ERROR: Initialization requires consent from target.

A crossbow bolt picked that exact second to whiz just inches past my face.

“Shit shit shit!”

“W-w-what is this?” Aerion, wide-eyed. She looked shell-shocked, but I knew better. She was looking at the blue screen that had materialized in front of his—her—eyes.

Predictably, a storm of arrows and exploding bombs peppered the Siege Launcher just before I could explain. My shield, which had been jammed into the gun’s base, took the brunt of any shots that missed. Its condition dropped to 12.

“That’s called a status screen,” I explained rapidly. “It's part of the power I'm trying to give you.”

“It’s asking me if I wish to become your Initialized weapon. What does that mean?”

Despite every shred of my survival instincts screaming at me to order Aerion to do this, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I forced my panic down and looked Aerion in the eyes.

“Look, I know this sounds scary. But you entered this Trial World seeking power,” I said. “This is the power you wanted all along. Power that might get us out of here. We can undo this later if we need to, I promise, but don’t let Emma’s sacrifice be in vain.”

Another arrow poked through the harpoon gun’s wreckage, and Aerion shrieked out a panicked ‘Yes!’

Her eyes went wide. “Greg, I feel strange... Why is my skin glowing?”

Her skin was certainly glowing, but the effect faded just as soon as it had begun. From my perspective, nothing else happened. She looked the same as before.

“Did it work?” I asked, thumbing my status. I didn’t see anything about Aerion, but I did see her show up on my HUD.

“Do you have any powers?” I asked, tension rising. The goblins seemed to have figured out that the gun was dead for real and had started to cautiously close in. They, and their much bigger cousins. “Hurry!”

“I-I don’t know! I see strange words like Essence… And I seem to have received some boons, though I never earned them. And there’s a section called ‘Stats’ and it has the name of every god. What is this, Greg?”

Sweet mother of Cosmo...

I’d miscalculated. I’d miscalculated badly. I should have sensed something was off when I saw that Essence Cost. I thought she’d get a leveling ability, like my gear. A single power. I’d given her a whole damned leveling system instead.

“What about abilities? Please tell me you have something!” I said, panicking.

“Yes! Reave! It’s, it, uh…”

“What does it do?” I asked, rushing my words as I took a swing at the closest goblin.

“It… says it gives me plus 60 Dominion. What does that mean?”

Sixty points!? That was ludicrous—utterly broken. That was almost as many as all of my stats combined. In a single stat! With such monstrous strength, it had to be a time-limited ability, and with a name like [Reave], I could guess at its effects. But it was our best chance out of here and that was all that mattered.

“Aerion. Reave. Now.”

Aerion’s eyes widened in panic. “How do I—”

“Just think about activating it!”

“I can’t! I don’t even know what it does!”

“Hey, look at me.”

I put my hands on her shoulders and squeezed.

“I know this is scary as shit. I know this is all new for you. But believe me, you got this. Trust me. Trust yourself.”

Aerion seemed to calm down a bit.

“Now, are you gonna wallow there, or are you gonna get out there and save us?”

Aerion snapped out of her delirium. The crossbow bolt that smashed into the balcony railing right between us certainly didn’t hurt to provide some motivation.

Aerion opened her mouth as if to say something, then nodded.

Then all the life went out of her face, and a shiver rippled down my spine.

Gone was her timid, hesitant expression. It’d been replaced by something else. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“Uh, Aerion? Are you—!?”

Before I could react, Aerion reached over and drew my sword from its sheath. By the time I noticed, she’d bounded out from behind the Siege Launcher and engaged the enemy.

What happened next took me several moments to comprehend.

I’d swung that sword. While it wasn’t exactly heavy, it wasn’t the lightest thing, either. I’d swung that sword at goblins—I’d seen what it could do. Mostly, it just bounced off, leaving my hand vibrating.

Metal wasn’t made to cut through stone.

Except, in Aerion’s hands, it could.

Obsidian shattered before her might in a cascade—like a chain reaction. It wasn’t that Aerion moved especially fast. Just that where she struck, only mangled shards remained.

Minimized System messages flew across my screen, but I ignored them.

Aerion didn’t even pause from one enemy to the next. She didn’t roar, she didn’t scream. As silently as a wraith, she reaved.

The goblins who had only moments prior been cheering and chanting for her death now stood stock still, frozen in fright and disbelief.

Not even the Hobgoblins were exempt from Aerion’s onslaught. I’d never seen anyone slice the legs off a bipedal being before. Now I knew… It really was like the movies. The Hobgoblin stood motionless for a moment, before its upper half slid off its base, shattering like a mirror as it hit the floor.

That seemed to have done the trick. They hightailed it faster than a child being chased by a goose.

“Holy shit, Aerion!” I cheered. “That was the most badass thing I’ve ever… Aerion? Wait!”

Aerion raced after the goblins, slicing at the laggards.

