Solflare: The Painter's Secret-Chapter 100: You Were Sent Here to Die

Leon’s throat tightened as his gaze dropped to Prince’s right hand. Between the lieutenant’s fingers was a still-glimmering husk of one of the larger creatures.

"The D-ranked threats have been neutralised for now," Prince stated in a flat voice. He sighed and dropped the husk.

Thud.

Leon’s throat became full of unspoken words, and when he tried to spill them out, his wristband chimed, drawing his attention.

Ding! Ding! Ting!

[RE-ROUTING. PROCEED TO DESIGNATED COORDINATES.]

[PRIORITY: SURVIVAL PROTOCOL 7]

New coordinates leading away from the bunker flashed before his eyes as he swallowed hard.

Lieutenant Prince gasped shallowly as he turned and locked eyes with Leon. "This way."

He turned and began moving without taking a glance back.

Leon’s steps became heavy, his stomach dull, as he followed. He stumbled on gravel and debris, causing his steps to become uneven.

But the lieutenant’s own left no trace of hesitation.

Little by little, jagged stones, obsidian ridges, and blasted trees with black ichor on them came into view. The air thickened and grew hot, carrying the taste of sulfur and baked earth.

’Something is not right?’ Leon squeezed his eyes as he focused on the walls of the canyons that seemed to shift subtly in the poor light.

Sweat ran in rivulets down Leon’s spine as he saw some parts of the large stone surfaces glistening as if alive.

Hisssss!

A slow vibration thrummed up through Leon’s boots as the ground began to hum.

"Stop!" The lieutenant halted and gestured in a sudden pause at Leon. He tilted his head to the left, his ears twitching, eyes closed, and skin crumpling slightly.

He cracked his eyes open. Then, without a word, he pointed a finger at a vast, rounded formation of rocks ahead of them.

As Leon neared the lieutenant, the rocks rose and fell.

Cruck. Crunch. Slam.

Simultaneously, air gushed out from the stone and the ground. A slit-pupiled eye, larger than Leon’s hand, appeared half-lidded, its surface reflecting a sickly green glow.

"WHAT IS THAT?" Leon asked, his mouth forgetting how to close, his heart heaving.

"Go back!" the lieutenant screamed, gesturing at Leon in a speeding sequence.

In a blink, towers of bone and stone spines jutted skyward from the moving stone formation. Heat shimmered off vents along its side with massive exhales, causing the air to warp in waves.

KRACK – BA-BOOM!

The sky rumbled, followed by acid rain that made smoke evaporate from the ground as the drops landed one after another.

"Ouuuch! Ouuuuch! Ouuuuuch!" Leon screamed, paddling the droplets from his body. He held his breath and stopped moving as the blinking eye stopped and remained fixed in his direction.

He felt his soul leaving his body when the eye turned from him to the lieutenant.

"Hhhheww," he exhaled, closing his eyes.

Prince moved, his body angling with perfect precision as his boots landed silently, dodging the creature’s gaze.

Leon’s wide eyes swiftly drifted to all the footprints of the lieutenant, his mind preparing to take a leap.

Every nerve in his body burned as he followed, placing his foot on the paces he scanned. Unluckily, two stones slipped from beneath his boots as he stretched his left leg to the next step.

A low thrum seeped into the stone, then broke apart into a rising tide of skittering, clicking, and a high-pitched chittering sound.

Wind rushed through the canyon, carrying dust that stung Leon’s eyes. Shadows twisted like phantoms across the walls as he managed to move through the low thrums.

A sparse tree along the ridges swayed and groaned, its shape stretching and warping against the pale rock, as if the land itself waited for Leon’s boots to move.

The lieutenant climbed a jagged obsidian rock, cleared the dust from his body, then dropped low and signalled to Leon.

’What?!’ A soft gust of air escaped from Leon’s mouth and nose as he saw where the lieutenant now stood.

Leon dragged himself up on his belly, his chest scraping and fingers biting into the glassy stone until the skin burned.

He rolled onto his back as he reached the height the lieutenant stood. "Haaa," he breathed, eyes closed, chest rising and falling.

"Get up and move before the B-rank Leviathan starts coming after us."

Leon cracked his eyes open and stood up abruptly. "B-ranked?!" His eyes shifted from the lieutenant to the direction where he had seen the eye.

Reach B-rank before twenty-five.

The lizard-lady’s words replayed in his mind, followed by her pleading face in his vision.

He shook his head, brushed the memories and faces from his mind, then peered over the crest. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Creatures clawed their way from viscous pools, shaking off slime. They screeched their cries before joining the swarm already filling the ground and sky.

Hahaha!

The lieutenant laughed, shaking his head. "These authorities." He turned a saddened expression toward Leon. "I pity you."

"Why?" Leon asked, confusion filling his voice.

"You weren’t sent here as an asset," the lieutenant said and paused. He wiped the back of his left arm across his face, clearing the drops of tears that tried to trace down his cheeks.

"You were sent here to die, boy." He sighed heavily, turned his gaze to the swarm, and smiled.

’Sent here to die?’ Leon thought, his mind reeling at the last statement of Hu Qing. The academy’s simulations were good, but compared to the chaos of the Shattered Lands... it is the ultimate choice. It will force him to master himself or be unmade by what he contains.

Leon stumbled two steps back, the words ’Ultimate choice’ and ’Unmade’ slamming into the back of his skull.

"Don’t fear," the lieutenant moved two steps toward Leon, placed a heavy palm on his shoulder, then sighed.

"Although everyone wants you dead, including me," he paused, closed his eyes, tilted his gaze to the swarm, then cracked them open.

"You don’t deserve to die in this place." He tilted his gaze back to Leon, then grinned. "I will protect you when you fall."

Fear soured in Leon’s throat so sharply that he pushed himself to the right, then gagged. He wiped his mouth clean with the back of his left arm and lifted a pale face toward the lieutenant.

"Are we to fight them?" He pointed at the endless tide.

The lieutenant’s expression changed instantly. "We move now! Believe in yourself."

Leon stood still, eyes fixed on the dust swirling up behind the lieutenant, the words ’Believe in yourself’ replaying in an endless loop in his mind.