Day 48 Post-Impact - Dimensional Space
Four minutes.
The number burned in Sarnav's mind as he knelt beside the dying healer. Four minutes until her body gave out completely. Four minutes to make a decision that would change everything.
Miura Sana. Twenty-five years old. Japanese. A holy light healer who had spent sixteen days keeping fourteen strangers alive through sheer force of will. And now she was paying the price for her selflessness.
Her breathing was barely visible, chest rising in shallow, irregular intervals. The golden glow that had sustained so many lives flickered weakly around her fingers, essence bleeding out even as her body tried desperately to conserve what little remained.
"Sarnav." Nisha's voice was urgent. "We're running out of time."
He knew. God, he knew.
The system had laid out his options with its usual clinical efficiency. A partial bond could save her life, transfer enough essence to stabilize her condition. But bonding with an unconscious woman, even to save her life, felt wrong on a fundamental level.
Three minutes, forty-two seconds, the system updated. Her heart rate is becoming erratic. Decision point approaching.
"There has to be another way."
There isn't. Your essence transfer capability requires at minimum a preliminary bond. Without that connection, you cannot share energy directly. Nisha's healing addresses physical damage, not essence depletion. The mathematics are simple, Host.
Through the network, he felt his wives' attention. Ishani's pragmatic acceptance. Minji's urgent concern. Jade's cold calculation of probabilities. Ananya's prayers. And Nisha, right beside him, her nature magic working to slow the deterioration but unable to reverse it.
Distantly, he sensed Harmony itself, the five hundred and sixty people now depending on him, his mother coordinating the base's defenses in his absence. Mythili would be furious if he died here. Furious and devastated.
"Do it," Nisha said quietly. "I know what you're thinking. That it's wrong. That she can't consent. But she's dying, Sarnav. Right now, in front of us. If the positions were reversed, if it was me dying and a stranger could save me..." She met his eyes. "I'd want them to try."
"And if she hates me for it afterward?"
"Then she'll be alive to hate you." Nisha's hand found his. "That's more than she'll have if you do nothing."
The rift pulsed around them. Deep in the dimensional space, the S+ entity's presence grew stronger, a weight pressing against reality itself. They were all running out of time.
[S+ ENTITY: 41% ACTIVITY]
[AWAKENING ACCELERATING]
[FULL CONSCIOUSNESS: 14 MINUTES]
"How do I do this?" Sarnav asked. "A partial bond. What does that even mean?"
Physical contact. Essence transfer. Intent. The system's tone was almost gentle. You've formed full bonds before. This is simply... less. A connection without commitment. Enough to share energy, not enough to trigger the loyalty protocols or permanent linking.
"And afterward?"
The partial bond can be dissolved at any time by either party. It carries no obligations beyond the immediate transfer. Think of it as a temporary bridge rather than a permanent road.
Three minutes.
Sarnav took a breath. Made his decision.
He took Sana's hand in his. Her skin was cold, too cold, life draining away with every passing second. He closed his eyes, reached for the network, for the bonds that connected him to his wives.
Then he reached further. Toward her.
The sensation was strange. Different from the instant recognition he'd felt with Nisha, the competitive spark with Ishani, the intellectual curiosity with Jade. This was... quiet. Soft. Like finding a candle flame in a dark room.
She was in there somewhere. Behind the exhaustion, behind the depletion, behind the walls her body had erected to survive. A warm presence, gentle and kind, flickering on the edge of extinction.
Contact established, the system reported. Partial bond forming. Essence transfer initiating.
Power flowed from him to her. Not much. He couldn't afford much with the S+ entity waking. But enough. Enough to stabilize her heart. Enough to strengthen her breathing. Enough to pull her back from the edge.
[ESSENCE TRANSFERRED: 5,000]
[PARTIAL BOND: ACTIVE]
[SUBJECT STATUS: STABILIZING]
[CRITICAL FAILURE: AVERTED]
Sana's eyes opened.
Not gradually, not with the slow confusion of waking from sleep. They opened suddenly, brown meeting brown, and Sarnav felt the connection snap into focus.
She saw him. Really saw him. Through the partial bond, he felt her awareness, her confusion, her desperate hope.
