I woke to the sound of someone breathing beside me. The breathing was steady, controlled and strangely reassuring.
The sky above was dim, the gorge still carved in that same endless gray. My body felt like it had been smashed into dust and then glued together wrong. Every breath tugged at something sore.
I shifted slightly. A sharp jolt shot across my ribs I winced.
Eve's face snapped into view.
Eve's face came into view. She leaned over me, and for once her eyes looked clear, not hazy or distant. Her shirt was torn where the wound had been, but the skin underneath was whole again. When she realized I was awake, she exhaled like she'd been holding her breath for hours.
'You're an idiot,' she said quietly. She wasn't angry. Just tired.
I tried to sit up. My muscles disagreed immediately. Eve poked my shoulder and I slumped back down easily. I hated how little strength I had left.
'Stay. You look like you got run over by a herd of ogres,' she muttered.
My vision cleared enough for me to look around. Lucy was propped against a boulder a few meters away, her eyes half-closed but awake. Kaelen was stretched out beside her, breathing shallow but stable. Lyra was wrapped in a blanket Eve must have placed on her; her face was pale and streaked with dried blood, but she wasn't shaking anymore. Our bags sat a few feet away.
Eve must have done all of this alone.
'How long…' My voice cracked.
'Four hours,' she answered. 'Maybe more. Maybe less. I'm still dizzy.'
I swallowed. 'Are they… alright?'
'They'll live,' she said.
'And Lucy?'
Eve looked away. 'She was pretty shaken when she saw you still out.' She stood. 'I'll go tell her you're awake.'
She shifted away from me briefly, going over to Lucy. She checked her pulse, then peeled off what was left of her sleeve to tie fresh cloth over the bruised, swollen lines on her ribs. Her hands moved with a strange precision like she'd done this a million times
Lucy groaned. 'Eve… can't feel my spine.'
'You're fine,' Eve replied flatly, tightening the wrap around Lucy's chest. 'Stop complaining.'
Lucy winced. 'Ow. Okay. I felt that.'
Kaelen stirred next, head rocking to the side. Eve steadied his neck with a hand, checking his breathing again. 'Don't move. Your ribs are cracked.'
'Feels like more than ribs,' Kaelen muttered. 'What happened?'
'You got punted by a Devil type,' Eve said. 'Twice.'
He blinked. 'Ah.'
Lyra was still unconscious, but her breathing had evened out. Eve brushed loose hair from her forehead and wiped the dried blood from her cheek with a damp cloth.
I pushed myself up on my elbows despite the pain. Eve saw and sighed.
'What did I just say?'
'I'm fine,' I lied.
'You almost died,' she said. 'All of us almost died.'
'But we didn't,' I answered.
Eve clicked her tongue and looked away. 'Shut up.'
'You saved me,' I said.
'And what did you do?' She asked.
'W-what do you mean?'
'I'm asking how my wound healed, Z.'
I turned away. 'I d-don't know'
'You expect me to believe that? Z its whole arm went through me and now there's no trace of it, not even a scratch.'
'Maybe someone else helped. I don't know. After I cut its head, I can't remember anything else' I said.
Eve's eyes narrowed. 'I've always been suspicious of you. First you show up totally unannounced, then you immediately perform an attack a regular Shade would struggle to pull off. There's something you're not telling me.'
I didn't say anything.
'Fine then. I have other ways of finding out.' She exhaled. 'I spotted some rabbits and deer while you were out. Seems the Man-eater was preying on them too. Stay here and rest.'
'Yeah, sure.'
Eve left without another word, slipping through the narrow opening of the gorge with her daggers in her hands. I watched her silhouette disappear behind the rock wall until the shadows swallowed her completely. The quiet she left behind wasn't comforting. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore.
I tried sitting up again. My ribs lit up like someone shoved hot metal between them. I groaned under my breath but forced myself upright anyway. Every part of me shook.
Lucy cracked an eye open. 'You look like shit.'
'Thanks,' I muttered, inching toward her. 'You any better?'
'No.' She shifted slightly and winced. 'But at least I'm conscious. That's my standard for being alive.'
