Inside the ruined building, Ethan still sat motionless beneath the shade formed by the collapsed section of roof.

Outside the broken window, the dense vines slowly stirred in the gray wind. Farther out, the Anomalous Coordinates kept shifting without end. A street swallowed by the forest could suddenly warp, revealing a stretch of snow-covered stone bridge. An old concrete wall could turn in the blink of an eye into the lower half of an unfamiliar tower. Everything was like a dead city torn apart by countless different worlds and then stitched back together with rotting threads.

But Ethan no longer had much energy to observe those changes.

His gaze rested on his left arm.

The thin layer of flame Laira had left still covered the wound. It was like a dark red seal, trying to stop the purple-black energy inside from continuing to spread. But the effect wasn’t perfect. Now and then, beneath the burned-black skin, a very small purple-black spark would flicker. It didn’t blaze up violently, nor did it burn like an ordinary flame. It only smoldered, like an ember buried deep in ashes, quietly waiting for a wind to flare back up.

A purple-black spark suddenly lit up near his elbow.

Ethan’s body immediately tensed up.

The burning pain shot through his bones and marrow, almost making him lose his breath. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He gritted his teeth, using his right hand to grip the edge of his shirt, forcing himself not to make too loud a sound.

It hurt.

It hurt a lot.

It wasn’t just the sensation of flesh being burned. That flame seemed to be eating into his energy channels, biting bit by bit into his newly opened Heaven’s Gate, then dragging the pain to spread straight to his soul. Without Laira’s flame continuously suppressing it, Ethan wasn’t even sure whether he could have stayed conscious until now.

Ethan let out a heavy breath.

"Still spreading."

He wasn’t saying it for anyone to hear.

Laira had left the building to clear out the monsters drawn near. Before going, she had left an extremely thin layer of flame on his wound, and had used [The Sun-Fire Divine Seal] to enhance the power of that flame. In theory, with Laira’s Crimson Dragon bloodline and the effect from the Divine Seal, most fire-element energy or low-tier corrupted energy should have been burned clean.

But the Void Fire on Ethan’s arm didn’t vanish.

It was only forced down.

Buried deeper.

Waiting for a chance to keep eroding.

Ethan opened the information panel before him.

The faint screen of light appeared in midair. In the upper corner, the communication icon with Aurora Academy was still blinking. Before, the signal had always been so weak it was nearly unusable, but at least it still existed. As long as he could find an area with more stable space, the Academy could still lock the coordinates and send supplies here.

That wasn’t a certain hope.

But it was still hope.

Ethan looked at that blinking blue dot of light.

Right after, the blue dot suddenly turned red.

[Transmission line fluctuating.]

[Checking signal source.]

[Check failed.]

The red dot blinked three times.

Then, it turned black.

Not a loss of signal due to unstable space.

Not temporary interference.

But going out.

Completely out.

A cold notification appeared before Ethan.

[Contact with Aurora Academy has been severed.]

[Unable to send positioning.]

[Unable to receive supplies.]

[Unable to confirm external support status.]

The space around him suddenly turned quiet.

Ethan looked at the notification before him for a long while.

The pain in his left arm was still burning. The roars of monsters in the distance still rang out in waves. The Anomalous Coordinates could still change at any moment. But in that instant, all the sounds seemed to be drawn very far away.

The Academy had lost contact with him.

No.

More precisely, the transmission line had been cut.

Ethan didn’t know what had happened outside. He didn’t know whether Headmaster Cole was still trying to help him. He didn’t know who had made the final decision either. But the result was placed before him.

He had been left behind.

Alone.

In the Anomalous Coordinates.

Ethan slowly lowered his head.

The corner of his mouth curled up slightly, but that was in no way a smile.

"It’s still like this, is it?"

He had once thought that after opening a Mythic rank Partner, this world would at least look at him with different eyes. He had once thought that after passing the Abyss Tower, receiving a rank S Heaven’s Gate and a rank S special item, he could finally escape the years of being looked down on, abandoned, pushed to the margins of the Ashford family.

But now, when he had truly fallen into danger, the result wasn’t much different.

He was still cast aside.

Just like many years ago, when Selene used a gentle expression to say he didn’t need to push himself too hard. Just like Ryan standing before the crowd calling him brother, but every word meant to stomp him lower. Just like the people of the Ashford family who knew clearly he had to earn his own tuition, but never once truly reached out to pull him up.

Power.

Talent.

A Partner.

All those things made people pay attention.

But they didn’t necessarily make people truly stand on his side.

A spark of Void Fire flared up again on his left arm.

Ethan clenched his teeth.

The burned-black flesh around his elbow developed a few more small cracks. The purple-black glow spread up toward his upper arm along the cracks, like a venomous insect crawling beneath the skin. The intense pain made Ethan’s vision momentarily go dark. He braced his right hand against the ground, his nails nearly clawing through the rotted concrete.

Despair was meaningless.

Disappointment was meaningless too.

If he died here, the people who abandoned him would just use one word, "shame," to end everything.

Ethan drew in a trembling breath.

Then, he forced himself to raise his head.

"It’s a good thing I never truly believed in them."

His voice was very hoarse.

But his gaze gradually steadied again.

He still had Laira.

Still had [The Eye of Truth].

Still had a Heaven’s Gate that could absorb raw energy crystals.

More importantly, after leveling up to Black Iron tier 2, he had sensed something very clearly. The stronger his body, the better his ability to resist the Void Fire. Before, just one spark of purple-black flame spreading was enough to nearly make him lose consciousness. But now, even though it still hurt to the point of difficulty breathing, he could at least stay conscious, could still think, could still control the Heaven’s Gate within his body.

That proved one possibility.

Leveling up didn’t only give him the strength to defend himself.

Leveling up could also make his body stronger, so that he himself could suppress the Void Fire.