"You came," she whispered. Her voice was hoarse, barely audible, but the words carried weight beyond their sound. "I dreamed... someone would come. I prayed every night. And you..."
"I came," he confirmed. "We're getting you out of here. All of you."
Tears spilled down her cheeks. Not from sadness. From relief so profound it couldn't be contained.
"Thank you." Her grip on his hand tightened, weak but present. "Thank you. I thought... I thought we were all going to die here. That no one would ever know what happened to us."
"You kept them alive," Sarnav said. "Sixteen days. Fourteen people. You did that."
"I had to try." She struggled to sit up, and Nisha immediately moved to support her. "They were counting on me. I couldn't... I couldn't let them down."
"You didn't." Nisha's voice was warm. "You're a hero. But right now, you need to rest. Let us handle the evacuation."
Sana looked at Nisha, then back at Sarnav. Through the partial bond, he felt her curiosity, her questions. But also her trust. Immediate and absolute, the trust of someone who had been rescued from the very edge of death.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Sarnav Kish. Leader of the Harmony Safe Zone." He helped her to her feet, keeping an arm around her waist when she swayed. "And these are my people. We came to bring you home."
Outside the shelter, organized chaos reigned.
Chen Wei had established a defensive perimeter, the surviving awakened taking positions around the survivor camp. The creatures of the rift had pulled back after the Commander's death, but they lurked in the dimensional shadows, watching, waiting.
The fourteen survivors were being assembled for evacuation. Most could walk, though barely. Two needed to be carried. All of them stared at their rescuers with the shell-shocked expressions of people who had given up hope and found it again.
"Status," Sarnav demanded as he emerged, Sana still leaning against him.
"Perimeter secure for now," Chen Wei reported. "But the rift is... pulsing. The dimensional energy is getting more unstable. Whatever's waking up in here, it's affecting the whole space."
[DIMENSIONAL INSTABILITY: INCREASING]
[RIFT COHERENCE: 67% AND FALLING]
[S+ ENTITY: 48% ACTIVITY]
[WARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE POSSIBLE]
"How long until the rift becomes impassable?"
Jade consulted her tablet, face grim. "Twenty minutes, maybe less. The entity's awakening is destabilizing the dimensional boundaries. If we don't leave before it hits full consciousness, we might not be able to leave at all."
Twenty minutes. And the entity would be fully awake in fourteen.
"Then we move now." Sarnav looked at the assembled survivors. "Can everyone walk?"
"Most of us," the older woman from before answered. "But Tanaka-san..." She gestured to a man being supported by two others. "His leg was broken two weeks ago. Sana healed the bone, but he still can't put weight on it."
"I'll carry him." One of Chen Wei's awakened stepped forward, a stocky man with earth manipulation. "Not a problem."
"And her?" The woman looked at Sana with obvious concern. "She can barely stand."
"I have her." Sarnav's arm tightened around Sana's waist. Through the partial bond, he felt her embarrassment, her desire to protest that she was fine. But also her exhaustion, too deep to hide. "Let's move. Single file, awakened on the flanks. We go fast and we don't stop for anything."
The group formed up. Twenty-seven awakened surrounding fourteen survivors, plus Sana. Forty-two people total, making their way through a nightmare dimension with an ancient entity waking behind them.
No pressure.
They made it halfway before the first attack.
Stalkers emerged from the crystalline formations without warning, twelve of them, striking at the flanks where the formation was weakest. Two C-rank awakened went down immediately, claws finding gaps in their defense.
"Contact!" Hafiz's lightning arced out, dropping two stalkers. "Multiple hostiles!"
"Protect the survivors!" Sarnav transferred Sana to Nisha's care and threw himself into the fight.
The stalkers were desperate now, sensing that their prey was escaping. They attacked with suicidal aggression, throwing themselves at the formation regardless of casualties. For every one that fell, another pressed forward.
Sarnav Void Stepped between the stalkers, reality blurring as he materialized behind each one in turn. Soul Crush after Soul Crush landed, his essence-charged fists bypassing their physical defenses entirely, four creatures falling in rapid succession. But he couldn't be everywhere. Couldn't protect everyone.
