Ghouls.

Adom's elementary school teacher, Ms. Pobniev, had always told them to never say any creature is ugly.

It was one of those lessons kind responsible adults impart, like "eat your vegetables" or "don't play with fire." She'd say God had crafted each being with purpose and intent. From the lowliest dung beetle to the most majestic griffin, all were part of the grand scheme of existence.

Ms. Pobniev would wax poetic about the dignity inherent in every living thing, how one should approach the world with respect and an open heart. "There's beauty in every being, children," she'd say.

Bless her heart.

Ghouls were the most repulsive, nauseating, vomit-inducing abomination Adom had ever laid eyes on. They were revolting, hideous, grotesque, and utterly loathsome. Walking offences to every sense, an insult to the very concept of aesthetics.

And the worst part? They weren't even natural deaths. They were monster parasites that sought out corpses, burrowing into dead flesh until they possessed it entirely. They'd wear that rotting meat puppet until it literally fell apart around them, leaving trails of putrid flesh in their wake.

The older the corpse, the more it decayed, the more of the parasite showed through tears in the skin - writhing, glistening things that had no right to exist.

Ugh.

BAM

Adom's weighted-knuckled fist connected with the ghoul's jaw. The bone shattered like porcelain, sending the creature spinning through the air in a spray of putrid flesh and blackened teeth.

[You have slain 01 Ghoul!]

"Holy shit!" Valiant yelped. "Did you just punch its face clean off?"

[Boxing Mastery has advanced!]

[Iron Lungs has advanced!]

Time slowed. Adom's vision sharpened, [Flow Prediction] allowing him to notice weak points across the ghouls' bodies - loose jaw, exposed throat, rotting knee joint.

He moved.

The weighted knuckles were just an afterthought now. His footwork had changed - lighter, smoother, each step placing him exactly where he needed to be. A ghoul lunged. Adom slipped left, his counter-punch crushing through its temple with mechanical precision.

Two more came at him. He weaved between them, letting their clumsy swings pass through empty air. Left hook to the ribs - they crumbled like wet cardboard. Right cross to the jaw - bone fragments scattered across the floor.

His breathing stayed steady, controlled. Four weeks ago, he'd have been gasping by now. But his lungs worked like bellows, feeding oxygen to muscles that moved with newfound efficiency.

Valiant was calling from somewhere behind him.

Adom didn't answer. He was busy watching the blue highlights dance across three more ghouls. Their movements were transparent now - telegraphed attacks, obvious openings. Slow. So slow.

Sweat ran down his back as he ducked under grasping hands. The stench of rot filled his nose. His fist found another jaw. Another throat. Another knee. Bodies dropped, one after another.

When the last ghoul fell - skull caved in by a perfectly timed uppercut - Adom finally stepped back. Eleven corpses lay scattered around him, properly dead this time. His knuckles ached. His shirt was soaked through. But his breathing... barely elevated.

"Okay," Valiant said into the silence. "Never took you for the combat mage type. Always figured you for one of those scholarly types who'd rather read about fighting than do it."

One of the fallen ghouls twitched. Without missing a beat, Valiant's boot came down on its skull, crushing its eye with a wet crunch. "Take this!"

"There was a time I would've laughed at the idea myself." Adom wiped sweat from his eyes, studying the carnage with clinical detachment. "Things change. Plus they're slow."

"They're also very, very dead. Which they weren't before you went all prize fighter on them."

"We should move," Adom said. "The smell's going to attract more."

"And miss watching you punch more undead into pieces? I'm starting to enjoy the show."

One of the ghouls gurgled, trying to crawl forward. Valiant's little boot came down hard, silencing it. "Though I suppose we could find a better venue."

Ten days.

That's how long they had been travelling for. The journey from that first terrifying time at the dark lake felt like years compressed into days. The perpetual purple sky above them - not quite dark, never truly bright - had screwed with their sense of time from the start.

They'd learned to navigate this twisted place. The map helped, showing safe zones marked in faded blue ink by whoever came before them. They'd added their own marks too - here be murder birds, don't enter the crystal caves, wasp territory. Simple rules for survival.

The monster chicken had been a godsend. Adom could store enough meat for weeks in his inventory, though the taste got old fast. Valiant barely ate - some quirk of whatever he was - which meant more for Adom. Their water supplies from the many water points were running low though. Three days left, maybe four if they rationed harder.

