Just after the rest of the American Guild exited through the portal, Elesch turned back in fury. Tears left her eyes as the portal shut. Adam held her back as she cursed towards where the portal was.

"We left Nova behind! We have to go for him!" Elesch exclaimed.

Adam held her back, and she angrily looked back at them. "We can't, it's too dangerous. We have to wait for Marcus's decision." Adam suggested.

"But..." Elesch insisted.

"He's right," Zane added in. "We can't do anything until we hear from Marcus, unless you want to somehow go back in there and die instantly. I think I like the first option better than dying for no reason."

"Unfortunately," Michael said, shrugging his shoulders. "I have to agree with Zane here. We can't risk our lives to save one. I know he's your brother, and you love him very much, but we need Marcus's opinion on this matter."

Elena was out in front, baffled by what was happening in front of her. She drank her coffee, slipping it slightly in small intervals, as the argument expanded to thirty minutes. She counted the heads and saw Nova wasn't with the group.

She asked the group once, but they ignored her. Then twice, but they ignored her again. Then she screamed at them: "Where is Nova!"

Everything fell into silence as Elesch finally spoke up, slightly afraid of Elena. "Nova was left behind in Beastaria. He was fighting a monster and distracting it, as we escaped. We have to go back for him, it's the only way we can save him."

"Let's go to Marcus," Elena suggested, having a bright, nervous smile on her face. "We need to get another adult's help. Let's ask a trusted adult first, and then let's see how it moves."

After a couple of minutes of arguing back and forth with Elesch, the group finally settled on returning to HQ. The atmosphere in the transport van was tense, too quiet. The kind of silence that doesn't come from peace, but from guilt.

Elesch sat by the window, her knuckles white from how hard she clenched her fists. Her breathing was uneven, shallow, and angry. Each passing second made her chest tighten.

She could still hear Nova's voice in her head: "I'll distract it. Just go."

He had smiled when he said it, that same reckless, maddeningly confident smile that made her want to punch him and hug him at the same time.

"He's not dead," she muttered under her breath.Adam, sitting across from her, sighed. "No one said he is."

"You're thinking it," she shot back coldly.

Zane leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "No one thinks that, Elesch. But even if he's alive, he's stuck in Beastaria, without backup, without supplies, and with that thing still out there. You know what that means."

Elesch glared at him. "You think he's going to die?"Zane met her glare calmly. "I think Nova doesn't die easily. But Beastaria doesn't care how strong you are. It eats gods, too."

That silenced the group again. Only the faint hum of the van's engine filled the space as they descended from the mountains toward the Guild District.

When they finally arrived, the American Guild HQ loomed ahead, a fortress of glass and metal, humming with arcane circuits and mana conduits that lit the hallways like veins of light. Marcus was waiting. He stood near the main atrium, still in his tailored uniform, eyes locked on a data slate hovering beside him.

The moment he saw the missing figure among the group, his smile faded. "Where's Nova?" he asked flatly. Nobody answered. His voice sharpened. "Someone speak."

Elesch stepped forward. "He… stayed behind. In Beastaria. To fight something we couldn't."

Marcus froze. "He what?"

"He forced us to go," Adam added quickly. "He said he'd distract the monster so we could reach the checkpoint."

"And you listened?" Marcus's tone cracked through the air like a whip. "You left him behind in an unstable realm?"

"Sir, there was no time," Elena interjected, holding her tablet. "He made the call under duress. Had he not done so, we'd all have been erased by that creature. It was either him or everyone."

Marcus's jaw tightened. He took a slow step forward, eyes flickering with restrained fury. "You should've stopped him."

"How, Marcus?" Elesch snapped suddenly, voice breaking. "You think I wanted to leave him there? He told us to run, he ordered us to go! What was I supposed to do, disobey my brother and die next to him?"

Her voice cracked mid-sentence. She covered her face with her hands, trembling.

Marcus exhaled slowly. The anger didn't fade, but it reshaped into something colder.

