In an instant, all the growing crystals that turned the entire planet into a pincushion disappeared, turning the surface smooth as glass. The crystals didn’t shatter or lower back into the glowing ground, they simply vanished. Even the ones that Kesstel was pinned against by my kindjals. He dropped like a lifeless doll, plummeting forty feet below. As he fell, the three blades in his body vanished.

I dove after him and caught him just before he hit the ground. But even that wrenched the still-bleeding wound in my stomach. The pain was so intense, I couldn’t control my mist very well. The vapor pool under my feet softened my fall, but broke before I could fully stop. I landed heavily, Kesstel’s weight pressing on me as if I wasn’t an S Hunter — I was that weakened. I tried to set him down carefully, but I didn’t have complete control of my war-torn body. Both of us flopped to the ground, him on his side and me on my back beside him.

I panted for breath, trying to regain my strength. Tears, the ones I’d been fighting off this whole time, leaked from the corner of my eyes. I couldn’t seem to stop them, and honestly, I didn’t want to.

The rip in space loomed over me, revealing Earth on the other side. In the short time I’d been on this parasitic planet, the black spots on Earth that I noticed earlier had grown bigger. I didn’t know what they were —— most likely contaminated places where the parasite had a strong hold. Either way, the black spots weren’t natural. The fact that they were bigger was a problem. I had a good view of North America, so I could tell that they weren’t near Eden, but it was only a matter of time.

Instead of feeling panicked about Earth, I kept my attention here on this silent planet around me. Everything was still, even the glow coming from inside the blue crystal planet was dimmed. The only sound in my ears was the slow heartbeat of the man next to me. The one that was getting slower with every beat.

My body shook as I pushed onto my hands and knees. My trembling hands reached out and smoothed his messy hair out of his face. “Goddess? Is Kesstel …” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question.

I wanted to hear her say that he was okay. That he was just sleeping. But I had eyes and ears. I could see the blood leaking from him and hear his heart skipping beats. One of my tears dropped onto his cheek. Carefully, I brushed it away, feeling his cool skin against my hot fingers.

The two energy crystals were so close together. She sounded a little breathless. After all, she used some of her own power to keep me alive. The question was, did she use too much? You nicked his original energy crystal when you destroyed the other one. I didn’t steal the energy from his original crystal, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was damaged.

His energy crystal was damaged. It would have been better for him to be stabbed in the heart. He could heal from that. But there was no way to fix a broken energy crystal.

And I did it with my own hands.

More tears slipped down my face as self hatred boiled inside.

Jyn, you have to hurry, Goddess urged. The parasite is only momentarily stunned. Right now is the best time for us to attack its heart. I don’t know how long we have.

“Yes,” I agreed. Gently, I touched Kesstel’s cool cheek. “I’ll be right back,” I said as if he could hear me.

My legs still felt like jelly, but I pushed up to standing. Pain pulsed from the hole in my stomach, making me groan and bend over. My almost numb right hand, still wounded from the deep cut from Kesstel earlier, pressed against the hole as I looked around for the heart of the planet.

In front of me was a small silvery white arch in the distance — the Portal me and Kesstel had taken to get here. Even though it was half the size it was before, it was impressive that it survived the battle.

Behind me, closer than I thought they would be, was the cluster of crystals that signified the heart of the parasitic planet. I didn’t think I’d gotten that close, but they were only thirty feet away. If I hadn’t been so focused on Kesstel, I would have seen the six-foot tall pillars right away. The crystals were glowing, just like the main planet, but every once in a while, there was a small flare of light, almost like a heartbeat.

For some reason, that pulse angered me. It wasn’t just that it belonged to the parasite. It wasn’t fair that it was getting stronger, while Kesstel’s was getting weaker.

Fury powered my body as I marched up to the cluster of crystals. Red and black blood that had collected on the bottom of my boots smeared the pristine glassy surface as I walked, but I couldn’t think of a better accent for this damn place. It shouldn’t be pretty enough to be from a fantasy magazine. A disgusting being like this deserved to be dripping in blood, drowned in the life liquid it stole from all its victims.

