The forest exploded.
Trees snapped like bones.
White bark burst apart in every direction as red light carved through the clearing. The blast missed Ethan by maybe ten feet, but the force still threw him off his feet.
He hit the ground hard and rolled through dirt, ash, and broken leaves.
Pain flared through his shoulder.
His side screamed.
His mouth filled with the taste of blood.
For one second, all Ethan could see was red.
Then the system flashed across his vision.
[Pursuer Lock Confirmed]
[Threat Rating: Extreme]
Recommendation: Flee
Ethan coughed and pushed himself up.
"Yeah," he rasped. "We covered that."
The camp was chaos.
The horses screamed and pulled against their ropes. One wagon had tipped onto its side, crates spilling across the ground. The man in the long coat shouted orders, but his voice was nearly drowned by the roar of splintering trees.
The silver-haired woman had already moved.
One second she was near the wagon.
The next, she was on top of it, bow drawn, eyes locked on the red glow beyond the tree line.
"Kael!" she shouted. "Left ridge!"
The man in the coat turned.
So his name was Kael.
Good to know.
Ethan would have appreciated introductions under less murder-filled circumstances.
Kael raised his curved blade.
"Brant, cut the horses loose! Sena, with me!"
The spear guy stumbled toward the horses.
The man who had been eating scrambled behind a wagon and grabbed a round shield from the dirt.
Ethan forced himself to his feet.
A red ring hovered above the trees.
Closer than before.
The Administrator Fragment stepped through the broken forest like it was walking through a doorway.
Its armor shifted with every movement.
Black glass.
Folded wings.
Burnt metal.
A human shape that couldn't decide how human it wanted to be.
The red symbols behind its head spun slowly.
Then stopped.
Facing Ethan.
"ANOMALY."
The word pushed into his skull.
Ethan winced.
The silver-haired archer fired.
Her arrow cut through the air and struck the Pursuer in the chest.
It shattered.
Not bounced.
Not broke.
Shattered.
Like glass hitting stone.
The Pursuer didn't even look at her.
The archer's eyes narrowed.
"That did nothing."
Ethan backed up slowly.
"Yeah, it's kind of rude like that."
Kael glanced at him.
"You know what that thing is?"
"System attack dog."
Kael stared.
"That was not helpful."
"That's all I got."
The Pursuer lifted one hand.
Red light gathered in its palm.
Ethan's system screamed.
[Attack Pattern Detected]
Type: Linear Erasure Beam
Avoid Direct Contact]
Ethan's eyes widened.
"Move!"
The beam fired.
Ethan dove sideways.
Kael grabbed Sena by the back of her cloak and yanked her down.
The red beam sliced through the clearing, cutting straight through a wagon, two trees, and the ground beyond them.
No explosion.
No fire.
The things it touched simply stopped existing.
The wagon didn't burn.
It vanished in a perfect line.
Ethan stared at the empty space where the wood should've been.
His stomach turned cold.
"Oh, that's bad."
Kael's face hardened.
"Scatter! Do not stand in a line!"
The group moved fast.
Too fast to be normal civilians.
Brant cut the horses loose and slapped one hard on the side. The animals bolted into the trees.
Sena lifted her shield and dragged a crate behind it, ducking low.
The archer jumped from the wagon as another red line carved through where she had been standing.
Ethan sprinted toward the right side of the clearing.
The Pursuer's head followed him.
Only him.
Good news.
It was ignoring everyone else.
Bad news.
It was ignoring everyone else.
Ethan ducked behind a tree.
A red beam erased the tree.
Ethan threw himself backward as the trunk disappeared from above him. Branches collapsed around nothing, falling through empty air before crashing to the ground.
He hit the dirt again.
"Okay, cover doesn't work!"
"No kidding!" Kael shouted.
The archer landed beside Ethan, bow already drawn.
Up close, she looked maybe twenty-five. Calm eyes. Sharp face. No wasted movement. A thin scar ran from her jaw to the side of her neck.
She fired three arrows in quick succession.
One at the Pursuer's head.
One at its knee.
One at the red ring behind it.
The first two shattered.
The third made the ring flicker.
The Pursuer paused.
Just for half a second.
Ethan noticed.
So did she.
"The ring," Ethan said.
"I saw."
"You have more arrows?"
"You have better ideas?"
"Currently? No."
"Then move."