I lowered myself beside her, catching my breath. 'Can't believe Eve did all this alone. I certainly couldn't.'
'She didn't sleep too, Lucy murmured. 'Didn't stop moving. Patched us, checked us, yelled at us… she even dragged you around like luggage. I don't know where she gets the energy.'
'She's tough.'
'She's insane,' Lucy corrected. 'But yeah. Tough too.'
I let my head fall back against the stone. 'You scared me earlier.'
'Please. I wasn't going to die.' Her eyelids drooped again. 'But nice to know you care.'
I didn't reply. She smirked faintly anyway.
A soft groan came from Kaelen a short distance away. He struggled to roll onto his side. I pushed myself onto my feet, legs shaking, and stumbled toward him.
Kaelen squinted up at me. 'Thought that crazy bitch tied you to the ground.'
'She tried.'
He snorted, then immediately regretted it, clutching his ribs. 'Don't make me laugh.'
I lowered myself beside him carefully. 'You awake enough for a question?'
'Depends on the question is.'
'I want to get stronger.'
Kaelen didn't answer at first. He let out a slow breath, staring up at the gray sky above the gorge. 'I can't help you.'
I frowned. 'Why not?'
Kaelen exhaled slowly, then turned his head slightly to look at me properly this time. 'Because we're not on the same side.'
'That hasn't mattered so far.'
'It does now that this is over.' He replied. 'Different Domains. Same Grail selection. You know what that means.'
I didn't know what he was talking about.
'What do you mean Grail selection?'
'Playing dumb isn't going to help you kid.'
Lucy tugged my shirt. 'It's a competition held across the three domains; The floating fortress, the submerged island and the desert kingdom. Vatican. Moby dick. Kush. The Shades will compete and the winner will be given the power of the Holy Grail. He probably doesn't want to help because we are the underdogs and doesn't what to give any form of assistance.'
I sighed. Just when I thought I was done with fighting for a while.
'Why are we the underdogs?' I asked her.
'Because no Domain had yielded a Sage twice consecutively.'
'And Sage Mike was from the Vatican?'
'Yes, Z'
Ah shit. I guess this was the Sage-selecting BS Father James was talking about.
Kaelen shifted slightly, wincing as his cracked ribs protested. 'And if the Vatican wins again, it'll be the first time in history one Domain holds the Grail back-to-back,' he added. 'Do you know what that means for the rest of us?'
'No,' I said.
'It means the other Domains will have to acknowledge the Vatican as superior. Nobody knows why its like that. Legend says it was a petty argument between the Founding Gods -- Konstatin's friends. And apparently their following generations took it very seriously. Still affecting us even in this age.' His expression hardened. 'That's why I'm not helping you. Not me, not Lyra.'
We lay in silence until another groan came from behind us.
Lyra's fingers twitched first, then her breathing hitched. I turned and saw her eyes flicker open, unfocused at first, then darting around like she was trying to remember where she was. Her voice was rough. '…Kaelen?'
'I'm Right here,' He said, dragging himself closer. 'Easy.'
She pushed herself up, her arms trembling. Her blanket slid off her shoulders, revealing the dried streaks of blood down her temple. 'Did… we win?'
'Barely.'
'More like Eve carried all of us,' I muttered.
Lyra blinked at us. 'You're all alive.'
'Thanks to Eve,' I said.
Lyra looked at us then her, noticing the bandages wrapped around her bruises. 'She was the one who did this too?'
'Yes,' Lucy replied. 'She's quite capable.'
Lyra looked back at Kaelen and managed a small smile, but it faltered quickly as she clutched her stomach. 'Ow… okay. Still hurts.'
'It's better than before, right?,' I askedd.
'Everything is better than dying,' Lyra mumbled.
She leaned her head back against the rock, closing her eyes for just a moment, letting the silence settle between us again. No one tried to speak. No one had the energy.
Then footsteps approached from the gorge entrance.
Eve reappeared, dragging two rabbits by their legs and a deer over her shoulder like it weighed nothing. Her expression was blank as always, though the dried blood under her nails told part of the story. She took one look at us—awake, breathing, upright—and exhaled in a way that was almost relieved.
