Chapter 143: Unremorseful

A few feet away, Galithe finally stirred from her own fear, the pain and adrenaline of what had happened finally settled over her.

She realized she had pushed Gwen into the swarm.

But instead of guilt over pushing someone else into the face of danger, she felt annoyed. She rationalized that Sentinels were supposed to risk their lives to protect Guides. That was how things worked. Gwen had only been doing her duty, and if she had died doing it, well, that was unfortunate. It wasn’t her fault.

What pissed her off was that even after the Sentinel tried to save her, she was still injured. If Gwen had done her job properly, none of this would have happened in the first place.

Was she an A-rank Sentinel? Why was she so weak?

Even Sentinels back at the Federation could protect her at the first sign of danger. Yet Gwen didn’t. She focused on slaying those creatures instead of staying by her side and protecting her.

She looked down at her arm. The bite wound where the creature’s teeth had sunk into her forearm hadn’t closed.

Guides and Sentinels healed faster than ordinary humans. Although not instantly, a single bite like this should have already stopped bleeding. Instead, dark veins were spreading outward from the wound in thin, branching lines, crawling toward her elbow.

Galithe knew what that meant. She had been corrupted by miasma.

And to her horror, she understood belatedly what kind of creature had bitten her. As an S-rank Guide, she could purify Type 5 miasma from her own body within a couple of minutes if exposed directly. Lower-ranked Guides did it slower than S-rank Guides, and there were many cases where they couldn’t even purify themselves.

But Type 4 was different.

It behaved like an aggressive and ravenous parasite, actively consuming anything that was alive and had blood it came into contact with. Even purifying an infected Sentinel would take hours to reach ninety percent clearance.

What surprised her even more was that these creatures actually had Type 4 miasma in their teeth. They were a new species of corrupted monsters, and their levels should be higher than normal corrupted monsters inside a contaminated zone.

She needed to let the Federation know about this. If this was the case, they could find a vein of energy stone somewhere here.

But this was not the time to worry about anything else. She could feel the miasma slowly spread through her.

Then, she remembered. The Association has a new type of miasma blockers. It was the very thing the Federation had sent her there to steal in the first place. If she could get her hands on even one, it might buy her enough time to properly purify herself and get some immunity against these creatures.

She turned toward Zeke.

He hadn’t moved from where he crouched beside Gwen’s body. She assumed he was still tending to his wounded squad member and felt it was unfair. She was also injured, yet he didn’t even look her way or ask if she was okay!

However, when she got closer, she realized something. Gwen was dead!

Galithe didn’t feel anything about somebody else’s death. Only a slight pity that they couldn’t be more of use and protect her in this kind of dangerous situation. But what made her stop in her steps was that Zeke was grieving, as though he was wallowing over the loss of a subordinate.

She found this ridiculous. Leaders of military factions weren’t supposed to indulge in that kind of sentiment. There was no time to be grieving. If he became her paired Sentinel, she’d have to fix that, too. An emotionless Sentinel was more perfect in battle and protection than this.

The pain pulsed under her skin.

Finally, she couldn’t hold it anymore.

She stepped toward him and said, "I’ve been bitten, too. These creatures have Type 4 miasma in their teeth."

Zeke didn’t turn or answer her.

Irritation flared through her. "Didn’t you hear me? Come on, she’s already gone. You need to focus on what’s in front of you now."

Then, without waiting for his response, she said, "I need one of the new miasma blocker crystals. You should have a spare with you, right? I need to suppress this before it spreads."

All this time, her voice held no guilt in it. Every word that came out of her mouth was all about her pain and complaining about everything, as though she was the only thing that mattered.

She saw his shoulders move when she mentioned the miasma blocker crystals. Instantly, she was overjoyed! If he reacted like that, that meant he really had one with him!

Feeling impatient, she reached out and intended to grab his shoulder to force him to face her.

But her fingers didn’t even make contact with the fabric of his clothes.

Suddenly, the feeling of weightlessness was over her. Her back slammed against something solid, air punching from her lungs in a startled gasp.

Zeke hadn’t moved an inch from where he knelt beside Gwen, and yet his power had reached out and pinned her against the barrier surrounding them and separated them from the swarm still writhing and snapping beyond it.

Galithe was pressed close to the creatures now, close enough to hear their gnashing jaws.

"What are you doing?" Her voice dripped with fear and disbelief. "Let me go!"

But the more she spoke, the harder the pressure grew, forcing her deeper into the invisible wall until she could feel it bending under her back, warping outward toward the monsters clawing to get through.

"No!" she shrieked and tried to pull herself off the barrier.

The wall bent further. A crack seemed to ripple through the barrier just behind her head, the sound made her feel intense horror.

"Save me!"

Zeke finally turned his head toward her. His expression was unreadable, but much colder than the ice surrounding them.

His voice echoed lowly in the void.

"Why should I?" he said. "When you were in danger earlier, didn’t my squad member save you? Yet, you shove her into that swarm instead. So, how am I supposed to trust you won’t do the same if I save you?"