There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 136 - 131. The Fog That Creeping Closer

Chapter 136: Chapter 131. The Fog That Creeping Closer

"There’s no way it was a coincidence, right?" Bassena muttered while staring at Zein, who looked so focused to the point that he looked angry.

That Zein, who was probably the only person in this world capable of sensing and communicating with a shard, who was a living fragment himself, got dragged inside a place with a shard.

"So do you think it was the shard who dragged you inside the dungeon?" Radia asked.

"Most likely," Zein nodded. "Since it reached out to me. Or..."

"Or?"

Zein tilted his head as he tried to recall something. "If that’s the case, it’s kind of weird, though. The power that sent us out felt like the shard’s mana wave, but the one that pulled us into the Deathzone was different, more like miasma. Like..."

The guide paused, frowning even more as he tried to figure it out. Thankfully, he wasn’t alone in this discussion. "Like something produced by the Specter?" Bassena offered a conjecture, which made the blue eyes sparkles.

"Yes," Zein snapped his fingers, which prompted Bassena to grin despite the serious atmosphere.

"Then that is weird," Radia nodded in agreement. "Why would it pull you there and put itself in danger? It’s not like it provided an elaborate trap, and the only other addition is the kamaitachi minions."

At that, they fell into silence, and either looked up at the ceiling, staring down at the floor, or gazing blankly into the air, trying to figure out this anomaly. They said nothing until one of the secretaries asked about their lunch, and they decided to just have it there.

It was after his belly felt content that Zein finally came up with something. He massaged his forehead first, however, since the possibility of his thought being true was just giving him a headache.

"Just spit it out, Zein," Radia said, finally back to calling him normally.

With a deep breath, Zein leaned down with elbow propped on his thigh, hands pressed against each other as he spoke carefully. "Do you remember what the Snake Bearer told me? That the growing power might try to swallow the shard?"

If it was anyone else, they would get confused at asking for more explanation. But since this was the guildmaster and vice-guildmaster of Trinity, they caught on quick. Just that one sentence already put them in perspective.

"Now that I recall correctly, the Specter’s location was awfully close to the shard. No, we could even say that it was right where the shard was," Radia tapped on his chin. "The only reason why it couldn’t reach the shard was because of the barrier."

Bassena suddenly frowned and gripped the armrest tightly. "Was it..." He looked at Zein with furious eyes before continuing. "Was its real objective you? To swallow you?!"

That was why Zein felt a headache. It was just a conjecture, but the minions did target him first. And they kept on targeting him after. The squad didn’t catch on to it because they were moving in a tight formation, so it looked like the minions just targeting them all. Even if they felt like the minions attacking Zein a lot, they thought it was just because Zein killed the first two attackers, so they saw it as a form of revenge.

But once things were put into perspective...

"Maybe..." Zein muttered quietly. "Or it wanted to use me as a key to breaking the barrier with my connection to the shard."

Either way, it was bad news.

"So, to conclude," Radia held up his fingers. "The one who pulled you into the Deathzone was the Specter, and there’s a high possibility that the objective was you--whatever it was the Specter wanted to do with you."

Zein nodded, and Bassena hissed in response.

"Which means," Radia continued while holding up another finger. "The Specter has the ability to connect other dungeons with the Deathzone. We had no idea, however, whether it’s a specific ability to this one, or if all Specters are able to do it."

"And lastly," Radia pulled down his hand, and for the first time had a smile on his face. "The shard has the ability to destroy a dungeon."

"!"

That conclusion was something new that Zein had never thought of. He was too focused on the dungeon anomaly itself that he completely forgot about how they managed to get out. It should be something of concern, since there was no dungeon core for them to escape. And yet, they managed to.

Well, although to be fair, Zein was practically unconscious when they were yeeted out of the dungeon.

"You mean...if we can learn how, we might try to create a device for destroying the dungeon’s gate without going inside?" Bassena asked for confirmation, to which Radia responded with a nod.

"Well, that’s still a theory, though. And I’m not really sure we have the time to delve into that, since we’re busy enough with the preparation for next year," the man sighed, but there was still a slight smile on his lips. "Still, it’s something worth thinking about, don’t you think?"

