I Married A Degraded Alpha
Chapter 21: Tuss Unleashed, Everyone Saved

Chapter 21: Tuss Unleashed, Everyone Saved

Tuss yearned to plunge into the swarm of insectoids, but his strength fell short, and he could not penetrate their ranks. Gritting his teeth, he split his attention between his own battle and watching Yuri’s situation from the corner of his eye. Having lost his legs, his fighting prowess had been greatly diminished. The moment his attention divided, the insectoids found an opening. Their razor-sharp claws tore through his abdomen.

Tuss grunted, his blade slashing at the offending claw, but the insectoid withdrew its claw faster. Blood flowed freely from Tuss’s wound, but he fought on as if it was nothing, still distracted by a familiar figure not too far away.

"Watch out for its psychic power!" Tuss suddenly warned.

No sooner had he spoken than Yuri was struck by a wave of excruciating pain in her head, almost bringing her to her knees.

This insectoid could attack the mind. Yuri’s heart plummeted. Her already throbbing head was now stabbed by the mental blade of the insectoid, robbing Yuri of her strength to fight back.

Such was the terror of psychic attacks: invisible assassins.

Yuri was now truly on her knees, her body convulsing. She couldn’t lift her blade, nor could she use Enova to control the Blue Keystone dagger. She was a fish on the chopping board, helpless and vulnerable. Not far away, Tuss, who had been watching her, was heartbroken, tears of blood welling in his eyes.

"Yuri—!" he roared. In his grief, his Sea of Consciousness, previously transformed into a vibrant, place by Yuri, suddenly turned into an endless darkness. His psychic genesis erupted and spread out from him, reaching out in all directions. Everywhere it went, insectoids let out sharp screams, falling to the ground lifeless—the level-three insectoid included.

Zeek, Cass, and others instantly passed out, their noses bleeding, their fates unknown.

An officer who had just stepped off the elevator frowned, "An alpha’s Sea of Consciousness has erupted."

"That’s not a small disturbance, probably an S-tier or higher," another one noted.

"Should we check it out?" someone asked.

His companion rolled his eyes, "An S-tier alpha’s Sea of Consciousness eruption? What are we going to do there, offer ourselves as tribute? Get the A-tier betas and the doctors ready. As soon as it subsides, we need to provide immediate assistance."

"Understood."

When Tuss’s psychic genesis burst forth, only Yuri was conscious. The psychic power avoided her, yet seemed to wrap around her.

Yuri felt as though something gently brushed her face, yet she couldn’t be sure if it was real or just a figment of her imagination. She felt a profound sense of loss, as if something was drifting away from her. Intuition told her that if she didn’t grasp it, she would lose it forever. Even if, at this moment, she didn’t know what it was.

Yuri felt urgency, fear, and anxiety—she abruptly sat up, struggled to her feet, and looked around. When she saw Tuss, she froze. He was sitting in his original spot, supporting himself with both hands, his eyes staring straight at her direction, tears of blood at the corners.

Without any hesitation, she threw herself towards Tuss. Stumbling and tumbling, she fell in front of Tuss. Ignoring her pain, she grabbed Tuss’s hand and asked, "Tuss, are... are you okay?"

Tuss opened his mouth, blood gushing out as he managed to say, "Yuri..."

"Where are you hurt? Let me bandage your wounds." Yuri’s voice quivered, her body shaking violently.

Struggling, Tuss managed a weak smile, "It’s too late, Yuri—"

With those words, the light in his eyes slowly faded, leaving nothing but emptiness.

"Tuss—" Yuri called out, her voice so soft she could barely hear herself. She laid her hand on Tuss’s neck, feeling the warmth rapidly ebbing away.

Despair enveloped Yuri, prompting a horrifying and desperate idea. In the world where she used to live in, people would consume the crystal core of zombies, hoping for a breakthrough to become an Enova, fighting for a chance at survival.

She wanted to know if she could do the same in this world.

Yuri felt the crystal core on her forehead, almost the size of a soybean. Then she steeled herself, and split it in half.

Ah—

The pain caused Yuri’s body to convulse, and spasms ripping through her, her teeth clenching so hard she thought she might shatter them. Enduring the intense pain, she extracted half of the crystal core and placed it into Tuss’s Sea of Consciousness.

Strangely enough, she realized that the place she had visited twice in her dreams was not an illusion but Tuss’s Sea of Consciousness. She knew where it was, could enter and exit freely, even alter it at will. Yuri wondered if this was because she was about to differentiate into a beta.

As half of the crystal core entered Tuss’s Sea of Consciousness, Yuri nervously watched his face, one hand on his chest.

Tik tok... Time went by. Finally, at the tenth second, she felt his heart begin to beat beneath her palm.

Yuri let out a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the ground. She stared at the rocky ceiling above, the pain from her Sea of Consciousness was unending. Her Enova level had dropped from level two back to the initial stage, she wasn’t even level one now. Besides the pain in her Sea of Consciousness, her heart ached too.

Time passed. Her emotions and body slowly stabilized. Reflecting on her near madness minutes ago, Yuri frowned, contemplating: "Are my feelings for Tuss really that profound?"

She didn’t understand why she, who had become accustomed to life and death in the post-apocalyptic world, lost control completely when it came to Tuss, for splitting her crystal core was no different from gambling with her own life.

She had known Tuss for just two months, and she couldn’t understand why she was willing to go this far for him. "Did I fall in love with him?" she wondered.

No. Yuri was certain, she wasn’t in love with Tuss, at least not now.

"But why? Why am I willing to risk my life for him?" Yuri couldn’t figure it out. She sat up and looked at Tuss’s face, feeling a hint of apprehension and a faint murderous intent.

He reminded her of a siren, bewitching and ensnaring hearts, especially hers. "Perhaps," she thought, "I should eliminate this potential threat." But every time she thought of his desperate, life-risking, tear-streaked face when she was in danger, Yuri couldn’t harden her heart.

"Maybe I should consider this as repaying his life-saving favor," Yuri consoled herself.

Footsteps echoed in the distance. Without hesitation, Yuri absorbed the Blue Keystone into her body, then closed her eyes and fell down.

"So many insectoids have died; we can see how fierce this Sea of Consciousness eruption was."

"Didn’t they say it was S-tier, or even above SS-tier? With such a high level, the destructive power is unimaginable."

"Where’s the person?"

"One, two, three, four, five, six - six people. Which one do you guess it is?"

"Do we need to guess? Isn’t it obvious who suffered the Sea of Consciousness eruption? Tsk, surprisingly he’s a cripple."

"Have the military doctor and the beta arrived?"

"They’re coming, they’re coming." Someone hurried over.

Exhausted to her limit, Yuri could no longer hold on and passed out.

Yuri slept for only a day and woke up the next. Upon waking, she found herself naked in a green liquid. If she wasn’t mistaken, she was in a healing pod.

As soon as she woke up, a nurse opened the healing pod and said to her, "There are clothes on the side. They’re new, you can put them on."

Sitting up, Yuri replied, "Thank you."

"You’re welcome," the nurse said, giving her a bright smile. "The cost of the clothes and the treatment were covered by the insectoids’ corpses that your husband killed. You don’t mind, do you?"

Yuri: ".....No." She knew it was a forced trade, but she had no choice.