There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 491 - 484. Falling Down

"Commander...I’m...sorry..."

As they fell inside a hole that suddenly appeared, the shimmering cocoon around them shattered like a broken crystal. Zein and Carra gripped the exhausted defender as their body fell even faster. Turning his head to look at the other guides, Zein let out a breath of relief to see Zhan and Gus holding the guides tightly, even covering their head for protection.

"Hold on!"

Perhaps because they had been trained well, no one panicked even as they fell. They could feel Bassena’s mana around them, and knew he was doing something to mitigate the situation. Zein had no idea what Bassena was about to do because, at this point, the man wasn’t holding him as usual. But he trusted his man and they fell into what felt like a massive crisscross of bandages.

They bounced slightly and groaned at the impact, but there was no injury. Lying down at the makeshift safety net, they saw a dark canopy above them. Those with sharper vision could see a hole somewhere up there, but with the absence of light, it was barely visible.

Zein took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but it was rather hard to do it above a net. Before he tried again, he felt a gloved hand on his cheek and Bassena’s stern face entered his vision.

"Are you okay?" the esper asked in a strained voice; it seemed that not holding Zein while they were free-falling burdened his heart.

Zein raised his hand and patted the esper’s cheek. "I’m fine, so don’t make this face."

Bassena let out a breath of relief and pulled the guide into his arms. Not just for an embrace, but so he could carry Zein off the net. They landed on a hard surface shortly after, and Zein could see the entirety of Bassena’s net--made of thousands of ’bandages’ coiling into stone pillars or sticking onto the cave wall.

At least, it looked like a cave in Zein’s eyes; a large one, like the place Anzus and Hagalaz used for training before coming to the Deathzone.

"Get down," the others heard Bassena’s voice. "The ground is fine, about two meters down."

"Are you alright, Missy?" Gus patted Dheera’s head, and the girl nodded silently--too shocked by the sequence of events to be her usual energetic self. "Hold on for a bit."

Dheera nodded again and gripped the swordsman’s back. Three seconds later, she was back on the ground and wobbled for a bit when her feet finally touched a hard surface. "Whoops--careful, there."

"Thank you, Sir Austin!" Dheera bowed slightly at the swordsman before looking around.

Gus chuckled at the priority this girl had. He held the girl’s chin and turned her face in the right direction. "There, your Captain is with his beloved boyfriend already."

"Oh, thank you!" she laughed and immediately rushed over to Zein’s side. "Captain!"

Zein turned to see Dheera, and then Leehan from another direction, running toward him. He peered into their eyes behind the goggles, and seeing that they didn’t lose any sparkles, Zein nodded in satisfaction.

"Commander, what now?" Kei approached Bassena, who had been looking at a certain hole in the wall. There were a lot of such holes, big enough to be a path, around them. "This looks like a Stone Eater’s system."

"Mm..." Bassena nodded in agreement. From the shape of the holes, they were clearly made by something cylindrical. And gigantic. Fortunately, the children of darkness he had sent inside the holes did not find anything suspicious--or alive. "How’e Julian?"

"Exhausted, but nothing more."

Bassena looked up at the high ceiling and the hole where they came from. He could see that it was slowly closing again. He tried to calculate the time he would need to bring everyone up there, but he felt a little pull on his sleeve.

"The compass," Zein pointed at the item that Bassena gave him earlier. "It kept pointing into that hole."

Bassena and Kei looked down to see how the vibration of the arrow got stronger.

"It seems like they are underground."

* * *

"See? It’s not so bad getting into trouble sometimes. How else can we find this place otherwise?" Zhan spoke smugly while they were surrounding the firepit.

Bassena had decided to pause the expedition and made a camp. They didn’t know if they would find another chamber like this after all, and it was always better to rest in a spacious place rather than in the middle of a pathway.

Naoya, who was in charge of making their dinner, almost broke the ladle he gripped. "He’s not wrong, but...I’m pissed."

Gus laughed and patted the archer’s back. "Hey, at least there’s no beast you need to shoot."

