As Jax placed his hand on Adelina's back, the first thing that registered was cold.

The fabric she wore was freezing. Not just cool. Freezing. Like touching ice.

The stone floor of the cell had leeched every bit of warmth from her body, leaving her like a corpse laid out in winter.

'No. No, she's not—'

He scrambled to the other side to see her face.

Movement. There was movement.

A smile broke across Jax's face, genuine relief flooding through him.

Then that smile twisted into pure, murderous rage.

She was trembling. Not just shivering. Her entire body was convulsing, violent tremors wracking through her like she was being electrocuted.

Her face twitched and spasmed, muscles contracting involuntarily. Sweat poured down her temples despite the cold, her skin flushed an unnatural red in some places and deathly pale in others.

It looked like the worst fever imaginable. Like her body was trying to tear itself apart from the inside.

Jax pressed his hand against her forehead.

Burning. Absolutely burning.

"Fuck," he whispered. Then louder: "FUCK! Fuck every single one of you bastards who did this! I'll find you! I'll find every last one of you and I'll make you BEG for death!"

Behind him, the three girls had caught up. They saw the scene and froze.

Seris's hand flew to her mouth. "Mother... oh gods, Mother..."

Her legs gave out. She collapsed to her knees right beside Adelina, her hands hovering uselessly, not knowing where to touch, how to help.

Jax was already moving. He pulled a healing potion from his coat and forced the bottle between Adelina's lips, tilting her head back.

"Swallow. Come on, swallow it."

The red liquid poured down her throat. Some of it spilled out the sides of her mouth, but most of it went down.

Then he grabbed another bottle. Mana potion. Blue and glowing.

"This too. Drink."

He poured it into her mouth more carefully this time, making sure it all went down.

Then he started patting his coat frantically, searching for something else.

"Stop!" Seris's voice cracked. "Stop it, you'll make it worse! Too many potions at once will—"

"Shut up," Jax said, still searching.

His fingers found it. A small wrapped package in his inner pocket.

He pulled it out and tore the wrapping open with his teeth, spitting the paper aside.

Inside was a strip of dried meat. Dark brown, almost black, with tiny seeds embedded throughout.

All three girls recognized it instantly.

"Is that... Jerky Seeds?" Astrid whispered.

"Holy shit," Roxana breathed. "That's like... a month's salary for a normal person."

Jerky Seeds. The most expensive food item on the continent. Found only in the Demi-Human domains, harvested from a specific plant that only grew in their sacred groves.

It healed curses, body injuries, fatigue, mental exhaustion, poison, disease. Everything.

A single strip could bring someone back from the brink of death.

And it cost an absolute fortune.

Jax had bought it with every last coin he'd earned from his teaching position. Money was useless to him anyway. He'd figured Adelina would be hungry when he found her.

'Why not buy her the most expensive thing available?'

He looked down at the jerky in his hand, then at Adelina's unconscious face. The food was solid. Hard as a rock. Meant to be chewed slowly over time.

She couldn't chew. Could barely swallow.

Then he remembered. When he'd collapsed after coming here, when he'd been unconscious and starving. She'd fed him. Taken care of him.

Without thinking, Jax put the jerky in his own mouth and started chewing.

The girls watched, confused. "What's he doing? Is he seriously eating it himself right now?"

Jax chewed thoroughly, breaking down the tough meat and seeds, mixing it with his saliva until it became a soft paste. His teeth and tongue doing the work hers couldn't.

Then he leaned down, tilted Adelina's head back, and pressed his mouth against hers.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Astrid's eyes went wide.

Seris's face turned bright red. "Mother? Wha.. No..!"

Jax carefully transferred the chewed food from his mouth to Adelina's, using his tongue to push it down, helping her swallow. He pulled back, checked that it went down, then put another piece of jerky in his mouth and repeated the process.

"Oh my god," Roxana muttered. "He's mouth-feeding her."

Seris's hands moved on their own, reaching out to push Jax away with the weakest possible force. Like her body knew she should stop this but her heart wouldn't let her actually do it.

"P-Professor, maybe we should—"

Jax ignored her completely. Chewed another piece. Pressed his mouth to Adelina's. Transferred the food. Pulled back. Repeated.

For three full minutes, he did this. Over and over until the entire package was gone.

When he finished, he carefully repositioned Adelina so she was sitting in his lap, her back against his chest. Then his hands started moving frantically, rubbing her feet, her hands, trying to generate warmth, trying to do SOMETHING.

His mind wasn't processing anything clearly. Just moving on pure instinct.

