I leaned on the door to close it. For a second, the whole world seemed to stop spinning, and the battle that had raged in the cocoon felt like a distant nightmare. I took a breath, trying to steady my shaking hands. My whole body was buzzing with leftover adrenaline, but beneath that, a bone-deep exhaustion had settled in.

  The cold air stung my lungs with every breath, and every muscle should’ve ached from the punishment they’d taken. But the nanites made every physical ache and pain disappear. I didn’t know how long it was going to take the demoness to catch up, but if she was just hanging there, she likely did so out of necessity. She’s getting low on mana. There may be hope yet.

  I took a tentative step. I limped toward the exit of the room, not in pain, but exhaustion. Lifting each leg grew increasingly difficult. Each step felt heavier than the last, like my limbs were weighed down by invisible weights.

  You must conserve your energy. Orange’s voice piped up in my head.

  Talking would’ve taken more energy than I had. Thinking was pushing the limits of my endurance. Not yet. Killa will help. Killa wants to help. I need her help. Take me to her. Tell me how to get to her.

  Head towards the door opposite of the host.

  I followed Orange’s directions. Making my way back to the icy steps that led back to the previous floor. As I walked, an eerie quiet haunted me. There were no more traps to trigger. The spider was dead now, which meant no more swinging pendulums, rolling boulders, collapsing ceilings, puppeteered golems, spinning saw blades, raining blades, none of it. That should have been comforting, but instead, the stillness felt oppressive. I found myself holding my breath thinking that a trap would trigger again.

  Each step I took was cautious, half-expecting another trap to spring up from the floor or ceiling. But nothing happened. No webs, no shifting walls—nothing. It was like the entire place had died with the spider.

  Orange led me through many of the same rooms I had already been through, their traps already deployed and derelict. The few new rooms they led me through were because the room I had been in collapsed.

  My body was on autopilot, each movement was an effort just to stay upright. As I walked, my thoughts started to wander. Somehow, I’d survived everything—the traps, the close calls, the demoness, and that nightmarish spider creature. It’s over. Well, almost. The demoness is still coming for me, but I can beat her. She’s just as worn out as me.

  If the shaylip’s estimate of the slime’s capabilities are true, and once the poison affecting them is cleared, the probability for survival increases by three hundred percent.

  Killa will be okay. She has to be.

  As I reached the steps to the third floor again, a strange sense of euphoria washed over me. I made it.

  Finally!

  Each door had led to the next quiet room. They were all empty. The cold stillness was unsettling. The meager light shimmered in the icy steps that still hadn’t melted.

  A sense of peace washed over me as I let myself be lost in my simple reflection of them. It was better than the chaos of each room I’d left behind. My mind was foggy, but things just felt a little lighter. Everything felt sluggish, but I couldn’t forget the feeling of my pursuer’s unbridled loathing.

  I better continue.

  Walking up the icy steps was expectantly slippery, but reaching the third floor again made every nightmarish minute I endured on the floor below me nonexistent. Euphoria like I’d never experienced before washed over me as I let myself finally accept that it was over. Every trap, every close call, every run in with my demonic stalker, the spider creature that manipulated every room—all of it was over. As the feeling settled, my exhaustion eased up to a more manageable level again.

  The only thing left is to get back to Gary, get Killa, and get out.

  I didn’t know where Bark was, he wasn’t where I left him. My feelings for him were still conflicted.

  Hopefully he took the time to cool down and think.

  We believe it is in the host’s best interests to avoid contact with the shaylip.

  Well, if he apologizes, I think I can forgive him. He’ll need to apologize to Killa too. She might be harder to earn forgiveness from. If she doesn’t want to continue with him, I’ll respect that and continue with her. I always liked her more.

  I walked through the empty rooms. There was no sign of Bark and his pack was where he left it.

  Gary’s room was a bittersweet sight. Killa was there, but she was still nothing more than a puddle. Through it all, she wasn’t dead. There was movement coming from her.

  The black oil was pooling on the top of her before slowly running off to the side. Desperate to save my last remaining friend, I slid onto my knees next to her. I scooped the oil off her as best I could. It took several attempts to get it all, and I may have taken some more parts of Killa with it.

