Ellyn had been punished, but her penance was far from complete.

  She had been anointed by pain, but not even an eternity would be enough to make up for what she had done.

  Never before had she failed so… grossly.

  She had been handcrafted by the God in Waiting to stand at the summit of lethality and yet…

  After washing the blood from her burn marks, she stepped out of the shower and used one of her Realstone Shards to cast the [Focused Healing] invocation on herself, but she didn’t completely erase her scars.

  She wanted to bear the shameful marks while also returning her condition to its peak form.

  After drying herself and tying her hair into a neat bun, she changed back into her gear and left her quarters in the mountainside facility that was The Lair of the Caprine Lord.

  She passed many anointed guards and other personnel and eventually arrived in the briefing room where her superior and fellow KVL awaited.

  Her name was K'lum - The Undoer, and she was the most powerful Kuva?ai.

  Standing as a stunningly beautiful woman who resembled a dark elf. She had a long white ponytail and pointed ears and brandished a pair of legendary claw weapons.

  Her armour was no less magnificent, radiating energy as it clung to her form.

  “Good morning, Lady K’lum.” Ellyn deeply bowed, prompting her superior to raise her head from the maps on the table in front of her.

  Like those of Adsecula, K'lum’s burning red eyes oozed with Malignant energy, although she took great lengths to keep it from needlessly harming anyone.

  “Good morning, Lady Ellyn. This has turned into quite the mess, hasn’t it?”

  Ellyn struggled to swallow as K'lum approached her.

  Her heels clicking loudly in the silence of the office.

  “I genuinely have no idea where they could have gone. So… what should we do? How should we clean up your mess?”

  Ellyn stood upright and faced the expressionless woman in front of her.

  The one they called The Ace of the Deck.

  “I… think we should resume operations as normal. Continuing the search would be a waste of resources.”

  K'lum’s eyes narrowed.

  “Follow.”

  Ellyn kept pace behind the Ace as she led her into the storage bay of the facility.

  Their destination, in particular, was the bay where hundreds of human clones were kept.

  They were shoved into cramped, cubic spaces where they had to share food and facilities.

  The little boys and girls all quietly sat in their holds and didn’t dare to look up at K'lum and Ellyn as they walked by.

  “Need I remind you why our lord is going to such lengths with this particular project?”

  “No, ma’am,” Ellyn answered as she followed into one of the cells, making the children all crawl to the sides, their heads still low and their eyes empty.

  K'lum looked up at an air duct that led upwards.

  A climb that would have been impossible… unless.

  The Ace then let out a deep sigh.

  “Keep looking, find them and be sure to kill Stician when you do. I don’t think I can trust you with the task of capturing her. Is that fair?”

  Ellyn’s eyes shook, but the answer was clear.

  “Yes.”

  .

  ..

  Mumu awoke before the sun rose, taking care not to disturb Lav, who shook a little, even in his sleep.

  She made sure to cover him up nicely as she got up and softly closed the door before making her way to Dollman and Stician, who looked like they hadn’t moved at all since the day before.

  It was here that Mumu realized that she couldn’t see Dollman’s stats.

  She would have asked him why, but she wasn’t even sure if the people of Neo-Earth could see stats like she did in the first place, so she shelved the thought.

  “Are you ready?” Dollman asked while keenly inspecting a metallic foot.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Stician. Take her outside and tell her what she needs to do. I’ll stay here and look after the boy.”

  The legendary archer nodded before leading Mumu towards a metal staircase that was hidden behind the wall of hanging bodies.

  The two ascended the cylindrical building, and Mumu realized that it was some sort of bunker based on its thick concrete walls and thick metal doors that led further up.

  Stician opened the last and uppermost one, revealing that they were at the top of a hill just south of no man’s land.

  No matter how far east or west one looked, soldiers and vehicles were stationed along a border of scorched land.

  The sounds of distant gunfire echoed faintly, and the light of the morning sun was a little dimmer thanks to the smoke, which gave each breath a bit of a sting.

  Far ahead were the dark mountains wherein the dark Acolyte roosted.

  Mumu turned to Stician, whose sharp eyes scanned the expanse before her.

  “I saved three others before you. Each of them was given something to aid them on the path they chose, but ultimately, they all fell for one reason or another. You will claim their gifts for yourself. Taking Cratia’s Saintguard’s Axe, Bia’s golden eyes and Ne?kos’ torso.”

  Mumu winced.

  Stician then pointed to the northwest, at a bridge that connected the two halves of the unoccupied zone that was bisected by the Blou River.

  “Bia is over there. After succumbing to corruption, she lost her wits and has been causing trouble for both sides.”

  Stician shifted her index finger to a Cultist encampment to the Northeast.

  “Cratia was captured and converted into a cultist. She’s been helping them push further into Saintly territory, and Ne?kos is over there, moping in that forest. You can choose which order you want to get them in, but I am giving you three days. Good luck.” The archer said before turning to return into the bunker.

  “Wait! Thank you… for saving us.” Mumu said, making Stician pause for a moment.

