Chapter 76 Burn
BURN
Burn sat slumped at his workstation, eyes fixed vacantly on the glowing screen in front of him. The interactive battle simulation he’d loaded an hour ago flickered uselessly, waiting for input. He hadn’t touched the controls in ages.
He couldn’t.
The game—one he used to love, full of strategy and violence and structure—had become meaningless. He couldn’t focus. Couldn’t keep his mind in the now.
Everything inside him ached.
I miss them.
The admission carved through his chest like a dull blade.
He’d been trying to deny it for days, pretending he could survive this aching silence, this unbearable isolation.
Pretending he deserved to suffer. That it was penance for his actions—for how he’d hurt Noelle…
and for what he and Bright had done with each other.
But I still love him. Still love her. Gods, I love them both so much.
He clenched his jaw, trying to force the thoughts away. But the future stretched out before him like a barren wasteland—endless, gray, and cold. A life without Noelle’s laughter…without Bright’s ridiculous grins and bright ideas. Without their warmth.
It felt like a death sentence.
But he couldn’t go to them. Couldn’t make himself speak. He didn’t deserve forgiveness. Didn’t deserve them.
Suddenly—
“Warrior! Enough self-pity!”
The voice blasted through the room like a thunderclap, so loud and powerful that Burn jolted upright from his seat—only to be slammed back down, flattened to the floor as an invisible weight crashed over his entire body.
“Please…” he gasped, barely able to draw breath. “Can’t…breathe.”
His lungs burned and his chest heaved. The pressure wasn’t just physical—it was divine. The very weight of the Goddess’s will pressed him to the floor like an insect beneath a god’s thumb.
The pressure lessened slightly, just enough to allow a shallow inhale.
“Listen to me,” the Goddess thundered, her voice echoing in every molecule of his being. “The life of the woman you love—the one I chose for you and Bright to share—is in danger!”
Noelle—the name rang in his heart like a bell made of fire.
“You and Bright must go to Earth at once to save her!” the Goddess commanded.
“Earth?” he gasped, trying to lift his head, but the divine weight still held him down. “But…but where on Earth is she?”
“I will guide your way,” she said. “Take the first ship you find in the Docking Bay and go at once. You will NOT be given a second chance.”
And just like that—she was gone.
The pressure vanished so abruptly that Burn gasped and rolled to his side, coughing, sucking in a deep breath as he tried to steady his spinning thoughts.
Noelle’s in danger. She’s in danger and we’re her only chance.
A sudden spark lit in his chest—a familiar psychic tug, urgent and familiar as though someone desperately wanted to talk to him.
Think-me, he realized. Someone’s trying to reach me.
And he knew who it was.
Bright.
He’d ignored every attempt until now—shut his best friend out completely. But this time, Burn didn’t hesitate.
He opened the channel.
“It’s Noelle—she’s in trouble!” Bright’s mental voice burst into his head like a tidal wave, filled with panic.
“Yes, I know!” Burn sent back instantly. “I’m on my way to the Docking Bay now!”
“Meet you there!” Bright shot back, and the connection snapped off, clean and sharp.
Burn was already moving.
He vaulted to his feet, his boots pounding against the floor as he sprinted from his quarters. The long corridors of the Mother Ship blurred around him, silver streaking past as he ran full tilt toward the Docking Bay.
His heart slammed in his chest. They had to find her—had to get her back.
Please, Goddess, he prayed, silently, fiercely. I don’t know what kind of danger our female is in… but let us reach her in time.