Endless Evolution: Last Star

Step.

Katrin walked over to Nessa and gently lifted her up, well, as much as she could. She was careful not to touch her open wounds, the sight of bones and tendons protruding straight out of her flesh was quite gruesome, Katrin felt sick just thinking about the pain Nessa had gone through.

"Come on... You still haven't passed out, right? I'm sure you can hear me now." Katrin muttered, carrying Nessa on her back.

"Shu... shut up..." Nessa growled, feeling the pain shooting throughout her body with every step Katrin took.

She wasn't in the mood to talk right now, she clearly wasn't ready to be beaten to such a state, but... she wasn't going to give up either.

"Fine, there's no point in talking anymore, since we're the only ones left here..." Katrin said, looking around.

The flame pillars were still burning brightly, gradually spreading their fire around and giving birth to new artifacts. This would continue until the energy in this place was depleted creating some powerful artifact or until someone consumed all the artifacts, no matter if it was a Phantom or a monster.

Katrin moved slowly towards the hill where Adam lay. She didn't want to use her ghost steps, she was too tired and had nothing to fear.

All the monsters, even the Plague Reaper were already dead.

Well... there were still plenty of Fume Armors in Fume Cathedral, but they were special, they wouldn't attack Adam and the others, especially when they were outside their home.

Their new lord, Plague Reaper, had died in a fair fight, so the only thing left for them to do was to watch the survivors as they slowly approached their reward.

Tap.

Katrin leaned over, laying Nessa on the ground next to Adam.

"So... What do we do next?" Katrin asked, placing her hands at her sides and looking forward with a deep gaze.

Adam and Nessa glanced over before directing their gazes towards Midnight Crystal.

"We should absorb it. We deserve to take this treasure for ourselves, too bad there are only three of us left..."

Katrin's gaze darkened at Adam's words. Even yesterday she hadn't known Oskar, Lero, Osana, or Erna, but a few fights were enough to strengthen their bond, their deaths affected her more than she realized.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Adam wanted to say something, but a strange sound as if from growing flesh stopped him.

"What the hell...?" Katrin muttered, slowly turning around.

Then, her eyes went wide as well as Adam's and Nessa's. They stared intently at Osana lying on the ground, whose wide wound was slowly recovering.

Adam's gaze deepened as Osana's last words flashed through his mind. Now, he began to realize that Osana wasn't sacrificing herself, she was taking a risk.

If Adam and Katrin couldn't defeat Plague Reaper after her actions, then she too would die, but that gruesome wound wasn't her death sentence.

The hole in Osana's stomach was really wide as if it had been shot with a projectile from a massive cannon, but... gradually it was recovering.

The flesh, like roots, like thousands of red threads connected to each other, restoring in detail all that Osana had lost.

To Adam, it immediately reminded him what the regenerative monsters were capable of. He had seen how they could easily recover even the most horrible wounds.

'Wait... She used all of her abilities. Two Nexus Traits and Two Orders, so... what's going on here?'

Adam glanced at Nessa. For a moment he thought that Osana might have been a Hybrid or something equally special, but... he dismissed that thought immediately.

Osana was a Phantom with a long history, moreover, unlike Nessa she had many abilities and used energy freely. And... the difference in their physical strength was catastrophic.

Then, Adam remembered that some Phantoms had another source of abilities besides Orders and Nexus Traits, Adam was one of those Phantoms since his artifact had an active Trait.

While Adam pondered and Katrin and Nessa tried to figure out what was going on here, Osana's wound healed just enough to keep her from being in a near-death state.

Her organs and muscles were still damaged, she had lost a lot of blood, and the skin on her stomach had not developed.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The ground trembled slightly as a bright blue sphere similar to a crystal tear emerged from Osana's body.

The sphere cracked, releasing the azure liquid that had been inside it for quite some time.

The liquid quickly traveled to Osana's damaged areas, soaking into her body like a healing elixir.

The already empty sphere turned into a blue flash before returning to Osana's body. It was unknown if she could use her artifact again in the near future, but it had done its job.

If not for the artifact, Osana would have definitely died. Surviving with her wound was impossible.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

After a few seconds, there was a thud, it was Osana's active heartbeat that after a short death started working again, filling her eyes with life.

"No fucking way..." Katrin muttered watching as Osana's arms came into motion. She pushed against the ground, slowly rising up.

Taking a few steps, Osana met their shocked gazes.

With a bitter smile on her face, she uttered:

"Did you really think I was going to die...? After all, I'm the support, not the hero, I'm helping not sacrificing myself..." Osana whispered in a hoarse voice.

She took another step but stumbled and fell to one knee.

Frowning, Osana looked at her stomach, even with the azure liquid from the artifact, it would take her a long time to fully recover. Her skin only partially healed, it was a slow process, and getting rid of internal wounds was much more difficult.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Osana waved her hand, summoning a multitude of rose petals, they like healing fairies headed towards Adam, Nessa, and Katrin's most serious wounds, bringing them so much desired relief.

"Damn... Now I'm getting scared..." Adam shook his head, gathering enough strength to get up off the ground.

He looked at Osana with a calm gaze, the wind fluttering her long pink hair.

"What wishes are you going to ask of me? Although you didn't sacrifice yourself, you definitely saved my life by taking the hit." Explore new worlds at empire

Osana smiled slyly.

"Let's deal with that later. After this mission I'm going to take a long break to recover, I think you'll want to do the same." Osana said, walking next to Adam, approaching the edge of the cliff.

Her gaze was directed at Midnight Crystal, which shone brightly among these dark lands like the clearest star in the night sky.

"Like you, I feel heavy in my heart and sorrow for my fallen mates, but we survived and must take Midnight Crystal, at least so it doesn't go to some monster."

Katrin waved her hand, stepping forward abruptly and jumping down the slope.

"Come on, enough of these speeches. I'm going to absorb Midnight Crystal because I want to get stronger. That's my only motivation."

Osana only nodded silently, realizing that Katrin was right.

The four of them headed towards the massive snow-white crystal, which had enough energy in it for each of them.

'Agh...' Adam inwardly took a deep breath as he glanced at Fume Cathedral, 'Is it possible that one day, I could be in their place...'

Adam's gaze deepened, realizing that unlike them, Oskar, Lero, and Erla would never return to the Citadel.