She shoved him aside as another beam tore through the ground between them.
Ethan scrambled up and ran.
The fragments inside his chest pulsed harder.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
His legs responded before his mind did. He cut left. Dropped low. Rolled under a fallen branch. Pushed off his hands and kept moving.
Faster than before.
Not fast enough to feel safe.
But fast enough to stay alive.
The Pursuer turned with him.
Its arm tracked his movement like a turret.
[Attack Incoming]
Ethan dove.
The beam passed over his back so close the air above him vanished into silence.
He hit the ground near a broken crate.
Inside were metal tools.
Rope.
A small hatchet.
Ethan grabbed the hatchet without thinking.
The system flickered.
[Improvised Weapon Acquired]
Weapon Quality: Poor
"Better than nothing."
A Hollow Wolf burst from the tree line.
Then another.
Then two more.
The red light and noise had drawn them in.
Of course it had.
Because apparently this world saw a disaster and thought, What if we added teeth?
Brant cursed from near the horses.
"Wolves!"
Kael spun toward the new threat.
"Keep them off Riven!"
Riven.
The archer.
Ethan stored that away while ducking under a wolf's leap.
It crashed into the dirt behind him.
He spun and buried the hatchet into its shoulder.
The blade stuck.
The wolf shrieked and snapped at his arm.
Ethan released the handle, stepped in, and drove Lyra's dagger into its throat.
The wolf dissolved.
A fragment formed.
[Attribute Fragment Detected]
Type: Agility
Quality: Minor
Ethan didn't even hesitate.
"Absorb."
The fragment shot into his chest.
Heat rushed down his legs.
The second heartbeat slammed harder.
[Agility Increased by 1]
[Attribution Progress: 5 Fragments Absorbed]
[Physical Stability: Strained]
[Mental Stability: Minor Distortion Detected]
The whisper came with it.
More.
Ethan clenched his jaw.
"Not now."
The whisper faded, but not completely.
A wolf lunged at Riven from behind.
Ethan saw it before anyone else.
He moved.
Not thought.
Moved.
He crossed the space between them in a burst and slammed into the wolf mid-leap. The impact knocked both of them sideways.
The wolf rolled on top of him, jaws snapping for his face.
Ethan shoved his forearm against its throat.
Teeth scraped his sleeve.
Riven turned, arrow drawn.
"Hold still."
"That's hard right now!"
The arrow punched through the wolf's skull inches from Ethan's hand.
The creature dissolved into sparks.
A fragment hovered.
[Attribute Fragment Detected]
Type: Dexterity
Quality: Minor
Ethan stared at it.
His chest pulled toward the fragment.
Like hunger.
Like need.
Riven watched his face.
"What is that?"
Ethan swallowed.
"Problem."
The fragment pulsed.
His fingers twitched.
The Pursuer turned again.
Red light gathered.
Ethan's eyes flicked toward it.
No time.
He selected NO.
The fragment cracked and vanished.
Pain stabbed through his chest.
[Attribute Fragment Rejected]
[Attribution Response: Resistance Detected]
[Mental Stability Improved]
Riven stared.
"You rejected a fragment?"
Ethan pushed himself up.
"Trying not to become a psycho."
Before she could answer, the Pursuer fired.
The beam shot straight for them.
Riven moved left.
Ethan moved right.
The red line carved between them and erased the wolf remains, the ground, and half a crate.
Kael shouted from across the clearing.
"Riven! The ring!"
"I need an opening!"
Ethan looked at the Pursuer.
The ring behind its head spun faster now.
Every time it prepared an attack, the symbols brightened.
Every time Riven hit the ring, it flickered.
Maybe it wasn't a weak point.
Maybe it was a focus.
Ethan's mind raced.
Game logic.
Boss mechanics.
Untouchable body.
Floating target.
Attack channel.
Interrupt window.
He looked at Riven.
"When it charges the beam, hit the ring."
"I already tried."
"Again."
"I need it still."
Ethan hated his own idea before he even said it.
"I can make it look at me."
Riven's eyes narrowed.
"It already is."
"No. I mean really look at me."
"That sounds stupid."
"It is."
"Then don't."
"Too late."
Ethan turned and ran straight toward the Pursuer.
Kael shouted something.
Riven cursed.
Brant yelled, "Is he insane?"
Probably.
Ethan sprinted across the clearing, dagger in one hand, stolen hatchet in the other.
