2057 Cracked Core (Part 1)

Under the protection of the emerald barrier that kept them grounded, Crank conjured a Warp Steps leading the group far away from Belius.

"Do you think that Faluel and the others are alive?" He said after the Steps closed, cutting off the deafening fury of the storm.

Lith took his communication amulet out of his pocket dimension and checked if the runes of the members of Faluel's unit were still there.

"Everyone seems to be fine, but I'm going to wait for a while before calling them. If they were caught up in the hurricane as it formed, they can't afford one moment of distraction." He replied.

"Good to know." The Hyperion shrunk again, going from a human-sized Divine Beast to a honey badger. "My contract with the Kingdom is probably blown. If something happened to the Hydra, all my hard work would have been for nothing."

"That's what you are worried about? Your profit?" Solus was outraged by Crank's uncaring attitude and stepped forward to give him a piece of her mind. "Good people died today. We put our lives on the line yet it was all for nothing!

"In a few hours, Belius will fall into Thrud's hands and there's no telling if Vesta and Prode won't end the same way. Don't you understand how dire this situation is?" Her body was on the brink of collapse.

With each step she took, Solus could feel cracks opening along her legs. Her lungs burned with exhaustion, making every word painful to speak yet her fury gave her strength.

"That's none of my business, lady." Crank ignored her and sat down on a patch of grass. He took a big pile of food out of his dimensional item and started to eat to recover his strength.

"I'm not from the Kingdom and I have no love for this place. None of those people were my friends so I don't care about what happens to them. Do you prefer fruit or meat?" He said with the same tone he would have used to talk about the weather.

Solus was about to reply with very rude words when Lith put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

'Sit down and save your strength.' He used physical contact to establish an invisible mind link. 'If you don't return to your ring quickly, your human form might be lost forever.

'There's no time for squabbles. Besides, I'm no different from him. I didn't come to Belius out of the goodness of my heart, only because of my deal with the Royals. A deal that might not be valid anymore due to our failure.

'We need to return to the Desert before the Kingdom pinpoints our position.' He pointed at Varegrave who still held his body and equipment.

"Don't worry about your contract with the Royals." Lith used Invigoration to restore his strength while preparing a Warp. "After today, they will need you more than ever. As for Faluel, if she made it out alive, I'll honor my end of our bargain."

"Yeah, right. I'll believe it when I heard it from them." The Hyperion said with a scoff, with optimism that rivaled Lith's. "By the way, what do we do now? I've no place to stay."

"There's no we." Lith replied. "Just reach any city that's not under Thrud's banner and I'm sure the army will be glad to assign you a new mission. As for me, I'm out of here."

He lifted Solus in a princess carry and walked through the Steps the moment it appeared. The Demons followed him by fusing with his shadow, making the dimensional corridor last for a split second.

"Wow, that was rude." Crank said with a burp. "He didn't even bother exchanging communication runes. Let's hope that the lizard is alive and well, or I'll have no way to contact... What was his name again?"

The Hyperion kept eating while talking to himself for several minutes before realizing that he had no idea who Solus was, what her motives were, and why she had the same energy signature as Lith.

"Why didn't I ask him a single question and why am I still talking to myself?" Yet there was no one to answer aside from a few birds perched on a tree that chirped at him.

"I'm not crazy, you're crazy! I don't need your pity, birdbrains!" Crank said, making the small creatures fly away in fear. "Gods, I need a life."

Meanwhile, Solus had shapeshifted into her ring form and Lith opened one Steps after another in order to reach the mana geyser of Kaduria, one of the most powerful sources of world energy he was aware of in the Kellar region

On top of that, too little time had passed since the destruction of the Black Star for something valuable to have formed so he could hope that the geyser was still in a no-man's-land.

The stone ring that was the physical manifestation of Menadion's tower was chipped in many points and Lith could feel there was something wrong with it.

'Dammit, Solus pushed herself too hard. First a Divine Beast, then both Silverwing's spells. If not for that fucking tribulation, I could've her drop her human body as soon as Iata escaped. Let's hope I'm not too late.'

Solus felt his worry and wanted to reassure him, but her mind acted funny. She wasn't supposed to be able to sleep outside of the tower yet her consciousness was becoming blurrier by the second, reducing her thoughts to white noise.

Varegrave wanted to speak with him as well, but he could feel that there was no time for chatter.

Once Lith reached Kaduria, he placed his hand on the ground to let Solus slip off and conjure the tower without the need to turn into her spider form. He had no idea how much strength she had left and didn't want to strain her further.

"Fuck me sideways!" A few seconds later, the ring was still on his finger.

He kept waiting and checking it with Invigoration since no matter how much he called for her, Solus didn't answer. She was still there, lost in-between consciousness and slumber.

Both her condition and that of the ring had stopped worsening but it wasn't getting better either. After a few minutes, Lith started to panic. Invigoration had no effect on her and the mind link gave him static.

He did his best to remember how deep Solus usually dug underground before forming the tower and used earth magic to do it for her. Then, Lith took off the ring and placed it in a pit deep enough to completely surround her with the stream of world energy.

At the same time, he made sure to keep touching the ring to also provide Solus with a constant flow of his own mana.

'Don't give up, Solus. You can do it. Just form the tower and everything will be alright.' Once again, nothing happened.

Lith could feel the presence of the geyser invigorating his body whereas the ring remained cracked with no sign of recovery.

'Dammit, now that I think about it, Solus always pointed out how tribulations put a great strain on my body, especially after my life force cracked. She's in no different condition, if not even worse.'