Kaito sat under the silver leaves. He tried to catch his breath. The Bond Links screen hovered in his vision. That heart symbol bothered him deeply. What did it mean? Was it tracking her feelings? His? Some messed-up mixture from the Glitch?
He dismissed the screen. He needed to focus on the now. He was still in danger. Seraphina's squad was busy, but they wouldn't be busy forever. He had to keep moving. He had to find shelter. Water. Maybe something to eat.
His Minor Regeneration was still working. His HP was now 35/50. The deep claw marks on his shoulders itched fiercely. He could feel the skin pulling itself together. His MP was recovering too, but slowly: 15/30.
He pushed himself up. The silver leaves parted like a curtain. He stepped out from under the willow-tree. The forest here was quieter. The light from the twin moons was softer. It was filtered through a high, misty canopy.
He needed a plan. A real plan. Not just running.
First: Understand his environment. Second: Find resources. Third: Avoid everything that wants to kill him. Fourth: Figure out how to control the System. And the Glitch Meter.
He started walking. He moved as quietly as he could on his bare feet. He used Analyze on everything he passed.
[Silverweep Tree - Uncommon. Leaves have mild alchemical properties. Often used in calming potions.]
[Ghost Cap Mushroom - Non-edible. Emits a spore cloud when disturbed that can cause hallucinations.]
[Crystal Brook - Water is pure and safe to drink. Contains trace ambient mana.]
Water. That was a good start. He followed the soft sound of trickling water. He found the small stream a minute later. The water was clear. It flowed over smooth, colorful stones. He knelt down. He drank deeply from his cupped hands. The water was cold and delicious. It tasted clean. It tasted alive. It was the best thing he had ever tasted.
As he drank, he checked his surroundings constantly. His nerves were on a razor's edge. Every rustle of leaves made him jump.
He finished drinking. He sat back on the bank. For a moment, just a moment, he allowed himself to think. To remember.
The white hospital room. The beeping machine. His sister, Aiko, holding his hand. Her eyes, red from crying. She had been so strong for him. For so long. He had let her down. He had died.
And now he was here. In a magical forest. With a game interface in his head. Being hunted by angelic warriors and giant monsters.
A laugh bubbled up in his throat. It was a hysterical, slightly crazy sound. He choked it back down. He couldn't afford to lose it. Not here. Not now.
Get it together, Kaito. You're alive. That's the only thing that matters. Now fight to stay that way.
A new notification appeared. It was not from a quest.
[User's Mental Fortitude has increased.]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Mental Resistance Lvl 1.]
[Provides minor protection against fear, despair, and mental influence.]
Well. That was something. His breakdown had almost been productive. He'd take it.
He stood up. He needed to find somewhere to rest properly. Somewhere hidden. A cave. A thicket. Something.
He followed the stream downstream. It was as good a direction as any. The water would lead to larger bodies of water. Maybe a lake. Maybe a river. Civilizations were often built near water.
The forest began to change again. The trees grew even larger. Their trunks were so wide that twenty men couldn't link arms around them. The air grew cooler. Damper. A thick, grey fog began to coil around the roots of the trees.
[Analyze: Elderwood Forest Zone. High ambient mana. Increased probability of powerful flora and fauna.]
Great. He'd walked into a higher-level zone. Perfect.
He was about to turn back when he saw it. A shape in the fog. It was a structure. Not a natural one. It was made of stone. It was mostly crumbled. It was covered in thick, green moss and twisting vines. But it was clearly a building. Or what was left of one.
A ruin.
Cautiously, Kaito approached. The ruin was small. It was maybe a single room. One wall had completely collapsed. The roof was gone. But three walls still stood. It would provide cover from the rain. It would hide him from casual view.
He used Analyze on the stones.
[Ancient Elven Watchstone - Contains faded preservation runes. Structure is approximately 1,200 years old.]
Elves. So this world had elves. Or had them, over a thousand years ago.
