Her words hung in the air. They were sharp. As sharp as the point of her glowing spear.
Kaito knelt on the damp moss. Pain wrapped around him like a heavy blanket. Exhaustion weighed down his bones. The Valkyrie's presence was a physical pressure. It was a wall of pure, ordered power. It clashed with the wild, raw energy still buzzing in his own veins. That energy was from the Limit Break. It felt wrong to her. He could see it in her eyes.
"I…" His voice came out as a dry croak. He swallowed. He tasted blood. He tasted fear. "My name is Kaito."
Seraphina did not move a muscle. Her glacier-blue eyes scanned him. They moved from his head to his bare feet. He felt completely transparent under her gaze. She saw the bloody claw marks on his shoulders. She saw the torn, dirty tunic. She saw the terror in his eyes. She saw the faint, fading blue glow still visible under his skin.
"You are not of Elysia," she stated. It wasn't a question. It was a fact. "Your energy signature is… corrupted. It is chaotic. What was that pulse?"
The Glitch Pulse. His System. She had felt it. She had seen the world flicker.
His mind raced. It was still running on the last dregs of Enhanced Cognition. Should he lie? Should he tell the truth? What could she possibly believe?
"I don't know," he said. This was mostly true. "I just… arrived here. That monster attacked me. I defended myself. That's all."
"You defended yourself with a power that distorts reality itself?" Her voice was dangerously calm. It was low. It was controlled. She took a single step forward. The air around her seemed to grow colder. "The Celestial Legion hunts anomalies. Anomalies that threaten the natural order. We hunt rogue spell-casters. We hunt the Void-touched. We hunt Calamities." Her grip on her spear tightened. The light at its tip brightened. "Identify your power. Now."
A notification flashed at the corner of Kaito's vision. He didn't need to focus to see it. It was urgent and bright.
[Quest Updated: Survive the Valkyrie's Judgment.]
[Objective: Explain the unexplainable. Or run.]
[Failure Condition: Death or Capture.]
Great. Just great. So helpful.
He pushed himself up to his knees. He winced at the pain. His Minor Regeneration was working. A faint, warm itch spread through his wounded shoulders. It was a strange feeling. His HP ticked up slowly on his status screen: 18/50.
"I have a… system," he said. He chose the simplest word he could think of. "It gives me skills. Like Mana Bolt. Or Enhanced Cognition. That last thing… it was a last resort. A desperate move. It broke my limits. It had a side effect. That pulse you felt."
Seraphina's beautiful eyes narrowed. "'A system.' An artifact? A divine blessing? Or a curse?" She seemed to be talking to herself more than to him. "You used no ritual circles. I heard no incantations. You simply… will things into being. Like a Calamity does."
The way she said 'Calamity' sent a new chill down his spine. It wasn't just a word. It was a Title. Capitalized. A thing of legend and dread.
"I'm not a threat to you," Kaito insisted. He held up his empty hands. They were shaking. "I just want to understand where I am. I just want to survive."
"Survival is not a guaranteed right," Seraphina replied. Her voice was like iron. "Not for entities that warp the very fabric of this world." But her stance shifted slightly. It was a tiny movement. The outright hostility in her System status flickered. It still said Hostile/Confused. The confusion part was growing. "That pulse… it did not feel malicious. It was not an attack. It was simply… wrong. It was an error in the code of reality."
A distant sound echoed through the forest then. It was a horn. It was low. It was mournful. It carried through the trees. It was answered by another horn. This one was closer.
Seraphina's head snapped toward the sound. Her perfect composure cracked. Just for a microsecond. Kaito saw it. Annoyance. Urgency.
"The Legion's advance scouts," she muttered under her breath. "They detected the anomaly as well. Of course they did."
She looked back at Kaito. A clear conflict played out on her stern face. Her duty was clear. Her orders were clear. Detain or destroy the anomaly. But the Glitch Pulse… it had done something. Something to her. Kaito could see it in her eyes. A hesitation. A flicker of doubt.
He remembered the System warning. Triggers a Glitch Pulse. Consequences: Unknown.
Was she feeling the 'unknown consequences'?
