There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 377

Chapter 377: Chapter 369. The Paladin

The time Zein found himself devoid of thought could be counted on one hand.

To be so blanked out, so shaken to the core that he couldn’t do anything but stand in place as if he had turned into a lifeless statue... had only happened once before; when he found out he was stranded with two toddlers.

This would be the second time, and the fact that he stopped breathing made him look even more like a statue.

He just stood there, five meters from a glowing light that imprisoned his father.

It was so close; a distance that he could reach in just two seconds. And yet, he couldn’t move.

He was scared. He was scared that it was just a mirage, a hallucination, a dream. He was scared that if he moved, if he walked closer, that glowing light would disappear, like any mirage.

And so he stood there, like a rooted tree, thinking of nothing but how scared he was. Everything went still and silent as if he was drowning in darkness--

A wordless touch met his hand, warming his cold fingers and frozen courage. The touch, of someone who had been drowning in darkness, was telling him it was real; it wasn’t a dream.

It wasn’t a dream.

Slowly, Zein felt his legs unfroze, stepping forward one leg at a time like a toddler learning how to walk. With each step, he took a deep breath and waited until he was sure the tank was there, the light was there, his father was there. And with each step that brought him closer, he could see the man’s face.

The face he had only seen in two portraits, and a few times in his dream. A young face of a young man, frozen in time. Handsome, sharp in the right angle, and delicate in the right curve. Even in the paleness of death, he was graceful.

When Zein stood in front of the glass cover, it was akin to seeing a reflection. He had been hearing that he was the spitting image of his father, and he witnessed it now. Their visage, at the very least. Alteroan had a knight physique, towering over his son even inside the tank that froze him in time.

Another thing that had been frozen was the horrible wound in his body; across his skin and etched into his flesh. Wounds that hurt him, and wounds that killed him. The wounds of sacrifice, immortalize his last effort to protect his wife and son.

The son that was now staring at him blankly.

"Is...is he--"

Zein couldn’t finish the words that were caught in his throat, choking him.

"No," he heard the soft answer behind him. "I’m sorry, Zein--but his heart had stopped breathing, and his brain had--"

"Okay."

Zein nodded solemnly He already knew, he just wanted to entertain a flicker of foolish hope. But it gave him relief, because it would be much worse to be suspended alive in this condition for almost thirty years.

But aside from relief, Zein couldn’t feel anything. His mind simply couldn’t process much more than that. "Bas," he whispered, and as he felt that warm touch on his hand again, he gripped it tightly. "What should I do?"

"First, we’ll take him out."

"Okay,"

"And we’ll send him to the hospital,"

"A hospital?"

"...a morgue," Bassena stroked Zein’s hand with his thumb. "You can ask for an...autopsy, if you want."

Zein stiffened at the word, and Bassena could feel the guide stop breathing for a second, before slowly shaking his head. "I don’t think...I don’t think I want him to be in this kind of state any longer."

"Alright," Bassena gripped the guide’s cold hand tighter.

Finally, Zein could move his eyes from the hypnotizing light and Alteroan’s figure. He looked at Bassena, let himself be bathed in the warmth of ambers that melted his freezing nerves. The husky voice whispered softly. "Why don’t you sit down and wait for your uncle?"

"Sit down..." Zein muttered dazedly and lowered himself, almost unconsciously plopped on the floor in front of the tank. The blue eyes were akin to the liquid preserving his father, and now, they tried to preserve the image in his memory.

No one said anything. Not Bassena, who stood silently like a guard. Not Han Shin, who crouched beside the door and stared blankly at the ceiling. And not Radia, who barred anyone from entering the room, giving his orders through commlink and hand signs.

It was only after Senan and Cohen came that any voice could be heard again. They came quickly with a teleportation scroll and moved swiftly with their Young Master’s safety in mind. Never, in their right mind, had they thought they would find Alteroan’s body there.

"Ma...Master Roan...?"

Unlike Zein, Senan only spent a few seconds being frozen, before running toward the glass encase and touching it with trembling hands. "M-Master...Master Roan..."