They'd developed a routine. Sleep in shifts in the safe zones. Mark new paths. Kill what needed killing. The stalkers had been the worst - silent things that followed for days, waiting for weakness. The murder birds were easier once they figured out they hunted by sound. Mimics... well, Adom had learned to punch anything that looked like treasure. Better safe than eaten.

The dungeon spread out in every direction - not just caves and corridors, but vast open spaces. Dead forests with trees of stone. Lakes of black water that reflected nothing. Mountains in the distance.

"Remember that field of giant mushrooms?" Valiant asked, probably thinking the same things. "The ones that tried to eat us?"

"Remember that nest of wasps you disturbed?"

"Right. Sorry about that..."

The map helped them avoid the worst areas, but even the "safe" zones weren't really safe. Just... survivable.

Adom drank from his inventory. Water just dropping in his mouth as he willed the inventory to open. They'd need to find more soon. Or hope the map's promise of a way out wasn't just another trap.

"Seriously, how do you do that without any dimensional bag?" Valiant asked.

"Magic."

"Ha. Look at this funny guy."

Ten days. And they were still alive.

For now.

Night phase was approaching - or whatever passed for night in this endless purple twilight. They'd found one of the safe zones marked on their map just in time, a small cave with natural formations that somehow dampened monster detection. The wounds from their earlier fights were mostly superficial, though Adom's knuckles still ached from punching through too many ghoul skulls.

He needed to center himself.

So while Valiant took first watch, Adom settled into his meditation pose.

He floated cross-legged, three inches off the ground, eyes closed as the safe zone's ambient mana hummed around them.

Valiant tore another piece of monster chicken, chewing thoughtfully. "Man, what I wouldn't give for a slice of hot buttered sourdough right now. The fancy kind, you know? With honey drizzled on top, and that aged mountain cheese from up north - the one with the herbs baked right in."

One of Adom's eyes cracked open. His feet touched the ground. "...is that good?"

"Good? It's..." Valiant sat up straighter. "Okay, so imagine the bread is still warm, right? And the butter just starts melting into it. Then you add this specific honey - there's this place in the eastern forests where they keep these tiny blue bees, makes the honey taste like mint somehow. And the cheese, God, the cheese. They age it in caves with wild thyme and rosemary."

The fire crackled between them. Valiant was gesturing now, fully animated.

"Uncle Cisco used to bring it back whenever he'd return from a job. He knew this old lady in the mountain villages who made it. Said she'd been making it the same way for sixty years, wouldn't tell anyone the secret. He'd always bring two wheels - one for eating right away, one for special occasions..."

His voice trailed off. The enthusiasm drained from his face like water through sand.

Adom stared at the fire for a long moment. "I never got to say it before, but... I'm sorry about Cisco. Really. What happened to him. He didn't deserve that."

The words felt heavy in his mouth. In another life, Cisco had survived for years more. Had become famous even. But Adom's presence, his choices, had changed things. Created ripples that ended with Cisco's death far too early. It was part of why he couldn't turn Valiant away when they met in the dungeon, though he'd never admit it aloud. Guilt had a way of making decisions for you.

"Yeah." Valiant poked at the fire with a stick. "He always told me death could come from anywhere in our line of work. Anyone. Anytime. Drilled that into my head since I was eight, after my parents..." He shrugged. "He raised me right. Taught me everything I know."

The stick snapped in his hands. He tossed the pieces into the flames.

"I just try not to think about it too hard. Need to focus on getting out of here first. And then..." He stared into the fire, jaw tight. "Well. Then."

Adom said nothing. The Marco case would indeed have to be taken care of.

Soon enough, after some time to rest, the duo arrived at their destination. The mantis nest. Which was odd. When did mantis ever live in nests? Then again, they were monsters. So, that was explanation enough. If they made it through that, there would be less than 2 hours before they reached the Throne Room.

Adom was exited. Anxious, but exited.

The cave mouth gaped before them, unremarkable among dozens of others they'd passed. No signs warned of what lay within. No bones littered the entrance. Just another hole in another cliff face under the perpetual twilight sky.

