"Look who finally decided to wake up."
Jin approached the two, as her teasing tone was exactly what Nero needed to hear.
"Looks like you had your fair share of sleep, huh?"
"..."
Nero rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Yeah, it was almost an eternal sleep too... By the way, I forgot to ask - how long was I unconscious?"
The question made Jin’s expression shift slightly.
"..."
She glanced at Aurelia, who imdiately shook her head in a barely perceptible gesture.
So kind of silent communication passed between them.
Then Jin had a bitter look on her face before she sighed,
"It’s... been about a year."
"WHAT?!"
The color drained from Nero’s face so fast he looked like he might faint again.
A year?!
Wtf?! He expected that he would be unconscious for quite so ti! But for a year?!
Wait!
His mind imdiately jumped to the worst possible conclusions about the trio’s fate.
If he’d been unconscious for an entire year, how about Kaito, Yui, and Haru...?
But before panic could fully set in,
"HAHAHAHA! You should see your face right now!"
Jin burst out laughing.
The hearty, genuine laughter made Nero’s eyes twitch as realization kicked in.
He was played.
"..."
He gave her a flat, resigned look that clearly communicated his opinion of her dark sense of humor.
But underneath the irritation was relief.
If she was joking around like this, it ant things couldn’t be completely catastrophic.
The trio was probably fine.
They had to be.
"You really had going there for a second," he muttered while trying to regain his composure.
"Sorry, sorry... I couldn’t resist."
Jin wiped tears from her eyes as her laughter finally died down.
"You’ve actually only been out for about 3 days. Long enough for us to get worried, but not long enough for anything too dramatic to happen."
3 days.
That was much more reasonable.
And it explained why he felt so rested despite the lingering fatigue in his muscles.
But before he could ask any follow-up questions, one of the won who’d been helping with the reconstruction work noticed their conversation and approached.
"Nero! You’re finally awake!"
The relief in her voice was genuine as she hurried over to check on his condition.
"Are you feeling alright? Any pain or dizziness? You looked pretty rough when they brought you in."
"I’m... fine, I think."
But as he looked at her concerned face, Nero realized sothing embarrassing.
’Uhh... Who is she again?’
He couldn’t rember her na.
The girl has platinum blonde hair falling in perfect waves.
She was clearly one of Vincent’s forr wives who’d been freed from mind control, but in all the chaos and combat, individual introductions had gotten lost.
The awkward silence stretched for a mont before she seed to pick up on his confusion.
"Oh! I’m Frila, by the way. Frila Winters."
She gestured to herself with a wry smile.
"Ice manipulation abilities, forr college student, and recent escapee from a psychotic bastard’s sick manipulation... Nice to et you properly."
Her casual tone about such a traumatic experience spoke to the kind of dark humor people developed when dealing with impossible situations.
"Right, Frila. Thanks for asking about my condition."
Nero nodded politely, filing the na away for future reference.
But now that the pleasantries were handled, he turned his attention back to Jin.
"So what’s the situation with Kaito, Yui, and Haru?"
The question seed innocent enough, but the mont it left his mouth, Jin’s expression shifted.
The easy confidence vanished, replaced by sothing much more serious.
Sothing that made Nero’s blood run cold.
"Jin?"
He tried to keep his voice steady, but the growing pit in his stomach suggested this wasn’t going to be good news.
"Look, it’s... it’s complicated."
Jin’s eyes darted toward Aurelia and Frila, both of whom had suddenly developed a tense expression on their faces.
The kind of look that ant they knew sothing he didn’t.
And this left Nero with an ominous feeling.
"... I’m not falling for another joke, alright?" Nero said firmly.
"..."
But as the silence stretched and nobody t his eyes, he knew they weren’t joking anymore.
"Jin. What happened to them?"
"..."
More silence.
More careful avoidance.
"Guys, seriously, what—"
"... I think, it would be better if you saw for yourself."
Frila’s voice was quiet, filled with the kind of sadness that made Nero’s worst fears start crystallizing into reality.
"The dical wing. They’re... they’re in the dical wing."
***
The walk to the makeshift hospital felt like it took forever...
Well, rather than a hospital it looks like more of a stone house with lots of dicinal supplies and patients in it.
Every step seed to echo with dread as Nero followed Jin and Frila through the stone corridors of their new settlent.
Aurelia walked beside him, her divine presence providing silent support, but even she seed subdued.
Like she knew what they were about to find.
*Step... step... step...*
As they approached the dical wing, sounds began to filter through the air.
Quiet conversations between healers.
The soft hum of magical energy being used for treatnt.
And underneath it all, sothing that made Nero’s chest tighten with premature grief.
The sound of sobbing.
Soone was crying with the kind of broken, hopeless sobs that co from watching soone you love slip away beyond your reach.
"..."
The entrance to the dical wing was marked by hanging cloth that provided privacy for the patients within.
Jin hesitated at the threshold, her hand hovering near the fabric.
"Nero, I want you to know that everyone has been doing everything possible. Gilbert, Aurelia, everyone with any kind of healing ability..."
