Day two started with Davos vomiting blood.
"I'm…done…I can feel it."
Marcus crawled over to him, moving slowly.
"Save your… strength. Don't… talk."
"For what?" Davos tried to laugh. "I'm… dead, Marcus. We…all are. Except…" He looked at Kaine. "Except him."
They all looked at Kaine again. He had lost count of how many times they had stared at him over the past twelve hours.
Kaine sat opposite to them, and was trying to avoid looking at them. He was checking himself for symptoms every ten minutes. But he was fine. He felt tired, hungry and scared, but he wasn't sick or dying.
"Maybe I'm just slower." Kaine said. "Maybe it takes longer for E-ranks."
"Bullshit." Rook shouted. "We all breathed the same air. We all were attacked by the same monsters. You should be dead already. You're the weakest among us."
The words hurt, but they were true.
"I don't know why. I don't know what's happening."
Davos coughed again.
"Doesn't matter. Won't change anything."
He was right. Knowing why Kaine wasn't sick wouldn't save the others, it wouldn't bring Jin back.
"We're in a plague dungeon." Yuki said after what felt like an eternity. "And we brought a healer who can't heal plague. That's…that's funny, right? Ironic?"
"Yuki…" Marcus reached for her.
She flinched away from his touch, laughing.
"Don't touch me. I can feel it moving under my skin. It's eating me."
Her hands clawed her arms, and she tore chunks of her skin away.
"Yuki, stop!" Marcus tried to grab her hands, but she was surprisingly strong for someone half dead.
"It's inside me! "Get it out! Get it out! Get it out GET IT OUT…"
Kaine moved without thinking, and knelt beside her. He grabbed her wrists, and tried to stop her from tearing herself apart.
"Yuki, listen to me. You have to stop. You're making it worse."
"Make it stop." She whispered. "Please. You're a healer. Make it stop."
"I…"
What could he say? That he had tried? That his magic was useless?
"Please." Yuki said again. "It hurts. It hurts so much."
Kaine tried anyway. He placed his hands on her arms and channeled what little mana he'd regenerated but still nothing happened.
"You can't help me. You can't help anyone." She pulled away from him, sobbing.
Hours passed. No one was talking anymore. It felt like everyone was dead already.
Kaine moved to Marcus to check his wound. His eyes were closed as he leaned back against the wall. For a moment, Kaine thought he was sleeoing. But then he noticed he wasn't breathing.
"Marcus?" Kaine shook his shoulder gently. "Marcus, wake up."
There was no response. He checked his pulse. There was nothing. He put his ear on Marcus's chest. There was no heartbeat.
"No." Kaine immediately started giving him chest compressions. " Don't do this. Marcus, don't…"
His arms were burning but he didn't stop. Someone touched his shoulder. Kaine jerked back, startled. Davos stood over him, swaying on his feet.
"He's gone. We're all going."
Then Davos collapsed and started to dissolve.
It happened faster than it had with Jin. Kaine stared at the spot where Davos had been. His mind went blank, unable to process what he was seeing.
A sound made him turn. Yuki was also standing. She swayed on her feet. Her skin had turned completely gray, and the black veins covered her whole body.
"Yuki?"
She didn't respond. Her body started to change. She was transforming exactly like Jin. Kaine immediately scrambled backward until his back hit the wall.
Yuki immediately charged towards him. Kaine had no weapons and magic. The creature was fast. It crossed half the distance before Kaine could even think to move.
He rolled sideways as the creature attacked. A claw caught his shoulder, tearing through his shirt into his skin. Kaine grabbed the first thing his hand touched, a rock, and slammed it on the creature's skull as hard as he could.
The creature stumbled. He hit it again and again. Finally, the creature fell, and began to dissolve. Kaine dropped the rock and collapsed, gasping for breath.
His shoulder was paining. He looked at the wound and saw black veins already spreading from the injury.
"No. No, not now."
A rattling breath made him turn. Marcus's body was dissolving now. He just sat there, gasping, his whole body was shaking. The black veins were spreading down his arm now, crawling towards his chest. Finally, he was getting sick.
A groan pulled his attention to Rook. He was seizing now. Kaine crawled to his side, even though he knew there was nothing he could do.
"Rook? Rook, can you hear me?"
"Finally." Rook rasped. "Took you long enough… to join us."
Then the seizure intensified, and his body dissolved. Kaine was now alone in the plague dungeon surrounded by the blood of his five teammates.
Then suddenly he started shivering in the humid chamber. But the next second, his skin was on fire. His vision blurred. Kaine tried to stand up but fell. His legs wouldn't support his weight. The black veins had spread across his entire arm now, creeping up his neck, crawling towards his heart.
He curled into a ball on the floor and screamed.
His vision was darkening. Then, just as the darkness was about to swallow him completely, he saw something in a blank black space.
CALAMITY STRAIN INTEGRATION: 1%
CALAMITY STRAIN INTEGRATION: 2%
What the hell is that? What is happening?
CALAMITY STRAIN INTEGRATION: 3%
His pain was transforming now.
CALAMITY STRAIN INTEGRATION: 4%
The black veins spreading through his body started to glow.
CALAMITY STRAIN INTEGRATION: 5%
Kaine tried to speak, to ask what was happening, but his jaw wouldn't move. His whole body was paralyzed. Then his vision went black.
He woke up to silence. The vision was gone. The pain was also gone. Even the sound of the dungeon's breathing had stopped.
Kaine opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. The veins in the walls were still there, but they weren't glowing anymore. The whole dungeon seemed quieter somehow.
He sat up slowly, expecting pain, and weakness. But he felt fine. His body felt strong, and energized. The wound on his shoulder was healed, leaving only a thin white scar.
He looked at his arms. The black veins were still there, but they weren't spreading anymore. They looked like tattoos now, pulsing faintly with dark light.
How long had I been unconscious? Hours? Days?
He checked his small watch.
Twelve hours. I had been out for twelve hours.
Kaine stood up and looked around the chamber. The blood stains were gone. The floor was clean, as if nothing had happened here.
"What the hell?"
Then he noticed the walls. They were moving. It wasn't breathing or pulsing. It was actually moving, changing its position. The dungeon was suddenly alive, and it was watching him.