If they didn't have the map, they'd have walked right past it. Probably headed north, into some endless forest. Wander for months before dying of thirst or worse.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Valiant said, studying the crude drawings on their map. "Even with the ledge route marked. Plus, if you use magic, they can sense you, according to the adventurer notes."

Adom checked his knuckle weights, tightening the straps. "We're here now. No point complaining."

"Yes, there is. There's always point in complaining. It's therapeutic."

"The map hasn't been wrong yet. We follow the narrow ledge, stay quiet, and the mantises won't even know we're there."

Valiant folded the map with exaggerated care. "I never had sex."

"..."

Adom stopped adjusting his weights. Turned slowly. "Of all the times. Of all the places. You choose now, here, to tell me this?"

"Well, if we're about to die-"

"We're not going to die."

"If we're about to die, I wanted someone to know. It's been weighing on me."

Adom sighed and started walking toward the cave entrance.

"Hey!" Valiant hurried after him, voice dropping to a whisper. "Wait for me! Brother in arms! Hey-"

"Hush."

The darkness swallowed them both.

*****

The stench hit them first - sweet rot and something acidic that burned the back of their throats. Chittering echoed from below, a constant background noise of mandibles clicking and claws scraping stone.

The ledge curved along the cave wall, barely wide enough for one person. Below, the cavern floor disappeared into darkness, but movement flickered in the depths - quick darting shapes and the occasional gleam of compound eyes.

Adom pressed against the wall. Valiant climbed onto his shoulders, gripping his head for balance. They'd figured it out earlier - the mantises hunted by sensing vibrations through the ground. The ledge, separated from the main cave structure by a hairline crack that ran its length, wouldn't transmit their movements.

As long as they stayed quiet.

Step. Pause. Step. Pause.

A mantis screech pierced the darkness. Both of them froze. Something massive shifted below, joints creaking like old wood. The clicking grew louder, then faded.

Adom's foot found a loose stone. It shifted.

His heart stopped.

Valiant's fingers dug into his scalp, both of them clenching their jaws shut against the instinct to gasp. The stone settled without falling. One breath. Two. They exchanged quick nods and kept moving.

Then... came a laugh.

It echoed through the cavern - high, thin, almost childlike. But wrong. Like someone trying to remember how laughter should sound.

Adom's pulse hammered in his ears. Of all the times, of all the places... Helios. It had to be. Valiant's fingers tapped rapidly against his head - faster, go faster!

The clicking below changed pitch. Grew urgent. Whatever was down there was waking up.

More laughter, closer now. The mantis sounds rose to a fever pitch.

Step. Step. Step.

No more pausing. No more careful movements. Just the ledge and the wall and the desperate need to reach the other side before-

Something vast suddenly rose from the darkness below. They couldn't see it. Didn't want to see it.

But they could hear it breathing.

A soft humming drifted through the darkness. The hair on Adom's neck rose. His fingers went cold against the stone.

"Hmm hmm hmmmm..."

Footsteps echoed, moving between shadows. Not below. Not above. Somewhere else.

"Little boy, why do you cry?"

Adom's nose flared.

"Lost your way in darkness deep?"

Valiant's tapping became frantic. The mantises below were fully awake now, their clicking rising to a crescendo. Something massive scraped against stone.

"Tell me all your troubles sweet..."

[Fluid Control]

They ran as Fluid emerged all over Adom's body. Just blind movement along the ledge, fingers scraping rock, feet finding purchase by instinct alone.

A shadow passed through shadows. The temperature dropped.

"...I'll make sure you go to sleep."

The voice was closer now. Much closer.

Adom's heart pounded against his ribs. Each breath felt like ice in his lungs. The ledge seemed endless, stretching into darkness while that voice - that damned voice - drifted around them like smoke.

Helios was playing with them. Had probably been following them for days. And now, trapped on this ledge, they were exactly where he wanted them.

"Found you," the voice whispered, right behind them.

"[PUSH]!"

Mana surged through Adom's body, launching them off the ledge just as massive claws shattered the stone where they'd stood. Valiant's scream echoed through the cavern as they shot upward.

One mantis emerged from the darkness. Then another. Then a third.

"LOOK OUT!" Valiant's warning came just in time.

