**Heavy Breathing**

  The air became thick, and uneven, like the very dungeon itself was struggling to survive. My blood dripped onto the cold floor; each drop a reminder of how I was ohs door.

  My mana spiraled wildly, spiraling out of trol.

  As if it too, had been wounded in battle.

  The silent humming of mana echoed in the dungeon; the only sound that cut through was silence.

  I could feel it—the dungeon was alive. It has always been alive, but now… now, it was watg us. Waiting for its new master.

  I looked up, vision swimming, and saw the space around us begin to shift. The dungeon was no longer a cold, dark maze—it was ging.

  Being something else.

  The walls twisted and torted as if the stone were lungs. The air grew thicker, heavy with magic, the room expanded. In the distance, where Schutz stood, a pedestal emerged from the floor, a gleaming emerald-green carpet stretg toward it, leading up to the ptform.

  And their—on the pedestal—a crystal.

  A/N: ^^The Crystal^^

  It floated, pulsing, radiating an eerie green light that flickered like a heartbeat.

  “I-I see…” Schutz whispered, his voice barely a breath.

  “The temple wants to know if you’re worthy,” he sneered, his eyes gleaming with chaotic joy.

  “To bee its new master.”

  I froze. What is he talking about?

  “HAHAHAH!” Schutz ughed, tearing off his chest and gau armor, revealing a sigil on his forearm—a shield.

  My breath caught in my throat as I stared at it.

  He has one as well.

  “Like you, Ryn!” he shouted. “I possess a sigil, mine is TRUE—yours? Well, let’s see if it’s false.”

  His sigil fred to life, brighter and more intense. His broadsword and skin seemed to bee sturdier as if armored.

  He surged forward with rapid speed that sent my pulse spiking. I gasped for breath, barely having time to speak.

  “BEAT ME, RYN! AND I SHALL BESTOW UPON YOU ALL THE KNOWLEDGE—NO ALL THE STRENGTH I PROTECT!”

  His voice was booming, rage and power poured into him like a fme.

  Before I could even think, Schutz was on me. I barely mao block his attack, my arms straining against his force. With a brutal toss—he sent me smming into multiple pilrs, each impaog the breath from my lungs.

  I didn’t have time to recover. I hit the ground, my vision blurry, my clothing more tattered.

  Every iny body was screaming in pain, but what cut deeper was the voi my mind—doubting.

  My thoughts spiraled.

  I was given this new life. It is a gift, I thought.

  But all I’ve done is focus on what was.

  My life before… before this.

  Before I became Ryn.

  The pain, the suffog pressure of it all, pressed me down. I became cold. I became heartless. Just like my parents in my old life. That’s why I enlisted.

  I’m er thahe words echoed in my mind, tearing at me.

  My mana was running low. I-I ’t…..I ’t keep going.

  But then, a voice—my voice—whispered through the storm of my thoughts.

  “You’re no longer weak”

  The words pierced through the fusion, through the phantom pain. They made me—remember—what I wao be in this life.

  I have strength…I made a promise….

  And then—Daryl. Ryn. Reaper. Names I had carried, shackles I had worn. The weight of all of them collided in my chest.

  “You die now…” the voice whispered.

  But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

  I had to pick who I was now.

  I looked at my hand—my sigil glowing bright as the dungeon pulsed with life around me. And then, the voice echoed again.

  It was mine—my own voice.

  “They’re waiting for you, Ryn. If you give up now, you’ll be er than Aric thinks you are.”

  No more hiding.

  Show them who you are.

  What you’ve fought for.

  What you’ve sacrificed to bee

  To bee the Stro Spellbde.

  A flicker nition lit in my chest. Yes……

  The phantom pain that once crippled me began to fade.

  The agony of the Reaper, the role I equipped, began to drop away. My past life….it was slipping through my fingers, like sand in the wind.

  Only my voice remaihe voice of Ryn Ashford.

  The ground trembled beh me, and in the fsh of beaming light, my plete Scythe appeared in my hand. I felt the weight of it, the power, the promise that it carried.

  AGHHH! I yelled out, it wasn't fear.

  It was defiance.

  “YOU!” My eyes burned with focus.

  “I ’t die here” I roared, my grip tightening on the handle.

  The dungeon watches.

