Matthias didn't speak at first as he stood in the doorway observing his son and wife, his silver hair hanging limp and escaping its usual neat arrangement. As he took in the scene, his jaw tightened and his knuckles whitened around the crutch that propped him upright.
"Reidar."
Lifting his head to reveal a face streaked with dirt and tears, the man wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand before trying to straighten up in the chair.
"Dad."
Matthias crossed the room, his crutch tapping against the polished floor with each step, before lowering himself into the chair beside Reidar's, wincing as his weight settled.
For a moment, neither spoke; the world continued around them while they remained frozen at Judy's bedside.
When Matthias reached out to place his hand over Reidar's where it still gripped Judy's.
"You made it," Matthias said.
"Yeah."
"From Serenport?"
"No. I was halfway to Creamont."
Matthias nodded, his gaze moving to Judy's still face. "She would've been thrilled to see you."
"I know."
Silence stretched between them again as Reidar pulled his hand back to rub his palms against his thighs, the grime from weeks of survival staining his pants; he looked different—harder, older somehow, and colder.
"What happened to you?" Matthias asked. "How did you get here?"
Reidar exhaled as he gathered his thoughts. "It's a long story. I was at a gas station when the apocalypse struck. In the middle of nowhere, that turned into a forest. The ceiling had collapsed on the clerk and the customers. Dead. All of them."
He paused. His eyes fixed on the floor.
"There were these creatures. Rift-Sprites. They came in through the window. I killed them. Then more came, and I had to blow up the station's fuel tanks."
Matthias's eyebrows rose.
"After that, I traveled until I reached Three Lakes. People there were pulling together, trying to make sense of the situation. I stayed, helped them hold the line, and fought whatever came at us."
Reidar's words came faster as he described traveling through forests that shouldn't exist, roads that stretched impossibly far, and the constant battles, quests, and leveling, going as far as to recount how he met Seraphine.
"Eventually, I made it to the valley near Creamont. I Met Seraphine and her group. She told me You were alive."
Matthias listened without interrupting, keeping his face unreadable even as his eyes followed every word and gesture. When Reidar finished, Matthias leaned back in his chair. "You've seen a lot."
"More than I wanted to."
"You survived it."
"Barely."
Matthias's gaze shifted to the crutch propped against his chair. "Did Seraphine tell you what happened?"
"She said you brought Mom here, that you saved her life. She also said you lost your foot fighting at the hospital."
"That's right."
"What happened?"
Matthias stared at Judy's face, and his expression softened. "During the cataclysm, we lost consciousness at home. When we woke up, the building was barely standing, so we rushed out of it. However, it looked like the building's stability was in far worse condition than we assumed, and as soon as we stepped outside, it crumbled." He paused. "A loose stone fell from the building and crushed her skull. She hadn't woken up since. I knew she wouldn't make it without proper treatment."
He paused. His throat moved as he swallowed.
"So I carried her through the streets. The city was in chaos; monsters were everywhere. The monsters were mostly small Rift-Sprites, at level one or maybe two. They weren't smart, and they weren't coordinated. I managed to avoid most of them and killed the ones I couldn't avoid."
Reidar leaned forward. "How?"
"My trait."
"So you do have one."
"I do."
Matthias extended his hand, allowing blue light to gather in his palm, where energy swirled and compressed until a blade formed. Although it was real, it simultaneously wasn't, appearing both solid and liquid; Reidar could tell at first glance that the weapon was deadly but also elegant.
"I can create this," Matthias said. "A mana sword. It grows stronger as I do and has the ability to steal mana from creatures I kill. It's so strong that I usually end up in a fight full of mana, and you can guess how much I can pump skills up."
Of course, these features meant Matthias could spam skills nonstop while making it harder for the opponent to use them, and coupled with Arcane Leach, his mana was basically going to be endless.
However, he had to fight in melee, which was not simple in his condition, yet his fingers wrapped around the hilt, where the weapon felt natural and familiar.
"That's impressive."
Matthias dismissed the blade, letting the light fade as his hand returned to his lap.
"When I reached the hospital, the Rift-Sprites were everywhere. They breached the building and killed patients and staff members. I fought through them, carrying your mother the entire time."
His voice remained steady, but his eyes spoke of a different turmoil.
"I made it to the intensive care unit. I stabilized Judy and fed and cleaned her, but she wasn't waking up, and she still didn't."
He paused. "I tried, Reidar, I really did. I'm still doing it, but the damage to her brain has already healed, and it messed it up. Until I find a way to revert the brain to its previous state, I can't do much for her."
"What about your foot?"
A pack of Rift-Sprites I didn't notice cornered me in the hallway—seven or eight of them, all higher-level. One slipped past my guard and tore open my ankle.
Matthias's hand moved unconsciously to his leg.
"I killed them all. But the damage was done. I had to amputate myself, awake. It was the worst pain of my life."
Reidar's hands clenched into fists. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I'm alive. Your mother's alive. That's what matters."
"Is it?" Reidar's voice cracked. "She's not really alive, Dad. She's trapped on that bed. Asleep. We are waiting for something that we might never find."
Matthias turned to face him, and his eyes hardened as he spoke. "We'll find it. I've been researching. Testing theories. There's a way to wake her up, as I said. I just need to level up, earn some Survival points, and conduct experiments."
"How long have you been trying?"
"I have been trying since the day I received my first healing spell."
Reidar looked at his father—really looked—noting how the exhaustion was etched on every line of his face, from the silver hair that had lost its luster to the crutch that represented a permanent sacrifice.
His father had given everything to save Judy, having fought through a city of monsters with her unconscious body in his arms and lost part of himself to make sure she survived, yet he was still fighting.
"I'll help you," Reidar said. "Whatever you need. I'll help find a way to save her."
His face went from hard to soft, and he put his hand on Reidar's shoulder.
"Thank you. But…"
Although Matthias wanted Reidar's help, knowing that a level 260 ally would allow him to level up so fast that finding a cure would be a matter of time, he simultaneously knew he could not ask for that time because Reidar's own wife and son were still out there.
It wasn't just that, but Reidar had to take care of himself; if he was truly set on going to Martha and Marcus as Matthias wished, he would need all the skills he could get, which meant asking Reidar to buy skills for him felt like putting his son in danger.
"We will need to talk this through."
They sat together on the medical ward, two survivors bound by blood and loss. While the healers continued their work and the world moved forward around them, time seemed to stand still at Judy's bedside.