A blade of chitin larger than Adom's body scythed through the air. A fourth mantis emerged from the darkness like a nightmare - its head alone was the size of a wagon, mandibles dripping with caustic fluid that sizzled against stone. Plates of organic armor shifted and clicked as it moved and its compound eyes seemed to track them independently.

Adom twisted mid-air, but not fast enough. The edge of its foreclaw caught his leg, tearing through cloth and flesh. Hot pain shot up his thigh, but adrenaline dulled it to a distant throb.

Two more mantises crawled from the shadows, their movements jerky and wrong, like puppet joints controlled by invisible strings. Each one was as large as the first, their bodies house-sized abominations of chitin and muscle.

"They're so fucking big! Why are they so fucking big?!" Valiant shrieked, clinging to Adom's shoulders.

The Dagger of Night's Edge materialized in Adom's hand. Time slowed as [Flow Prediction] activated. He could see it all - attack paths, weak points, trajectories.

A mantis lunged, its bladed forearm whistling through the air. Adom twisted mid-flight, using the momentum to slide beneath the strike. The dagger flashed. Chitin split. The creature's limb separated cleanly at the joint, dark ichor spraying in an arc.

They were still rising. Another mantis struck from the left. Adom kicked off its head, gaining more height. The ceiling was close now. Just a few more seconds-

The staff appeared in his free hand. Lightning crackled between his fingers, amplified by the staff's 30% boost. Fire gathered in his other palm. Double spell weaving.The spells merged, becoming something new, something devastating-

[You have slain a Giant Mantis!]

[You have slain a Giant Mantis!]

"Hello, mage!"

It was too sudden.

Cold fingers wrapped around Adom's throat. The world blurred. His back slammed into the cave ceiling, the impact sending waves of pain through his body.

[+2 White Wyrm Body]

[+3 White Wyrm Body]

[+1 White Wyrm Body]

It just kept piling up as his Life force kept lowering.

"Look how you've grown," Helios purred, pinning Adom against the rock. "Such power. Such potential." His grip tightened. "Such waste."

"Law!" Valiant's fingers were slipping. The ground was impossibly far below.

Blood filled Adom's mouth. Each breath sent daggers through his ribs. Helios's face loomed in the darkness, pale and perfect and terrible.

"I've been searching for you, you know. Hard to locate." The vampire's smile widened. "Were you using magic to hide from me all this time?"

Valiant's grip failed.

[Indomitable Will]

[Spiteful Fighting Spirit]

Adom felt the Fluid surge.

The staff ignited with raw power, pressed between their bodies. Helios's eyes widened - too late.

[Firestorm]

[Aegis Barrier]

The explosion threw them apart, slamming Helios into the ceiling as Adom dove after Valiant's falling form. The vampire's laughter turned to a snarl of pain.

[+5 White Wyrm Body]

[White Wyrm Body has advanced!]

[Physical Resistance increased]

Adom's ribs screamed in protest as he streamlined his body, reaching for Valiant's outstretched hand. The ground rushed up. Another mantis scuttled beneath them, mandibles clicking in anticipation.

"Any time now!" Valiant shouted.

Their fingers touched. Locked. Adom pulled him close and twisted mid-air, staff already moving in the pattern for another spell. But Helios was there again, blood streaming from a crack in his perfect face, eyes burning with fury.

"Clever boy," he hissed, reaching for Adom's throat again. "But not clever eno-"

"WHY DO YOU TALK SO DAMN MUCH?!"

Adom's Fluid enhanced weighted knuckles connected with the vampire's jaw. The crack widened. Helios's head snapped back.

Without missing a bit, Adom immediately weaved another elemental spell. [Earth Spike]

The spell ripped from Adom's core, amplified by the staff. The stone floor erupted, jagged spears of rock punching upward. The mantis tried to dodge - too slow. Three spikes burst through its carapace, lifting it off the ground with a wet crunch.

[You have slain a Giant Mantis!]

But they were still plummeting. Adom twisted, keeping Valiant above him as he calculated angles, speeds, possibilities. The impaled mantis created a new problem - and a solution.

"Hold tight!"

He swung Valiant around, using their momentum to aim for the mantis corpse. Its body would break their fall, if they didn't impale themselves first on the spikes. The timing had to be perfect.

A shadow fell over them - Helios, diving after them like a bird of prey, face contorted with rage.

"[Push]!"

