Luke P.O.V

Luke coughed as he touched the ground with Jill, dust, and sand filled his lungs immediately. The air was hot here, scalding even. A byproduct of Evan and Toroken. Luke’s mouth felt dry, and he licked his lips instinctively. That turned out to be a mistake as he tasted sand and dust. Jill had the foresight to shut her mouth and just nodded at him before teleporting away. The others were treating him more coldly now, and he knew that he just had to accept it. He barely recognized himself. Shaking his head, he turned toward the depths of the mountain.

The cave that dug into the mountain was plain, and it looked almost unchanged from his memory of it. There was a lot of dirt and sand in the air, and the clocks were scuffed. It was somehow familiar and different at the same time. Wrong in a way that he struggled to understand. The memories he held remembered this place as one of hope and beginnings. Luke was raised on different stories. An island of death and undeath, one that had haunted his nightmares as a kid. A place that he had once dreamt of destroying, and now he was here to make it his new home. Despite the contradiction, Luke was certain of his decision.

He took a step into the cave. His shoes echoed as he walked, but that noise paled compared to the fight outside. Luke shuddered when he thought of that fight. Luke wasn’t weak by any means, but he didn’t have the same kind of power as Mash or Toroken. Mash was a destroyer, a being meant to change the entire world. Even that was insufficient to describe it, he was a creature meant to change the very universe itself. That frightened Luke like nothing else. The fact that Mash could fight Toroken only deepened that feeling. Mash, by his own admittance, was nothing more than a hatchling. Whatever species Mash belonged to now, it was dangerous. He could already create and destroy nations, the fight from earlier proved that much.

Luke picked up the pace as another deafening sound rang throughout the island. The sound somehow reminded him of breaking bones and glass at the same time. His hair stood on end, as he turned his walk into a jog. The mountain was dark, so he buffed himself and used the light to mark his way. The cave was dark and dry, and the ground moved about from the occasional gust of wind that rushed through the tunnel.

He trudged through that darkness, unsure of what might lurk in the shadows. This place had a history of killing high-leveled people, and they would be here. Not alive, but not dead either. If they caught him, he would die. Luke was not Mash; he didn’t have the skills or abilities to fight a group of people. He might be hard to kill, and he hoped that would be enough. All he needed to do was find Valeria. It would be enough to just see her.

A deafening roar made the mountain shake. Tiny rocks crumbled and fell from some of the walls. Luke flinched and jumped as the pattering stone startled him. He wondered why the fight outside was happening there. Shouldn’t they have been transported to another place to fight? That was what typically happened when two high-level people fought. A fight like this might jeopardize more than just the island. The mountain shook again, and Luke decided it wasn’t the time for a stealthy approach. Rather than try to move quietly, Luke started running.

The mountain was not easy to navigate. Winding tunnels, hidden rooms, and dead ends had made him backtrack more than a few times. Each time the island shook, he felt a noose tightening around his neck. If Mash lost, then he would certainly be found. He knew for a fact that Toroken would sense his presence if the dragon hadn’t done so already.

Then he saw it. A single room leaked light into the otherwise dark cavern. The archway wasn’t particularly large, and there was no door to stop him from entering. Luke didn’t hesitate to turn the corner and dashed into the room. He froze as he saw what was inside.

Almost a dozen people were in the room, each radiating a kind of power that could rival himself. Some of them even still maintained a connection to their thrones or divinities. Though he could tell that they were undead. Their presence had only earned a glance. It was the sole living person in the room that captivated his attention. Valeria sat on a throne of stone. Well, less a throne and more a simple chair. She looked small compared to all of the imposing figures standing around her.

She had frozen in the same way he had. Her eyes were red and black now, like a small ruby in the night sky. Her skin had paled, and she looked thin. Despite all that he couldn’t help but find her beautiful. The fur on her ears was black like her hair, which had grown so long that it rested in long loops against the floor. She wore a simple grey robe, which clashed with what he knew of her. She had always loved embroidery and would’ve covered a robe like that with some picture or another.

