Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 29: Hold Until Dawn

For a moment, Aren didn’t move.

The light from the crystal swirled faintly inside the medical bag, green and gold threads dancing beneath its surface like something alive.

"How did they—"

But as soon as the words came out, he shook his head, cutting it off. He had to get immediate information first.

Aren placed both hands on Luna’s shoulders and began asking questions.

"Tell me everything," he said, voice steady now. "From the moment you secured it."

Luna swallowed once but nodded.

"Is there any chance that they caught some kind of scent and chased you?"

She shook her head. "They were busy with Captain Eric and the others."

"How long have you been here?"

"An hour. Maybe two."

"And no one followed."

"No."

Aren exhaled slowly.

If they could track it directly, they would’ve found her long before now. He nodded, a small sigh of relief escaped, but his mind continued to race.

He needed to know more about the Core to come up with a conclusion on what to do. Aren crouched beside the medical bag again.

"Don’t take it out," Luna said instinctively.

"I won’t."

He slid one hand inside the bag instead, careful not to disturb the glow too much. The crystal was warm beneath his fingers, almost like he was touching the outside glass shell of a lightbulb. The moment his skin made contact, it was like an electric shock had traveled across his entire body.

Ether.

It wasn’t just thin strands or tiny trace amounts. No, it was everywhere, like a gigantic lake, abundant in energy. Even from the outside, he could feel it.

It was packed so densely within the Core that it almost felt compressed, like a storm trapped in a bottle. Vast reserves of life-aspected ether churned beneath its surface, layered and structured rather than chaotic.

If released all at once, it would flood an entire district.

With a source this big, how come the Defilers couldn’t track it?

Or even the Demonic Beasts...wouldn’t they just sniff this out instantly?

But that was when he noticed something. On the side of the cube, there was a tiny protrusion. Aren turned it around to face him, only to see that it felt like some kind of hole that had a small layer of material.

He instantly knew what it was: A limiter.

Similar to a valve on a water tap, controlling it would allow the abundant ether to flow openly outside.

"That explains why they couldn’t track you," he muttered softly.

"What does that mean?" Luna replied.

He turned the cube to face Luna, but was only met with a confused expression from her.

"It’s like a switch," he continued. "It’s been closed, so that’s why the Defiler likely couldn’t track you."

"Then how come the Demonic Beasts—" she started.

"Beasts have a higher affinity toward ether than we do," Aren replied, setting the cube back down. "Even if the switch is closed, just the raw pressure was enough to attract Blight Dogs to your location."

He pulled the zipper and closed the bag back, just to be on the safe side. Luna waited patiently before speaking again.

"So what do we do?" she asked quietly.

Aren didn’t answer immediately.

He moved to the window instead, shifting a chair just enough to peer through the narrow slit between barricaded furniture.

It had become dark by the time he reached the school. The courtyard below was still crawling. Blight Dogs paced in loose circles, sniffing at the air, occasionally snapping at each other. None of them seemed to know exactly what they were searching for.

Just that something was here.

"If we move now," Aren said at last, "we’ll have to pass through them."

Luna stepped closer. "We’ve handled worse."

Aren shook his head. "That’s not it."

"The Defilers are likely scattered after the ambush," he continued. "They’re likely all around the surrounding area, looking for you."

Luna made a small sound but he decided to let it pass by.

"If we move now," he continued. "We’ll be protected by the shadows, but—"

"We’d have to deal with both Beasts and Defilers..." Luna finished his sentence for him.

Aren nodded. "Exactly."

After a moment of silence, he finally announced:

"We’ll stay here until dawn."

Luna looked like she wanted to say something, opening her mouth but decided against it.

"Beasts weaken in daylight and the military will likely start moving en masse tomorrow."

Luna studied him for a long moment.

Then she nodded.

"Until dawn."

With the decision made, the room grew still.

Aren pulled open one of the scattered cabinets and retrieved some antiseptic and bandages. Without asking, he crouched in front of Luna and gently rolled back the sleeve of her jacket.

There were shallow cuts along her forearm, a bruise forming near her wrist, and scratches along her collarbone where something had grazed her during the escape.

"You should’ve treated these," he said quietly.

"I was busy running," she replied, though the edge in her voice was gone.

He dabbed antiseptic against one of the cuts. She flinched slightly but didn’t pull away.

Aren worked in silence, using a spare cloth to dabble away the excess and placed the bandages on carefully.

But the longer the silence stretched, the more he noticed the details he hadn’t seen earlier.

The tremor in her breathing, how slumped her posture was when it was usually straight, and the faint red that still clung to her eyes.

When he opened the barricade, she had thrown herself at him without hesitation.

Luna, the Northern Commander’s daughter, who was usually composed—sometimes cold enough that others mistook it for arrogance, had clung onto him like a lost kid.

She wasn’t the aloof girl that he figured out or the powerhouse she’d become in the future. At this point in time...well, she was just a girl who had watched the people closest to her die.

Aren secured the final wrap around her wrist.

"...You don’t have to keep holding it in," he said quietly.

She didn’t answer. For a long moment, she just stared at the floor.

"I left them," she said at last, voice barely above a whisper. "They told me to run. And I did."

"You followed orders."

"They were my friends."

Aren sat back slightly, resting against the cabinet across from her.

"I know."

The emergency light flickered faintly above them as Aren slid along the wall and got into a sitting position next to her.

"...When you knocked," she said after a while, "I thought it might be them."

Aren looked at her.

"I’m sorry...I wasn’t—"

"No," she cut him off gently.

Luna looked at him then, the pale moonlight slipping through the cracks in the barricade and tracing her delicate features.

"I’m glad you came, Aren."

With the words being said, her shoulders loosened, slowly slumping to the side as her head landed on his shoulder.

It was like her body had finally decided that she was safe enough and promptly gave out from exhaustion.

Aren didn’t move.

He simply adjusted his posture slightly to support her weight, eyes lifting toward the dark ceiling as the night stretched on around them.