Aira slumped against the cold prison wall, every drop of her energy spent iual. The sileretched, unbearable in its weight, broken only by her ragged breathing and the distant sounds of a town in chaos. Then, without warning, her radio crackled to life, its ethereal voice startling iillness:

  --- pleted Quests ---1. Save Li (Reward: 1,000,000 XP)2. Che the Old World Facility (Reward: 100,000 XP)3. Explore Heart of the Forest (Rewards: 300,000 XP, Skill)[...]

  "And where was that million XP when I just a few minutes ago?" growled Aira.

  ***

  A void shattered. sciousness rushed in like floodwater through a broken dam, and Li's eyes snapped open with a gasp that tore at her throat. Fragmented sounds swirled at the edges of her awareness—a growl that might be Aira's, the hum of something meical. But it was her vision that struck her first—impossibly sharp, cutting through the cell's darkness as if it were merely a thin veil rather than the imperable shroud it should have been. She expected the dull haze of a swollen eyelid, the sting of a half-blinded world, but instead, her gaze cut through the dim cell like a bde through the mist. Both eyes. Whole. No throbbing pain, no blurred edges.

  She was still in the prison, but the door en ajar, and the whole building was surprisingly still. The air held its breath, unnervingly still. No shouts. No g boots. Just sileretched thione and steel.

  As Li's eyes adjusted to the dim light of her cell, she noticed a figure huddled in the farthest er. Her heart raced, and she jumped on her bunk in startlement, but then she realized that this movement actually didn't prompt any pain in her limbs.

  But then, she saw the ginger hair.

  "Aira! By the Elders, what are you doing here!?" she excimed. But instead of words, only guttural growls went out of her mouth.

  Li's heart raced as she clutched at her throat, desperate for any sign of what was causing her sudden voicelessness. She prodded and poked, hoping to feel the source of the problem, but her fingers found nothing abnormal. Panied her as she realized this might not be a temporary issue.

  As prehension struggled to take hold in Li's reeling mind, movement caught her eye. Aira stirred from where she'd colpsed, her head lifting slowly as if weighed down by mountains. When their gazes met, the otherworldly blue-green glow from Aira's eyes intensified, illuminating the dim cell with spectral light.

  "Li?" The word was barely a whisper.

  Then suddenly, despite her apparent exhaustion, Aira unched herself forward—a blur of motion that Li's new senses somehow tracked in excruciatiail. One faltering step, then an impossible leap that closed the distaween them. Before Li could flinch, Aira's arms engulfed her, the embrace so fierce it would have crushed her old body. They g to each other, trembling violently as Aira's tears spshed hot against Li's ned shoulder, each droplet distinct against her skin that felt hypersensitive after the eternal numbness of death.

  She took out a spare portable radio and spoke: "It worked! You are alive!" Aira excimed. "Thanks to the System! Thanks to the Nexus…! It worked!"

  Then, Aira took a step back, taking in Li's appearance. Li wao ask her, "What? What do you see there?" but stopped, remembering that she no longer had her voice.

  For Li, surviving was merely the first shoany. As Aira's embrace loosened, glowi suddenly materialized in Li's field of visioral letters hanging in the air like fireflies frozen in time. A strangled sound caught ihroat as panic surged through her. She shoved Aira back with strength she didn't know she possessed and cwed wildly at the ghostly words, her fingers passing through them as if they were nothing but mist.

  What is this? The thought screamed through her mind. What's happeo me? The letters remained impassive, suspended before her eyes regardless of where she looked—immovable evidence of how profoundly she had ged. Is it how she sees the world?

  ========== Initiating Nexus e... ==========--- Character Status and Skill Overview ---Name: LiRace: EnlightenedCss: Enlightened PeacemakerLevel: 1

  --- Skills ---[None]

  --- Current Status ---Health: 1/164SP Used: 0SP Avaible: 1XP: 1,000 / 3,000 ( Level: 2, Initiate)

  --- New Skill(s) Avaible ---1. Undead Resilience (Level 1)Description: Increases the agility and stamina of the user. Enhances healing and recovery from damage.Cost to add a new Skill: 1 SP + 3 SP

  Acquire this Skill [Y/N]?

