Clad in a half-shattered body armor with a sword, Heres, sheathed at his belt, Danan sorted through his gear, separating usable weapons from damaged tools.
“Danan, what are you doing?”
“Can't you tell? I’m sorting what’s usable from what’s not.”
“Really? That’s unexpected.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing.”
Eve, perched on a pile of rubble with her cheek resting on her knee, watched the young man sitting cross-legged on the ground. His sole remaining left arm deftly reloaded a pistol magazine with bullets, and a cool, mocking smile played on her lips.
“I’ll help. Hand me the gun.”
“No need.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t trust you enough to hand over my gun.”
“Oh? I thought we’d made some progress toward reconciliation. Guess I was mistaken.”
“…”
Even if Danan let a sliver of his true feelings slip, neither trusted the other. There was no bond of faith between them.
Casting a glance at Eve, whose beautiful yet eerie smile seemed to glow in the dim light, Danan pulled on a bloodstained gas mask, swapping its crimson-tinted filter for a fresh one. He then donned goggles with a cracked right lens.
He didn’t know which level of the ruins they were on or how dense the toxins were. The fact that he could breathe without the mask suggested this was either a deep layer with toxin levels close to the surface, a fully sealed section, or a floor disconnected from the spires.
To explore these ruins—especially an unfamiliar layer—his current equipment was undeniably inadequate. At the very least, he needed something to replace his destroyed mechanical arm.
Exhaling a deep sigh, Danan rubbed the seam where his mechanical limb once joined his flesh, then twisted open a jelly pack’s cap, sipping a simple meal through its tube.
“What’s that?” Eve asked.
“Food.”
“Food? That’s it? Pretty pathetic.”
“There’s better stuff up top.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“Canned meat, canned vegetables. Spend a bit more, and you can get synthetic meat dishes.”
“…Huh.”
Her tone was half-curious, half-indifferent. Observing Danan closely, the silver-winged girl leapt from the rubble to his side, rummaging through his pouch without permission and snatching a jelly pack.
“Can I have one? I want to try it.”
“…Do what you want.”
“Thanks, then I won’t hold back.”
Twisting off the cap and slurping the contents, Eve’s face paled almost instantly. Choking, she spat out the jelly in disgust.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“What is this? It’s absolutely vile!”
“Figured as much.”
“You… you knew it was disgusting, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“…You’ve got some nerve, you know that?”
The pack contained a colorless, translucent, semi-solid jelly packed with the calories and nutrients needed for survival. Preservable for years, resistant to degradation in harsh environments, and infused with symbiotic nanomachines to break down accumulated bodily toxins, it was the staple of ruin scavengers. It also tasted like a wretched mix of muddy water and rusted iron.
Knowing this, Danan had let Eve try it anyway. The corner of his mouth twitched upward as he chuckled softly, stabbing a tube into the rejected jelly pack.
“Surprising,” he muttered.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Trying to get back at me? You’re a real piece of work, Danan.”
“Takes one to know one, doesn’t it, Eve?”
“Don’t lump me in with you. We’re not the same.” With a sharp retort, the girl pressed her silver wings close to her body and strode into the dimly lit corridor.
“Follow me,” she called.
“Where are you going?”
“Having just one arm must be inconvenient, right? I’ll get you a new one.”
“…”
“No need to be so wary. I’ll fit you with a mechanical arm better than the last one. If you don’t want it, just say so. It’d save me the trouble.”
“…No, I need it. Lead the way, Eve.”
“You could’ve just been honest from the start. This way, come on.”
Danan followed Eve as she stepped into the darkness without raising a weapon. His grip tightened unconsciously on his pistol, relying on the goggles’ night-vision to navigate. But something felt off.
The visibility seemed unusually clear. His right eye, unassisted by the night-vision, seemed to have adapted to the dark, as if he’d gained natural night vision.
That’s strange, he thought, rubbing his eye. Then he noticed the numbers displayed on the lens covering his left eye and froze in shock.
The toxin levels were double—no, twenty times—those on the surface. Even the nanomachines in the jelly couldn’t break down this amount. His eyes widened as he halted.
“Hey,” he called out.
“What?” Eve replied.
“With these toxin levels… am I already done for?”
“Oh, that? No need to worry.”
“Why not?!”
“A body adapted to Lumina wouldn’t rot away from toxins this weak. For a normal person, sure—three minutes and they’d be past rotting, reduced to dust. But you’re different, Danan.”
That’s why I can maintain a human form, isn’t it? She spun around, flaunting her body with a twirl, peering up at Danan’s skeptical face with a coy glance.
“…”
The Lumina worms… a colony of thread-like parasites nesting in his heart.
“…What are the Lumina worms, really?”
“Lumina is Lumina. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Tell me what you know—”
“You don’t need to know. Consider yourself lucky, Danan.”
Cutting off the conversation as if it were truly unnecessary, Eve moved ahead, leaving Danan behind. She fixed her gaze on a door with an electronic lock at the end of the corridor. Spreading her silver wings, she plugged into the security panel’s socket, attempting to force the lock open.
“Eve,” Danan said.
“Be quiet for a second. My brain’s frying here.”
One second, two, three… A harsh electronic screech erupted from the terminal, followed by a blaring alarm echoing through the corridor.
“…”
“What?” Eve snapped.
“Did you just hack it?”
“…”
“I’ll take your silence as a yes. But, Eve… this is incredibly dangerous. Enemies will be here in seconds.”
“Probably.”
“‘Probably’?! Are you insane?!”
“The mechanical arm you need is on the other side of this door. What else was I supposed to do? I’m not exactly a hacking expert. That was more Canaan’s—”
Her words were cut off as a shadow flickered in the opposite corridor.
“Eve, can you relock the door?”
“Fifty-fifty chance.”
“…Why would you even try a forced unlock with those odds? Are you an idiot?”
The flickering shadow coalesced into the form of a beast, its blood-red eyes locking onto them.
“Facility Intrusion Weapon, Type C, Class 1,” Eve said.
“What?”
“In terms you’d understand… a Shadow Wolf. An experimental creature gone feral, you could say.”
Shadow Wolf… a ravenous beast dwelling in the ruins’ depths. A hermaphroditic humanoid creature that devoured organic and inorganic matter indiscriminately, driven by an insatiable hunger. Spotting Danan and Eve, it let out a deafening roar.
“Eve, we should retreat into the room. Do we have anything that can kill a Shadow Wolf?”
“It’s just a small fry, Danan. Not even a threat. What we should be wary of—”
—is coming from somewhere else. Before she finished, Eve’s silver wings flashed, severing the beast’s head and piercing its heart. The feathers coating her wings exploded the creature into pieces.
“…”
“Let’s head inside. Time’s wasting.”
Shaking off the black blood staining her wings, Eve stepped into the room as the electronic lock disengaged. Danan followed, glancing at the Shadow Wolf’s corpse before operating the security panel to seal the door behind them.
