Garrick stood oform, his presenanding and unyielding. He was slowly shifting his gaze, abs every detail: scared townspeople herded to withe m events, nervous and haggard prisoners, the whole se of the devastation of the settlement, with some of the houses burned down and others having their doors kicked in.

  His fidence was supported not only by his own status as an Elder and now the sole possessor of power in this town but also by the presence of his private army. His ies, rangers, and even street ruffiahe perimeter of the square and served as his bodyguards. They’d ehat no o before the punishment was delivered and wouldn’t allow dissent.

  The usurper made an effort to look imposing. He donned his best clothes, not your average ranger's attire. In his hands, Aira noticed the same tablet gadget she had used just a few hours before. Everyone here khe immense value of that kind of artifact. The device emitted a faint glow in the dim m light.

  As Aira was led to the ptform and tied to the post, she saw the other captives standing nearby. It was hard them in their current state, beaten and with their clothes torn and covered in mud. But one of them was Jorin, the same kind elder who had done everything he could te a dialogue with her. So, it seemed that Garrick wasn't hurrying to return the gadget to its owner.

  The other people tied near her were Jorin's and Garrick's old colleagues. Their faces were bruised and weary, but their eyes showed defiance.

  After enjoying the se of devastation for a bit larrick raised his hands, calling for silence. Murmurs in the crowd died, and all eyes turo him. When he began to speak, his voice resonated with authority and fervor. And to sound more authoritative, he read his message from the tablet.

  "People of Mountain View," he began, his tone solemn. "We stand at a crossroads. For too long, we have lived in fear. We were governed by indecision and weakness. No more. Today marks the beginning of a new era. One of order and unwavering strength."

  He gestured towards Aira and the elders. "These individuals represent the old ways. They brought us nothing but chaos and vulnerability. Fraternizing with the undead, our mortal enemies, is the gravest of sins. You all know what the tradition demands of us. And the kind of behavior they demonstrated is nothing but a threat to our very existence."

  Aira's heart sank as she saw people in the crowd nodding in agreement, their expressions grim and resigned. It was a refle of an old flict between the ws enforced by the Elders and the traditional ways of the people. Even with the most progressive leaders, ge came slowly, if it came at all. Aira's eyes burned with anger and frustration as she listeo Garrick's distorted worldview. She strained against her bonds, but the ropes held fast. The crowd hung onto every one of Garrick’s words. Their faces refleg a mix of fear, uainty, and bliion.

  Garrick tinued, his voice rising with vi. "From this day forward, we will stand united," he said. "We will not tolerate dissent or weakness. Anyone caught s with the enemy will face the same fate as these traitors."

  He stepped closer to Aira. "This creature," he spat, "is an abomination. It pretends to be harmless, almost a friend, an ally. It promises t pead cooperation with the undead. You saw it walking along the streets of our town because the Elders wished for you to bee aced to its presence. But make no mistake—it is a monster. And we will purge it from our midst."

  The crowd stirred, a spark e and fear reflected in their eyes. Garrick was charging them with the energy of hatred. Now they were sure that the Elders were reckless and endaheir lives! Finally, they had ahey could punish. What was eveer was that the enemy was tied securely before them.

  Aira saw a few familiar faces—rangers she had e to know, town hall borers, and street vendors. However, they either looked away or showed expressions of doubt or even hatred. In any case, expeg any of them to help her would be stupid. She caught Li's gaze for a brief moment, a silent exge of desperation and resolve. But when her only human friend shifted her hand to wave back, Aira shook her head to warn her not to do anything stupid.

  Garrick turned his attention back to the vilgers, his arms stretched out. "Let this be a warning to all. We will not allow our settlement to fall into chaos. We will remain vigint and strong. Together, we will survive and teach the undead a lesson."

  "The tradition has to be upheld!" he roared.

  "Tradition!" echoed the crowd.

  Garrick stepped back, signaling to his men. They moved forward, carrying torches lit with bright, crag fmes. The heat from the torches reached Aira even from this distance, and she felt a cold dread settle in her bones.

  As the men approached the stakes, Garrick addressed the crowd again, holding the tablet triumphantly for emphasis. "These elders," he decred, "have betrayed us by fraternizing with an undead. They are the enemies of the settlement. They are the enemies of humanity and will be punished accly."