As I came up to the heart of the planet, I held out my right hand. Her Will appeared in my hand. The silvery handle shimmered brightly, without a single trace of blue reflecting on it, as if it rejected the glow from the planet. The mist inside the clear blade swirled around anxiously. I gripped the handle. For the first time, Goddess’s magic, which was always so prevalent on the kindjal, didn’t soothe my aching soul. Even though the blade was flooding with her warmth, my heart was too distraught to feel it.

I stopped in front of the crystals and lifted the kindjal high over my head. Goddess’s power poured into the clear blade. The silvery-white light it always emitted intensified until it was like a star shining in my hands. Her light collided with the blue glow coming from the parasite’s crystals, casting a harsh light on them.

Time for your retribution, Goddess yelled.

“Die!” I screamed and stabbed the kindjal stained with Kesstel’s blood into the lead crystal with everything that I had. Die for all the lives you stole. Die for Earth. Die for my family. Die for Goddess. Die for Kesstel. Die for me!

Like cutting butter, the shining blade sank into the crystal all the way to the hilt. Because of the clear quality of the blue crystal, I could see right through it. The light of the mist blade intensified, chasing away the blue light and turning the energy crystal clear. Like a mass of writhing snakes, Goddess’s white power seeped from the tip of the sword and burrowed through the heart crystal, eating away the dim power of the parasite.

All at once, the blue glow pulsed, bright and strong. It forced Goddess’s power to stop and even started to push it back.

My eyes widened as the blue light changed from a pulse to a steady glow. The parasite woke up already? No!

Goddess groaned in my mind. Not enough … The white ribbons of power twisted and pulsed, trying to pierce through the blue light.

The smooth stone under my feet shivered, tiny little points ghosting across the surface, and collected in some areas before fading back down. It looked like the precursor to more growing crystals. Damn.

I’m sorry, Jyn, Goddess said. I need my power back. I don’t have enough without it. I just hope it's enough.

My eyes widened as I realized what she meant. Then a small smile curled on my lips. “It’s okay,” I whispered softly.

After all, all my power was originally hers. I was more or less a container — a delivery girl. In the beginning, when I first got the System, I was treated like a tool. Something to accomplish the means to the end. And I had viewed the System the same way. Something to use to get what I wanted. Somewhere along the way, I learned to trust the System and it also started to treat me better. We’d come a long way from the morning I woke up in the hospital. Long enough to sometimes forget the original reason why the System was made to begin with.

I’ll make it okay, Goddess promised. If only she sounded more sure of herself.

My hand around the handle of Her Will began to tingle. Like a leaking sink, I could feel my power start to drain out from my grip, funneling into the kindjal. My heavily battered body became heavier, my legs going from already trembling to full on shaking. I could almost feel the levels as they dropped with my power, all being sucked in the kindjal. The idea barely popped into my head when the System menu popped up, displaying my Stats.

Jyn Devhro

Rank S

Lv 94

EXP to Next Lv 39,205

HP 1,512/41,700

MP 205/8050

Strength 163 (+40)

Magic 142 (+40)

Constitution 150 (+40)

Stat Points 0

Agility 150

Perception 142

Intelligence 131

Skills

Throw

Critical Hit

Quick Hit

Mirror (Improved)

High Jump

Float

Abilities

True Mist (10 mi)

Feather Step

Regen

Stealth

Poison Fog

Mist Blade (Enhanced)

Merge

Warp

Telekinesis

As I watched, the numbers on my EXP section started to go down, like a countdown clock. As it counted down, my levels dropped accordingly.

Level 94 … 93 … 92 … 91 …

After all the work I went through to get the EXP to go from Level 1 to what I had now, I thought I’d be more upset to feel them deplete. Strangely, I wasn’t. I gathered all this energy to protect my family. And that’s what was happening now. With the parasite dead, they would be safe.

The more my power drained into the kindjal, the brighter Goddess’s power grew. With renewed fervor, it attacked the parasite’s blue magic and cut through.

Level 45 … 44 … 43 … 42 …

My EXP wasn’t the only thing going down. So was my HP and MP. It was staying the same percentage, I think, but the numbers were adjusting accordingly. Each time the numbers dropped, the injuries that covered my body ached all the more. The hole in my side wasn’t bleeding anymore, but it wasn’t closing either. My Regen was tied to my power, since I was losing one, the other disappeared too. I pressed a hand over the large injury, but that didn’t seem to make it feel better.

