I’ve decided to ignore the side quest for now and look at the entrance to the 5th floor that’s appeared next to me. Through the portal, I see a grassy hill and a few trees to the side, not unlike the forest on the first floor.

“Feral One,” Myrra calls to me, “Who are you and the people in your group?”

“I can't tell you.”

The movement of her tail continues, but as of late, it's somewhat lifeless.

I observe her.

Myrra is taller than me by two heads, she has white hair and golden cat-like eyes. A deep scar runs horizontally across her face, and two cat-like ears perch on top of her head. She is slim but has the musculature of an athlete, and her tail is long and slightly fluffy.

That's Myrra, the fake Champion candidate as she called herself. According to Eris, she is capable of reaching the rank of Champion and is currently worth 6000 shards dead.

She will likely disappear after we step through the portal, so should I…

“That's fine then, if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to,” she says simply, and the piece of Aurora glass we used to observe the fight disappears.

The lynthari then turns around and slides down the dune to where we left our things.

Meanwhile, I open the Beyond Community.

Sset - We did it. No one is seriously hurt, but we will rest for a while and then split the things before we enter the portal, just in case we get split again.

Noname - Good job.

Grumpy - You should have seen it! It was super scary, but everyone did so well!

Lily joins the conversation as well. A few weeks have already passed, so I guess she has dealt with her grief, along with the others.

I pause for a moment and think about it. How sad it is that people can adapt so quickly to someone dying, no matter how much they held them dear. Just some time, and the memory will weaken, along with the pain.

But maybe it's better that way, a life where you grieve for years would be terrible, so having someone be a nice memory might be better in the end.

It also makes me wonder how people would react if I died. Would they be sad? If so, for how long? A day or two? A few weeks? Would I be forgotten after a few weeks with barely anyone to remember that I existed?

Well, I’d rather not get there.

Noname - I watched the fight, and you all did great. I have a few things that you guys could improve on and I will share them with you later so you can compare, but for now, good job.

Grumpy - You are nearby! Why don't you join us?

I hesitate, my eyes on the screen, but Tess joins in.

Sset - We talked about it. He will join us on the next floor.

She probably also says something to Lily out of the chat, but I can't be sure.

Grumpy - Don't forget, you still owe me! I will tell others what you said and see you on the next floor!

Lily then says something extremely scary. Something about taking the remains of the Champion´s heart and examining it and maybe using it as inspiration to reconstruct hers. She also says that the boys are already fighting over the pieces of Valorplate.

After that, Gareth joins as well and speaks with Tess for a bit, some congratulations and his constant behavior as a paragon of all good and just.

There's no way that guy isn't evil, I'm sure of it.

I finally close the Community and lay down on the dune, the warm sand feels nice under my back, even as it's getting into my clothes, and the sun’s rays on my skin improve my mood.

I’ve been putting off rejoining Group 4, maybe sometime during the 5th floor. Yes, there is a risk of us getting split again, so maybe it would be nice to greet them here on the 4th, but I just don't feel like it. I really don’t.

While resting a terrifying monster reaches towards my mind, and I let the communication occur.

(Food?) sounds in my head.

(Yes, you did a good job.)

(Food!)

(Yes, both of us have to become stronger.)

(Food Food?)

(I need some time. To think.)

(Friend.)

(Thank you.)

(Friend!)

(Friend, yes.)

(Friend friend!)

(Yes, you are my friend. Talk to Tess, I gave her a few pieces of Archdeer jerky before I left.)

(FRIEND!)

Even though I told him about the amazing treat near him, Biscuit doesn't cut the connection and continues speaking with me.

I feel myself calm down and a weird sense of relief when I talk with him. I think Isabella said it once; it's as if there is no evil in Biscuit. I can let my defenses down.

After a bit more time, it's me who cuts off the connection so he can go and get the treats he deserves, and I slide down the dune towards Myrra.

 

---

 

After another two days, Group 4 leaves through the portal. Everything is distributed, and everyone is holding their items. Their bodies are healed, and mana topped up.

I get a few messages from Lily and Tess who also send greetings from others, and after they enter the 5th floor, the connection cuts off.

That's when I look down and see Myrra sunbathing there, a slight smile on her lips.

She is clearly weaker than any other Calamity, so why did the system offer me so many shards to kill her? Is it the work of the tutorial's system, or is someone influencing it to anger the Ruler of Greed and possibly me as well? Could it be the intent I met in Beyond, still angry at my refusal?

Pushing the thoughts away I lay my hand against the highest quality mana stone I have and continue working on the inscriptions.

 

---

 

A day passes, and feeling ready, I stand up and bury the mana stone I was working on in the sand. Then I look at Myrra for one last time and grab the bags I’ve packed, heading up the dune towards the entrance.

The system and its 6000 shards can fuck off and choke on them.

“Feral One,” she calls after me, “no goodbyes?”

Hearing her tone, I stop and put the bags near the entrance. I turn and look back at her.

“How much do you know?” I ask.

