Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 41 Don’t Shoot Me Again

What the hell is this feeling?

Magnus had never felt anything like it in his life. His body wanted to move forward, yet his legs veered right on their own, which led to him suddenly kneeling - right in front of Charlotte.

Charlotte was shocked for a second, then ran over to help him up. She quickly sent two girls to find Emily. "Are you okay? You - "

"I’m fine," Magnus muttered, brushing her off and struggling to his feet, leaning on Charlotte’s arm. He slowly turned his head to the right -

A meteorite.

Magnus’s heart skipped. Some crazy idea hit him - that rock... it was calling to him. As if it had a soul, as if it were whispering to him.

Sweat dripped from his forehead into the helmet. He took two deep breaths while Emily ran up with a dozen other female team members, each still holding a shovel. They thought maybe they’d run into a rat beast or something.

"Emily, give me a shovel." He took it quickly. "Emily, Charlotte - you two..."

He paused again. Memories - flashes of the Ice Regiment firing at him all at once back in the day - rushed through his mind.

"You have to promise me..." Magnus turned, locking eyes with Emily and Charlotte. His voice was low, but steady. "No matter what happens in a bit, you can’t shoot me again. Got it?"

Shoot you again?

Everyone looked at each other, confused. Shoot him again? What was that supposed to mean?

"Magnus, what’s going on with you?" Emily frowned, her expression uneasy.

"Just promise me!" His chest tightened - like he was back at that moment between life and death.

"I... I promise. I won’t shoot..." Emily looked flustered, then quickly turned to yell, "Everyone, lower your weapons. Now!"

Charlotte grabbed Magnus’s shoulders, shaking him. "Captain! What the hell are you doing? Do you even know what you’re saying?"

"Joyce! Taylor!" Magnus shouted, ignoring her completely. His voice was tense. The two girls behind Emily jumped in surprise.

He kept yelling, "You two! Stay back! Go do something else. Don’t come near me! Stay away!"

In his last life, Joyce Westwood and Taylor had been among the last ones to shoot at him. Those scenes were burned into his memory.

"Liana, you too! Don’t come any closer!"

He spotted Liana approaching quickly and snapped at her. She stopped short, blinking, confused, frozen in place.

What was going on?

The dozen or so girls around him were all stunned, watching him wide-eyed.

This - this was his biggest secret. The one thing he could never wrap his head around. He knew he probably looked unhinged right now, like someone had lost his mind... and honestly, he felt it.

His thoughts were a mess. Chaos.

He took two deep breaths. The helmet gave him no air. Emily and the others were staring, worried, hearing his gasping breaths. Their unease deepened.

Magnus looked around at them all, then pointed to the meteorite off to the right.

"I - I need to dig that thing out. You guys... help move the dirt, that’s all..."

Just digging the meteorite? No one could figure it out, but they all nodded quickly, though their suspicion only deepened...

The meteorite didn’t look special. Not too big either - around seven or eight meters tall, smaller than average. Magnus stared at it for a while, eyes sharp as blades. Spotting a cracked spot, he jumped in and began digging, one shovel after another.

Ten minutes later, one of the girls spoke up carefully, "M-Magnus... I found a crystal..."

Magnus was already half inside the rock. He climbed out, looked over. Everyone had stopped what they were doing, eyes fixed on him. He gave a silent nod, said nothing, then turned around and kept digging.

Twenty minutes passed. They’d pulled fifteen crystals from the meteorite - at least triple the usual yield.

An hour in, Magnus had dug out thirty-seven crystals all by himself when Emily suddenly shouted from outside, "Magnus! Come out quick! There’s a pure white one here!"

Pure white? A Life Crystal?

Magnus climbed out fast, eyes locking onto the egg-sized, snow-white crystal in Emily’s hands.

It really was a Life Crystal. No mistaking that.

Emily frowned. "Why’s there a white one? You only mentioned three kinds earlier - Fire, Water, Metal. What’s with this white one?"

"I... I’m not sure either. I’ll take a look tonight." Magnus kept his tone vague, slipping the Life Crystal into his pocket. If they really turned on him later... this thing would be his lifeline.

Why hadn’t he told them about Life Crystals? Too messy.

The Ice Regiment was bound to lose people - maybe even today. Then came the question: who gets saved?

Every regular Awakened? Students from the medical academy? The ladies from Grace’s dance club? If you saved everyone, you’d run out fast.

No one wanted their people to die. After Sarah left him, Magnus didn’t think he could handle that pain again.

If he told them what the Life Crystal could do and someone died, and he didn’t use it? That’d be betrayal in their eyes.

So, the fewer people who knew, the better.

Was the Life Crystal only for his circle? Not necessarily. If someone contributed big to the team, even if Magnus didn’t know them well, he’d still use it.

But when the time came, he’d have to decide where that line was.

"Ah - !" another girl gasped just as Magnus was heading back into the meteorite. He stopped and turned, mouth slowly falling open.

"There’s more... they’re all like this!" the girl cried out.

Five more Life Crystals. A single scoop of dirt had revealed five identical ones.

None of them knew what Life Crystals really were, or how rare. All they saw was a strange coincidence - so many white crystals in one place. Some even started to wonder... maybe they weren’t worth much after all.