The Pursuer's head tilted slightly.
Like it was confused.
Good.
Confusion was better than instant murder.
The red ring behind it began to glow.
[Attack Incoming]
Ethan kept running.
The system flashed.
[Warning: Direct Approach Fatal]
"Trust me," Ethan muttered. "I know."
The Pursuer raised its hand.
Ethan watched the palm.
Watched the light.
Watched the exact second the symbols in the ring locked into place.
"Now!" he screamed.
He dropped flat.
Riven fired.
The arrow flew over Ethan and struck the red ring dead center.
This time, it didn't shatter.
The ring cracked.
The Pursuer jerked backward.
The red beam fired upward instead of forward, tearing a silent scar through the clouds.
The entire forest flashed crimson.
A new system message appeared.
[Administrator Focus Disrupted]
Temporary Vulnerability Created]
Ethan's eyes widened.
"Kael!"
Kael was already moving.
He crossed the clearing with his curved blade glowing faintly orange. Sena followed behind him, shield raised, pushing through debris.
Kael leapt.
His blade slammed into the Pursuer's side.
For the first time, the attack landed.
Sparks exploded across black armor.
The Pursuer staggered one step.
Sena bashed its knee with her shield.
Brant drove his spear into the cracked spot near its ribs.
The Pursuer made a sound.
Not pain.
Not exactly.
More like corrupted metal grinding against itself.
Ethan scrambled to his feet.
The system flashed.
[Vulnerability Duration: 0:04]
Four seconds.
"Move!"
Riven fired another arrow into the ring.
Kael slashed again.
Brant ripped his spear free.
Sena slammed the shield upward into the Pursuer's arm.
Ethan saw the cracked ring flicker.
One symbol went dark.
Then the vulnerability ended.
A red pulse burst outward.
Everyone flew back.
Ethan slammed into a broken wagon wheel and collapsed.
His vision blacked out for half a second.
When it returned, the Pursuer stood in the center of the clearing.
Damaged.
Not badly.
But damaged.
One side of its shifting armor had cracked. Red light leaked from beneath it like blood.
The ring behind its head spun unevenly now.
The voice came again.
"RESISTANCE RECORDED."
Ethan forced himself up.
"Yeah, write that down."
The Pursuer turned toward him.
"ATTRIBUTION USER THREAT VALUE UPDATED."
A cold message appeared.
[Pursuer Combat Priority Changed]
Primary Objective: Disable Attribution User
Secondary Objective: Eliminate Witnesses
Ethan's blood ran cold.
Witnesses.
It wasn't ignoring them anymore.
"Everyone move!" Ethan shouted.
The Pursuer lifted both hands.
Red light gathered around the entire clearing.
Not a beam.
Something bigger.
Riven's face changed.
"Kael!"
Kael looked at the circle of red light spreading beneath their feet.
"Out! Out now!"
They ran.
Ethan tried to run too.
His legs almost gave out.
Too many hits.
Too much blood loss.
Too many fragments.
The red circle expanded faster.
Sena grabbed Brant and shoved him ahead.
Kael pulled Riven over a broken trunk.
Ethan stumbled.
His foot caught under a shattered branch.
He fell.
The red light crawled toward him across the ground.
[Area Erasure Charging]
Time to Impact: 0:03
Ethan yanked at his foot.
Stuck.
0:02.
He hacked at the branch with the hatchet.
Once.
Twice.
0:01.
The branch snapped.
Ethan rolled.
The clearing behind him vanished.
No explosion.
No fire.
Just gone.
A perfect circle of earth, wagons, trees, and stone disappeared into empty black space.
Ethan landed at the edge of it, one arm hanging over nothing.
For a second, he stared down.
There was no bottom.
No dirt.
No roots.
No world.
Just absence.
Kael grabbed the back of Ethan's hoodie and dragged him away.
"Up!"
Ethan coughed.
"Thanks."
"Thank me by explaining why a system executioner is chasing you."
"Later."
"That answer is getting old."
The Pursuer stepped over the edge of the erased circle.
It walked on empty air.
Because apparently the laws of physics were optional for administrators.
Riven fired at the ring again.
The arrow missed by inches as the ring shifted sideways.
The Pursuer had learned.
Ethan saw it.
So did Riven.
Her mouth tightened.
"It won't fall for that twice."
Ethan looked around.
They couldn't beat it.
