There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 597 - 591. Empty Husk

Chapter 597: Chapter 591. Empty Husk

It happened so suddenly, as if it came out of nowhere. A loud crackling sound shook the whole dungeon like a thrown jar. The ground cracked and trees were pulled out from the roots. The palace rubble and loose boulders flew around like heavy-weight confetti, and the combination of everything created a deafening sound that almost ruptured their eardrums.

In a whirlwind of events, Zein felt his shoulders grabbed and someone enveloped him in a protective hug as he was flung back. Their body flew across the dungeon at a speed that left no chance to think properly, and only stopped after they crashed against an invisible wall.

"Ugh--"

It was a force enough to break some bones and incur internal injuries, but Zein felt surprisingly alright. Except for some dizziness, he didn’t feel anything broken or wrong with his body. When he opened his eyes after rolling on the ground, Senan was hovering above him.

"Young Master!" the middle-aged man grasped his head and looked at him with fierce concern. "Young Master, are you alright?!"

"I’m fine," Zein pushed himself off the ground and managed his breath. It was clear that he managed to get unscathed thanks to his guard. "What about you?"

He looked at Senan, but thankfully, aside from getting all messy and dirty, Zein couldn’t see any blood. A shimmering mana shield still flickering above them, although the physical shield in Senan’s back had cracked all over. It was one of the best shields made from the collaboration between Iron Shield of Mortix, so the damage greatly reflected how devastating the explosion was.

"Don’t worry about me, Young Master," Senan said while helping Zein stand up. "We were quite far from the core of the blast."

Which means Agni, who was slightly further, should be alright, since the Spirit Queen would have made a strong barrier around them. But...

"The others?" Zein turned around worriedly. If the force was this great for them, then it would be even greater for the espers in the center of that explosion, wouldn’t it?

The blue eyes darted around the devastated landscape, and caught the view of a large black orb made of hard scale, with a shimmering layer of mana barrier outside. From the scattering mana around the barrier, it seemed like there were at least two destroyed layers before that. Zein turned his head in another direction, and saw Agni trying to stand up with the Spirit Queen pulling on his hair.

Seeing that the berserker was okay, Zein immediately ran toward the dissolving black orb, which showed sprawling espers cursing and grumbling, tangled with each other. Only two people were still standing; the ones who provided the barriers. Zein let out a breath of relief when he saw Bassena look unscathed.

"Hey, get off me! Ugh--what’s the point of surviving the blast if my ribs got crushed because of you?!"

"Then heal yourself, duh."

"Wait, wait--ouch, that’s my feet, Chief!"

"Sorry!"

Funnily enough, Zein was greeted by a lively banter when he arrived at the site. The blast and the black armor orb had fallen all the trees around them, and the espers looked as if they were standing in a crater caused by a falling meteor.

Haa...they seem alright. Zein exhaled slowly; Han Shin was doing some healing, but there didn’t seem to be any serious wounds--just some scraps and bruises, as well as little burns from the initial force before the shield could be generated.

That was how sudden the explosion was.

While the other espers were untangling themselves, Bassena turned to the side when he felt Zein’s presence. Once his eyes locked onto a pair of blue, Bassena teleported in front of the guide and grasped the masked face. "Are you alright?!"

"As you can see," Zein patted the esper’s hands. "Senan guarded me well," he paused and scrutinized the esper, from the messy platinum hair to the remnants of black armor still covering some spots. "You seem to be fine."

"Are you underestimating me, now?" Bassena curled his lips after he was sure the guide did not have any injury. He nodded gratefully to Senan before shifting his gaze to the other espers, who finally managed to separate themselves.

Han Shin shook his head and his whole body, lightly hitting his temple with the heel of his palm. "Oof--what now? Is the ugly dragon strengthened again?"

"Doesn’t matter," Zhan picked up his halberd, which unfortunately didn’t get separated from him and was destroyed in the explosion. "We can face them together this ti--"

The spearman paused and squinted his eyes as he tried to look at the other side of the dungeon. They could see the towering figure of the chimera dragon behind the cloud of dust, but he felt something was...weird.

Ron, who was also looking at the chimera, blinked. "Huh?" he rubbed his eyes and poured mana into his eyes to enhance his vision even more. "...I’ll check it closer."

