14 : Victory is Bitter

Malakai knelt beside the child — small, trembling, eyes wide and red from crying.

She didn't scream. She didn't beg.

Her grief was quieter than that — a suffocating weight clinging to the air like ash.

She had watched her mother die moments ago.

Malakai stared at her. Frozen.

His hands hovered uselessly — unfamiliar with comfort, foreign to kindness.

He told himself it didn't matter. That he didn't care.

But that was a lie.

He had never known this kind of touch.

No warmth when he cried. No arms to hide in. Only silence. Only cold.

So he had become something distant. Something unreachable.

And yet now…

Now they looked to him. The Resonant. The protector.

The one who was supposed to make it better.

He didn't speak.

Instead, he reached out — slow, unsure — and rested a hand on her shoulder.

Then closed his eyes.

Velnix stirred.

A shimmer of black-blue energy passed between them, faint but focused.

The wound on her knee — shallow, bleeding — began to fade.

Not heal. Transfer.

Pain unspoken flowed into him, threading beneath his skin like wire.

It was minor. But it was hers. And now it wasn't.

She gasped, looking down at her leg. Then up at him.

Malakai met her eyes.

"It's okay , you'll feel better now" he said softly.

It wasn't much. But it was something.

And maybe… maybe it would be enough.

Kai tightened the bandage around his leg and kept moving.

By now, pulley systems had been rigged to haul the injured up to ground level. GRARC officers and medics moved with practiced urgency, tending to civilians and stabilizing those still caught in shock. The air reeked of blood, scorched steel, and something older — something hollow.

He should've been finding the others.

But then he heard it.

"Hey, this guy's strange," a medic muttered. "I can't remember him when I look away."

There was a pause. "He's unconscious… but something's off."

Kai turned.

The figure on the stretcher looked half-phased — slumped, pale, almost forgettable by design. Yet something tugged at him. Not recognition. Not certainty. Just a gut instinct.

"…I'll take him," Kai said, stepping forward. "He's with us."

The medic hesitated. "You sure?"

Kai didn't answer. He just lifted the guy over his shoulder. The weight was familiar in a way he couldn't explain.

He moved toward the lift.

As it rose with a shuddering groan, he passed Neo and Daniel, both mid-conversation over a portable relay and damage reports. Neither noticed him at first.

"I'll meet you guys at the Gravehowl," Kai called out as he passed.

Neo looked up, brow furrowed. "Wait—Kai. Is that… Mattethis?"

Kai glanced back. "Mattethis? Oh… yeah. He's just unconscious. I had a feeling he was familiar."

Neo gave a slow nod, eyes narrowing.

"…Hard to forget someone like him. Even when you do."

Kai didn't reply. He just kept walking.

***

By the time we reached the Gravehowl, the haze of the battlefield still clung to our skin like ash.

Meredith was already there, blood dried across her cheek, her posture guarded. Forn stood beside her, watching the horizon like it might open up again. And behind them—seated against the rusted interior wall of the Gravehowl—was Professor Neil. Alive. Frail. But breathing.

The moment she saw me, Forn rushed forward and practically slammed into my chest, shoving her notepad up with urgency.

"You did great. You saved us all."

I stared at the words, then glanced at her—mud-smeared, exhausted, trembling with restraint. She meant it. Every letter. But…

"We're just lucky it couldn't split its consciousness between multiple bodies," I said, strapping Mattethis gently into one of the side seats. He was still out cold, breath shallow. "If it could've—if it figured that out—we'd all be corpses by now. Puppets."

Forn's eyes met mine. Her lips tightened. She didn't argue.

She only nodded, slow and deliberate, then scribbled something else.

"I didn't stand a chance. As soon as it touched me… I was gone. Just… gone. Like I became a passenger in my own body. Watching. Helpless."

Kai looked away for a moment, jaw clenched. He couldn't tell her it'd never happen again. Because it could.

"It was a good call—throwing Xae through the rift," she added aloud this time, voice soft, almost shaking. "But that thing... it survived being sealed. Even after we killed it." Meredith adds

"Demons don't die easy," I murmured. "Especially ones like that. I don't even think that was its true form. Just a piece of it. Like a finger pressing through the glass."

Silence followed. Heavy. Oppressive. Until the back ramp groaned and slammed shut.

I moved to the bench and secured Mattethis's belt, brushing a bit of ash from his shoulder. He muttered something incoherent, still half in that voided state. I gave his arm a firm squeeze.

"You're safe now," I said quietly.

Meredith offered me a tired look as I sat. "Professor Neil's… responsive. Not speaking much, but his mind seems intact. He just a little disorented "

"I'm fine thank you for saving us" Neil says he had glasses and blond hair

Kai nodded, rubbing his eyes with the back of his wrist. "He'll be here soon. They both will."

As if on cue, the front hatch hissed open. Heavy boots thudded against metal.

Daniel stepped in first, covered in blood that wasn't his. His hair was a mess, wild and charred at the tips, and his shirt had been torn down the side. But he grinned like he'd won a lottery.

Neo followed close behind, more reserved, the usual warmth in his voice dulled by fatigue. His sleeve was wrapped with a torn bandage, still soaked red beneath.

"Everyone accounted for?" Neo asked, scanning the group.

"Barely," Kai replied. "But yeah. We're all here."

Neo gave a short nod, stepping past the others toward the driver's seat.

"Then let's go," he said. "Get us out of this cursed zone."

Forn gave a thumbs-up from beside the control panel.

Daniel plopped into a seat and muttered, "Shotgun."

"You're not driving," Neo replied flatly.

"Didn't say I was," Daniel smirked. "Just means I'm not getting stuck next to Meredith again. She has judgmental aura syndrome."

Meredith arched a brow. "I only judge those deserving."

Kai chuckled—genuinely, for once—and leaned back as the Gravehowl's engine rumbled to life.

The nightmare wasn't over. But they'd survived it.

For now.