“Stop!” I shouted, running after her.

The goblins were running, but they’d eventually stop. And then Aerion would have to fight them all. Her element of surprise would be gone.

I started heaving moments later, and the gap between us increased. Just when I feared I’d lose sight of the small elf… she stopped.

No, she collapsed.

When I caught up to her, I found her covered in sweat, breathing raggedly, next to an iron sword so mangled, I doubted even a master blacksmith could bend it back to shape.

“Jesus, Aerion. The hell was that? Are you okay?”

She didn’t reply. She’d fallen unconscious.

Aw, shit.

I could still hear the damned goblins screaming down the hall, and I wasn’t sure if they were fleeing or if they’d decided to come back.

I didn’t wait to find out. Jamming my bent sword into its ill-fitting sheath, I scooped Aerion over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry and returned to the destroyed cannon as fast as I could manage.

I arrived back at Emma, but when my eyes fell on her limp form at the center of a pool of blood, I knew.

Her chest neither rose nor fell and with trembling hands, I reached down and placed my free hand on her rapidly cooling fur.

I felt no heartbeat.

We hadn't been fast enough. She was gone. It hit me like a hammer to the gut, and I just knelt there for a moment in a daze. Unbelieving.

I couldn't imagine how Aerion would take this when she woke up.

Sounds from afar jolted me back to the present. We weren't out of the woods yet. The smart thing to do was to leave her here. We ought to favor our survival over her. Except, well, it was obvious what would happen to her body if we did. Those goblins would return, and then…

It was far too cruel a fate for someone who’d sacrificed their life for another. Emma was a hero. And heroes deserved better.

Hesitating for the briefest moment, I carefully knelt and slung the dog’s rapidly cooling body over my other shoulder, thankful that Emma was much lighter than her size suggested.

By the time I grabbed my mangled [Wooden Board Shield], I was beyond overloaded, even with Aerion and Emma being as light as they were. Each step took serious effort. With one deliberate foot in front of the other, I walked—very slowly—in the opposite direction the goblins had run.

---

When we finally made it to the safe room after what felt like hours—but couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes—I dropped my shield at the entrance and walked to the fountain and gently lowered Emma’s body into it, feeling the restorative liquid go to work on my tired arms.

There was no cloud of red as there’d normally have been when a wound was submerged. There was little of anything, at all, in fact.

The wounds did not heal, and Emma did not come back to life. The poor Aralez’s eyes remained firmly shut.

Heaving, I set Aerion down next to her. It didn’t look like Aerion had been hurt, but the fountain would heal her exhaustion all the same.

She came to moments later, gasping for air, looking confused.

Confusion turned to grief the moment she spotted Emma lying beside her.

After that, the only sounds in the room were that of the fountain and Aerion’s sobs.

Sometime later, I slowly retrieved Emma’s body and set her gently on a tuft of moss that surrounded a tree in one corner. Aerion knelt beside her friend and stroked her fur, weeping.

Deciding the elf could use her privacy, I moved away, taking a look at our new sanctuary. It was much the same as the ones on the previous wall, except instead of a rocky far wall, it had transparent glass, allowing us to look out at the black abyss beyond. Some spotlights illuminated the ground outside, dying off a few dozen feet into the murky darkness.

If this thing breaks…

It was downright terrifying, knowing we were at the bottom of the sea. I didn’t know how scuba divers did it. Voluntarily subjecting yourself to this torture felt like some form of twisted masochism.

Turning away from the eerie window, I submerged my arms in the fountain once again. Not because I needed any healing, but because it felt good. There’d been precious little of that in my life lately.

In a daze, I picked off a few handfuls of berries, helped myself to the big bag of nuts in the corner, and sat down with a loaf of bread that had been placed along with a half dozen others on a small wooden shelf embedded into the rock wall. These delicacies were absent on the prior floor, making me wonder if they’d get even better when we went up to seven.

I just wished my taste buds hadn’t gone numb all of a sudden. Sighing, I looked at Aerion, who was now huddled in the corner, chin tucked in her knees.

Her, huh? I’d suspected as much, but I’d convinced myself I was wrong. Maybe elven guys were just a bit effeminate, I didn’t know. Looking back, it wasn’t so much her physical features as the way she carried herself that tipped me off. The way she walked, the way she ran. It was probably why I’d thought she was a girl to begin with, back in the obsidian troll’s lair.

Aerion was my dungeon buddy. We watched each other’s backs. We relied on each other. And that was what mattered. Aerion being a ‘her’ didn’t change that, and I wouldn’t bring it up until she did. She must have had a good reason for dressing like a boy, and we’d have plenty of time for that discussion once we were back in civilization.

What mattered a great deal more to me, though, was the absurd Essence Utilization she took up. It wasn’t just a fixed number, either. The cost had been 30 before I leveled up. Now, it was 33. Which meant she took up a fixed percentage—about 33% of my total pool.

