There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 481 - 474. Fragmented Memory

"Are you sure you don’t need another guiding?" Zein asked for the third time as he walked Ron to the edge of their base’s safe zone--two hundred meters away from the stadium complex’s ruined gate.

"I shouldn’t get too used to your guiding now," Ron shrugged. "I won’t be able to get it so frequently again, after all."

"Hah..." Zein chuckled and stared at the darkness beyond the safe zone. "Be careful on the way."

Sure, if the scout followed the original path, he wouldn’t encounter a lot of beasts--perhaps even none, since the brigade and Senia had just passed the route. That being said, he would be alone, and if he were to be ambushed...

"Who are you talking to?" the scout raised his brow. "Don’t tell me spending time with elites made you forget who I am."

Zein blinked twice before smiling. Right--Ron was a four-star esper; the best pathfinder the Borderland had for the past five years, with one of the greatest stealth abilities utilizing shadow. Outside, it might have a lot of limits, but in the Deathzone...he could hide everywhere.

"Here you go," Bassena handed over a sealed box containing the physical copy of the operation’s recording so far. "Thanks again."

Ron put the box securely inside his coat and looked at Zein wordlessly for a few seconds. "Hey, about that team you’re going to--"

"No," Zein cut the scout sharply. Ron raised his brow, and the guide shook his head. "I already owed you and Agni too much. Just go back and get laid or something."

"Hah!" Ron scoffed and laughed right after. "Well, you’re the boss anyway."

"Mm," Zein nodded and crossed his arms, as if banning Ron from involving himself further in danger.

The scout didn’t waste more time and bid him goodbye. Unless something unexpected happened, they would only meet again when Zein went to the Borderland, or if the Agni finally made his move inside the Deathzone--meaning, the attack was in full force.

That was, when both of them were still breathing at that time.

But just like last year, they didn’t have long goodbyes, nor a sappy one. In a way, it was as if saying they would meet again soon, so there was no need to act like the goodbye was forever.

Watching the scouts disappear into the darkness of the ruin, Zein let out a scoff. "He always said the Captain is too much of a battle frenzy, but..."

"Only another battle frenzy can accept a battle frenzy in their life," Bassena chuckled. "Especially if they are in such a long relationship already."

"Or he just bored," Zein shook his head and chuckled, turning around to return to the stadium. "There’s only so much you can do in the Borderland."

"True," Bassena laughed. But that was why Ron could fit in their squad well, despite it being filled with people who always jump headlong into a battlefield.

Honestly, that was why Bassena wanted to recruit the scout too at first. Too bad; he was already bound by another contract--one made with his heart, and utterly unshakable.

"Alright," Zein stretched his arms a bit before quickening his pace. "Let’s go find Senan and we’ll talk about the vision."

* * *

Among everyone joining the Operation, the ones who knew that Zein was the fragment of Setnath were only Bassena, Han Shin, and the members of the Iron Brigade.

The rest of them thought that Zein’s power to subdue the Fallen Star’s fragment came from Frejya’s blessing--since he was Her Saint candidate and all--and Zein intended to keep it that way. At least, until the day came when he could unite all of the shards into one complete fragment, no one needed to know the truth.

And so, for this meeting, there were only Zein, Bassena, and Senan inside the Commander’s personal tent. Han Shin was out there babysitting Zein’s kids--or they were probably the ones babysitting Shin, who knows. It would be ideal if they could have a video call with Radia, but unfortunately, the Guildmaster was not in the borderland headquarters as of now.

"The Fallen Star’s fragment..." Senan massaged the bridge of his nose, holding back the sigh that wanted to jump out of his lungs. "Do you think there will be a lot of them?"

"I hope there will be lots," Zein said, to Senan’s surprise. "We need to take away the Fallen Star’s power as much as we can before facing it."

"Ah..." the middle-aged man nodded. "Young Master, when you said vision, could it be you were talking about the fragment’s memories?"

Zein nodded--well, all visions had always been fragments of memories, since it was a part of an entity’s existence. Except for the Scepter’s core, which wasn’t a fragment in the first place.