He stepped through the gap where the wall had fallen. The inside was empty except for fallen stones and soft moss. It was dry underfoot. It was sheltered. It would do for the night. Or whatever passed for night in this world with two moons.
He sat down with his back against the cool stone wall. He was exhausted. The adrenaline was finally leaving his system. The aches and pains settled in. His shoulders throbbed. His feet were sore and cut. But he was alive. He was hidden. He had water.
He pulled up his System. He needed to explore it. Now, while he had a moment of safety.
He looked at the Bond Links again. Seraphina's entry was still there. The ❤️⚔️❓ glowed softly. He focused on it.
A sub-menu opened.
Link Type: Glitch-Forged Resonance.
Current Status: The subject (Seraphina) is experiencing heightened emotional conflict regarding the user (Kaito). Core memories have been superficially accessed. A low-level empathic feedback channel is active.
Warning: This link is unstable. It may strengthen or decay based on mutual interaction and emotional events.
So it was an empathic link. Born from the Glitch. He could… feel her conflict? He concentrated. He tried to reach out through the link.
At first, he felt nothing. Then, a faint sensation. It was like a distant echo. He felt a whirlwind of frustration. Sharp, focused determination. And underneath it all, a thread of confusion. A lingering ache from the memory he had seen. The memory of her fallen friend.
He pulled back, breaking the connection. It felt intrusive. Wrong. But also… informative. He knew she was still focused on her duty. But the confusion was real. It was his only leverage.
He closed that menu. He looked for other System functions. There was a Map tab, but it was greyed out. It said [Requires Cartography Skill or Map Item].
There was a Log tab. He opened it. It recorded recent events.
[Log Entry: Transport to Elysia complete.]
[Log Entry: Hostile (Frost-Fang Alpha, Lvl 12) engaged.]
[Log Entry: Limit Break: Seed activated. Glitch Pulse emitted.]
[Log Entry: Entity (Seraphina, Lvl 48) encountered. Status: Hostile.]
[Log Entry: Minor Glitch Resonance achieved. Bond Link established.]
[Log Entry: Hostiles (Legion Scouts, Razor-Tusk Boar) evaded via tactical diversion.]
It was a bare-bones record. But it was something.
He spent the next hour just sitting. Resting. Letting his regeneration do its work. His HP slowly climbed to 45/50. His MP recovered to 25/30. The fog outside the ruin grew thicker. It swirled in the moonlight. It made the forest look like a dream. A very dangerous dream.
He must have dozed off. He didn't mean to. The exhaustion was too deep.
He was jolted awake by a sound.
It was not a monster sound. It was a voice. A sweet, melodic, chilling voice. It came from the fog right outside the ruined wall. It hadn't been there a second before.
"Oh? What a fascinating, broken little star you are."
Kaito's blood turned to ice in his veins. He hadn't heard a thing. No footsteps. No rustling. Nothing. He slowly, slowly turned his head.
A woman was leaning against the crumbling stone archway. It was as if she had always been part of the shadow and fog. She wore a dress. The dress was made of pure darkness. It seemed to drink the faint moonlight. Her hair was long and black. Black as a void. Her eyes… her eyes were pools of deep, endless violet. They shimmered with a light that spoke of ancient night and quiet, profound madness. She was smiling. It was a gentle, curious smile. But it didn't reach those ancient, hungry eyes.
[Analyze Activated.]
Name: ???
Level: ?!!
Title: Shadow Sovereign. Calamity.
Disposition: Obsessively Curious.
Warning: Entity exceeds analysis parameters. Extreme Threat Detected.
Kaito couldn't move. He couldn't speak. This was a predator. A predator on a level he couldn't even comprehend. The Frost-Fang Alpha was a puppy compared to this. Seraphina was a disciplined soldier. This… this was a force of nature. A Calamity.
