Chapter 206: What It Means to Live

The chamber fell silent.

Dust drifted through the air, settling over the shattered ground and broken roots. At the center of the crater, Gray lay motionless, his body covered in wounds. The crystalline carapace that had once protected him was fractured in countless places, and the faint light beneath his skin flickered like a candle struggling against the wind.

Above him, the dark orb floated quietly.

Then, a rumble echoed through the chamber.

The ceiling shifted, and the enormous opening that had been sealed during the battle finally began to widen. Fragments of stone tumbled into the chamber as two familiar figures descended through the gap.

"Gray!"

Cindy’s voice rang out in panic.

She immediately tried to move toward him, only to realize that she was too far from the water to move comfortably in her current form.

Frowning, she raised her hand and manipulated the water inside her container, drawing it toward herself with her magic. The water flowed out and spread across the ground, forming a shallow path that allowed her to glide toward Gray.

Lily floated beside her, her dark form swaying gently as they approached the ground.

Neither of them paid much attention to the surrounding destruction at first. Their eyes were fixed on the motionless figure in the crater.

Cindy’s face went pale.

Gray was covered in blood, his clothes torn, and his body looked as though it had been through a meat grinder. Even from a distance, she could see the numerous fractures running across his crystalline carapace.

"Gray! Hey, Gray! Can you hear me?"

She hurried toward him as quickly as her water magic allowed.

But before she could reach him, the dark orb above Gray suddenly trembled.

Its violet core pulsed brighter, and a thin stream of dark energy extended from its surface, reaching toward Lily.

Lily tilted her body curiously.

The orb responded immediately.

Before Cindy could react, it shot toward Lily and touched her dark surface.

"Lily!"

Cindy reached out instinctively, but she was too far away to intervene.

The moment the orb made contact, its surface rippled. The spherical shape collapsed into countless streams of violet-black energy, which spread across Lily’s body before being absorbed into her.

Then a faint, dark glow enveloped her.

Cindy watched in alarm as Lily’s shape began to change. Her familiar, fluid form gradually drew inward, folding around itself as layers of dark material formed over her surface. The layers continued to accumulate, wrapping around her until she resembled an elongated cocoon, its smooth exterior marked by faint violet patterns that pulsed like a heartbeat.

Within moments, the Orb of Destruction Fragment had completely disappeared.

And Lily was no longer moving.

"Lily?"

Cindy stared at the cocoon floating where Lily had been.

She called again, but received no response.

She reached out with her mana, cautiously examining the strange formation. She could still sense Lily’s presence inside, faint but unmistakable. It hadn’t vanished, nor did it feel as though Lily was suffering.

Rather, her consciousness seemed to have withdrawn deep within herself.

As if she had fallen into a profound slumber.

Cindy bit her lip.

"What happened to you...?"

The cocoon remained suspended in the air, surrounded by a faint violet glow. Nothing about it suggested immediate danger, but Cindy couldn’t determine what the absorbed fragment was doing to Lily.

She had no choice but to leave the mystery for later.

Gray was still lying in the crater.

She guided her water container closer until she reached his side. The moment she saw him up close, her heart tightened.

His body was covered in wounds, and several sections of his crystalline carapace had broken apart completely. His breathing was so faint that she had to watch his chest carefully to make sure he was still alive.

Fortunately, his regeneration was working.

Slowly, the bleeding began to subside, and the worst of his wounds started closing. The fractured plates across his torso were gradually repairing themselves, but the process was painfully slow. His deeper injuries remained, and he showed no signs of waking up.

Cindy clenched her fists.

"You absolute idiot..."

Her voice trembled with anger and relief.

"You promised you wouldn’t fight alone, and then you went and did something like this!"

Cindy took a shaky breath, forcing herself to calm down. Getting angry at him now wouldn’t help either of them.

She remembered the supplies Gray had collected during their exploration. He had several rings of storage, and among their contents were various potions and medicinal pills.

"Gray, if you can hear me, I need you to wake up for a moment."

She carefully searched through his belongings, eventually finding a medicinal pill among the items stored in his ring. She couldn’t be entirely certain of its exact effects, but leaving him to recover through regeneration alone was far too risky.

"Come on. Just a little longer."

Cindy brought the pill close to his mouth.

For several agonizing seconds, nothing happened.

Then Gray’s fingers twitched.

His eyelids fluttered open, revealing a pair of unfocused golden eyes.

"...Cindy?"

His voice was little more than a rasp.

"Yes, you idiot! I’m right here!"

Gray blinked slowly, apparently struggling to understand why she looked so upset.

"Why are you... yelling?"

"Because you’re lying there looking like a corpse!"

"Ahh... That explains the pain."