The spell sent them sideways, barely avoiding the vampire's grasp. They hit the mantis at an angle, sliding down its chitinous shell. The impact rattled Adom's teeth, but the corpse absorbed most of the force.

They rolled to a stop on the cave floor, gasping. Above them, Helios hovered near the ceiling, his perfect face now a mess of cracks and fury.

"You can't run forever, little spider," he called down. "I am the hunter. You are the prey. And when you tire-"

[Fireball]

He blasted the vampire. And used [Push] and [Levitate] to fly away immediately, bouncing off the walls and trying to avoid the mantises.

They burst out of the cave mouth into the purple sky, Adom's legs nearly buckling as the adrenaline began to fade. Each step sent waves of fire through his body. His vision swam, darkening at the edges.

[Life Force: 198/500]

"Are you al- HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Valiant's voice cracked. "Your back..."

Adom tried to focus on moving forward, one foot in front of the other. The cold sweat on his face felt wrong somehow. Too cold.

"There's no skin left," Valiant's words came fast, panicked. "I can see- there's white stuff, tendons or... fuck. We need to hide, find somewhere to-"

"No." The word came out as a rasp. Adom could feel it now - the raw exposure of muscle and tissue where Helios had ground him against the cave ceiling. Each breath pulled at the wound. "He'll... he'll come back."

His knees betrayed him. His leg hurt. He caught himself against a rock, leaving a smear of red on the stone. The world tilted sideways.

"You're literally falling apart!" Valiant grabbed his arm. "There's a ravine half a mile east, we could-"

"Can't." Adom blinked hard, trying to clear his vision. Dark spots danced in front of his eyes. "He's hunting now. Really hunting. If we stop..."

A distant laugh echoed from the cave. Musical. Terrible.

Adom pushed off the rock, nearly falling again. His heart hammered against his ribs, too fast, too irregular. But they had to move. Had to keep moving.

"The map," he gasped. "How far to the... to the..."

"Two hours," Valiant said. "But you won't last two minutes like this!"

Another laugh, closer now. The temperature dropped.

[Indomitable Will]

Adom's legs found new strength born of pure desperation. "Then we better run fast."

Trembling fingers found the last red potion in his inventory. The glass was cold against his palm.

"This will hurt," he warned, mostly to himself.

The liquid splashed across his ruined back. Fire erupted under his skin. Adom's scream echoed across the wasteland, his vision whiting out as the potion seared into exposed muscle and nerve endings. His knees hit the ground hard.

[Minor Healing Potion applied]

[Bleeding stopped]

[Pain Resistance has increased by 1]

"Fuck fuck fuuuuck," he gasped, tears streaming down his face. The wound still gaped open, but at least it wasn't dripping anymore.

The white potion came next. His hands shook so badly he nearly dropped it. The seal broke with a pop, releasing a smell like ozone and burnt sugar.

"Last one," he muttered, and drained it in one desperate swallow.

The taste hit like lightning - metallic and sharp and impossibly cold. His heart stuttered, then began to race. The world sharpened into brutal clarity, colors too bright, sounds too loud. His pupils dilated until the blue of his iris was just a thin ring.

"Holy shit, your eyes," Valiant started to say, but Adom was already moving, muscles crackling with artificial energy.

"Run!" he shouted, the potion singing in his veins. They could outrun a vampire. They had to.

Behind them, Helios's laughter turned to a snarl of frustration as his prey found new speed.

Adom weaved a gravity spell, aided by the staff, warping space around them. His feet left the ground, Valiant clinging to his shoulders as they shot forward. The wasteland blurred past in streaks of purple and gray.

Every thirty seconds, they'd touch down just long enough for Adom to gather more power. Push off. Soar. Land. Repeat. The white potion kept his mind razor-sharp despite his body's protests.

[Mana: 342/900]

[Life Force: 198/500]

They covered impossible distances. Valleys and dead forests swept beneath them. The throne room's spire grew from a distant needle to a looming monolith.

When they finally landed at its base, Adom's legs gave out. He caught himself against the obsidian wall, chest heaving as he fought for air. The white potion's fire was starting to fade, leaving him shaky and over-sensitized.

"Map," he gasped, wiping sweat from his eyes. "There's a... safe zone. Behind those rocks." He pointed to a cluster of black stone formations about fifty yards from the throne room's entrance. "We need... need to plan. Can't just rush in."

