Adam's body finally gave out. A shuddering cough wracked his serpentine form, and he vomited a torrent of dark, coppery blood onto the pale stone.

Agony, deep and systemic, pulsed from the void-rend wound in his chest, echoed by the hollow ache where his vitality had been permanently devoured. Instinctively, he tried to activate Blooming Vitality, but the well was dry. His mana core sputtered, empty and strained. The Glutton's Avatar had burned through everything.

Gritting his mental teeth, he began the slow, painful crawl towards Ignis and Alice. Every movement was a monumental effort. He reached them, his massive head lowering to the ground with a thud.

Ignis was holding Alice protectively, her own body a tapestry of cracks and burns. Her eyes were glazed with pain and exhaustion, but they burned with a desperate will to stay conscious.

Adam's gaze shifted to Alice. His heart, or the monster's equivalent, clenched. The Voidweaver Panther's form was faint, almost translucent. She didn't look solid, she looked like a mirage, a shadow of smoke that could be scattered by the faintest breeze. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, irregular hitches.

'Damn it all to hell. What was that thing? Why Alice? And why now, of all times?' The questions swirled in a toxic mix of fury, pain, and helplessness. Nothing about this made sense. It felt like a cosmic violation, an unfair twist in a story already brutal enough.

"Ignis," Adam rasped, his voice a broken, bloody thing. "Rest. You need to rest."

The young drake whimpered, nuzzling Alice's insubstantial form. «Is... is she going to be okay?» The hope in that question was so fragile it was almost painful.

Adam fell silent. The empty platitude—'she'll be fine'—died in his throat. He couldn't say it. He didn't know. Looking at her fading form, he truly didn't know.

Just then, a blue screen, cold and clinical, flickered in his vision, analyzing the closest allied entity.

[ Diagnosis of Companion: Alice (Umbral Regent Panther). ]

[Status: Critical. Comatose. ]

[Cause: Violent Void Essence Siphon. Core integrity compromised. Void-energy leakage detected at the core nexus. ]

[Prognosis: Temporary comatose state induced as a failsafe to prevent complete dissipation. Core is attempting self-sealing. External stabilization required to prevent permanent degradation. ]

[Note: Condition is treatable. Core breach must be mended. ]

A wave of shaky, profound relief washed over the agony. 'Temporary. Treatable.' It wasn't a death sentence. It was a severe, critical injury, but there was a path. There was hope. He clung to it like a lifeline, the tension in his massive frame easing a fraction.

'Thank god...'

"Ignis," Adam said again, his voice gaining a shred of steadiness. "She's going to be okay. It's bad, but she can recover. So don't worry. Rest first. Let me handle the rest."

Ignis shook her head weakly, a stubborn glint in her pained eyes. «I can... I can still stand guard... I'm sorry. I was useless back there...»

"NO!" Adam's roar was sharp, fueled by a protective anger that had nothing to do with the drake. "Don't you ever say that! All of you were vital! The enemy was just... on another level. If not for this cursed crown, we'd all be dead. So don't you dare blame yourself, Ignis. You fought with everything you had. That's all that matters."

Ignis's resolve crumbled. Her large, reptilian eyes welled up with glowing, molten tears that sizzled as they hit the ground. The bravado, the eagerness to please, the reckless courage—all stripped away, leaving behind a scared, young creature. She began to sob, heavy, shuddering cries that shook her injured body.

«I was so scared,» she wept, the words tumbling out between gasps. «I don't want to die. I don't want to lose you. I don't want Alice to disappear. It was so dark, and I couldn't do anything...»

Adam's heart broke. He didn't have the words. Instead, he carefully, painfully, wrapped the less-injured part of his massive body around Ignis and the spectral form of Alice, creating a ragged, bloody shelter. He rested his head near hers, ignoring the protest of his own wounds.

"I know," he murmured, the layered echo gone from his voice, leaving only tired, shared fear. "I'm scared too. I feel... so weak. I couldn't protect any of you properly."

Ignis nuzzled against his scales, her tears slowing. «That's not true,» she sniffled. «You did your best. You fought so hard for us. You're amazing, Adam.» She said it with such childlike conviction that it carried its own kind of truth.

Adam managed a weak, pained smile, a strange expression on his serpentine features. "I'm glad you said that," he whispered, the words thick with exhaustion.

His gaze, heavy-lidded, drifted past Ignis to where Lilith lay motionless, a pale smear against the white stone some distance away. A fresh spike of guilt and worry pierced the haze of his pain. "I have to... check on Lilith."

Ignis, still sniffling, tightened her grip around Alice's fading form. «I-I can still hold on. I'll guard them.» The offer was brave, but her voice trembled with the strain of simply staying upright.

Adam shook his head slightly, a barely perceptible movement. "Don't... push yourself..." he tried to say, but the command died in his throat.

His own body was screaming at him, a symphony of agony and profound depletion. The world began to tilt and swim at the edges of his vision. 'Damn it... come on, body. Just a little further. I need to know if she's okay...'

But the debt to the Crown, the void-rend wound, the shattered mana core, and the sheer emotional toll had reached their absolute limit. The stubborn will that had carried him through countless battles and evolutions finally sputtered and guttered out.

A deep, irresistible coldness seeped from his core, washing over him. The sharp pains faded into a distant, numb roar. The sight of Ignis's worried face, the faint glow of Alice, the white canyon walls—all of it began to blur, darkening at the edges as if being consumed by his own personal void.

"No... not yet..." he thought, or tried to, but the thought was formless and slow.

The last thing he felt was the cold stone against his cheek as his massive head slumped to the ground. The last thing he heard was Ignis's sharp, panicked gasp. «Adam...? ADAM!»

Then, nothing. Only a deep, silent, and all-consuming darkness, dragging him down into unconsciousness.

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