The white trees watched him run.
Ethan knew trees couldn't actually watch people.
At least, trees back home couldn't.
But these weren't trees back home.
Their bark was bone-white, smooth in some places and cracked in others, like old skin stretched over something dead. Black leaves hung from the branches without moving, even when the wind cut through the forest.
No rustling.
No creaking.
No normal forest sounds.
Just Ethan's breathing.
His footsteps.
And the second heartbeat pulsing in his chest.
Thump.
Gold light flickered beneath his skin.
Thump.
His legs carried him faster than they should have.
Thump.
The fragments inside him answered every movement like they were proud of what they had done.
Ethan hated it.
He also needed it.
The system timer blinked in the corner of his vision.
[Signature Suppression Active]
Time Remaining: 5:48
Five minutes.
Less than six minutes before the red nightmare in the sky could find him again.
Ethan pushed harder.
Branches whipped past his face. One cut his cheek. Another snagged his torn hoodie and nearly spun him around, but he tore free and kept moving.
His side still hurt.
His arm still bled from the Hollow Wolf bite.
But the pain felt farther away now.
Not gone.
Muted.
Like someone had turned the volume down.
That scared him more than the pain.
"Okay," Ethan breathed. "That's not normal."
A system window opened.
[Health Attribute Increase Improving Pain Tolerance]
[Dexterity Attribute Increase Improving Weapon Handling]
[Agility Attribute Increase Improving Movement Efficiency]
Ethan almost laughed.
"Yeah, and what about the whispering?"
No answer.
Of course.
The system only explained things when it felt like making his life worse.
He kept running.
The forest sloped downward, the ground turning from dirt to pale gray stone. Thin streams of black water cut across the path, flowing uphill in narrow lines.
Ethan slowed just enough to avoid stepping in one.
"Absolutely not."
A noise came from somewhere ahead.
Not a roar.
Not a growl.
A voice.
Soft.
Shaking.
"Help…"
Ethan stopped so fast his shoes slid on the stone.
His heart jumped into his throat.
"Hello?"
The forest stayed silent.
Then the voice came again.
"Please… help me…"
It sounded young.
A kid.
Ethan gripped Lyra's dagger tighter.
Every survival instinct he had screamed trap.
Every human part of him screamed kid.
The system did nothing.
No target detected.
No warning.
No helpful little pop-up saying, Hey, idiot, that crying child is actually a nightmare spider.
Ethan swallowed.
"Where are you?"
"Here…"
The voice came from the right.
Behind a cluster of white trees twisted around each other like ribs.
Ethan moved slowly.
One step.
Then another.
His dagger stayed low, but ready.
"If you're real," he muttered, "please say something extremely normal."
A small laugh answered him.
Wrong.
Too soft.
Too close.
Ethan froze.
The trees in front of him shifted.
Not the branches.
The trunks.
They unfolded.
A creature peeled itself away from the bark, its body thin and pale, almost flat, like it had been pressed into the tree for years. Its arms were too long. Its fingers dragged along the ground. A face hung from its head like a mask, smooth and almost human.
Almost.
Its mouth opened.
A child's voice came out.
"Help me."
Ethan stepped back.
"Nope."
The creature lunged.
Fast.
Ethan barely got the dagger up before its claws struck.
Metal sparked.
The impact sent a shock through his wrist, but the dagger didn't fly out of his hand this time.
Dexterity.
He felt it.
His grip adjusted automatically.
His feet found balance on the slick stone.
The creature tilted its head.
A system window flashed.
[Pale Mimic Detected]
Level: 5
Status: Hostile
Known Trait: Voice Lure
Attribute Fragment Chance: High
Ethan stared at the words.
"Level five?"
The Mimic smiled with someone else's mouth.
"Help me…"
"Yeah, I'm helping myself first."
It attacked again.
This time, Ethan saw the movement clearer.
Left claw high.
Right claw low.
Fake opening in the middle.
It wanted him to step in.
So Ethan didn't.
He dropped backward instead.
The Mimic's claws missed his face by inches and carved into the stone, leaving deep white scratches.
Ethan kicked at its knee.
Bad idea.
Its leg bent the wrong way and wrapped around his ankle.
"What the—"
The Mimic yanked.
Ethan hit the ground hard.
Air rushed from his lungs.
The creature crawled over him, its head twisting upside down as it smiled.
"Please…"
Ethan shoved the dagger up.
The Mimic caught his wrist.
Its fingers wrapped around his arm with crushing strength.
Pain shot up to his elbow.
A warning flashed.