Not here.
Maybe not anywhere.
But they had hurt it.
That mattered.
The system confirmed it.
[Pursuer Integrity: 91%]
Ethan almost laughed.
"All that for nine percent?"
Kael looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing. Depressing math."
A low growl came from the woods behind them.
More Hollow Wolves.
Drawn by the fight.
Red light above.
Wolves behind.
Erased clearing ahead.
No village.
No Lyra.
No Merek.
No plan.
Ethan's chest pulsed.
The fragments inside him stirred.
More.
More.
More.
He looked toward the wolves.
Then toward the Pursuer.
Then at the strangers who had somehow not abandoned him yet.
A terrible idea formed.
Again.
Ethan hated how often that was happening.
He turned to Kael.
"How many monsters can you kill fast?"
Kael stared at him.
"What kind of question is that?"
"The urgent kind."
Riven's eyes flicked to Ethan.
"You absorb them."
Ethan didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
Kael's face darkened.
"You're a Devourer."
Ethan frowned.
"A what?"
Sena raised her shield slightly.
Brant took half a step back.
Riven kept her bow aimed at the Pursuer, but her expression changed.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Recognition.
Ethan's stomach dropped.
He was really starting to hate new names.
"Skyfall. System-touched. Devourer." He let out a bitter laugh. "You people have a lot of words for someone having the worst night of his life."
Kael pointed his blade at Ethan.
"Devourers are killed on sight in three kingdoms."
"Good thing we're in the woods."
"That is not a defense."
The Pursuer raised its hand again.
A red symbol formed above its palm.
Riven shouted, "Fight now, argue later!"
The wolves charged from the trees.
Ethan turned toward them.
His heart pounded.
His body shook.
His mind felt stretched thin, like too many hands were pulling at it.
But he could still choose.
That mattered.
He looked at Kael.
"I don't want to become whatever you think I am."
A wolf leapt over a fallen branch.
Ethan raised the dagger.
"But if I don't get stronger right now, that thing kills all of us."
Kael held his gaze for half a second.
Then cursed and turned his blade toward the wolves.
"Riven! Cripple them! Don't finish unless you have to!"
Riven understood immediately.
"You're insane."
"Apparently that's contagious," Kael snapped.
The fight broke open.
Riven's arrows struck legs, shoulders, eyes.
Kael cut wolves down without killing them, leaving them wounded and thrashing.
Sena blocked two at once, shield ringing under their claws.
Brant stabbed one through the side and kicked it toward Ethan.
Ethan moved through the chaos.
Dagger down.
Hatchet up.
Fast.
Messy.
Desperate.
He finished the first wolf.
[Target Defeated]
[Attribute Fragment Detected: Strength — Minor]
"Absorb."
Heat surged through his arms.
[Strength Increased by 1]
He killed the second.
[Attribute Fragment Detected: Health — Minor]
"Absorb."
His wound tightened.
His lungs opened.
[Health Increased by 1]
The third.
[Attribute Fragment Detected: Agility — Minor]
He hesitated.
The whisper rose.
More.
More.
More.
Ethan clenched his teeth.
"Shut up."
He absorbed it anyway.
Lightning ran through his legs.
The world sharpened too much.
Sounds stretched.
The wolves' growls became patterns.
Riven's breathing.
Kael's footwork.
The Pursuer's ring rotating behind him.
Everything connected.
Everything looked breakable.
[Attribution Progress: 8 Fragments Absorbed]
[Physical Stability: Unstable]
[Mental Stability: Distortion Increasing]
Ethan staggered.
For a moment, the forest tilted.
Gold veins crawled up his neck.
Riven saw.
"Ethan!"
He barely heard her.
The whisper had become a voice now.
Not someone else's.
His own.
Take more.
Kill more.
Survive.
The Pursuer fired.
Ethan turned before the system warning appeared.
He saw the beam path.
Not guessed.
Saw.
It would hit Brant first.
Then Sena.
Then Riven.
Ethan moved.
He slammed into Brant, shoved him into Sena, and grabbed Riven by the back of her coat as the beam carved past.
The edge of it caught Ethan's left sleeve.
The fabric vanished.
So did a thin strip of skin along his forearm.
Pain exploded white-hot.
Ethan screamed.
But he stayed standing.
Riven stared at the missing strip on his arm.
Then at him.
"You saw that coming."