If he grew stronger, Laira would grow stronger too through the Partner bond.

Then, her flame would also grow stronger.

His power rose.

Laira’s power rose.

The ability to suppress the Void Fire rose too.

This might be the only path of survival left.

Outside, a low, deep explosion suddenly rang out.

Boom!

A streak of red flame swept across the street covered in vines. The monster’s roar fell silent. Right after, a tall figure passed through the broken window, landing in the room with a motion so light it almost made no sound.

Laira had returned.

Her long red hair was a little messy. There were a few streaks of gray dust on her white dress, but no wounds. Behind her, more than forty energy crystals were being held suspended in midair by a ring of flame. Most were a dull gray, only the size of a bean. A few others were a little larger, a pale gray-green, their energy fluctuations clearly stronger too.

Rank F.

And a few rank E.

But Laira’s gaze held no joy at all.

The moment she stepped in, she saw the purple-black glow spreading up Ethan’s arm.

Laira’s expression immediately changed.

"Ethan!"

She nearly appeared before him in the blink of an eye.

The energy crystals behind her fell to the ground, giving off a continuous clattering sound. Laira paid them no attention at all. She knelt on one knee before Ethan, her body over two meters tall bending down, using both hands to hold him to her chest.

Before Ethan could say anything, the dark red flame had blazed up from the back of Laira’s right hand.

The sun seal of [The Sun-Fire Divine Seal] blazed bright.

Laira placed her hand above Ethan’s injured arm, but didn’t directly touch it. Her flame turned into thin threads, slowly coiling around the spreading purple-black streaks. Each time the red flame touched the Void Fire, a very faint hiss rang out in the air, like something invisible was being burned away.

Ethan gritted his teeth, his whole body trembling.

Laira held him tighter.

Laira said: "Ethan, look at me. Don’t look at the wound. Look at me."

Ethan tried to lift his eyes.

He saw Laira’s amber-red eyes.

In them was fire.

Worry.

Anger.

And also a very deep fear she couldn’t fully hide.

Ethan said hoarsely: "You got back faster than I expected."

Laira looked at him with a gaze both pained and angry. "I felt you getting more pain. I said to call me if something happened."

Ethan replied: "I called for you in my heart."

Laira froze for a brief moment.

If this were a normal situation, she might have laughed at that line.

But right now, she couldn’t laugh at all.

The red flame around her hand grew even more stable. Under the empowerment of [The Sun-Fire Divine Seal], each thread of flame was like miniature sunlight, continuously forcing the smoldering Void Fire to retreat. The pain on Ethan’s arm eased a little, but it was only eased, not gone.

Laira said in a low voice: "This thing is still alive."

Ethan nodded very faintly. "It’s like a kind of mark. Just burning the outside isn’t enough."

Laira raised her head to look at him. "Then what do we do?"

Ethan looked at the energy crystals scattered across the ground.

"I absorb them."

Laira immediately understood his meaning.

But her expression still didn’t improve. "In this condition?"

Ethan replied: "Precisely because of this condition."

He used his right hand to pick up a rank F crystal. The motion wasn’t fast, but very firm. "I’m not absorbing them just so I can defend myself next time. I need to level up so my body grows stronger, to use my own body to force the Void Fire down. At the same time, if I grow stronger, you’ll grow stronger too."

Laira bit her lip.

Ethan looked at her, his voice hoarse but clear: "Laira, this isn’t a meaningless reckless choice. This is the only way that has a chance of saving me right now."

Laira was silent for a long while.

Then, she lowered her head, pressing her forehead against Ethan’s.

"Alright." Her voice trembled very faintly. "But if you can’t bear it, I’ll stop you."

Ethan said: "Alright."

He didn’t say more.

The Heaven’s Gate within his body slowly opened.

The rank F crystal in Ethan’s right hand immediately trembled. The gray-purple energy was drawn out, turning into a small stream of gas entering his body. Almost at the same time, the Void Fire on his left arm seemed to sense something, immediately flaring up more violently.

"Ugh..."

Ethan gritted his teeth.

Laira immediately strengthened her flame.

Her red flame coiled around his arm, forcing the purple-black glow down. But the collision between the two flames made Ethan hurt so much his back arched. Cold sweat ran down his temples. His breathing turned rapid.

However, he didn’t stop.

The first crystal dissolved.

The second crystal was absorbed.

Then the third crystal.

Streams of energy poured into the Heaven’s Gate. The Void impurities in the crystals were crushed, part of them pushed out, a small part forcibly converted by the Heaven’s Gate into usable energy. That energy not only flowed into Ethan’s body, but also transmitted to Laira through the Partner bond.

Laira’s aura rose faintly.

The red flame around her hand also grew a little brighter.

Ethan sensed it very clearly.

His idea was right.

The stronger he was, the stronger Laira was.

The stronger Laira was, the more her flame could suppress the Void Fire.

And when his body grew stronger, he could also resist the erosion better himself.

The twelfth crystal shattered in his palm.

A small burst of air pressure blazed up around Ethan.

[Congratulations on leveling up successfully.]

[Level: Black Iron tier 3.]

[Congratulations to Laira on leveling up successfully.]

[Level: Black Iron tier 3.]

The moment he stepped into Black Iron tier 3, Ethan felt his body was like it had been forged anew.

His bones became harder.

His muscles were washed clean by the new stream of energy.

The energy channels in his body expanded a little further.

More importantly, the Void Fire crawling up toward his upper arm suddenly halted.

The purple-black glow was still there.

The pain was still there.

But the speed of erosion had slowed compared to before.

Ethan opened his eyes, a cold glint appearing in his bloodshot eyes.

"It works."

Laira immediately looked at him. "Really?"

Ethan replied hoarsely: "Yeah. Keep going."