Ren walked through the broken landscape, carrying Kyouka in his arms. As always the first floor of the dungeon was silent now, eerily so. The ground was cracked, and black smoke rose from distant craters.
Not even the sound of trees echoed anymore. It felt like walking through the aftermath of a storm that had erased everything.
He looked down at Kyouka's pale face. Her breathing was shallow, her armor cracked, and her hand limply hung at her side. Her once fierce eyes were closed.
"Hang on," he muttered quietly. "We're almost out."
The weight in his arms wasn't what bothered him. It was the thought that she might never fight again. Kyouka had dreamed of becoming one of the strongest hunters—someone who would carve her name among legends. But now, looking at the wounds and how deadly they were, Ren could already tell. She would struggle to even walk properly again.
It was truly a miracle how she could even breathe seeing her current status.