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Then he saw it. The way her robes draped against her chest and pressed too deeply around her heart. Something within him clicked. The two people that were clashing within his soul snapped together. Blending as a new memory filled him. With the moment, came understanding.

He saw it then. Relieved the moment of Valeria’s death. Of his own death, and he knew what he had done.

Luke pushed through the forest in a sprint. He cared not for the decaying of his body or the pain that pulsed within his soul. The elf had gone after Valeria, and Luke desperately charged through the forest for her. He had tried to pull the fight away from her, give her the chance to advance. As he burst through the trees, he saw his failure.

Valeria rested there, her legs crossed, and her head hung down. There was a hole in her chest the size of his hand. Her heart was missing, and blood stained her dress. The world fell away, and he slid to his knees, head bowed before her. He expected rage and anger, but it didn’t come. The only thing he felt was emptiness.

In a moment of selfishness, he used a skill he had vowed never to use, for it was not something anyone would wish. Without touching Valeria, he passed his remaining life to her. It might not save her, there was no guarantee of it, but he still activated the skill anyways. A Life for a Life was a surprisingly common skill. It was selfish to want her to live without him when he could not do the same. He still did it though. As he did, he felt something else happen. He leveled and gained something. Something that activated as the last vestiges of his life left him. The world darkened.

Luke gasped, the memories, the knowledge filling gaps in his mind he hadn’t known was there. Luke’s mind wasn’t muddled anymore. The memories he had struggled to understand now felt like they belonged to him. The Luke that had been a god, and the one that stood here now were the same. His final level, his final skill had brought him back. He had come back to life. His skills and memories had been sealed away, but they had returned now. His voice was broken by tears and joy, but he squeezed out a single name.

“Valeria!”

He shouted the word, stumbling through the room in a wild run. Valeria struggled from her chair, reaching for him.

“Luke?”

Her voice was soft and quiet, nothing like the loud and violent person he remembered. That didn’t matter to him. She was here and alive and so was he. There was nothing else he could ask for. Luke struggled for words, his breath came quick and frantic as he pushed past one of the undead who had moved to stop him. He ignored the man, who was attempting to say something. Luke saw nothing but Valeria and rushed to her aside. By the time he got there, she had just risen to her feet, though her body swayed with obvious weakness.

She reached out to him with one hand. It was a slow soft gesture, and it made her body sway forward. She fell forward an instant later, but he was there. He caught her outstretched and pulled her into a tight hug. Tears fell from his dirtied hair as he pressed into her.

He healed her, magic pouring from his body to restore her. Her soul was damaged as if it had been torn into tiny pieces and removed. That was the cause of weakness in her body rather than the missing heart. He didn’t hesitate in the slightest, tearing apart his own soul to restore hers. His soul melded into hers, restoring hers at a fundamental level. Valeria weakened delirious expression changed to one of clarity, and she pushed at him. Her words came out muffled as he hugged her more tightly.

“Stop. If you die again…”

“I won’t leave you, not even if you want me to.”

He smiled at her; his own soul would heal. That was something he hadn’t had before. It was something he had earned in this life. She met his eyes searching for the truth behind them, and he smiled genuinely. The pain he felt each time he removed a piece of his own soul, could not compare to the joy that filled him. Tears continued to stream down his cheeks, and they would not stop. Valeria shook her head and used one of her sleeves to dab at his face. Nothing could stop him though. Now, after so long, he was finally back.

“Stop crying you fool. A god should not weep so.”

Valeria’s voice was broken by a sob of her own. The hole in her chest healed at last, and she returned his hug with a strength that he had not remembered. She was significantly stronger than him now, and he began to feel some pain from the hug. He ignored it and tried his best to match her strength. She was a little over a head shorter than him, and he rested his chin on her head.

“I have so much to tell you.”

Luke mumbled the words as the island shook again. This one was the largest one by far. She didn’t let him go and spoke into his chest instead.

“Just what did you bring here?”

Luke hesitated a little with his response. He no longer felt as conflicted as before. He no longer felt like two people with two distinct views. That changed what he thought of Mash.

“A friend.”