Chapter 105: The Nightmare

Lumi finally pulled away to catch her breath after their long, lingering kiss, her cheeks flushed and her eyes still glistening with tears.

Even then, her fingers remained curled around Evan’s clothes, as though she wasn’t quite ready to let him go, afraid that if she loosened her hold, she might wake up to discover that the past few moments had been nothing more than a dream.

"Evan..." she whispered, gazing at him with a mixture of relief and lingering disbelief.

"I’m here," he murmured, gently brushing a strand of hair away from her face.

Only then did Lumi finally allow herself to breathe properly, and as she lifted her head, her gaze wandered beyond the man she had missed so desperately, settling on the basement around them.

Her expression changed instantly.

The shock in her eyes was impossible to conceal as she took in the devastation surrounding them.

The floor was fractured, pieces of stone and shattered furniture littered the ground, and the remnants of the strange circular formation were scattered across the basement. Several lamps had been smashed, leaving broken glass strewn beneath the flickering lights, while deep cracks extended along the walls as though the entire room had endured a violent earthquake.

’What happened here?!’

Her gaze dropped to her own hands.She remembered Celestine screaming in pain, the terrible fear that had seized her when she saw blood spilling from her sister’s mouth, and the overwhelming rage that had erupted inside her when those people refused to stop hurting Celestine.

After that, everything became a blur.

She remembered something dark and suffocating, a force that seemed to consume her entire body, but she couldn’t recall how the basement had ended up looking as though a disaster had struck.

"W-What happened?" Lumi whispered, looking up at Evan in confusion.

Sensing that she couldn’t remember anything after her power awakened, Evan shook his head.

"It’s just a normal fight..."

"B-But..." Lumi looked around again, her gaze travelling over the shattered floor, the cracks spreading across the walls, and the Guides scattered throughout the basement. "Do Sentinels and Guides usually fight like this?"Evan followed her gaze, taking in the destruction surrounding them before falling into a thoughtful silence.

"Hmm..." He tilted his head slightly, then glanced toward Raphael. "Raphael was probably doing too much...?"

The moment the words left his mouth, Evan turned to look at his friend, a faint trace of guilt creeping into his expression.

’Sorry, Screw. I’ll make it up to you later.’

Raphael stared at him.

For a few seconds, the basement fell silent.

"What?" Raphael mouthed, having caught none of Evan’s silent apology, although the suspicious glance his friend had given him was enough to make him wonder what sort of nonsense was going on inside that head.

Evan promptly ignored him and turned back to Lumi.

"Let’s go back."

However, before he could lead her away, Lumi’s gaze landed on Rei, who remained unconscious on the floor a short distance away.

"Is he all right?"Evan followed her line of sight, his expression turning indifferent the moment he spotted Rei.

"He’s breathing," he answered simply.

"Did you beat him?" Lumi hesitated, looking at her older brother with a complicated expression.

Regardless of how he had treated her, Rei was still her family, and seeing him lying motionless among the rubble made it difficult for her to simply turn around and leave.Evan glanced at her, then back at Rei, before answering without the slightest change in his expression.

"Not me..." He shrugged his shoulders. "He suddenly collapsed by himself..."

Raphael turned his head toward Evan, staring at his friend with an expression that clearly said he had some questions, but Evan merely gave him a subtle look.

’Don’t you dare.’

Raphael’s lips twitched.

’Oh, so that’s how is it.’

He immediately understood what Evan was doing and decided to play along, although he couldn’t resist adding, "Yeah, people do tend to collapse when they’ve had a particularly terrible day."

Evan ignored him and turned back to Lumi, gently taking her hand.

"Let’s go."

Lumi nodded, still confused by the destruction surrounding them, but she didn’t question Evan’s explanation any further.

Not long after they left the basement, hurried footsteps echoed from the corridor above.

Felix and Esther arrived with several members of the support team, their expressions darkening as they descended the stairs and caught sight of the devastation. Broken stones littered the floor, the walls were riddled with cracks, and several Guides lay unconscious across the basement.

"What happened here?!" Felix demanded, his eyes sweeping across the wreckage.

Esther, however, was too busy searching for her children to pay attention to his question.

"Celestine? Lumi?"

Neither daughter was in sight.

Then her gaze landed on a familiar figure lying motionless among the rubble.

Her face instantly drained of colour.

"REI!"

Esther rushed toward her son, dropping to her knees beside him so abruptly that she barely seemed to notice the sharp stones digging into her skin.

"Rei! What happened to you?"

Felix hurried over and crouched beside him, his expression turning grave as he checked his son’s condition. He pressed two fingers against Rei’s neck, waiting for the faint beat that should have reassured him.

But seconds passed, and Felix’s expression grew increasingly strained.

"Esther..."

"What is it?" she demanded, gripping Rei’s arm. "Why isn’t he waking up?"

Felix checked again, shifting his fingers slightly as though he might have made a mistake.

Nothing.

He couldn’t detect a pulse.

Esther stared at him in horror before shaking her head violently.

"No! That can’t be true!"

She grabbed Rei’s shoulders, tears spilling down her cheeks as she shook him desperately.

"Rei! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

When he remained motionless, Esther let out a heart-wrenching cry and slammed both palms against his shoulders.

"REI, WAKE UP!"

Rei’s body jerked violently.

His eyes flew open, and he sucked in a sharp breath as though he had just been dragged out of the depths of a nightmare.

"Where am I?"