That was about the only reason why Naoya held himself from beating up the spearman. But if the man continued speaking in that manner, he couldn’t promise the dinner would be free of suspicious ingredients.

"But if this place is made by Stone Eater, wouldn’t they come out when we were walking above? They always do in the dungeon," Zhan spoke again, and Naoya aggressively put chili powder in the spearman’s curry bowl.

But there was someone else who got triggered by Zhan’s words. "Do you want a worm to be worming here, huh? Huh?!" Han Shin locked the spearman’s neck with his arms and started to choke the man in annoyance.

"This is an old system, so maybe the worm already left the area and moved somewhere else," Kei said calmly. "Commander said there’s no sign of movement as far as his children of darkness could see, so you don’t have to worry, Shin."

"I’ll stop worrying after we get out of this worm house!"

"Gaah--" Zhan tapped on the healer’s arms until he was finally released from asphyxiation. "Hey, the way I see it, we’re going to get here anyway, so there’s nothing we can do. The sand tornado things seemed to be attacking anything that walked through the sand, right?"

Huff--Han Shin exhaled harshly and threw himself to one of the chairs around the firepit, crossing his arms. Sure, he knew it, but--aagh! Does it have to be a Stone Eater’s system? A path made of a freaking giant worm? What if it suddenly went back after sensing people trespassing on its house?!

How could he sleep at night knowing he stayed in a place a giant worm had lingered before?! Eww!

"It’s alright, Shin; Zhan will make sure the chamber is safe from any invasion tonight," Kei said with a smile.

"Me? Alone?"

"Of course," Naoya put a bowl of curry that looked suspiciously red in the spearman’s hands. "Aren’t you bored, anyway?"

"But--"

"No but; you’re on watch tonight since Commander needs a guiding."

"Ah...so that’s why he’s not out here."

They might not faced any beast that day, but Bassena had been using his skill nonstop; using his children of darkness to watch their surroundings, summoning his giant serpent, and creating the net of darkness to prevent them from hitting the ground. Rightfully, he had entered the guide tent with Zein after they finished making the camp and installing the purification device.

Of course, no one tried to bother them--not even Han Shin. Funnily enough, they did nothing there but guiding. Zein was staring at the tent’s ceiling while Bassena lay on his shoulder and hugged his waist.

"How many times had I fallen in the Deathzone?" Zein muttered absentmindedly while stroking the platinum hair.

"Let’s see..." Bassena tapped on the guide’s chest, counting. "When the Specter almost threw you to that underground river, when you fell off the tower to the underground city, when you fell in love with me..."

Zein chuckled and flicked the grinning esper’s forehead. "Who said I fell for you in the Deathzone?"

"I did," Bassena shrugged. "You were just in denial and needed a lot of convincing."

Zein scoffed but didn’t argue against it. Well...he had no idea if he had already fallen at that time, but he did realize he was treating Bassena rather differently. Perhaps...perhaps if he wasn’t so scared about losing himself during guiding that night, he wouldn’t be denying his feelings so much.

But then again, the ’convincing’ journey was meaningful for him. At least, he finally realized that it wasn’t just an attachment that he had with Bassena; it was more than physical, and he was glad he went through the questioning process, even if it caused them heartbreak.

Bassena raised his head and looked at the guide’s little smile. "And you said there’s no love in the Deathzone," he smirked.

"There’s none," Zein frowned slightly. "If I lived my life here without any hope of being freed, I would never entertain the notion of love."

"Hmm..."

Zein looked at the amber eyes that shone like a light at the end of a dark tunnel. The man’s existence, for him, was akin to that. "But you convinced me," Zein raised his hand and stroked the esper’s cheek gently. "You convinced me that we can get rid of this place called the Deathzone."

Bassena widened his eyes slightly, even as the guide pulled him down for a soft, brief kiss.

"But you were right," Zein whispered against the esper’s slightly trembling lips. "Maybe I’ve fallen for you since the Deathzone."