'Good,' she said. 'You're all finally up. I was getting tired of watching corpses.'
Lucy waved weakly at her. 'Welcome back.'
Eve didn't respond. She dropped the animals near a pile of wood and began skinning them swiftly, building a fire and seasoning the meat with salt. Then she pulled out a murky purple-tinted vial from her bag and poured it over the raw meat.
'So you even had that all along?' Kaelen groaned.
'What's that?' I asked.
'Recovery vial,' Eve replied. 'Made by Vince himself. It'll restore some of your strength and repair the internal damage. Not all of it. But enough to stop you from collapsing every time you breathe.'
'When did you get it?'
'I already had some from my previous mission. Father James wouldn't give us any so I had to get mine'
'Wait a minute. Your Domain ruler sent you here?!' Kaelen asked. His hand reached for his sword.
'Relax, we're not criminals. Our friend --' she pointed at Lucy. ' -- is a hybrid and was sent her as one of her trails to regained her previous status.' Eve answered. 'That's why we're here.'
Kaelen released his sword. 'Makes sense. I thought you were patrol that ran into some serious bad luck.'
When the meat finished roasting, Eve handed it out. The smell alone made my stomach cramp. I didn't wait.
Relief flooded my body. The pain dulled, my ribs loosened, my muscles steadied. The others reacted the same—quiet breaths of relief, color returning to their faces.
Eve ate quickly, eyes fixed on the food like she was solving a puzzle.
When we were done, she asked Kaelen, 'Did you two run into any humans here?'
Kaelen shrugged, 'No. Humans can't come in here even if they wanted too. Why?'
'We came across a group of men. Armed. They were hunting and killing Man-eaters with guns.'
'That's not good. That means there's a rogue amongst them coating their weapons in Miasma. Did you place a tag on them?'
'I did. But its gone. The rogue probably saw what I did and removed it.'
Kaelen stared blankly at the ground. 'Lyra and I are going to look into it. You guys have completed your trail and you'd better get out of here before another devil-type manifests.'
'Wait. What do you mean "Manifests"? And what's a rogue?' I asked.
'How do you think the Man-eaters get here. The infinite amount of cursed Miasma in here keeps spawning more Man-eaters. Even if we killed all the Man-eaters here. After a couple of days more would pop up again.' Kaelen replied simply.
'So why are you guys here then?'
Kaelen sighed. 'Since you lot did save our lives, I'll tell you why we're actually here.' He paused shortly. 'We were informed that a very powerful artifact was here somewhere in this forest. One strong enough to help us against Grey.'
'A divine relic.' Eve said. 'Where is it?'
'No idea,' Kaelen shrugged, 'We searched for it tirelessly, but no luck.'
'Maybe the rogue got to it?' Lucy suggested.
'Then that would be not good at all.' Kaelen siad.
'What's a rogue?' I whispered to Lucy.
'A Shade that has been corrupted with cursed Miasma, going against the laws of the Elders. Essentially, an evil Shade, most of who are working under Grey.' She replied.
Kaelen pushed himself slowly to his feet, testing his ribs once before nodding to himself. Lyra stood beside him, still unsteady, but her eyes were focused now. She brushed dirt from her clothes and tightened the straps of her satchel.
'We should move,' Kaelen said. 'If those humans are working with a rogue, we can't waste time.'
Lyra glanced at us, something almost apologetic crossing her face. 'Thank you for helping us. Truly.'
Lucy waved a hand weakly. 'We were all dying together anyway. Might as well help.'
Kaelen stepped closer to me before turning to leave. He held my gaze for a moment longer than I expected. 'Z… I meant what I said earlier. About us being on different sides.'
I swallowed. 'Yeah.'
He nodded once. 'The Grail selection is coming soon. When it does, I want to face you properly. Not like this.'
'What does that even mean. Besides, I don't even know if I'll qualify,' I said.
'You will.' His tone was certain. 'And when you do… don't hold back.'
He turned to go, but paused one last time. 'You have potential Z, I can sense it. Don't let it go to waste.'
