REONE
Reone stayed crouched over Lyrian's still body, shoulders shaking, breath breaking against the silence. He couldn't seem to understand what he was seeing—what he was holding.
"Lyrian… babe… come back to me," he whispered, fingers trembling as they brushed her cold cheek. "You can't die.You just cant… please…"
Reone was still in denial.
What was happening seemed impossible to him.
First he had lost Varel, and now—
No.
No, this wasn't right.It wasnt supposed to be happening.Not to her.Not like this.
"How did I let this happen?"He choked.
He pressed his forehead to hers, tears dripping onto her skin.
"I'm sorry, Lyrian," Reone whispered. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I couldn't protect you. I'm so useless…"
Grief twisted into something darker in him—self-hatred, fury, and hopelessness all knotting together inside his chest. And with Lyrian gone, he felt himself slipping toward an edge he didn't think he'd ever climb back from.
Behind him, something suddenly shifted.
He heard a groan.
Reone froze. Slowly, he turned.
Against the tree, Darel—the second Nullborn Extractor—was stirring awake. His eyes widened in horror as he took in the scene: Randall dead in the dirt, and the Legion warrior holding the limp body of the Sylph Randall had probably killed—the Sylph he himself had helped kill.
Panic flashed across Darel's face. He tried to stand, but pain shot through him and he collapsed back against the tree with a cry.
Reone rose to his feet,looking at him with hatred.
This man was just as responsible as Randall, he thought. Just as guilty.
He stalked toward him, fully planning to take his life—the same way he and his friend had taken Lyrian from him.
Darel saw the look in Reone's eyes and paled.
"N-No! Don't kill me—please!" he begged.
Reone kept advancing, expression carved from stone.
Darel scrambled helplessly, failing to stand. "Please—please—!"
"You monster," Reone growled, voice shaking with rage. "This is all your fault."
"No… I-I—"
"You're going to pay for what you did to her."
Darel's breath quickened into sobs. "Please—don't! I'm begging you!"
Reone didn't stop. He grabbed Darel by the collar and hauled him upward, slamming a fist into his face. Blood sprayed as Darel gasped and coughed.
"Please," Darel choked. "I—I can help you!"
"Monster!" Reone snarled, hitting him again and again. His eyes were wild, unfocused—he was on the brink of losing himself entirely, slipping fully into that dark impulse inside him.
Desperate, Darel wheezed, "I know where the Diviners are! They—they can save your Sylph friend!"
The words sliced cleanly through Reone's fog of rage.
He froze.
Darel sagged in his grip, wheezing, eyes rolling.
Reone shoved him back against the tree, breath harsh. "What did you just say?" he demanded.
Darel struggled to breathe, unable to speak immediately.
Unfortunately for him, Reone had next to zero patience in him.
He grabbed Darel again, dragging him close enough for Darel to feel his breath. "Tell me what you just said."
"I—just—give me a moment," Darel croaked, struggling to inhale.
Reone pressed an elbow against his throat, cutting off air. "Listen to me, monster. If you don't start talking right now, I'll get my blade and slit your throat here and now."
Terror jolted Darel back to focus.
"The Diviners can save her!" he blurted. "The only thing wrong with your friend is that she's been drained of resonance—completely depleted. A Diviner can restore it, s-so… she can live again."
Reone's breath hitched.
Diviners?
Restore resonance?
Bring Lyrian back?
He didn't believe it. Not in the slightest. It sounded impossible—just a story made up by a desperate man trying to save his own skin.
And yet…
The idea burned in his chest, fragile but stubborn.
"Where exactly are these Diviners?" he demanded, voice hard.
Darel raised a trembling hand and pointed shakily into the forest. "Back at the cave. Not far. That way."
Reone narrowed his eyes. "Then why is your boss heading in the opposite direction?"
Darel swallowed, shaking. "One of the Diviners attacked us last night—at the cave we were searching. The boss tracked it in that direction. But what he doesn't know is that the Diviner came back after he left. Randall and I followed it deeper inside the cave.Until we arrived to their nest. If the crew had gone any deeper into the cave,we would have it. A whole community of Diviners,thousands of them. Randall thinks the Diviner from last night was trying to lead the boss and the rest of the crew away from it. And it… it succeeded."
Reone's brows lowered. "But not completely. Your boss didn't take you and Randall with him, did he?"
Darel flinched. "No. Randall and I got clumsy and interrupted his shot of the Diviner last night, so that he only wounded it instead of capturing it. He left us behind because he said we'd get in the way again."
As Reone listened, the story—absurd as it was—wasn't entirely impossible. In fact, it aligned with what Lyrian had told him earlier.
The smallest, faintest flicker of hope began to glow in his chest.
He pressed his forearm harder into Darel's throat.
"If you're lying to me…" Reone whispered dangerously.
"I'm not," Darel rasped. "I swear."
"You'd better not be." Reone's voice dropped to a deadly murmur. "Because if I go to that cave and find out you've lied, I will come back and kill you. Slowly."
Darel nodded frantically, eyes wide with terror.
Reone knocked him unconscious with a single strike and tied him to the tree using his own coil device.
If this was a lie, Reone fully intended to return and finish what he started.
Then he turned back to Lyrian.
Her pale, still face made his throat close. Carefully—almost reverently—he knelt and gathered her into his arms.
"Lyrian…" His voice broke. "I'm going to save you. I promise. We're going to be together again."
Reone pressed his cheek to hers—cold now, unbearably cold—and swallowed his grief.
Then, jaw clenched, determination flaring bright in the tracks of his tears, he stood and began walking in the direction Darel had pointed out,to the cave.
He would get Lyrian back, Reone thought to himself.
He refused—utterly refused—to consider any other possibility.
He would not lose her too.