[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 84: In Which We Speed-Run Three Cities (And Regret Everything)

Chapter 84: In Which We Speed-Run Three Cities (And Regret Everything)

Budapest was a blur of motion and burning lungs.

We emerged from the portal in an alley that smelled like garbage and something I hoped was just old food. The rift was two blocks away according to the map-knowledge, pulsing in my awareness like a migraine with a specific location.

"Two minutes elapsed," Mara said, already moving. "Thirteen minutes remaining."

No pressure.

We ran.

The streets were busier here than Bucharest had been, more people heading to work, more chance of being noticed. But there wasn’t time to be subtle or careful, so we just ran like our lives depended on it.

Which, technically, they did.

The rift was in a courtyard behind an old church, tucked away from the main street but still visible if you knew where to look. Bigger than the Bucharest rift, maybe six feet tall, pulsing with that same sickly purple-black light.

"Connected to the nexus," Mara confirmed, not even needing to check her scanner this time. "Same signature as Bucharest."

I didn’t waste time responding, just summoned the blade and moved.

The technique was becoming familiar now, not easy, but familiar. I could see where to cut, how to sever the anchor points, where Azryth needed to flood with power to prevent the nexus from restoring the connection.

We moved together like we’d choreographed it, like we’d done this a hundred times instead of once.

The blade struck true, Azryth’s power surged through the binding, the rift screamed and collapsed.

"Four minutes total," Mara said. "Eleven minutes remaining."

Prague. One more.

Azryth’s hand found mine, both of us breathing hard, sweat running down my back despite the cool morning air.

"Can you do one more?" he asked quietly.

"Can you?"

"I asked first."

"Yes," I said, because what else was I going to say? We didn’t have a choice, the field was destabilizing, we had eleven minutes, we did this or we failed.

"Then let’s finish it."

I pulled on the key, visualizing the location the map showed me. Prague, somewhere near the river, an old bridge.

Space tore open.

We stepped through.

***

Prague was beautiful, which felt deeply unfair given that I was too exhausted to appreciate it.

The rift was under the Charles Bridge, hidden in the shadows of the stone arches, easily the largest of the three we’d closed today. Eight feet tall, maybe nine, and the energy coming off it made my teeth hurt.

"Five minutes elapsed," Mara said, and I could hear the strain in her voice now, she’d been running too, keeping up with us through three cities in five minutes. "Ten minutes remaining."

The rift pulsed, and I felt something different this time.

Resistance.

Not from the rift itself, but from whatever was on the other side, something was actively trying to keep this one open.

"There’s something here," I said. "Something watching."

"Veyrith’s forces," Azryth said, his eyes scanning the shadows under the bridge. "They’ve responded faster than expected."

"Can we still close it?" Mara asked.

"We have to." I summoned the blade, but this time it felt heavier, like the air itself was fighting me. "The field destabilizes in ten minutes regardless of what’s guarding this rift."

Through the binding, I felt Azryth’s agreement and his concern.

"I’ll handle any interference," he said. "You focus on the closure."

"Okay."

I moved toward the rift, blade raised, and that’s when they appeared.

Not physically, not entirely, more like shadows that had learned to move independently, three of them, maybe four, humanoid shapes made of the same purple-black energy as the rift.

Enforcers, my brain supplied from the arbiter’s knowledge, Veyrith’s shock troops.

They moved toward us with purpose and speed.

Azryth stepped in front of me, power already manifesting around his hands. "Close the rift, I’ll handle them."

"There are four of them."

"You know I’ve handled worse."

One of the enforcers lunged, Azryth caught it with a blast of infernal power that made my ears ring. The shadow-thing dissolved with a sound like reality tearing.

Three left.

I focused on the rift, trying to see past the combat happening behind me, trying to find the anchor points through the chaos.

There it is, three primary connections, thicker than the previous rifts, more reinforced.

I raised the blade.

Two enforcers broke past Azryth, coming straight for me.

"Riven!" Azryth’s warning came with another blast of power, catching one of them. But the other was too close, too fast, its shadow-hand reaching for my throat...

My vision shifted.

The X-ray sight activated on pure instinct, and suddenly I could see the enforcer’s structure laid bare. Energy patterns, weak points, the exact places where dimensional fabric held it together.

The spectral blade moved before I consciously decided to strike, cutting through the enforcer’s core with surgical precision.

It dissolved.

"Seven minutes!" Mara shouted from somewhere behind us.

Focus, close the rift.

I turned back to the tear, found the anchor points again, and struck.

The blade severed the first connection, Azryth’s power immediately flooded the wound, preventing restoration.

The rift screamed, louder than the previous two, and I felt the nexus on the other side responding, pushing back, trying to keep this one open.

Not today.

I struck again, severing the second anchor, then the third.

The rift began to collapse.

The last enforcer made one final attempt, lunging past Azryth toward the closing tear like it could somehow hold it open through sheer will.

Azryth caught it mid-leap with both hands, infernal power blazing bright enough that I had to look away.

When I looked back, the enforcer was gone and the rift was sealed.

"Done," I gasped, the blade dissolving from my grip as exhaustion crashed over me.

Azryth caught me before I could fall. "Time?"

"Eight minutes, forty seconds," Mara said, emerging from wherever she’d been hiding. "The field should destabilize in approximately..." She checked her scanner. "Ninety seconds."

We stood there under the Charles Bridge, breathing hard, waiting.

Seventy seconds.

Fifty.

Thirty.

Then I felt it.

Not a sound, not a sight, but a sensation like pressure releasing, the air itself seemed to sigh in relief, and through the map-knowledge still active in my mind, I saw it happen.

The Eastern Europe cluster collapsed.

All seven rifts, including the four we hadn’t touched directly, sealed themselves as the resonance field fell apart.

"It worked," Mara whispered, staring at her scanner. "Holy shit, it actually worked."

Seven rifts, neutralized in under ten minutes.

I looked at Azryth, he looked at me.

"We’re insanely cool," I said.

"Demonstrably." But he was smiling, just slightly. "But effective."

"Forty-two more to go."

"Please don’t remind me." I leaned against him, too tired to stand properly. "Can we go home now?"

"Yes." He pulled on the key, opening a portal back to the safehouse. "Let’s go home."

***

We stumbled through the portal into the common area of the safehouse. Henrik looked up from the projected map still hovering above the table, watched the last four Eastern Europe points wink out in real-time.

"Seven for seven," he said quietly. "Well done."

I tried to respond, my mouth moved, but nothing came out except a sound that might have been "thanks" or might have been me dying.

"He’s done," Azryth said, and suddenly I was being lifted, cradled against his chest like I weighed nothing.

"Hey," I protested weakly. "I can walk."

"You can barely stand." He was already moving toward the stairs. "Rest first, debriefing later."

"But Veyrith... the next cluster... we need to..."

"Later." His voice was firm. "Right now, you need rest."

Mara appeared with water and what looked like energy supplements. "Get these in him before he passes out completely."

I swallowed the pills mechanically, my brain too fried to question what they were.

The bedroom was a blur, Azryth set me down on the mattress with more care than I deserved, given that I’d basically turned into dead weight.

"Shoes," I mumbled.

"I’ve got it." He was already unlacing them.

I tried to help and just ended up flopping backward onto the pillow.

"Useless," I muttered.

"Exhausted," he corrected, removing my shoes and pulling a blanket over me. "There’s a difference."

He settled beside me, and I felt him pull me against his chest, one arm secure around my waist.

"Seven down," he said quietly.

"Mmph," I replied eloquently.

His hand moved in slow circles on my back. "Sleep."

I was already gone.