A stalker broke through the line, heading straight for the survivors. A young woman screamed, falling backward, hands raised in futile defense.
Golden light blazed.
Sana stood between the stalker and its prey, one hand raised. "Divine Purge!" Holy energy erupted from her palm in a concentrated burst. The creature shrieked as the sacred light burned through it, dissolving void energy like morning sun burning away fog.
Then Sana collapsed.
"Sana!" Sarnav caught her before she hit the ground. Her eyes were closed again, breathing shallow, the brief exertion having cost her what little reserve she'd built.
[PARTIAL BOND SUBJECT: CRITICAL AGAIN]
[ESSENCE RESERVES: 2%]
[IMMEDIATE TRANSFER REQUIRED]
He didn't hesitate this time. Essence flowed through the bond, stabilizing her again. Another five thousand points, power he couldn't afford to spare but couldn't afford not to give.
[ESSENCE TRANSFERRED: 5,000]
[SUBJECT STATUS: STABILIZING]
[TOTAL ESSENCE REMAINING: 420,300]
Around them, the battle ended. The stalkers were dead or fled, but the cost was clear. Two more awakened down, one dead, one seriously wounded. The assault force was at twenty-four now.
"Keep moving," Sarnav ordered, lifting Sana in his arms. She weighed almost nothing, her body wasted from weeks of giving everything to others. "We don't have time to stop."
They moved.
The S+ entity announced itself with presence rather than action.
One moment they were navigating the alien landscape, the exit point visible in the distance. The next, reality itself seemed to bow under the weight of something vast and ancient turning its attention toward them.
[S+ ENTITY: 78% ACTIVITY]
[ATTENTION: FOCUSED ON EVACUATION GROUP]
[THREAT LEVEL: CATASTROPHIC]
[RECOMMENDATION: ACCELERATE EVACUATION]
Sarnav felt it in his bones. The same presence that had brushed against his mind during reconnaissance, now fully aware, fully focused. It wasn't attacking yet. It was... curious. Studying them like specimens under a microscope.
What are you?
The thought wasn't his. It came from outside, from the entity, pressing against his consciousness with weight that made his knees buckle.
You killed my commander. You took my prey. And now you flee.
"Everyone run," Sarnav said quietly. Then, louder: "RUN!"
The group broke into desperate motion. Survivors stumbled and were carried. Awakened abandoned formation to simply move as fast as possible. The exit point was four hundred meters away, a shimmer in the dimensional space that marked the boundary back to reality.
The entity didn't pursue. It didn't need to. Reality began to twist around them, the dimension itself becoming hostile. The ground shifted, creating obstacles. The air thickened, making every breath a struggle. Distances stretched, the exit point seeming to recede even as they ran toward it.
You cannot leave.
"Watch me."
Sarnav reached for the network again. Not just his power. All of it. Every wife, every bond, every drop of essence he could channel.
[NETWORK AMPLIFICATION: MAXIMUM]
[POWER OUTPUT: 200%]
[WARNING: SEVERE BACKLASH IMMINENT]
[TIME LIMIT: 30 SECONDS]
He became a blur of motion, Void Stepping repeatedly, each teleport carrying him and the survivors closer to safety. The dimensional distortions shattered against his Harmony Shield. The obstacles crumbled before his Soul Crush strikes. The stretching distances collapsed back to their true measurements as his amplified will imposed reality on the chaos.
"GO!" he roared, his voice carrying power that physically pushed the survivors forward. "EVERYONE THROUGH! NOW!"
Chen Wei reached the exit first, pulling survivors through the shimmer. Awakened followed, half-carrying the wounded. Nisha went, then Ananya, then Jade. Ishani hesitated at the boundary.
"You too!" Sarnav commanded.
"Not without you!"
"I'm right behind you. GO!"
She went, tears in her eyes, pulled through by Chen Wei's grip on her arm.
Minji was last before Sarnav. She paused at the boundary, looking back.
"Oppa..."
"I'll be fine. Through. Now."
She vanished through the shimmer.
Sarnav turned to face the entity.
