Chapter 222: Trial Of Lord [7]

Elias had never imagined that choosing a name for an unborn child could become such a serious matter, yet he and Natasha had already begun bickering over whether their baby would be a boy or a girl.

"We will name her Aliyah," Elias declared one afternoon, resting his hand on Natasha’s abdomen with a satisfied smile.

Natasha raised an eyebrow and placed her hand over his. "We will name him Zevran."

"But it is going to be a girl."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I said so."

She stared at him for a moment before pinching his cheek. "Then I will make sure our son takes after me instead of you."

Elias chuckled and pulled her into his arms, and although neither of them was willing to concede the argument, their playful bickering only deepened the affection they shared. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Elias could imagine a future that extended beyond the next disaster, one in which he could watch his child grow up beside the woman he loved.

That thought, however, also made him increasingly cautious.

Whenever Natasha did anything remotely dangerous, Elias would immediately remind her to be careful. If she walked a little too quickly, he would tell her to slow down, and if she reached for something on a high shelf, he would insist on getting it for her. Even when she merely stepped over a small stone in the road, he would instinctively reach out to steady her.

Eventually, Natasha could no longer tolerate his constant fussing.

"Elias, I am pregnant, not crippled!" she exclaimed one morning after he had stopped her from carrying a basket of laundry.

"I know, but you need to be careful," he mumbled although her words caused him to frown for some reason.

"And I have been careful! I have carried baskets before, walked through this house thousands of times, and climbed stairs without falling flat on my face. Why do you keep acting as though I will break the moment I move?"

Elias opened his mouth to answer, but she continued before he could get a word out.

For the next four hours, Natasha lectured him about the difference between taking reasonable precautions and treating her as though she were incapable of doing anything herself. Elias attempted to defend himself several times, but every argument he offered only gave her another reason to continue, and by the end, he finally raised both hands in surrender.

"All right, all right. I understand."

"Do you really?" she questioned, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes. I will not stop you from doing ordinary things anymore."

"Good."

Natasha finally allowed him to leave, and Elias exhaled in relief as he stepped outside. He had faced bandits, fought dangerous opponents, and endured countless hardships, yet nothing had prepared him for a four-hour lecture from his pregnant wife.

Nevertheless, his promise to stop fussing over her did not last long. He still reminded her to watch her steps and insisted on accompanying her whenever she went somewhere, although he gradually learned to restrain himself before every small concern turned into another argument.

Natasha accepted his overprotectiveness as well, understanding that it came from his love for their child and his fear of losing the family they had begun to build together.

One afternoon, the two of them rested beneath a broad tree on the outskirts of the city. Natasha lay with her head in Elias’s lap while he gently patted her abdomen, occasionally brushing a strand of hair away from her face as the warm sunlight filtered through the leaves above them.

"I miss the village," she said quietly.

Elias’s hand paused for a moment, and his expression grew tense as memories of the place returned to him. However, he soon reminded himself that more than a month had already passed since they had left, and according to his calculations, the Rotted should have destroyed the village by now.

"I do too," he responded, resuming the gentle movement of his hand.

Natasha turned her head to look at him. "We should go check it."

Elias immediately shook his head. "No, you should not be climbing through mountains and traveling for two weeks in your current condition."

"I am not weak, hmph!" she protested, turning her face away from him.

"I know you are not," he assured her with a small smile. "But I do not want us to take meaningless risks just because we miss something. Think about our child. Once she is born and has grown enough to travel, we can visit the village together."

Natasha slowly turned back toward him, her eyes narrowing.

"You mean he."

Elias’s smile widened. "It is going to be a girl."

"No, it will be a boy."

"And what if it is a girl?"

"Then I will love her just as much, but that does not mean I will admit you were right."

He laughed, and Natasha soon joined him, the sound of their laughter mingling beneath the rustling leaves. When their laughter faded, they continued gazing into each other’s eyes, their expressions softening as the world around them seemed to grow quieter.

Natasha raised her head from his lap and leaned forward, placing one hand behind his head as she drew him closer. Elias wrapped his arms around her waist, and the two shared a deep, loving kiss beneath the tree while the sun slowly drifted beyond the horizon.

Eventually, they returned to their house, ate dinner together, and settled into bed, where Natasha curled against Elias’s chest and rested comfortably in his embrace.

