Day 48 Post-Impact - Dimensional Space
The Void Commander moved first.
One moment it stood motionless at the center of its perimeter. The next, it was in front of Sarnav, a claw of condensed void energy driving toward his chest.
He caught it.
The impact drove him back three meters, boots carving furrows in the alien stone. The Commander's strength was real, substantial, nothing like the mindless creatures they'd faced before.
[VOID COMMANDER - COMBAT INITIATED]
[RANK: A (EQUIVALENT)]
[COMBAT STYLE: AGGRESSIVE, INTELLIGENT]
[WARNING: ENTITY CAN COORDINATE PERIMETER FORCES WHILE FIGHTING]
"Go!" Sarnav shouted to Chen Wei. "Clear the perimeter! Get to the survivors!"
Teams Beta and Gamma surged forward, engaging the stalkers and behemoths that formed the defensive ring. The sounds of combat erupted across the dimensional space, abilities clashing, creatures shrieking, awakened shouting commands.
Sarnav couldn't afford to watch. The Commander demanded his full attention.
It attacked again, faster this time, learning his response patterns. Void energy coiled around its limbs, forming weapons that shifted between claws and blades with fluid grace.
He dodged a slash, countered with a strike to its midsection. His fist connected, driving the creature back.
It barely seemed to notice.
"Ishani, flank right! Hafiz, keep it off-balance! Minji, disrupt its coordination!"
Alpha team moved into position. Ishani's light blazed, searing lances targeting the Commander's joints. Hafiz's lightning crackled, arcing toward its core. Minji's illusions, despite the interference, created false targets that drew its attention for crucial seconds.
The Commander adapted.
It raised one hand, and the perimeter forces shifted. Three stalkers broke off from engaging Beta team, rushing toward Minji's position.
"Incoming!" she shouted.
Sarnav intercepted them before they reached her. Three strikes, three dissolving corpses. But that moment of distraction cost him.
The Commander's blade caught his side, slicing through armor and flesh.
[INJURY SUSTAINED]
[SEVERITY: MODERATE]
[REGENERATION: ACTIVE]
[FULL RECOVERY: 8 MINUTES]
Pain flared, hot and immediate. He ignored it. Pain was just information. Information could wait.
He pressed the attack, driving the Commander back with a flurry of strikes. His fists connected again and again, each blow landing with force that would have shattered stone. The creature absorbed the punishment, void energy dispersing and reforming around each impact.
"It's regenerating!" Ishani called out. "My attacks aren't sticking!"
"Then we overwhelm it." Sarnav caught the Commander's next strike, holding it in place. "Everything you have. Now!"
Ishani's light condensed into a solid beam, burning through the creature's shoulder. Hafiz's lightning struck its back, electricity arcing through its form. Minji dropped her illusions and threw a concentrated blast of psychic energy that made the Commander stagger.
Sarnav drove his fist through its chest.
The creature screamed, a sound that existed in frequencies beyond normal hearing. Void energy erupted from the wound, toxic and corrosive, burning his arm even as he pulled it free.
But the Commander didn't fall.
It reformed around the wound, void energy knitting itself back together. Slower than before, damaged but not destroyed.
The entity is using dimensional energy to sustain itself, the system analyzed. As long as it remains within the rift, it can regenerate indefinitely. You need to either destroy its core completely or remove it from the dimensional space.
"Where's the core?"
Center mass. But it's protected by multiple layers of void energy. Current damage output insufficient for penetration.
The Commander attacked again, weaker but still dangerous. Sarnav blocked, countered, felt his own wounds still healing. They were evenly matched in power, but the creature had home field advantage.
Through the network, he felt his wives' exhaustion. Ishani was burning through her reserves. Hafiz was flagging. Even Minji's mental energy was depleting.
They couldn't sustain this.
Across the battlefield, Chen Wei's forces were making progress.