She turned to face him directly.
"We’ve tried everything we could think of."
The words hit him like physical blows.
But he forced himself to nod and step forward.
"I understand. Let see them."
*Rustle...*
The cloth parted, revealing the organized chaos of their dical facility.
Beds and stretchers arranged in neat rows.
Supplies stacked with military precision.
Healers moving between patients with practiced efficiency.
And in the far corner, separated from the general population by additional privacy screens...
*Sob... sob... sob...*
The crying was clearer now.
Heartbroken. Desperate.
The sound of a parent watching their child die.
Nero’s feet carried him forward automatically as his mind tried to prepare for whatever he was about to see.
*Step... step... step...*
The privacy screen was thin enough that he could make out silhouettes on the other side.
Multiple figures clustered around what appeared to be 3 separate beds.
Adults kneeling or sitting beside smaller forms that lay frighteningly still.
*Rustle...*
Jin gently moved the screen aside.
And Nero saw them.
Kaito lay on the leftmost bed, his normally energetic features pale and drawn.
Dark veins were visible beneath his skin, spreading from his chest toward his extremities like so kind of infection.
His breathing was shallow and labored, each breath a struggle against whatever toxin was coursing through his system.
Yuki knelt beside him, her magical girl persona completely shattered as she held his limp hand.
Tears stread down her face as she whispered encouragent he couldn’t hear.
Haru occupied the middle bed, looking even worse than his friend.
The normally anxious teenager was completely unconscious, his skin taking on a grayish tint that spoke of systemic failure.
Genya sat in a chair beside him, his military composure cracked as he watched his son slowly dying.
But it was the third bed that made Nero’s heart stop completely.
"..."
Yui lay perfectly still beneath a white sheet that had been pulled up to her chin.
Her face was peaceful, almost serene, but...
There was no rise and fall of breathing.
No flutter of eyelids or twitch of fingers.
Just the absolute stillness that could only an one thing...
Beside her, Haori wept with grief that cos from losing her only precious child.
Her figure was enveloped by raw and devastating loss.
And next to Haori...
"..."
Juno sat in absolute silence with his head completely down.
The brilliant analytical mind that had guided them through so many dangerous situations was just... gone.
His eyes stared at nothing.
His mouth moved occasionally, forming inaudible words that might have been calculations or might have been prayers.
But there was no recognition in his dull gaze.
No awareness of his surroundings.
The man who’d always had an answer for everything had been broken by the one problem his intellect couldn’t solve.
The death of his daughter.
"..."
Nero wanted to say sothing, anything... but no words ca out.
"Yui passed yesterday evening. The poison... we think there were multiple toxins mixed together, each one designed to counter different types of treatnt."
Jin’s voice ca from behind him, heavy with sadness.
Her barely composed tone couldn’t hide the emotion underneath.
"Even with Gilbert’s abilities, even with magical healing, even with Aurelia’s divine and mysterious power..."
"The starlight energy can purify the miasma component," Aurelia added quietly, her formal tone a stark contrast to her usual casual speech patterns.
"... However, the underlying toxins appear to be alchemically designed to resist purification. When the dark energy is removed, the poisons remain and continue their destructive process."
"We tried everything," Jin continued, her voice cracking slightly.
"Antidotes, magical cleansing, even direct mana infusion to boost their immune systems. But whatever Vincent used..."
She didn’t finish the sentence.
She didn’t need to.
Nero’s mind imdiately jumped to the obvious solution.
"Vincent. Where is he? He has to know what he used, he has to have so kind of cure or–"
But the look on Jin’s face stopped him mid-sentence.
"Nero..."
Her voice carried a warning.
"Where are Ren and Hina?"
As he asked the question, he realized sothing that should have been obvious.
Kaito’s father and Haru’s mother were nowhere to be seen in the dical wing.
"It’s... probably best if you don’t go looking for Vincent right now," Jin said carefully.
Her tone suggested this wasn’t a suggestion.
"They tried. HARD. Really, really hard to make him regret being born."
The implications hung in the air like a dark cloud.
"But even after everything they put him through, it seems like he genuinely doesn’t know any cure for what he used."
’Or rather, he never intended to create one.’
*Crack...*
The thought made Nero grit his teeth with the utmost force making his molar teeth audibly crack, which surprised those who were near him.
Vincent hadn’t been planning to cure anyone.
This had been designed as a final "fuck you" to them.
Even if they defeated him, even if they captured him alive, his poison would still claim its victims.
One last act of spite from a man who couldn’t accept losing.
"..."
Desperation clawed at Nero’s chest as he tried to think of alternatives.
There had to be sothing he could do.
So ability, so power, so miracle that could save the remaining boys.
His hand moved instinctively toward where his system interface should have appeared.
In every crisis before this, the blue screen had been there to provide information, abilities, or at least hope.
But when he tried to call it up...
"..."
Nothing happened.
No blue light.
No system notifications.
No interface at all.
Just empty air and the crushing realization that whatever power had been guiding him was gone.
He lost his system.
***
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