Then he heard it.

A voice. Faint. Barely a whisper.

Adelina was talking in her fever dreams, her face twisted in pain.

"...Theron... please come back..."

Jax's hands froze.

"...my son... my boy... please be safe..."

Tears started leaking from Adelina's closed eyes, rolling down her cheeks and dripping onto the stone floor.

"...Seris... my daughter... I'm sorry... so sorry..."

Seris's breath hitched. Tears poured down her face as she watched her mother suffer even in unconsciousness.

Astrid moved to her side, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Then Adelina whispered another name.

"...Jax..."

The cell went dead silent.

Seris felt something wet hit her hand. She looked up.

Jax's eyes were filled with tears. Not falling. Not yet. But there, glistening, threatening to spill over.

His face had been cold since they'd entered the kingdom. That predatory, emotionless mask he wore when things got serious.

But hearing his name from her lips, grouped with her family, with the people she loved most...

The mask shattered.

Something genuine broke through. Something raw and completely vulnerable.

All three girls stared in shock.

'She... she said his name. Why? How does she...?'

Their questions hung in the air, unanswered, as Jax stood up in one smooth motion.

He cradled Adelina against his chest with his left arm, holding her so tightly it was like he was trying to merge their bodies into one. His right hand reached down and grabbed his sword.

Or tried to.

In his emotional state, in his rage and fear and desperation, he grabbed it wrong.

His fingers wrapped around the blade itself, the sharp edge cutting deep into his palm. The handle pointed uselessly away from him.

Blood immediately started dripping from his hand.

He didn't even notice.

"We're leaving," his voice came out flat, emotionless. "Heading to the closest infirmary in the kingdom. Now."

He didn't wait for responses. Just started walking.

He made it outside the cell corridor and into the main hallway when he heard them.

Footsteps. Running. Shouting.

Multiple people dashing toward their position. They'd discovered the dead guards. Sounded the alarm.

Jax stopped walking and looked up.

Six figures rounded the corner, all wearing that same strange armor the "heroes" seemed to favor. Mismatched styles, like they'd been pulled from different time periods and thrown together.

A translucent window appeared in Jax's vision, courtesy of the Goddess system.

[Champion #1 - Ricky]

[Level 9 | HP: 1,400 | MP: 3,000]

[Champion #2 - Simon]

[Level 8 | HP: 2,000 | MP: 1,700]

[Champion #3 - Edward]

[Level 11 | HP: 3,000 | MP: 0]

Jax didn't bother reading the other three.

His eyes locked onto Edward. Level 11. The highest.

His sword moved.

It happened so fast the others didn't even see it. One moment the blade was in his bleeding hand. The next moment it was flying through the air like a thunderbolt.

Edward opened his mouth to shout a warning.

The blade went through his open mouth, piercing his palate, exploding out the back of his skull, and pinning him to the stone wall behind with such force the entire corridor shook.

His eyes went wide. Blood poured from his mouth around the blade.

Then his body started dissolving into blue particles, floating away like dust in sunlight.

[Champion Edward - Eliminated]

But Edward wasn't the only one bleeding.

Jax's right hand was absolutely pouring blood now. The wrong grip had cut through skin, muscle, nearly down to bone. His entire palm was red, blood dripping steadily onto the floor.

He felt absolutely nothing.

No pain registered. His mind was too far gone for something as insignificant as physical injury.

He walked forward slowly, deliberately, like a monster from a nightmare. He passed the five remaining champions, reached up, and ripped his sword free from the wall.

The five heroes stood frozen, petrified.

Because they'd seen it. The stat window that appeared when Jax had looked at them.

[Jax Rayne]

[Level 35]

Level fucking thirty-five.

They were all under level 12. This wasn't a fight. This was a massacre waiting to happen.

Jax walked right past them without even a glance, like they were less than insects. Beneath his notice.

He shifted Adelina slightly in his arm and gently patted her matted, dirty hair.

"It's okay now," he whispered to her unconscious form. "I've got you. You're safe."

The five heroes didn't move. Didn't attack. Didn't even breathe loudly.

They just watched this bleeding, terrifying man walk away with the queen in his arms.

Then they heard footsteps behind them.

They turned.

Three women stood there. Two princesses and a professor. Their faces were twisted with rage, with grief, with the need to hurt something.

"You," Seris said, her voice shaking with fury. "You did this to her."

Astrid cracked her knuckles. "Big mistake showing your faces."

Roxana's magic started crackling around her fingers.

The heroes tried to run.

They didn't make it three steps.

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