Chapter 60 Fault Lines

Chapter 60 Fault Lines
Darius’s condition was worsening.

The black veins had stopped disappearing. They spread more visibly now, dark and persistent, visible under his skin whenever the light hit the right angle. He woke with moments of lost time, stepping forward and suddenly finding himself already moving. His emotions would flatten between surges of power, leaving him numb and detached in a way that frightened even him.

He kept moving anyway.

Veth noticed first, her irritation turning to genuine worry. “You’re thinking too much again. That dangerous kind. The kind that gets you killed.”

Mara stayed physically closer than ever, her hand occasionally brushing his arm as if checking he was still solid. She said almost nothing, but her golden eyes tracked him constantly.

Solis watched him with deepening sorrow. “Your hunger is changing. You eat less. You sleep less. You are treating your own survival like a logistical inconvenience.”

Kael noticed something the others had not fully admitted.

She walked beside Darius during one of their rare quiet stretches. “You are treating your own death like something you can calculate around,” she said softly. “Not something valuable. Not something that matters.”

Darius looked at her. “It does matter. That is why I keep moving.”

Kael’s form flickered. “If completing the seven bonds kills you… will you stop?”

Darius answered honestly, without hesitation. “No.”

The silence that followed was heavier than any of them had expected.

Mara’s hand tightened on his arm. Veth looked away uncomfortably. Solis’s sorrow deepened into something close to heartbreak. Pell, walking a short distance behind them, simply muttered, “He’s already lost his mind.”

Kael watched him for a long moment. “You are different from the others. They try to survive. You simply continue.”

That night, as the group rested around the small fire, Darius finally spoke the truth he had been carrying alone.

“I spent my entire life trying not to need anything,” he said quietly. “I was good at it. Then I met the Calamities. And for the first time, needing them felt… necessary. If completing the seven bonds kills me, I will still try. Because I am tired of the system that made all of you weapons and my bloodline a leash. I want to break it. Even if it breaks me first.”

Mara stayed silent, but her hand never left his arm. Veth looked strangely uncomfortable. Solis’s eyes were wet.

Kael watched him with quiet interest. “You are the first one who has ever said no to survival.”

The black veins beneath his skin pulsed slowly, as if acknowledging the words.

Darius stood up and adjusted his pack. “We keep moving. The next Marriage Ground is closer than we thought.”

Veth grunted. “He’s already half-broken and still thinking like a damn ledger. I hate how much I like him for it.”

Solis smiled faintly through her sorrow. “He is becoming what we were never supposed to be.”

Mara stayed close to Darius as they continued walking, her presence protective but quiet. She had not spoken since his honest admission, but the way she stayed near him said more than any words could have.

The continent felt different now. The air carried a new weight. Something was coming.

And Darius kept walking.