As a cooling yet comforting sensation slowly enveloped her, Lucille internally calmed down. Aware that she wasn't fully awake, she forced herself to open her eyes, but failed.
The cold reduced the blazing flame into nothingness. The turbulent energy of her core had also stopped its rage. She felt herself breathe easier.
"...cy. Lucy."
Someone was calling her name. The low voice echoed, tearing through her dreamscape, as it tried to lure her back to reality.
Despite the voice being edged with caution and frostiness, she still perceived the warmth hidden underneath.
In the next second, blurred fragments were pieced together, showing a silhouette of...
When she finally opened her eyes, the face from her dreamscape vaguely overlapped with the one right before her. The bright sun shone behind him, casting intermittent shadows on his face.
"Bro... Brother Ash."
Lucille forced herself to speak, calling Ashrik. She coughed twice because of how parched her throat was. Her face had just regained some of the lost color.
Ashrik bore his gaze onto Lucille. His heart twinged in discomfort at the sight of her weakened look. She turned her face away before her mouth expelled more coughs.
Even though her current state was inevitable as the price of having a broken core, he couldn't comfort himself.
"How do you feel?" he asked steadily, his muted tone showing no fluctuations in his heart. "Your core is desperate for new spiritual energy. I believe you've felt it without me explaining."
"...yes, I know," she answered, her voice hoarse. "I've felt it. I... put it on guard... now. It came to me… like an instinct."
The dull ache still throbbed in her body, but significantly better than before.
Ashrik suppressed a sigh, and a brief flicker of regret flitted in his dark eyes. He belatedly realized how sharp and indifferent he had sounded earlier.
"You're soaking wet. I'll bring you back inside," he said stiffly. "You should change."
Only then did Lucille discover that she was half-merged into the water while Ashrik steadily carried her. Aside from her neck and face, the rest of her body was wet.
Her senses perceived the calming aura permeated by the stream, the same one that drove the inferno away. Then, she faintly recalled when the man abruptly brought her out of the room earlier.
"Brother Ash, I can walk..."
"No," he abruptly cut her off.
Ashrik turned around, wading through the stream to the bank. His clothes, from waist down, were drenched with water. Splashes of water doused the bank and the grass as he returned to the cottage.
'Where is this? It's like... something from a movie.'
Lucille swept her gaze across the lush greenery of the surroundings. She marveled at how majestic the view was.
Even before the apocalypse, she hadn't been in such a breathtaking place as this was.
The breeze blew gently, carrying the sweet floral scent from the vibrant flowers. The dazzling sun bathed the entire place in its light and warmth.
Despite her curiosity, Lucille asked Ashrik nothing. The previous ordeal and the lingering pain had left her exhausted. She had even forgotten to ask him about Captain Gao.
Instead of the bedroom, Ashrik brought Lucille to the washroom. As he walked, he left a water trail on the floor.
While lowering her down right outside the washroom, he said, "Take a shower. I'll put your change of clothes on the sink."
"...okay."
Lucille held the wall for support as she walked inside the washroom, her steps slow. When she heard Ashrik closing the door, she exhaled a sigh of relief. Her eyes wandered around the chamber.
The washroom was quite spacious. It had a separate shower room, a toilet and a sink. The sunlight streamed through the frosted glass near the ceiling, illuminating the interior without the need to switch on the lamp.
Lucille couldn't help but think this washroom was even better than the ones back in her survival base. It didn't have the unpleasant, damp and musty smell that came from sharing with hundreds of people.
'I'm so tired.'
A sigh slipped from her lips. Lucille was still unable to comprehend her current situation. Her unexpected meeting with Ashrik again had eased the shock from Captain Gao's betrayal.
So many things transpired in... She didn't even know how many hours or days had passed.
Perhaps, only a few hours? Or maybe it had been one or two days.
Lucille stepped into the shower cubicle. She belatedly realized that the clothes on her body were not hers. Stunned, her eyes flung open.
Wait... Who changed her clothes?
Lucille knew her clothes were most likely soaked in blood and dirt, but...
'Let's not think about this.'
She was still alive, and that was already a massive blessing.
After stripping the wet clothes away, Lucille leaned against the wall while inspecting her body. She found no traces of festering wounds.
Lucille reached for her back, trying to feel the place where Captain Gao had stabbed her. Again, she sensed nothing.
What was only left on her body were the old scars, the badges she was forced to collect as she survived the apocalyptic world. Each of them had their own story, whether major or minor.
Shaaa...
Water ran down from the shower head, falling over Lucille before pooling around her feet. Her brows raised the moment she felt the same soothing aura from the stream.
As she stood still, Lucille couldn't help but think back on what had happened, starting from her leaving the base with Captain Gao. She frowned as she recalled the reason why she followed the traitorous snake.
Deputy Commander Jia required a gravity esper, fifth-ranked and above, for this mission. It aimed to retrieve a relic from the underground cave. But he explained nothing about it.
Did this mean... the deputy commander himself who ordered her to be killed? The same one who gave the treacherous old man the strange weapon to break her core?
But...
For what reason?
Once again, Captain Gao's remarks echoed in Lucille's mind.
"Without your ability, we couldn't have located or unearthed this relic. As expected... the key is your gravity resonance."
"This is crucial for humankind's survival. But it only responds to a high-ranked gravity esper. We have to sacrifice you."
Yes. They planned this from the beginning—to sacrifice her life.
"Haa..."
As Lucille rubbed her face, another wave of exhaustion washed over her. The incident and having a broken core had already overwhelmed her, but now more questions rushed into her mind.
"He knows something," she uttered with certainty.
That was why he, Ashrik, was there.