She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 755

"I was just worrying about our air supply, and they delivered it right to us."

Through the bloodied, murky water, Loyce quickly stripped the oxygen tanks and regulators from the two dead soldiers. She strapped one mask onto Lucian's face and took the other for herself.

The rush of pure oxygen hitting their lungs brought a wave of dizziness, instantly reigniting their desperate will to survive.

"Let's go!" She grabbed Lucian and dove back into the depths.

With a steady air supply, their pace increased significantly.

But the drug's side effects were catching up with Lucian. The rock walls around him seemed to warp and breathe. The water bent the light into impossible shapes, and phantom whispers echoed in his ears.

He bit down on his tongue hard enough to draw blood, using the sharp sting of pain to anchor his mind. He forced every ounce of his remaining willpower to follow the blurry but relentless figure pulling him forward.

To conserve air, they held their breath until their lungs screamed, only taking hits from the regulators when absolutely necessary. But navigating the underwater labyrinth meant backtracking from dead ends and choosing new paths, and the tanks were running dangerously low.

Loyce's regulator gave a faint warning vibration.

Lucian's hallucinations were reaching a breaking point. Brilliant bursts of color exploded in the water. He saw his fallen comrades waving to him from the dark. His body began to convulse, fighting to tear away from the hand dragging him onward.

Sensing him losing his grip on reality, Loyce spun around in the black water and wrapped her arms tightly around him. Through the masks, she pressed her forehead against his, staring intensely into his unfocusing eyes. She mouthed the words clearly: *"Hold on. We're almost out."*

She said it with confidence, but the truth was she had never navigated this route before. Her entire sense of direction was based on theoretical geography and maps.

If her calculations were correct, the end of this exhausting tunnel would dump them into the deep ocean bordering the island—the exact spot where she had initially infiltrated and where her extraction team was waiting.

The tanks were empty. The flashlight flickered one last time before dying completely.

Without hesitation, she ditched the heavy steel tanks. Pinching Lucian's nose to stop him from inhaling water as his mouth opened in panic, she shoved her own regulator between his teeth, forcing the last precious breaths of air into his lungs. Then, grabbing his hand, she kicked forward with everything she had left.

Total darkness swallowed them like a leviathan. Battling sheer psychological terror, their lungs burned like fire, and their consciousness began to slip.

Already critically injured, Lucian had lost all ability to move or think, entirely reliant on Loyce dragging him through the void.

Just as Loyce hit her absolute limit, right as she thought they were truly going to die down here, she gripped Lucian's hand tighter. She refused to let go.

Even in the face of death, she didn't regret her choice. She looked back at him. In the murky blackness, his pale face was barely a blur.

Then, a faint, rippling light caught his features.

Loyce's eyes snapped wide.

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