For a while, Elias remained awake, listening to her steady breathing as one hand rested protectively over her abdomen. The quiet life they had built might not have been what Natasha originally wanted, but she was here, alive and happy, and their child was growing safely inside her.

’This time, I will protect you both.’

With that promise lingering in his mind, Elias finally closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

However, a sudden rumbling soon dragged him from his slumber.

"What is going on?" he mumbled, lifting his head from the pillow.

The bed shook again, and a faint tremor traveled through the floor beneath them.

"An earthquake?" he muttered, glancing at Natasha, who was still asleep beside him.

Worried that the house might collapse, Elias quietly climbed out of bed and hurried outside, intending to check the surroundings before waking her.

The moment he stepped through the door, however, he froze.

Beyond the rooftops, a colossal mass of black tar was devouring the city.

Countless maws opened and closed across its grotesque surface, while innumerable eyes stared in every direction, and its enormous tentacles swept through streets and buildings with terrifying ease. Houses crumbled beneath its weight, walls dissolved into black sludge, and people vanished into its gaping mouths before they could even cry out for help.

The Rotted had arrived.

Elias’s body began trembling violently as he stared at the destruction, and then a laugh escaped his throat.

It was a broken laugh, filled with self-contempt and hatred, as though some part of him had finally snapped beneath the weight of everything he had endured.

He had run from the village, crossed the mountains, built a new life, and convinced himself that he had escaped the disaster waiting for him. He had found work, earned the city’s trust, and watched Natasha smile as they prepared for their child’s birth.

Yet none of it had mattered.

The Rotted had followed him here.

Elias slowly fell to his knees, unable to tear his gaze away from the enormous black mass that had already grown larger than the village. Its expansion was so rapid that those who first witnessed its arrival barely had time to understand what they were seeing before its tentacles swept over them, silencing them before they could warn anyone else.

He had thought distance would save them, but the creature had swallowed an entire city before the people could even comprehend the disaster unfolding before their eyes.

’What have I done all this for?’

His fingers dug into his crimson hair as the realization settled over him, and he pulled hard enough to tear out several strands.

He had murdered an innocent man for a necklace, deceived and manipulated his wife, and built their entire future around the desperate hope of escaping the Rotted. He had even used his unborn child as a reason to justify keeping Natasha away from the village, telling himself that everything he did was necessary to protect their family.

And still, it hadn’t been enough.

"What do you want from me?!" Elias screamed, his voice cracking as he stared at the approaching catastrophe.

"Why can you not let me live in peace?!"

His hands clenched into fists, and he struck the ground as tears streamed down his face.

"Why?!"

Unable to bear the weight of his despair, he clawed at his own face until his nails drew blood, but the pain did nothing to ease the torment tearing through him. All he could think about was Natasha, who was still inside their house, and the child she carried, who would never have the chance to see the world.

Before he could even rise to his feet, one of the Rotted’s tentacles shot through the street and struck him squarely in the chest.

The impact pierced his body, and the tentacle lifted him into the air as blood spilled from the wound. Elias barely had time to look down at the appendage impaling him before it hurled him toward one of the creature’s enormous maws.

He disappeared between its jaws, and the darkness swallowed him once again.

---

Elias opened his eyes and found himself lying on a bed inside the familiar cottage.

For a long while, he stared mindlessly at the ceiling as tears slipped down his face, unable to summon even the slightest desire to move. He had lost Natasha again, and this time, he had also lost their child, whose existence had given him a reason to believe that he could finally build something lasting.

Even if he eventually saved Natasha, that child was already gone.

He could have another child with her someday, but it would never be the same. The child he had held in his imagination, the daughter or son whose name they had argued over beneath the tree, would never be born.

No matter how many times he repeated the same journey or how many lives he managed to save, he could never bring back the child he had lost.

After what felt like an eternity, Elias slowly turned his head toward the cottage’s entrance.

Natasha walked inside carrying two leather bags, and she placed them beside the table before noticing that he was still lying in bed.

"You are still in bed?" she questioned, furrowing her brows. "Are you feeling unwell?"

Elias said nothing and continued staring at her.

Natasha studied his face, and her expression gradually shifted from mild annoyance to concern.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, approaching the bed.

