Last Gun Alchemist-Chapter 54 - 4--Doors

Zack’s eyelids fluttered.

Everything around him was blurry, he turned his head left and then right. The ceiling spun slightly.

He struggled and forced himself into a sitting position.

"Zack!"

Nathalia rushed forward immediately, kneeling beside him and placing a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"You’re awake," she said, relief flooding her face.

"What happened?" Zack muttered, his voice hoarse. "Did I win?"

"Win?" Scott repeated sharply, narrowing his eyes.

Daniella crawled closer and gently pressed the back of her hand against Zack’s forehead.

"He doesn’t seem to be running a temperature," she said quietly before glancing at Scott.

Scott leaned against the cage bars; arms folded tightly across his chest. His leg tapped the stone floor repeatedly, his frustration obvious.

"I can’t see very well," Zack muttered, reaching toward his face automatically. "Where are my glasses?"

His fingers touched nothing.

"They broke," Daniella said bluntly. "After your face got slammed by his leg."

She demonstrated with one hand striking her palm.

"Boom."

"Daniella!" Nathalia scolded. "Be serious!"

"At least she’s back to her normal self," Zack said weakly, managing a small smile despite his dizziness.

"Well, the boy left, so I can relax," Daniella muttered, twisting her lips. "As long as he’s not in front of me again."

"So... they already left?" Zack asked, turning toward Nathalia, though her face was still blurry in his vision. "That means I lost."

His fist tightened slowly.

"Yes," Nathalia replied quietly, lowering her head.

"Why are you acting so calm, Zack?" Scott suddenly snapped, losing his patience. He stepped forward and glared at him. "What was that back there? I thought you were confident in your victory."

He waved his hands angrily.

"Or did you underestimate him?"

"Scott!" Nathalia shot back. "Can’t you see he’s still recovering?"

Daniella crawled a little farther away, not wanting to stand between them.

"I’m not blind!" Scott barked. "But look at the situation! Daniella and I won our fights. And you two...our spearheads...lost the whole stage just like that!"

He punched the air in frustration.

"Are you blaming us for losing now?" Nathalia glared right back. "Maybe you should’ve fought Aliya or the boy... Ezra!"

Scott’s eyes twitched the moment he heard Ezra’s name. He stepped back unconsciously.

"Tsk."

He turned away and punched the cage harder, the metal rattled and blood smeared across his knuckles. "F*ck!"

"You two need to calm down," Zack said, rubbing his temple.

"Also, I didn’t underestimate him," he continued slowly. "I lost purely based on skill."

The others fell silent.

"I didn’t think he could use techniques that only Binders are capable of." He added.

"Is he already a Binder?" Daniella asked, placing a finger against her lips thoughtfully.

"No," Zack replied after a pause. "I don’t think so, but the way he concealed his presence with his Cognis..."

He exhaled.

"He might already be on the verge of forming a second star."

Scott blinked. "No wonder he appeared out of nowhere."

"But we were all focused on the fight," Nathalia said. "After the coat moved, none of us saw him."

"I didn’t either," Zack admitted. "But thinking back... he was probably standing right in front of me the entire time."

He clenched his jaw.

"I was so focused on the figures above and below that I didn’t notice the obvious."

He touched his face slightly.

"I remember the impact. I remember my bones cracking."

He looked at them puzzled. "How am I fine?"

The three exchanged awkward glances.

They remembered very clearly how his face had looked.

***

Back to the moment Zack went unconscious, everyone had held their breath.

Is he alive?

That was the only thought running through their minds.

Zack’s nose was swollen. Both eyes were puffed shut. His glasses had shattered, glass scattered across the stone. Two of his teeth had fallen loose, and part of his face looked slightly sunken from the force.

"Did Ezra just kill him?" Aliya whispered, covering her mouth.

The silence was unbearable.

Then...

** Winner: Zara **.

The mechanical voice echoed.