“Not much, it's hard to think about these things, and I get the feeling that something is messing with me,” right now she is just a shadow of her usual cheery self.

Myrra looks like someone sitting and waiting to die, facing something she can't do anything about no matter how much she tries.

“Why didn't you want to return to Virelia?”

“Because it doesn't matter, Feral One. All of this is…” She gestures all around but avoids saying more. Her face is hard for me to look at. Her expression pleading.

I take a step away from her and towards the portal.

“I've learned most of this from observing you and your behaviors, and right now, I have a feeling that I will die the moment you take those few steps. Something terrible will happen when you leave. So, Feral One, won't you stay a bit longer? A few weeks. No, a few days, even a few hours.” The expression she makes hurts me.

A majestic Lyntari I have always admired, reduced to this. Because of the system, because no way out has been offered to her.

“Myrra,” I start slowly, “do you remember speaking with me about the human from Serpent’s Eye? The one you watched from a distance.”

She nods, “Yes, I do.”

“Back then, you told me he always acted high and mighty, with an arrogance that you liked and admired, yet in the end, the time came where he begged, where he cried and did everything he could to stay alive.”

A short nod. I'm sure she knows where I'm going with this.

“So, Myrra, allow me to ask. Are you the same as that human? Will you cry and beg?”

At first, her eyes water, the sun reflecting in them, both focused on me. Then she shakes her head, and a laugh escapes her lips and she looks down at her hands.

One quiet minute passes, interrupted only by the wind blowing over the dunes we stand on, sending the sand flying.

After that, slowly her expression changes. Her posture straightens up, and she clenches her teeth. The tail that was, up til now hanging sadly moves and twitches. Myrra looks even taller now, and her determined expression makes her look the most beautiful I've ever seen her.

Instead of stepping through the portal, I step away from it, and our mana engages.

“Then, as one last farewell, allow me to show you why they call me a Champion candidate,” even her voice is stronger as she reaches towards the sky, Aurora glass surrounding her.

 

---

 

POV Myrra

Feral one... no, Nathaniel wears an expression I am seeing for the first time, but I decide not to point it out. He can count it as part of my thanks.

I'm still scared, and worried, but all of that is pushed away as mana starts radiating from the man in front of me.

His mana flows in patterns that I’ve never seen before, powering all the skills he possesses. Even though there are places where he is lacking, I can see the sheer amount of work he puts in. The amount of careful thinking he spends on his skills, and every bit used to push where his talent shouldn't be able to go.

Nathaniel is like a rough gem waiting to be cut and polished so it can shine brighter than anyone else. And that applies to his personality as well. Like many humans I’ve met, he bears some past trauma that holds him back, and when he finally gets over it, he will be even more beautiful.

Our skills clash. Our bodies move, trying to gain an advantage over each other. Neither of us is holding back; the fight we lead is a conversation between the two of us and the last goodbye.

I attack, and he dodges. Countering my skills he continues to observe the entire time. He pushes, and I take on his attacks, redirecting them and avoiding them as much as possible.

Ever since I met him outside of Virellia, I kept observing him through my Aurora glass. His entertaining manners, his prideful bearing, and the love for his group he still doesn't want to accept.

Oh, how much fun I had watching this silly feral human.

A deep wound spreads across my arm because of my impatience and golden flames explode around him, melting the sand and reaching towards the sky, fed by his heartbeat. My Aurora glass moves in front of me to block the attack.

Nathaniel's expression is happy and sad at once. That much I can tell. Happy because he was able to help me and sad because… I shake my head to stop thinking further. Something will not allow me to do so, so there is no sense in it.

I combine my skills, surround my body with Aurora glass, and step out from the tiniest piece I left on his clothes so long ago.

A slight movement of his eyebrow is all that slips, but anyone else would look at it with an expression of pure shock.

Leaving a deep wound on his side, I step back. My body is heating up even more, my teeth are showing, and I feel my tail swirl behind me.

He lets out a happy laugh and I attack again.

We fight, we bleed. The most beautiful fight I’ve ever had, both of us know each other's skills and both of us are strong enough to make each other go all out with full force and then push even further.

But it has to come to an end, and it does. My concentration slips up, and he grabs hold of his mana, stopping his attack mid-air from killing me.

I have lost, but it's a loss I'm proud of because it was against him.

“Thank you,” I say.

“Farewell, Myrra,” the expression he makes is also a new one to me.

How do I look in his eyes right now, I wonder. A small step in his grand adventure or someone he remembers once in a while? Will he think of me fondly, or will I forever be a silly lynthari he met by coincidence?

I watch as he takes his bags, and then, after giving me one last look, he takes a few steps and then he is gone. The moment he disappears, everything freezes. The sand stops moving, the wind stops blowing, and the air itself feels as if stuck in time.

The world has ended.

 

---

 

A day passes. I lay in the sand, and eat the food he got from somewhere. I think, meditate, and practice.

I'm not used to being alone.

 

---

 

A week has passed, and far in the distance, I notice dark clouds coming from all sides and heading towards me.

