There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183: Chapter 177. The Biggest Threat

The tip of the dagger stopped right before it pierce the guide’s neck. The black blade grazed the skin below the mask, drawing a drop of blood that ran through the fair neck. Tendrils of dark thread held the arm holding the dagger, preventing it to sink into the guide’s flesh.

"Fuck!" Bassena cursed and let out more binding threads from the ground as Zein stubbornly took out the knife of Acheron from his storage ring.

He bound the threads tight to the ground so Zein couldn’t move his limbs, and swiftly teleported in front of the guide. "SHIN!" he yelled, furiously, at the rest of the people who were getting too stunned at the unexpected turn of events that they stopped moving altogether.

"Shit--" Han Shin immediately activated his skill as Bassena tackled the struggling guide to the ground.

In a bout of fright and bad feeling, Bassena punched the button of the mask open, just in time to shove his fingers between Zein’s lips as the guide tried to bite his own tongue.

"What the fuck!" the healer cursed as his skill kept getting rejected. There were so many layers covering the guide’s mind, mana that was so hard to get penetrated, and the spirit was hiding right there. "Fuck, Bas--his protective wall is so thick! I’m gonna need more time!"

"Godsdamnit!" Bassena gritted his teeth, feeling his heart crushed at every jerk and tug the guide made on his binding. "Destroy that crystal!" he shouted to the other espers, before turning back to Zein again.

Despite the struggle of his body, the blue eyes just opened up blankly, unfocused, unblinking. His face, which wasn’t expressive to begin with, looked even more like a doll; lifeless. The only facial muscle that moving was his jaws, which still biting down, teeth sinking into Bassena’s fingers.

"Hurry up!" Bassena pinned Zein’s body to the ground even more, just so the guide stopped jerking and seizing to break free. He snatched the dagger and the knife with his darkness, throwing them out of Zein’s reach. Even then, the arms still struggling, clawing at the dark threads binding him. "Not yet?"

"I’m trying, okay?! He’s strong!" the healer snapped back. He tried his best, he really was. But Zein had been absorbing so much corrosion that he was brimming with magic energy, and the spirit used that energy to shield itself inside Zein’s core.

"Damnit!" Bassena grasped the guide’s nape to stop Zein’s head from snapping. "Come on, Zein, stop this. Snap out of it!" Bassena hissed and gritted his teeth in frustration.

But looking at that empty blue eyes just broke his heart to pieces and wrenched his gut into chunks. He was careless, he was too careless. He should have known this was coming.

--it attacks the one they considered the biggest threat

He should have fucking known!

But even then...even then...

"You can’t be like this, Zein," Bassena whispered, each word wrapped in anguish. "What are you doing? Didn’t you say you want to see the sea? We haven’t even done that. What about your orphanage?" Bassena bit his lips hard, holding himself back from yelling. "What about freeing the Deathzone? What about removing the red-zone? What about going to the lake in the Temple? What about the sea and the seafood you said you want to eat? Please--!" Bassena grasped the black hair, caressing it gently, pressing their forehead together. "Please...you told me to wait...so where are you trying to go?"

There was a palpable tremble within Bassena’s voice, cursing the whole world inside his mind. He would rather Zein had hurled those daggers at him instead, he would rather Zein stabbed him so many times, hated him to his bone.

Anything...anything but this.

"A bit more..." Han Shin said weakly amid the loud sound of crystal breaking, but his furrowed brows were a testament to his effort. "Carra, the barrier--"

"I’m casting it,"

"Bas!"

Tightening the binds even more, Bassena pulled away from the guide, and watched in fury as an almost transparent wisp of smoke came out of Zein’s eyes with a shrieking sound.

"Carra!"

Immediately after the smoke fully came out, a shimmering hexagonal barrier formed around it, sealing its movement. With a shout, Carra raised her arms and sent the barrier, along with the shrieking, squirming fog into the air. Before any order could be given, a flurry of elemental arrows struck the barrier, drowning the spirit inside with a swirling mass of nature’s fury.

When Zhan and Gus came back after destroying the crystal that sealed the pathway, they were greeted with the remaining ash of burning plasma and shocked, horrified faces. The guide was laying on the ground, unmoving, finally stopped struggling as he fell unconscious. Slowly, the binding threads of darkness retreat from his body into the shadow.

"What--what happened?" Han Shin, still panting from using his skill, asked in a trembling voice. "Why is it...why Zein?"

"The biggest threat," Bassena, surprisingly, answered in a calm tone.

"What?"

"The spirit will attack the one they deemed as the biggest threat to their existence," Bassena repeated, stroking the guide’s pale cheek once more before activating the mask, feeling thankful that the lifeless eyes had finally closed.

"Hey," Zein took a seat beside the healer, chalking it up as the effect of him blanking out earlier. It was easy to conclude what happened anyway. "How long have I been out?"

"A couple of hours," Han Shin rummaged through the cooler and took out a bottle of water. "Drinks? Or marshmallow--but this one’s mine so you’ll have to wait,"

"Thanks," Zein took the water and unscrewed it while looking around. "So...what happened? Did the spirit attack me?"

"Uh...yeah,"

Zein looked back at the healer, eyes narrowed slightly at the seemingly hesitant answer. "Why?"

"Bas said it’s probably because the spirit considered you as its biggest threat," the healer shrugged. "Because...you know..."

"I see," Zein looked around once again, observing the people staying at the camp, looking for a sign of injury. "Was anybody hurt? Did I attack someone?"

He felt like he saw Carra flinching slightly, and there was a weird expression on the others’ faces. But Han Shin was suddenly shoving a skewer in Zein’s hand that stole his attention away. There was a white, pillow-like thing on its end, what Han Shin called ’marshmallow’ earlier.

"No, don’t worry. Bas immediately restrained you, so nobody gets hurt!" the healer grinned, pointing at the fire so Zein could start grilling.

"That’s fortunate..."

"Right? Hahaha!" Han Shin laughed, and Zein had no idea if it was due to fatigue, but the laugh sounded forced somewhat. It was a brief laugh though, so he couldn’t be sure, and Shin proceeded to construct a sandwich out of the softened candy and two crackers, being quiet while at it. "We’re lucky, since we didn’t have to fight Bas," Han Shin laughed after a while, which reminded Zein of the esper’s absence.

"So, where is he?"

"Huh, Bas? He’s fighting the boss," Han Shin replied casually before biting into the small sandwich.

"...what? Alone?!"