Leo and Ai materialized inside the guild's main hall, their forms solidifying into a space heavy with unease. The dim, sputtering torches along the stone walls cast long, twitching shadows that made the room feel smaller, tighter.
The usual hum of conversation was a hollow murmur now, as if the very walls had learned to whisper fears instead of songs.
Leo's boots scuffed against the worn floorboards as he moved forward, every step a battle against the suffocating pressure in the air. Faces turned briefly toward him, then away just as fast, eyes sliding off him like water over stone. No jokes. No greetings. Just fear. Shame. Silence.
His gaze darted across the room, searching. Hoping for Amanda's familiar, crooked smile, for the teasing glint she always wore when she spotted him. But she wasn't there. Only the pale faces of the guild members remained, as if Amanda had never been part of this place at all.
His broken clothing didn't trigger anything.
Even his bloodied being.
The knot in his chest tightened.
Leo forced himself toward the quest counter, hands loose at his sides despite the stiffness crawling up his arms. Routine. Focus on routine. The line ahead moved at a glacial pace, but he barely noticed, his eyes scanning the hall again and again for a glimpse of her.
By the time he reached the front, his mind was already fraying at the edges. He handed over the quest documentation to the clerk. He didn't even catch their face, and a familiar chime echoed in his mind as the system materialized a translucent blue box before him.
[System Notification] Weekly Quest Completed!
[System Notification] Receive weekly quest rewards?
His hand moved on instinct, tapping "Yes" without thought. Notifications cascaded like rain down a windowpane.
[System Notification] 27,098.2 EXP received.
[System Notification] Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 13.
[System Notification] Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 14.
[System Notification] Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 15.
[System Notification] 5,000 gold coins received.
[System Notification] Achievement Unlocked: Shadow's Embrace.
[System Notification] 1 Mask of Eternal Dusk received.
The system's rewards shimmered briefly before slipping into his inventory. They felt distant, meaningless. Like someone handing him a medal in the middle of a funeral.
His feet moved before his brain caught up, carrying him forward into the room's tense silence.
That was when he saw Elois.
She approached him with a stiff, uneven walk, like a puppet whose strings were tangled. Her face was pale, eyes bloodshot and hollow. She opened her mouth once, twice, before sound finally escaped, a raw, broken whisper that barely made it to him.
"Leo…"
The sound of his name. So weak, so full of sorrow, cut deeper than any blade.
"Something happened…" Her voice cracked and splintered under the weight of the words.
Leo felt the world tilt under him, the cold seeping into his bones even before she spoke the next word.
"Amanda… she's gone."
Gone.
The word slammed into him, hollow and absolute. His stomach twisted, bile rising to the back of his throat.
"What do you mean, gone?" His voice came out ragged, low, every syllable soaked in barely restrained panic.
Elois shook her head helplessly, tears slipping free and tracing broken lines down her cheeks. "The elves… they took her. It happened so fast, Leo. We couldn't stop it,"
She swallowed hard, a sound that hurt to hear.
"An elf," she whispered. "They, they teleported her away. She wanted me to tell you something, but… she was gone before she could."
Her words came faster now, spilling out in a desperate flood. "I'm sorry, Leo. I tried… I tried, but if I were just stronger!" She broke down then, the rest of her sentence lost in a storm of quiet sobs.
The world around him blurred, sound fading to a low, meaningless hum. Talia's face appeared somewhere nearby, speaking, but the words didn't land. They felt like ripples on the surface of deep water, unable to reach him where he was sinking.
The phrase if I were just stronger lodged itself deep into his mind, twisting like a splinter under the skin.
And then, like a dam breaking, old memories tore free.
He was a boy again, fists clenching the sides of two polished coffins. The sterile smell of lilies and formaldehyde choked the air. His parents, still and pale, lying side-by-side.
He promised. I'll protect her.
The scene shifted. Another memory, crueler: a girl's lifeless body sprawled across the pavement, blood soaking her dress. His hands trembling, useless.
He had failed his sister, too.
The ache in his chest bloomed into something raw, something vicious.
In that space between breaths, a voice slithered into his mind. It was soft, almost tender.
I can make you stronger.
Leo stiffened, instinctively recognizing the dark pull woven through those words. The voice wasn't new. It had always been there, lurking, patient.
Use me.
The offer coiled around his thoughts, rich with promises. Power. Enough to stop this from ever happening again. Enough to ensure he'd never watch someone he cared about vanish from his reach.
Part of him recoiled, clinging to the last tattered edges of who he was. But another part, a part battered by failure, grief, rage, leaned forward, listening.
You have no choice, the voice whispered, smooth as silk. They will keep taking. And you will keep losing.
Images battered him. Roxanne's hand slipped from his grasp. Silva's devastating punch. Amanda's fading silhouette vanishes in a flash of light.
Use me, the voice repeated, almost a caress now.
The temptation was suffocating. All he had to do was let go. Surrender. Accept.
Leo's fists clenched hard enough that his nails cut into his palms. He could almost taste it. The power. It tasted like blood and ash and victory.
But somewhere, deep beneath the rising tide of despair, a spark fought to stay alive. A tiny, stubborn ember that remembered.
The cost.
The line he swore never to cross.
His heart thundered in his ears, a relentless drumbeat against the silence closing in around him. He stood at the precipice, the choice laid bare.
One step forward, and everything would change.
Maybe forever.