Gardenia's Heart-Chapter 112: Restless

Nia couldn’t understand where the rest of her body was.

“Is it the distance? No, even a separation across two continents has been tested—the survival rate stayed at one hundred percent... Is it the barrier?”

The unrelenting wind continued to scatter golden grains of sand over her body, but she ignored it all, pacing back and forth, restless.

“Lady Gardenia, are you hearing this?”

Her uninvited companion spoke once again. She walked close—too close for Nia’s liking under any other circumstance—but this wasn’t the time for complaints, so Nia simply ignored her.

That woman, Rhei, the guardian, knew about the artifact that allowed Nia to have a physical body. She had named it herself, after all—so she must know how to target it.

Nia had no countermeasures. She’d been careless.

“Shit. Bitch.”

Curses spilled from her lips, and she brought her thumb to her mouth, biting her nail.

Nia would never behave like this in front of her wife. But Lily wasn’t here.

Yes—Lily was nowhere in sight.

Lifting her crimson eyes from the sand, Nia scanned her surroundings. The glow of a sun she couldn’t find lit up the golden dunes stretching endlessly around her. In the distance, colossal wooden walls made it clear she was inside a massive tree.

When a vast shadow fell across her body, Nia looked up further—toward what must have been the "sky" of this place.

Directly above the golden dunes, dozens of small islands floated against all logic. Each one had a different shape and size, resembling solid clouds drifting across the desert sky.

“None of this makes any sense,” Nia muttered under her breath.

The metamorph had been in strange places before—frozen caves blanketed in snow, even the Elven Forest where navigation was impossible.

All of them were dangerous, feared places.

But in each of those chaotic environments, she had always had something to guide her forward.

“If Lily were here…”

Nia was certain—if Lily were with her, her wife would have figured this out by now.

Even without magical knowledge, Lily always found solutions that Nia could never come up with on her own—always able to find a way out.

“This is my fault...” Nia clenched her teeth again.

She should have studied more about barriers.

Controlling both her bodies had always been natural to her. With teleportation, she could always merge her bodies regardless of distance, so she never imagined someone might know enough to interfere with that spell to such an extent.

“It’s fine. I still have time.”

Ever since Nia began to understand her mind better, she had created protocols—mechanisms to help her respond to situations that threatened her.

She had realized her mind was an extremely complex element. By dividing each task into a different sector of her consciousness, she could handle multiple processes simultaneously.

Among those were sectors dedicated to spellcasting, environmental analysis, threat detection, non-threat analysis, spell diagnostics, dark mana manipulation, regular mana control, prediction and simulation, absorption, spell regulation—and most important of all: the one responsible for maintaining her wife's body.

Ever since discovering the existence of beings like Nox and Orlaith, Nia had restructured her mental sectors so that even if every one of them failed—whether from a mental attack or complete cognitive collapse—she would still use her remaining strength to keep Lily’s body functioning in any way possible, isolating that final sector until it too reached its limit.

The girl hadn't fallen into complete despair only because she could still feel her connection to Lily. That was a fact. If her current body was still alive, it meant Lily’s was too. This was the absolute survival protocol she had built into her mind.

The inner barrier of the tree was putting an immense strain precisely on the link between her two bodies. It wasn’t anything grand like Orlaith’s stigmas. In fact, it was so deceptively simple that Nia cursed herself for not knowing how to block something so disruptive.

The sector responsible for keeping her wife alive was working at its limit, to the point that her sensory perception around Lily had dropped to zero.

She knew that if she tried to locate Lily, help her cast magic, communicate with her—or even just listen to her voice—she would be weakening the survival sector’s strength.

“Lily…”

Nia longed to hear her wife’s voice. But even something as simple as that might endanger the girl’s life if she gave in to that desire.

The more effort she made, the more exhausted she’d become. Should she use what time she had left to try and reach Lily—or stay put, conserving her strength as long as possible?

For now, keeping Lily alive was her top priority.

“Lady Gardenia!”

As the voice reached her once again, Nia turned her left hand toward the sound.

“Silence!”

A shout rang out along with a shard of black ice—a spinning projectile that accelerated in midair and hummed sharply before slicing past Thelira’s head and striking the massive creature that had leapt out of the ground behind her.

A thunderous impact followed as the body of a centipede the size of a small building collapsed into the sand. Purple blood spilled across the ground, and the countless thin legs twitched once, then stilled as its head was crushed.

“T-Thank you…” Thelira’s crescent-moon pupils stopped glowing. She clutched the wooden bow in her hands and watched as Nia walked past her, approaching the fallen monster.

Ten tentacles emerged from Nia’s back and spread across the creature’s body, beginning to dissolve it on contact.

Resistance potions could’ve helped her recover some of her strength—but she didn’t carry them. She accessed them through her portals. And with that option sealed off by the labyrinth’s barrier, she’d have to recover by other means.

It took only a few seconds for the fifteen-meter-long corpse to be completely devoured.

“Toxins…” Nia murmured.

Paralyzing venom and hallucinogenic secretions seemed to be the centipede’s innate abilities. Since Nia hadn’t given it a chance to attack, she hadn’t seen those in use—but she guessed they were likely expelled through its fangs.