"Zara?" Aliya frowned slightly, Nathalia blinked, Scott and Daniella exchanged quick glances.

Why was his name different from what they knew? Before any of them could speak...

** Since this was the Tie Breaker round... **

** Zara’s Group Wins the Stage **

A heavy click echoed as the locks on Ezra’s group cage opened.

** Please advance to the next stage **

The mechanical voice faded into silence.

Then...

A deep grinding noise rumbled through the chamber.

Gears turned behind the stone walls. The entire room trembled faintly. From the side wall, a stone bridge extended outward, slowly sliding into place until it connected with the bridge they had just fought on.

At the far end...A door appeared, large and metallic.

"That’s our exit," Ezra said quietly, releasing a slow breath. He glanced toward Zack’s group.

All of them flinched, even Scott unconsciously took a step back.

Nathalia stiffened while Daniella avoided eye contact entirely.

What’s with them?

Ezra looked at their reactions with confusion.

"Your leader is alive," he stated calmly.

He bent down and collected his coat, the blanket, and the two steel bars he had used earlier.

"Barely, I guess," he added. "But as a ranked, I’m sure he bought at least one healing elixir from the marketplace."

He pointed casually toward Zack’s space bag lying beside his unconscious body.

Then he turned toward his own cage.

Aliya stood there quietly; she wasn’t smiling nor was she teasing but she was just staring at him as if she were trying to see something she had missed before.

For a brief moment, she wondered...

Was he really Ezra? Or was Zara his real name?

She suddenly realized something that unsettled her more than the fight had.

She didn’t know anything about him, not really.

"Will you be okay carrying Lime’s body?" Ezra asked, looking at her directly.

"Huh...?" She blinked and snapped back to reality.

"No! I mean...I’ll be fine!" She waved her hands quickly and ran toward Lime, then she crouched beside him and hesitated.

"Ahhhh..." She scratched her head awkwardly.

"I’ll just drag him with the blanket."

"Then use this."

Ezra tossed a rope toward her.

She caught it clumsily.

"What should I do with it?"

Before she could think further, Ezra walked over and gently took the rope from her hands.

He drew out his dagger and pierced holes into the four corners of the blanket with steady precision.

Then he threaded the rope through the holes from the leg side up toward the head, forming a crude body bag structure that would prevent Lime from slipping out.

He handed her the loose ends.

"Pull from here."

Aliya nodded.

Ezra then bent down and lifted Bobby into his arms carefully, supporting his back and legs securely.

Without saying anything more, he stepped out of the cage, Aliya dragged Lime behind her as she followed.

The moment both of them exited...

Clank.

Their cage door locked shut.

"Nathalia... bye!" Aliya called out, forcing a small wave as she hurried behind Ezra toward the new bridge.

The stone bridge trembled slightly under their steps.

When they reached the door at the end, it opened briefly to allow them through.

Then...

It closed; the extended bridge slowly retracted back into the wall.

The grinding of gears echoed once more.

Silence returned.

A second later...

The locks on Nathalia’s group cage clicked open.

Nathalia and Scott rushed out immediately.

They knelt beside Zack.

Nathalia quickly grabbed his space bag and searched through it with trembling hands.

"Please... please..."

Her fingers brushed against a small glass vial.

"There!" She pulled out a healing elixir.

Without hesitation, she tilted Zack’s head slightly and poured the liquid into his open mouth.

The effect was almost immediate.

Bones shifted under his skin with faint cracking sounds. The swelling reduced gradually. The blood vanished. His shattered facial structure slowly returned to its original form.

Scott stared in silence.

Once Zack’s breathing stabilized and his face fully repaired, Scott lifted him onto his shoulder and carried him back inside the cage.

Nathalia followed closely behind.

The door shut once again.

***

"That’s how it went down," Nathalia finished with a tired sigh.

She leaned her back against the cold stone wall of the cage, arms folded loosely, eyes lowered.