"You need to rest," Valiant said, studying Adom's pale face. "You look like death warmed over."

"Ten minutes." Adom pushed off the wall, stumbling toward the safe zone. "That's all we can risk. Before he realizes... before he figures out where we're headed."

The marking on the map glowed faintly as they crossed into the safe zone's boundary. Adom collapsed against the cool stone, every muscle trembling with exhaustion.

"Ten minutes," he repeated, forcing his eyes to stay open. "Then we move. Have to... have to be smart about this."

The soles of his boots were completely worn through, leather splitting at the seams. Each landing sent jolts of agony through Adom's injured leg. Push off. Land. Push off again. The white potion kept him moving, but his heart was racing too fast, vision blurring at the edges.

A massive waterfall appeared through the purple haze, hundreds of feet high, thundering down the cliffside. The water glowed with a faint bioluminescence, casting strange shadows on the rocks.

"THERE!" Valiant shouted over the roar. "Behind the falls!"

Adom's legs buckled on the landing. He stumbled, caught himself. The cave entrance was barely visible through the curtain of water.

"Hold on!"

[Push]

They shot through the waterfall. Ice-cold water slammed into them. Then darkness. Rock walls rushed past. Adom's injured leg gave out completely as they hit the cave floor, sending them rolling.

Then the white potion wore off.

Adom's scream echoed off the cave walls as every nerve ending fired at once. His muscles seized, back arching off the ground. It felt like his blood had turned to acid. The artificial strength that had kept him going vanished, leaving only raw, screaming pain.

His leg. His back. Everything.

He curled into a ball, shaking violently. Aftereffects of the emergency white potion - the kind you only took when the alternative was death. The kind that let you ignore your body's limits, at a price.

Valiant's voice came from somewhere far away: "Breathe. Just breathe."

Adom tried. His heart was still racing, irregular, too fast. Cold sweat soaked his clothes. Every breath felt like swallowing glass.

Through the haze of pain, Helios' laugh echoed in Adom's mind. The blood trail they'd left...

Adom dragged himself toward the water curtain.

"What are you doing?" Valiant asked. "Stop moving!"

Adom tried to speak, but his throat was too tight. He gestured weakly at the entrance, at the blood pooling beneath him.

"Se...secure..." The word came out as a rasp.

Understanding hit Valiant. "Concealment runes? Like the other safe zones we used?"

Adom nodded, trembling. His fingers dipped into the blood from his back. The first rune came out messy, shaking. Blood was stronger than chalk or ink - it carried life force, made the magic deeper, more real. They'd used simple concealment runes before, but this...

His hand slipped. More blood spilled. Good. He needed it.

The runes took shape - crude, desperate things drawn in crimson. Hide. Obscure. Barrier. Protection. Each one tied to the next, forming chains of power around the cave entrance. His vision blurred. Keep going. Had to keep going.

Blood from his leg for the ground runes. Blood from his back for the walls. Layer after layer of concealment - sight, sound, smell. Helios wouldn't find them. Couldn't find them. Not if the runes held.

"Hey..." Valiant's voice shook.

"Almost..." The word came out as a wheeze. The final barrier runes were the hardest - circles within circles, each line precise despite his trembling hands. The cave floor looked like a slaughterhouse.

Last rune. Just... one... more...

Adom pressed his palm against the central sigil. Pushed his mana into the bloody marks.

The runes pulsed once, deep red to black.

Sound died. The waterfall's roar cut off like someone had thrown a switch. The air grew thick, heavy with magic.

Adom collapsed, chest heaving, focusing on his breathing while his body screamed at him from a dozen different places.

After a few minutes...

"First things first," he managed, eyes closed. "Status check. I'm in bad shape. Mana's regenerating. No potions left. Staff's okay. How are you?"

Valiant paced the perimeter, scanning the darkness. "I'm fine. But we've got bigger problems. That door's at least thirty yards of open ground from here. Helios catches us there, we're done."

"He won't expect a frontal assault." Adom opened his eyes, studying the throne room's entrance. "Too obvious. He'll be checking the side passages, hidden routes. Looking for us to be clever."

"So we're going with stupid?"

Adom let Valiant's question hang in the silence.

