TBATE | GREY x CAERA - A Fanfiction

Chapter 24

CAERA DENOIR POV:

"Regis! Can you activate the relic portal?" I asked the shadow wolf, my tone urgent, as I tried to pull Grey who was unconscious, away from the deteriorating zone.

"No, ma'am!" Regis shouted out, trying to activate the relic he had gotten from the Djinn child.

"Are you seriously trying to activate that thing right now?" I hissed, my eyes glaring at the stupid wolf.

Regis flinched back, his steps coming to an halt. "Why? Do you have something else that we can do now?" He asked in a sarcastic tone, despite the danger we were in.

I grunted loudly, my mind muddled with endless thoughts and possibilities, to try and get out of this zone. But there wasn't much I can do by myself.

Grey had brought us into this specific zone, from the relic-map he had obtained, to utilise the aether-rich atmosphere.

The things he does for that stone...I couldn't help but be amazed at his decisiveness.

After he had initially absorbed the atmospheric aether, we had found an even better source, or rather, Grey found it. An aether source. But little did we knew that the very thing he had absorbed, had kept this zone intact. Stable.

Once Grey finished absorbing the aether from the stone dais that contained the aether source, the zone started to tremble violently and soon the landscape, the very reality, started to crumble away, and turn into motes of purple light—aether.

Coming back to reality, I slapped Grey's cheeks hard enough to turn it red. Yet, he showed no movement. "Why isn't he waking up?!" I asked in desperation, my eyes scanning the clouds of aether dust as they slowly kept nearing our position, eating away everything in its path. Above me, the once pinky sky, shattered like a glass canvas, into a million pieces not falling down but turning into motes of purple, carried away by the nonexistent wind.

Anything and everything that the purple particles touched, broke. Withered. Reality became dull and lifeless. My breath constricted, while my mind spun around to find a way, a solution to escape this deathly hollow.

We were at the final leg, nowhere else to go. Between us and the portal stood a wide lake made of some substance that is definitely not water. Thus, my hesitation to bring myself and the unconscious Grey across to reach the portal.

If Grey was awake we could God Step. I thought in despair.

"Relax, will you? Your boyfriend is just knocked out. He's going to be alright!" Regis commented.

"W-What...b-but—can't you give him your aether to wake him up?" I asked back, keeping my face from turning red at his words.

Regis shook his vulpine head, too relaxed to even be here. "That's not the problem. Princess here has created a new layer in his aether core. Its impact to his aether veins and channels are too big for a change, hence he's...well, let's just say that he's rebooting. Best thing we can do is wait!"

My brows furrowed at his words. "If we wait even for five minutes, we'll be dead, Regis. Maybe you don't understand that since you can just float away. But—what about Grey and me!?"

Regis rolled his eyes, not caring even a bit about what I said. He kept using his relic to try and transform into his new humanoid form. "Tch. If I can get a human body maybe I can use the relic—"

Ignoring his useless grumbling, I looked at the portal on the opposite side, and then back at the approaching doom. Gritting my teeth, I spoke. "Fine! If you won't do anything useful then I will."

"I'm sorry Grey, but I need you." I muttered, while a ball of black flames manifested on my palm. The soulfire floated wistfully, ready to devour, eat away anything it could latch on. "Please wake up my love". Grabbing his unconscious hand inside mine, I let the soulfire touch his skin; the dark flames leapt off of my palms, latching onto Grey's hand. His body shook, my heart fluttered as I caressed his soft skin and tightened my hold. Controlling the flames, my fingers trembled in fear—too afraid to let anything bad happen to him.