It happened so fast. Only a few heartbeats separated the moment Aira first saw Li in her cell and when Li wasn't… wasn't there with Aira anymore.

  Her throat burned as a scream tore free, raw and guttural, eg off the stone walls. Her fists smmed into the floor, splintering the cold stone. "Why?!" she choked, her voice breaking. The question hung in the air, unanswered, as her vision blurred with tears.

  "Why I don't have any healing skills anymore?" roared Aira. "Why?!"

  There were some scrambling sounds in the corridor. But Aira didn't care. Would that be other prisoners in the neighb cells or the guards? It didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was that the sole person reciated Aira, not for her power or unusual status, was now dead.

  "Skills…" thought Aira. "Could I…?"

  She called out her System interfad re-read the description of the skill.

  Neunion (Level 7 / 1,536 SP to upgrade to Level 8)- High ce of boosting cooperation among mid-level undead.- You sehe undead and s their stats.- You raise medium-sized anisms as undead. Energy ption: high.- Maximum skill use distance: [1 km x Level] = 101 kmUpgrade further [Y/N]?

  For sure, Li wasn't a 'medium-sized anism.' Uhey truly had dragons in this world. The skill worked on that… gnarlfang. But still, the creature was much smaller than a human. Even if it was able t Li from uhe ice.

  "What am I losing if I try?" thought Aira as she focused the power of the skill on Li.

  She could sehe ambient magic reag to her will, pathering around her and Li. But then… nothing. No effect whatsoever.

  A squeak sounded from the er of the cell. Looking for a pce to el her rage and sorrow, without a sed thought, Aira refocused the flow of the skill towards the source of the sound and some more rustling.

  ========== Character Status and Skill Overview ==========Name: Adult RatRace: Undead RatCss: RatLevel: 1

  "At least I be sure it works," Aira sighed.

  "Sorry, little one," she addressed the rat. "I didn't mean to take you away from your family."

  "Aira, what's happening?" asked Alliot over the group chat. "You haven't reported earlier, but now I sense some strange energies in the area."

  "Li is dead, Alliot," said Aira. "I don't know what to do."

  "It's... unfortunate," Alliot said after a long pause, his voice clipped. "But you still mourn like a human. It's ineffit. The only reasohing to do is to retreat. We do nothing more here. Iouk, we sult with Ainorrh to determine your steps. Retreat. Joi's time to go."

  However, Alliot's interruption of her dark thoughts brought Aira a new glimmer of hope.

  "That's so easy to say when you don't see a lot of deaths…" she whispered. "'t you?"

  "'t I what?" asked Alliot.

  "Transform her?" asked Aira. "I don't know how you call it. Make her an enlightened."

  "No, I 't," said Alliot. "That's not what I do. You need a ritual. I don't know the rites. What's even worse, she's not alive anymore. The source has to be alive human."

  "Alright, let me think about it for a moment," said Aira. "I 't leave her here. It's not… proper."

  Aira checked the skill once again. She needed 1,536 skill points to upgrade to Level 8. Would that level even grahe ability to turn a human being? And would it even work for a dead person? Or, as Alliot just stated, does the target have to be alive?

  "No time for hesitation," said Aira to herself. "If anything, her body's dition isn't improving with every minute."

  She checked her skill point reserves:

  --- Current Status ---Health: 572/572Mana: ???/???SP Used: 67,150SP Avaible: 1,446XP: 68,596,000 / 71,283,000 ( Level: 102, Legendary)

  "So, I have 1,446 SP, but I need 1,536 skill points to upgrade the skill," Aira went through the calcutions. "Damn that Ainorrh and her requested to add new skills and upgrade old ones! I had plenty of skill points before!"

  Seeing that Aira was deep in thought, a man peeked into the cell and began to carefully close the door from outside. However, he wasn't fast enough or quiet enough for Aira not to notice.

  "Ah, you sneaky bastard," she growled with a mad smile and focused all her power on him.

  Aira raised her hand, and the air around the guard shimmered with heat. His eyes widened in panic as his breath hitched. Then, with a siing crackle, steam burst from his mouth and nostrils, and he crumpled to the floor, his skin blistering as the smell of burnt flesh filled the room. Not allowing energy to go to waste before the sciousness entirely left the guy, Aira reversed the flow of the are power and sucked him dry of his life force.

  The man didn't even have time to issue a sound. And Aira was now filled with energy to the brim. The energy o find an outlet.

