Ethan tightly gripped Landon’s arm, dragging him forward with sheer force.
Every step he took felt unbearably heavy, his legs weighed down as if filled with lead, but he couldn’t afford to stop.
“Move! ”
Ethan pushed through gritted teeth, his voice dry yet filled with urgency.
But Landon’s condition was dire.
His legs felt as though they had been struck by a sledgehammer, and his vision blurred into a hazy fog.
Every nerve in his body screamed in protest, with pain coursing through him relentlessly.
At last, his body could no longer bear it.
His knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily onto the cold, damp ground.
“Landon!”
Ethan cried out, stumbled, and was pulled down by Landon, falling hard to the ground.
Gasping for air, Ethan struggled to turn over, his cracked lips trembling. “Landon! Hold on!”
His eyes glimmered with determination. “Get up! We can’t stop now!”
Landon could hear Ethan’s voice, but his eyelids felt impossibly heavy,.
He wanted to respond, to tell Ethan he could keep going, but the words wouldn’t come. His strength was draining away, bit by bit.
“Don’t give up!”
Ethan watched him lying motionless, his anxiety almost driving him to the brink of losing control.
By this point, the pursuing rats and ratmen had drawn closer.
Their footsteps, though soft, roared in Ethan’s ears like thunder, each sound pounding against his heart.
Ethan clenched his teeth, using the metal rod to support himself as he struggled to lift himself off the ground.
Each movement felt like a battle against himself, but he pressed on step by step.
The ratmen directed the swarm toward Ethan, who still had some fight left in him, while Landon, who was completely incapacitated, was almost entirely ignored.
Earlier, the ratmen commander had issued a clear order:
Capture them alive, not kill them. As hostages, they could deal a devastating blow to Eli.
Ethan noticed that the ratmen had shifted their focus to him, and he felt slightly relieved.
Although he had no way of knowing the enemy''s exact plan, he understood that, for now, they had no interest in Landon.
Clutching the metal rod tightly, Ethan took a deep breath, letting his chest fill with the fire of his anger.
“Come on, you bastards! Let’s see what you’ve got!”
He roared, throwing his anger and despair at the enemies before him.
The rats surged forward as one, but Ethan stood his ground.
He swung the metal rod with all his might, smashing it into the first rat that leaped at him.
With a dull thud, the rat’s body flew through the air, slamming into the wall with a heavy crunch.
But immediately, more rats swarmed forward, coming in waves like an unrelenting tide, as if determined to completely overwhelm him.
Ethan clenched his teeth, the metal rod in his hands swinging like a streak of light, each strike carrying an undeniable force.
His movements radiated the courage of someone fighting for survival, his feet constantly shifting to evade the snapping teeth and claws of the rats.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
He could feel his arms growing numb, every swing of the rod draining what little strength remained in his body.
Yet, he didn’t stop—Now is the time to fight for his life!
Landon lay on the ground, his vision becoming increasingly blurred, able to faintly see Ethan’s figure fighting ahead.
The shrieks of the rats, the dull sound of the metal rod shattering bones, and Ethan''s heavy breathing all intertwined in Landon’s ears.
In that moment, Landon tried to get up. He wanted to rush forward and help Ethan.
But his body felt as if it were bound by chains, every movement unbearably difficult, even raising an arm seemed impossible.
This sense of helplessness washed over him like a tide, making his chest feel as if it were being torn apart, filling his heart with deep guilt and despair.
Gradually, images of his parents and sister began to surface in his mind.
He seemed to see them smiling at him warmly, yet their smiles felt impossibly distant.
His father’s face came into focus—a face that always carried a hint of sternness.
He recalled how his father often took him to the company, pointing at the well-dressed, hurried managers and saying:
“They work hard for our family, and one day, you’ll lead them. Don’t waste your time with unreliable friends.”
Back then, Landon only felt his father was too strict, resenting his interference in his life.
He would rather spend his time drinking with friends and joyriding than learning about the dull world of business.
