand. She could even feel his heartbeat.

'I-Is this why they hold hands?' That was Enigma's last thought before she fainted.

The space currents started attacking the defenseless ladies and like acid slowly devouring metal, the space currents were slowly injuring them.

With every passing second, more and more cuts appeared on Sarah and Enigma. The blood under their bodies formed into a pool and this blood flowed to Varian and touched his back.

On the other hand, Varian's hand started bleeding due to the repulsion. The injury continued to worsen before it reached his finger bones.

A jolt of pain shot down the unconscious Varian's spine.  He slowly opened his eyes. But feeling a warm liquid under his back and its familiar smell, Varian's eyes shot open.

"Huh! W-Wher—? Enigma? Sarah? What the?!"