Ethan's breathing shook.
"Yeah."
Kael stepped closer.
His blade was still raised.
But not at Ethan now.
At the Pursuer.
"What are you?"
Ethan looked at his arm.
Blood dripped down his fingers.
Gold light moved under the wound.
He flexed his hand.
It still worked.
He looked up at the Administrator Fragment.
Its ring spun again.
Its damaged armor leaked red light.
A system window appeared.
[Temporary Skill Forming]
Condition Met: Repeated Combat Prediction Under Extreme Threat
Skill Acquired: Danger Sense - Level 1
Ethan stared.
A skill.
Not an attribute.
A skill.
For the first time all night, the system had given him something that wasn't stolen from the dead.
He laughed under his breath.
Small.
Broken.
Hopeful.
"I'm learning."
The Pursuer tilted its head.
As if it heard him.
Then the red ring behind it split open.
A second ring formed inside the first.
The pressure in the forest doubled.
Everyone dropped to one knee except Ethan.
Not because he was stronger.
Because the fragments inside him pushed back.
The system flashed.
[Pursuer Limiter Released]
Integrity Remaining: 89%
Combat Output Increasing]
Kael's face went pale.
Riven lowered her bow slightly.
Sena whispered a prayer under her breath.
Brant looked ready to run and keep running forever.
Ethan couldn't blame him.
The Pursuer lifted into the air.
The red voice rolled through the broken forest.
"ADAPTATION DETECTED."
The ring locked onto Ethan.
"ESCALATION APPROVED."
Ethan's new Danger Sense screamed before the attack formed.
Not one beam.
Not a circle.
Dozens.
Red lines appeared in the air above them, each one aimed at a different body.
No dodging all of that.
No blocking it.
No surviving it.
Unless they weren't there when it fired.
Ethan turned toward the erased circle behind them.
The empty black pit.
The impossible hole in the world.
Then beyond it, across the gap, he saw another slope leading deeper into the forest.
A path.
A stupid path.
A suicidal path.
Exactly his kind of path lately.
He turned to Kael.
"Can you jump?"
Kael stared at him.
"Across that?"
"Yes."
"No."
"Can she?" Ethan pointed at Riven.
Riven looked at the gap.
"Maybe."
"Sena?"
"With armor? No."
"Brant?"
Brant shook his head quickly.
"Absolutely not."
Ethan's eyes moved to the scattered rope near the remains of the wagon.
Then to the broken trees.
Then to the wolves still dissolving into particles.
Then to the red lines brightening overhead.
His brain moved fast.
Too fast.
Almost painful.
Danger Sense screamed.
Three seconds.
Maybe less.
Ethan grabbed the rope.
"Riven! Arrow through the far tree!"
She understood instantly.
She snatched the rope from his hand, tied it around an arrow in one smooth motion, and fired across the erased pit.
The arrow sank into a white tree on the far side.
"Kael!" Ethan shouted.
Kael grabbed the rope and pulled hard.
It held.
Barely.
The red lines above them brightened.
Ethan shoved the rope toward Sena.
"Go!"
She didn't argue.
She grabbed the rope, ran, and swung across the pit with Brant right behind her.
Riven followed.
Kael waited.
Of course he did.
Ethan looked at him.
"You first."
Kael glared.
"You are the reason it's here."
"Exactly, so it'll aim at me last."
"That is terrible logic."
"Still logic."
The red lines fired.
Danger Sense screamed.
Ethan grabbed Kael and threw himself toward the pit.
For one second, they were weightless.
Red beams erased the ground behind them.
The rope snapped.
Kael caught the far ledge with one hand.
Ethan caught Kael's wrist.
His body slammed against the side of the pit.
Pain tore through him.
Below his feet was nothing.
Absolute nothing.
Kael grunted, trying to hold both their weight.
Ethan's fingers slipped.
Gold light burned under his skin.
Strength.
Health.
Agility.
Everything he had stolen.
Everything he had chosen.
Everything he was afraid of becoming.
He dug his fingers into Kael's wrist.
Kael's eyes widened.
"Climb!"
Ethan swung his dagger up and stabbed it into the dirt wall.
He pulled.
Kael pulled.
Riven grabbed Kael's arm from above.
Sena grabbed Riven.
Brant grabbed Sena.
Together, they dragged Ethan over the ledge.
He collapsed onto solid ground, gasping.