"You will come with me," she said finally. Her voice was firm. But it lacked its earlier absolute certainty. "You will be contained. You will be studied by the Legion's Artificer-Sages. It is the only way. We must determine if you are a harmless error… or a spreading corruption."
Contained. Studied. In his weak, wounded state, that sounded like a death sentence. Or something worse. A life as a lab rat.
"No," Kaito said. The word left his lips before he could stop it. It was pure instinct.
Seraphina's eyes hardened like ice. "You are in no position to refuse."
The horns sounded again. Much closer now. The heavy thud of footsteps joined the sound. The clank of armor. A squad was coming through the trees. They were coming for him.
Panic stabbed through Kaito's gut. It was cold. It was sharp. It wasn't just her anymore. There was an entire squad of holy warriors coming. His Enhanced Cognition calculated the odds instantly. They were terrible. Escape from one super-powered knight was near zero. Escape from a group was absolutely impossible.
The panic triggered something deep inside him. It triggered a resonance in his core. That was where the System lived. The Glitch Meter, dormant at 0%, gave a little shudder. A pixel glitched on the screen in his vision.
[Emotional Spike Detected.]
[Minor Glitch Resonance.]
He didn't know what that meant. But Seraphina felt it.
She flinched. It was a full-body recoil. As if she had just heard a sudden, piercing high-pitched noise. Her free hand flew to her temple. Her stern, cold expression wavered. It was replaced by a flash of something raw. Something painful. Something human.
In that moment, Kaito's Analyze skill flickered on its own. He saw more than just her stats. He saw a flash. A memory imprint. It was triggered by the Glitch Resonance.
A younger Seraphina. Her helmet was off. Her moonlight hair was messy. She was on a smoky, ruined battlefield. She was holding the hand of a fallen comrade. The comrade was a man with kind, tired eyes. He was smiling through the blood on his lips. "Protect the light, Sera. Not just the rules. Remember…" His hand went limp in hers. Her face, usually so controlled, contorted in grief. In fury.
The vision lasted less than a second. Then it vanished.
Seraphina staggered back a full step. She was breathing hard. She looked at Kaito not with anger, but with stunned, profound disorientation. The Glitch Pulse hadn't just been a wave of weird energy. It had carried a fragment. A fragment of his panic. His desperation to live. It had echoed against her own deepest memory. Her own buried pain.
"What…" she whispered. Her voice was uncharacteristically small. "What did you just do to me?"
"I didn't mean to…" Kaito began. He was just as confused as she was.
A new roar cut him off. It erupted from the treeline to the east. It was different from the Frost-Fang's roar. This was sharper. Angrier. It was followed immediately by shouts of alarm. The clean, metallic shing of swords being drawn from sheaths.
"Razor-Tusks!" a man's voice yelled. "Ambush! Form a line!"
Seraphina's personal confusion was instantly buried. It was buried under layers of professional duty. Her head whipped toward the sounds of battle. Her soldiers were under attack. Her squad needed her.
She looked from Kaito to the direction of the fighting. Conflict tore at her again. Her primary mission was the anomaly. But her squad was her immediate responsibility. She was their captain.
Kaito saw his chance. It was a narrow window. A desperate, fleeting opportunity.
"Go!" he shouted, surprising himself with the force of his own voice. "They need you! Now!"
Her glacier eyes met his. In them, he saw the full-scale war. Duty to the Legion's orders. Duty to her comrades. The strange, painful effect he had on her. The unknown threat he represented.
The shout of a soldier in real pain decided it.
"Do not move from this spot," she commanded. Her steely tone returned. But it was layered now. Layered over that new, unsettling confusion. "If you flee, you will be hunted to the ends of Elysia. If you stay… there may be mercy. You have my word."
With that, she turned. She didn't run. Light gathered at her feet in a brilliant pool. Then she shot forward. She moved like a beam of moonlight. She left a trail of shimmering air behind her as she streaked toward the battle.
Kaito didn't wait. He didn't think about her word. He didn't think about mercy. The second she was gone, he forced his aching, trembling body to move.
Mercy from a system that wanted to dissect him? No thanks.
