“Go on kid, if you stay here for too long you might end up dead.” Damian said as he maintained his focus on Aeolus.

‘Okay this is the major league for sure, I’ll just follow big red’s advice here.’ Alex thought as he quietly walked away from there. But as soon as he took a few steps wind blew in front of him. It caused him to slide a step back from the force and shut his eyes close. When he opened them, he saw Damian was holding Aeolus’s fist in a block.

“Can’t you run kid!?” Damian shouted.

“Y-yeah I’ll alakazam myself out of here.” Alex said as he ran towards the building.

“Well looks like the kid has some strong helpers, then I’ll have to force my way through you.” Aeolus said as the mana around him riled up.

Damian, “Tread carefully kid, it’d be a shame for the kingdom to lose a talent such as you.”

“If that’s the case go easy on me, oh former warlord.”

…

After a few minutes of running, Alex had finally made it inside the building where the tombstone of a person named Adalistine was kept. But his condition was getting worse. He was barely able to walk up the stairs now. The previous relief which Coco’s clothes provided remained no more.

‘And this building had to have 6 floors didn’t it.’ Alex thought as he made his way up the stairs. When he was finally on the fifth floor, he took a short break by leaning against a wall and took a seat on the stairs. It felt like his heart and head might explode any minute now.

‘Miracle… I am dying, aren’t I?’ Alex asked closing his eyes shut, shivering in fear.

‘Yes, I estimate a rough 10-15 minutes before your body gives out to the pain.’ Miracle replied honestly.

He then continued, ‘Do you want to give up here boy? I sense at least two presences in the building currently, it’s inevitable that you’ll have to fight.’

Alex chuckled to himself suddenly feeling powerless.

‘Is this where you have decided to fall Alex Morgan?’ Miracle thought to himself as he remained silent and only observed his partner. He half expected him to fall now.

But contrary to his expectations, he reached for an old shovel kept at the corner and using it as support began to climb the stairs again.

‘You know I am a coward, right? I really don’t want to die right now.’ Alex said to him smiling.

Miracle’s face turned to one of surprise before it turned into a smile. A rare one. If Alex was in Miracle’s dimension at the moment, he wouldn’t have believed that the dragon smiled.

All the floors had graves of people. Only these people were either too great or some important person back in the day, that their graves are built in the buildings separate from others.

‘Whether you are a king or a beggar, after death only bones remain, I guess there’s discrimination in other worlds too.’ Alex thought to himself as he looked at the tombstones.

As soon as he got to the 6^th floor, he found himself in a long corridor.  That’s when he suddenly heard footsteps. Someone was approaching him and fast. He was near the stairs but with his condition he knew he wouldn’t be able to hide quickly.

From one of the corridors in the hallway, a figure emerged. The person was wearing black pants with tunic which was covered by a jacket. Alex grabbed the shovel tightly in his hands as he watched the figure come closer.

It was completely dark except for the moonlight coming from the windows. When the person stepped in the light Alex quickly swinged the shovel on their head.

“Woah! Alex easy there it’s me Merissa!” Merissa said as she backed away dogging the shovel.

Alex gave out a relived sigh as he looked at the familiar face. “And here I thought I still had to face a main boss.” Alex said as he relaxed.

“What? What are you talking about?” Merissa asked confused as she rushed to his side to support him to stand.

“Nothing, it’s good to see you.” Alex said as he let his weight fall on her.

Merissa, “Why do you have a shovel?”

Alex shrugged and said “Might come in handy I guess…”

Merissa ignored his talk and examined him. “It’s killing you, isn’t it?” Merissa asked as she pulled his collar back a little and discovered the black and purple marks seeming like an infection. Right about now it had reached almost every part of his body.

“Too fast.” Alex replied.

“I brought the bond severer but…” Merissa didn’t know how to break it to him that it might not work.

“Don’t worry I suspected it’s not complete, to be honest I didn’t even expect to have something like this.” Alex said as Merissa gave him the tube with the black liquid.

Merissa, “I am guessing you found a way to save your life by coming here, right?”

Alex, “Something like that.”

His brain was tired and the curse of the stone wasn’t helping. This was the curse of using a legendary treasure. You gain unmatched power but not without an enormous price. “It’s good that I found you here. You know if I don’t make it…”

“Stop saying nonsense we are almost there.” Merissa rebuked him as she pulled him along to the room with the tombstones.

Alex ignored her and continued “…meet my father once and try to give him some proper closure.”

“Don’t you have someone else for stuff like that.” Merissa said still pulling him along.

Alex, “No one else here knows me as much as you do, even though it hasn’t been much time since we met.”

Merissa remained silent about what Alex said. Soon they reached entrance of the room where all the tombstones were. But there was a bad surprise waiting for them.