Eliss lay sprawled upon the cold, unforgiving ground, her consciousness teetering on the edge between the grim present and the haunting past. Memories flooded her mind, vivid and bittersweet, transporting her back to happier times with her friends, times now irretrievably lost. As the shadows of despair deepened around her, a vision of Liora materialized in her mind's eye. Her dear friend stood resolute and comforting, with Tara, Esabel, and Rowena arrayed behind her, their expressions gentle and encouraging.
"You can't join us yet, Eliss," Liora's spectral voice echoed softly. "You have to live. You have so much to experience, what stories would you tell us now?" Her words, though ethereal, carried a weight that anchored Eliss back to the harsh reality of her situation.
Overwhelmed by a mix of grief and the fierce will to survive that Liora's apparition had stirred within her, Eliss's eyes brimmed with tears. Her voice, raw and laden with fear and determination, broke the haunting silence, "I don't want to die!"
At that moment, through the haze of her tears and fears, a familiar voice cut through the despair. "ELISSS!!!" It was Amukelo, his voice a clarion call that pierced the darkness enveloping her. He burst through the entrance, his figure a beacon of hope in the overwhelming gloom.
Leviathan, observing Amukelo's daring entrance, let out a booming laugh, rich with malice. "You saved me so much time by coming back. It's the second time you've thrown your life away. Are you suicidal? Haha..." His taunting words echoed ominously through the cavern.
But Amukelo was undeterred, his eyes locked on Eliss with unyielding resolve. Ignoring Leviathan's mockery, he sprinted towards her, his every step driven by an urgent, desperate need to reach her side. As Leviathan lunged with a ferocious swipe of its claws, Amukelo, fueled by a surge of adrenaline and the raw power of his enhanced mana coat, reacted with astonishing speed. With a deft, agile kick, he redirected the monster's blow and countered with a vicious slash of his sword. The blade, glowing with an intense, fiery aura, cut through the air and cleanly severed Leviathan's limb. The limb thudded to the ground, as Leviathan roared from pain.
Eliss watched, wide-eyed and incredulous, as she noticed the aura around him, fiercer and more vibrant than anything she had seen before, a visual effect of the mana coat. She knew what that meant, and the damage it could make on Amukelo's body.
In the next heartbeat, Leviathan, enraged and not underestimating his foe this time, lunged again with a roar that shook the cavern. Reacting swiftly, Amukelo reached for the bag Eliss had prepared for him earlier, filled with potent mana shards. With no time to spare, as Leviathan bore down on him, Amukelo unleashed his final gambit. He hurled the bag directly into Leviathan's path and, with his injured hand trembling but unyielding, conjured a massive fireball using the entire mana within him. He thrust his palm forward, releasing the spell. The fireball struck the bag, igniting the mana shards in a blinding, explosive conflagration.
The explosion that followed was monstrous, a cataclysmic eruption that lit the entire cavern with a blinding flash. Heat and shockwaves rolled out in a devastating tide, the force of the explosion mushrooming outwards in a violent, expanding sphere. Amukelo, acting on pure instinct, threw himself over Eliss, covering her with his body to shield her from the blast. Debris and energy buffeted them, the roar of the explosion filling the world, consuming everything with its furious might.
As the echoes of the explosion died down, a heavy silence fell. The cavern around them had succumbed to destruction, its once formidable architecture now a shattered relic, with debris scattered across what felt like an alien landscape. The shockwave had been so powerful that Amukelo suspected the damage had cascaded back through the dungeon, reaching as far as level forty-eight.
As the dust settled, Amukelo struggled to rise from the rubble, each movement unbearable because of using the mana coat beyond its safe threshold. Pain coursed through his body like countless blades, each step an agony. He knew he had pushed his abilities to their limits and now paid the price with his body screaming in protest.
Beside him lay Eliss, unconscious and vulnerable. With a grit born of desperation, Amukelo hoisted her gently onto his back. His vision blurred with fatigue and pain, and he began the slow, laborious journey to find shelter. His leg dragged along the ground, a grim rhythm to the eerie silence that had enveloped the place. He needed to find a cave or some natural crevice with a narrow entrance — somewhere defensible, somewhere they could avoid further detection from Leviathan.
As they moved, Eliss stirred to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open to a world irrevocably changed, her mind grappling with the haze of her recent trauma. She gazed around at the devastation, tears welling up in her eyes as the gravity of their situation settled in. Turning to Amukelo, her voice cracked with emotion, "Amukelo, why did you do that? Why didn't you just leave me there? You could live, and now... and now this will happen again. People I love will die because of saving me."
Amukelo's response was gentle, though each word was laced with his own pain. "Eliss, I couldn't just leave you like that. You even screamed that you wanted to live. I never asked for your story, but I am certain that your friends who saved you back then wouldn't want you to die there."
"But... But now we both are going to die," Eliss replied, despair threading through her words, her gaze dropping to the chaos around them.
Amukelo shook his head, a stubborn determination in his eyes. "We will get out alive. How many times have we thought it was over? But every time we made it out, every time. This time is no different. I will make it happen." His voice, though weak, carried a conviction that was palpable, a promise not just to Eliss but to himself.
At his words, something within Eliss shifted. Her heart raced, her cheeks flushed with a sudden warmth. Inexplicably, amid the ruin and despair, his resolve ignited a spark of hope within her. Perhaps it was the earnestness in his voice, or perhaps it was the undeniable truth that they had indeed survived against all odds before. But for whatever reason, Eliss found herself believing in Amukelo's bold claim. His determination, his unwillingness to give in to despair, lent her a strength she thought had been extinguished.