The blood-red hue spread so intensely, unfolding like a cruel scroll, reflecting onto every corner of the earth and enveloping everything within it.

"J..."

Silas Thorne emitted a breathy sound, but it was choked back by the churning emotions in his throat. He could only struggle to suppress his breathing, attempting to hold back the collapse of his inner self, yet he could not mask the traces of his agony.

Picking up the dead, powered-off communicator, Silas felt his chest tighten to the point of bursting. Unable to relieve the sorrow in his heart, he sprang up abruptly and shouted her name.

Was it she who had left the wedding ring here on purpose, intentionally wanting to see him in a state of regret, pretending to commit suicide just to garner his attention?

Silas gasped for breath, a demonic smile on his face, mocking and terrified, horrifyingly grotesque.

But there was nothing. Nothing at all.

An entire night passed.

In this dawn destined to be forgotten, Silas walked alone along the edge of the ruins. His footsteps echoed in the empty, broken walls, appearing exceptionally heavy.

The darkness behind him followed like a shadow, like an invisible behemoth devouring his remaining reason and hope.

The path ahead, however, was void. Confusion shrouded his vision like a dense fog. The emptiness in his heart was as biting as a bone-chilling wind, and every breath carried the pain of being torn apart.

He stopped, his fingertips touching the coldness of the communicator. He slowly pulled it out; the faint light on the screen reflected his haggard face.

He pressed the number for the base law enforcement team, held the communicator close to his ear, and waited, his fingertips trembling slightly.

"This is the Law Enforcement Team. How can we help you?"

"...Someone is missing, in the B-13 ruins outside the base."

"Understood. Please stay in contact and remain calm. The enforcement officers will be there shortly. What is your relationship to the missing person?"

"...She is... my... wife..."

The man who had always been running away took off his glasses and crouched on the ground, his once cold and aloof face full of exhaustion and sorrow.

He felt the emptiness around him was terrifying. How could he feel so uneasy? He was supposed to have stopped loving her, so why, when truly facing the fact of losing her, was he...

The dispatcher on the other end of the line heard the caller’s hoarse voice and painful gasps and hurriedly tried to soothe his emotions.

"Sir, please calm down. Believe that the Law Enforcement Team will find your wife. Could you provide her basic information?"

Silas, face gaunt, his phoenix eyes bloodshot, answered her.

After hanging up, the enforcement officers had arrived.

He wanted to put on his mask like before, but in his daze, he discovered he had lost the courage to follow his own path. He had become timid and fearful, afraid of every incident that shouldn't have happened.

After searching for hours with the enforcement team and rescue ability users, the realization dawned on the team members: the woman they were looking for had likely met with misfortune, and now they were simply waiting to find her body deep within the ruins.

Silas watched the imagery reconstructed by the scout ability user. He could see that frail silhouette take off her ring, resolutely clutch the urn, and jump into the zombie king’s lair. The zombie horde instantly swallowed her; she hadn't struggled in the slightest, disappearing into the darkness in an instant.

His hands were clenched into fists, as if he were about to pierce his own palms. His stomach, long deprived of food, spasmed with a cramp, leaving his face so pale he could barely stand.

The gap between his arrival and Selene Rivers’ departure was only half an hour.

Just a fraction.

Just that half-hour.

What was he doing at that time?

If he had followed her the moment she left, would this have happened?

Just like with Andy, his... son. It was also his error in a split second that left him in the sea of fire at the academy.

Silas’s vision went black. His brain swam, and he was steadied by the enforcement officers. His eyes were so dry they ached. He panted heavily, surrounded by endless regret and bewilderment.

After a while, he managed to steady his breathing and refused the officers' suggestion to rest. He had to see Selene Rivers with his own eyes.

Whether she was alive... or dead.

Chapter 12

She couldn't be found.

Perhaps Selene Rivers had been carried away by the zombie tide, drifting with the flow.

Perhaps she had sunk to the deepest part of the lair with the urn in her arms, forever asleep beneath the earth.

The man had been on the move for over a dozen hours. The exhaustion of body and mind plunged him into chaos. He couldn't think, his vision blurry, and eventually, unable to hold on, he blacked out.

Thud—

Opening his eyes again, Silas looked somewhat sluggishly at the familiar yet strange scene before him.

The wind blew the door open, revealing a picture he had seen countless times.

Selene Rivers, with her delicate features and slightly curled hair, sat quietly at her desk.

Her white, jade-like fingertips gripped a fountain pen. As the breeze ruffled the paper, the theory of purification ability flowed from her pen tip.

Her lowered lashes fluttered gently in the dim light, her expression focused and serene. It was the time Silas found most heart-stirring when he was with her.

Silas stared at her blankly. The safe-zone light from the base filtering through the window made her figure blurry, as if a layer of sheer gauze separated their worlds.

He could vaguely smell a hint of earth and gunpowder on his nose, near and far, like some reality he couldn't reach.

He felt as if he had forgotten something. His chest was tight and aching, as if pressed by a giant stone; even breathing became heavy.

He was terrified that if he opened his mouth, the person before him would dissipate like a phantom, never to be found again.

Perhaps his gaze was too intense. Selene Rivers looked up, the corners of her rosy lips curving slightly upward, as if she were saying something to him.

Silas couldn't hear her voice. His gaze rested on the hair constantly swaying at her temple, and he instinctively wanted to step forward to tuck that loose strand behind her ear.

The moment he took a step forward, the scene before him vanished abruptly.

The purification manuscript remained on the desk, the curtains swayed gently in the wind, as if nothing had ever happened.

The entire world seemed to be left with him alone, standing lonely in the empty room, calling out confusedly and helplessly: "...Selene Rivers?"

A hand suddenly pulled his palm from behind. Silas instinctively turned his head, and before him was a magnificent display of fireworks.

Splendid fireworks bloomed in the sky above the base; couples passing by leaned into each other, laughter and joy filling every corner of the air.

"Silas."

The familiar voice made him unable to help turning back, his face full of daze and sorrow.

He looked at the blurry face before him; his heart was squeezed by an invisible hand, and the suffocating pain made him unable to breathe.

"I hope we can always be this good, don't you?"

Her voice was still gentle, her deep brown eyes looking at him with a glimmer of light.

Moist liquid fell onto Silas’s face, tears blurring his vision, making him unable to see her expression clearly.

He struggled to get closer, wanting to grab her, but found his body unable to move. He could only stand in place, letting his tears flow wantonly.

"If one day I leave first..." Her voice sounded again, carrying a sense of detached relief.

"Don't say it!" Silas woke up with a start, sat up, and gasped for air, his face covered in tear stains.

He looked around; what came into view was the white-washed paint of the medical station. The pungent smell of disinfectant made him realize he had just had a cruel dream.

Buzz— The vibration of a communicator came from the table; it was an unfamiliar call.

He numbly answered the call. Before he could speak, the malicious words from the other side pierced his ears like sharp blades: "You are just a shameless murderer! When are you going to die!"

Without waiting for his reaction, the other side hung up, leaving him clutching the communicator, the fury and helplessness in his heart burning and intertwining.

Silas’s face was gloomy. He picked up the small communicator and entered Selene’s birthday, trying to unlock it, but failed. He hesitated for a moment and entered his own birthday; likewise, it was fruitless.

Finally, he tremblingly entered his son’s birthday.

The communicator clicked open.

His heart began to race. He opened the messages, and dense torrents of abuse surged into his sight like a flood.