The woman—the Calamity—tilted her head. The movement was slow. Like a cat studying a mouse. "That pulse of yours… it was a beautiful sound. A painful, beautiful sound. Like a crying child. It called to me from across the forest." She took a silent step forward. She made no sound on the stone. "And you are covered in the starlight of that bothersome Valkyrie. How… interesting."
Kaito found his voice. It was a whisper. "Who are you?"
"Names are such fleeting things," she said. Her voice was like poisoned honey. Soothing and deadly. "You may call me Lilith. It is a name this world once knew. Before it learned to fear it." She was in front of him now. There was no blur of movement. She was just… there. A cold, soft finger touched his cheek. It traced the line of a shallow cut from a branch. "Don't worry, little star. She can't have you."
Her other hand, still at her side, snapped out. It wasn't aimed at him. It was aimed through the ruined wall. Aimed toward the distant battle site. A tendril of pure, liquid shadow lashed out from her fingertips. It moved faster than sight. It stretched across the forest, impossibly long.
A second later, a distant sound echoed. It was a pained, final roar. It was the sound of the giant Razor-Tusk Boar. The sound of it being sliced apart in an instant.
Kaito's breath caught. She had just killed a Level 8 monster from maybe a mile away. With a flick of her wrist.
Lilith didn't even acknowledge it. Her obsessively curious eyes were fixed on him. On his soul. On the System inside him. She could see it. He knew she could.
"You," Lilith whispered. Her smile widened. It still didn't touch her eyes. "You are a question I have not been asked in a thousand years. You are a delightful error in the great, boring story of this world." She leaned closer. He could smell a scent like old roses and cold stone. "You are mine to care for now."
"I don't need your care," Kaito forced out. His Mental Resistance skill buzzed, fighting against the sheer, overwhelming pressure of her presence.
"Oh, but you do," Lilith said. Her tone was gentle. Absolute. "The Legion will cage you. The wilds will eat you. Your own power will unravel you. I can see the cracks in your soul from here, little star. I can fix you. I can show you what your 'glitch' truly is."
She wrapped a slender, cold arm around his shoulders. It was not a violent gesture. It was possessive. Like claiming a lost kitten.
Darkness erupted from her. It wasn't an absence of light. It was a thing. A living, swallowing shadow. It flowed over the ruin. It flowed over Kaito. It blocked out the world.
The last thing he saw was her violet eyes, glowing in the dark. The last thing he heard was her voice, whispering directly into his mind.
"Sleep now. The lesson begins when you wake."
The darkness swallowed everything. Kaito felt a sensation of movement. Of falling. Then he felt nothing at all.
[Quest Failed: Survive the Valkyrie's Judgment.]
[New Status: Captured. Captor: Lilith (Calamity).]
[New Quest Generated: Understand Your Captor.]
[Objective: Survive the attention of the Shadow Sovereign.]
[Reward: Knowledge. Power. Or oblivion.]
The messages flickered in the dark. Then even the System screen was swallowed by the shadow.
Kaito was gone from the ruin. Gone from the forest. Taken by a Calamity.
Miles away, in the clearing where the battle had ended, Seraphina stood amidst fallen Razor-Tusks. Her scouts were tending to minor wounds. The giant boar lay in several cleanly severed pieces at the tree line. The cut was impossibly smooth. Not her work.
She felt a sudden, violent wrongness in the air. A surge of ancient, dreadful power. It came from the direction the anomaly had fled. It lasted only a moment. Then it was gone. And with it… the faint, confusing resonance in her own soul. The link. It didn't break. It went silent. Muffled. As if sealed away in a tomb of darkness.
Her hand went to her chest, over her heart. Her stern face was pale.
"Captain?" one of her scouts asked. "What is it?"
Seraphina looked into the dark, foggy forest. Her conflict was gone. Replaced by a new, cold dread.
"The anomaly," she said, her voice hollow. "He's gone. And something… something much worse has taken him."
To be continued...