  "Aira, what's happening?" sent Alliot again. "Is everything alright?"

  "I have an idea," Aira answered. "Let me get through with it. Talk ter."

  She checked her status once again.

  --- Current Status ---Health: 572/572Mana: ???/???SP Used: 67,150SP Avaible: 1,447XP: 68,597,000 / 71,283,000 ( Level: 102, Legendary)

  "Ah, nice, one point," Aira thought. But even in her mind, her voice sounded unbanced and disturbed. "Oy-o go."

  Using a small part of the energy that shing within her, filling her whole being, she sent strands of probing energy all arouhe town was bursting with activity in pces, but most of it was still unaware. Most of the townsfolk still sleeping in their houses.

  "They still don't think it's an attack," thought Aira. "For them, it was just some bizarre force of nature."

  Resolutely, she took a step toward the door. Then paused, returo Li, and touched her bloodied face.

  "I'll be back," she growled softly. "I'll be back soon."

  She looked at the undead rat that wasn't going anywhere without Aira's and.

  "Don't let your retives nibble on my friend. That's an order," she sent a and. "Don't let anyone do anything to Li."

  Then, wasting no more time, Aira turned on the spot and marched through the door.

  "At least it would be easier for me to figure out who's plicit and who's not," she thought. "All plicit ones are awake and guarding the town or clearing the rubble after Alliot's attack."

  Within the prison building, there were a couple dozen prisoners. It was easy to distinguish them thanks to their position in space. There were several more people here, though. And they had obviously heard the otion earlier. This dead guy wouldn't e to Li's cell if it wasn't the case.

  For now, Aira focused on the few people who seemed to be in the corridors directly below and above her. Without hesitation, she sent bursts of energy toward them.

  Two points. Three. Four.

  "How many guards and rangers are there iown?" mused Aira, her thoughts being surprisingly calm and distant. "During my execution, I saw a few dozen. But guards should have remained in other pces and around the city wall. There should be enough of them here."

  By the moment Aira left the building, the ter didn't climb much higher. She was still ed about the prisoners. Aira wasn't a judge. Maybe they were here on the exact trumped-up charges as Li was. Well, probably not for colborating with the undead, though.

  Right outside the building, a rger group awaited her.

  "So, you are not as dumb and witless," she thought. "You figured out you need more people to deal with whatever lurking in the prison."

  Six. Seven. Ten. Eleven points.

  She didn't know where to put all that energy that was so easily accessible, thanks to all these guards. All these cruel enemies.

  Aira put the bodies of the newly deceased people on fire even without sparing a gnce. Fmes roared to life behind her, ing the fallen guards in a blinding inferno. The light danced across the square, casting grotesque shadows against the prison walls. Nearby trees crackled as the fire leaped to their braheir leaves curling into ash that drifted down like bow.

  "Now the people will begin to wake up," she thought. "I o move faster."

  She probed in the dire where she had left Alliot. He didn't move far away from that pce. But a bit closer to her, he town's walls, Aira sensed a group of people. That had to be the guards called in to deal with the crumbled wall.

  "Don't go anywhere," she thought with a grin. "I'm ing."

  Lanterns bobbed erratically through the streets as shouts echoed off the stone walls. "The breach is getting worse!" someone cried, followed by the pater of boots on cobblestones. In the distance, a bell tolled frantically, its uneven rhythm betraying the fear of the person pulling the rope.

  "So, they're beginning to notice things," thought Aira. "That's fine."

  Aira was burning with rage, a fiery inferno that ed her from within. Her hands shook, not with fear, but with the votile energy c through her veins. She could almost sehe flow of magic around her. Ready to bend to her will.

  Each step felt too slow, her body vibrating with the o release the storm building inside her. "They'll pay," she softly growled under her breath, the strange sounds spilling out like embers from a fire.

  The loss of Li had ignited something dark and powerful inside her. Desperation and anger drove her to a decision she might not have sidered in calmer times.

  She got directly to a as soon as she approached the group of people she sensed as a rge blob of energy in her magical vision.

  Twenty. Thirty-one. Fifty-niy-two.

  There were no more alive huma he breaymore. A couple of them felt familiar before their inner light was extinguished. Those were the people from the same ranger party that captured Li at the a facility.

