Chapter 206: It’s good that you’re alright.

The giant mechanical arm held the descending mace steady in midair.

Metal groaned.

Sparks burst where stone and steel collided.

For a brief second, everything froze.

Then—

Crack.

The mechanical fingers tightened.

The mace’s handle, already fractured from the internal explosions, snapped apart like rotten wood.

The head of the weapon spun away and smashed into the far wall.

The square Lightning Gate behind him hummed faintly, arcs of pale electricity crawling along its edges.

From within it, the silhouette of a massive construct could be seen—an incomplete but terrifying war machine.

Red stepped forward.

His boots crunched against broken stone.

The Blood-Hunting Spiders continued their work inside the Colossus, detonations echoing in staggered rhythm.

Each explosion made the giant tremble more violently than the last.

Liz stared at his back.

She wanted to speak.

Her throat wouldn’t cooperate.

The Magic Armor Colossus roared again and swung its remaining arm wildly, attempting to crush everything in reach.

Red didn’t dodge.

He raised one hand slightly.

The dragonfly-like drones adjusted position midair.

Their deep-blue beams converged again—this time not at the eyes, but at the widening cracks across the Colossus’s chest.

“Core exposure confirmed,” he said calmly, almost absently.

The beams drilled inward.

A split second later—

BOOM.

The final explosion was not muffled.

It was violent.

The Colossus’s chest cavity burst open from within, molten fragments and shattered crystal scattering like burning rain.

The massive body swayed, then collapsed forward with an earth-shaking crash.

Dust surged outward in a choking wave.

Silence followed.

Only the faint ticking of cooling stone and the quiet mechanical whir of spiders withdrawing from the wreckage remained.

Red lowered his hand.

The Lightning Gate flickered once and dissolved.

The giant mechanical arm vanished with it.

For a moment, he simply stood there, looking at the ruined Lord as if confirming a completed calculation.

Then he turned fully toward Liz.

She was barely standing now.

The moment the tension left her body, her knees buckled.

Before she could hit the ground, he caught her.

His movements were steady.

Efficient.

Not gentle.

Not rough.

Just precise.

Up close, she could see faint scorch marks along his sleeves.

There were small cracks across parts of the mechanical brace attached to his arm.

His breathing was controlled—but slightly heavier than usual.

So he hadn’t arrived effortlessly.

He simply hadn’t shown it.

“…Why?”

Liz’s voice came out hoarse.

It wasn’t even a complete question.

Why are you here?

Why did you follow?

Why did you save me?

Red met her gaze.

There was no triumph in his eyes.

No accusation.

Just that same distant calm.

“I adjusted the route after noticing the anomaly in the Lord’s movement pattern,” he replied.

“The Twenty-Fourth Floor’s behavior deviated from the notes.”

Even now.

Even after everything.

He was talking about data.

About patterns.

About deviations.

Not about her.

Not about leaving.

Not about betrayal.

Liz felt something in her chest tighten painfully—far worse than any wound.

Behind them, hurried footsteps echoed through the passage.

Bethany and Jessica.

They froze when they saw the collapsed Colossus.

Then they saw him.

Jessica’s eyes widened first.

“Red…?”

The name left her lips like a fragile thing.

Red nodded slightly in acknowledgment, but his attention returned immediately to Liz.

“You overextended your fire attribute output,” he said, examining the cracks in her armor.

“Sustained combustion beyond safe threshold. Your gauntlets are near structural failure.”

Even now.

Analyzing.

Assessing.

Fixing.

Liz suddenly laughed weakly.

It hurt.

“…You’re still like this.”

Red didn’t respond to that.

Instead, he crouched slightly and lifted her properly this time, supporting most of her weight.

“We should relocate,” he said.

“This area is unstable after the internal detonations. There is a temporary safe zone 200 meters back.”

He paused for half a second.

Then, more quietly:

“You fought well.”

Three simple words.

No mockery.

No superiority.

Just a statement of fact.

For some reason, that hurt Liz more than if he had scolded her.

Because for the first time, she understood something clearly.

He hadn’t come to prove he was right.

He hadn’t come to show he was stronger.

He had simply… come.

Because that was what he did.

Behind them, the broken remains of the Magic Armor Colossus lay motionless, its core completely shattered.

And for the first time since entering the Twenty-Fourth Floor—

The suffocating pressure in Liz’s chest began to crack.