There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 172 - 166. Touch of Malice

Chapter 172: Chapter 166. Touch of Malice

It was always the hardest when you had no idea what to do as someone you loved went through something.

Bassena knew, from the darkness curtaining those usually brilliant blue eyes, that Zein was inside his negative space again. But this was a topic Bassena couldn’t touch upon unless Zein started to open up first, so all he could do was sit there, debating if he could at least ask if the man was fine, only to shrink back because he didn’t want Zein to clam up even more.

"I’m fine," Zein said, suddenly. Bassena had been staring so much that the esper might as well voice out all of his concerns. "Just let me think on my own for a while."

"...okay," Bassena shifted his gaze back to the front, at the darkening sky that seemed to make everything gloomier than it was supposed to be. Because he knew Zein was lying. The guide wasn’t fine.

But he said he’d wait, so he’d wait. Whether it was for Zein’s heart to be ready to open up, or to accept his own feelings.

But at least Zein held his hand again, so Bassena was quite happy with their little wordless, intimate session on their way back to Althrea.

He would have liked it even more if Radia didn’t suddenly pop up through his commlink, again. [What are you going to do with them?] the man asked, in a completely serious tone that Bassena couldn’t even get mad at him.

Because it was a totally needed question. While the group had been fine on their own, they also had been hanging to that effort of finding their Master’s son. And yet, now the son said he didn’t want anything to do with them.

"I don’t know..." Zein answered truthfully. He knew, much like him, those people also needed closure. "But I don’t think I’m ready to face them now."

They fell into wordless contemplation filled with the sound of propellers and wind belting. But when the Trinity compound started to appear on the horizon, Radia broke the silence. [Can you leave them to me?]

"What do you mean?" Zein frowned for a bit.

[They are part of Ishtera’s household, which was once a house of heroes of past. Old House like mine had a few programs dealing with the remnant of such households] Radia told him. [All I’m going to do is offer them the option, however. And I think...they might want to see the name of Ishtera clean again. The Templar business had done some damage to that. Of course, that decision now lay on you too, but you take your time thinking about it]

Radia paused for a bit, before adding at the same time with a new message coming to Zein’s commlink. [Even if you don’t want the name, you still have the right to that decision]

Zein stared briefly at the files that Radia had just sent. It was scan images of what seemed to be old book pages. One thing he could glimpse was the word ’Ishtera’, so Zein had an inkling of what the pages were about.

"Alright," Zein replied after taking a deep breath. "Thanks."

[Rest well. You too, Bas]

"Mm,"

Taking another deep breath, and exhaling it in a long sigh, Zein sunk himself into the seat, holding tight into the sturdy hand as the helicopter started to land. The back of his neck still felt cold, but at least, his hand was warm.

Yes, it was warm.

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Not really," Zein shrugged. But he didn’t do it because he thought it was a good idea. He did it because he thought it might lead to something, and because right now, he wanted to do something.

If he had to be honest, he just wanted to run away a little bit from all the thoughts about his parents and the remnant of the Templars.

"But we have to try it at least once, since we don’t really have much time anymore," he added to the argument. The deadline for the framework was less than a month away, so anything that could help them must be tried.

Fei, the Chief Researcher, let out a long sigh, and Zein tapped on the shorter man’s shoulder. "Look, we even have a doctor and a healer on standby, so don’t worry."

Between Zein’s willingness and his own desire for progress, the Chief’s concern had to give way, and Fei nodded at the esper guarding the door that led to the room where the three tubes containing the Specter cores were.

A button was pressed and Zein could hear at least three locking systems at work before the door finally hissed open. "We can’t accompany you there, Sir," the guard told him. It was a precaution to minimize casualties in case any mishaps happened.

"It’s fine," Zein replied nonchalantly. But his eyes were firm and everything from his mask and his containment suit was accounted for, so the esper nodded and Zein walked in.

It was quite fascinating inside. Zein realized that the room was actually of the same kind as the shard; from the wall and the floor, to the pedestal and the measuring equipment attached to the tubes. What made the whole atmosphere feel different was simply the subjects.

