Gunfire exploded among the rows of twisted, rusted steel trees. I dashed left, bullets tearing into the ground behind me, and returned fire at the head of an approaching metal wolf.

  “EMP round… hit!” The wolf jerked, then collapsed like an electronic corpse.

  But there were still six—no, seven. I miscounted.

  “Argh… damn it,” I muttered, reloading as I leapt behind the wreck of a burning car. I shot another one trying to ambush me from above. Nailed its skull. The machine hissed from deep in its throat.

  Keep moving. Don’t stop. Don’t leave an opening.

  But when I turned right—it was too late.

  “ARGHH!” I thought it was just a scratch—but its claws tore through my side and dragged me down to the ground.

  Blood. A lot of it.

  I gritted my teeth, enduring the burning pain across my waist. My hand trembled, raising my gun.

  Bullets—gone.

  Another wolf approached—slow but sure—with heavy, mechanical steps and glowing red eyes.

  Don’t panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

  “Reina!! Help me!!”

  A digital buzz echoed in my helmet. The world in front of me flickered blue.

  “What? You’re calling me again at a time like this?!”

  A short white-haired girl in a digital hoodie appeared as a semi-transparent hologram before me. Her eyes glowed with anger.

  “Look at you, Arche! If something happens to you, your sister’s gonna yell at me! You rushed in alone again!”

  “I-I’m sorry… but please, help first…”

  “Haaa… You’re so stubborn. Fine, I’ll take over. But this time, no complaining.”

  She glared at me.

  “I’m going to borrow your body for a bit. It’ll hurt. But hey, that’s your fault for playing hero.”

  “I… I’m ready.” I swallowed hard.

  My body began moving on its own. My eyes burned—a searing heat spreading from my spine. Reina took over.

  We stood.

  We leapt.

  Our hand gripped the nearest wolf’s head and—CRACK—twisted it like a bottle cap. The machine exploded at the neck.

  Without pause, our foot spun. One of the wolf’s swords tore free from its back—we hurled it and drove it straight into another wolf’s chest. A burst of fire and oil erupted into the air.

  The remaining metal wolves froze.

  They… retreated?

  Reina chuckled in my head.

  “Hah, sometimes you just need to know when to ask for help, Arche.”

  I could only nod internally. And brace against the pain returning from the wound in my gut.

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  My head was still spinning as Reina slowly released control of my body. It came back to me—along with the sharp, electric jolt of pain to my stomach.

  “Ugh…”

  I clutched my wound, but stood upright. The remaining machine wolves had fled. For now, at least, it was safe.

  My steps were limping as I walked toward the open ground where my weapon had been flung. An old modded M4—scratched all over, but the barrel was intact. I loaded my last spare magazine and slid the bolt. Click. Still usable.

  Reina floated beside me, her projection half-transparent, digital hair swaying though there was no wind.

  “Area’s clear. No heat signatures except your body… which is kinda melting around the stomach.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I’m serious. And yet you’re still scavenging here. Arche, we really need to talk about your looting habits.”

  I crouched beside the machine wolf I’d downed earlier. Pulled a surgical knife from my backpack and started cutting open its chest plates.

  The core was still glowing. Bright blue, almost as bright as a neon bulb.

  “Arche…”

  “Relax. This won’t take long.”

  I unlocked the socket clamps around the core and carefully extracted it, like pulling a heart from a still-living body. Slipped it into a storage pouch on my tactical vest.

  “Still doing dumb work like this,” Reina grumbled, spinning in the air. “You do realize that official missions from the Central pay ten times more than scraping parts from minor monsters?”

  “And you do realize I don’t have access to higher-level contracts because I’m still a beginner?”

  I moved on to the next body. This one was tougher—the core was damaged, melted from the explosion.

  Reina sighed long and loud. “Yeah, yeah. I know. But still… look at yourself. More scars. You’re getting thinner. This isn’t a life.”

  “I know.”

  I sat on a large rock, taking a deep breath. The wound in my gut throbbed like a war drum. With trembling hands, I pulled gauze from my bag, tore it open, and began wrapping my stomach.

  Reina floated closer, looking down at me.

  “You should’ve gone to the city clinic yesterday, not just bought cheap painkillers.”

  “You think I had the money?”

  I popped a small capsule in my mouth and took two gulps from my bottle. The bitter taste spread in my throat, but the pain dulled slightly.

  “I’m not a prince anymore, Reina.”

  She fell silent.

  The iron plains wind blew gently. Smoke from the machine carcasses curled into the sky.

  “I know,” she said finally. “We have to start from zero. Again.”

  I gave a thin smile, gazing at the cores I’d gathered. Not much weight, but enough for one night’s meal—and maybe some bullets.

  “And this time, no palace. No army. Just us.”

  Reina crossed her holographic arms and stared at the dark sky.

  “Then we’ll have to be smarter, faster, and no more solo fights against monster packs.”

  “Yeah. That last part… still up for debate.”

  “I’m serious, Arche.”

  “So am I.”

  My steps were slow. The wound still pulsed even if the pain was dulled.

  The sky above this metallic wasteland was a dull gray, but my thoughts drifted far from here—back to where it all began.

  Evernoir.

  A kingdom once filled with crystal towers, pure magical air, and skies clear as glass. I was the second prince—Archemidas Evernoir. But now… just Arche. A scavenger of monster scraps.

  Back then, Father said, “You’re too slow to grasp the new forms of magic, Arche.”

  The next day, my right eye was replaced.

  Not surgery. Not a transplant. But a fusion ritual—magic and tech combined. An AI core directly inserted into my neural network. Its form? A tiny digital girl who could nag all day long.

  REINA. Reactive Engineered Intelligence Neural Archive.

  She’s the only thing I still have from that world.

  Ellora... my oldest sister. Always strong, always serious. And Lily, my little sister… I didn’t even get to say goodbye before we were torn apart when the disaster struck. Dimensional explosion. Chaotic magic tunnel. My body ripped from our homeland and thrown into this wild corner of the world.

  I’m still alive. Alone. But alive.

  “Hey.” Reina’s voice broke my thoughts. She hovered beside me, her pale-blue hologram softly glowing.

  “You gonna keep walking all quiet and gloomy, or can I ask where we’re heading?”

  “City of Firmament,” I said quietly. “My wound’s deep. I can’t keep scavenging today.”

  “You never can,” she snapped.

  “At least I got three small machine cores. Enough to buy more bandages.”

  “Arche, you really need to be more careful. Seriously. I can’t save you every time.”

  I just nodded. My steps kept heading north—toward Firmament. The dust city. The city of small traders.

  “Well, at least don’t let your limbs fall off before we make it back to Evernoir.”

  “If there’s anything left of it…”

  Reina didn’t respond. Maybe, for the first time today, she was out of words too.