Fortunately, Jasmine didn’t remain out of it for long... after the leaf lost its brilliance and showed multiple cracks on its surface, Jasmine finally escaped the Reality Limbo.
The vision of the entire universe’s timeline and its noise died out bit by bit until her vision was cleared again... Jasmine rubbed her muddled eyes and tried to remove the leaf. But with a single touch, the leaf shattered into fading dusty white particles.
Jasmine stood up slowly, a masterpiece of ink bathing under the fading milky white particles’ glow... Yet, she didn’t seem happy, but lost? She smiled bitterly for a moment as the world went quiet again, incapable of hearing anything.
Pure silence.
Levi noticed her reaction and signed: -Are you okay?-
-Yes...- Jasmine nodded with an appreciative smile, -Thank you, Levi... for everything.-
Levi shook his head: -As long as I live, you don’t have to thank me for anything... You saved my little brother, that’s a debt I shall never forget.-
Jasmine waved her hands in his direction, seemingly not wanting him to feel this way.
-I saved them because they are my friends... I will always do so.- Jasmine smiled innocently, -Isn’t this what friends are supposed to do?-
Levi remained silent for a few moments... he gazed at Jasmine’s expression and heartbeat. He could tell she meant every word of it and had not an ounce of deceit.
For her to genuinely believe that friends were meant to sacrifice themselves for each other... this meant she never had friends before who broke her heart. She still had the idealistic version of what it meant to be close friends with one another.
Meanwhile, Levi was far from reaching the same kind of mentality as Jasmine.
Sure, he cared about Shia, Nurah, Jojo, Jasmine, and the rest of his friends... but he would never throw his life away for their sake unless his brother was involved.
That’s how he saw the world... The Larsons Brothers against all.
But as he looked at Jasmine’s innocent breathtaking silver eyes and recalled what she had done for their sake, he couldn’t help but have a slight change in this mentality... not for all, but just for Jasmine.
She proved her loyalty to them because she believed that was the norm... and Levi didn’t know why, but he felt like he would hate himself forever if he were ever to show her otherwise.
For now... he left those thoughts in the back of his mind and got into the serious talk.
-Jasmine... do you have any method to negate coldness or emit heat?- Levi asked.
-Hmm? I don’t know about heat, but I can erase coldness and other affinities.-
Jasmine nodded, having no plans of hiding her powers anymore from Levi. She could tell that it was related to Levi’s punishment for such an insane void-based power-up.
-Good... I will leave it to you.-
The moment Levi signed this, he let out a long exhale and deactivated his Void Form at last... Levi’s Void Form faded away slowly as the dark layer around him peeled off until his real body was exposed.
The moment it did, the chill hit him.
It wasn’t just normal cold air... it was something that left him with a shaky breath, skin turning instantly pale, and a body shaking nonstop on the floor... it felt like the cold had entered his blood, his bones, his mind, and even his soul wasn’t spared.
He tried to stay still, but every nerve in him hurt like hell... the smoky chill emitting nonstop from his body was enough proof. Jasmine froze when she saw him fall like this, trembling and gasping for air.
-Levi...-
She got close to him and reached out with one finger... the moment she touched his skin, her whole body stiffened as a sharp, biting cold shot through her hand and went straight into her chest and head!
For a brief moment, it felt like her soul was being stabbed... Then it stopped, leaving her shaking and shocked.
Her eyes widened. ’This is what he is feeling nonstop?’
Levi didn’t move... his face was pale, his lips purplish blue... he looked like someone who had been trapped in an ice lake for days and somehow was still surviving by some miracle.
While the Void Seed stored the corruption, it did nothing much to the side effects on the body... Levi had expected as much and prepared some solar totems to help him heat up, but knowing Jasmine’s unique prowess made him question if she could do one better.
Jasmine bit her lip, her eyes looking sad.
’If you knew it’s going to end like this... why did you fight him? Why did you stick around? Was it for me? Revenge? Or treasures?’
She thought inwardly as she lay down next to him and wrapped her arms around his shaking body... she winced through the pain of the chill and started releasing a white ink from her palms, which were holding Levi’s tightly... The white ink covered them both gently and slowly, spreading like a soft fog, closing them inside a small cocoon.