His fingers traced one of the blood runes, mind drifting to the pain in his back, the way his leg trembled even while sitting. He was barely able to stand.

[20 days, 01 hour, 02 min]

Each number felt like a nail driven into his skull.

The runes would hold. He'd need to maintain them every few hours, feed them more mana, maybe blood if they weakened. Helios might pick up traces, but breaking through all the layers would take time.

If they even had time.

"...I will not make it in time," Adom muttered, the words slipping out before he could stop them.

Reality was crushing him. His back was destroyed, leg wounded. No potions. No help coming. Even if he recovered enough to walk properly, it would take days. Maybe weeks. Time he didn't have.

The disease would come back. He could feel it waiting, like a weight in his chest. The coughing would start first. Then the fever. Then everything else, piece by piece, until he was back to being that broken thing in the bed, watching the ceiling, waiting to die.

Something hot and unfamiliar burned behind his eyes. He blinked hard, but the tears came anyway. Stupid. Stupid to think he could...

"Hey..." Valiant shifted uncomfortably. "Come on, don't be like that."

Adom wiped his eyes roughly with his sleeve.

"Look, I know things are bad, but-"

"You don't know anything." The words came out harsher than intended.

Valiant was quiet for a long moment, just the sound of water dripping in the cave despite the barrier. Then he sighed.

"Okay. Story time.You know why my uncle named me Valiant?"

Adom didn't respond.

"Everyone thought it was a joke at first." Valiant settled against the wall, close enough to talk, far enough to give space. "I was this tiny thing, even for a mouse beastkin. Scared of everything. Used to be this massive cat in our district - mean old bastard, bigger than any alley cat had a right to be."

He picked at a loose hair on his fur. "Would chase me every chance he got. I was too slow, too weak to fight back. Kids started calling me 'Coward' instead of Valiant. I'd come home crying, begging Uncle Cisco to change my name."

"One day, after a stupid bet with some kids I thought were my friends, that cat cornered me bad. I managed to scramble up onto our roof but..." A soft laugh. "God, I was terrified. Wouldn't come down even after he left."

Adom glanced over. Valiant was staring at nothing, lost in the memory.

"Uncle Cisco found me there, huddled behind the chimney. Sun was setting. I kept telling him I couldn't do it, wasn't strong enough. Better to just stay up there forever than face what was waiting below. That I had enough."

Something in his voice made Adom turn fully toward him.

"He just looked at me for a minute. Then he walked over..." Valiant's tail twitched. "And pushed me right off the roof."

"What?"

"Yeah. Straight off. What a heartless bastard, am I right? I landed in Farmer Reed's hay cart. Scared his horse so bad it bolted halfway down the street." A faint smile crossed his face. "I was... God, I was so angry. Screaming, crying. Called him every name I knew, which wasn't many back then. Asked him why he'd do that to me."

Valiant met Adom's eyes. "'Being valiant isn't about not being afraid, little tail,' he told me. 'It's about what you do when you're terrified.'"

The cave fell silent except for the steady drip of water.

"I didn't get it then. Was too busy being mad. But next time I saw that cat... I didn't run. Still got scratched up pretty bad, but I didn't run. Time after that, I got away clean. And the time after that?" He shrugged. "Well, let's just say that cat learned to find easier prey."

"What's your point?" Adom's voice was hoarse.

Valiant opened his mouth to respond, then seemed to catch himself.

"No, I mean..." Adom turned to look at him, genuinely confused. "Your story was about facing your fears, about being brave. But your point was about..." He trailed off, waiting for an explanation.

Valiant's whiskers twitched. He ran a hand through his fur, frustrated. "It's... look, it's the only tragic story I have that's even slightly about not giving up, alright? Just... work with me here."

Something shifted in Adom's chest. A small bubble of... something. He tried to hold it back, but when he looked at Valiant's earnest, desperate attempt to help...

The laugh came quietly at first. Then it grew, shaking his shoulders despite the pain that shot through his back. Each new wave made his wounds scream, but he couldn't stop.

"Hey!" Valiant's tail bristled. "I'm trying to help here!"

"I know," Adom managed between breaths, tears - different tears now - rolling down his face. "I know you are."

"Then stop laughing at me!"

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Adom took a shaky breath, wincing as the laughter subsided. "I think... I think the question you were trying to answer was 'Why do we fall?'"

