Chapter 252: Where’s Nathan?

Six months.

That’s how long it had been since the Superior-Class Tower disappeared from the face of the earth.

One day it was there: a massive black spire that had swallowed an entire stadium and everyone inside it. The next, it was gone. Dissolved. Vanished. Like it had never existed at all.

The survivors came back.

The national teams returned to their countries. The civilians were rescued and reunited with their families. The lesser teams who had stayed behind to protect the non-combatants, returned safely. They were hailed as heroes.

But nobody felt like heroes.

Because too many people hadn’t come back.

---

One month after the Tower vanished, a memorial was held.

It was massive. The largest the capital had ever seen. Thousands of people filled the streets. Banners hung from every building. Candles lined the sidewalks.

The names read aloud weren’t Climbers. They were civilians. Families. Children. People who had come to watch a tournament and never went home.

The list was long. Hundreds of names. Thousands.

The six main teams stood at the front of the crowd. Kaito. Arthur. Han Seo-jun. Long Wei. Amara. Nathan’s party—Garrett, Dillon and Elise.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to.

Amara cried through the entire ceremony. Her spirits swirled around her, dim and silent.

She had been the one to claim the throne. She had been the one to free the souls. But she hadn’t been able to save everyone.

None of them had.

---

Six months later, Smithy still hadn’t opened his eyes.

He was in a private room at Celestial Peak’s medical ward. The best healers in the capital had worked on him. The TCA had flown in specialists from every continent. They had done everything. Everything except wake him up.

The wound Goliath had given him had healed. The blood loss had been replaced. His body was fine. But his mind was somewhere else. Somewhere deep. Somewhere the healers couldn’t reach.

The party visited him every day.

Today was no different.

---

Elise walked Lucy to school.

It was a routine they had developed over the past six months. After everything happened, after Nathan disappeared, after Lucy had cried herself to sleep for a week straight, Elise had stepped in.

She didn’t have to. Nobody asked her to. But she did it anyway.

She woke up early. She made breakfast—unburned toast, because that was the only thing Lucy would eat. She walked Lucy to the academy. She picked her up in the afternoon. She helped with homework. She stayed for dinner.

She became the family Lucy didn’t have anymore.

This morning, the sky was grey. The air was cold. Lucy walked beside Elise with her head down. Her shoulders were slumped. She wasn’t talking.

Elise looked down at her.

"Lucy."

No response.

"Lucy, everything will be alright."

Still nothing.

Elise stopped walking. She knelt down in front of Lucy and put her hands on the girl’s shoulders.

"Your brother is coming back. You know that, right?"

Lucy didn’t look up. Her lip trembled.

"I... know," she whispered.

"Then what’s wrong?"

Lucy was quiet for a long time. Then she said, "Everyone keeps saying that. Everyone keeps saying he’s coming back. But it’s been six months. Six months, Elise. And nobody knows where he is. Nobody knows if he’s even alive."

Elise’s heart cracked.

She pulled Lucy into a hug. Held her tight.

"I know," she said quietly. "I know."

They stayed like that for a while. Then Elise pulled back.

"Until he does come back," she said, "we’ll keep going. You and me. And Garrett. And Dillon. And everyone else. We’ll keep going. Because that’s what he would want. He wouldn’t want you spending every day worrying."

Lucy wiped her eyes. She managed a small smile.

"Okay."

Elise smiled back. "That’s my girl."

---

At Celestial Peak, the training room was loud.

Steel clanged against steel. Sparks flew. Two figures moved across the floor at speeds that should have been impossible.

Garrett and Dillon.

They had been at it for hours.

Dillon moved first. Flash Step. He disappeared, reappeared behind Garrett, katana already swinging. Garrett didn’t turn. He raised Volcan over his shoulder and blocked without looking. The impact rang through the room.

Dillon didn’t stop. He spun, slashed low, slashed high, used Thunder Edge to send a bolt of lightning at Garrett’s feet.

Garrett sidestepped. He had a small shield now—something he’d picked up after the Tower. He blocked the lightning with it, then swung Volcan in a wide arc. Dillon dodged. Barely.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t need to.

Every strike was faster than the last. Every block was tighter. Every counter was more brutal.

Red was in the corner, watching. Cloudy was beside him, her scales dim, her usual crackle silent. They didn’t like watching their masters fight like this.

But they understood.

This wasn’t just training.

This was anger. This was frustration. This was helplessness.

Neither of them had to say Nathan’s name. They were both thinking it.

---

In another part of Celestial Peak, Professor Helena sat across from Valerie.

The Guild Master’s office was cluttered as always. Tower maps. Artifacts. Boris snoring in the corner. But the TUFF GRANNY mug was cold. Valerie hadn’t touched it in hours.

Helena had files spread across the desk. Tower records. Mana readings. Witness statements. Anything that might explain what happened.

"We have to be missing something," Helena said.

"We’ve searched every lead," Valerie replied.

"Then we search again."

Valerie looked at her. The professor’s eyes were hard. Determined. She had been at this for months. Ever since the Tower disappeared, she had devoted every waking hour to finding Nathan.

She refused to believe he was gone.

"There has to be something," Helena said. "A clue. A link. Anything that tells us where he went."

Valerie picked up one of the files. A mana reading from the moment the Tower vanished. It was chaotic. Impossible to read. But it was something.

"We’ll find him," she said.

"You don’t know that."

"No." Valerie looked at her. "But I refuse to believe he’s dead."

---

At TCA headquarters, Vex was causing a scene.

"I don’t care what your protocol says!" she shouted. "I want every available Climber searching for Nathan Cross! I want every Tower record pulled! I want every mana signature in the capital scanned! He didn’t just disappear into thin air!"

The official behind the desk who was a man in his fifties with a permanent frown, held up his hands.

"Miss Vex, with all due respect, we’ve done everything we can. The Tower dissolved. The survivors returned. Nathan Cross was not among them. There is no evidence he survived."

"Then find some!"

"There is simply no evidence to find."

Vex slammed her hands on the desk.

"Then look harder!"

---

That night, Elise stood on the balcony of the new apartment.

The one Nathan had bought before everything happened. The one with three bedrooms and a view of the city.

She rested her hands on the railing. Looked up at the sky.

The stars were out. Bright. Clear. The same stars Nathan had looked at six months ago.

She wondered where he was. If he was looking at the same sky.

She whispered into the darkness.

"Nathan. Wherever you are. Please be safe."

No answer.

Just the wind. Just the city. Just the silence.

"I know you’ll come back to us."

She closed her eyes.

"I know it."

---

Inside the apartment, Lucy was asleep while the city remained quiet under the moonlight.

Somewhere beyond their reach, beyond the Towers, beyond the worlds, beyond everything they knew, Nathan was still out there.

Somewhere. Hopefully alive. Hopefully okay. Hopefully fighting.

Because that was what he did. That was who he was. And if there was one thing everyone in Celestial Peak believed—one thing they refused to give up on—it was this:

Nathan Cross didn’t lose. Nathan cross... does not lose.