  "Yes," Li growled.

  [Not enough skill points to acquire the skill. Gain XP to have enough SP for adding and upgrading your skills]

  "How do you feel?" asked Aira through the radio. "Do you feel any… injuries?"

  With signs, Li showed that she wasn't able to speak anymore.

  "Ah, yes, old habits die hard," said Aira. "Let me try something."

  In a moment, a ext appeared in Li's vision.

  [Invitation to join a party received. Party host: Aira]Accept [Y/N]?

  "Yes," Li growled.

  --- Party Interface ---Current party size: 3 (including the host)

  Party members:- Aira- Alliot- Li

  "Alliot's here?" excimed Li. "Of all the roots and ruins, how'd that happen?"

  "Finally! We talk normally!" said Aira.

  "Li? How you are here?" asked Alliot. "Aira, you'll have to do some expining."

  "I'm not sure I report to you, Alliot," said Aira. "But I'd be happy to talk after we regroup and leave the town. Is your location secured?"

  "No humans here," said Alliot, even more abrupt than usual. "I'll wait for you."

  "Aira, spill it," said Li. "What in the winding paths is going on?"

  "You remember that gnarlfang?" asked Aira. "I sort of did the same. But… we are all lucky it worked out much better in the end. You are… you…!"

  Li stood up, shaking her legs and arms. It was so good to feel everything was in pce. Only blood on her clothes reminded of the wounds that covered her body just a few hours earlier. She was healed!

  There were some minute differences in how she felt. She was a bit sluggish. But simultaneously, she felt she could lift double the weight she used duriraining sessions. Li reached for the edge of the bunk, intending to steady herself—but with the slightest motion, the wooden frame lurched up like a feather caught in a gust. The metal groaned, and she staggered, staring at her hands. No strain, no effort. It felt like she'd barely pushed at all, leaving her surprised and fused about her newfound abilities.

  A terrible curiosity seized Li. She reached for Aira, encirg her waist with hands that didn't quite feel like her own. With barely a thought—barely an effort—she lifted the undead womairely off the ground as if she weighed no more than a child's rag doll.

  "Hey-hey-hey!" Aira's surprised ugh echoed in her mind as if the sound reflected from the walls of the narrow cell, her grin splitting her face despite the tear tracks still glistening on her cheeks. "What's happening there, mighty one?"

  Li set her friend down with excessive care, fearing what might happen if she wasn't gentle enough. She stared at her hands—familiar in shape and size, yet utterly fn in what they could now do. Her stomach ed with a ing blend of wonder and horror.

  "It is my body..." she whispered through the party chat, flexing her fingers. "But it's like... like I'm wearing someone else's skin. Like I've been hollowed out and stuffed with something else. I 't—" Her voice caught. "I 't take it off."

  "Yeah, I know the feeling," said Aira. "You'll have to get used to it. And we'll have to train a lot. And do… some other things as well. You'll get better. But this sluggishness… Unfortunately, without my boosts, it won't go anywhere anytime soon."

  "Alright, what's the py?" asked Li. "Where are the guards? Why's this town quieter than a hollow log?"

  "Ah… That…" said Aira. "I dealt with most of them. I sort of went… how do you call it… berserk. Do you know what that means?"

  "Yeah, I read the legends," said Li. "So, they are all dead?"

  "I'm not sure about all," said Aira with a wicked smile. "But they'll have to rethink their defenses. Are you worried about that?"

  "I'd lied if I said I wasn't," said Li. "But after what they did to me… I don't know. It's hard to care…"

  "Should we go?" asked Aira. "I don't sense anyone who could get in our way. And we have to have this talk with Alliot, as it seems."

  "Let's go," said Li.

  "Oh, wait," said Aira, looking down and searg for something. "There was somebody else here I wao invite."

  ***

  Mountaihe pce Li had once called home—wasn't merely silent; it was a town in shock. Amber fmes writhed up the sides of buildings like living things, casting grotesque dang shadows across deserted streets. The fire brigade that should have formed was absent, and the anized chaos of a unity fighting to save itself was o be seen. Instead, an eerie stillness had settled over everything, broken only by the hungry pop and snap of burning timber and the pintive creak of doors swinging on their hinges.