  The Elders, Jorin among them, lifted their heads proudly, refusing to show fear. Aira admired their bravery even as fear threateo overwhelm her. She closed her eyes, drawing on every ounce of strength she had left. This could not be the end. She refused to believe it. Somewhere withihe spirit of the wielder of the are remained, waiting for the right moment to rise again. Somewhere within, there still was magic. She opened her eyes, fixing Garrick with a defiant stare. If this was her fate, she would face it with ce.

  The executioners moved with grim efficy, first starting fires at the feet of the elders. Wood, soaked with oil, ignited swiftly. The auto-da-fe began slowly, with fmes lig their legs but iably rising higher and higher. The first man started moaning, not able to resist the pain. And soon, most of the Elders screamed, their cries of agony pierg the m air. Their bodies vulsed in pain as the fmes climbed higher, the acrid smell of burning flesh and smoke filling the square.

  During the first moments of the horrifying se, the crowd shied away as if shrinking. But it didn't take long before people started moving closer to the pyre, attracted to the fmes like moths. A murmur spread over the square, execution being a mystical ritual.

  Aira tensed, her own terror multiplied by the expet mood of the crowd and mixed with a profound sense of helplessness. Throughout her career as an adventurer and a mage, she couldn't remember being ered so thhly.

  Garrick shouted over the crowd's cries: "We all know the undead have their ways of unicatiohe death of this abomination be a signal to the others! Let it share its experieh the other undead if it . Let this be its st message, the st cry before it dies!"

  The crowd cheered again, now ed in an almost magical trance. A stray memory came to Aira of her ret enter at the end of her dungeon run. In some bizarre way, it reminded her of that dark ritual that unched her on this odd journey.

  Fighting a wave of emotions, Aira focused on a ritual of her own. There was no other way she would distract herself from the cries of the people who, just a few days ago, had tried to help her. Taking a deep breath didn’t help her to ter herself, as her lungs were momentarily filled with scorg air, reminding her of her ordeal. So, she closed her eyes to explore her other senses. Meditation was the weirdest thing to do in this situation, but she didn't have any other refuge for her body and her soul.

  She went through all the usual stages, finding the habitual rhythm she was so used to. And then, whe to the st step, the world shifted around her. A powerful movement, unlike anything she had experienced before, yet simir to her old magi some fual ways. It wasn't mana or any other are medium she'd been familiar with. But there was something out there, waiting to respond to her. Waiting for her to reach out.

  Aira snapped out of the reverie when someone spped her across her face. Garrick shouted at her, his face red and torted: "Look around you, undead abominatiohe fear in the eyes of your colborators! That's the fate of all of your unnatural friends! Watch while you ! Soon it will be your turn to join them!"

  trary to Garrick's words, Jorie these dire circumstances, was holding on to his posure. His eyes met Aira's with a look of unspoken defiand sorrow. Everythiried to build, including this new e with the undead, was falling apart.

  But even he could not withstand the searing pain for long. Soon, Jorin's screams joihe voices of the other Elders. But his suffering didn't st for long. Gradually, the screams turned into choked gasps. He and other members of the town cil fell silent one by one, fainting from the unbearable pain and thick smoke.

  Garrick reveled in his newly acquired absolute power. He watched Aira ily, trying to gauge how much of a e she had with the other Elders. His eyes gleamed with perverse satisfa as he witnessed her horror—attentively abs every emotion that crossed her face: fear, anger, desperation. It was as if he needed her reas to boost his belief in the righteousness of his cause.

  "It's time to plete the purge," said Garrick. "We puhe colluding Elders, let this be a lesson to all who dare to defy our tradition. But the main source of the rot still remains. What should we do with the uhing?"

  "Burn it!" shouted somebody in the crowd. "Cut off its head!" screamed another person. "Fy it first!" said somebody else with a perverse desire.

  "All of that is good," said Garrick. "I appreciate your input. But it would be only reasoo put it on the same path as these traitors."

  "Is it time to burn it?" he asked the crowd.

  "Yes!" they shouted. "Burn it!"

  Garrick looked at his ies, gesturing with his hand. "Burn it!"

  Several men with torches approached Aira, their faces set in grim determination. After an initial surge of fear, she sensed a spark of defiance. She would not break. She would not give Garrick the satisfa of seeing her weak.

  The fire roared to life, lig her feet. Aira gritted her teeth, refusing to cry out. And although the pain wasn't yet ing, she clearly saw the fire creeping too close ts not to cause any damage. Sweat broke out on her forehead. She had to focus. To find a way out. And do it right now! Aira searched for any hint of the power she once wielded, the magic that had defined her very being.