  “I only did as my master wished. That is what we KVL live for, after all.” She said flatly before entering the bunker and closing its massive door, which had a pearlescent sheen to it.

  Mumu bit her teeth as the archer’s words echoed in her head.

  She may have been correct in essence, but Mumu was determined to carve forward a path of her own while also doing what was best for Lav.

  And so, she turned to the Cultist encampment.

  Why?

  Because there appeared to be a base belonging to the Saintly Forces a few kilometres south of it.

  If she was going to be operating in the trenches, she wanted to make sure she wasn’t getting shot at from behind.

  So, she sought to establish relations with the soldiers below.

  She took a deep breath and dashed down the hill, her new feet crushing the ground beneath her and her arms perfectly in sync with all her other movements.

  She took an even deeper breath, recalling what once was and what she was running for.

  She eventually came across a group of soldiers who were marching towards the camp.

  It looked like they were coming from one of the many pillbox bunkers she’d seen dotted across the expanse.

  Upon noticing her now gradual approach, they raised their guns, their weary faces hidden behind gas masks.

  “Freeze!” One of them yelled, standing in front of the four others.

  Mumu stopped and raised her hands.

  The foremost soldier eyed her over, his gaze pausing at her ears.

  “You… you look like one of those KV-somethings. What’s your name, and on who’s side is your master?” The soldier asked. Clearly, he knew something about how KVLs worked.

  He also knew just how much stronger and faster she was than him and his men.

  That’s why he was stalling for time as one of his subordinates radioed the camp ahead for support.

  “My name is Mumu, and my master is on the side of the Saints.” She wasn’t technically lying, but she also knew just those words wouldn’t be enough to convince the soldiers.

  “I have been tasked with dealing with the rogue KVL who has been active in this area and is aiding the Cultists.”

  A few of the soldiers softly gasped, and their leader let out a low groan.

  Clearly, they had been shaken by their experience with the rogue KVL, so much so that merely mentioning her made them tremble.

  “A-Alright. If you really are an ally, then I'm sure you won’t mind following us back to camp, right?”

  “Not at all.”

  The soldier nodded before gesturing that she walk ahead of his unit.

  She did so, taking slow steps down the path that led to the base.

  As she did, she tried dearly to calm her racing heart.

  This was the first time she had ever been held at gunpoint, and her stomach immediately knotted due to the stress, but she maintained a composed demeanour, taking advantage of what the soldiers thought of her.

  To them, she was a KVL, a summon sent to this world by a higher power and one who could shift the tide of battles.

  They needed her, and so were less likely to kill her.

  Or, at the very least, they were simply going to pit her against her rogue sister.

  She was eventually led to a spot a few meters away from Camp Crestfall’s heavily guarded entrance, which, while similar in layout to how she remembered it in GOG, had a heavy and weary air upon it.

  The soldiers all looked at her with fear and hatred, whereas they would have otherwise just blankly stared at her back in the game.

  They all held their guns tightly, and Mumu’s long ears allowed her to hear that they were holding their breath.

  She had been told to wait for the arrival of a superior officer who eventually came in the form of one Captain Kettle, whom she recognized as a quest giver from the game.

  He was dressed in uniform that had been blackened by ash, had an almost equally dark face that was lined with fading scars and had dull brown eyes.

  His gaze never left Mumu’s, but she knew that he was thinking deeply about just what to do with her.

  “At this point, I’m convinced your kind are nothing but trouble. What is the name of your master, and how can we be sure that you’re on our side?” His voice was light and raspy, damaged by exposure to MAL energy.

  “His name is Lavender. A young and innocent soul, and while I cannot speak on his wishes, I know that he would want me to aid you.”

  This was how it worked.

  Although Mumu had mixed feelings about being bound to someone so strongly, the people of this world believed that a KVL was unquestionably bound to their masters, which… was true in GOG on a gameplay level.

  Kettle nodded before pulling out a dirtied piece of paper.

  “This is a battle report. That… woman has killed no less than twenty of my men in the last month. I don’t care how you do it; just take her out.” He forcefully pressed the paper onto her chest, making Mumu bite her teeth a little.

  “But give me a reason, and you’ll join the other one once air support finally arrives.”

  Mumu caught the paper as Kettle turned to leave.

  His soldiers remained poised, and Mumu, as she walked past them, lowered her head, afraid to meet their gazes as she made her way to the trenches ahead.

  As she walked, she thought back to the soldiers she had killed and wondered if their comrades felt the same as Kettle.

  If they wanted revenge.

  If… they wanted to kill her.

  It was all so terrible to think about, but Mumu was more than determined to charge on.

  Her brows furrowed deeper at the fact that she was joining the cycle of violence that was war.

  And as her heart raced, as her breaths deepened, she saw a glimpse of herself at the centre of the cycle.

  A vortex that would cut apart anything that got in her way.

  She knew that this vision of herself would be hated by someone somewhere, but to get to where she wanted to be, she was prepared to become violence itself.

  Cu?al