Opening both hands, Nia began linking her fingers with dozens of thin black threads, forming a complex web. The emerald spider threads were useful on their own—but when combined with other spells, their utility increased dramatically.

Slowly, a gray liquid formed at the tips of her fingers and began flowing along the thread lines.

“Lady Gardenia… what is that?” Thelira, watching the purple-haired girl at work, found herself mesmerized by the intricate patterns the webs formed. Without realizing it, her fingers crept forward, drawn by curiosity.

“Don’t touch it. In the air, it’s one thing—but if that gets into your bloodstream in your current state, even a single drop will kill you in seconds.”

The moment Nia spoke those indifferent words, Thelira snapped her hand back, eyebrows raised.

“Uh…” The elf let out a small, confused sound, unsure of what to say. “What should we do now?”

Nia’s eyes flicked from her fingers to the golden-haired girl for a brief moment, then she dismissed the threads she’d been analyzing. Much to her displeasure, this elf was her companion for now. Nia didn’t know why Rhei had split them up like this, but it wasn’t like she could just abandon her here.

Even with her mana-location impaired, Nia could only sense the presence of the centipedes scattered across the desert. Aside from regaining some strength, she had hoped the monsters’ innate abilities might offer a clue on how to find the exit from this floor—but that didn’t happen.

“Forgive me for asking, but is carrying people like this a family trait?” Thelira sighed as a tentacle wrapped around her waist, lifting her off the ground, just as black wings spread from Nia’s back.

With her portals randomized by the barrier, flying was the safer option—and a more efficient use of dark mana—so Nia took off toward the cavern’s ceiling.

As they ascended, the wind grew louder in their ears. The whistling wasn’t natural—it was low and grating, like metal being scraped.

“If we’re in an enclosed space, why is the wind this strong?” Trying not to think too hard about the tentacles holding her up, Thelira gazed at the nearest floating island, fingers half-covering her ears to muffle the hum. “I’ve never seen anything like this... how are those islands even flying?”

Landing atop one of them, Nia released Thelira to the ground. They were now high enough to see the circular dunes entirely from above.

“Doesn’t look like there are any monsters here. Try not to fall to your death.”

Tossing the words out casually, Nia began walking toward the center of the island. Still clutching her bow tightly to her chest, Thelira followed with a small scowl on her face.

The floating island they landed on wasn’t very large—smaller than a village. Several strange, hardened-sand structures shaped like small brick ruins were scattered across the area in a seemingly random pattern. Cautiously, Nia examined each one in search of anything unusual.

“You seem familiar with this kind of thing, Lady Gardenia,” Thelira remarked as she walked behind her, subtly wiping away blood trailing from the corner of her lips.

Even with Vesca easing the pain and her mana unsealed, her body ached deeply—clear signs that she was nearing her inevitable limit. She had hoped Nia would say something about it, but the girl ahead didn’t seem interested in conversation.

“Wait... are you okay?”

Suddenly, as she’d resigned herself to following in silence, Thelira froze at the sight of Nia stumbling.

The purple-haired girl had tripped for no apparent reason—nothing had obstructed her path—and had only avoided falling by bracing herself against a nearby brick wall.

Nia brought a hand to her forehead, her face tightening with discomfort. But without a word, she straightened up before Thelira could help and resumed walking. Though concerned, Thelira followed quietly behind.

Rubbing her temple occasionally, Nia steadied her vision and forced herself to keep moving. She’d been silently tracking time, and her progress wasn’t matching it. She knew she had to find an exit soon—her body wouldn't hold up much longer.

“If only my sword were here...” Nia muttered.

If she had her stardust blade, she could use [Cosmos Rupture] to break through the labyrinth wall and escape. But both of her blades were with Lily—and the part of her body that was with Lily couldn’t use that magic.

While examining the outermost structures, Nia found no recognizable patterns, no rune inscriptions—nothing to suggest they were artifacts.

Still, in the end, her efforts hadn’t been in vain.

“This is...” Thelira murmured as they stepped into a structure that resembled a ruined house.

Partially concealed, a nearly one-meter-wide orb stood in the center of the room, glowing faintly with bluish engravings carved across its surface.

Nia narrowed her eyes and brought her fingers closer, tilting her head in doubt as her mana coursed through the structure. Just a few seconds of concentration was all she needed.

“This is... to move the island?” As she spoke, a low vibration spread beneath their feet.

Slowly, the entire floating landmass began to rotate on its axis. The wind, previously blocked by the ruined house’s walls, now rushed into the room, forcing Thelira to hold down her windswept hair.

“Lady Gardenia, did you discover something?” Thelira called out, squinting against the wind as she stared at the purple-haired girl, who continued to observe the glowing sphere in deep thought.

But Nia didn’t answer.

Instead, she turned toward the exit. Her black wings reformed behind her, and, grabbing Thelira once again with a tentacle, she soared back into the air.

The elf wondered briefly what was going through her companion’s mind. But as they hovered above the second nearest island, Nia quickly located another similar device, hidden beneath a dune, partially sheltered under a formation that resembled a small cave.