Valiant's ears perked up. "Yes!" He blinked. "YES! That's exactly what I... wait, are you still laughing?"

The laughter slowly faded, leaving Adom exhausted but somehow lighter. He leaned back against the cave wall, careful of his wounds.

"Thanks," he said quietly. "I needed that."

"Sure," Valiant muttered, looking anywhere but at him. "Whatever."

"And... you're right." Adom sighed. "It would be stupid to go out there now. Not in my condition."

"Then... do you have a plan?"

Adom fell silent, thinking.

"Because Helios is strong," Valiant continued, words tumbling out faster. "Like, really strong. If he catches us out there, we're dead. And these runes won't hold forever. He'll find us eventually, and then-"

"He's strong," Adom interrupted. "But not that strong."

Valiant stared at him. "He's the reason we're stuck here in the first place!"

"Incorrect. Gale did most of the work there." Adom shifted, wincing. "I've fought Helios more than once. The first time, I beat him. Barely, but I did."

"What about last time then?"

"Again, Gale did most of the work. If he hadn't disrupted the golem's crystal, if he hadn't held onto it between jumps..." Adom shook his head. "Helios wouldn't have been that big of a problem. His greatest advantage isn't his strength - it's his regeneration. No matter how many fireballs, thunderbolts, or devastating spells I throw at him, he always heals. Comes back angrier. If he'd been human, he would have died in our first encounter. Or even during the jumps with the golem, he would have definitely..."

Adom's voice trailed off. His eyes widened.

"What?" Valiant leaned forward. "Why'd you stop talking?"

Adom thought carefully. Twenty days until the illness took hold. Just enough time for his wounds to heal enough to attempt an escape through the portal in the boss' territory. But not nearly enough time to gather ingredients, craft the cure from scratch, and take it before the symptoms began. He had nothing here - no equipment, no ingredients, nothing.

But there was a vampire out there.

The thought made him pause. Not because he wanted to become one - God no. Despite what stories said, a vampire's bite was full of bacteria, and was more likely to kill you with infection than turn you. No, what interested him was something else entirely. Something that had been staring him in the face this whole time.

Vampires don't get sick. Their bodies reject all illness, heal from any wound. Even... even life-drain syndrome wouldn't affect them. Their regenerative abilities were beyond anything natural, beyond even most magic. And Helios... Helios had that same ability. Every spell, every wound, every attack - nothing stuck. He always came back, stronger and angrier than before.

Adom had never considered it before because... well, vampires were rare, for one thing. And it was a crazy idea. The alchemy involved would be incredibly complex. And it was a really crazy idea.

Alchemical transmutation.

In a sense, it was the art of taking properties from one thing and giving them to another. The most he'd ever done was turn water into milk, and later, turn water sweet. But this... this was different. He didn't need to understand how Helios's whole body worked. He didn't need to transmute everything. He did not need him to be alive by the end of the process.

Just one thing: that incredible regeneration.

He remembered the illness. The burning in his veins, the feeling of his own body turning against itself, the slow, inexorable drain of life. Was playing it safe worth going through that again? Worth dying over?

A slight smile crept across his face.

"Oh, hey. Wow, wow, wow.." Valiant's tail puffed up nervously. "Are you having another breakdown? Because I don't have any more inspirational stories, and that last one didn't even make sense-"

"No," Adom said quietly. "No, I'm not having a breakdown." His smile grew stronger. "In fact, I'm picking myself up."

He reached into his inventory, movements careful to avoid jarring his injuries. From it, he withdrew a worn leather grimoire - Paracelsus's Incomplete Works.

"What are you doing?" Valiant asked, peering at the pages as Adom opened it to page 394.

Instead of answering, Adom closed his eyes, focusing. A thin stream of mana flowed from his fingers into the page's core, making the paper glow faintly. Then, with practiced precision, he spread the energy outward like a spider weaving its web. Pulse. One, two, three. Pulse. One, two, three.

Slowly, ink began to bleed onto the previously empty margins. Hundreds of cramped notes appeared, flowing between diagrams and formulae that hadn't been visible moments before.

"Magic?" Valiant whispered, whiskers twitching in amazement.

Adom smiled through the pain in his back and legs. "You're goddamn right."

*****