  Once the last of the oil was off her, she started to reform into her body. Yet all she could manage was the head and shoulders. While she did manage that, her features were rounded and undefined.

  “Killa? Killa, speak to me, nod, anything. Please tell me you're alright.” I inched myself closer.

  Killa’s head bobbed for a moment. Her mouth opened and the only thing that came out was a weak wheeze. When her voice failed, she gave a slow nod.

  I nearly burst into tears.

  The saying, “You don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone.” couldn’t feel more appropriate. However, if you can reclaim what was lost, there’s an indescribable relief. A longing gripped my heart. I needed to hold onto Killa, physically and metaphorically.

  “Bark was right, you’ll be fine.” I cupped Killa’s cheek. Her body was more malleable and slimy than usual. “I thought I’d lost you. Don’t worry, I won’t leave again. We’ll get out of this place the moment you’re ready. If we never find Bark, that’s fine too.”

  The slime woman gave me a wide, droopy smile. As I let out a long exhausted sigh, footsteps sounded behind me. I turned around to see Bark walking out from behind Gary. The crazed look in his eyes had only intensified.

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  How? My heart skipped as I froze. He sprinted towards me. After I wrestled control from my instincts, I turned to run away. I got on step before bark grabbed me by the collar of my jacket. One tug and I was off my feet and my back slammed into a wall. He had an iron grip on my shoulder this time.

  “Rina, this is for the greater good.” Bark pulled back one of his swords before driving it into my stomach. “It’s not for you to decide whether I can or can’t risk my life. The sooner I get your nanites, the better. If we wait too long, it may be too late.”

  I grabbed the blade and tried to pull it out, but Bark pushed back and was much stronger than me. “You need to stop this! The demon’s coming back. She’s still alive and chasing me. We don’t have time for this.”

  “On that we can agree.” He sliced the palm of one of his free hands and then stabbed me in the shoulder. The blade slid inside my collarbone, and I started feeling the nanites working to repair the wound in my gut.

  Bark pulled the blade from my shoulder and dug his cut hand into the wound. The nanites started working on the shoulder wound, and I could feel them pushing out his fingers as they repaired the damage. But the sword prevented my stomach from getting healed.

  I gripped the sword even tighter as I closed my eyes. He’s willing to hurt Killa and me to get what he wants. He never cared for me. It was my nanites he didn’t want to lose. I was stupid. He played with my emotions. I wanted him to be a friend.

  After Bark’s fingers were pushed out of my shoulder by the nanites, he pulled out the sword, and I dropped to the ground, not realizing I couldn’t move my legs. He hit my spine, didn’t he?

  Yes, the host’s spine is damaged. Repairs are in progress.

  My legs twisted at unnatural angles, but I didn’t feel any pain until the buzzing where the sword had cut through me continued. The pain was the first thing I felt, as I then felt that I could move them.

  The entire time, I stared at Bark, who wouldn’t look away from his trembling hand. “It tingles. Is it supposed to feel like that?” He dropped his sword and dagger as he stumbled back several steps. “Did it work?”

  I coughed up another spot of blood as I could feel my lung finishing healing. “The tingle means the nanites are working.”

  Bark’s eyes widened. “I did it. It’s really happening.”

  He just ruined any chance at forgiveness with that. For the first time, I felt hatred towards the shaylip. This was no longer just something he did in the heat of the moment, this was premeditated. He didn’t care about me. He wanted one thing. And he got them.

  I pushed myself up. “Was it worth it? I hope it was because after we leave here, I never want to see you again.”

  Bark snapped his attention to me. “Why? What’s wrong?” He grabbed my shoulders. “Don’t you see? Together, we can save my people now. I can finally be free of this hell.”

  I slipped from his grip and ran away from him. “What’s wrong? You attacked me. Then you followed me.” I pointed to Killa, who hadn’t reformed herself completely yet. “You attacked Killa. All because you thought that you could get my nanites. Even after we told you it wouldn’t work or that it was dangerous and that it could kill you, you wouldn’t stop.”

  My voice rose even higher. “Then you hide in here and ambush me to stab me through the stomach and spine. No, I thought you were friendly. Killa told me you were friendly. But now—now I don’t know who you are.”