[Strength Disadvantage Detected]
Recommended Action: Escape Grip
"No kidding!"
The Mimic's other hand rose.
Claws spread.
Ethan's eyes locked on them.
Not enough time to overpower it.
Not enough room to dodge.
So he did the only thing he could.
He headbutted it.
Hard.
His forehead slammed into the Mimic's face.
Pain exploded through his skull.
The creature reeled back with a shriek, its fake face cracking like porcelain.
Ethan ripped his wrist free and drove the dagger into its side.
The blade sank in.
Black sap sprayed out.
The Mimic screamed with five different voices.
A child.
A woman.
An old man.
Lyra.
Ethan froze.
"Ethan!"
Lyra's voice came from its mouth.
Not perfect.
But close enough to punch through his focus.
The Mimic smiled.
"Come back alive."
Ethan's chest tightened.
For half a second, he was back at the tunnel.
Lyra crouched in blue light.
Red sky above her.
Her voice softer than it should've been.
The Mimic's claws swung toward his throat.
A system warning flashed red.
[Mental Distortion Detected]
Reaction Delay: Increased
Ethan snapped back just in time.
He twisted.
The claws ripped across his shoulder instead of his neck.
Blood sprayed.
Ethan stumbled back, gripping the wound.
The Mimic crawled toward him, wearing Lyra's voice like a stolen coat.
"Come back alive…"
Ethan's jaw clenched.
Anger burned through the fear.
"Don't use her voice."
The Mimic tilted its cracked face.
"Ethan…"
"I said—"
Gold light pulsed under his skin.
The second heartbeat slammed harder.
His vision sharpened until the world looked almost too clear.
The scratches in the stone.
The twitch in the Mimic's left hand.
The thin seam running down the side of its neck.
A weak point.
Ethan moved.
Not like before.
Faster.
Sharper.
He stepped inside the Mimic's reach, caught its wrist with his left hand, and dragged it forward.
The creature's balance broke.
Ethan spun under its arm and drove the dagger up into the seam in its neck.
The Mimic froze.
Ethan leaned close, breathing hard.
"Use your own voice."
He ripped the blade sideways.
The Mimic collapsed, body folding in on itself like wet paper.
It hit the ground and twitched once.
Then dissolved into white ash and golden sparks.
A fragment formed above the remains.
Brighter than the others.
Sharper.
It pulsed slowly, almost like it was breathing.
[Attribute Fragment Detected]
Type: Intellect
Quality: Lesser
Absorb?
▸ YES
NO
Ethan stared at it.
Lesser.
Not minor.
Better quality.
More power.
More risk.
His shoulder bled heavily. Warm blood ran down his arm and dripped from his fingers onto the stone.
The forest was still quiet.
Too quiet.
The timer blinked.
[Signature Suppression Active]
Time Remaining: 3:11
Three minutes.
He needed every advantage he could get.
But the warning from before still sat in his head.
Physical Stability: Strained
Mental Stability: Minor Distortion Detected
Ethan looked at the fragment.
His mouth went dry.
"Intellect…"
In a game, that would be easy.
Click yes.
Stat increase.
Better perception, maybe faster thought, maybe magic later.
No downside except numbers on a screen.
But this wasn't just a screen.
He could still hear the whisper from the last fragments.
More.
More.
More.
He could still feel how much easier it was becoming to ignore pain.
How much easier it was to keep moving after killing something.
How the fear was still there, but quieter now.
Like the system was sanding down the parts of him that slowed him down.
Ethan took a shaky breath.
"No."
The fragment hovered.
Waiting.
Ethan clenched his teeth.
"I said no."
He selected NO.
The fragment cracked.
Golden light burst outward and faded into the air.
For a second, the second heartbeat inside his chest pulsed violently.
Pain shot through him.
Ethan dropped to one knee, gasping.
A system message appeared.
[Attribute Fragment Rejected]
[Attribution Response: Resistance Detected]
[Mental Stability Improved]
Ethan blinked through the pain.
"So saying no helps?"
Another message appeared.
[Warning: Repeated Rejection May Reduce Growth Efficiency]
Ethan gave the screen a tired glare.
"Of course it does."
He reached into the pouch Maera had given him and pulled out one of the clotting wraps.
Dark cloth.
Strange smell.
He pressed it against his shoulder.
Fire exploded through the wound.
Ethan clamped his mouth shut so hard his teeth hurt.
The cloth burned against his skin, not with heat exactly, but with something sharp and medicinal that crawled into the cut.
Black smoke hissed from the edges.
His knees almost gave out.
"Maera," he gasped, "you are a demon."
