Chapter 88: Saint Hilarius Hospital (20)
Sia had no room to maneuver on the narrow platform. She raised her arms to protect her face.
The acidic splash struck the left side of her waist and her left leg.
Tssssssssssssssssss!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The scream that tore from Sia Novilth’s throat shattered the stillness of the floor, overpowering even the moans of the suspended patients.
It was not a scream of anger; it was a scream of pure, raw, devastating human pain—completely detached from the cold, killer persona she embodied.
The S-rank acid did not just dissolve her elegant white outfit.
It devoured the light tactical armor beneath it in a fraction of a second as if it were paper—and reached her porcelain-white skin, burrowing into it!
The smell of roasted human flesh filled the air, suffocatingly thick. The skin melted instantly, exposing red muscle that began to char and blacken grotesquely, while the acid dissolved blood vessels, trying to reach the bones of her pelvis and thigh.
Sia collapsed onto the metal mesh like a bird with a brutally broken wing, rolling and screaming hysterically, clutching her burning side as tears streamed from her blue eyes like a waterfall.
Her angelic beauty and elegance were destroyed in a single second of pure chemical horror.
But Sia was not just an assassin... she was an A-rank healer. And her survival instinct surpassed pain.
Despite the mind-shattering agony, her hands lit up with a radiant golden glow—Absolute Healing Eitra. She pressed her glowing hands directly onto the dissolving flesh at her waist and leg!
The sight was horrifying and painful to watch.
She forced her cells to divide, heal, and rebuild flesh and muscle... while the green acid was still present, continuing to dissolve them!
She was building and being destroyed at the same time!
A cycle of healing and burning, generating white vapor that carried the smell of both regenerating and burning flesh.
She screamed and cried as she healed herself, biting her lips until they bled to endure this nightmarish biological contradiction.
Damian, who was still holding back the continuous waves, looked behind him and saw Sia’s condition.
Seeing her writhing and being roasted alive broke something in the heart of the young man who had sworn to be the absolute shield.
I’m a failure... Damian’s mind screamed. I couldn’t protect her. I couldn’t protect anyone. My shield isn’t enough against an S-rank.
Damian looked at the Viscous Reaper, which was preparing to unleash an even larger wave to swallow the entire platform.
"Sia..." Damian called in a rough voice, looking at her, his eyes burning with an irreversible decision.
"Heal yourself. Get ready to move immediately toward the gate. I’ll open the path for you."
"Damian... no..." Sia groaned through her tears, fully understanding from his tone what he intended. As a healer, she knew the limits of the human body—and what Damian intended meant destroying his Eitra core. "Don’t do it... you’ll die!"
"The shield does not die before the one it protects," Damian smiled—a sad smile, yet filled with the pride of a knight.
Damian turned to face the mountain of acid.
He threw away his heavy machine gun, now a burden.
He planted his armored feet firmly into the platform and raised his bare hands forward.
"Absolute Core Activation! Limit Override! Heart of the Storm!"
Damian roared—a roar that made the blood in his veins burst beneath his skin!
Because he lacked sufficient power, he deliberately "broke" the safety limiters of his Eitra core.
He turned his entire human body into a focal point for generating pure lightning, sacrificing his remaining lifespan and his nervous system in exchange for cosmic power—if only for moments!
Blue and white lightning did not just erupt from his hands—it burst from every pore of his body!
Damian became a miniature electromagnetic sun.
The air around him ignited, turning into blue plasma with temperatures reaching thousands of degrees.
Damian launched forward—not as a human, but as a furious lightning bolt—straight toward the core of the Viscous Reaper!
BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The collision between Damian’s plasma-burning body and the mountain of acidic blood created an explosion that blinded everything on the floor.
The terrifying heat he generated vaporized thousands of tons of acidic blood in seconds, carving a massive gap—a tunnel of white and black vapor piercing through the Viscous Reaper’s body, all the way to the steel gate behind it!
But the price Damian paid was horrifying beyond imagination.
The heat he generated was cooking his internal organs.
His tactical armor melted onto him, fusing with his skin as it burned.
The smell of his flesh burning from the inside was nauseating, and blood streamed from his eyes, ears, and nose due to the immense strain on his nervous system, which was tearing apart cell by cell.
"Siaaaaaaaaaaa! NOW!" Damian roared from within the inferno of vapor, his voice distorted and filled with the agony of dying.
Sia did not hesitate. Survival instinct—and Damian’s sacrifice—forced her to rise.
She limped heavily, blood and continuous healing covering her left side.
She ran through the vapor tunnel Damian had carved with his body. She ran as tears flooded her eyes.
She reached the steel gate.
It was electronically sealed—but Sia did not look for a control panel.
She raised a dagger coated with concentrated acid she had hidden and stabbed it into the gate’s hinges, then kicked with all her strength to open a gap just wide enough for her to pass through.
She entered a small room—a maintenance and ventilation shaft leading downward via a metal ladder.
Sia looked back through the opening.
She saw Damian.
He was still standing, preventing the Viscous Reaper from regenerating and closing the tunnel.
His body was completely black, charred. His armor fused to his flesh. His eyes were gone.
Yet lightning still pulsed weakly from his heart—like the fading beats of a dying star.
The Viscous Reaper, enraged by the loss of a large portion of its mass, gathered its acid for a final crushing strike to devour the charred nuisance.
"Damian! Jump!" Sia screamed desperately, gripping the gate handle to keep it open.
"I can heal you! Just fall back!"
But Damian did not jump.
He could not move at all.
His nerves were completely burned.
He was only standing due to muscle rigidity and the solidified fused armor.
He slowly turned his head toward the gate.
His charred lips moved, forming a faint, reassuring smile—though he no longer had eyes to see.
"The shield... does not retreat..." Damian whispered words Sia could not hear—but read on his lips.
Waves of green and red acidic blood crashed down like a mountain, burying Damian completely, swallowing him into the body of the Viscous Reaper.
"DAMIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
Sia’s scream tore through her throat and soul. Tears streamed uncontrollably, washing her face.
She tried to rush toward him—but the Viscous Reaper, after devouring Damian, surged toward the gate with seismic force.
The steel gate slammed shut under the impact, trapping Sia inside the dark maintenance room.
Acid began seeping from beneath the door, melting the steel.
Sia realized that if she stayed even a second longer, she would die.
She turned her back on the melting door and began descending the long metal ladder toward the lower floor—limping, bleeding, and crying bitterly in absolute darkness.
She survived.
But she left behind the young man who gave his flesh and soul to buy her that escape.
At the depths of Saint Hilarius’ slaughterhouse, the shield had fallen—and only the doctor remained, unable to heal her broken heart.