  A child's terrified whimper drifted from somewhere in the maze of buildings—then abruptly silenced, as if a hand had cmped over its mouth or fear itself had stolen its voice. The night smelled of smoke, of scorched wood, and most potently of terror—a st Li had never been able to detect before but nnized instantly.

  As they walked through the deserted streets, their footsteps echoed loudly against the pavement. They caught glimpses of scared faces peering out from behind closed curtains. Still, no one dared to front the undead duo as they tiheir movement through the settlement. The silence was eerie and uling, a stark trast to the bustling town it used to be just h the day.

  "Wait, it seems I won't e back here any time soon," said Li when they passed Town Hall. "There is something I'd like to retrieve… If they didn't find it yet."

  After a few minutes of walking, the outline of Li's house, which was squeezed between two other buildings, appeared in the distance. Aira noticed the curtains inside were drawn, and there was movement behind them, indig that someone else had takehe property. But Aira didn't hesitate, using all her strength to kick down the front door auring for Li to follow her inside.

  The kit reeked of old stew and burnt oil. A man stood stiffly by the wooden table, his fingers gripping the back of a chair like a person holding onto a ledge over a drop. In the doorway, a ressed herself against the wall, her knuckles white, shielding two small, wide-eyed children who barely peeked past her skirts. Their breath came in sharp, quiet gasps—the kind that only came when someone khe wolves had already sted them.

  Aira roared at the man, and he made an uep back. His trousers darkening.

  "Don't hurt them!" he excimed. "Take me if you want!"

  Without dey, Li took a step, grabbed a knife from the table, and began w around one of the floorboards.

  "Aira, you help me, please?" she asked a moment ter. "My hands… they feel wrong."

  "Sure, what should I do?" said Aira. "But as I said, you have to train a lot."

  "Just take away this board," Li said. "There should be something hidden under."

  It took Aira a few minutes, but soon, the board was removed. And Li picked up an antique leather bag from uhe floor.

  "It was my grandfathers," she said. "It's the st thing remaining of him."

  "Good, but now we should go," said Aira. "It's enough that these people will have to fix the door and wash this man's breeches."

  "You are right," said Li.

  She swept her gaze around the room o time, memorizing these final moments in a pce that had once been a sanctuary. Her peripheral vision caught something as she turoward the door—a fsh of movement in her a mirror. Instinctively, she faced it, then froze, breath catg like a thorn ihroat.

  The woman in the mirror wore her face like a mask—every familiar line and angle reserved, down to the small scar above her right eyebrow. But the eyes... Torch-blind, those weren't her eyes. Where once warm hazel had studied the world with a ranger's keen observation, twin fmes now burned—amber and fierce, catg even the feeble dlelight and transf it into something feral. The otherworldly glow pulsed subtly with each beat of her heart, marking time in a body that might never age again.

  Her fingers, still slick with blood that no longer came from her own wounds, trembled as they traced the tours of her face. She khat kind of eyes. Had seen them in Aira's face. In the enlightened's faces. In the faces of those her people had hunted and feared feions.

  "Aira, why didn't you tell me?" Li's voice cracked through the party chat, her fingers still pressed against her face.

  "Tell you what?" Aira's head tilted, fusion evident.

  "My eyes..." Li turned, her newly amber gaze log onto Aira's lumi ohey're like yours now. Like catg fire."

  "But what did you expect?" Aira's tone was ge matter-of-fact. "You've seen me, you've seeher undead… hm… enlightened."

  "What did I expect?" Li's hands ched into fists. "What ihorny thicket did I expect?!? I expected to be forest-damned DEAD! Not…" Her voice broke as she gestured wildly at her refle. "Not some torch-blind uhing with eyes like burning leaves!"

  ***

  By the moment Aira and Li reached the breached wall, Alliot had already retreated to their earlier hideout. The two women weren't surprised as their enlightened rade sent them a message through the party chat while they were expl Li's old house.

