Page 270 of Interion

“Kyller, Breno is a hundred meters away, inside a fallen tree,” Zion announced, pulling me from my tumultuous thoughts.

I ran, scanning the area until I finally found the spot. The red light from his flask illuminated the inside of the hollow tree, and the drone landed on top of it. Breno’s feet stuck out from the trunk, and he was sprawled like a drunk tossed in a gutter.

“Breno?” I called, knocking on the wood. He didn’t respond. Feeling time slipping away, I grabbed his feet and dragged him out. He half-opened his eyes and looked at us, disoriented.

“Just five more minutes,” he grumbled groggily, closing his eyes again.

“He’s high on hallucinogens—a lot of them,” Zion warned in my mind.

“For the love of the gods. Do you want to die, Breno?” Adele kicked him in the ribs, trying to lift him by his hair.

Horrified, I interrupted her:

“Stop that, he’s intoxicated.”

I pushed her back and crouched down, placing my hand under his jacket.

“He’s going to be intoxicated and dead if he doesn’t get up,” Adele shouted, completely hysterical. “Just like us, if we stay here.”

“Wait, Adele. Stay calm, we have time to heal him. Come help me boost his liver.”

Adele crouched down with a huff and placed her trembling hands on Breno, who was drifting off again.

“Actually, you don’t have time, Kyller. Ten minutes at most—area 6 has already been taken,” Zion updated us on our dire situation.

Desperation blurred my vision, or maybe it was just physical exhaustion. Either way, I pushed harder, pouring every molecule of my determination into Breno. Within five minutes he was sweating, and finally opened his eyes, a bit more lucid.

“What’s happening?” he asked, finally realizing there were two girls hovering over him. “Did I die and wake up in paradise?”

He smiled groggily and reached for my face. I heard Zion growling in my mind while Adele held Breno still. Quickly, I told him everything that had happened while I worked on transforming his liver. I explained about the chimera attack and how we needed to bring down the barrier. With each passing minute, his eyes seemed to regain that gleam of intelligence and sharpness I knew so well. I told him about my power returning, and that he’d need to take down the test’s containment field.

Breno blinked, trying to take it all in.

“Are you telling me I have to absorb an ancient barrier of pure power, cultivated for thousands of years?” He wiped the sweat streaming down his face, staring at me in disbelief.

“Yes. That’s exactly what we’re saying, but the good news is Zafira’s going to help you,” I said, lifting him off the ground. “It’s that or get devoured by chimeras. Now we need to run—we have to reach the barrier, and I think by the time we get there, your liver will have metabolized everything.”

I pulled Breno up and he staggered, still a bit dizzy. Adele and I took our places at his sides and dragged him through the area, our hands locked around his waist, while I sent even more power to make his liver work overtime and regenerate despite the stress of the tripled effort. If I stopped healing while forcing the metabolism, Breno would collapse within minutes. His liver was working three times harder than normal, and the adrenaline in his body was pumping blood at an accelerated rate—extremely dangerous, but there was no other way.

“Kaori got through to Isaac so he could escape by following the drone. Isaac’s already found three more students—they’re all running to quadrant 9 and picking up anyone along the way,” Zion informed me.

“Where are Aish and Hiro?” I asked, panting. Running while dragging Breno wasn’t easy.

Zion went quiet for a moment, probably checking their location.

“They left the tree. Looks like they understood there was danger—they’re following the drone.”

A loud, shrill noise made me stop. I froze in place, almost knocking Breno and Adele down, staring in shock at the flare that had been launched right next to us. It shot up into the sky and exploded in sparks, lighting up the darkness above our heads. Desperation surged to unbearable levels when I heard howls tearing toward us. Through the bond, I heard Zion cursing out a student for panicking and setting off the flare.

“Run!” I shouted to Adele and Breno.

I stopped sending power to Breno—there was no way to focus on anything but my feet pounding over snow, dirt, and rocks.

“Kyller, they’re coming hard—the rear drones are down,” Zion shouted through the bond. “Run straight to the barrier.”

I felt like I was trapped in one of those nightmares where you need to escape danger, but no matter how hard you try to move, you barely budge. When I looked toward the horizon, the wall of the enormous power sphere was still far away, and the howls were getting closer and closer. At that point, I was already thinking that escaping alive would be a miracle. The only silver lining was that Breno had returned to normal and was running on his own now, but he was unsteady and drenched in sweat.

“Try to use your shield,” I told him, hearing noises behind us. Breno looked at me desperately. “Now, Breno!”