But now, he suddenly realized that his father had been paving the way for his future all along.
His father had been stern but never uncaring; he had wanted Landon to have a more stable and secure life than he had himself.
His mother was the most understanding and compassionate person in the family. She often comforted Landon gently after his father scolded him.
“Your father just wants you to reach greater heights. He wants your life to have more meaning,” she would say.
Back then, Landon found her words ordinary, even a bit nagging.
But now, in hindsight, every word was filled with love.
And his sister, the pride of the family, so accomplished yet never used the "family mission" to pressure him.
She loved taking Landon on joyrides in her car and teasing him with playful banter.
Whenever Landon made a big mistake, it was his sister who stood in front of their father to defend him: “Don’t be too harsh.”
In the past, Landon found them all annoying, always wanting to distance himself from them.
Now, after losing everything, he finally understood their love.
Landon’s heart was torn apart by pain, as if sliced by a sharp blade.
His thoughts plunged into an abyss of darkness, with pain and despair battering him like a relentless storm.
“Why did it have to come to this?” he roared inwardly.
He wanted to stand up, but his body could not muster even an ounce of strength.
“Is this how I drag everyone down?”
A sharp sting pierced his heart, the agony pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.
His anger and guilt intertwined into a raging inferno, burning wildly within his chest.
At that moment, he desperately longed for strength.
A yearning for a strength that could help him stand up.
A power that would ensure he was no longer a burden.
A power that would let him protect the people he loved.
This yearning grew stronger and stronger, as if tearing through his very soul, releasing the truest call from the depths of his heart.
At that moment, a faint glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the darkness.
The light pierced through the void, shining directly into his gaze.
It was as weak as a firefly, yet in Landon’s eyes, it was impossibly radiant, impossibly warm.
He thought it was a hallucination, but even if it was, he desperately wanted to grasp that faint glow.
His hand trembled as he mustered the last ounce of his strength to reach for it.
Every effort came with a cry from his soul, every movement felt like breaking free from shackles.
The physical pain was almost unbearable, but he refused to let himself stop.
Finally, his fingertips brushed against the light.
The light instantly merged into his fingertips, and a surge of warmth flowed through his body, filling every void within him.
His trembling body began to calm, and a flame ignited within him, illuminating the boundless darkness.
Eli’s baseball bat swung down once more, smashing the rat lunging at him into a mess of flesh and blood.
But in the next instant, his heart jolted violently, as if struck by an invisible bolt of lightning.
It was an indescribable sensation—profound, scorching, and suffused with a suffocating pressure!
He turned his head abruptly, his gaze piercing through the swarm of rats to lock onto Landon.
In an instant, his pupils constricted sharply as he witnessed a breathtaking, earth-shattering spectacle.
Around Landon, the dim air was torn apart by dazzling light!
Specks of light, like brilliant sparks, rapidly converged and expanded, gradually forming a dazzling torrent of radiance!
The scene was indescribable, as though countless stars had fallen to earth, a breathtaking and otherworldly spectacle.
The radiance was not merely bright; it was a force so profound it pierced the soul!
Those forces surged toward Langdon like a tide, gradually coalescing into a blazing flame.
The flames burned brighter and fiercer, as if the entire world trembled under its might.
Landon’s heart pounded with increasing intensity, a resonance between his soul and body that carried an overwhelming, suffocating power.
Eli seemed to hear a deep, resonant chant—a profound echo from the depths of the soul, a transcendent and otherworldly call.
The next moment, the light erupted completely, unleashing an unprecedented vitality.
Life began to leap, soar, and explode!
Within the heart of that blazing life force, a soul was breaking free from the shackles of mortality, awakening at an unimaginable speed.
“This is…” Eli’s breathing quickened uncontrollably.
This was the pivotal moment when a life shattered the limits of mortality and stepped into the realm of the extraordinary.
A single word flashed through Eli’s mind—Awakened!
Born from despair and pain was a great miracle, and this is—"Miracle: Transcendent Awakening"!