  “YES! RYN! YES!” "May we fight in these royal HALLS!” Schutz yelled, his voice a twisted roar.

  We sprioward each other in a blur, the floor beh us a silent wito our battle.

  My scythe, glowing with power, whipped through the air with the ferocity that matched my heartbeat, and in the instant, it ed around his broadsword. Our blood still dripping from our mouths, staining the green, emerald carpet.

  The only thing keeping us alive, keeping us moving forward, was that defiant rage against the pull of death.

  G!

  G!

  G!

  The sound of magid metal echoed through the room, drowning out all else. With a swift motion, I kicked Schutz down. His legs buckled, aumbled back a step, spitting out blood. The taste of iron filling his mouth.

  His eyes burned with frustration as he wiped the blood from his lips.

  “GRRRR! Feuer!” He roared.

  It was the same spell he had tried to use against Elnora—but this time, it was different. The fme began to gather around his broadsword, coiling like a lion.

  I could feel it ing. I raised my scythe in defense, preparing myself from the bst. My sigil flickered, glowing brighter than before.

  The dungeon has decided.

  The crystal on the pedestal—the heart of this pce—began to illuminate. A vibrant green light spiraled from the crystal, casting an eerier shadow across the room.

  The green light surged through the air, and into my sigil. The moment it ected, a burst of energy detonated around me.

  BLAM!

  The force of it sent both Schutz and me flying backward, the shockwave knog the breath from my lungs. My vision blurred, my body a mass of pain.

  As the smoke cleared, I saw Schutz on the floor, his broadsword broken, a hole through his chest.

  I fell to my khe weight of exhaustion crashing down. I pushed my body to its limits. I had to.

  I had no choice.

  But in that moment a sharp pain came ay chest.

  The feeling of…. Death.

  Then my visio dark.

  Boot noises.

  A rhythm echoed through the temple.

  The sound was distant at first, but it greer, carrying absolute authority.

  “Ah, the old man was right. You were able to beat him. How ruthless…..”

  Alex’s voice cut through the haze of pain ah. He stood over the broken body of Schutz, his gaze unreadable. Blood pooled beh the fallen knight, a sileament to a brutal battle.

  Slowly, Alex’s eyes drifted to my body.

  “You’re almost dead, huh? I ’t allow that to happen.”

  His tone was ft—unmoved, almost indifferent.

  He stepped forward—mana fred around him. His pink mana was refined, trolled, it filled the dungeon with iy.

  Then, his fingers grasped around the green crystal atop the pedestal.

  It pulsed under his grasp.

  Kneeling beside me, Alex didn’t hesitate.

  He jammed the crystal into my chest.

  A purple-hot agony ripped through me. My body vulsed, my back arg as I spat blood.

  My breath hitched, my body felt like it was ging.

  Then—BOOM

  A surge of mana exploded within me, wild and untrolled. My once-red mana twisted into something… A deep violent purple. The air crackled around me, raw power, more power than I wielded prior.

  I could feel the magicules around me khe dungeon around me I uood it.

  My sigil—the Reapers Sigil–began to fade.

  Thehi bck again.

  Only thing I could hear was a voice.

  No pain, —just an endless void.

  Then…. voices. Distant, yet familiar.

  “Ryn..”

  A soft call, wavering as if carried by the wind.

  “Hey, we’re all missing you..”

  The voice—clearer this time.

  “Hey, Ryn I heard it was your birthday today!”

  The words rippled through the void, tugging at me.

  “Your mom came by today she so pretty!”

  “RYN!”

  The voice cracked with desperation.

  “Lilli isn’t mad at you anymore… we told her everything.”

  “She’s here with me right now.”

  A choked sob.

  “I know it’s te, but I miss you…. Ryn.”

  Then, a chorus—calling my name over and over.

  Ryn!

  Ryn!

  Ryn!

  A pulse came through my unsciousness.

  I… I know that voice.

  I wasn’t sure how long I was in this abyss—it felt like seds.

  But my mind slowly began to open, the void shattering.

  When I finally came to it, I was lying in an unfamiliar room.

  An infirmary.

  Four months had passed.

  I hope you all enjoyed chapter 12! The feters will be world building chapters thus expining what went on during the four month time gap. Furthermore, the st feters will be written to give a smooth transition into Arc 2. I will also be releasing a Arc 2 post expining the plot. Thanks for reading!