Ceres fell to her knees with her next breath, the polearm dropping to the ground beside her. She hissed air through her teeth and cradled the more wounded of two arms against her chest.

“How did you do that? What was that [Skill]?”

“[Two-Sided] exchanges…my [Magic] and my [Strength],” she panted. “Ngh, it is a— a last resort.”

I reached for her, and she responded with one curt shake of her head.

“You have others to worry about. Tend to them first, my Lord,” she murmured through gasped breaths.

“Nngha! Dammit!” Keke cried out, and my attention whipped to the group. Cannoli was steadily dislodging the arrows from her arm one by one, waiting in between until she could cast [Stabilize].

Ravyn carefully dripped golden tonics between Erina’s lips while Jazz lay motionless a few feet away. Ball hopped nervously around her knees, flapping and muttering anxious chirps to his master. I cringed as another sharp wave of pain echoed across my chest, then jogged toward the group.

I stopped short at Jazz’s side. Her spotless skin had been run through by the same rib spikes that had pierced Ceres’ arm. Over two dozen gaping holes from her collarbone to her hip revealed muscles, bones, and organs in complete dissaray. Blood and gore filled most of the gaps—Cannoli had done what she could, but the wounds were too numerous and too large. If she hadn’t died on impact, it wasn’t long after. I knelt and touched her forehead.

“She’s dead,” Ravyn said. Her tone sounded so disconnected and alien compared to the fiery retorts I’d become so accustomed to. “Not even the potion could save her.”

“Gah!” Keke’s voice cracked and strained as Cannoli freed the second arrow.

“Only one left. You’re doing great. We’re almost there,” Cannoli soothed quietly, stroking Keke’s hair out of her face. “[Stabilize]!”

“She had tried to protect her group after all,” I murmured.

“So it seems,” Ravyn replied.

“Erina’s still alive?”

“Mhm.” Ravyn looked at her sleeping charge. “She really saved our asses.”

“Yeah. I guess I just didn’t think—ah! Dammit!” The flames in my chest roared, and the pain became impossible to ignore. I stood and tore away my blood-soaked top before examining the rent flesh on my torso.

Keke yelped one last time before Cannoli sealed the final wound.

“There, all done! No more!” Cannoli praised. “You can rest now.”

“Thank the goddess.” Keke was covered in sweat, and her hands shook as she repositioned herself in a more comfortable position.

“Oh, fuck.” Ravyn’s eyes widened, and she left Erina’s side in favor of taking a closer look at my lacerations.

“That’s always what you want to hear your doctor say,” I joked between gritted teeth.

“No, Matt. This is cytotoxic venom.” Ravyn delicately brushed the swollen skin at the edge of one of the cuts. To my horror, it fell away with just the touch of her fingertips. “This shit will eat through your skin and feed off of your [Energy] until there’s nothing left. If we can’t slow it down, it’ll fucking kill you. Look.” she pointed at Jazz’s body.

Upon a closer inspection, swollen black circles of skin poked free from the sea of lesions. Ravyn tapped at a few with her shoe, and everywhere it touched came free like ash on a burning torch.

I swallowed hard. Oh. Great. “That’s good to know,” I breathed. Wait. While I’d more or less been scratched up, Ceres had taken the brunt of the blow. “Ceres!”

Ceres’ color had drained from her face, and she slumped backward on her calves. “I…I’ll be right there,” she said with a heavy wave of her hand.

“Cannoli, Ceres needs you!” I called.

“R-right!” Cannoli leapt to her feet, also glistening with exertion, and rushed to Ceres’ side without sparing me a glance.

I turned back to Ravyn. “What do we do?”

“I only have one bottle of antidote on me. Honestly, I made it just to see if I could. You don’t exactly see cytotoxic venom every day,” Ravyn explained quickly. “Maybe if you split it with Ceres—”

“No. Give it to her,” I interrupted. “We can figure out mine when we reach Catania.”

“Were you fucking listening to me?” Ravyn’s hands balled into fists. “You. Will. Die.”

“Then we better get moving,” I replied. “Give her the antidote, Ravyn. Please.”

There was a scream from the forest.

Shit. That’s right. My axe.

“Go. I’ll take care of that.” I pointed Ravyn to Ceres and took off to the forest before she could say another word.

My breathing was becoming more labored by the second, and the aching burn would not let up, but I would make it back to Catania. I had to. I maneuvered through the trees and foliage, heading toward a group of muffled voices and slews of panicked whispers. I spotted ears bobbing over a line of bushes, and when I cleared them, all eyes turned to me. And mine to the girl with the blade of my axe lodged into the side of her head.

“Jesus Christ,” I cursed, stepping toward the corpse.

“Matt! What the heck happened?” Tristan asked, his voice shaking as he gestured wildly from the dead girl, to me, to the direction I’d come from. “We stayed back, like we were supposed to. Why did this happen?”

