Divine System: Land of the Abominations-Chapter 290: Trapped.

Pain.

That was the first thing Nero registered as consciousness returned. Not the dull ache of overexertion or the sharp sting of a fresh wound. This was the pain of broken things.

’Fuck!’ Nero cursed to himself.

His eyes opened to a dazzling blue light.

For a moment, he thought he was still falling, the sensation of weightlessness still clinging to him. Then the pain all over him spiked hard and he cursed again.

The stone was cold and smooth beneath his palms.

He tried to push himself up and nearly cried out it pain. His left arm wouldn’t support his weight. The bone had snapped somewhere between elbow and wrist.

His ribs weren’t much better. At least three broken on his right side, maybe more. Each breath sent fresh waves of agony through his chest.

But he was alive.

A groan escaped his lips as he rolled onto his back, cradling his broken arm against his chest. The ceiling above was lost in darkness, too far up to see. The blue glow came from everywhere, emanating from thick carpets of fungus that covered every visible surface around him.

Then he heard it.

A creak.

His head snapped to the side. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Arthur and Jacob, lying motionless perhaps ten feet away. They were bleeding.

Arthur’s leg was bent at a rather disturbing angle and Jacob’s face was a mask of blood from a gash across his forehead.

Another creak, louder this time.

Nero’s eyes went up, and his blood went cold.

Portions of the ceiling was about to come down on them as a second crash.

Chunks of stone and debris rained down in an ever-widening circle around where they’d fallen through. The collapse was spreading, eating away at the chamber above like rot through wood.

A rock the size of his fist struck the ground near Arthur’s head, shattering into fragments.

Nero moved.

He didn’t think about his pain. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to his feet, swaying as vertigo tried to drag him back down.

He ran up to Arthur and grabbed the unconscious noble by the back of his armor and dragged. His broken arm hung useless at his side, forcing him to use only his right. Arthur was heavy, but he was strong despite his injuries

A stone no bigger than a pebble glanced off his head, drawing blood.

The collapse was accelerating now. Larger pieces falling. A section of floor from above crashed down where Arthur had been lying moments ago, the impact sending tremors through the ground.

Nero dropped Arthur and turned to the side as he picked Jacob up with his broken arm.

The white pain that shot through him nearly knocked him out.

However, he grit his teeth and clenched his fingers forcefully as the veins in his arm darkened, a deep golden glow appearing in the depths of his eyes.

He managed to pull the unconscious man toward where he’d left Arthur.

A boulder crashed down directly in his path.

Nero threw himself to the side, his grip on the two unconscious men slipping. White-hot agony exploded through him, and for a moment everything went black again

When his vision cleared, he was on his back again, staring up at the rumbling stone sky.

He forced himself to move.

He forced himself up, grabbed Jacob and Arthur again and kept dragging.

The chamber extended deeper into the darkness, away from the collapse. That was where he needed to go, far away from the falling rocks and destruction.

His body felt like lead as he began to struggle. He was rapidly losing blood from multiple parts of his body.

Shadow Shift.

Nero’s jaw clenched. He looked at the shadows pooling around them and reached out to call upon them.

There was not a lot of time left.

The world blurred.

For two seconds, he moved like the shadows themselves, covering a great distance, flitting through the rain of falling stones and debris faster than should have been impossible.

A moment later, they were nestled in the darkness beyond the danger. Nero released Arthur and Jacob then fell to his knees, retching violently.

The backlash hit him immediately. His Ein Sof reserves dropped drastically.

Then he collapsed between them, his chest heaving, blood dripping from his nose and mouth. Behind them, the collapse continued for another few seconds before finally stopping, leaving a massive pile of rubble where they’d been lying.

Silence fell.

Nero lay there, staring at the blue-lit ceiling far above, listening to his own ragged breathing. Arthur and Jacob were still unconscious beside him. Both were alive though, thankfully.

He’d done it.

The moment he thought that, he fell unconscious again.

***

When Nero opened his eyes again, he didn’t know how much time had passed. Minutes? Hours? He had no clue.

His body felt like it had been broken and then poorly reassembled. The initial injuries had begun to heal, the fresh, raw pain now mostly just a constant, throbbing ache that encompassed everything from his skull to his toes.

But he was thinking more clearly now.

He pushed himself into a sitting position, using his good arm to brace against the cold stone floor. Arthur and Jacob remained unconscious nearby, their breathing steady but their faces pale.

The chamber they’d fallen into was vast. The blue fungus covered the walls in thick sheets, providing enough light to see perhaps fifty feet in any direction. Beyond that, the darkness was absolute.

Nero looked back toward the collapse. The rubble pile was massive, filling the entire area where they’d fallen through. Going back that way was impossible. Even if he had the strength to move the stones, which he didn’t, the structural instability would likely bring down more of the ceiling.

Which meant there was only one direction to go.

Deeper.

He looked at Arthur and Jacob again. Neither had stirred. With a single glance, he could tell their injuries needed treatment. But Nero had nothing. The supplies he had preemptively gathered earlier in the day were in his pack, and he had no idea where that had ended up during the fall.

He couldn’t even ask the Oracle for Essence Pills or Divine Elixirs now.

He needed to find a way out.