  "Good! "thought Aira. "They reaped the reward they earned. "

  "Aira, you have to stop! "Alliot was almost shouting. She never heard him so disturbed before. Not that they knew each other for long.

  "I only have ni, "she returned. "Don't get in my way. "

  Nine mers. Was that a moment for Aira to just go along the wall and sweep every person she found there until she got the t?

  "Ah, but there's a better pce to find a few more plicit people," Aira thought. "What was her ara? Yes… Tara, I'm ing."

  ***

  With all her current boosts that truly went overboard thanks to Aira's almost indefinite source of energy, it took only a couple of mio get to the Town Hall square. The building loomed ominously, exactly as Aira remembered it from her early days in Mountain View. It stood higher than many of the nearby buildings. And one more distinguishiure was that plenty of windows were lit by light.

  "So, they reported the i at the wall," Aira thought. "And maybe the i in the prison. If there were people left alive to report it."

  At the entrahere were a few muards than usual. So, probably, the people in charge khere was some strange otion within the walls.

  "That wouldn't be enough," thought Aira. "I'm not sure what would be enough."

  A loud bang sounded from her side. Aira was so focused on the guards before the town hall that she didn't notice a few people lurking on the roofs. Before Aira could react, more shots were fired, hitting Aira in her right arm.

  She stumbled, the impact breaking her resolved pace. Aed momentarily, bing the square with her power.

  Eighty-sevey-eight.

  Aira stepped over the withered bodies of the guards that protected the doors of the Town Hall. Where would she find Tara? The cil Hall? It didn't really matter. She only had to find twuards ers.

  Luckily, the memories of her multiple walks through this building burnt the route to the cil hall permaly into her memory. It didn't take long for her to reach the heavy wooden double doors that opeo the hall.

  And there were human energy signatures within.

  With her current level of agility and endurance, Aira didn't eveo do anything special with the door. She just kicked it in, revealing a few rangers gathered around a tall woman. They were probably the best people the Elder could gather around her. But even they couldn't hide their fear after they witnessed Aira's spectacur entrand saw the literal fire in the eyes of the undead.

  Eighty-nine. wo. y-five points…

  Points…

  "Stop, Aira, stop!" she thought. "Is it even you? Since when did human lives bee just points for you?"

  She looked arouimating the damages she caused. Unlike her old experiences, her attacks were entirely focused on the humans. And with the exception of the grand doors, everything else seemed to be intact.

  "That's enough, that's plenty," she thought. "You go back to Li now. But what would she think about the price you had to pay for her transformation?"

  Aira checked her status.

  --- Current Status ---Health: 572/572Mana: ???/???SP Used: 67,150SP Avaible: 1,535XP: 68,685,500 / 71,283,000 ( Level: 102, Legendary)

  "Arrrrgh!" she roared, looking at the single woman standing in front of Aira. "Not enough! I guess it isn't always a thousand XP for a kill."

  The woman was saying something. To her credit, she wasn't showing fear, only resolve.

  "…you have to uand, we had to protect our people," Tara said. "We did it for the future of our unity. The danger Li brought in. And the tech we could get from the a facility. That would have ensured our fates feions to e."

  Tara squared her shoulders, stepping forward over the bodies of her guards. Her voice was steady, though her hands betrayed a slight tremor. "You think this was easy?" she said, meeting Aira's bzing gaze. "I know you uand me. Everything we've done was to protect what little we have left. If that makes us monsters, so be it."

  Aira didn't care anymore whether people uood her or not. She just growled her words as best as she could. "So, it was all for the gadgets?" she shouted, making Tara step back even if the woman didn't uand Aira's speech. "Li would have given you all the gadgets if you decided to leave her in peace. She also cared for the humans."

  Not wanting tue anymore, Aira focused on the final enemy she had left in Mountain View. She did this so many times today that the sensation of are power eling through her body and even her soul became habitual.

  The burst of energy was so powerful that tiny lightnings covered Tara's body for a few more seds even after she dropped dead on the floor.

  Aira sensed more people running toward the cil Hall. But she didn't care about any of them anymore.

  --- Current Status ---Health: 572/572Mana: ???/???SP Used: 67,150SP Avaible: 1,536XP: 68,686,000 / 71,283,000 ( Level: 102, Legendary)

  On the spot, she sifted all the skill points she had accumuted into upgrading the skill. Aira's hands trembled as she imagihe process—how the energy would coil, twist, and reshape Li's esseo something new.