Apocalypse: becoming the hidden Ruler

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Suddenly, the emergency lights in the ward turned red. The doctor spun around and rushed inside.

Axel's body was glowing—glowing—as if an internal light was sweeping through him, searing his organs as it went. His skin flushed bright red, steam pouring from his pores. The instruments were screaming.

"Defibrillator!"

"Cooling spray! Now!"

"Get every kind of Force pill we have, bring them all!"

The doctor glanced at the monitor again—and his stomach dropped.

He came back out seconds later, pale.

"It's happening," he said heavily. "His Force is running out. He can't cast anymore. Pills aren't doing a damn thing."

"Are you saying…?" Rosaline didn't finish the sentence.

The doctor looked them in the eyes. "He can't hold on. You need to prepare yourselves."

Phoenix lunged forward, grabbing the doctor's coat in a panic. "There's got to be something! A better drug, a better treatment—I've got money!"

"Phoenix." Vince's hand came down on his shoulder, firm but not unkind.

"It's not about money," he said. "If there was a way, he'd have told us already."

The doctor nodded grimly. "There's only one option left: a level-five or higher healing Awakener. If you can get one here in ten minutes, I might be able to stabilize him."

"I can only hold him together for that long. After that…" His voice dropped. "It's out of our hands."

Phoenix slumped into a chair, gripping his hair, breathing heavily like a man on the verge of snapping.

"Let me in." The voice was soft but urgent, with a slight tremble—like someone trying not to cry.

Everyone turned toward the corridor and saw a slim figure standing there. Pale, small, and shaken—it was Annabelle.

Rosaline took a breath, she managed a tight smile. "Annabelle, your brother's going to be okay."

But Annabelle didn't respond. Her eyes were locked on Rosaline, wide and glassy.

"Let me in," she repeated, firmer this time.

The doctor stepped up, blocking the doorway with a frown. "Kid, there's nothing you can do in there. Don't cause trouble."

She looked so young—barely a teenager, maybe fourteen at most. But Annabelle didn't back down. She just stared up at the doctor with quiet determination.

"Let her go," Rosaline finally said, her voice low. She couldn't stand to look at Annabelle's eyes any longer.

Inside the ward, the rescue attempt had already stopped. The hospital had done everything it could—but against injuries caused by a Level 4 Awakener, this was the limit of what their tech and treatment could manage.

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The heart monitor beeped—weak, slowing. The line between life and death was razor-thin now.

Annabelle gently closed the door behind her and approached Axel's battered body. Her composure cracked the moment she touched him.

She dropped to her knees, holding his hand, crying in silence.

"Why, brother?" she whispered, throat raw. "Why'd you throw your life away like this? If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have had to do any of this…"

Her hand shook as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.

Then she stood, forcing herself upright with a grim set to her jaw.

"You're not the kind of person without a backup plan. You always have a way out." She looked him straight in the face, even though his eyes were closed. "You promised you'd take me to the amusement park, remember?"

Her voice cracked again. "So what now, huh? What do I do if you die?"

Choking back another sob, she leaned over him, forehead to his chest, tears soaking into his hospital gown.

After a while, her grief gave way to focus.

She began searching his body.

The others outside the room didn't know how Axel had managed to keep casting Healing while unconscious—but Annabelle had an idea. He had to have used a life crystal. It was the only explanation.

And if he'd stopped, it meant the crystals were used up. Axel never bet everything on a single card. Not ever.

Years of watching him, fighting beside him, living in his shadow—she knew how he worked.

She also knew her own life crystals were almost depleted, and with Axel's Force now at a much higher level, what little she had left wouldn't help him.

"Brother," she murmured, voice hollow. "If you die… I'll follow."

Her hands were trembling as she ran them over his ruined body, trying to find something—anything. She knew that: no one else could know about the life crystals. They were their most tightly guarded secret.

Which meant Axel would never carry a spare in his pocket.

She'd already checked his clothes, every inch. Nothing. So if he had hidden one, it had to be inside his body.

Annabelle's heart nearly stopped at the thought. She closed her eyes, took a breath.

And when she opened them again, her pupils flashed red—like polished garnet catching firelight.

Outside the room, the Obsidian team waited. Using an infected's "awakening skill" in front of them was dangerous—reckless, even. But Annabelle didn't care.

In this state, her senses shifted. She could feel the flow of blood, the rhythm of Force, the subtle pulse of energy beneath skin and bone.

And she found it.

"Got you…" she whispered.

She tore off the bandage from one side of Axel's torso. Her nails lengthened unnaturally—and then plunged into the wound.

A flash of red light. Blood welled up around her hand.

Then she pulled it free.

In her palm gleamed a bloody life crystal.

The fragment of the life crystal in Annabelle's hand pulsed with a dense, radiant energy. Its power was so intense that her instincts screamed at her to devour it—but she forced the urge down.

This wasn't for her.

She stared at the wound it came from. So that was it—Axel had known. He must have realized that once he passed out, all his secrets would be laid bare. That's why he embedded the life crystal inside a wound, sealing it shut by forcefully activating Healing one last time—regenerating skin and flesh over it so it looked normal.

It wasn't just any life crystal. This one belonged to Maxen.

No wonder Axel hadn't used it right away. He hadn't expected Maxen's awakening skill to be so brutal—so potent that even in death, its effects were still burning him alive from the inside out.

"Brother… I found it," she whispered, voice trembling. "Can you hear me?"

She pressed the blood-soaked crystal into Axel's hand. But even as she did, her joy was laced with a chill.

If he'd been carrying this the whole time… why didn't he use it sooner?

"I'll wait for you to wake up. Then we'll go to that amusement park, just like you promised."

Annabelle sat down beside him again, completely drained. Her voice cracked, her body still, but her grip on his hand never loosened.

Just a few minutes earlier.

Out in the corridor, the Obsidian team kept their distance from the ward. Everyone knew the siblings needed this moment, and no one wanted to interrupt.

Still, something shifted.

Rosaline's expression tightened. She glanced at Vince. He was already looking at her.

"You felt that?" she asked under her breath.

"You too?" he replied.

They both had—the briefest flash of something sharp and wrong. A pulse of energy. Infected energy.

It had come from the ward.

"Could it be... Axel?" Rosaline's stomach twisted. Vince's jaw clenched. It was possible—more than possible.

They had all seen how violently Axel had burned through the Force just to stay alive. If he pushed past his limit—if his body collapsed under the pressure—he could've crossed the line.

He could've turned.

"Get his sister out—now."

They didn't wait. No warnings. No protocol. They slammed the door open—

And froze.