It manifested now, a shape of darkness and stars, vaguely humanoid but wrong in ways that hurt to perceive. It towered above him, vast and ancient and hungry.
You cannot escape.
"You're right." Sarnav's amplification was fading, the backlash already beginning. His bones ached. His vision blurred. "I can't escape you."
He looked at the shimmer behind him. At the exit. At safety.
"But I don't need to escape. I just need to buy time."
He charged, Essence Skin hardening his body against the entity's overwhelming presence.
Not to fight. Not to win. Just to distract. To give his people those precious seconds to get clear.
The entity's attention fixed on him fully. Power beyond comprehension gathered, ready to annihilate the insect that dared challenge it.
And in that moment of focus, Sarnav Void Stepped backward.
He hit the shimmer at full speed, the boundary yielding, reality reasserting itself around him. Behind him, the entity's roar of frustration shook both dimensions, but it was too late. He was through.
The rift pulsed once, twice, then collapsed.
The S+ entity was sealed inside.
Reality hit him like a wall.
Sarnav crashed to the ground on the other side of the rift, his amplification finally giving out, backlash flooding through every nerve. His body screamed in protest, muscles spasming, vision going white with pain.
[NETWORK AMPLIFICATION: TERMINATED]
[BACKLASH: SEVERE]
[TEMPORARY STAT REDUCTION: 40%]
[RECOVERY TIME: 6-8 HOURS]
"Sarnav!" Voices surrounded him. Hands reached for him. His wives' faces swam in and out of focus, their fear and relief mixing through the network into a confusing emotional storm.
"The survivors..." he managed.
"All through," Chen Wei reported from somewhere above him. "All fourteen. Plus our wounded."
"Casualties?"
A pause. Then, grimly: "Three dead. Six seriously injured."
Three dead. Three of his people who wouldn't be going home.
He closed his eyes, letting the guilt wash over him. Three lives, traded for fourteen. The math worked out. The math always worked out. But math didn't comfort widows or explain to children why daddy wasn't coming back.
"Sarnav." Nisha's voice, close to his ear. "The healer. Sana. She's asking for you."
He forced his eyes open. Forced his body to move despite the protests. Sat up, the world tilting dangerously, and found Sana watching him from a few meters away.
She was propped against a ruined wall, other survivors being tended around her. But her eyes were fixed on him. Through the partial bond, he felt her gratitude, her concern, her wonder.
He crawled to her. Actually crawled, because walking was beyond him right now.
"You saved us," she said when he reached her. "All of us. You almost died doing it."
"Part of the job."
"No." She shook her head weakly. "No, it's not. I've seen what people do in this world. How they treat strangers. You didn't have to come for us. Didn't have to risk everything." Her hand found his, their fingers intertwining. "But you did anyway."
"I couldn't leave you to die."
"Why?"
The question was simple. The answer wasn't.
Because the system told me you were compatible. Because I saw you from a distance and couldn't look away. Because leaving you would have been wrong in ways I couldn't articulate.
"Because that's not who I am," he said finally. "And it's not who my people are. In Harmony, we don't abandon the innocent. Ever."
She smiled. Weak, exhausted, but genuine. A smile that transformed her face, that showed the beauty hidden beneath the depletion.
"I'd like to see this Harmony," she said. "If you'll have me."
Through the partial bond, he felt her sincerity. Her hope. Her trust.
"You're already part of it," he told her. "Welcome home, Sana."
She squeezed his hand.
And despite everything, despite the pain and the loss and the challenges still ahead, Sarnav smiled back.
[DAY 48 - RESCUE COMPLETE]
[SURVIVORS EXTRACTED: 14]
[ASSAULT FORCE CASUALTIES: 3 KIA, 6 WOUNDED]
[RIFT STATUS: COLLAPSED (S+ ENTITY CONTAINED)]
[PARTIAL BOND: MIURA SANA - ACTIVE]
[TOTAL ESSENCE: 420,300 / 1,000,000]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE STATUS][POPULATION: 551 (+14 SURVIVORS)][WESTERN EXPANSION: 35% COMPLETE]
[NEXT: RETURN TO HARMONY SAFE ZONE]