  It wasn't there.

  Aira could feel the heat intensifying, the smoke stinging her eyes and fillihroat. She struggled against her bonds, her mind rag, searg for any possible escape. She sorted through all sorts of skills and abilities she had learned and acquired in her past life that might help before remembering that all of them depended on mana in one way or another. Her thoughts were getting increasingly scattered. Disjointed by the panid the oppressive heat that was rising higher and higher, engulfing her whole entire body.

  With the st push, when it seemed all hope was lost, she felt it—a faint, almost imperceptible pulse of energy within her. It was weak, barely there, but she wasn't imagining it. ging to that spark, she trated, willing it to grow, to bee something she could use. In her mind's eye, she returo that sensation she had before she ped by Garrients ago. There was something there that could make this world's image whole for her. Something she should be able to influend draw power from.

  Aira had nothing to lose. And even as the heat from the fmes intensified, she made an effort not to be distracted. She focused on that tiny pulse of energy. It grew stronger, responding to her desperation and her will to survive. Seeing that as her only hope, Aira poured all she had into the e with that energy. Shaping and direg it.

  A surge of power, a raw, untamed force, seemed to flow from deep within her. She felt the fires that burned around her in a pletely new way, as maions of this world's energies. Expl this new sensation further, she found that gadgets on the rangers also responded simirly. Even the humans surrounding her were full of that power.

  The fmes around her flickered, and then the s of Garrick's tablet abruptly dimmed as if energy was drained from it. Aira's vision sharpened, and she could sehe fire's iy redirected away.

  All the energy that was sucked out of the fmes surged tarrid his goons. The effect was instantaneous. The meo the ground, their bodies vulsing.

  Fmes around Aira faded almost pletely, giving away all their power to the mage. It flowed through her body, partially healing her wounds and filling her with ued force. She was filled to the brim with a strange, invigoratiion, her old powers returning to her, making her more focused.

  Barely uanding what was happening, she pulled against the ropes that bouhe fire-weakened fibers snapping under her enhanced assault. Aira stumbled forward as the bonds fell off. Her empowered legs carried her with newfound agility. Looking around the ptform, she fixed her gaze on Garrick. He was still alive. And he was rec from the initial shock of the attack.

  Aira leaped tarrick, c the distance from the pyre to where the new leader of Mountain View was lying on the ground in a single jump. She nded amidst the crowd, but these people were too stunned and scared to react. The crag energy that spread from Aira seemed to hold them in pce, a tangible reminder of the strange power this undead wielded.

  Seeing her approach, Garrick tried to back away, his eyes wide with fear and disbelief. "You... 't... stop... me..." he hissed, his voice tremblie his attempt to sound anding. "This settlement needs order. It needs—"

  "—it needs a leader, not a tyrant," Aira growled, even if she knew no one would uahat her words would be lost on the crowd. Still, the defian her tone was unmistakable.

  Looking again at the gadget in Garrick's hands, a realization finally came to her. It was so obvious! That spark on the day Jorin came to her. The energy she felt within the devices. The power of the fmes. At st, it all clicked into pce.

  She was able to ect to the System by maniputing the energy that powered some of the devices. That was her guide in regaining her magic. That's why she could read her stats from the tablet that was now in Garrick's hands. However, that didn't expin what happened with the other energies that surrounded her moments ago. What made her able to manipute and direct them in an attack?

  Promptly, she grabbed the device from Garrick's hands and checked if he had any adgets on him. Her guess was correct; the brute had collected more items from his fellow Elders. She took them all, not b to figure out their fun. There would be time for that ter. But as soon as she had the devices in her hands, she felt the e with the System that wavered after her initial push, being stable once again.

  Garrick slithered under Aira's feet, still trying to back away from her. As if that motion could have saved him from her powers. His eyes were filled with paniow. "What are you?" he demanded. And then, gathering all of his st powers, he screamed at the top of his lungs: "Everyotack it! Kill it!!!"

  Aira reacted instinctively, following the same energy paths she had sensed moments before. She sucked the st energy from the dying fmes of the pyre and directed it tarrid his ies, burning them from the inside.

  The st memory she retained before passing out was the crowd dispersing with loud screams and shouts. With no one willing to help Garrick or even check if he was alive.

  With that sight before her eyes, Aira dropped unscious on top of Garrick's dead body.