Chapter 494 - 493: No Need to Look

Chapter 494: Chapter 493: No Need to Look

The massive head smashed onto the stone slab floor with a dull THUD, the impact shaking dust from the cracks in the stone walls until it showered down.

She stood rooted to the spot, her chest heaving violently, the hands at her sides twitching uncontrollably.

Silentrain looked down at Seraphina Sinclair.

The person lying on the ground was unrecognizable.

Her face was covered in dark green blood and scorched skin. Her left shoulder had collapsed at an unnatural angle, clearly broken. Even the rise and fall of her chest was terrifyingly faint.

Like a candle in the wind, on the verge of being extinguished at any moment.

Only her eyes remained clear, reflecting Silentrain’s image.

"Don’t die."

Silentrain’s body was trembling.

Seraphina Sinclair looked at her, trying to move her lips, but she couldn’t.

She subconsciously tried to frown, only to realize that her current state felt a bit like when she had first entered this world.

Although the pain had vanished, her body was no longer under her control.

She could only watch as Silentrain knelt down, slid a hand under her neck, and lifted her from the pool of blood.

Silentrain draped Seraphina’s arm over her own shoulder, wrapped her other arm around her waist, and hauled her up from the ground. Seraphina’s weight bore down on Silentrain, and they both staggered. Silentrain’s knee hit a sharp piece of stone, and she hissed in pain, but she grit her teeth and steadied herself.

"You..." Silentrain’s voice, heavy with ragged breaths and an irrepressible tremor, sounded in Seraphina Sinclair’s ear. "Don’t you die..."

Leaning against her, Seraphina Sinclair could feel the other woman’s heartbeat through their two layers of clothing.

She found it somewhat amusing. ’We barely know each other, right?’

’Why the sudden life-or-death melodrama?’

Of course, the most important thing was that Seraphina Sinclair felt like she was going to be fine.

Yes, even though she still couldn’t control her body, Seraphina Sinclair could clearly feel the pain gradually receding and her internal injuries slowly mending.

She could even feel the bone in her shoulder slowly knitting itself back together.

The process was not pleasant.

As the bone reset, a tingling numbness shot from her shoulder blade to her fingertips, like countless fine needles piercing her marrow all at once.

She could feel the shattered bone regrowing. Tiny Bone Spikes sprouted from the fracture, extending forward like spring branches, searching for the other end.

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t know why this was happening, but she was, without a doubt, getting better.

The sensation was bizarre.

Her consciousness was clear—clearer than usual, even. She could hear Silentrain’s heartbeat, feel the muscles in the other woman’s arm tense with exertion, and smell the cloying, putrid scent of the Drake’s blood mixed with the saltiness of Silentrain’s sweat.

But she just couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift a finger.

It was like being locked in a pitch-black room with the doors and windows sealed shut, able to see the outside world only through the keyhole.

"Don’t die... Don’t die... Don’t die... As long as we get out, I can definitely save you..."

Silentrain kept muttering, her voice growing hoarser.

She hoisted Seraphina Sinclair a bit higher on her back, adjusted her posture, and headed deeper into the passage that had appeared after the Drake’s death.

Seraphina Sinclair’s crooked gaze rested on Silentrain’s shoulder, watching the stone walls of the passage slowly recede.

The patterns carved into the stone walls glowed with a faint blue light in the gloom, like winding rivers flowing in and out of her field of vision.

Her chin rested in the crook of Silentrain’s shoulder, and she could feel the skin there was soaked with sweat—damp and radiating a salty heat.

Silentrain’s breathing was heavy, the rise and fall of her chest so pronounced that it made Seraphina Sinclair’s body bob along with it, as if tossing on ocean waves.

"You’re pretty heavy," Silentrain said suddenly.

Her voice was still hoarse, but the trembling edge to it had mostly subsided.

She paused, then added, "You look skinny, but you must be made of lead."

Seraphina Sinclair rolled her eyes in her mind.

She couldn’t even lift her eyelids right now, but that didn’t stop her from thinking the woman was asking for a punch.

Silentrain took a few more steps, then stopped abruptly.

Seraphina Sinclair could feel her head turn as if looking in a certain direction. Then her body shifted slightly, and she pushed something open with her shoulder.

She had opened a door.

A panel suddenly popped up before Seraphina Sinclair—

[Boss Defeated! Shared Victory Objective Achieved. Exit Instance?]

Silentrain was stunned. She froze, unable to process what was happening for a long moment.

"Is your ID Serafelle Sinclair? How do I find you?"

Silentrain’s question hung in the air, unanswered.

Seraphina Sinclair was busy wrestling with the panel. Her consciousness slammed against the "Confirm Exit" button several times, like a fly trapped by a glass window, able to see the outside but unable to get through.

The system notification chimed in her mind several times, each a cold DING followed by a line of red text:

[Current status abnormal. Action failed.]

Action failed.

Seraphina Sinclair mulled over those two words in her mind.

She could feel the bone in her shoulder still growing, the tingling ache of the fragments grinding together spreading up her clavicle toward her neck, like a red-hot iron wire being slowly threaded beneath her skin.

The pain had mostly subsided, replaced by an itch—an itch so intense she wanted to scratch it, but her fingers remained utterly still.

"Serafelle Sinclair?"

Silentrain’s voice sounded again, lower this time, tinged with a cautious, probing tone.

The person on her back was too quiet. From the moment the Drake died until now, hers had been the only voice.

A countdown timer appeared next to the "Yes" option. Silentrain only had sixty seconds left in the instance.

Her gaze scanned the area, searching for a softer place to put Serafelle Sinclair down.

But in this godforsaken place, where could she find such a spot?

"I still don’t even know your ID..."

She murmured, her voice full of confusion, "If I leave, how will I find you? With all these injuries, what will happen to you?"

The countdown ticked down, second by second, but Silentrain couldn’t muster the courage to look at the person on her back.

She raised her finger, and just as it was about to fall, trembling, she suddenly heard a raspy voice.

"Don’t look for me..."

Silentrain’s finger hovered in mid-air, an inch away from the "Confirm Exit" on the panel.

It was as if someone had hit a pause button. She froze, even her breathing stopping.

"Don’t look for me."

Seraphina Sinclair repeated.

Her voice was a little louder this time, but still terribly hoarse.

She could feel her vocal cords vibrating, feel the scraping pain as air was forced through her damaged windpipe, but she didn’t care.

Being able to speak was enough.