Chương 399: The Weight of the Final Step

Snow kept falling, thick and endless, soft enough to swallow every sound. The world was white and cold and quiet.

"Let me go, Luke," Allison said.

"Let me go or… or…" They stayed like that, frozen in place, close enough to feel each other's breath. His hands held her arms. Her blade hovered so near his throat that even a tremor would end it. For a moment, it didn't look like a fight at all.

"…Yeah. I lost this one," Luke finally said. The words came out low, without struggle. He released her and pushed himself back. Allison stayed where she was, still lying on the ground. She didn't rush to stand.

"Now that you lost, just leave." Luke didn't move. He sat where he was. His chest felt tight, his limbs heavy. He could drag her if he wanted. He could force her. But doing that would break something in him. It would break who she was to him. And leaving her here to die felt just as wrong. He didn't know what to do. And that uncertainty rooted him in place. Allison turned her face up toward the shattered ceiling, now nothing more than broken stone and open sky. Snow drifted in through cracks and jagged holes.

"Just go. Let me die here." Luke took a slow breath. Then he lay down beside her. Not touching, just sharing the same frozen floor. She frowned.

"What are you doing?" Irritation simmered under her voice.

"Don't tell me… you're staying."

"No," he said, staring up, letting snow land on his face.

"I'm going back to Earth." Silence stretched between them.

"But since you're really set on dying, I'll stay here. Just until the last ten seconds. I'm not letting you sit alone through the last few minutes." It took her a while to react. She pushed herself up slowly, as though gravity itself resented her moving. She walked to a fallen column and sat with the katana resting across her lap, but angled away from him.

"Knowing you, there's going to be some trick. I'm not sitting close," she muttered.

"Shame," Luke murmured.

"I did have one. I was going to put the mask on you, turn you to stone, and throw you into the portal." He let the angel mask slip from his hand. It landed in the snow with a quiet thud.

"I knew it…" Allison breathed.

"I had to try." He didn't lift his head. Didn't move at all. Franky slid across the snow toward him, scales gliding like oil.

"So am I supposed to attack the stupid human woman or not?"

"No," Luke answered.

"We're too weak. She'd kill us both right now if she felt like it." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Allison's grip tightened on the sword. Franky understood that perfectly and retreated to the edge of the portal, silent. [Estimated Time Until End: 04 minutes and 17 seconds]"Allison, we only have a few minutes left to talk," Luke said at last.

"So sitting in silence seems like a terrible way to spend them. When ten seconds are left, I'll go through the portal. And I'd rather not have my last conversation with you be nothing." She didn't speak. She watched him the same way someone watches a trap they know is still moving.

"I've already said everything I needed to," she finally replied.

"Just go, Luke."

"I have another trick," he said.

"But it only works if you help me."

"I already told you to leave. Go back to your family." Her voice held steady, but it carried a weight now. A tiredness.

"You fought your way through everything. You did more than anyone. More than any of us. You don't get to waste another minute on me. Go to that portal. You have people waiting for you." Her breath trembled just once, barely noticeable, swallowed by the snow. Luke turned his head toward the portal. The tear in reality pulsed like an open wound in the air, uneven, inviting and terrifying all at once. An exit. A way home. He could almost smell grass on the other side, almost hear familiar voices, laughter.

But then he looked at Allison.

"What would be the point of going back," he said, "if I'm leaving someone important behind? It would only matter if we went together." She didn't answer. She just looked away. It wasn't refusal. It was escape. Luke understood.

"You were actually going to give your body to that archangel?" he asked. He shifted the subject, but the weight behind the question was real. He wanted to talk to her, not the cold, distant version of her that surfaced sometimes.

"I was," Allison said.

"If, of course, the archangel really intended to keep the deal. But once he was in my body, the contract would break. I realized what he was trying to do. Do you really think something like him, trapped here after losing his universe, would want anyone to know he still exists?" Her eyes drifted to the mask lying in the snow. It looked simple now, ordinary even, but it carried a heaviness that made the air feel unsafe around it.

"Those beings are gone. The multiverse is vast; entire races disappeared. But don't fool yourself. There are powerful entities out there. Divinities obsessed with collecting things, creatures, knowledge. Be careful with that mask. It can attract attention you don't want." Luke stayed quiet, absorbing it. It wasn't something he had ever considered. He suddenly felt small. Naive.

"I used to think about opening a little shop," he said, almost like a confession.

"But then I realized I'd have to stop a few psychopaths from turning into gods first. So… when I get back, my goal is to create a safe place for the people I care about. Now that I've accepted that I actually have a family, I'm scared of losing them." He kept staring upward, as if the broken cracks in the ceiling held answers.

"I don't want anyone to disappear from my life again, like my mother did. And yet… my friend here wants to disappear." Allison stayed silent. But the silence was different this time. Not cold. Not sharp. A shared silence. Heavy. Because they both knew what the ticking clock meant: the end. Luke spoke again, calm, without pressure.

"Why don't you really want to go back to Earth?"

"That again?" she asked, but there was no irritation now. Her voice was tired. Like someone who had held this conversation with herself too many times. Someone who had bled over it alone.

"I want something honest," he said.

"Not something born from a fight. When I walk through that portal and leave you here… I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering if I could've done something to stop you." She drew in a slow breath. A long, heavy exhale, like she was pulling something out from deep inside.

"I don't have a family on Earth, Luke. Not a real one. The only family I had is gone. My adoptive mother." Her eyes stayed fixed on the snow.

"The Rhiannon hate me. The current head of that family despises me with everything she has. But she can't kill me. I don't want to go back to her."