“It’s a long story,” I replied, kneeling to remove the axe from the face forever frozen in shock. The resulting squelching sound turned my stomach into knots. She was one of the Sorentina girls. Mercy could have it out on me later; I couldn’t afford to think about that right now. Too many lives still on the line. “The Defiled are dead. It’s safe for us to move.”

“You are hurt,” Ara said. “We should tend to our wounded first—”

“No. We can do that in Catania,” I replied. “We need to keep moving.”

“Where’s Jazz?” Sanaia asked, stepping forward. “Is she still with the others?”

Her expression was so carefully composed, but her eyes were tinged with worry. She was the last person I wanted to deliver the news to. “Jazz died fighting the Defiled.”

“Oh, no,” Tristan whispered, face blanching.

Sanaia flinched, then exhaled. The fingers around her spear tightened to white knuckles and she straightened her back. “Understood.”

“Is it really safe?” I heard one of the surviving Sorentina girls whisper to another.

“Should we go back to Sorentina?”

“This was a mistake.”

“Hey!” I barked, the excruciating pain adding weight to the sound. “We’re almost to Catania. Come on! Train’s leaving!”

“What does that mean?” another girl asked timidly.

I didn’t have time for this. I spun on my heel, trying to push the sight of pulling my axe out of my head. This day would haunt my nightmares for a long time to come.

When I reached what remained of group one, color had begun to return to Ceres’ face. Keke and Cannoli spotted my return and ran to meet me.

“Ravyn told us,” Keke said, breathless. “You need an antidote.”

Cannoli shuffled through her back and extracted a small jar. Twisting away the top, she dipped her fingers into the salve and hovered above the wound. “I don’t know if you remember what this feels like. It’s…unpleasant.”

It had seemed like years since Cannoli had mended the injury in my shoulder from Keke’s arrow. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and nodded. “I remember well enough.”

“This won’t stop the venom, but it will at least heal the skin in between the cuts,” she said.

“Should we keep giving it more to eat?” I wondered. Would my skin continue to mend while I burned alive?

“Better than it running out, right?” Keke said. “Ravyn told us the ingredients for the antidote, and Cannoli and I are pretty sure we saw the important pieces while foraging in Catania.”

“The important ones, huh? Shit!” I cursed unexpectedly as Cannoli’s fingers landed between the first cut. “S-sorry. Just. Ouch.”

“I know,” Cannoli said quietly. She seemed to be going out of her way to not look me in the eye and keep her focus on the task at hand. “I’m sorry, Matt.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” I replied.

Cannoli bit her lower lip but said nothing. Her fingers trembled slightly and she balled her hand into a fist, then continued her work.

“Potions aren’t always exact. You can change some of the ingredients and come out with the same or better,” Keke explained. “Between all of us, we should be able to put it together in no time.”

“Alright. Let’s do it.” I nodded, then groaned as Cannoli worked on the next laceration. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse.

Warning! Matt’s [Energy] is low! Find a safe place to rest!

…Of course it is. It was a notification I hadn’t heard in a long time. Shame on me for jinxing it, I guess.

“We need to head there right now. Before I pass out,” I managed between hitching breaths. “There’s not much [Energy] left to split between me and the venom.”

To my relief, the second party appeared at the edge of the forest awaiting our signal. Ceres got to her feet and waved them closer, her mouth a strained line with the movement.

“We travel as one group the rest of the way!” she commanded. Stripping her apron away, she handed it to Sanaia before looking over the group. “You and Ara can use this as a sling to carry Erina back.”

“What about Jazz?” Sanaia glanced at Jazz’s body with a mix of emotions before concentrating her gaze back on Ceres.

“We need to worry about the living right now. I am truly sorry for your loss,” Ceres replied. “Erina is alive, and so are we. Our pace must quicken, but our attention must remain sharp. Ravyn and I will continue to lead.”

Ravyn nodded. “I’ll have Ball keep watch for any other Defiled from above.”

“Excellent. We march!”

Leadership fit Ceres like a glove. Sanaia and Ara shifted Erina onto the apron and both took two edges, lifting the soldier between them. I was impressed that the fabric held, but it seemed there was a lot more to Ceres’ armor than the naked eye could discern.

Keke touched my arm, and I stared down into her worried face.

“We have to stop making a habit out of this,” I murmured so only Keke could hear.

The ghost of a smile played on her lips, and she shook her head. “You’re not allowed to faint now. We’re out of girls to carry you.”

“Keke—”

“Don’t give up. You promised,” she said forcefully. “I’ll keep watch at the front.”

I watched her go between the dark spots clouding my vision. Her place at my side was quickly overtaken by a quivering Tristan hugging Desiree to his chest.

“What happened, Matt? Please, tell me?”

It was going to be a long walk to Catania.

Warning! Matt’s [Energy] is low! Find a safe place to rest!