  “Rina, I never wanted for it to go this far.” His voice quivered. “But I need to be stronger to save my people. Your nanites are the strongest thing I’ve seen. If I have your nanites, I can make a difference—a real difference. I’m not the first to try to save my people. But we’re still trapped. Nobody’s succeeded. I didn’t want to be yet another failure.”

  I held my hand to my shoulder. Even though the wound was gone, I could still feel its sting. “I can’t trust you anymore. You’re as bad as that assassin who’s been hounding me all day. There’s no reasoning, no excuses, nothing that can fix this. We’re through. I meant it. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  Killa, who had finally reformed herself, threw her arms up and yellow tentacles wrapped around Bark’s arms and legs. They pulled him into the wall as they restrained him. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right here, right now.”

  Bark looked at us. “You don’t understand! I was desperate. I know that. But I saw no other way. My people need to be freed from the Nexus, and I couldn’t let this chance slip away. Extreme goals require extreme measures.”

  Killa’s form rippled as she stared in disbelief. “How can you honestly believe that?”

  “There is no justification for any of this, Bark.” A tear slid down my face. “I trusted you. And you stabbed me. All you wanted were my nanites. Am I nothing else to you?”

  “I…” Bark started coughing. His cough didn’t sound right, but he swallowed hard and tried to talk again. “I’m sor…” He fell into another coughing fit. This time, blood flew out of his mouth.

  Bark’s face suddenly twisted in pain. Blood began seeping from the corners of his eyes. His nose started leaking blood too. Killa released him from her magic, and he fell to the ground as blood oozed from his pores. He staggered to his knees and rolled onto his back, clutching his chest.

  “Bark?” All traces of anger in Killa’s voice were gone.

  “I told him they would be unstable,” Gary chimed in. I almost forgot he was here. “The nanites are rejecting his body and purging his body of his DNA.”

  I turned to stare at the robotic head. “What can we do?”

  “Nothing,” he answered. “Bark will die. I warned him.”

  “But…”

  “You warned him.”

  He was warned twice, and still that didn’t stop him. The shaylip must face the consequences of his actions. Why is the host concerned with his health? He betrayed the host. The host said they didn’t want to see him again. Whether he lives or dies, it shouldn’t be of any consequence for the host.

  We did warn him. He did it anyway. I returned to watching Bark sprawl on the ground, convulsing as Killa knelt next to him, wanting to do something. I said I never wanted to see him again, but that didn’t mean I wanted to watch him die.

  Blood soaked his clothes and the floor as it continued to pool around Bark as his thrashing hit a new crescendo. Killa knelt in the same pool of blood, and I stood at the edge of it all.

  There has to be something I can do. They’re my nanites.

  The host can attempt to reincorpirate them into their body.

  How? Tell me what to do.

  The host will have to do what Bark did to them. Direct contact with the nanites in his system is mandatory. Then we will try to establish a connection to reabsorb them into the host.

  Direct contact, like just touching his blood?

  No. The host requires internal blood to internal blood contact.

  Hurt myself, got it. I looked down at the metal skin of my arms. That’s not going to be that easy.

  Grabbing my gun, I pointed it at the palm of my hand and fired. It didn’t pierce it. It only left a dent. The dent left me reeling in pain and taking sharp breaths to keep from yelling in pain. What now?

  My eyes ended on Gary. It was obvious. I ran up and placed my hand on the pedestal. “Gary, stab me!”

  The lights of his face flickered. “Why? I have already collected the data.”

  I clenched my teeth. “Because I’m trying to save Bark. Now just do it. He’s dying.”

  The panel with the handprint returned. I placed my hand on it, and within a fraction of a second, a metal spike shot through my hand and retracted just as quickly. Before my nanites could regenerate my hand, I darted back to Bark. I grabbed his knife and considered where to cut him.

  Create an opening on his left side by his ribs, but do not cut through the ribs only on the outside of them.

  I followed Orange’s instructions and plunged my hand under the skin flap. Even with the reduced feeling in my hands, brushing up against his ribs was disturbing. This is necessary to save him. It’s only a small cut. He’s had worse. All that matters is that he lives.

  Connection reestablished. Reclaiming lost assets…

  Something went wrong. My vision went black as my body went stiff. I couldn’t move, breathe, or even think.

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