He stumbled away from the cliff edge. He moved away from the direction of the horns and roars. He headed deeper. Deeper into the darker, thicker part of the forest. Every step sent jolts of pain through his shoulders. But the Minor Regeneration was steadily working. His HP ticked up: 25/50.
He needed distance. He needed to understand this System. He needed to survive on his own terms.
As he ran, he pulled up his status screens. He needed to learn. He needed to learn while moving.
[Status]
Name: Kaito
Level: 3 (EXP: 45/100)
HP: 28/50 (Regenerating)
MP: 10/30 (Recovering Slowly)
Title: Otherworlder, Anomaly
Skills: [Analyze Lvl 1], [Mana Bolt Lvl 1], [Enhanced Cognition Lvl 1], [Minor Regeneration Lvl 1]
[Glitch Meter: 1%]
The Glitch Meter had a tiny sliver now. Just 1%. It came from the "Minor Glitch Resonance" with Seraphina.
He opened the Skills menu for more details. He needed to know his tools.
[Mana Bolt Lvl 1]: Launch a projectile of concentrated force. Damage scales with INT and Skill Level. Cost: 5 MP.
[Enhanced Cognition Lvl 1]: Temporarily increase mental processing speed and sensory perception. Duration: 10 seconds. Cost: 15 MP. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
[Minor Regeneration Lvl 1]: Passively heal minor wounds over time. Restores approximately 1 HP per 30 seconds. No mana cost. Active effect.
He needed to level up. Fast. He needed more MP. He needed more skills. He needed control.
The sounds of battle behind him grew fiercer. He heard Seraphina's voice. It was clear and commanding over the chaos. She was shouting orders. He heard the guttural, angry bellows of the Razor-Tusks. And he heard something else—a new, rhythmic crashing. It was coming from ahead of him.
Something big was moving through the forest. Something very big. And it was on a path to intercept him.
"You have got to be kidding me," he breathed out. His heart sank.
He ducked behind the massive, gnarled root of a giant tree. He peered out carefully.
The creature that emerged from the gloom was a boar. But it was a boar the size of a minivan. Its hide was knotted, dark leather. It looked as tough as stone. Tusks like curved scimitars gleamed on either side of its snout. They looked sharp enough to cut through metal. The boar's small, red eyes glowed with a mindless, hungry light.
[Analyze Activated.]
Razor-Tusk Boar. Lvl 8.
[A territorial omnivore. Highly aggressive. Charge attack can shatter stone. Weakness: Flanks, sensitive snout.]
It hadn't seen him yet. It was snuffling the ground. It was moving toward the sounds of the larger battle. It was attracted by the noise. Attracted by the potential for easy carrion.
Kaito held his breath. Just pass by. Please, just go.
The boar stopped. Its large, wet snout lifted into the air. It sniffed deeply. It sniffed directly toward his hiding spot.
Blood. It smells my blood.
The Razor-Tusk's head swung slowly. Its glowing red eyes locked onto his position behind the root. It saw him.
It snorted. A cloud of hot steam puffed from its nostrils. It lowered its head. Its powerful tusks gouged deep furrows in the soft earth. This was the prelude to a charge. A charge that could shatter stone.
Kaito's mind went cold and clear. No Limit Break. His MP was too low. He couldn't outrun it. Not in this dense forest. Not in his current state.
He had Mana Bolt. A pebble against a tank.
Think. Enhanced Cognition is on cooldown. Analyze… what did it say? Territorial. Attracted to noise.
An idea formed. It was desperate. It was crazy. It was all he had.
The boar charged. The ground shook. It was a living, breathing battering ram. It closed the distance in seconds. Trees shook as it brushed past them.
Kaito waited. His heart was a frantic drum in his throat. He timed it. At the very last possible second, he didn't dodge left or right. He lunged forward. He dove into a low, tumbling roll. He rolled directly between the boar's thundering legs.
The world became a chaos of stomping hooves. The smell of wet animal and earth filled his nose. A heavy hoof grazed his side. Pain flared. His HP dropped: 22/50.
He came out of the roll behind the beast. He scrambled to his feet. The boar skidded to a halt. It was confused. Its tusks were embedded deep in the giant tree root he had been hiding behind.
