Pain.
That was all Asher felt as consciousness returned—blinding, overwhelming pain. He blinked against the haze, each flutter of his eyelids sending sharp stabs through his skull. A migraine split his head, making him dizzy, and even the effort to lift a hand was beyond him. All he could manage was to clench his jaw.
It was still raining.
His breathing was hoarse and shallow, every inhale felt like needles through his lungs. Through the crash of thunder and downpour, voices cut through the storm.
"Are you crazy, Neph?! We need all the help we can get!" Sunny's voice—frantic and frustrated.
'Good, he is safe.'
"Asher simply cannot fight," Nephis replied, calm and firm. "Whatever he did to allow his body to jump that high... it pushed his body beyond its limits. His muscles are torn throughout, and his legs are shattered. Forcing him awake could give him a concussion—or worse." Nephis answered with her arms crossed.
"Of course I know that!" Sunny snapped, exasperated. "I'm not asking him to fight. I'm asking you to wake him so he can summon his Echo!"
"No," she said without hesitation. "I do not want to take the risk."
A soft exhale escaped Asher's lips. He didn't need to be woken up—he was already here.
With a spark of will, a cyclone of light erupted beside him, coalescing into his Echo. Sunny and Nephis jerked back, startled.
"Before either of you say anything," Asher rasped, blood flecking his lips "I am aware of the monster on this island as I have already sensed it."
He sucked a shallow breath, coughing blood.
Sunny frowned while Nephis tried to reach out her hand, presumably to heal him.
Asher shook his head firmly
"Take the Echo," he said, panting. "And please… don't die."
Sunny exhaled slowly, composing himself. They had already discussed a plan while Asher was unconscious.
Cassie tried to put on a brave face. She turned to Nephis and forced a smile:
"Go and kill that thing. Maybe you'll finally get something decent to wear and stop making me feel so guilty."
A corner of Changing Star's lip curled up.
"Okay."
Asher gritted his teeth and sat up straighter, a lance of agony shooting through him. "Cassie just jinxed it, didn't she?"
Sunny laughed, seeing the absurdity of how they were joking in a situation like this.
But the fear lingered.
Asher was terrified. Things were already diverging too far from the novel he knew. Sunny was far more injured—his body had collided with jagged rocks during their escape. Nephis was hurt, too—she'd been in worse shape since her fight that morning with the scavengers. And mentally? She was unraveling faster than she had in the story. She'd already used her power to heal him earlier that day, and it had taken a toll.
To make things worse, she had insisted Asher consume one of the scavengers' soul shards to relieve some of his injuries. He had refused her healing—but accepted the shard.
It wasn't enough to fix him, but it dulled the pain just enough to breathe.
Sunny and Nephis eventually left, and soon, sounds of battle came not far away.
Asher strained to sense the distant fight, his brow furrowed in concentration. Though he couldn't discern the specifics, he could feel the positions of everyone involved, their movements like ghostly whispers in his mind.
Suddenly, his eyes widened as the spell announced:
[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
And then—
[Your Echo has been destroyed.]
Asher's breath caught.
His Echo had one command: protect Nephis and Sunny. Always. Its destruction wasn't random—it was a warning.
"They're in danger," he whispered, cold dread seeping into his bones.
He turned to Cassie, urgency sharp in his voice. "I need your help."
Cassie blinked, startled by the sudden shift in his tone. "Did something happen?"
"My Echo's gone."
Cassie's eyes widened slightly, before her face turned serious. "What should I help with?"
****
Everything had went wrong.
Nephis turned her head, eyes scanning the wreckage of the battlefield.
Sunny lay slumped against a jagged rock, his chest rising and falling in shallow, uneven gasps. Blood clung to his skin like a second layer. He was barely conscious—barely alive.
The monster, a massive five-meter crab with two pincers and two bone scythes, was damaged significantly, yet, the situation was grim.
a bolt of lightning struck the carapace monster, causing it to screech monstrously. Dazed, the monster gathered its limbs and tried to stand. It had already begun to recover.
But Changing Star was quicker. Grabbing the hilt of the longsword, she grimaced as the heat burned her hands. Then, she twisted the blade, making the slayer's body twitch, and pulled it out, breaking apart a small portion of the monster's lower torso armor.
Dashing to the side, she lashed out with her sword. The glowing, white-hot blade caught the creature's arm right below the joint and almost cleaved through it, sending the terrifying bone scythe flying in a rain of azure blood.
Or that was what was supposed to happen in the novel.
Nephis did indeed almost cleave through the monster's scythe, but it wasn't enough. The creature was a terrifying sight, its carapace gleaming in the lightning flashes, its pincers and scythes glistening with deadly intent. It was a behemoth, its massive pincers capable of snapping boulders in half, and its bone scythes, sharp and menacing, could slice through steel.