"Did you see something about the Fallen Star itself?" Bassena asked while placing a tray of coffee cups in the middle of the table.

"Kind of?" Zein tilted his head slightly, brows frowning as he tried to recall what he saw during the fragment’s desperate cry. Perhaps it was calling for its Creator, and thus Zein could catch a glimpse of its memory about the Fallen Star.

Closing his eyes, Zein started to remember the vision in detail, and as he did, he voiced out everything he saw inside that vision--well, everything he could catch and understand anyway. Since it was a memory created during a struggle, the details were blurry and the scenes were jumping around, like a film reel being cut haphazardly and thrown randomly into the air like an incomplete confetti. Zein had to work hard to catch the scattered pieces to make some sense of it.

The clearest memory he saw was the moment it gained cognition. Just as with any other creature, its first instinct was to search for the reason for its existence--the Creator. It was in front of the fragment, but the fragment couldn’t see It properly. It was too big, too mighty for the fragment’s tiny existence. And so, with a humble consciousness, the fragment turned around to observe the place.

The fragment found out then that it wasn’t the only one. It could feel several similar entities around, some bigger, some smaller. But before Zein could count how many were there, the memory was cut off. frёewebnoѵēl.com

What he saw after that was...well, he didn’t see, but felt it; the hatred, and also caution. It was like an instinct, and Zein knew the target of that feeling.

Yeah, it was him.

Bassena was right; the fragment was looking at him--or rather, at the power inside him. It could feel the power that had once defeated its Creator, and sent the Creator on this agonizing journey.

"That fucker!" Senan slammed his fist on the table. Fortunately, Bassena readily lifted the tray so the coffee wouldn’t get spilled. The middle-aged man cleared his throat and smiled wryly. "Forgive me."

"It’s okay, I know exactly how you feel," Bassena calmly put the tray on the table and took out a cup, putting it in front of the other esper. "Drink first, Old Man."

Senan chuckled and received the coffee, but he looked at Zein instead of drinking it. "So, it’s confirmed that there are several of those fragments," he concluded.

"I don’t know how many, however. I know there were at least three that are bigger than this one. The smaller ones...at least five, I think," Zein watched Bassena put three cubes of sugar into a cup and retrieve it with a smile. "I don’t know if the size indicates their power level or not, however."

"Well...even if you know how many in that memory, the Fallen Star could just create more when the fragment wasn’t there, or some might already left--so there was no point in counting, really."

Zein nodded and sipped on his coffee. Senan, however, sighed heavily. "There are at least seven others and you think it might not be all?"

Bassena shrugged. "Someone says it’s better to prepare for the worst."

"Bet it’s Radia."

"Wrong," Bassena smirked. "It’s Joon."

Zein chuckled and continued to sip on his coffee. He looked at Senan’s scowling face and smiled. "Well, aren’t you all here to protect me anyway?" he said, prompting Senan to lift his face and blink in a daze. "Right?"

"Young Master..."

"Anyway," Zein drummed his fingers on the table and made a confused look on his face. "There’s something I don’t understand..."

The two espers--the calm one and the worried one--straightened their back and heightened their focus, looking at Zein keenly. Zein would have laughed at their reaction if it wasn’t for the topic.

"When I saw the memory of the fragment looking at the Fallen Star..." Zein frowned slightly. "The place wasn’t dark."

"What?!"

"I’m not sure what the source of the light is, but...it wasn’t dark, and honestly...it didn’t feel like the Deathzone," Zein rubbed his lips, thinking about the possibility.

One of the possibilities was voiced by Senan. "Could it be...the shard?"

"No," Zein dismissed the idea instantly. "There’s no reason the Fallen Star would let a shard be if It found them. Just like me, It would want to destroy the shards as soon as It finds them instead of...I don’t know--take refuge in it?"

And Zein desperately didn’t want it to be a shard. One of their biggest worries was the Fallen Star finding the shards and destroying them before Zein could gather them safely.

"In that case, there’s only one possibility," Bassena said. "A dungeon."

"...huh?"

"What?" Bassena raised his brow at the reaction. "You don’t think gates are no longer generated in the Deathzone, do you?"

Zein blinked. "Ah..."