Granted, Initializing Aerion had been one of the only ways out of that predicament—at least, one of the only ways that kept both of us alive—so it wasn’t like I regretted it. Quite the opposite. If Aerion had stats, Essence, and could level? That meant she might have a Blessing as well, and that was broken. That would give us a chance.

It’d take time to pay dividends, but I’d essentially just doubled my strength. Possibly more. If she chose wisely, our Blessings could synergize, with her filling in for my weaknesses and vice versa.

More than the sum of its parts.

And with my knowledge of game tactics and efficient party composition… We’ll be unstoppable.

I realized I’d been licking my lips. I hurriedly stopped, glancing in panic at Aerion, exhaling in relief when I saw that she’d nodded off.

Poor girl, losing her friend like that.

Emma had been more than just a pet to her—that much was clear. I wasn’t quite sure what relationship they’d had, but I hoped she’d tell me soon. The Aralez had jumped to her master’s side without even a moment’s thought for her own safety.

If that wasn’t the mark of a hero, I didn’t rightly know what was.

Despite wanting nothing more than to lie down and sleep, I stood.

Duty called. There was a grave to dig.

---

Turned out the only soil in the area was by the tree in the Sanctuary, so that was where I started digging, using my wooden board shield as a trowel. The crossbow bolts and arrowheads that had been embedded into it dissolved the moment we’d entered the Sanctuary.

At least it survived, I thought, thinking back to my cuirass. First the club, then my armor… I really had to be better about conserving my gear until I found more durable stuff.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. While its condition was at 15/100, its [Minor Blunt Force Resist] had leveled all the way to F - 8, making it the highest in my rather small arsenal, followed by my arming sword’s [Lightbringer] at F - 7. Aerion’s dagger had also gone up to F - 2 during her fight.

I had to admit, it was pretty neat that my gear leveled even when used by someone else. Initializing Aerion was beginning to feel like the right call, though it was somewhat bizarre that the System classified her as my weapon. That felt all sorts of wrong, but ultimately, this was just a categorization system created by Cosmo. It was probably his idea of a joke. A lame joke in bad taste.

Digging Emma’s grave was slow, meditative work, which helped take my mind off the stress of my situation. I found myself zoning out, and an hour later, I had a hole deep enough to fit the poor winged dog. Far too shallow for a proper grave, but it’d have to suffice, given my limited time and practice.

I’d just finished when Aerion came too, rubbing her head groggily.

When she found me, she gave me a gentle smile, which I was definitely not expecting. That smile was almost immediately wiped away when her eyes found Emma, lying dead beside her. I could almost see the weight of her stress come crashing down on her shoulders as her face warped into one of grief and regret.

“I… dug a grave,” I said awkwardly. “Felt like she deserved it.”

Aerion stifled a sniffle and gave me a small nod. “She’ll need a gravestone,” she said after looking at my handiwork. “I’ll… make one.”

“Yeah,” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

It only took Aerion a few minutes to dismantle the food shelf and engrave the words,

‘Emma. Dearly departed,’ on her tombstone.

I took the wooden board and inserted it into the hole, before both Aerion and I gently lowered Emma’s body into it.

When the dirt had been shoveled and the grave closed, we just sat there for a while with our backs against each other. Aerion sobbed quietly while I gazed off into the distance in respectful silence.

Eventually, after enough time had passed, I cleared my throat.

“I only knew Emma for a short while,” I said, desperately mustering the courage to say something. “When I opened her cage, to be honest, I wondered if she’d even survive another day, malnourished as she was. I fully expected to have to carry her out.”

Aerion sniffled. She wiped away the tears welling up in her eyes.

“I couldn’t have been more wrong,” I continued. “The moment she sensed you were in danger, what did she do? She bounded out of that cage, and then bounded up the walls! I couldn’t believe it. In that state… You should’ve seen her, Aerion.”

Aerion’s sniffles were interrupted by a small laugh. I went on.

“I didn’t see what happened up there, but I can imagine. Y’know, people rarely ever call dogs heroes. But… I think that’s how I’ll remember her. The hero who saved your life.”

It wasn’t much of a way to end, but it felt fitting. Now it was Aerion’s turn.

“Emma was… My family, we… Used to be big. Important. Long ago, before my time. It was the Cataclysm. The last cycle was hard for us. Wiped us out. We barely survived. Emma’s grandma kept my ancestors safe. Always been that way. Same with Emma’s mum. Protected mine so many times, just like Emma. And now… she’s gone. She’s gone, Greg. The last of her line. And she died. Protecting me. Just like always.”

Whatever composure Aerion had mustered broke down, and she started wailing, clutching her body with both hands.

There was little I could say or do, so I just rested a hand on her shoulder. Just to let her know I was there. That she wasn’t alone. That Emma’s sacrifice would be remembered. Not just by Aerion. But by the both of us.

It wasn’t much. I hoped it was enough.