Extreme earthquakes hit the desert once in a while.

There is still no wind, and not a single grain of sand has moved.

I'm still staying at the same place, and I don't know why.

 

---

 

Two weeks have passed, and during one of my meditations, I detect something.

When I burrow my hands into the sand, it's the highest-grade mana stone I ever saw, with an extremely delicate set of inscriptions. There is an immense amount of his mana left in the stone.

The cloudy wall from all sides comes closer.

 

---

 

Three weeks have passed. The sun doesn't feel warm anymore, and the cloud wall is nearby. The earthquakes come more often, and only a little bit of his mana remains in the mana stone I’m holding.

 

---

 

Four weeks have passed.

In the air, at exactly the same place where he disappeared, a tear appears. It's jagged and uneven, and through it, a black dagger pokes, making it bigger.

Then through the hole, a beautiful woman steps out. She has silver hair and is wearing a comfortable set of clothes you could wear out on the town or into a fight. The woman is young, but the moment our eyes meet, I shudder.

I feel no mana from her, no sign of skills, nor is there any information in her stance. But her eyes betray it all; they scare me like nothing ever before in my life.

She then throws the black dagger into the ground and talks toward it, “You've had enough, stop fighting back.”

My world changes again. The cloud wall that was so close disappears, and the sun feels warmer. The wind starts blowing again, and grains of sand move once more. It's as if the woman in front of me brought life back to the world.

She sees that I'm staring at the dagger and turns to me, “It's a bit annoying, just like its creator,” an almost imperceptible smile is on her lips.

The silver-haired woman examines me for a bit longer and then nods, “Little kitten, you are fake as well, aren't you?”

I don't understand her words fully, but hearing her call me 'little kitten' angers me. They are words no one would dare to say to a lynthari, but I do not dare to correct her.

“Yes, I think,” I reply.

She stops in front of me, even shorter than Nathaniel, yet she doesn't seem to be impressed by me at all and walks around, poking me at places, “Lynthari, aren't you? I met some of your race. Your Champions were always cheeky, cute things.”

“What is happening? What does all of this mean?” I try to ask in hopes she will be able to answer.

“You will forget it anyway, so there is no need to tell you, but I need someone to test a few things on, and you will do. As for a bit of explanation,” she takes the mana stone from my hands. “You can thank this thing for being alive. Without it…” The rest of the words she says disappear in the wind.

I look at the stone, “What is it?”

The woman observes the stone for a bit longer and then crushes it in her hand. “He’s improved a bit,” she mutters quietly and then looks up at me. “It's a terribly inadequate attempt at a personality imprint.” Pieces of the broken mana stone fall from her hand down on the sand. “To explain simply, he tried to make this stone feel like him, to trick the…” another word I can't hear, “into thinking he is still on the …” and another.

Her hand moves to her lips, and she blows off the rest of the stone. “Without it, this…” again, the words I can't hear, “would end, and you would be long dead.”

“Why would he do that? How would that thing… help me?”

“That's something you should ask yourself, little kitten. Was it a desperate attempt, akin to throwing a letter in a bottle into the sea? Maybe he wanted to prolong your life? Maybe he knew I would be coming and hoped for us to meet? Who knows.”

She starts looking around looking extremely relaxed. The confidence that radiates from her is unlike anything I have seen in my life. It's to the point where even I feel she is capable of doing whatever she wishes to.

“Will you allow me to join you? I can even become your disciple.” Unable to endure it all, I push against her, even if there is the option of her retaliating.

Instead, she stares at me, “You remind me of someone.”

She then puts down a bag, and from it, an arm pokes out. The arm of a woman, pale and smooth with elegant fingers.

The woman sees where I'm looking, “An arm of someone bearing the same title I did. It will be useful,” she says simply.

Then she turns to me, “My name is Lissandra, the first and last Absolute of Eladore, the planet that went through more Pairings than I bother counting. The weight of my title is not something I take lightly, and neither do I take having a disciple. In my long life, I have had only two. A young woman sent to spy on me, whom I considered talented enough to declare an Absolute candidate, a greedy little thing. The second one, for but a short time, was a young man, too prideful to accept his limits and not realizing that the rank of Champion is as far as he can go.”

Each of her words sounds like a declaration that has entire worlds as its witness.

“You, meanwhile, are a fake, the same as me,” even though she says that it doesn't seem to bother her, “But who said a fake can't beat the original?” The smile that spreads across her face is scary.

What she shows is a type of confidence that would make a weaker person kneel and worship her.

“We have a lot to do, little kitten,” she says. “I'm not unreasonable. If you listen to me, I can promise you one thing,” as she talks, I watch her, hanging onto her words.

Nothing else in the world matters other than the words she is about to say.

“You will find out the truth about this all. About the little pup, about the words you can't hear, about your world and this place. That much should be enough, right?”

I can only nod.

"Good, now, do you know about any healers? Even a bad one will do, I just need them to have a healing skill."

My tail moves on its own, "I know about one that is hiding."