Beta team had carved through the western section of the perimeter, earth manipulation creating barriers that funneled creatures into kill zones. Six awakened worked in coordinated bursts, abilities overlapping to maximize damage.
Gamma team supported from behind, Nisha's healing keeping the injured fighting, Ananya's rhythm magic boosting everyone's speed and coordination.
But the losses were mounting.
"Man down!" someone shouted. A D-rank awakened fell, a stalker's claws having found his throat. Nisha rushed to him, nature magic flaring, but the wound was too severe.
[CASUALTY CONFIRMED]
[LIM WEI CHEN - D RANK - DECEASED]
[ASSAULT FORCE: 27 REMAINING]
Through the network, Sarnav felt the death like a punch to the gut. One of his people. Gone. Because he'd led them here.
Rage flared, cold and focused.
He turned back to the Commander with new purpose.
"Enough."
The creature paused, perhaps sensing the shift in his demeanor.
Sarnav reached deeper than he had since the Iron Wolves. Drew on the network, on his bonds, on everything the system had given him. Power flooded his body, enhancement beyond his normal limits.
[NETWORK AMPLIFICATION: ACTIVE]
[POWER OUTPUT: 147% STANDARD]
[WARNING: SUSTAINED USE WILL CAUSE BACKLASH]
[TIME LIMIT: 90 SECONDS]
He moved.
The Commander tried to block. It was too slow. Sarnav's fist shattered its guard, drove through its defenses, and found its core.
Not a punch. An invasion. His hand closed around the sphere of concentrated void energy at the creature's center, and he pulled.
The Commander screamed again, louder, longer. Its form destabilized, void energy collapsing without the core to sustain it.
Sarnav crushed the sphere in his grip.
[VOID COMMANDER ELIMINATED]
[ESSENCE: +15,000]
[NETWORK AMPLIFICATION: DEACTIVATING]
[BACKLASH: MINIMAL]
The perimeter forces felt their commander's death. Stalkers hesitated. Behemoths stumbled. The coordinated defense collapsed into chaos.
"Push through!" Sarnav ordered, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "NOW!"
Chen Wei's forces surged forward, exploiting the confusion. Creatures fell in droves, their organization shattered. Within minutes, the perimeter was broken.
The path to the survivors was clear.
The pocket of stable space was smaller than it had looked from a distance.
A bubble of normal reality, perhaps fifty meters across, surrounded by the nightmare of dimensional space. Inside, crude shelters had been constructed from salvaged materials. Barricades marked defensive positions. The signs of desperate survival were everywhere.
And in the center, fourteen people huddled together, staring at the newcomers with mixtures of hope and terror.
[SURVIVOR CAMP - REACHED]
[POPULATION: 14]
[CONDITION: MALNOURISHED, EXHAUSTED, ALIVE]
[AWAKENED: 3 (1 B-RANK, 2 D-RANK)]
[PRIMARY HEALER: IDENTIFIED]
"Who..." A man stepped forward, thin and haggard, a makeshift weapon in his trembling hands. "Who are you?"
"Rescue," Sarnav said simply. "We're getting you out of here."
The man's weapon clattered to the ground. He fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face.
"Thank god. Thank god. We thought... we thought no one was coming."
Around him, the other survivors reacted. Some wept. Some laughed. Some simply stared, unable to process that salvation had actually arrived.
"How long have you been here?" Nisha asked, moving among them, her healing energy reaching out to assess their conditions.
"Sixteen days," another survivor answered. A woman, older, her voice hoarse. "We were part of a scavenging team. The rift opened beneath us. We've been trapped ever since."
"And alive because of her," the first man added, pointing toward one of the shelters.
Sarnav followed his gesture.
The shelter's entrance was covered by a ragged curtain. Faint golden light pulsed from within, weak but steady. The same light he'd seen from a distance during reconnaissance.
"She's been healing us non-stop," the woman explained. "Every injury, every illness. She never stops. Never rests. She's the only reason any of us survived."
