OP Absorption

Scarlet pushed herself off the wall, swaying, looking like she might collapse.

"It seemed like the only choice, Boss! It was that or let those Unit 7 freaks use her as a damn human shield! I was a little busy, y'know, not dying!"

Her voice was defensive, angry. But underneath it, Fin heard the fear.

She knew. She knew what a terrible gamble she'd made with Mara's life.

He didn't waste time arguing.

He turned back to the sealed door. The one with the dark, unsettling runes.

The door he'd sworn to himself he'd never touch again.

The strain on his domain, from the two previous portal jumps and the forceful repulsion from the Lock, was immense. It screamed in protest.

His head throbbed violently. Black spots danced in his vision.

'I can't. I can't open it again. Not now.'

"Arachne," he said, his voice strained. "Can you open that door from this side without... me?"

He hated asking.

So Fin put his hand out, his fingers shaking just a little, and he touched that cold door with all the weird marks on it.

The second he did, it was like, boom, this super cold feeling, way colder than any ice, shot right up his arm and slammed into his chest. That Mark of Dominance thing he had just flared up like a bonfire, all red and black, and man, it hurt like crazy. For a second, he couldn't see anything but white, and he heard this loud roaring noise, like a giant storm was happening right inside his own head. He could also feel his domain, his special place, starting to actually rip apart, which was a seriously bad feeling.

'No, man, stop, this is too much,' a part of his brain was screaming.

But another part of him, a colder part that felt super guilty about Mara and just really didn't want to let her down, pushed back hard. He bit his lip so hard it started to bleed, and then he just pulled. Not with his actual muscles, but with, like, all his willpower and whatever was left of his messed-up powers.

He just dumped everything he had into that Mark, trying to force a connection with the Abyssal Lock.

The marks on the door started glowing like mad, with this nasty, hungry light, changing from a gross purple to a super deep black that looked like it would just suck you right in. The air in the tunnel started crackling, and it smelled like ozone mixed with blood and burnt metal. It was a really disgusting smell, like death and decay were having a party.

Scarlet yelled out, a choked kind of sound, because these black energy things suddenly whipped out from the door and almost zapped her. Arachne jumped in front of Scarlet, and for a second, some shadowy stuff flared around Arachne, but then it just poofed away. Arachne gasped and a bit of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

"My Lord, stop it!" Arachne managed to say, sounding pretty desperate. "You're gonna kill yourself! The domain—"

But Fin couldn't stop. He was pretty much in a fight with something super old and huge, something that felt like a dead universe was trying to squash him. The door made this awful groaning sound, like metal being tortured. Then, super slowly, this tiny crack of pure blackness started to open up along the edge of the door.

And it wasn't just dark; it was like an active, hungry nothing that was trying to eat the very air around it.

Fin let out this huge roar that just ripped out of his throat, and he threw all his willpower at the Lock. The crack got wider. The door shook, and then it scraped open inwards, just enough for someone to squeeze through.

The payback hit him instantly.

Fin got thrown backwards like something huge and invisible had just punched him super hard. He slammed into the other wall of the tunnel so hard he saw stars, and then he just slid down to the floor. His arms and legs felt totally numb, and his chest was just one big block of pain. The Mark was just a dull, throbbing spot now, almost like it was about to go out. His domain felt like a broken mirror, all its connections messed up, and its power was just draining away into nothing.

He couldn't move. He could barely even breathe.

"Boss!" Scarlet's voice cut through the ringing in his ears, and she sounded super panicked. He felt her good hand, rough and kind of scraped up, shaking his shoulder. "Fin! Get up! Damn it, get up!"

Arachne was already at the tiny opening of the Abyssal Lock, trying to see into the crazy darkness inside. "Mara!" she called out, her voice tight with worry. "Can you hear me?"

Nothing. Just the quiet, creepy hum of the Lock itself.

"She's in there," Fin managed to get out, his voice rough and weak. His ribs really, really hurt. "Gotta… get her." He tried to push himself up, but his arms just wouldn't listen to him.