"Hey, wait--" Zhan startled and ran after the scout who was dispersing into the shadow. Still, the spearman ran toward the chimera.

"What? What’s wrong?" Han Shin looked around in bewilderment when Agni also turned his heels to catch up to Ron and Zhan.

"That chimera...is weird, isn’t it?" Zein muttered with a frown.

"Yeah, it’s..."

"It’s not moving."

Zein looked at Bassena, and he saw the amber eyes widen. A voice coming through their earpiece told them what Bassena dreaded. [Fuck--it’s just a husk!] Ron shouted.

"What?!"

[It’s not here] the scout repeated; this time, they could also hear Zhan’s and Agni’s surprised exclaim. [The Fallen Star is not here--the Chimera is just a vessel!]

On the other side of the dungeon, the three espers stared at a chimera dragon who stood lifelessly in a menacing pose. But there was no light in its bulging eyes and no pulse in its black veins. The tentacles and tails were motionless, and there was a large gaping hole in its belly.

The orb of tangled flesh, the cradle, was nowhere to be seen.

[I think it ran away during that explosion]

Bassena snapped his head toward the dungeon entrance. "Shit--the exit!"

A blast of mana immediately enveloped the dungeon with a flash within the amber eyes. The bright sky darkened and they were plunged into darkness, as if they were back in the Deathzone. Only, there was no suffocating presence of miasma inside the dark dome.

"Over there! The first hill near the entrance!" Ron pointed at the dungeon gate while running forward.

"Damn it!"

They shifted their senses in the direction of the dungeon gate, and saw a fleeting humanoid figure. It was almost invisible, like a wisp of smoke or a walking silhouette, and they might have missed it completely it if wasn’t for the pulsing dark purple core. The center of the core was slightly glowing, and Zein could feel a familiar presence from that part.

"The shard!" he hissed and gritted his teeth, following the warrior to chase the silhouette.

But it was hard moving over the devastating landscape. Most of the ground was upturned, and large boulders scattered across the uneven terrain. Fallen trees and palace rubble turned the chase into an obstacle run. The warriors could easily jump over them or destroy the obstruction, but the supports and the magician, including Zein, lag behind.

[Zein, stay back!] Bassena ordered through the earpiece and raised his hand toward the ceiling of the dome.

Zein and the rest of the rearguard halted their steps as stakes rained down to obliterate the obstacles. But the barrage of cleaners stopped abruptly as Bassena’s curse rang in their ears.

[Fuck--It’s trying to break the dome!]

Once again, the dungeon shook--or rather, the dome of darkness. Thin cracks appeared along the surface, and Zein remembered the day they got ambushed in the swamp. The Fragment at that time also managed to break Bassena’s domain, so there was no reason the original body couldn’t.

On the other side of the rubble, Bassena had to stop running and concentrate his mana on maintaining the wall. Their troops on the other side should have cleared the lake by now, so if they could hold the Fallen Star inside just a little more, the two Saint class espers and the rest of the troops would be able to help.

But the real body was naturally stronger than the fragment, so even after concentrating all of his efforts on maintaining the integrity of the dome, the cracks were increasing.

"Attack it! Don’t preserve your energy anymore!" Bassena barked to the chasing espers, and a flurry of firestorms hit the fleeting figure pounding on the dome’s wall.

But they didn’t hit. To be precise, the attack didn’t hit the humanoid figure, only the barrier around it. Sierra’s mana bullets and Ron’s shadow daggers dispersed on the pulsing surface, leaving the figure unscathed.

Crack!

And then, it broke.

Bassena coughed as his domain was shattered and the darkness disappeared. "Fuck--" he wheezed and pointed at the gate. "Chase it!"

The warriors and Sierra only looked back for a second before dashing to the dungeon entrance. They saw the humanoid figure go past the swirling gate, but when Zhan jumped to go outside, he was repelled by an invisible force.

"Holy--it sealed the gate!"

Zhan’s shout froze them momentarily, including the rearguards who finally reached them. A phantom clock was ticking inside Bassena’s mind, and he stomped his feet to the ground, pulling the group by their shadow and gathering them in one spot.

"Shield! As much as you can!" he ordered Senan and Cohen while summoning the black armor around them. "Brace for dungeon break!"

And once again, they were blasted by an explosion.