[PRIMARY HEALER - LOCATED]
[STATUS: CRITICAL EXHAUSTION]
[POWER RESERVES: 7%]
[PHYSICAL CONDITION: DANGEROUS]
[RECOMMENDATION: IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION]
Sarnav approached the shelter.
Behind him, his team was organizing the survivors, assessing injuries, distributing supplies. Chen Wei was establishing a defensive perimeter in case more creatures came. Everything was proceeding according to plan.
But his attention was fixed on that golden light.
He pulled aside the curtain.
The interior was small, barely large enough for two people. A bedroll occupied most of the space, salvaged blankets piled for warmth. Medical supplies, long since depleted, were stacked in one corner.
And on the bedroll, unconscious, her face pale and drawn, lay the healer.
She was beautiful.
Even exhausted, even depleted to the point of collapse, that much was undeniable. Soft features, dark hair spread across the pillow, lips slightly parted as she breathed shallow, irregular breaths. Her hands still glowed faintly, healing energy seeping out even in unconsciousness.
She'd given everything. Every ounce of power, every moment of rest, every resource she had. For sixteen days, she'd kept fourteen strangers alive through sheer will.
And now she was dying for it.
[SURVIVOR IDENTIFIED]
[NAME: MIURA SANA]
[AGE: 25]
[NATIONALITY: JAPANESE]
[RANK: B (DEPLETED TO D)]
[ABILITY: HOLY LIGHT HEALING]
[COMPATIBILITY: 97% (EXCEPTIONAL)]
[BOND POTENTIAL: MAIN WIFE]
[CURRENT STATUS: CRITICAL]
Ninety-seven percent compatibility, the system noted. That's higher than Nisha's initial reading. And a holy light healer... the rarity alone makes her invaluable. The fact that she's apparently beautiful is merely a bonus.
"Shut up."
I'm simply providing relevant information.
Sarnav knelt beside her. Her pulse was weak, her breathing too shallow. She'd pushed herself far past her limits, and now her body was paying the price.
"Nisha," he called. "I need you in here. Now."
His first wife appeared moments later. Her gasp told him she understood the severity.
"She's in critical condition," Nisha confirmed, kneeling on the opposite side. "Essence depletion at this level... it's eating her life force to sustain itself. If we don't stabilize her soon..."
"Can you help her?"
"I can try." Nisha's hands began to glow with nature energy. "But my power works differently than hers. I can heal physical damage, but essence depletion..." She bit her lip. "There might be something you can do."
"What?"
"Your cultivation. The network." Nisha met his eyes. "You can share essence with bonded partners. Transfer energy directly. If you could do that with her..."
"She's not bonded."
"Then bond her." Nisha's voice was firm. "I'm not suggesting anything permanent. Just enough of a connection to share energy. To save her life."
Through the network, he felt Nisha's sincerity. No jealousy. No hesitation. Just a healer's desperate need to save a patient.
"You're suggesting I partially bond with an unconscious woman."
"I'm suggesting you save her life however you can." Nisha's healing energy flowed into the unconscious healer, buying time. "She's dying, Sarnav. Right now. Whatever ethical concerns you have, weigh them against that."
The woman on the bedroll stirred. Her eyes fluttered.
For a moment, they opened.
Brown eyes, warm despite the exhaustion, found his face. Her lips moved, forming words too quiet to hear.
Then her eyes closed again, and her breathing grew even more shallow.
[SUBJECT ENTERING CRITICAL FAILURE]
[TIME TO EXPIRATION: APPROXIMATELY 4 MINUTES]
[DECISION REQUIRED]
The rift pulsed around them. Deep in the dimensional space, the S+ entity's presence grew stronger, rising from slumber.
They were running out of time.
Everyone was running out of time.
[S+ ENTITY: 34% ACTIVITY]
[AWAKENING ACCELERATING]
[ESTIMATED FULL CONSCIOUSNESS: 18 MINUTES]
[EVACUATION CRITICAL]