There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 491

Chapter 491: Chapter 484. Falling Down

"Commander...I’m...sorry..."

As they fell inside a hole that suddenly appeared, the shimmering cocoon around them shattered like a broken crystal. Zein and Carra gripped the exhausted defender as their body fell even faster. Turning his head to look at the other guides, Zein let out a breath of relief to see Zhan and Gus holding the guides tightly, even covering their head for protection.

"Hold on!"

Perhaps because they had been trained well, no one panicked even as they fell. They could feel Bassena’s mana around them, and knew he was doing something to mitigate the situation. Zein had no idea what Bassena was about to do because, at this point, the man wasn’t holding him as usual. But he trusted his man and they fell into what felt like a massive crisscross of bandages.

They bounced slightly and groaned at the impact, but there was no injury. Lying down at the makeshift safety net, they saw a dark canopy above them. Those with sharper vision could see a hole somewhere up there, but with the absence of light, it was barely visible.

Zein took a deep breath and tried to sit up, but it was rather hard to do it above a net. Before he tried again, he felt a gloved hand on his cheek and Bassena’s stern face entered his vision.

"Are you okay?" the esper asked in a strained voice; it seemed that not holding Zein while they were free-falling burdened his heart.

Zein raised his hand and patted the esper’s cheek. "I’m fine, so don’t make this face."

Bassena let out a breath of relief and pulled the guide into his arms. Not just for an embrace, but so he could carry Zein off the net. They landed on a hard surface shortly after, and Zein could see the entirety of Bassena’s net--made of thousands of ’bandages’ coiling into stone pillars or sticking onto the cave wall.

At least, it looked like a cave in Zein’s eyes; a large one, like the place Anzus and Hagalaz used for training before coming to the Deathzone.

"Get down," the others heard Bassena’s voice. "The ground is fine, about two meters down."

"Are you alright, Missy?" Gus patted Dheera’s head, and the girl nodded silently--too shocked by the sequence of events to be her usual energetic self. "Hold on for a bit."

Dheera nodded again and gripped the swordsman’s back. Three seconds later, she was back on the ground and wobbled for a bit when her feet finally touched a hard surface. "Whoops--careful, there."

"Thank you, Sir Austin!" Dheera bowed slightly at the swordsman before looking around.

Gus chuckled at the priority this girl had. He held the girl’s chin and turned her face in the right direction. "There, your Captain is with his beloved boyfriend already."

"Oh, thank you!" she laughed and immediately rushed over to Zein’s side. "Captain!"

Zein turned to see Dheera, and then Leehan from another direction, running toward him. He peered into their eyes behind the goggles, and seeing that they didn’t lose any sparkles, Zein nodded in satisfaction.

"Commander, what now?" Kei approached Bassena, who had been looking at a certain hole in the wall. There were a lot of such holes, big enough to be a path, around them. "This looks like a Stone Eater’s system."

"Mm..." Bassena nodded in agreement. From the shape of the holes, they were clearly made by something cylindrical. And gigantic. Fortunately, the children of darkness he had sent inside the holes did not find anything suspicious--or alive. "How’e Julian?"

"Exhausted, but nothing more."

Bassena looked up at the high ceiling and the hole where they came from. He could see that it was slowly closing again. He tried to calculate the time he would need to bring everyone up there, but he felt a little pull on his sleeve.

"The compass," Zein pointed at the item that Bassena gave him earlier. "It kept pointing into that hole."

Bassena and Kei looked down to see how the vibration of the arrow got stronger.

"It seems like they are underground."

* * *

"See? It’s not so bad getting into trouble sometimes. How else can we find this place otherwise?" Zhan spoke smugly while they were surrounding the firepit.

Bassena had decided to pause the expedition and made a camp. They didn’t know if they would find another chamber like this after all, and it was always better to rest in a spacious place rather than in the middle of a pathway.

Naoya, who was in charge of making their dinner, almost broke the ladle he gripped. "He’s not wrong, but...I’m pissed."

Huff--Han Shin exhaled harshly and threw himself to one of the chairs around the firepit, crossing his arms. Sure, he knew it, but--aagh! Does it have to be a Stone Eater’s system? A path made of a freaking giant worm? What if it suddenly went back after sensing people trespassing on its house?!