  Still, the view of devastation made Li gasp when they approached the heap of stohat was retly a part of the town's fortifications.

  "Was that also you?" asked Li in astonishment.

  "No, that was our enlightened friend," said Aira. "His part of the mission was to create a distra. And, well, he figured it would be easier to do with a bit of destru."

  "Didn't think he had it in him," said Li. "Thought he ead patience."

  "Oh, he didn't kill anyone," said Aira with a sigh. "He was quite careful to make sure that he didn't. All of that was my doing. But I'd do it again if I had a ce. When I saw you there in the cell… I just had to punish these people."

  "And you're sure every st one of them had it ing?" asked Li.

  "How many of them came to attack us at the a facility?" asked Aira. "How many of them were part of the of and, khe pns, and agreed to them?"

  Aira's voice rose, and she began filing her arms.

  "How many of them took part in t you?" she asked. "Do you really think there were many of them who weren't plicit?"

  Li looked at Aira from under her eyebrows.

  "Nah, don't say. I don't need a list of names or whatever," said Aira. "I had a goal, I reached it, ducted the ritual, and brought you back. That's the bottom line. Everything else doesn't matter anymore."

  "If you say so," Li muttered. "But bottom liill leave stains. And it seems to matter to Alliot. He doesn't seem to be happy with what had happened."

  "I'm sure Ainorrh will be happy when he reports all the details to her," said Aira. "So, he shove his disappoi where the su shine. I wasn't going to lose you."

  ***

  The first light of the new day was illuminating the fields and the forest's edge by the moment Aira and Li reached Alliot.

  "So, we don't care about cealment anymore?" asked Aira, pointing at the fire Alliot lighted up.

  "After your performance?" replied Alliot with a question. "No, I don't think we care anymore."

  "You are still grumpy," said Aira. "I uand it wasn't the perfect solution."

  She poi Li.

  "But look!" Aira said. "I had some positive results!"

  "Only reason. Still here," Alliot managed, his typically measured speech fragmented into jagged shards. His eyes darted between them, never settling, like a ered animal seeking escape. "Must returouk." He dragged a trembling hand across his face. "Report. Must report. Ainorrh."

  His breath came quicker now, shoulders hunched forward. "One hundred lives. Gone. Just—gone." Each word seemed physically painful to extract. "Could've been... useful. Valuable. Resources." His voice dropped to a whisper that heless carried easily to their enhanced hearing. "Wasted. All wasted."

  "You killed hoeople here?!?" Li excimed. "Aira… that's not just pruning the brahat's burning the whole damn forest."

  "Well, a bit less," said Aira. "But I don't think it matters that much. Yes, that's a price I have to pay for your life, Li. That's the price Mountain View had to pay."

  Li stepped away from Aira, then she approached the log on which Alliot sat, joined him, and put her fa her hands.

  "Would you prefer to be dead in this cell?" asked Aira. "I don't think there's much of a choice here."

  Li raised her head and looked daggers at Aira.

  "No undoing it now," Li muttered, staring into the dang fmes engulfing the distant rooftops. "You know, Aira, that's my price as well. Guess I'm stuck with the weight of a hundred souls. Heavier than a mountain's shadow, that."

  "Maybe if we'd taught them a lesson earlier," Aira tered, desperation threading through her voice. "Back at the facility. Then all this…" she gestured toward the burning town, "…wouldn't have been necessary. It's not like I e! I just did what had to be done!"

  Li turned away, her newly strengthened hands g so tightly that her knuckles cracked. Every word from Aira felt like salt in a wound that would never heal.

  "Look," Aira's voice softened, "I hope we figure this out. We've been through worse together."

  "Have we?" Li scoffed, amber eyes fshing in the darkness. "By the fox's tail, that's the trouble with your kind of thinking. 'What had to be done' always seems to end with someone in the dirt." Her jaw tightened. "Only this time, you pulled me back out of it."

  Without another word, she mentally severed the e betweehe party chat dissolving like m mist.

  [Li left the party]

  "Hey!" Aira growled into the night, frustration rising like sap ihroat. "You really think shutti fixes anything? LILA!"