Aeliana’s mind swam in a haze of dull throbbing pain.
Her body ached—every muscle, every bone, every inch of her skin felt sore in a way she had never experienced before. It was a deep, heavy exhaustion, like she had been crushed beneath something immense and barely pried herself free.
A groan slipped past her lips.
Her thoughts were slow, sluggish. A fog clung to the edges of her mind, making it hard to think, hard to remember—
But then—
Memory crept in.
The fight.
The Kraken.
The void.
Him.
Her breath hitched, her eyes snapping open.
‘Did I… die?’
She had accepted it. She should have died. She felt herself dying. So why—?
Was this the afterlife?
Or hell?
Aeliana’s blurry vision struggled to focus as she lifted her gaze, taking in her surroundings for the first time.
Dark.
Enclosed.
The walls were jagged, rough stone, stretching upward into a high ceiling barely visible in the dim light. The air was cool, damp, carrying the scent of earth and minerals. Faint droplets echoed in the distance, the sound bouncing off the cavern walls.
Not the battlefield.
Not the endless starry abyss where the Kraken had torn the world apart.
This was something else.
A cave?
She slowly pushed herself up, wincing as pain lanced through her limbs.
“What happened?”
Her voice was barely above a whisper, hoarse and dry.
And then—
A sound.
A low, steady hum.
Soft. Faint. Familiar.
“Hmm?”
Aeliana turned her head toward the source—
And froze.
A body.
Lying right beside her.
Pitch-black hair, tangled and matted with dried blood. Torn clothes, clinging to a lean frame marked with fresh wounds and old scars. Pale skin, unnaturally still in the dim light.
Her breath caught.
“Luca…”
She stared, her heart pounding against her ribs.
For a moment, she didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
Then, carefully, she reached out, fingers brushing against his shoulder.
“Luca.”
No response.
She tried again.
“Hey.”
Still nothing.
Her stomach twisted.
He was breathing—his chest rose and fell in slow, uneven motions—but he wasn’t waking up.
Her fingers curled against his torn sleeve.
Aeliana swallowed hard, ignoring the ache in her throat as she took in his state. The wounds. The bruises. The sheer exhaustion carved into every inch of his body.
He had pushed himself far beyond his limits.
And now—
He was unconscious.
Her grip on his sleeve tightened.
What the hell had happened?
Did we win?
Aeliana’s gaze flickered to Luca’s unmoving form, then back to her own hands. The last thing she could remember was that final slash—the moment space itself seemed to shatter under the weight of his attack.
And then—
Nothing.
But the fact that they were here, alive, meant that something had worked. Right?
It must have.
She exhaled shakily, trying to push away the lingering uncertainty.
Her body still ached, but as she carefully shifted her weight, pressing her palms against the cold stone beneath her, she realized something strange.
She wasn’t struggling.
Her limbs weren’t trembling.
Her breath wasn’t shallow.
Normally, even after resting, her body—frail and weakened from years of illness—would still resist movement. But now?
Aeliana slowly, cautiously, pushed herself up to her feet.
And nothing fought against her.
No dizziness. No weakness.
I feel… stronger?
The thought sent a chill down her spine.
She pressed a hand to her chest. Her heartbeat was steady—too steady. This wasn’t normal. Not for her. Had she really just rested? Or… had something changed?
She swallowed hard, pushing that question aside for now.
Luca was still unconscious, and she needed to assess their surroundings.
Her amber eyes swept across the cavern.
It was vast—larger than she had first realized. The dim lighting made it hard to gauge the full scale of the space, but she could make out jagged rock formations, high ceilings, and shadowed tunnels stretching into darkness.
The air was cool, filled with the scent of damp stone and something else—something faintly metallic.
Aeliana took slow steps, testing her newfound stability.
Her boots echoed softly against the cave floor as she moved further from where Luca lay. Her fingers brushed against the rough walls as she walked, eyes scanning for any sign of life, of an exit—of anything.
And then—
She saw it.
A massive shape, looming in the center of the cavern.
A rock.
Or, at least, that’s what it looked like at first.
But the closer she got, the more she realized—this wasn’t just any stone.
It was unnatural.
Smooth in some places, jagged in others, its surface was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Faint, twisting engravings covered its form—marks that seemed more carved than naturally formed. Symbols she couldn’t quite interpret, but…
Aeliana’s breath caught.
She had seen them before.
The same engravings. The same strange script.
From that place.
The moment she was teleported.
Her pulse quickened.
“What… is this?”
She reached out hesitantly, fingertips grazing the surface. The stone was cool—too cool, almost like ice despite the cavern’s temperature.
But aside from that….It was….
Nothing.
No reaction. No shift in the air. No strange pulse beneath her fingertips.
Just cold.
Aeliana exhaled, stepping back from the strange rock—no, not a rock. Something else. Something… wrong.
But whatever it was, it wasn’t doing anything.
She lingered for a moment longer, half-expecting the engravings to suddenly glow or the stone to hum with energy, but nothing happened. It remained still, lifeless.
Tch.
With a soft shake of her head, she turned away.
She wandered further into the cavern, her steps slow, cautious. It didn’t take long for her to realize just how deep underground they were. The air was heavier here, older. The walls stretched high, vanishing into darkness, and the tunnels that branched off in different directions held no sign of life.
But there were marks.
Not fresh. Not recent. But something had been here before.
The faintest scratches on the stone floor. A few indents on the walls, as if tools had been driven into them at some point. No footprints. No tracks. Just… traces.
She narrowed her eyes. How long have we been here?
She had no sense of time. No idea how long she had been unconscious.
Her gaze drifted back toward where she had come from. Toward where he was.
With a small sigh, she turned and made her way back.
Luca was still asleep when she returned.
Unmoving. Breathing slow and steady.
Aeliana stood there for a moment, arms crossed, watching him. It’s strange. He looked… at ease. Completely vulnerable.
And that wasn’t like him at all.
This was a man who moved like a phantom in battle. Who always seemed to be a step ahead of everything. Someone who played with danger like it was a game, who acted like he was untouchable. Arrogant. Unpredictable. Impossible to read.
But now?
Now, he was just… asleep.
The steady rise and fall of his chest. The way his dark lashes rested against his skin. The small, almost imperceptible twitches of his fingers every now and then, as if his body still wasn’t fully relaxed.
Aeliana let out a quiet breath before sitting down beside him.
Her fingers curled against her knees as she lowered herself to the cool stone. She could still feel the dull ache in her limbs, but it wasn’t unbearable.
Silence stretched between them.
And, as much as she hated it, she found herself thinking.
About everything.
About him.
The way he smirked, the way he fought, the way he never seemed to take things seriously—until the moment he did.
His voice. His laughter. That ridiculous way he always managed to infuriate her without even trying.
And those words—those last words.
He wanted me to hate him.
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She wasn’t sure. It was just a feeling. A speculation. But…
Her fingers tightened.
It made sense, didn’t it?
Everything he had said. The way he had forced those words out, how his smirk had twitched—how his eyes had been red.
How, even now, he was asleep in front of her.
“Are you really…”
She really couldn’t figure it out.