There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 690: Side Story 3. Stellar Blossom - 25

Zein, as if leading the most dangerous and difficult raid in his life, faced the audience with sharp eyes full of warning. A screen was hovering by his side, showing a transparent drawing of a human anatomy--courtesy of his talented husband.

"You need to be very, very precise while doing this," Zein started with a stern warning.

The audience was already in full concentration, but they straightened their back even more. Even the Eastern Sun couldn’t help but turn tense in this atmosphere. At any rate, she wasn’t so heartless to be languid in front of desperate, nervous faces. freёnovelkiss.com

Radia did not even bow or beg when asking for her cooperation during Operation Fallen Star. Hell--the man didn’t even feign a soft tone, confidently asking to trade her skills with a healing artifact. She could tell that even without her cooperation, Radia would be able to find another way somehow.

How desperate must this man be, if he thought the only way he could save his husband was by kneeling in public? Even to the point of pressing his head on the cold, wet ground?

There was no way she could do things half-heartedly after seeing such a display.

Well...even if she did, Bassena Vaski would probably shred her to bits after the new Saint-class healer dismantled her mental power. What a terrifying combination.

Ah, she should listened well to the explanation.

"What we’re going to do, essentially, was letting the cold energy be eaten by the sentient flame," Zein continued, pointing at the white lantern. "But at the same time, we can’t let the flame become overwhelming and rampaging inside his body instead."

"So, that’s why you need me?" the Eastern Sun asked, glancing at the swirling flame energetically flickering inside the white lantern. "To control the flame?"

"Yes," Zein nodded, glancing briefly at the screen. There, a simulation was played, where a small flame entered the human’s mouth and struck the mana core in the solar plexus. "We will send the sentient flame through Joon’s mouth, and you’ll control it to destroy his core."

They instantly stirred at the brutal explanation, but Zein was unfazed. He shifted his gaze to the newly arrived healer. "Shin, you need to constantly heal him inside, but not in a way that would disturb the fight."

Han Shin, who had been clenching his fist to manage his emotions, moved his lips stiffly. Even when he understood the reason, hearing it was still hard. "I need to precisely target the damaged part instead of healing his entire body, and...leaving the fighting zone alone."

"Precisely," Zein moved the simulation forward. Once the small flame crushed the core, blue energy blasted out and quickly spread all over the body. Instantly, the chart beside the human diagram, which showed the vital signs, went into chaos. "This is what will happen if we destroy the core."

The reaction of the audience was even more chaotic, but Zein turned toward the nervous Saintess before anyone could raise a question. "Thus, someone needs to control this cold energy, gathering it in one place so the flame can eat it without damaging too much area."

"Gathering it...within the remnant of the core?" the Saintess bit her lips. "That means...it has to be done the moment the core is destroyed, isn’t it?"

Zein nodded. "As I said, it has to be precise."

The simulation ran again, where the spreading blue energy turned into a sphere. The red flame started to devour it, and the clash between the two energies, once again, sent the vital signs into chaos.

"Naturally, his body will react violently during the fight, so you need to multi-task heavily, Shin."

"I know," discarding his usual cheekiness, Han Shin nodded with a serious air around him. "I’ll make sure to keep him stable and healed."

"I know you will. Now," Zein returned his gaze to the Eastern Sun. "Once the cold energy completely disappears, you need to guide the flame out immediately before it settles and creates a new core."

The Easter Sun tilted her head. "Can’t we just let it replace the core?"

"No," Radia cut in sharply, prompting the Saintess to flinch in surprise.

It was Joon’s constitution that couldn’t support the formation of a perfect core, so even making a new one would only cause him more pain. He would get burned from the inside instead, especially since the flame was sentient.

Sighing, Zein looked at the Eastern Sun while smiling with a cold gaze. "Please only follow the instructions."

"O...okay?"

The Eastern Sun sighed inwardly. She had used to be the greatest in a room, but she felt insignificant here. Even this Saintess beside her looked like a meek dandelion as if she could scatter easily if Zein so much as to glare in her direction.

"Okay, that’s about it," Zein clapped his hand again, which was a habit he gained from leading Trinity’s first generation of strike guides and teaching in the academy. "Do you need more explanation?"

The three people who would do the healing shook their heads, so Zein turned off the screen. He looked at Radia next, speaking with a softer tone. "I know that you probably want to be in the room during the process, but--"

"I understand," Radia said while placing the white lantern in front of the Eastern Sun. "I might react strongly if I see him in pain, and break their concentration."

It was a hard enough process without any distractions, and Radia would try to keep the room sterile even if he had to bar himself from entry. It was a painful, but necessary decision.

Just like kneeling in the snow.

Laurel squeezed her son’s shoulder, already planning all kinds of miserable things she would make sure the Hammers tasted in her head. She should speak to her husband later.

Radia, taking a deep breath, got on his feet. "Can I see him privately before the proceeding?"

"Of course," Zein nodded, and the nurses swiftly opened the door to the patient’s bedroom.

Unlike other patient wards, there was something unusual prepared there. A large magic formation was drawn on the floor--a barrier to keep mana from leaking out later. In the middle of that formation was the single bed where Han Joon had fallen asleep since the end of the autumn. Several life support devices were attached to him, but everything would have to be taken off the moment the healing started.