Cindy nearly lost her temper again.

"Don’t you dare joke about this!"

Despite her sharp words, her hands were trembling. She brought the pill to his lips and helped him swallow it with a little water magic.

"Take this. Your regeneration is working, but it’s too slow. You need all the help you can get."

Gray swallowed the pill.

A moment later, warmth spread through his body. The medicinal energy flowed into his damaged tissues, accelerating the healing process and easing some of the pain that had been clouding his consciousness.

His breathing gradually became steadier.

Cindy watched closely until she was satisfied that he wasn’t about to collapse again.

Only then did she allow herself to breathe.

"...Thank goodness."

Gray glanced at her.

He wanted to tell her something. Something he had kept to himself for a long time, something that had become increasingly difficult to conceal as their relationship grew closer.

"Cindy, there’s something I need to tell you."

She looked at him.

"What is it?"

"I’m not originally from this world."

Cindy blinked.

For a moment, she seemed to think she had misheard him.

"...What?"

Gray turned his gaze toward the broken ceiling.

"Before I became what I am now, I was human. I lived in another world, a place completely different from this one."

He paused, searching for the right words.

"I died there. Then, somehow, I was reborn here as a jellyfish. I don’t know why it happened, or who was responsible. Even now, there are things about my existence that I still don’t understand."

Cindy stared at him, unable to respond.

Gray continued, his voice quiet and tired.

"At first, all I cared about was surviving. I wanted to get stronger because I didn’t want to die helplessly again. Everything was about finding food, evolving, and making sure nothing could kill me."

He gave a faint, self-deprecating smile.

"Honestly, I still care about those things. I’m not suddenly going to become some enlightened person just because I almost died."

Despite herself, Cindy almost smiled.

"But somewhere along the way..." Gray glanced at her, then toward the cocoon floating nearby. "Things changed. I met people I didn’t want to lose. I found reasons to keep going beyond simply staying alive."

His expression grew more serious.

"I still don’t understand why I was brought here, Cindy. I don’t know whether my reincarnation means anything, or whether there was ever some grand purpose behind it."

He closed his eyes briefly.

"But if I’m going to live this life, I want it to mean something. I don’t want to spend the rest of it merely avoiding death."

For several seconds, Cindy remained silent.

The revelation had shaken her more than she expected. She had known Gray was unusual from the beginning. His instincts, his way of thinking, and even the strange expressions he sometimes used had always felt different from those of the people she knew.

But she had never imagined that he came from an entirely different world.

"You were... human?"

Gray nodded faintly.

"Yes."

"And you died before coming here?"

"Unfortunately."

Cindy lowered her gaze.

There were so many questions she wanted to ask. What had his previous world been like? Did he have a family? Had anyone mourned him? What had he felt in his final moments?

But looking at his battered body, she realized that now wasn’t the time to demand answers.

Gray was still recovering. His breathing remained weak, and even speaking seemed to exhaust him.

She reached toward him, gently taking his hand.

"Then you really have been alone for a long time, haven’t you?"

Gray didn’t answer immediately.

He could have made a joke. He could have dismissed the question or pretended that it didn’t matter.

Instead, he simply looked at her.

"...Maybe."

Cindy’s fingers tightened around his.

"Then let me tell you something."

Her voice was soft, but there was an unmistakable determination in it.

"If you want this life to mean something, I’ll help you make it happen."

Gray looked at her in surprise.

Cindy met his gaze without hesitation.

"You don’t have to figure everything out by yourself. You don’t need to know why you were reincarnated, or what your ultimate purpose is, before you can live a meaningful life."

She glanced toward Lily’s cocoon, her expression briefly clouding with worry.

"You already have people who care about you. People who would be devastated if you disappeared."

Her eyes returned to Gray.

"And I’m that person, Gray."

Cindy smiled faintly, though her eyes were still damp.

"So, if you don’t know what to do with this life, we’ll figure it out together. We’ll find things worth protecting, places worth visiting, and reasons to keep moving forward."

She gently squeezed his hand.

"And if you ever think about throwing your life away like this again, I’ll personally make sure you regret it."

Gray let out a weak laugh.

"That last part sounds more like a threat."

"It is."

"How reassuring."

"Good. Then you understand."

A quiet warmth settled between them.

Gray looked at their joined hands, then back at Cindy. Something inside his chest loosened, a tension he hadn’t even realized he had been carrying.

He had spent so long believing that survival was the only thing he could depend on.

But perhaps Cindy was right.

Perhaps a meaningful life wasn’t something he needed to discover all at once.

Perhaps it was something he could build, one day at a time, with the people who chose to remain beside him.

"...Thanks, Cindy."