Carter pushed deeper into the woods, branches snapping under his boots, breath sharp in the cold air. The school was long out of sight now — replaced by the quiet hum of insects and the distant rush of traffic.
REI floated beside him, her glow faint and uneven. "Your heart rate is still elevated. You need to slow down."
"I can't," Carter said. "If the Guild locks down the district, I'm boxed in."
"You are already boxed in," REI replied gently. "Running without a destination is not a strategy."
Carter stopped, leaning against a tree. His chest heaved, sweat cooling on his skin.
"Then give me one," he said. "Where do we go?"
REI flickered, processing. "There is a location two miles north. A mana‑dead zone. The Guild's scanners will not function there."
"A mana‑dead zone?" Carter frowned. "Like… a blackout?"
"Precisely. No ambient mana. No interference. No detection."
Carter pushed off the tree. "Then that's where we're going."
He started walking — slower now, but with purpose.
---
The forest thickened as they moved north. The air grew colder, heavier. Birds stopped singing. Even the wind felt muted.
Carter shivered. "This place is… weird."
"That is why it is safe," REI said. "Mana‑dead zones are rare. They form when a Rift collapses improperly."
"So it's a scar."
"Yes," she said softly. "A wound in the world."
Carter swallowed. "Great. Love hiding in a wound."
But he kept moving.
After another ten minutes, the trees opened into a clearing — a wide, empty space where the grass was gray and brittle, like it had been drained of life.
Carter stepped inside.
The air shifted instantly.
His System interface flickered — then dimmed.
"REI?" he whispered.
She flickered, but didn't vanish. "I am still here. But my connection to the System is weakened."
"Is that bad?"
"It is… inconvenient," she admitted. "But it also means the Guild cannot track you."
Carter exhaled in relief and sat on a fallen log. His legs trembled from exhaustion.
REI hovered in front of him, her expression soft. "You did well today."
"Did I?" Carter rubbed his face. "I ran from the Guild. I almost got erased by… whatever that thing was. And now I'm hiding in a dead zone."
"You survived," REI said. "That is not nothing."
Carter looked up at her. "REI… what was that voice? The one in the hallway."
Her glow dimmed. "I do not know. But I recognize its structure."
"From where?"
She hesitated.
"From your death."
Carter's breath caught. "You mean… that thing killed me?"
"I believe it was involved," REI said. "But I do not think it was the one who reset you."
Carter stared at her. "Then who did?"
REI flickered again — violently this time.
Static crackled around her.
"REI?" Carter stood. "What's happening?"
"I— I am accessing the Memory Log," she said, voice strained. "The new quest unlocked it. But the mana‑dead zone is interfering. I am… seeing fragments."
"Fragments of what?"
Her eyes glowed bright white.
Then her voice changed — deeper, layered, echoing.
"Carter Kane. You were not meant to die."
Carter froze.
"REI…?"
Her form distorted, glitching into a silhouette of pure light.
"You were chosen. Not by the System. Not by the world."
Carter stepped back, heart pounding. "Chosen by who?!"
REI's voice fractured.
"I… cannot… access… name…"
The light around her pulsed violently.
Carter reached out. "REI! Stop — you're overloading!"
Her glow snapped — and she collapsed, flickering weakly.
Carter caught her projection in his hands, even though she had no weight.
"REI! Talk to me!"
She flickered once… twice…
Then stabilized, barely.
"I'm… sorry," she whispered. "The Memory Log is locked behind a higher evolution. I cannot access it safely."
Carter swallowed hard. "But you saw something."
"Yes," she said. "And whatever chose you… is not the same force trying to erase you."
Carter sat back, mind spinning.
Two forces.
One saved him.
One wants him dead.
And he was caught in the middle.
Before he could speak, the System flickered back to life — weak, but readable.
A new notification appeared.
> [CLASS EVOLUTION PATH AVAILABLE]
> Requirements:
> — Evade Guild capture
> — Investigate the trace
> — Survive the next anomaly
>
> Warning: Evolution will draw attention.
Carter stared at the glowing text.
"REI… what does this mean?"
She looked at him, eyes soft but serious.
"It means your next step will change everything."
Carter exhaled slowly.
"Then let's take it."
He stood, looking out across the dead clearing.
The world was hunting him.
The System was evolving.
And something out there — something powerful — had chosen him for a reason.
He wasn't running anymore.
He was preparing.
The hunt had begun.
And now?
He was ready to hunt back.