He turned to Elena. "Get me a full scan of Beastaria's portal frequency from the Appalachian site. I want to see if there's any fluctuation, anything that suggests he's still alive."

Elena nodded instantly, rushing toward the communications console.

"And the rest of you," Marcus said, his voice deepening, "prepare your reports. I want every detail. If we're going to mount a retrieval, I need precision, not panic."

---

An hour passed. The room's walls were now lined with holographic displays, projections of dimensional maps, mana flow readings, and pulsing rift signatures. The main portal diagram flickered in the center, showing a chaotic energy storm where the checkpoint had once been.

Elena swiped through several layers of data, brow furrowing. "The rift collapsed completely after the team exited. But…"

Marcus turned toward her. "But what?"

"There's residual activity, faint, but patterned. It's rhythmic. Almost like…"

"A heartbeat," Adam said quietly.

Elena nodded. "Exactly."

Elesch stepped closer, hope flaring in her eyes. "Then that means he's alive?"

Elena hesitated. "I don't want to make assumptions, but if this reading is organic mana, not residual, then yes. He's still generating energy. Which means survival."

Marcus's expression softened, just slightly. He crossed his arms. "Then we plan. We're going to bring him back."

Zane frowned. "You're serious? That place nearly ate us alive, and you want to go back?"

Marcus shot him a look sharp enough to silence him. "You think I'm letting a member of my guild, an evolved D-rank with active divine potential, rot in Beastaria? If Nova's alive, we retrieve him. That's an order."

Elesch's eyes widened. "When do we leave?"

"Not yet," Marcus said, raising a hand. "We need a specialized portal, one that can pierce through Beastaria's layered barrier without collapsing under feedback. That will take time."

He turned to Elena. "You have authorization to contact the International Guild Society. I want access to the Transdimensional Anchoring Array."

Elena looked up, surprised. "That's top-tier clearance. Even the Council doesn't like that system being used for mortal extractions."

"Then they can argue with me later," Marcus said, already walking toward the exit. "Right now, Nova's priority one."

---

Outside, Elesch leaned against the corridor wall, trying to steady her breathing. She was crying slightly, missing her brother already, as she felt like she had lost him again, not able to feel that divine connection, even when she transformed into her divine being.

Zane walked past her, stopping briefly. "You're not going to sleep, are you?"

She shook her head. "Didn't think so," he muttered. "Look… I don't pray much, but if he's really in there, he's either fighting for his life or making Beastaria regret existing."

Elesch managed a weak smile. "You think he's strong enough for that?"

Zane smirked. "You've seen him. He's Nova. He doesn't fight to survive, he fights to make the universe remember his name."

As Zane left, Elesch's smile faltered again. She looked out through the glass corridor into the city's horizon, where the mana-lit skyline shimmered faintly against the clouds.

She whispered to herself, "Hold on, Nova. Just hold on."

---

Back inside the control chamber, Marcus watched the energy feed flicker again, that faint rhythmic pulse still beating like a distant echo. He zoomed in on the waveform, eyes narrowing.

It wasn't random. The pulse was coded, deliberate. A sequence of fluctuations repeating every few seconds, like a pattern.

Elena noticed it too. "Marcus… this isn't a natural reading. It's a signal."

Marcus's heartbeat quickened, excitement coursing through him. "Encrypted?"

"Yes. And get this, it's in entropy signature format. Same frequency Nova used for Hellscript Arsenal."

He stared at the projection, realization dawning on him."He's not just alive," Marcus said quietly. "He's talking to us."

Elesch entered just as he said he would, eyes widening as she saw the pulsing waveform on the screen. The faint red-black glow of the entropy signature shimmered across the room like a heartbeat made of collapsing stars.

Her lips parted in disbelief. "That's him…"

Marcus nodded once. "He's sending us coordinates."

Elesch took a step forward, whispering under her breath as the pattern repeated, stronger this time, a silent, defiant call echoing through realms.

"Nova," she said softly, a tear rolling down her cheek. "You stubborn idiot, you're still fighting."

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