"You're not going anywhere, you idiot," Scarlet snapped, and she sounded surprisingly fierce, not her usual sarcastic self. She looked over at Arachne. "Can you…?"

Arachne nodded, her face grim. "I will retrieve her." She took a deep breath, and then, without even hesitating for a second, she slipped right through that narrow, dark opening into the Abyssal Lock.

The seconds felt like they were stretching out forever. Fin just lay there, totally helpless, listening to Scarlet breathing hard and fast beside him, the distant, angry hum of the Lock, and the terrifying quiet from inside. His vision was starting to blur. He knew he was about to pass out; everything was just too much.

'No… not yet…'

Then, he saw movement at the opening. Arachne came back out, and she was half-dragging, half-carrying someone who was totally limp.

Mara.

She was out cold, her face super pale and smudged with dirt. Her clothes were torn, and she had this nasty dark bruise spreading across her forehead. But she was breathing. It was shallow and rough, but she was breathing.

Arachne stumbled as she pulled Mara away from the doorway, and she was clearly running on empty herself. "She was… just inside," Arachne panted, leaning hard against the tunnel wall for support. "Lying on the floor. Not responding. But… alive." She looked back at the dark opening, and her eyes were wide with this deep, lingering fear. "The… the entity within… it didn't seem to notice her. Or it… dismissed her as insignificant."

Scarlet rushed over and quickly checked Mara's pulse with her good hand. "It's weak, but it's there. We need to get her out of here, Boss. Right now." She looked at Fin, and her eyes were full of this desperate, urgent look. "And you too. You look like actual death warmed over."

Fin forced his eyes to focus. Mara was alive. That was the most important thing. Everything else could wait. He pushed himself up, ignoring how much every nerve in his body was screaming in protest. The world tilted like crazy.

"Portal," he grunted, pushing Scarlet away when she tried to help him up. "My domain. Now."

He reached for his power, for that connection to his castle. It felt super weak, like trying to grab smoke. But it was there. Just barely.

With a huge effort of will, he ripped open another gateway. It was tiny, and really unstable, flickering like mad. The view through it was all wavy, like looking through a heat haze on a hot day. It looked less like a door and more like a star that was about to burn out.

"That thing ain't gonna last long," Scarlet said, sounding grim. She picked Mara up pretty gently with her good arm, wincing when it obviously hurt her broken one. "Arachne, you go first. Then me and the package. Boss, you come last, and try not to pass out until we're through."

Arachne nodded, her face a stiff mask of pain and total exhaustion. She didn't argue. She just slipped through the shaky portal.

Scarlet followed, holding Mara carefully. She stopped right at the edge and looked back at Fin. "Come on, Boss," she urged, her voice a bit softer than usual. "Let's go home."

Fin stumbled towards the portal. Every step was agony. The darkness was closing in on him again. He could feel the Abyssal Lock behind him, like this cold, hungry thing, and he knew, with a chilling certainty, that tiny opening he'd made in its door wasn't going to stay open much longer. And it definitely wouldn't forget him messing with it a second time.

He made it to the portal, and then his legs just gave out from under him. He fell right through it, into the nice, familiar coolness of his own domain, just as the gateway behind him collapsed. It made a sound like a whole lot of glass shattering and a final, hopeless shriek that seemed to come from deep inside the Valerius Spire.

The main hall of the castle was super quiet except for some ragged gasps and the soft thud when Fin's unconscious body hit the stone floor.

Meg had been pacing like crazy near the archway, and she rushed forward, her face a total mess of fear and relief. "Fin! Oh, gods, Fin!"

Scarlet, still holding Mara, stumbled a few steps away from where the portal had just vanished. She was panting hard. She looked down at Fin, who wasn't moving at all, then at Arachne, who was leaning heavily against a nearby pillar with her eyes closed, her chest heaving up and down.

"Well," Scarlet rasped out, and her lips twisted into a grimace as pain shot through her broken arm. "That was… monumentally stupid. And probably fatal for his pretty little pocket dimension." She looked around the huge hall, and there was this new, uneasy look in her eyes. The usual hum of the castle's power felt… weaker. Kind of off-key. Like a badly tuned guitar.