Inside the transport cabin returning to Thanatos Academy.
Lin Yu woke up to a massive, soul-draining sense of exhaustion.
The sharp, tide-like pain that had previously submerged every inch of his body had vanished, replaced by a bottomless void of depletion.
He found himself securely fastened to the hard seat of the transport plane.
There were more people in the cabin than before he had passed out.
The blonde man who had been clamoring to join the mission back in the briefing room was now sitting in the seat next to him, eyes closed as he rested.
A lingering trace of fatigue and a complex mix of emotions hung about his brow.
In the seats behind him, which had originally been empty, there were now a man and a woman.
Outside the window was a night so thick it seemed impossible to dissolve.
Only the navigation lights flickering at the ends of the wings carved lonely trails of light through the darkness.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been unconscious — a few hours or perhaps an entire day?
Everything felt like a hazy, unreal dream.
If not for the fact that everyone in the cabin — including himself — was in rags and covered in stains, he would have almost believed that the eagle-headed humanoid monster and the golden sun that incinerated everything were merely delusions born of his confused consciousness.
“You’re awake.”
The sentence was spoken in fluent Chinese from the seat behind and to his side.
Lin Yu looked toward the voice.
The speaker was a man, one of the few on the transport plane whose clothes were relatively intact and clean.
Despite his accentless Chinese, his appearance and skin tone suggested he was anything but Chinese.
Most of the people in the cabin were either sleeping or resting with their eyes closed, leaving only the low roar of the engines as background noise.
Lin Yu looked at the man blankly.
The man’s gaze was calm, even carrying an indescribable softness, which was starkly different from the sharp, oppressive aura he remembered from the higher-ups of the Operations Department.
“You, as well as Christina and Kobayashi Mirai, have stable vital signs,” the man continued, his voice low to ensure he didn’t disturb the others.
“And, strangely enough, not a single external injury can be found on any of you.”
‘Kobayashi Mirai… sounds like a Japanese name.
Is she that Asian girl with the long blade and striking hair color?’
“We…”
Lin Yu opened his mouth, his voice dry.
“It was I who brought you back from a cave,” the man — X — anticipated his question, his tone devoid of any ripple.
“Your bodies were all injured, but by the time I found you, you had already healed You did it, right?”
He paused slightly, his calm eyes fixed on Lin Yu.
“As far as I know, Christina’s Divine Sense is Night Walk, an ability suited for nighttime operations. Kobayashi Mirai’s Divine Sense is Bituan, which allows her to swap the positions of objects in space. Neither of them possesses healing abilities, so the greatest possibility is you.”
The cabin seemed to grow even quieter.
“I asked Director Tangris and Chief Carter. Your enrollment evaluation shows that no Divine Sense was recorded,” X’s gaze remained peaceful, but his words struck the core of the matter.
“Moreover, Christina and Kobayashi Mirai both claimed their memories of what happened after they were injured are blurred.”
He looked at Lin Yu, not pressuring him, but simply laying out the logical chain.
“So, it was you, right?”
Lin Yu’s heart skipped a beat, and his throat tightened.
He nodded, admitting the fact.
“Then, could you do me a favor?”
He gestured toward several other corners of the cabin.
“There are still some team members on this transport with serious injuries. Although emergency treatment has been administered… if your ability is capable of it… thank you.”
Lin Yu followed his gaze and noticed that in the dim light, several people indeed had blood-seeping bandages wrapped around them, their faces contorted in pain.
He took a deep breath, pushing down his chaotic thoughts for the moment, and asked another critical question.
“What happened… in the end? That… monster…”
X’s gaze shifted slightly, landing on Alexander, who seemed to be feigning sleep nearby.
His voice remained flat.
“He delivered the final blow to the avatar of Ra and obtained the authority of the Eye of Ra.”
Lin Yu recalled the final babbling of Mountain Cave No.
2 about Molele, Lu Mingfei, and Peter Parker… so that was what it meant.
“That eagle-headed monster… that so-called God… is he just dead like that?”
“Death, for us, is only a relative concept.”
X shook his head slightly, correcting his thought.
“A more accurate description is that we briefly conquered it, suppressing its right to collect power through the Divine Artifact and fully revive once more.”
“They… can’t be killed?” Lin Yu felt a chill.
“As far as the current limits of humanity are concerned, we have yet to find a way to completely annihilate them.”
X’s voice held no frustration, only a calm based on facts.
“Throughout long stretches of history, when faced with a waking God, human methods were often limited to running and hiding, waiting for its revival energy to be exhausted so its will could sink back into the Divine Artifact to sleep.”
“As history progressed, people’s understanding of Gods and Divine Artifacts deepened. They tried to collect the artifacts and used specific methods to suppress the speed at which they gathered energy.”
He explained further, “And like this time, if the God is killed during its revival and the Divine Artifact is successfully conquered and controlled, then until the person controlling the artifact dies, the channel for the artifact to restore its power can be briefly and completely severed. The person controlling the artifact can also use a portion of the God’s power. But this is extremely dangerous. Even an awakening with less than 50% power is a disaster capable of toppling an entire region.”
At that moment, X gently signaled toward a female team member sitting nearby — Tang Rou — whose arm was wrapped in heavy bandages and whose face was pale.
Lin Yu understood his meaning.
He hesitated for a moment but stood up, his steps somewhat unsteady.
Under X’s calm gaze, he reached out and gently placed his hand on Tang Rou’s uninjured shoulder.
He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, recalling the previous feeling of ‘wanting to heal,’ and visualized the image of her wound closing in his mind.
A faint but definitely present warm current began to slowly flow from his palm.
“Is it a Divine Sense triggered by contact?”
X asked softly while observing his movements.
Lin Yu opened his eyes and saw that Tang Rou’s expression seemed to ease slightly.
He shook his head with some uncertainty.
“I… I’m not entirely sure.”
According to No.
2, the name of this superpower was Vitality, but he truly didn’t understand if these so-called Divine Senses had unified names.
But if they did, they should be in English.
Was the school really so bored that they translated the name of every superpower into Chinese?
Following the same steps, Lin Yu tried to treat the others.
The healing effect wasn’t instantaneous, and he wasn’t sure if this Divine Sense given to him by No.
2 could even be used anymore.
After finishing, he returned to his seat.
The transport plane pierced through the clouds and began its slow descent.
Through the window, the scattered lights of the Thanatos campus were already visible, outlining a shape like a giant beast crouching in the dark.
The wheels touched the ground with a heavy friction sound.
The transport plane taxied along the runway and finally came to a steady halt.
The cabin door slowly opened, revealing the figures of the Thanatos medical team and logistics personnel who had been waiting for a long time.
Piercing searchlights and the noise of voices flooded in instantly.
He followed behind X, stumbling down the airbridge.
The night wind blew in, carrying the characteristic humidity of the River Cam.
Behind them, the other wounded were quickly rushed to the medical center.
The mission seemed to have ended just like that, even though his first mission at this school had almost cost him his life.