Investing in My Crippled Wife: Every Return Makes Me Stronger

Soren pushed himself off the floor and forced his legs back into a sprint. The chaos in the lobby was deafening, but his focus was entirely locked onto the Tether Bond pulsing inside his mind. Thanks to the mental link, he could pinpoint Ethea’s exact location, but the sensation sent a jolt of panic through his chest.

She was moving downward at an alarming speed.

’The elevator?’

It was the only logical explanation, but his blood ran cold. The dragon’s breath attack had just rocked the entire foundation of the complex. Elevators and structural damage were a fatal combination.

Activating Quick Step, Soren became a blur, his boots barely touching the cracked tiles as he bypassed the stairwell and lunged toward the elevator bank.

Just as he skidded to a halt in front of the metal doors, the mechanism groaned, the cables screeching under tension before the lift finally shuddered to a stop. The doors slid slightly open to reveal a handful of terrified residents, but Soren’s eyes instantly bypassed them, locking onto the familiar figures at the back of the carriage.

Aunt Clara was there, her face pale and streaked with sweat, desperately stabilizing a wheelchair. Slumped over in the seat, completely unresponsive, was Ethea.

”Ethea!” Soren shouted, his voice cutting through the panic.

”Soren!” Clara cried out, her voice cracking with immense relief as she recognized his voice.

Soren didn’t waste a single syllable. He lunged forward, using his frame to hold the shuddering elevator doors open while helping Clara guide the wheelchair out onto the solid ground of the lobby. The elevator behind them sparked, its lights flickering violently as the remaining passengers scrambled out into the open.

”What happened?” Soren demanded, his hands already moving to steady Ethea’s head.

At the same time, he silently triggered Investor’s Insight.

”I don’t know!” Clara gasped, her hands shaking as she clutched at her coat. ”I went to check on her and found her collapsing right there in her room! I wanted to call for an ambulance, but the signal suddenly went completely dead!”

”Alright, but let’s get out of here first,” Soren said, cutting off her panic as his jaw clenched while the glowing text rapidly unfurled over Ethea’s unconscious form.

Grabbing the handles of the wheelchair, he immediately began leading them toward the exit, but before they could even clear the lobby doors, another powerful quake ripped through the ground. The entire building groaned under the kinetic stress, forcing them to pause as Soren braced the wheelchair against the shifting floor.

Looking out through the shattered glass entrance, they witnessed the city’s defense barrier finally crumbling under the monsters’ continuous assault, the glowing shield fracturing into thousands of dissolving particles as the sky opened completely to the invading swarm.

Soren slammed his weight behind the wheelchair, navigating the tilting floor as he hurried toward the open air. Working together with Clara, they finally managed to burst through the shattered entrance and get out onto the concrete courtyard, away from the collapsing structural hazards of the lobby.

However, right at that exact moment, the massive dragon circling above fixed its menacing eyes directly on their direction. Its jaws parted once more, the air distorting violently as it unleashed another blinding breath attack straight at them.

”RUN!”

The remaining crowd scattered in a frenzy, screams of absolute terror echoing off the walls as the massive torrent of plasma descended upon them like a falling star.

Soren reacted instantly, channeling his mana to form the Winter’s Barrier around them in a desperate bid to absorb the incoming impact.

However, before the destructive energy could touch the courtyard, a massive wave of water rose from below, surging upward like a roaring tidal wave to meet the dragon’s breath attack head-on.

”BOOM!”

The collision produced a blinding explosion of steam, the intense heat evaporating the torrent into a thick white mist that blanketed the entire area.

Through the parting haze, Soren noticed them—three flying figures suspended in mid-air. One stood firmly behind the massive water wall that had just blocked the cataclysmic attack, while the other two were already launching a ferocious counterattack, their bodies wrapped in blinding aura as they streaked toward the dragon like meteors.

’S-Rank Hunters!’ Soren realized, his chest tightening at the sheer scale of the power on display.

”Hunter Soren!”

Hearing his name cut through the noise, Soren turned his head to see a familiar face running toward him through the fleeing crowd, accompanied by another individual.

His eyes instantly grew cold. It was Drake. Given their history, Soren’s first instinct was that the guy was here to cause trouble or exploit the chaos.

Perhaps reading his hostile expression and the immediate tension in his posture, Drake quickly shook his hands in front of him, shouting over the roar of the battle, ”Wait! We were sent by the President!”

The hunter beside him nodded firmly, adding, ”We have to evacuate you and your family quickly! This entire sector is becoming a dead zone!”

Hearing the President’s name, Soren relaxed a fraction, though he didn’t let his guard down completely. In a situation like this, blind trust was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

He gave a sharp nod before gesturing toward his parked vehicle. ”We will move in our own car.”

Without waiting for their approval, Soren hurriedly pushed the wheelchair toward the Vanguard-X. Although shattered glass and heavy debris from the upper floors had rained down across the chassis, the vehicle remained mostly untouched, its automated defense barrier having deflected everything.

Opening the door, he carefully lifted Ethea inside to get her out of the line of fire.

Clara scrambled into the backseat right beside Ethea, immediately pulling the unconscious girl against her to support her head and keep her steady. Soren stored the wheelchair in his inventory and slammed the rear door shut, sprinted around to the driver’s side, and threw himself behind the wheel.

He punched the ignition. The engine of the Vanguard-X roared to life, its internal systems humming as the exterior defense barrier stabilized around the chassis. With the vehicle secure and idling, Soren finally shifted his focus to the glowing window hovering directly in his field of vision.

’W-What is this?!’