The bleeding slowed.
His arm still throbbed, but at least blood wasn't pouring down it anymore.
He pushed himself up and kept moving.
The white forest grew thicker.
The trees crowded close together, their branches bending overhead until the two moons disappeared behind a roof of black leaves.
Darkness swallowed the path.
The blue charm around Ethan's neck flickered.
[Signature Suppression Active]
Time Remaining: 1:49
His breathing sounded too loud.
Every step crunched against pale stones.
Somewhere far behind him, red light flashed through the trees.
The Pursuer was adjusting.
Searching.
Learning.
Ethan moved faster.
Then he saw the lights.
Small orange lights between the trees.
Not blue like the village.
Not red like the Administrator.
Orange.
Normal fire.
He slowed.
Ahead, the forest opened into a small clearing.
Three wagons sat in a rough circle, each covered in dark canvas. A campfire burned low in the center. Crates were stacked beside one wagon, and a pair of horses stood tied to a post, restless and stamping.
People.
Ethan's chest tightened.
Bandits?
Travelers?
Merchants?
He stayed behind a tree and watched.
A man in a long coat stood near the fire, sharpening a curved blade. Another sat on a crate, eating from a tin bowl. A third leaned against a wagon, half-asleep with a spear across his lap.
They didn't look like villagers.
They looked armed.
That mattered.
Ethan didn't want trouble.
He needed supplies.
Water.
Clothes.
A better weapon.
Information.
And maybe somewhere to hide once the charm failed.
The system timer blinked.
[Signature Suppression Active]
Time Remaining: 0:58
Less than a minute.
Ethan cursed under his breath.
He could sneak past.
But with the Pursuer about to find him again, the camp would see the red sky anyway.
If he stayed hidden and the Administrator came down on this clearing, these people would die without knowing why.
If he walked in, they might kill him.
Great options.
Fantastic world.
Ten out of ten.
Ethan stepped out from behind the tree with both hands raised.
"Hey."
Every weapon in the camp pointed at him instantly.
The man sharpening the blade stood.
The spear guy snapped fully awake.
The one eating dropped his bowl.
Ethan stopped moving.
"Okay. Fair reaction."
The man in the coat looked him up and down.
His eyes paused on the torn hoodie.
The blood.
The dagger.
The glowing veins that Ethan really wished would stop doing that.
"Name," the man said.
Ethan sighed.
"Ethan Vale."
"Clan?"
"Why does everyone ask that?"
The man's blade lifted slightly.
Ethan raised his hands higher.
"No clan. No village. I'm just trying not to die."
The man's eyes narrowed.
"Everyone is trying not to die."
"Yeah, but I'm having a really bad night."
A woman stepped out from behind one of the wagons.
Ethan hadn't seen her.
That alone made his skin crawl.
She had short silver hair, dark eyes, and a bow already drawn in her hands. The arrow was aimed at Ethan's chest.
Not shaky.
Not uncertain.
Perfectly still.
"You're bleeding," she said.
"Not by choice."
"You're glowing."
"Also not by choice."
The man in the coat glanced at her.
"Riven?"
The woman's eyes didn't leave Ethan.
"He's system-touched."
Ethan swallowed.
"Is that better or worse than Skyfall?"
No one laughed.
The blue charm at Ethan's chest flickered one final time.
[Signature Suppression Ending]
Time Remaining: 0:03
Ethan's stomach dropped.
"Uh…"
The woman's eyes sharpened.
"What?"
The timer hit zero.
The charm cracked down the middle.
A red beam of light shot into the sky from Ethan's body.
Not wide.
Not damaging.
But bright.
A signal.
Every person in the camp froze.
The system screamed.
[SIGNATURE EXPOSED]
[PURSUER LOCK REACQUIRED]
Above the trees, the red ring appeared.
Closer now.
Much closer.
The horses panicked, pulling against their ropes.
The man in the coat stared at the sky.
"What did you do?"
Ethan slowly lowered his hands.
"I brought trouble."
The woman with the bow pulled the string tighter.
"No."
Her voice went cold.
"You are trouble."
A red voice rolled over the forest.
"ANOMALY LOCATED."
The campfire went out.
Darkness crashed over the clearing.
Then the trees began to bend.
Not from wind.
From pressure.
Ethan looked at the armed strangers.
Then at the sky.
Then at the dagger in his hand.
His pulse steadied.
The fragments inside him stirred.
The second heartbeat returned.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Ethan's voice came out low.
"If you want to live…"
He turned toward the red light burning above the trees.
"…run now."
The forest exploded.