Lyra tugged his sleeve gently. They headed toward the deeper parts of the forest, following some path only they knew. Eve watched them disappear through the trees, jaw tight, until the last trace of them vanished.
She swung her bag over her shoulder. 'We're leaving. Now. I don't want to be in this place a second longer.'
Lucy sighed in relief. 'Finally.'
I stood carefully, the potion's warmth still humming through my bones. Eve led the way, Lucy and I trailing behind her as we stepped out of the gorge and back into the wider forest. The air felt different now—lighter, but only because the worst was behind us.
The path was uneven, broken by deep claw marks and crushed earth. Eve moved through it without slowing, clearing branches aside with her daggers. Lucy limped beside me but didn't complain. I kept scanning the trees, half-expecting another Man-eater to emerge from the shadows.
'How far is the extraction point?' I asked.
'I don't know,' Eve replied. 'We'll get there when we get there. If nothing stops us.'
'Please don't say that,' Lucy muttered.
We walked in silence after that. Birds called overhead. Small animals bolted through bushes. The forest looked peaceful in a way that felt wrong after everything we'd seen.
Eventually, the trees thinned. The air lightened. The smell of rotting bark faded, replaced by open earth and distant wind.
Eve slowed her pace. 'We're almost out.'
I exhaled in relief and stepped over a large fallen branch. 'Good. If I had to hear one more twig snap, I would've lost my mind.'
We walked for a few more minutes before the forest finally broke open into a wide stretch of barren ground. Ahead stood cracked concrete, toppled lamp posts, and scattered remnants of old buildings—the outskirts of the abandoned city where we had first begun the trial.
The feeling of stepping into it again was strange. The silence was broader here, but at least it wasn't hostile. No fog. No monsters. Just destruction and dead air.
Lucy glanced around. 'Feels weirder coming back than going in.'
Eve moved forward, steady but alert. 'Stay close. Man-eaters could still be lurking around.'
We crossed through broken streets, weaving between shattered walls and rusted vehicles eaten through by time. My footsteps echoed in the empty ruins, each one reminding me just how exhausted my body really was.
'Extraction point should still be intact,' Eve said. 'Same spot as before.'
Lucy rubbed her shoulder. 'Good. I'm ready to sleep for a whole week.'
We followed a narrow alley where the ground dipped. The collapsed buildings framed the sky like jagged teeth. Eventually, the path began to become recognizable. In the distance, I could see the deserted supermarket we first came across still as eerie as ever.
Eve stopped after a while. 'We're here.'
Lucy exhaled and dropped onto a slab of rubble. Her eyes welled slightly. Relief finally broke through the exhaustion.
We made it.
I had repaid my debt to Roy. Lucy was free. And more importantly, I had a path now—toward strength, toward finding Amy. Not now, but soon. I would find her.
Eve pressed her palm to the ground. A glowing runic circle spread beneath her hand, and a beacon of Miasma rose upward, pulsing faintly.
I stepped closer. Its warmth was familiar. Safe.
A reminder that the nightmare was ending.
Eve checked the perimeter once more. 'Once it activates, we're going straight to the Parish. No splitting up. No talking to anyone. We report to Father James first. Z, you'll be the one to do that.'
'Why me? Aren't you the leader?'
'I wasn't the one who accepted the trial.'
'Fair enough.'
'Alright Lucy let's go home.' Eve said before stepping into the beacon and disappearing into the light.
Lucy sniffed and stood, brushing dust from her clothes. She hesitated, then stepped closer and hugged me tightly.
'Thank you, Z. I didn't think I'd ever live normally again. Thank you… thank you…'
Her voice broke slightly.
'It's fine,' I said softly, patting her head. 'You earned it. Those Man-eaters didn't stand a chance.'
She pulled back with a small smile. 'See you on the other side.'
Then she stepped into the light and vanished.
I stepped into the beacon. I began feeling that strange sensation I felt in the transmission chamber.
But just before my vision went blank, in the corner of my eye an individual emerged a couple of feet away. He was wearing worn out military body armor. But the strange thing was cursed Miasma oozed from him. I instantly recognized him from somewhere.
It was one of Fred's men.