As the white ink slowly sank into their skin, it erased the cold that had buried itself deep inside them. It took no time before Levi started to feel it... the warmth from her body and the fading painful chill.
Without thinking, Levi hugged her tightly, pressing her face against his shoulder... There was nothing weird about it, and Jasmine felt that Levi did this out of instinct. Like a child reaching out to a blanket during their sleep to seek warmth.
Jasmine let him be, even though she seemed quite shy about it. If it weren’t for her ability limited to only negating effects that targeted her, she wouldn’t have been this daring.
But the situation called for direct contact, so the chill could invade her body, and the targeted erasure ability would cleanse them both.
A few steps away, Ash’Kral and N’ibby were watching this development with two different expressions.
N’ibby looked annoyed, her face hard to read... Ash’Kral, though, had a wide grin, like he was enjoying every second of it.
’That’s it, Levi... first a hug, then a kiss, and before we know it, she is inseparable from you.’ Ash’Kral thought, ’My dream is within reach... as long as they keep growing, it shall be achieved...’
...
After a short period... Levi slowly began to regain himself as the chill was barely noticeable anymore. Since the chill had assaulted his Harmonic Spine, his auditory vision became a cloudy wave of colorful frequency, leaving him incapable of recognizing anything.
All he felt was something warm and soft pressing against him... to feel like this while trapped in a hellish blizzard, Levi could only want more.
’Huh?’
However, as the chill died out and his auditory vision restored, the first thing that appeared in his vision was Jasmine’s stunning face... her eyes were closed shut, and her plump lips were trembling softly.
Levi felt his heart skip a beat... the same feeling he had when he first saw her for the first time. He didn’t know why, but this time, he didn’t silence his heart.
Sensing the change in his breath that was hitting her forehead, Jasmine opened her eyes and lifted her head... when she noticed that he was awake, she smiled softly and removed the white cocoon from them.
The moment Levi separated from her, he felt a sharp tingling pain assault him in his left shoulder, breaking him from his trance.
He gritted his teeth and swiftly held his bleeding shoulder tightly... even his pierced right shoulder started hurting.
Only now was he reminded of his torched-out left arm, and other wounds... When he was in his Void Form, the chill froze the wounds over. But now that the chill was erased, his left shoulder was bleeding nonstop.
-Your arm... it needs medical attention.-
Jasmine’s expression turned solemn as she summoned some of her recovery totems. She placed them near Levi’s mouth and nodded at him, seemingly telling him to activate them. Usually, she relied on N’ibby’s assistance to activate them.
Levi uttered the incantation for each recovery totem and allowed Jasmine to heal him... she fed him what needed to be fed and applied what needed to be applied on his wounds. Though they didn’t have a recovery totem to restore an entire arm.
-Can you check the emperor’s wallet? He might have a high-grade recovery totem.- Jasmine advised with a concerned expression.
-No need to heal it now... this will help our case.- Levi shook his head.
-Case?- Jasmine tilted her head to the side. -Are you planning to lie?-
-We have to...- Levi said. -I have already erased everyone’s memories starting from the moment they stepped into the pyramid... your secret is safe.-
Jasmine remained silent for a moment and then pointed at herself. Her expression was enough to let Levi understand what she meant. She was asking him if he also planned on erasing her memories.
Levi didn’t answer right away... he understood that their situation was too complicated since they had signed contracts ensuring that they wouldn’t lie to the authorities or hide any discovered treasures from them.
This was a standard protocol in situations where the exploration of the ancient distorted sites was sponsored.
In their case, the SAS Headquarters was the one sponsoring their exploration, which meant they couldn’t bypass the contract signing.
This was applied to the others, but not Levi... he had it covered.
-Jasmine... do you trust me?- Levi signed with a solemn expression.
Jasmine didn’t know what he had planned in mind, and yet, she still nodded... after what she had witnessed and what had happened between them, Jasmine didn’t know why, but she felt like Levi wasn’t going to do anything that could harm her.
Levi showed a faint smile and signed, -Leave everything to me.-
-Oki.- Jasmine smiled back... her smile as sweet as honey.