Becoming The Strongest Using My Would-You-Rather System!-Chapter 53 - Exhausted

Theo raised his hand, shielding his eyes from the blinding light as dust and debris were thrown into the air.

The lightning beam slowly faded away, some stray electricity still crackling over the ground.

For a moment, everything went silent.

Theo waved the dust away, coughing.

Just then, a sharp pain from his core shot through his chest.

’’Ugh,’’ he muttered, stumbling. ’’I’m really all out now...’’

His eyes remained fixed in front of him, his heart pounding violently in his chest.

’It couldn’t have dodged that, right?’

The dust slowly began to settle under his gaze.

Bit by bit, the battlefield cleared up, finally revealing a massive crater carved into the ground.

Its edges were still glowing red, heat radiating off them while thin trails of smoke curled into the air.

Theo’s breathing slowed slightly just from looking at it.

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

At the very center of the crater... laid a single familiar item.

’’Is that...?’’ he mumbled. ’’My umbrella?’’

It looked dusty from here, but didn’t seem to be damaged in any way.

For a moment, his gaze lingered on it.

Finally, his eyes went up, immediately freezing in place.

The Blue Mane Wolf stood at the opposite side of the crater.

Or rather... what remained of it.

Its head and most of its front were simply gone.

The rest of its body had been scorched black, parts of it still faintly glowing as heat radiated off the remains.

’’It’s dead...’’ Theo muttered.

Only after saying that did his body finally start to relax a little.

The tension and adrenaline that had kept him going all this time disappeared all at once.

Faint tremors ran through his body, his legs nearly giving out under him.

He turned to look back for a moment.

’Owen...’

His eyes grew blurry as his expression tightened.

Even with the exhaustion weighing him down, he forced his body to move towards the stone sphere.

As he got closer, his gaze locked onto Iris, who’d already started running toward him.

"Theo!" she called out, her voice tense.

He didn’t answer.

His last bits of focus had already shifted past her to the stone sphere.

As he got closer, he noticed half of it had crumbled away on the opposite side.

Iris reached him a second later, grabbing his arm and pulling it over her shoulder to keep him upright.

Theo barely reacted to her, his breathing stopping for a moment as he looked ahead.

There, a familiar figure sat upright.

Right beside Emma.

’He’s... alive...’

Finally, everything that had been holding him back disappeared.

The immense physical, mental, and mana exhaustion came together, his legs going limp as the world spun around him.

’’Theo—!’’ Iris’s voice rang out, her grip tightening around him.

Finally, his body gave out completely as his vision went dark.

Everything went completely quiet.

And he lost consciousness completely.

Like that, an unknown amount of time passed by in silence.

...

After what felt like hours, Theo’s eyes twitched.

’’Ugh,’’ he let out.

An immense headache flared through his head.

He raised a hand, rubbing his temples as he slowly woke up.

His vision was still a little blurry, the world around him taking a few seconds to settle.

’’Man...’’ he muttered as the pain only grew worse.

It wasn’t just his head that hurt now.

His arm and side felt just as bad, if not a little worse.

’I want to sleep a little more,’ he thought, still a little dazed. ’Maybe I should just lie down a few minutes longer.’

That’s when a familiar voice rang out behind him.

’’Hey!’’ he said. ’’You’re finally awake.’’

Theo raised a hand, lying silently for a few seconds.

That’s when his eyes snapped open as he immediately turned to look behind him.

There, someone sat on a pile of stone, grinning as he scratched the back of his head.

’’...Owen?’’ he mumbled, his voice barely a whisper.

’’Yup,’’ Owen responded, nodding. ’’I’m still alive and well.’’

Theo stared at him for a moment, his final memories before his collapse flashing through his mind.

Finally, he let out a deep sigh of relief and leaned back slightly.

’’That’s good...’’

For a moment, he was quiet.

His eyes remained on the shiny crystal ceiling above him.

Then his gaze lowered again, taking in the surroundings.

He noticed both Emma and Owen sitting on a pair of tree stumps, one glancing through a batch of papers while the other seemed completely lost in his own thoughts.

’’Wait,’’ he muttered, his voice hoarse. ’’Where... is Iris?’’

Owen snapped out of his thoughts and turned to him with a smile.

’’Your lover has gone to the entrance in order to get help,’’ he said, pausing for a moment.

’’It should be about eight hours since she left now.’’

Theo’s eyes widened.

’’What?’’ he nearly shouted, coughing immediately after.

A sharp pain shot through his chest, forcing him to hunch forward slightly.

Owen nodded slowly, his grin disappearing briefly.

’’There was no other choice,’’ he said, glancing down. ’’Em can’t walk, you were out cold and I... have an entirely different problem.’’

Hearing that, Theo fell silent as he stared at his best friend.

Then his gaze shifted to Emma, who had grown pretty pale from the severe injury on her leg.

’’Fair,’’ he said, his voice trailing off.

As much as he hated the idea of Iris going through the forest by herself, it didn’t seem like there was another way.

With how severely injured everyone was, it would’ve been a death sentence if they had just waited there.

’She should be fine either way,’ he thought, sliding down on the ground again. ’The dungeon itself was never dangerous.’

Theo let out a soft breath, his gaze drifting to the shiny blue crystals in the ceiling.

For a moment, everything fell still again.

So many crazy things had happened over the past day that it was hard to even think about all of it.

Especially the crazy maniac hiding out here.

’He said he was from... Calamity Covenant,’ Theo thought, his eyes narrowing briefly. ’I’ll have to get that reported as soon as possible.’