The monster roared, the sound reverberating through the battlefield. It kicked Nephis with one of its legs, sending her hurtling into one of the many protruding rocks. She winced in pain but didn't have time to catch her breath as she saw a bone scythe descending toward her. All she could do was shift to the left and hope she would only lose her right arm.
And then—
BOOM!
The monster jerked violently to the right, the scythe missing Nephis by inches and carving deep into the earth beside her.
Something had slammed into its upper torso with incredible force.
Nephis blinked through the rain, heart pounding.
*****
A Few Seconds Earlier...
Asher drew a shallow, painful breath, fingers tightening around the hilt of his Azure Blade. Every movement burned, every breath stung—but he focused. Narrowed his gaze, and with a burst of strength, he hurled the blade with lightning speed. The force created a small shockwave, and Asher heard several cracks in his bones due to augmenting his hand.
He augmented the blade mid-flight, coating it with his power, then accelerated it using gravity. As it broke the sound barrier with a deafening boom, Asher winced, lips pulling into a grin despite the pain.
"Guess all those FPS games finally paid off."
The blade slammed into the monster with devastating precision, striking its side and sending the beast staggering backward five meters. The blow shattered part of its cracked carapace, exposing raw, pulsing flesh beneath.
Nephis turned toward the source, eyes wide.
Despite the agonizing throb in his arm, Asher allowed himself a faint smile. He could barely stand—his legs trembled like brittle sticks beneath him—but Cassie stood at his back, holding him upright with her arms around his waist.
Sunny's Echo seized the moment, attacking the monster while it was dazed. The creature retaliated with a vicious swipe of its pincer, catching the Echo and slamming it into the ground with a bone-crushing force. The Echo barely managed to avoid being completely pulverized, rolling to the side and striking back with its own fierce attacks.
The monster, now enraged, lunged at Nephis with its remaining bone scythe. She dodged with agility, her movements a blur as she parried and struck, trying to find an opening. The creature's pincers snapped dangerously close to her, each miss sending tremors through the ground.
He shouted toward the fight, voice raw. "Nephis! Heal Sunny—he might actually die!"
Nephis hesitated for only a heartbeat before nodding. She darted toward Sunny's crumpled body, even as Asher summoned his Azure Blade once more.
Sunny, already gravely wounded, would not survive much longer without help as he was already injured before this fight due to Asher slamming him into rocks.
Asher took another deep breath, before coughing once more. 'Sucked in too much.' he mumbled too him self, resummoning the Azure blade. Then, gritting his teeth, he focused. "Cassie… hold me from the front."
Cassie simply nodded, turning her figure to his front, grasping his chest with her delicate fingers.
Asher shifted his weight and raised his left arm. It was his weaker hand, but he didn't care. His eyes locked onto the exposed weak point in the monster's brain. He inhaled sharply—once, deeply—and hurled the sword with every last ounce of strength he had.
A ragged scream tore from his throat as his frame collapsed forward, caught only by Cassie as she steadied him.
The Azure Blade flew like a comet, a streak of radiant light piercing the storm.
And then—impact.
The blade struck true.
It buried itself deep in the creature's exposed brain, triggering a high-pitched, inhuman screech. The monster convulsed violently, limbs flailing in chaos. Its movements grew erratic, unstable—then desperate.
Sunny's Echo lunged, its pincers sinking deep into the exposed flesh. With a final, decisive snap, the Echo finished the beast off, the monstrous body collapsing in a heap.
Asher, his body trembling from the exertion, watched the scene unfold. He let out a weary chuckle, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "That kill stealing bastard..." he murmured, a tired but triumphant smile playing on his lips.
But the smile didn't last.
The pain came crashing in.
Both of his hands were mangled. His legs shattered. He couldn't support himself, even now, without Cassie.
His chest began to rise and fall too fast. His vision blurred. Rain pelted his skin like needles, and every drop was a fresh wave of agony.
He was hyperventilating.
He cried out, the sound ripped from him involuntarily. His body was breaking. His mind was fraying.
It wasn't as bad as what Nephis had endured—the feeling of being burned alive—but to him, it was torture. It was too much.
Cassie's voice cut through the haze.
"Asher?! Are you okay?!"
But he couldn't answer.
He couldn't even breathe.
Everything around him dulled—muffled by panic and pain. The world dimmed at the edges, his vision warping with tears.
The last thing he heard was the rain.
The last thing he felt was terror.
"Please… help."
He was dying. He knew it. He could feel his own mind slipping, his consciousness unraveling like thread in a storm.
"Save me… someone..."
And then—
"Ueh!"
A harsh, ragged breath tore from his throat, blood-tinged and desperate.
He collapsed further into Cassie's arms, vision tunneling.
The iron taste in his mouth returned.
And with the last flicker of awareness, Asher's final thought echoed in his mind—
"Fuck. It hurts."
__________________________
[A/N: Guys, I'll be on trip from today! So this might be the last chapter for a while!]