Zein wanted to respond energetically too, but talking about the shard reminded him of the vision that he got before he got out. And again, which he saw in the dream while he was unconscious for two days.

"You don’t have to tell us," Radia suddenly said when Zein was busy staring at the floor, prompting the guide to look up in surprise.

"...what?"

Radia leaned back while sipping his warm tea, before replying with a calm smile. "About the shard. About what you see,"

Zein looked at the crimson eyes, which were no longer hard or agitated like a while ago. He had no idea whether it was a trick or something, but Radia had always pulled a brake in the right place, giving him space and the power of choice.

But really, all it did was just make Zein feel guilty about not sharing his thought instead. The power this man had...

"...yeah, I know," he chuckled somewhat amusedly and leaned back. His shoulder accidentally touched Bassena’s, but Zein made no move to scoot away. And neither did the esper, who was looking keenly at him. "But this one...it’s something that you might need to know," he crossed his arms and sighed quietly. "Since it has something to do with what I asked you to look for."

The crimson eyes narrowed as Radia looked at the guide in interest. "Your ancestor, or the Templars?"

Zein closed his eyes for a bit, swallowing hot bile that arise every time he remembered that vision. "Both," he said with a clenched jaw, and proceeded to tell them about what he saw. It wasn’t a really long vision, but somehow, it sapped his energy more than those long eleven hours he spent in the lab the first time.

After he finished telling them, another silence ensued as the two espers fell into their own thought. The first reaction, surprisingly, came from someone else.

"That is ridiculous!" the summoned phantom, Nyx, who usually always put on a calm, almost cold demeanor, suddenly let out an angry shout. "Master doesn’t like to be worshiped! He’d abhorred cults--especially if it’s made in his name!"

Needless to say that both Zein and Bassena were taken aback. Not only did this quiet summon suddenly made an outburst, but he also said something strange.

Master? Who was this man calling a Master? Wasn’t his master supposed to be Radia?

"Nyx," and that Master, Radia, warned the summoned creature with a soft but stern voice.

Flinching slightly at the voice, the man stepped back and put his knee on the ground. "Forgive me, Master," the agitated voice was back to a solemn one, as the man lowered his head and stared at the floor. "I’m overstepping my boundary."

"Just remember who’s your Master now," Radia said, rather coldly, without even sparring the man a glance.

"Yes, Master."

Certainly, having your contracted summon calling another entity as their ’master’ was a wound for a summoner’s pride. And Radia also happened to be in a rather shitty mood today. But he just sighed in the end, as Zein and Bassena scooted closer to each other in the cold atmosphere--even though it wasn’t them who was getting scolded.

"Well, no matter. But you’re sure about that, right?" Radia finally glanced at the phantom, who nodded firmly in response.

"Yes, I’m sure."

Radia shifted his gaze to Zein then, and nodded. "Then at least we can conclude that the Templar of Arm Master wasn’t formed by his order."

"I knew that much," Zein just shrugged in response. "Someone who wants to be worshipped wouldn’t aim to descend as a human again and lost his divine status."

And since he once sensed what Setnath actually felt about godhood, he was certain that Setnath did not enjoy it. That was why he could sacrifice his celestial body and soul so easily, as his last attempt to be born as a human again.

"Precisely, Sir," Nyx, who was still kneeling on the floor, nodded reverently at Zein.

But Zein added rather cruelly. "I still don’t like him, though."

The man, however, just smiled slightly. "Yes, I understand that much."

"Hmm...but that person...it’s the same person as you see in the city ruin right?" Bassena, who had been quiet most of the time today, asked.

"Yeah..."

"So...that person knew they were not the vessel but just, what...someone who would pass down the seed of the fragment?" the esper tilted their head. From the way the story unfolded, that person should be the first ’carrier’ as they said it. "How did they know though?"

"Probably from the shard too," the answer came easily for Zein, knowing how sentient the shard could be. "Just how Setnath’s vestige told me I’m the fragment."

Sensing the heaviness in Zein’s voice, no one made a remark after that, until Zein added in a hard gaze and low tone. "I am...that vessel they talked about."

The vessel they had been waiting all this time.

And it might have something to do with why his mother was being hunted.