I expected to hear the horrified screams of my teammates as we dropped, narrowly avoiding colliding with pieces of rock that flew past our faces. Instead, I heard absolute silence. Balmung's hand held onto mine securely and when I turned my head to look at him through my teary vision, I could see him glare at whatever awaited us at the bottom of our fall.

Even though we tumbled through the air at an extremely high speed, we landed on the ground below gently. Once my feet were steady, I glanced up at where we had come from. I couldn't see anything but darkness. Harald, Aura, even those pictures were now shrouded in an incredible empty void.

"Oh, shit," BlackRose muttered under her breath. I turned my attention to her only to find her motionless body staring straight ahead. I followed her gaze, my heart dropping and shattering at what she had been watching.

Far in the distance, Cubia waited for us. Its root-like veins surrounded us on all sides, completely blocking us in. Even the surface we stood on was a thick, pulsating artery. There was nowhere else for us to go except toward its face.

"It's so much bigger now," Balmung commented. I could tell that he was trying his hardest to sound brave, but everyone was terrified at this point. There was no hiding it. "Can we defeat it?"

"I don't think we have much of a choice," I answered.

Further down from us floated a Cubia Core. Familiar with how they worked and how to defeat them, we started off with physical attacks. Barriers shot up to protect the digital organism, so our party immediately switched to magical attacks while I stood back to heal when the Gomoras popped up. Space quickly became an issue. In our previous fights with Cubia, we were given a large, flat disc to avoid attacks on. This time, we were squeezed onto a narrow passage, trying not to topple over the edge while doing our best at staying alive.

With ease, we took out the Cubia Core. We waited for the creature to turn tail and run as it always did, but instead it simply glared us down as if urging us to come closer. Hanging back to heal our party, we became lost in our own thoughts of the situation.

Aura's words repeated in my head. If Cubia and Kite's bracelet were one in the same, then how would we get out of this fight? Cubia obviously was going to stand its ground, so what did that mean for us? No matter how many times I tried to wrap my head around it, I couldn't come up with a viable solution.

Suddenly, Balmung lifted his blade and forced it into the vein we stood on. It sunk in halfway before he lifted his curious eyes to Cubia's main body. Absolutely no response. Was it even connected?

"I have a bad feeling," Balmung mumbled as he yanked his weapon back out.

"The last time you said that, we fell through the ground," I said, pointing toward the dark area above us.

"Well, think about it. That Cubia Core was much weaker than any we've faced before. Cubia shows no reaction to mutilation. Are we even causing any damage to it?" He had a point, but nobody had an answer.

So, we continued on, carefully walking on the vein.

Within only a few feet, another Cubia Core appeared to delay us reaching Cubia's main body. Unlike the one before, this one actually seemed to put up a fight. It switched between magical and physical tolerance more often and sent out more Gomoras to attack us and heal.

"I'm out of healing items!" Mistral declared, her voice tight with stress. "Unless any of you have backups, we're relying on magic!"

BlackRose let out some strange, guttural battle-cry as she hacked away at the Gomoras. The tiny monsters seemed to become smarter and faster every time they escaped the womb of the Cubia Core. Instead of just attacking us with simple tackles and spells, they soundlessly created plans with each other.

I knew one was lingering behind me, but my focus remained glued on the two that floated in front of me. The duo twirled in place as my staff crashed onto their bodies. They squeaked simultaneously, addressing the loner at my backside, and rammed into my gut, knocking the wind out of me completely. I gasped for air as I doubled over, but as the last one slammed against my back, I lurched forward and fell stomach-down on the vein. My head hung over weakly and through my spotted vision, I could see something resembling a pulsating heartbeat underneath us.

I yelped in pain as a Gomora thumped against my back. They were much heavier than they seemed. Fear struck me when I realized the uncomplicated attack would continue, so I braced myself for another. Balmung's roar of fury followed by the falling, lifeless body of the Gomora over the edge forced a heavy sigh of relief from my struggling lungs.

"Are you okay? Can you breathe?" Balmung hurriedly asked as he pulled me to my feet. I nodded, finally able to get air into my body, and watched as the Cubia Core crashed to the ground in defeat.

Mistral bombarded me with healing spells immediately. "We need a plan," she suggested. Her playful tone had completely disappeared. She sounded like a mom more than anything now. "Cubia obviously isn't going to run and the Gomoras know to attack Rin and Balmung before the rest of us."

"She's right," BlackRose said. Her eyes fixed on the gigantic monster awaiting us. "Ugh, I don't know. This is so frustrating."

Kite took control then. "Rin and Balmung, you two stay as far from the Gomoras as you can and leave the fighting to us. Heal us when we need it, but other than that, don't come near the battle," he ordered. "Protect each other."

His last words stuck with me as we continued to battle through two more Cubia Cores and waves of Gomoras. Protect each other. Watching the three normal players relentlessly attack while Balmung and I healed, I couldn't help but think that those words didn't apply to just the two of us. The entire time I'd been stuck in the game, fighting alongside Kite and BlackRose, they protected me with everything they had: staying up late, forgetting homework, dismissing their families just to be with me when I had nobody else. For the past five or six months, they had revolved their lives around me, keeping me safe and helping me drag myself through even when I couldn't find my own strength.

When the fourth Cubia Core howled in pain and flattened onto the ground in a defeated manner, Mistral let out a loud cheer. "Four down and I don't know how many more to go!" she shouted, obviously trying to keep her optimistic demeanor.

"I think that was the last one," Balmung said, pointing toward Cubia. Its eyes glared down at us from only a few feet away. At our level, a heart was visible at its chest.

Without warning, BlackRose charged at the heart. Roots shot up from the vein to protect it from her blade, but before she swung, her body froze mid-strike. "Oh my God," she whispered, her eyes locked on the beating organ.

I hurried to her side only to wish that I hadn't. In the middle of the heart curled a body, like an unborn baby still in a womb. I turned and stared at Kite, trying to find words to match what I was seeing.

"Kite," I mouthed, "it's you."