Chapter 283: Leaving The Portal

Five of them seemed to reach consensus, their expressions showing they’d made their decision.

Raymond remained quiet, his face carefully neutral.

"Raymond?" Cassius asked. "You’re unusually silent."

Raymond shrugged, his voice casual.

"You all make good points. Neutrality makes sense strategically."

But inside his mind, his thoughts ran differently.

’They’re being naive... A commoner who can inspire this kind of loyalty, who can kill Nobles without hesitation, who challenges everything our society is built on...’

His family had always been pro-Noble, had always understood that maintaining order meant dealing with threats before they matured.

’Father needs to know about this... He needs to understand what this boy represents.’

Raymond’s mind was already organizing his report, deciding which details to emphasize and which interpretations to suggest.

’That art... what happens when he decides to eat... humans?’

He wouldn’t lie as he wouldn’t need to.

’Cassius says he’s nothing compared to SS rank powerhouses. True for now... But in five years? Ten years? When he’s fully developed and has an army of fanatics willing to die for him?’

The others were thinking short-term, thinking about gratitude for survival.

Raymond was thinking about what the Kingsley family had always understood - threats were easier to eliminate early.

He wouldn’t tell the others and wouldn’t argue the point.

But when he returned home, when he gave his report to his family...

They would see Damian Valcor as the threat he truly was.

And the Kingsley family didn’t wait for threats to mature.

Cassius seemed satisfied with Raymond’s verbal agreement, not reading the calculation behind his eyes.

"Good. Then we’re agreed. We report what happened factually, but we don’t push for action against him."

The others nodded, and silence fell again as they processed everything.

****

Then Damian’s voice shattered the quiet.

"–ase! ...ot... any– ag–!"

The sounds tore through the air, raw and desperate but incoherent, words breaking apart before they could form meaning.

Damian thrashed on the ground where he lay, his body jerking violently and hands clutching at his head.

His face showed absolute terror, eyes moving rapidly behind closed lids.

"–on’t... plea– –ake me–"

The words emerged broken and seemed to be addressing someone who wasn’t there.

Ronan froze, his massive frame going rigid.

’Boss... what the hell is happening to you?’

Uncertainty was written across his face, unsure whether to restrain Damian or give him space.

Edrin moved closer, kneeling beside his leader but not touching.

His mind catalogued details even through his concern – rapid eye movement and elevated heart rate, psychological rather than physical trauma.

’A nightmare... But what could make Boss react like this?’

Zavier’s arms tightened around Lysa, his red eyes fixed on Damian’s thrashing form.

’Weak... We are too fucking weak!... Boss wouldn’t have been forced into such a state if we were strong enough...’

Lysa’s eyes had snapped open at the first scream, her body trying to sit up instinctively.

Pain lanced through her ribs and she gasped, falling back against Zavier’s chest.

"Don’t... You’ll hurt yourself worse," Zavier whispered.

But Lysa barely heard him.

’I’m... alive?’

Her last memory was the creature’s hand closing around her, bones shattering, preparing to eat her.

She should be dead.

’How am I alive? What happened?’

Her eyes found Damian’s thrashing form and understanding hit with sudden clarity.

’Boss... must have saved me... even in that state, even when he was barely holding onto his sanity... he saved me.’

Then guilt crashed down.

’And now he’s suffering... Because of me, because he had to push himself past his breaking point to–’

"NERAAAA!"

The scream was gut-wrenching, carrying such absolute anguish that it seemed to tear something in the air itself.

Lysa’s gentle eyes filled with tears as she watched her leader break apart.

’Boss... who is Nera? What happened to you?’

The Imperial heirs had gone silent with their previous discussion forgotten and their faces showing various degrees of shock and discomfort.

This wasn’t the powerful commoner they’d fought beside.

This wasn’t the genius who’d coordinated their survival.

This was a sixteen-year-old boy screaming at someone, begging someone named Nera and reliving trauma that none of them could understand.

Then... the thrashing stopped and the screaming cut off mid-word.

Pant...pant...

Damian’s eyes opened, wide and unfocused, his breathing coming in desperate gasps, his entire body shaking with tremors that suggested panic rather than cold.

Thud-thump... Thud-thump... Thud-thump

.

His heartbeat was visible in his throat, too fast and too hard, the kind of stress that accompanied absolute terror.

His hands were shaking, fingers curled into claws, nails having drawn blood from his own palms during the nightmare.

"..."

Silence fell across the entire group as nobody moved or spoke.

Everyone just... watched.

Watched as Damian Valcor, the unstoppable force who’d carried them through impossible odds, sat trembling like a child woken from the worst nightmare imaginable.

Damian’s crimson eyes showed something they’d never seen before.

It was not anger or calculation or cold determination.

But just... emptiness.

Like something inside him had been torn out and the wound was still bleeding.

****

Then the entire portal vibrated.

RUMBLE

The ground shook beneath them, and above them the grey void began cracking.

Light poured through the fractures – real light, sunlight from their world which was bright and wrong after so long in eternal twilight.

An entrance formed in the air, a tear in reality that showed blue sky and everything that meant home.

But the portal around them was collapsing, the creature’s death having destabilized whatever force kept this dimension stable.

The ground beneath them began breaking apart with the chunks of dead soil falling into darkness that had no bottom.

"MOVE! EVERYONE MOVE!"

Edrin’s voice cut through the shock, his tactical mind overriding everything else.

"THE PORTAL’S COLLAPSING! GET TO THE ENTRANCE NOW!"

Students scrambled upright despite exhaustion, bodies protesting but survival instinct stronger than pain.

They rushed toward the tear in reality, supporting the wounded and carrying those who couldn’t walk, the entrance their only chance.

Ronan turned toward Damian, his voice emerging quiet despite the chaos.

"Boss... should I carry you?"

Damian looked at him for several long seconds, his crimson eyes focusing slowly, like he was returning from somewhere very far away.

Then he shook his head gently.

The motion was mechanical... almost robotic with no emotion behind it.

He stood on trembling legs, his body moving through pure will rather than coordination, and began walking toward the entrance.

His steps were unsteady, his hands still shaking, but he moved forward anyway.

Ronan stayed close beside him, ready to catch him if he fell, watching his leader with concern that went beyond physical injury.

Zavier lifted Lysa carefully, cradling her against his chest, her small frame barely weighing anything.

She looked at Damian’s back as they moved, her gentle eyes showing concern that transcended their current danger.

’Boss... what did you see?’

The question went unasked and unsaid, joining all the other things they’d learned not to voice.

Forty students ran towards home, leaving behind the dead, leaving behind the nightmare and leaving behind everything except the need to survive.

And behind them, the portal continued its collapse, reality folding in on itself, erasing all evidence of what had happened here.

All evidence except the survivors themselves.

And the trauma they carried.