898 The Sudden Deterioration

Varian's group spent another two days surveying the other mountains. To their surprise, another Sovereign beast attacked a faraway mountain. It was nearly killed in retaliation.

But then came the surprise, a new Sovereign beast appeared out of nowhere and attacked the same mountain.

The mountain shook for a whole hour as if it was hit by an earthquake while cracks spread across its surface. But it somehow remained stable.

The third Sovereign beast attacked in the same mountain didn't happen. So, Varian's team left the place with a reluctant thoughts.

'If a couple more beasts attacked and broke the mountain, then we could easily escape this hell.'

Of course, that's more of a delusion than a hope.

The living beasts here had little to no rationality. Even though Sovereign beasts were alive for a long time, their mental capacity was seriously lacking.

The Undead had it worse. They're just zombies with muscle memory.

Under such circumstances, the way out of this hell would've to be created by one's own hands.

"Two things are clear. Those mountains or…whatever they are, they are the exit and they can get hurt."

In an underground shelter far away from the boundary, Varian said slowly.

"What can we do?" Sarah rubbed her hands to calm her anxiety as she made a bitter face.

Those mountains couldn't be broken even by Sovereign beasts, so what could they do?

Wait for Varian to reach Sovereign strength? It would've been a comfortable choice if Varian's life wasn't on a deadline.

Thinking of that topic, Sarah's face grew pale and she lowered her head. "…Answer me honestly, how many days?"

Varian was taken aback at the sudden question. But after seeing Sarah's gloomy expression, he sighed and answered honestly. "Not more than twenty."

Sarah grabbed his hand reflexively and scanned his body. When the feedback reached her mind, she covered her mouth and looked at him with teary eyes. "W-Why? It's accelerating!"

Before Varian could answer, she pressed her palm against his chest and started injecting the time power into his body.

Sarah was giving all her time power to him every hour. It was taking a toll on her. The last transfer occurred just twenty minutes ago.

As she squeezed the tiny bits of time power in her body, Sarah's body shuddered and a stinging pain stabbed her brain. A muffled groan left Sarah's mouth and blood slowly leaked down her lips, staining her white dress with a bloody red.

After a few minutes, she gave out the last bit of her time power and collapsed onto the wall behind her back.

As extreme exhaustion consumed her mind, she blinked her eyes to clear the blurry vision and see Varian.

…He fainted at some point. She was so engrossed in giving the power that she didn't even notice.

'Why did he faint?' Sarah had an ominous premonition and dragged her exhausted body to hold Varian.

Sarah instinctively noticed that his body was cool, in sharp contrast to his usual warmth.

"W-What?" Sarah panicked. She hurriedly checked his body but found nothing unusual.

But something was definitely off. Forget the cool temperature, why did he faint in the first place?!

In desperation, she fed him a healing potion and then tapped the bracelet on her wrist. "Enigma! Enigma! Varian fainted!"

The other side remained silent for a moment before a sharp breath was heard. The next moment, the space in the temporary underground shelter fluctuated and Enigma in all black appeared.

Without uttering a word, she grabbed Varian, and ignoring the bleeding the resistance was causing, she started inspecting his condition.

After a few minutes, she sighed softly and took out a two-petaled purple flower from her storage ring.

The underground shelter they were currently in was akin to a burrow by a rabbit but larger.

Originally, it had only a few dry plants and grass growing on the walls. But when the purple flower appeared, the tiny plants doubled their size and the sparse grass covered the walls, all in an instant.

The purple flower was brimming with such a high vitality that its mere presence boosted the growth of the plants around it.

This was the reason Enigma went out in the name of scouting the surroundings. Varian objected at first. But Sarah assured him she'd use her special skill to watch the surroundings.

"Varian, wake up," Enigma whispered softly and placed the flower on his bleeding hand. The flower melted like ice and a purple juice brimming with vitality flowed into Varian's body.

After a few minutes, Varian's eyebrows trembled and his eyes slowly opened. "H-Huh?"

He sat up from Sarah's lap and looked around in confusion before his eyes widened. "I fainted?"

Sarah was about to answer when the ground started shaking. A rancid smell filled the air and everyone's expression worsened.

"Undead."

Enigma sighed lightly and teleported them to the top of a tall tree on the surface. From there, they could see the entrance to the passage of the underground shelter.

A swarm of Undead appeared in the distance just a few minutes later, numbering at least a hundred. And they all seemed to be heading toward that entrance.

"Looks like this place is also a no-go from now." Sarah shook her head and glanced at Enigma.

Enigma nodded and teleported them to a distant region she found just in case. After settling down in another cave, Enigma and Sarah turned to Varian with questioning gazes.

"My vitality is going down, that's why I fainted," Varian explained with a bitter smile. "Looks like I might be kicking the bucket in sleep, haha."

No one laughed at his dark joke. Instead, the atmosphere turned worse.

"Can you fight?" Enigma asked.

"I can."

"Without fainting in the middle."

"…I dunno." Varian lowered his head. "I feel weak, like when I got a heavy fever before awakening. My body seems to be working fine but I feel like it's on its last run."

Sarah stood up silently and walked out of the cave. Enigma said nothing and sat in front of him like a statue.

Varian slowly got drowsy and fell asleep.

A few minutes later, a heartbreaking cry rang outside the cave. And the purple eyes that stared at him slowly turned red.