The bright white power dug through the waist-high crystal, almost reaching down into the actual planet. Once it touched the parasite’s whole body, Goddess wouldn’t be cornered anymore. She could spread out and attack more places at once.

Level 11 … 10 … 9 … 8 …

Suddenly the whole planet let out a blindingly bright blue pulse of magic. It swallowed up Goddess’s magic in an instant. The kindjal disintegrated in my grip, vanishing to a puff of mist that slipped through my powerless fingers.

I didn’t even have time to gasp before I was thrown back twenty feet. I landed hard on my back and rolled to a stop. Coughing for air, I pushed up and looked around.

I’d flown far enough that I was back at Kesstel’s side. He was still limp. The collar on his torn blue tunic shifted as his chest moved in shallow breaths. It wasn’t much, but he was still alive.

The Portal that we took to get here was gone. I couldn’t even say when it happened. Either Goddess took back that power too, or it was blown to pieces from the parasite’s power pulse. Either way, there was no way home now.

The heart of the parasitic planet was glowing so bright, I couldn’t look at it fully without my eyes hurting. Try as I might, I couldn’t see a bit of white in those blue depths.

We … lost?

I couldn’t feel the System at all inside me. There wasn’t even the tiniest bit of Goddess’s magic in me, and I couldn’t contact her.

All I knew was Kesstel was dying … and so was I. The wounds that had stopped bleeding were reopened when I was tossed in the air like a rag doll from the parasite’s attack. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t injured at all in the actual attack, I was going to bleed out my last remaining 11 HP here on a vicious, alien planet.

My hand shook as I reached out to Kesstel. It hurt to move, but I pulled his right glove off, revealing his slightly dirty, pale fingers. His whole body was stained by the blue light coming from the planet below and the harsh red light from the rip in space overhead. Without Goddess’s cleaning power, mine was colored the same.

With a groan, I flopped onto my back and reached out. The glove on my own hand disappeared then I gently pushed my fingers through Kesstel’s still ones and threaded our fingers the best I could. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best I could do. It was so soothing, feeling his cool skin on mine.

I looked up at Earth as it grew closer. As the rip in space grew bigger.

“It’s been over ten years since a human has seen Earth like this,” I said, talking as if Kesstel could hear me. My rough voice sounded terrible, so maybe it was better that he couldn’t. “There used to be astronauts circling Earth all the time, but when the Gates appeared, there wasn’t a way to communicate with them. Never mind sending food or trying to get them back to Earth. People on land were too concerned with their own lives, never mind the ones stuck up in space, you know.”

The brightly glowing surface under me started to ripple. Every once in a while, I could feel the tiniest point, as if a crystal was trying to grow under me.

Still, I continued to stare up at Earth. Well, Earths. Double vision blurred the globe and overlapped the images. I focused as much as I could on where Eden would be.

I should be more upset than I was right now. I should be burning with furious determination. Angry that my HP was dripping out of my body one blood drop at a time. Instead, I felt at peace. I’d done everything I could. I literally couldn’t do anything else for my family.

If by some miracle, Earth did survive, they’d be fine without me. I trusted Jonovan to make the cure and wake up my mother and sister soon. As hard as the grieving process was, after it, they’d be comfortable for the rest of their lives. If Earth didn’t, then they’d be dead too.

It’s funny, really. I used to get so mad how Kesstel planned to make this a suicide mission. I talked on and on about going home and living together after. So naive. At least there was one promise I could uphold.

My vision started to blur as the rims turned gray. Instinctively, I tightened my fingers around Kesstel’s. “I promised, didn’t I?” I whispered. I didn’t have the energy to talk any louder. “That I’d go wherever you go, Kesstel.” I couldn’t smile, but I wanted to. “Heaven or Hell … I’ll never let you feel alone again.”

I wanted Kesstel to be the last thing I saw. But I couldn’t see anything — just gray. I didn’t even have the energy to tilt my head. The last thing I heard was his heart beat.

Slowly … slowing …

*****