Zein didn’t remember the core to be this eerie before, when they were still in the Deathzone. It had to do with the fact that the Deathzone environment was sinister enough to mask the malicious energy from the cores. Not to mention, they instantly sealed the cores in a safe containment box and put them inside a dimensional storage bag.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as actually facing the complete Specter, or spending days in the Deathzone. As he walked to the pedestal, he wondered if they could use the energy wave from the cores and duplicate it to create a Deathzone map in the simulator. It would be good if they could make anyone who would be sent to the reclamation project get used to the atmosphere.

But he could think about that later. For now, he stood in front of the middle core, the one from the city ruin, and gave a signal to the operator room. The tube hissed open and a thin wisp of miasma blasted him before dispersing.

Zein stared at the dark grey sphere and the miasma swirling inside. It was the only core he hadn’t seen before, since Bassena immediately put it inside the inventory after defeating the Specter inside the [Nightfall]. Thinking back about that time reminded him that he hadn’t told Bassena about this. About touching the cores.

Would the esper be mad? He probably would. Bassena would tell him that he should take the esper with him, and right now, Zein kind of wished he did.

But there was no time to call for Bassena--who was in the Capital anyway--so Zein just went ahead and put his bare hand on the sphere.

And everything went dark.

No, he didn’t feel like he was fainting. And no, it wasn’t the same feeling as when he was threading upon the scaly path in the Tower, or when he found himself in the Deathzone during the dungeon anomaly.

Zein almost cursed. He didn’t think the Specter core would act like the shard.

Because this definitely felt like this. He wasn’t physically being sucked somewhere, but mentally. The space felt like a lucid dream, like how he felt when he got a vision from the shard. And that was what he got now. A vision.

But it wasn’t a vision of the past like how it was with the shard. At least, it didn’t feel like it was in the past. It felt more vivid than a memory, something that was happening now.

It was dark. The thick, sticky darkness of the Deathzone that Zein could never forget, even after living in the green-zone. But he could see fine; the swaying shadow of grotesque plantations and growling beasts. He could see, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t control what he wanted to see, as if he was looking through someone’s eyes.

He was moving, through the miasma, in a swaying motion as if he was weightless. Buzzing voices filled the air and the darkness, as well as other disturbing things; crawling, grating, growling, hissing, clacking...it was so noisy and indecipherable. And then the vision panned downward and--

Again, Zein wanted to curse. Now he knew what the source of all those noises was.

It was beasts; the miasmic beasts, hundreds of them, marching together somewhere. Which was weird, because miasmic beasts had no tendency to move together. They attacked espers because anything that had no miasmic properties was enemies to them, and they burst out of the dungeon together just because it was a single exit point. Unless they were of the same type, or under the influence of a commander-type beast like the phantom specter...

Oh.

It was then that Zein realized what he was. Or rather, whose vision he was seeing. As he was swaying, floating above the marching beasts, screeching voices suddenly filled his senses. The vision shifted to the front, into the direction of the march.

And then, far away in the distance which he couldn’t see, something was pulsing. Something was angry. And something was looking straight at him, screeching.

[A Spy!]

--and Zein was covered in darkness again.

He gasped, and he was still in the darkness. His consciousness was still in the darkness. But it wasn’t the darkness of the Deathzone. It was like his soul space, just like how he experienced in the Tower.

That shit expelled him into his own soul space.

Zein had no idea how, but the first thing he thought about was that he needed to report this. That march, that pulsing, angry something. At first, Zein thought he was looking at the core’s memory. But in that case, the vision wouldn’t get cut abruptly by a grating voice filled with loathing and malice accusing him of being a ’spy’.

Which meant...that vision was happening right now, and he needed to tell the others about it.

But...how? Zein realized that he had been willing himself to wake up and go out of his soul space or whatever this place was, but nothing was happening. He just stood there, in the darkness, fumbling in anxiety about relaying the vision he just saw.

"...zein,"

And then he heard a voice. Unfamiliar voice. But also something that tickled a faraway memory.

"Luzein..."

No. Zein felt his existence freeze, coldness crawling into his nonexisting organs.

No, no no no. Zein closed his eyes, as the voice drew nearer.

"Luzein..."

Stop it. Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it!

"...my child."

A pair of cold hands touched his cheek, and the blue eyes flew open--

--to stare at an identical shade of blue.