Chapter 35: The First Lie
Chapter 35: The First Lie
The spatial vortex opened at anchor point number four.
Defense soldiers, medical staff, and people from the families were already waiting. Victor’s positioning device had lost its signal for too long, and this was nearly the last hope.
Two figures tumbled out of the vortex.
Victor, his left arm bent at an abnormal angle, his chest armor covered in cracks.
Nolan, coughing up a mouthful of blood the moment he touched the ground.
The spatial gate closed behind them.
Mira didn’t appear.
The air in the room immediately froze.
A middle-aged man in a black coat rushed over to catch Nolan. Gerald Greaves, his father, his voice dropping low: "What happened? Where’s Mira?"
Nolan panted.
But in his head, he’d had the answer from the moment the gate opened.
Mira was left behind. Victor ambushed Laira. He himself had fired his gun trying to kill Ethan. If the truth got out, he wouldn’t just lose face, the entire Greaves family would be dragged into trouble too.
So the truth couldn’t be allowed to exist.
Nolan raised his head, his eyes red, whether from pain or from fake indignation.
"Father... it was Ethan."
Gerald frowned. "Ethan?"
An unfamiliar name. News from Aurora Academy hadn’t yet spread to this locked-down private anchor point.
Nolan gritted his teeth: "Someone who appeared in the Anomalous Coordinates with a very strong Dragonkin woman. At first he pretended to cooperate. But after opening a strong item from the ruin, he turned on us. He wanted to seize our transfer device, and..."
He paused, his gaze turning more vicious.
"And he looked at Mira with a really filthy gaze. He said if Mira stayed and followed him, he’d spare our lives."
The expressions of those around them immediately changed.
A defense soldier officer frowned: "You’re sure he acted first?"
Nolan glared at him. "Don’t you see the wounds on me?"
Victor spoke up at just the right moment, his voice low and heavy: "He has an item that bursts his power in a short time. We couldn’t save Mira in time. Staying a few more seconds, and that Dragonkin woman would have killed us all."
A woman of the Vale family said in a trembling voice: "Then Mira right now..."
Nolan lowered his head, his voice like he was truly in anguish.
"She was held back by Ethan."
The woman nearly fainted.
Gerald stood up, his expression gloomy to the extreme. He turned to the defense soldier officer: "Investigate. Immediately investigate everyone named Ethan who appeared in the nearby area."
"Lord Gerald, Mira hasn’t returned, right now there’s only a one-sided account..."
"My son is injured like this. Victor Hale’s arm is broken. What else do you want to confirm?"
Victor’s father also stepped out, looking at his son’s broken arm, his voice cold as ice: "The Hale family requests a manhunt file be opened. The one named Ethan seized resources, ambushed elite students, and captured Mira Vale. This can’t be let go."
Nolan lowered his head.
No one saw the corner of his mouth lift slightly.
As long as the first version of the story was told by him, the truth that came later would have to pay a hundred times over before people would believe it.
And of those who knew the truth, not one was present here.
Gerald bent down, his cold voice ringing beside his son’s ear: "Don’t worry. No matter who Ethan is, I’ll cut him into pieces too."
Nolan closed his eyes, pretending to be exhausted.
When Ethan returned to the real world, he would find the entire city no longer had a place for him.
In the Anomalous Coordinates, beneath a ravine covered by ruins, there was a small cave nearly sealed shut by rubble.
Laira laid Ethan down on a thick layer of cloth.
He was almost no longer conscious. His right shoulder pierced through by a magic round. His right hand swollen purple, its five fingers deformed, in places white bone piercing through the skin. The silver round was lodged deep in the stump of his left arm, the Void Fire inside flashing purple-black without stop. Each time it flared up, Ethan’s body convulsed.
Laira knelt beside him, her expression frighteningly cold, but the hand she placed on the wound was extremely gentle. Each thread of dark red flame from [The Sun-Fire Divine Seal] coiled around his left arm, forcing the Void Fire down. Not too strong. Not too weak. Even a slight deviation would be enough to make him hurt more.
Mira sat on the other side, white light continuously flowing into Ethan’s body. Her energy was nearly depleted, cold sweat dripping down her chin, but she didn’t dare stop.
If she stopped, Ethan would bleed out.
If Laira stopped, the Void Fire would swallow his arm.
No one spoke. Only heavy breathing echoed in the cave.
A long while later, Ethan’s breathing finally evened out.
Mira let out a trembling breath: "At least he won’t die for now."
"I know."
Laira’s voice was very low. No thanks. No anger. But it was precisely that calm that made Mira feel more pressure.
Mira shifted the healing light down to Ethan’s right hand. Looking at the five fingers nearly crushed, her throat choked up.
This wound wasn’t from a monster.
It was from Ethan using his own fist to break Victor’s arm. A Black Iron tier 5, forcing a body that couldn’t yet bear the load to fight two Golds.
Mira said in a low voice: "I can close the flesh, stabilize the tendons. But to fully recover, it needs a specialized item or a higher-tier healer."
Laira looked at that hand, her amber-red eyes darkening.
"Then find one. In the Anomalous Coordinates, if there’s something that can heal his hand, I’ll find it."
Mira didn’t know how to answer, and could only keep channeling energy.
A while later, Laira suddenly spoke up.
"Why didn’t you stand on those two’s side? You’re their teammate. You saw them want to kill Ethan. At first you stayed silent too."
Mira lowered her head further.
"That’s right. I was afraid. Victor is of the Hale family, Nolan is of the Greaves family. I’m just the healer in the group. When I realized they wanted to act, I hesitated."
She paused for a moment.
"I hesitated too long. But hesitating doesn’t mean I wanted to become their accomplice. Ethan saved us once, then saved me a second time. I couldn’t stand and watch him die, even less could I go back and pretend I knew nothing. I’m a human, not a monster."
She raised her head to look at Laira, her eyes slightly red.
"If you want to blame me, I won’t argue."
Laira looked at her for a long while.
"Of course I blame you." She said coldly. "But right now Ethan needs you."
"I’ll heal him. I won’t stop even if my energy runs completely dry."
Laira said nothing more. She bent down and continued suppressing the purple-black glow in Ethan’s left arm.
In his sleep, Ethan faintly frowned, unconsciously clenching his right hand. The fingers that had just been set trembled from the pain.
Mira hurriedly held his hand: "Don’t move, Ethan."
Laira placed her hand on his forehead, her voice suddenly softening.
"Sleep."
She bent down very gently, letting her forehead touch his for a brief moment.
Then she raised her head, her gaze turning cold again.
"Mira. If he dies, I’ll burn away everything connected to those two."
Mira gripped her glowing hand tight.
"He won’t die. I won’t let him die."
Outside the cave, the gray wind blew through the stone crevices. In the distance came the roar of a monster.
In the real world, the first lie had been sown.
In the Anomalous Coordinates, the one being blamed lay amid blood and fire, holding on to every breath.
Laira didn’t know what had happened outside.
But she knew one thing.
From the moment Ethan opened his eyes again, this world would have to pay the price.