He wanted to answer, but the words refused to come. He was exhausted, not merely in body but in every part of himself that had once allowed him to hope, and the thought of enduring everything again felt less like a second chance and more like an endless sentence of torture.

Yet the loss of his child hurt more deeply than anything else.

Even if he succeeded this time, even if he saved Natasha and everyone else in the village, the child he had lost in the previous loop would remain beyond his reach.

Natasha sighed and gently touched his forehead.

"Seems like you are sick. Stay in bed, and I will prepare dinner."

She left him alone and began cooking, occasionally glancing toward him when she noticed that he still hadn’t moved. When the meal was ready, she brought a bowl to the bed and fed him herself, assuming his silence came from exhaustion or illness.

Elias accepted the food without complaint, swallowing each mouthful mechanically while his thoughts remained trapped in the city he had watched disappear.

That night, Natasha lay beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist, but he remained motionless, staring into the darkness long after she had fallen asleep.

The following days passed in much the same way.

Elias neither spoke nor left the cottage, and he spent most of his time lying in bed while Natasha continued tending to their household. At first, she tried to encourage him to get up and resume his usual duties, but when he refused to respond, her concern gradually turned into frustration.

Eventually, she forced him out of the cottage and insisted that he return to his daily work, unwilling to let him remain in bed indefinitely.

However, even when Elias went outside, he barely interacted with anyone. He performed whatever tasks Natasha asked of him, but he did so without enthusiasm, and the villagers soon began whispering that he had become an idiot.

Their remarks gradually created tension between them and Natasha, who defended her husband whenever someone insulted him but could not explain why he had changed so drastically.

Despite her efforts, Elias remained trapped in his grief, unable to find the strength to care about the village, his duties, or even his own survival.

Then, on the day after he would have found Stella in his previous attempts, something unexpected happened.

A short woman with light-blue hair and matching eyes entered the village carrying an injured crimson-haired knight on her back.

Monica had apparently discovered Stella while traveling toward the village to perform a magic show, hoping to earn enough coins to return to her homeland. After finding the injured knight beside the river, she had decided to bring her along rather than leave her to die.

The villagers quickly gathered around the two women, and Natasha hurried forward to help Stella, bringing her to the cottage so she could treat her wounds.

Elias watched the familiar scene unfold without speaking, recognizing Monica from the market. Although his expression remained empty, the sight of her stirred something faint within him.

Stella eventually recovered enough to warn the villagers about the Rotted, and preparations for the coming attack began much as they had before. However, this time, Monica remained with them and used her earth magic to strengthen the village’s defenses.

Instead of relying on wooden barricades that the Rotted could crush with ease, she raised thick walls of hardened earth around the most vulnerable parts of the village. The barriers would not be enough to stop the creature indefinitely, but they could slow its advance and give the villagers more time to react.

When the Rotted finally arrived, the villagers still struggled against the overwhelming terror emanating from its grotesque body, and Stella’s crimson Aura proved insufficient to destroy the enormous creature. Nevertheless, Monica’s earth walls forced its tentacles to tear through solid barriers before reaching the villagers, delaying its advance and allowing Stella to fight for longer than she had in the previous attempts.

For the first time since awakening in the cottage again, Elias felt something stir inside him.

A faint glimmer returned to his black eyes as he watched the Rotted struggle against the hardened earth, and he briefly allowed himself to believe that the outcome might finally change.

However, the creature’s immense mass continued to expand, and its countless tentacles eventually broke through the barriers. The villagers were overwhelmed, Stella was seized, and Monica’s magic could not prevent the black mass from spreading through the settlement.

One by one, the people Elias had hoped to save disappeared beneath the creature’s grotesque body, and the village descended into the same nightmare that had haunted him through every previous loop.

Soon, everyone was gone.

Everyone except Elias.

A tentacle pierced his chest and dragged him toward one of the Rotted’s maws, and as the darkness closed around him.

Then he opened his eyes once again in the small cottage.

This time, however, Elias did not remain motionless or stare blankly at the ceiling. He slowly sat up, his expression drained of emotion but his thoughts already moving toward the next attempt.

He had tried fleeing the village, strengthening its defenses, and relying on Monica’s magic, yet none of those approaches had been enough to defeat the Rotted.

Elias lowered his gaze toward his hands and clenched them tightly.

’I need both the knight and the mage.’