Now!
Kaito didn't aim at the boar. That was useless. He turned his body. He aimed toward the ongoing battle between the Legion and the other Razor-Tusks. It was maybe two hundred yards away. He raised his hand. He focused every ounce of his will. He focused his remaining MP. He focused all his fear. All his survival instinct. He poured it into one shot.
"MANA BOLT!"
He didn't fire a weak spark. He fired a true bolt. The blue sphere that shot from his hand was the size of a baseball. It crackled with energy. It streaked through the trees. He didn't aim to hit anyone. He aimed for the thick trunk of a large, old tree. The tree was right on the edge of the Legion's fight.
BOOM.
It wasn't a huge explosion. But it was loud. It was bright. Blue light flashed through the forest. It was a perfect distraction. A beacon of noise and light.
The Razor-Tusk before him wrenched its tusks free from the root. It spun around, dirt flying. But its attention was now split. The loud noise from its "territory" drew its rage. Its simple mind saw a bigger threat.
From the Legion's position, a soldier shouted. "Another one! On the flank! Magic user!"
Kaito saw a flash of silver armor through the trees. Seraphina. She was dealing a final, glowing blow to a tusked beast. She looked up at the sound of his Mana Bolt. Her eyes found him across the distance. He saw her expression clearly. Fury at his disobedience. Surprise at his cunning tactic.
The boar near Kaito hesitated. It was torn. Torn between the nearby, wounded prey (Kaito) and the loud intruders in its territory (the Legion).
Kaito didn't wait for its decision. He turned and ran. He didn't run deeper into the forest. He ran at an angle. He ran to put both the boar and the Legion scouts to one side of him. He was creating a buffer zone.
"After the anomaly!" Seraphina's voice cut through the din of battle. But her voice was strained. She was still surrounded by enemies.
The boar made its choice. With an enraged, ear-splitting squeal, it charged. It charged toward the larger source of noise and intrusion. It charged directly toward the Legion squad's flank.
Kaito ran. His lungs burned. He heard new sounds of chaos erupt behind him. The giant boar was plowing into the scouts' formation. He heard shouts of alarm. He heard the boar's furious squeals mixed with the Valkyries' battle cries.
He had used the monsters as a shield. As a living, breathing buffer between him and his pursuers.
It was ruthless. It was clever. It was survival.
As he ran, his System pinged. A welcome sound.
[Skill Level Up: Mana Bolt is now Level 2.]
[Increased potency and reduced MP cost. Cost is now 4 MP.]
[Quest Updated: Survive the Valkyrie's Judgment.]
[Status: Evaded. Legion scouts are engaged.]
[New Objective: Lose your pursuers completely.]
He ran until the sounds of battle faded into the background hum of the forest. He ran until his legs felt like lead. He finally collapsed. He collapsed against the thick trunk of a giant, weeping willow-like tree. Its leaves were a strange, shimmering silver. They trailed all the way to the ground like a curtain. They offered a perfect veil of cover.
He was alone. For now.
He was breathing hard. He checked his Glitch Meter. It was at 3% now. The resonance with Seraphina. The intense fear. The strategic use of his power. It all fed it slowly.
What happened when it reached 100% without a Limit Break? He didn't know. He didn't want to find out.
He focused inward. He focused on the System interface in his mind. There was a new tab blinking faintly. He hadn't noticed it before. It was labeled:
[Bond Links]
With a thought, he opened it.
The screen was simple. It showed two entries.
1. Seraphina (Valkyrie Captain). Status: ❤️⚔️❓ (Conflict Deepening). Glitch Resonance: Low.
2. Frost-Fang Alpha (Deceased). Status: — . Glitch Resonance: None.
He stared. He stared at the heart symbol next to Seraphina's name. The sword. The question mark. The words 'Conflict Deepening.'
The Glitch Pulse hadn't just shown him her memory. It had created a link. A twisted, unwanted bond. It was born of chaotic energy. It was born of a shared, intense emotional frequency in a moment of crisis.
He had made his first connection in this new, terrifying world. And it was with a holy warrior. A Valkyrie Captain who was under strict orders to hunt him down and deliver him for judgment.
To be continued...