As Radia walked toward the bed, one of the nurses tacitly pulled the curtain over the glass wall and closed the door, giving the couple their privacy.

"Darling," Radia whispered, stroking the cold, sunken cheek tenderly.

He wanted to cry seeing the face that grew paler during the time he was away, but he held it in. He would not cry again. His tears, as Joon wanted, would only be shed for a happy occasion.

"Darling, they’ll try their best, but..." Radia bit his lips. He knew how many surgeries failed even though the best doctors did it. He knew that things could still go wrong even when everyone did their best. "You have to fight too."

His voice had grown hoarse from his fever, but Radia continued while pressing his forehead on Joon’s forehead. "I know you can fight it," he whispered. "After all, you promised me we’d live together for a long time."

With a trembling hand, he stroked the dry, cracked lips before planting a heartfelt, sweet kiss on them. "You have to keep your promise, darling."

He spent a few minutes more in silence, just looking at his husband’s face as if tracing it with an invisible hand inside his mind. With a heavy heart, he finally walked away when the beeping sound of the machine kept bothering him.

After Radia came out, everything fell into motion. The Saintess, Han Shin, and the Eastern Sun who brought the white lantern positioned themselves around the bed, while Zein stood beside the Saintess to guide her.

"Are you ready?" Joon’s doctor asked, and after the espers and guides team gave him affirmation, he plugged off the life support devices and swiftly stepped out of the room.

The magic formation activated with a glow as the comatose body jolted and started to seize.

"Shin," Zein held the man’s body and flicked his gaze to the healer, who immediately held the other side with tears streaming down his face. Still, he could sense the healer’s mana swirling readily, and Zein called the order. "Start."

The Eastern Sun unsealed the white lantern and controlled it with one of her skills, [Flame Monarch]. The sentient flame wiggled until she pushed it past the slightly parted lips. Like a flowing lava, the flame turned liquid and entered Joon’s mouth, instantly burning it.

It was a battle of time and precision as Han Shin immediately guided his mana to heal the burn a fraction of a second after it happened. The sheer concentration that the healer needed to do that was probably a good thing, since he had to close his eyes and didn’t have to watch his brother going into a seizure.

From the time the fire slipped past the mouth to arrive in the solar plexus, only seven seconds passed. And yet, those seconds seven felt so long and strenuous. The sentient flame was more ferocious than the Eastern Sun initially thought, and she had to expand a lot of mana. She didn’t have the leeway to do things carefully, so she attacked the core immediately, believing in the Saint class’s healing.

The moment that core shattered, a blast of cold mana almost froze the bedroom. Icicles were formed in several places, and a sleet of ice covered the glass window. The Saintess, already entering Joon’s system, scrunched her eyes tightly as she pulled all the cold energy trying to spread out. It was akin to holding a thousand leashes attached to a thousand ferocious border collies trying to run in a thousand directions.

The sentient flame, sensing another energy opposite its nature, pounced automatically, trying to devour it completely. There could not be two suns under the same sky. The battle for dominance ravaged the weakening esper’s body, which started to seize so hard it lifted off the bed.

No matter how fast a Saint class healing was, someone who could no longer be called an esper wouldn’t be able to take a battle between two massive energies.

It was during this process that the staff could finally clean the glass. There was no sound could be heard from the room, but the crimson eyes could see the way his husband convulsed as if a grim reaper was pulling out his soul forcibly.

But all he could do was watch, silently, with shaking eyes and trembling hands; the hands he clenched so strongly blood started to drip between his fingers. He could taste the blood in his mouth, from the tongue and cheek he bit to prevent himself from screaming.

He shouldn’t. He couldn’t. No matter how much he wanted to burst the door open and hold his convulsing husband, he would not risk disturbing the process.

All he could do was watch. Watching at Zein giving the order as precisely as possible; watching the Saintess and the two espers scrunched their face in deep concentration, sweat running down their faces in the midst of freezing cold.

And then, all of a sudden, Joon’s back arched sharply, as if his spine was going to break in two. The Eastern Sun moved her hands with difficulty, and the Saintess slumped to the floor.

Radia felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach, shattering into millions of pieces. Just as he felt like he was going to die the next second, a faint blue glow enveloped Han Joon, and the Eastern Sun clasped her hands tight. The sleeping man stopped convulsing heavily then, and after a few seconds, stopped moving altogether.

There was a long stretching silence as no one moved in both rooms. Only Zein did, walking toward the head of the bed, leaning down to check.

For what? Heartbeat? Breathing? Was he breathing?!

Because Radia certainly couldn’t.

At least, not until Zeim straightened his back and turned toward the glass window with a solemn expression. In what felt like a slow motion, he raised his fingers and made an okay sign.

As if the strength stringing himself together finally snapped, Radia collapsed to the ground, once again on his knees. He gasped and panted heavily, as if he had been underwater all this time. Covering his face with his hands, the tears flowing with a choking sound was mixed with blood, pooling red on the floor.

The bloody tears were eerie, but the wailing no one had ever heard before was filled with unspeakable relief.