Chapter 113: Chapter 113: Fall of the Stars

The spiraling staircase crumbled into gray dust right behind Kai’s foot.

A huge chunk of the ceiling broke loose and plummeted directly toward his head.

Kai’s mind was locked into pure survival mode.

He pushed his freezing mana outward and blasted the falling rock with a stream of solid ice. The stone froze completely in mid-air, anchored firmly to the nearby wall by thick frozen pillars.

He jumped onto the makeshift stepping stone and leaped safely to the next stable ledge, ignoring the burning pain radiating from his broken ribs.

Meriel took a much crazier route to avoid the falling debris.

The Forgotten Titan swept its giant hand through the air to swat them both. Meriel jumped directly onto the beast’s rocky fingers instead of dodging away.

He ran right up the monster’s swinging arm, using the Titan’s own destructive momentum to launch himself high into the air and landed neatly on the upper balcony right beside Kai with a smug grin on his bloody face.

’I really should have let him fall,’ Kai thought, gripping his dagger tightly.

’But I still need to carve his heart out myself.’

They sprinted side by side down a wide, crumbling hallway.

The shaking walls cracked open to reveal horrifying ancient lore hidden beneath the peeling plaster.

Beautiful painted murals depicted the glowing stars high above the world, but the painted gods possessed twisted, completely mad faces.

The stars were reaching down with long limbs to eat their kneeling worshippers alive. The painted humans wore expressions of pure agony instead of religious devotion.

’So the gods in this temple were just hungry parasites,’ Kai noted grimly while dodging a falling beam.

’That explains why everything down here wants to kill us.’

Meriel stumbled slightly over a broken floor tile, and his balance shifted completely to the left.

Kai saw the brief opening and didn’t hesitate for a single second. He swung his water-coated dagger straight toward Meriel’s exposed kidney.

But the older boy was a seasoned killer.

Meriel spun around gracefully and caught Kai’s wrist in a punishing grip.

A bright red pulse of energy flared to life as Meriel tried to drain the mana right out of Kai’s skin. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Kai felt his strength failing instantly as he kicked Meriel hard in the knee to break the connection.

"Save your cheap tricks for the giant monster," Kai snapped, shoving the older boy away.

"You swung your blade first," Meriel laughed, wiping a mix of sweat and blood from his brow.

"I was just returning the favor. Do you always stab people in the back when they are trying to help you escape?"

"I am going to rip your throat out with my bare hands as soon as we stop running," Kai promised, his voice dripping with absolute venom.

"You have to catch your breath first," Meriel shot back. "You look like you are about to pass out on the floor."

[System Warning: Hostile environment collapsing]

[Pathing recalculated]

[Proceed to the upper catacombs immediately]

The roaring titan chased them relentlessly through the twisting corridors, smashing the ancient architecture into a useless powder.

Kai and Meriel ran as fast as their ruined bodies could manage, as the ceiling was literally dropping right onto their heads.

They reached a wide, bottomless chasm with a narrow stone bridge spanning the dangerous gap.

Kai ran across the bridge first, but a heavy tremor shook the floor beneath them. Meriel stumbled sideways, and the burlap sack slipped completely from his grip.

The bag slid across the sloped stone and caught on a crumbling ledge right over the empty pit.

Kai stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes locked onto the simple brown sack.

Sera was in there. T

he girl who smiled at him and trusted him with her life was reduced to a bloody trophy.

"Leave it," Meriel yelled, running right past him toward the safety of the far door.

"It’s just dead weight now. You cannot save her twice, and you will die if you try."

Kai ignored the mocking words completely.

He turned around and ran back onto the breaking bridge.

The Titan’s giant shadow fell over the chasm, and a huge rocky hand reached down to crush the entire walkway.

Kai threw himself onto his stomach and slid rapidly across the tilting stone. He reached his hand out and grabbed the coarse fabric of the sack just as the fragile ledge gave way entirely.

Scrambling backward, he pulled the bag tight against his chest and held on as his life depended on it.

Meriel watched from the safety of the far doorway with a highly amused smile.

"You are actually willing to die for a piece of rotting meat. You really are a pathetic little boy holding onto lost causes."

"Shut your fucking mouth," Kai snarled.

He ran into the narrow corridor just as the Titan’s giant fist smashed the stone bridge into a thousand useless pieces.

The impact shook the entire place, causing the corridor ceiling to collapse entirely.

"Run," Kai shouted, though he was mostly yelling at himself to keep his tired legs moving forward.

He still clutched the rough burlap sack tightly against his bleeding chest because he refused to leave Sera. Meriel ran right beside him, completely out of breath and bleeding from a dozen different wounds. Before they could cross the wide room to reach the final exit tunnel, the back wall exploded inward.

The Forgotten Titan reached through the flying rubble and pulled its towering body into the chamber.

The beast blocked their only path forward with its wide chest.

’We are out of running room,’ Kai thought, staring up at the terrifying monster of star-flesh.

"Stop running and fight it," Kai yelled at Meriel over the deafening noise of the falling rocks.

Kai dropped the burlap sack very carefully near a broken pillar to keep it safe.

He planted his feet wide and called upon the celestial energy burning deep inside his tired veins. He no longer cared about the physical cost; survival was the only thing that mattered.

[Starheart Overdrive: Absolute Zero Domain]

A blinding wave of freezing blue light erupted straight from his body and washed over the entire chamber.

The biting cold hit the Titan’s legs and climbed rapidly up its torso.

Thick layers of solid ice encased the monster’s rocky skin, freezing a huge portion of its body completely in place.

The giant beast roared in confusion as it could no longer move its arms to smash them.

Meriel did not waste the perfect opening.

He sprinted toward the frozen monster and used the ice spikes jutting from its legs like a makeshift ladder.

He reached the glowing core sitting right in the center of its collarbone, and he drove his broadsword deep into the unprotected star-flesh.

Stab.