Behind them, the entire near side of the clearing was gone.
The Pursuer floated over the pit, red rings spinning.
It did not cross immediately.
For the first time, it hesitated.
The black emptiness beneath it pulsed.
The Pursuer looked down.
Then back at Ethan.
A system message appeared.
[Environmental Boundary Detected]
Administrator Movement Restricted]
Ethan's eyes widened.
"It can't cross."
Riven looked at him.
"What?"
"The pit. The erased space. It messed with its movement."
Kael stared at the Pursuer.
"So its own attack made a boundary."
Ethan slowly smiled.
"Boss arena rules."
No one understood him.
That was fine.
He barely understood himself.
The Pursuer's voice rolled across the gap.
"ANOMALY WILL BE RECOVERED."
Ethan pushed himself up, legs shaking.
"Yeah?"
He raised Lyra's dagger.
"Get in line."
For a moment, the red rings spun violently.
Then the Pursuer lowered one hand.
A mark burned into the air in front of it.
A red symbol.
Ethan's system translated it without being asked.
[Administrator Mark Applied]
Effect: Pursuer May Track Target Across Regions]
Duration: Permanent Until Removed]
Ethan's smile faded.
The Pursuer sank backward into red light.
Its body folded into itself.
The rings collapsed.
The pressure vanished.
Then it was gone.
The forest went silent.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Ethan lowered the dagger.
His hands were shaking again.
Not from fear this time.
From everything.
The fragments.
The blood loss.
The fact that he was still alive.
Kael stepped toward him slowly.
"You saved us."
Ethan laughed once.
"Don't sound so disappointed."
Kael did not laugh.
Riven walked closer, bow lowered but not put away.
Her eyes moved over Ethan's glowing veins, the blood on his clothes, the weapons in his hands.
"Eight fragments," she said.
Ethan looked at her.
"You counted?"
"I count threats."
"Nice."
Sena stood behind her shield, watching him carefully.
Brant looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.
Kael's face was unreadable.
Then he asked the question Ethan had been avoiding since the first fragment entered his chest.
"How many more can you absorb before you stop being yourself?"
Ethan looked down at his hands.
The gold glow faded slowly under his skin.
The second heartbeat quieted.
But it didn't disappear.
He thought about the whisper.
The hunger.
The way the world had looked breakable.
The way part of him had wanted more.
"I don't know," Ethan said.
The answer scared him more than any monster had.
Riven glanced toward the dark forest ahead.
"We can't stay here."
Kael nodded.
"The Administrator marked him. If it can track across regions, every road near here becomes dangerous."
Ethan looked at the group.
"You don't have to come with me."
Brant immediately opened his mouth.
Kael raised a hand and stopped him.
Ethan continued.
"I'm serious. That thing wants me. You saw what happens when people stand near me."
Riven's eyes narrowed.
"We also saw what happens when we don't."
Ethan didn't have a response.
Kael sheathed his curved blade.
"We were heading to Veyrhold before this."
"Veyrhold?"
"A border city," Riven said. "Big walls. System guilds. Appraisers. Black market healers. People who know forbidden things."
Ethan looked at her.
"Forbidden things like Devourers?"
Kael's expression hardened at the word, but he nodded.
"Yes."
Ethan looked back toward the village, hidden far behind the forest now.
Lyra was still there.
So was Merek.
So were the people who had let him leave instead of handing him over.
And now he had a permanent mark from an Administrator.
He needed answers.
He needed control.
He needed to know what Attribution was doing to him before the hunger became louder than his own thoughts.
Ethan gripped the dagger.
"Then we go to Veyrhold."
Brant finally spoke.
"Are we seriously traveling with the glowing death magnet?"
Riven looked at him.
"He is faster than you, stronger than you, and an Administrator wants him alive. So yes."
Brant stared.
"That did not make me feel better."
Ethan gave him a tired look.
"Same."
A cold wind moved through the white trees.
Far behind them, red light flickered once above the horizon.
Not close.
But not gone either.
Ethan started walking.
The others followed after a moment.
Not friends.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
But alive.
For now, that was enough.
Above Ethan's vision, one final message appeared.
[Main Quest Generated]
Objective: Reach Veyrhold
Secondary Objective: Discover Origin of Attribution
Hidden Objective: Survive Yourself
Ethan stared at the last line.
Survive yourself.
He swallowed.
Then he kept walking.