"FATHER!"
Rico's scream tore through the smoke, a sound of absolute, childlike desperation.
The dungeon answered.
From the shadows of the collapsed archway, something stepped forward. It didn't walk; it *unfolded*. A mountain of muscle and malice, towering over the ruined hall. It was a Behemoth, an SSS+ Class Calamity, a creature of pure destruction. Its skin was like jagged basalt, and its eyes burned with the cold, indifferent light of a dying star.
Rico, charred and bleeding, looked up at the monster with desperate hope.
"Father!" he cried, pointing a trembling stump at Haruki, who was dragging Vorian toward the exit. "This is the porter! This is the insect who did this to me! Kill him! KILL HIM!"
Haruki froze. He turned his head slowly, looking up, and up, and up.
"Sol..." he thought, his mind reeling. "What... what type of monster is that?"
"Analysis complete," Sol said, his voice trembling for the first time. "SSS+ Rank. Ancient Behemoth. It's... it's a walking natural disaster."
*Fuck,* Haruki thought. He was battered, bruised, his mana empty, his body broken. The end was here. *It's been a long run, right?*
He braced himself for the end.
The Behemoth moved.
It stepped forward, past Haruki, ignoring him completely.
It raised a massive, club-like fist.
And it brought it down.
*CRACK.*
Not on Haruki.
On Rico.
The impact shook the dungeon. Rico was slammed into the floor, the stone cracking beneath him. The Demon didn't even have time to scream.
"Father...?" Rico wheezed, coughing up black blood.
The Behemoth kicked him. Hard. Rico skidded across the floor, his body flopping like a ragdoll, smashing into pillars, his remaining limbs twisting at wrong angles.
Haruki watched in horror.
Rico lay in a heap of rubble, his eyes wide, staring up at the monster he had called father. The shock on his face was absolute.
He didn't believe his eyes.
*I was never allowed to meet him,* Rico thought, the realization hitting him harder than the blows. *Mother threw me away. Father found me. But he never let me see him. Not like this.*
*It was this reason alone.*
*He wasn't raising a son. He was forging a tool.*
And now, the tool was flawed. Scratched. Worthless.
The Behemoth loomed over Rico, raising its foot to stomp again. To crush the mistake.
"I... I am your son," Rico whispered, the fight draining out of him. The burning fuel of his madness was gone, replaced by a cold, hollow despair. *I was just a piece of shit.*
Haruki watched.
He saw the look in Rico's eyes. The glassy, hollow stare of a boy who realized he was worth nothing to the person who mattered most.
Haruki knew that look.
He had seen it in the mirror. In the bathroom at school. After the shoves. After the insults. After the laughter.
*Betrayal isn't something new to me,* Haruki thought.
He looked at Vorian. He looked at the exit.
Then he looked at the broken boy on the ground.
*All he ever was to them... a piece of shit.*
Something inside Haruki snapped. Not his bones. Not his mind. Something else. A barrier he had built to survive.
"Haruki, don't," Sol warned. "He is the enemy."
"He's a kid," Haruki growled.
He moved.
He sprinted forward, ignoring the screaming of his muscles.
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!" Rax roared in his mind.
Haruki didn't answer. He dove into the rubble.
The Behemoth's foot was coming down.
Haruki grabbed Rico's collar.
"MOVE!" Haruki screamed, hauling the Demon boy up.
The foot slammed into the ground inches behind them. The shockwave sent them flying.
They crashed into a wall. Haruki took the impact, his ribs screaming.
He looked down at Rico. The Demon was staring at him, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.
"You... idiot," Haruki gasped, shaking Rico by the collar. "Why didn't you run?!"
Rico didn't answer. He was in too much shock. *Why?* he thought. *Why would this porter touch me? Why would he be with me? Why would he... save me?*
The Behemoth turned. It looked at the two boys huddled against the wall.
It opened its mouth. The sound that came out was not a roar. It was a grinding, ancient bass.
"He is my product," the Behemoth intoned, the voice vibrating in Haruki's chest. "You dare lay hands on him? You dare touch my creation?"
Haruki stood up, placing himself between the Behemoth and Rico.
He looked up at the monster.
"He isn't your product," Haruki said, his voice shaking but firm. "He is your child."
The Behemoth paused. Then, its eyes narrowed.
"Foolish."
It raised its hand. The air around it warped. Mana began to condense, swirling into a sphere of annihilation. A million units of mana energy, focused into a single point.
"Sol. Rax," Haruki thought. "What is he going to do?"
"He's charging a direct hit," Sol said, his voice losing all calm. "Point-blank. It will erase you."
"How can I save Rico?" Haruki asked.
Rico looked up at Haruki, hearing his own name in the boy's thoughts. *You are still thinking about me?*
Silence in the systems.
Then, Sol spoke.
"There is one way. We can use the last of our admin privileges to seal him. Absorb him into a System Orb. We can store him in the Archive temporarily to protect him from the blast."
"Do it," Haruki said instantly.
"But Haruki," Rax said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "To do that... we have to drop our shields. We have to funnel everything into the seal. There will be nothing left to protect *you*."
"Do it," Haruki repeated.
"Ther wouldn't be an existence left of you if you do this," Sol said softly.
"If that happens," Haruki said, closing his eyes for a second. "You both inhabit Rico's mind. Escape. Survive."
Sol went silent.
For the first time in a thousand years, a system felt something it wasn't programmed to feel.
A single, digital tear manifested in the mindscape.
"Understood," Sol whispered.
Rax was in disbelief. "Sol..."
"Focus straight," Sol commanded, his voice breaking. "The faster we seal Rico, the faster we can help Haruki. Just... focus."
"Right."
They turned their attention to the task.
The Behemoth's hand was fully charged. The light was blinding. It was a sun held in the palm of a god.
"Goodbye," the Behemoth said.
It launched the attack.
"SEAL!" Haruki screamed.
[INITIATING EMERGENCY SEAL]
[TARGET: RICO RUBAN]
[ENERGY COST: ALL REMAINING]
A blue light flashed around Rico. He was pulled into a small, glowing orb in Haruki's hand just as the white light of the Behemoth's blast consumed the world.
The seal was complete.
And then, there was nothing but light.
TO BE CONTINUED...