"Tsk... that was my only healing elixir," Zack muttered, frowning faintly.

He adjusted the way he sat, testing his jaw slightly as if making sure everything was aligned properly.

"At least it saved your life," Daniella replied flatly, crossing her legs on the ground.

"Oh," Nathalia added after a moment, glancing around the chamber, "we also had to move into their cage. Since we’re the losing team, we remain here now."

Zack let out a quiet breath.

Without another word, he reached into his space bag and brought out a new pair of glasses stored carefully in a hard case. He opened it slowly, wiped the lenses clean with the small napkin inside, then slid them onto his face.

His vision returned to clarity.

He looked ahead silently.

"Now we wait," he said finally. "Until another group reaches this stage."

The words felt heavier than they sounded.

***

Hours passed, or maybe days.

As explained, inside the maze tunnel, there was no sunlight, no windows and no sense of time. The firelight flickered constantly, shadows shifting against the stone walls.

Bobby’s eyelids fluttered. "Ahh..."

He groaned softly and raised a hand to his head. Pain pulsed sharply behind his eyes.

"You’re finally awake."

Lime’s voice reached him first.

Bobby blinked until his vision adjusted.

"Fire?"

He felt the warmth before he fully registered the campfire crackling nearby. The smell of smoke filled the air.

"Where are we?" he asked slowly, turning his head.

His eyes landed on them...

Four massive stone doors positioned evenly around the chamber.

"Four doors?" he repeated, confusion rising in his voice.

"Yeah," Lime replied, shifting his position.

He was sitting close to Bobby, shirtless, with thick bandages wrapped tightly around his stomach. His skin was bruised in several places, though he tried to sit casually.

"I got shocked too when I first saw it," Lime admitted. "Looks like Stage Five might be an individual stage."

"Individual?!" Bobby attempted to push himself up.

Pain stabbed through his head instantly.

"Ah..."

He dropped back down.

"What are we going to do?"

"For now? Nothing," Lime said, resting his chin against his palm. "We’re just resting."

He paused, then added:

"Ezra decided to give Aliya and me some pointers on our mistakes during our one-on-one fights."

Bobby blinked slowly.

"Ezra’s training you?"

"Yeah."

Lime let out a dry chuckle.

"Where’s Ezra and Aliya?" Bobby asked, turning his head left and right but seeing only stone walls and flickering shadows.

"They’re sparring," Lime replied. "It should’ve been my turn again, but Aliya kept forcing more time for her spars."

He clicked his tongue.

"I know she just wants to enjoy spending time with him, but at least don’t steal my growth time."

He shook his head dramatically.

"Tsk, tsk."

Then he leaned closer to Bobby.

"That’s what I would say if I wasn’t scared of his training methods."

He shivered slightly.

"How does that scrawny-looking guy train like that?" he muttered under his breath.

"Ezra... is training everyone?" Bobby asked again, eyes widening a little.

"Yeah." Lime’s lips curved upward.

"I can’t wait to see your face when you join."

His smile slowly turned malicious.

Bobby felt a small chill.

"Lime!!"

Aliya’s voice echoed from the other side of the chamber.

"It’s your turn!"

Lime stiffened and exhaled deeply.

"...Okay."

He stood up slowly, adjusting his bandage slightly.

He glanced back at Bobby before walking toward the direction of the voice.

"Bobby’s finally awake, guys!" Lime called out.

"He is?" Aliya’s voice answered brightly. "That’s great!"

Bobby lay back down, staring up at the rough stone ceiling above him. The firelight flickered across the uneven surface.

He swallowed.

He remembered the intensity of Sir Veda’s training sessions, the little bruises, the exhaustion and the drills until he almost collapsed.

"He can’t be worse than Sir Veda’s training... right?" Bobby muttered to himself.

A weak laugh escaped his lips, but somewhere deep inside...

He wasn’t confident about that at all.