Jacob tasted something metallic in his mouth and opened his eyes, choking on Juliet’s blood.

“What—”

He started coughing madly, spitting out Charybdis blood mixed with Juliet’s and clots of dust and gastric juices.

He instantly twisted his neck to look around, seeing Helena’s standing and breathing form and a—

Jacob started coughing again and felt a sharp pain go through every single muscle and bone in his body.

“Jacob, please, breathe and drink.”

Jacob finally realized that Juliet was holding him back and feeding him his blood. He nodded and drank the blood of the Phoenix, which had potent natural healing properties.

He was still tired, but his wounds were definitely much better than they were supposed to be.

I can’t be already up. I should have been unconscious for much longer.

Then he felt it.

Not just through the Ancestral Bond, but from the blood, he was drinking.

Juliet had somehow reached the Mantis realm.

He looked at the athletic girl’s green eyes and surveyed her face sprinkled with freckles while she fed him her own blood in a motherly way.

For the first time since he had met Juliet, he felt something. A stronger beat in his heart, a loud one, resounded throughout his body, making him conscious of Juliet.

She obviously felt everything since they did share everything. But she paid no mind to it, simply continuing to nurse him back to health with her own blood.

Whatever was going to happen after, Juliet didn’t care. She would be fine with whatever, as long as Jacob lived.

She had started to realize how much she admired him. Jacob had saved her life and never made anything of it. Now, he had saved the entire region, and he felt embarrassed about some little feelings.

Juliet knew that Jacob’s feelings for Helena went much deeper than simple infatuation or admiration. But they would have time together to discover what was what.

“Jacob?” he felt Helena’s voice from the side and immediately felt not just embarrassed but also guilty.

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“He’s not healed yet,” Juliet pointed out.

Helena’s hole in the abdomen didn’t seem to impair her in the slightest.

Right, the Phoenix’s Blood.

Juliet’s actions were a big taboo in the Phoenix’s Sect of his past life. People with a Phoenix’s Constitution who had inherited the Bloodline were forbidden from sharing their blood. It was considered from the heads of the Phoenix’s Sect an act of blasphemy.

Juliet had shared it with Helena because Jacob had told her to, but as soon as she had realized the healing properties of her blood, she had started feeding it to Jacob by the mouthful.

After a couple of minutes more of blood-drinking, Jacob shakily got up while supported by Juliet.

“You…” he breathed slowly.

“Don’t push it. We’ll go back to St. Peter now. We are already out of Fort Mountain.”

Jacob realized he had not thought of the Charybdes or Fort Mountian since regaining consciousness. He looked toward the town they had just cleaned out and saw many columns of smoke and fire still raging. The ring of fire was still up, apparently. Juliet must have fed it some more flames to keep it going.

“If you are…” Jacob inhaled deeply after a sharp stab of pain between his ribs, “at the Mantis realm… all the Charybdes should be dead… from…”

“Yes, the fire should have killed all of them. I brought all of you out after making sure that I had burned everything that could possibly be burned. I realized I crossed the threshold to the Mantis realm only after getting out. But I knew something was different because my flames started chasing the Charybdes on their own.”

Jacob slowly nodded.

“Your Hidden Constitution… so pure…”

“Jake, stop speaking,” Helena prompted him.

“Fred…” Jacob's voice broke up.

“I tried feeding him blood, but he was already gone by the time I could get my blood to him,” Juliet said in a low tone and a dark expression on her face.

Jacob slowly nodded and kept silent.

Helena tried not to, but she couldn’t avoid sobbing. She and Frederick had always been somewhat close. She knew he had a huge crush on her, but she had always repelled his advances. Now, she didn’t know what to think. During the apocalypse, Frederick had shown himself to be a much better person than she had thought possible. She had always seen him as very egotistical and selfish, but the guy sacrificed himself to kill the Charybdis.

“When…” Jacob started, “we get back…”

There was something he wanted to do. No, that he needed to do. Frederick’s last move had been the most moronic thing that Jacob had ever seen someone do. The guy had basically killed himself trying to save them all. Sadly, real life was not as easy as some fairy tales. But he wouldn’t allow his memory to be tainted by his failure.

“Tell people… Frederick killed it…”

“That he killed the Mantis realm Charybdis?” Juliet asked, surprised.

Jacob nodded, not able to speak anymore. He could feel his lungs on fire and could barely keep conscious. But he needed to straighten their versions before going back. People would ask them a thousand questions, and that had Jacob set on making Frederick the hero he had been.

Because Frederick had been a hero, a foolish one, yes, but a hero nonetheless.

Juliet and Helena helped carry Jacob toward an SUV that they had left outside of Fort Mountain. At some point, Juliet had to princess carry him to prevent his internal wounds from opening again.

Helena was carrying Frederick’s body after covering his face with a piece of cloth.

No one had in them to say anything at that moment.

Juliet started the car, having some experience driving in the countryside.