“Is there one of these on every island?” Thelira asked aloud, watching as Nia activated the second artifact. Just like before, the island began to spin effortlessly.

Several tests were run on the new sphere, but no matter how Nia rotated the island, nothing significant seemed to change. The trials stretched on for several long minutes, and the unease in Nia’s heart only grew as she tried to understand what it was she needed to understand.

Was this device just a distraction? Did she have to explore this floor like she had in the previous labyrinth, seeking the exit blindly?

Possibilities continued to flood her mind, and Nia realized she didn’t know what to do.

Rhei seemed like someone more interested in testing someone’s intellect, so Nia tried to think—what was she expected to figure out here?

“Lily...” she called her wife’s name again.

Nia was certain Lily would’ve understood what they were supposed to do.

More and more cold sweat formed beneath her skin. The discomfort and nausea grew stronger by the second. Each new thought overwrote the last, piling up until she felt like she was drowning in uncertainty.

“Hm... Want one?”

For the first time, the voice beside her pulled her out of her thoughts.

Turning her head, Nia saw Thelira with her arm stretched out. In her hand, a small brown bar was being modestly offered to her.

“Mom always said we think better when we’re not on an empty stomach!”

The young elf spoke with a brightness that masked her pain, and Nia didn’t need to ask to know what that strong, sweet smell was.

Without a word, the metamorph pulled her hand away from the sphere and took the chocolate between her fingers. She remembered tasting this before—through Lily, when Zaylin had offered it the other day.

Taking a few heavy steps toward the cave wall, Nia leaned her back against it and sat down on the ground. It wasn’t as nourishing as dark mana, nor would it help like a resistance potion—but when the sweet chocolate melted on her tongue, she couldn’t help but feel a hint of calm return to her body.

“I’m sorry I can only offer you that,” Thelira said gently, noticing how Nia’s tense expression had finally started to ease. She sat down beside her. “I haven’t been able to eat meat or any kind of animal protein since I visited a farm as a child and saw cows being slaughtered.”

Elves could hear faeries, and high elves could hear the voice of any living being. Even those with little rational thought still possessed the instinct to survive—and Thelira knew that all too well.

“The very idea of eating something that, not long ago, was begging to stay alive… I just can’t do it.”

Thelira gave a dry chuckle, and Nia simply stared back at her with one eyebrow raised.

“Eating what’s weaker than you is natural. If you were weak, the cow would be the one eating you.”

Her words went against Thelira’s values, but that wasn’t what made the elf’s eyes widen—it was the fact that Nia had finally responded to her.

“I’m not that naive...” Her gaze dropped to her bow, and she gripped it even tighter. “I know it’s hypocritical to think that way. As one of the rulers of the elves, I know that if we don’t hunt, we won’t be able to feed everyone. Even if I hate seeing them die, I’m aware that there are places in the world where people starve without even a crumb to eat.”

She let out a long sigh and turned her face back toward the girl.

“Even if I hate the way things are, I know it’s necessary for survival. So I have to prioritize everyone’s lives over my ideals.”

“Why are they special to you?” Nia asked.

To Nia, consuming and growing stronger was the natural order. If she were weak, she would lose everything. The fact that she wasn’t strong enough was exactly why her life—and Lily’s—was now in danger. No matter how much she had to devour, if it meant protecting what was precious to her, she would do it.

But when the innocent question reached her, Thelira felt as if all the air had left her lungs at once. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, trying to form words, but nothing came out.

Having finished the chocolate bar, Nia licked her fingers clean as she stared at Thelira. She tilted her head slightly, confused by the elf’s frozen expression—but soon, several small glimmers at the cave’s entrance drew her attention.

The shift in Nia’s gaze snapped Thelira out of her trance. She turned to look and saw colorful orbs floating into the cave and approaching them.

“Faeries? In here?” Thelira exclaimed.

Four faeries circled the elf joyfully.

(Visitors!)

(Welcome!)

(Hello!)

(Magicians!)

Their cheerful voices echoed through the small cavern, and Thelira, caught off guard, could only blink several times in surprise.

“This is unexpected... I didn’t think there would be faeries choosing to live inside a labyrinth.”

The faeries continued to greet them repeatedly. From what Thelira could understand, it had been a very long time since they had interacted with anyone from the outside.

“Do they know something?” Nia asked quietly, her voice low and deliberate.

Hearing the whispered question, Thelira quickly caught her meaning.

“Do you know where we are?” she asked aloud.

If the faeries lived here, they might know what was going on. Nia, unlike her, couldn’t hear the faeries’ voices or get close to them without scaring them off, so Thelira would have to handle the conversation.

(Labyrinth!)

(Second floor.)

(Desert.)

(Island!)

“Second floor?” The words came disjointed, but Thelira did her best to piece them together. “We came here with two other women. Do you know where they are?”

(No.)

(Don’t know.)

(No…)

(Sorry.)

“So you don’t know...” Releasing a small, held breath, Thelira looked at the faeries again. “Then where should we go? If this is the second floor, do you know where the entrance to the third is?”

The four faeries froze in place, their glow dimming as their small bodies trembled.

(Third floor. Don’t go.)

(Danger.)

(Run.)

(Death.)