---
Laraine stared into the well's gaping mouth. The darkness inside didn't just look black—it looked hungry. Like if she leaned too close, it might bite.
'Vi, she sighed inwardly. "Remind me why I'm doing this again?'
The voice in her head purred like a satisfied cat. {User is farming for EXP to annihilate the entire Luxrian royal family. Very noble. Very unhinged. I approve.}
Laraine rubbed her temple. 'Right. EXP and vengeance. Got it. Totally normal goals for a dead girl walking.'
[Also, I suspect the thing down there might drop a rare item. Possibly haunted. Definitely cursed. Would look fabulous on you.]
''Of course it would,'' Laraine muttered aloud.
She glanced at Elise, who was circling the well like a wolf sniffing out a trap. Her boots crunched on broken gravel, eyes scanning the fog that curled around their ankles like cold fingers.
"Elise," Laraine said, hand already on her dagger. "If something crawls out of there, run."
Elise scoffed. "Run? That well hasn't produced water in thirty years. What's it gonna do, insult us with thirst?"
Then—
A sound.
From deep below, something scraped against stone. Slow. Deliberate. Like a nail dragging down a coffin lid.
Laraine didn't answer. She was too busy backing away as the shadows at the well's base began to twist, pooling like ink spilled on snow.
[WARNING: Presence Detected]
[Entity Classified: Spiritbound Husk]
[Level: 6]
[Threat: "Mildly Fatal" (Translation: You're boned.)]
'Vi,' Laraine hissed. 'This is where you say something encouraging.'
{Certainly. May the odds be ever in your slow, under-leveled favor.}
The well erupted.
A claw—skeletal, dripping wet, and wrapped in rotting cloth—shot upward, slamming into the stone rim with a crack that split the ground beneath them. A moan followed, hollow and wet, like a child drowning in its own lungs.
"Oh, hell no—"Elise turned to bolt.
The thing launched itself from the well.
It was a nightmare of stitched skin and drowned flesh, its limbs jerking like a puppet on rotten strings. Chains hung from its wrists, glowing with purple glyphs that made Laraine's eyes water. Where its face should have been, two pits of green fire burned.
Laraine threw herself sideways as the creature smashed into the ground where she'd stood.
"Elise, get back!"
"I'm already gone!" Elise's voice shrieked from behind an overturned wagon.
[New Skill Unlocked: Shadowstep Lv. 1]
[Ability: Temporarily phase between shadows]
[Cooldown: 30 seconds]
[Vi's Note: Try not to teleport into a wall.]
Laraine didn't have time to think. She *focused*—
—and the world tilted.
One second, she was standing. The next, her body dissolved into smoke, reforming behind the monster in a swirl of shadows. Her dagger flashed, biting into its back—
—and stuck fast.
The creature howled, spinning so fast its chains whipped the air like serpents.
'Vi?!'
[Spiritbound Husk: Resistance to physical attacks detected.]
[Suggestion: Stop stabbing the dead thing. Try fire. Or emotionally scarring insults.]
The Husk lunged. Laraine barely dodged, the chains grazing her arm—and suddenly her sleeve was frozen, the fabric brittle as winter leaves.
"Elise—FIRE?!"
"Working on it!" Elise was crouched behind a barrel, frantically stuffing a rag into a bottle of something that smelled strong enough to peel paint. "Tell me this place sells alcohol that can actually burn—"
The monster hissed, its head rotating too far on a broken neck.
Laraine's fingers closed around a broken torch. She flicked her wrist, channeling the pathetic dribble of mana she had—
—and the torch sputtered to life with a weak, blue flame.
Pathetic. Just like her.
But it was all she had.
"You want fire?" she growled. "Come and get it."
---
The torchlight flickered—weak, pitiful, just like her chances.
The Husk reared back, chains whirling. Laraine knew she wouldn't dodge this time. Her legs were lead. Her ribs screamed. Her dagger was useless.
And then—
[TUTORIAL OVERRIDE ENGAGED]
Vi's voice *changed*. No longer playful. Now it was the sound of a blade being drawn in the dark.
[Emergency protocol activated.]
[User has exhibited suicidal bravery and pitiful stats.]
[Initiating one-time awakening sequence…]
'Wait, what—?!'
[Awakening Trait: BLOODFLAME CORE]
[Lineage: ???]
[Status: LOCK REMOVED]
The world tilted.
Laraine screamed—not in fear, but from the burn. Something ancient and angry uncoiled in her veins, setting every nerve alight. Her hands shook—then erupted in crimson fire. Not normal flame. This was alive, edged with shadows, hungry.
The Husk screeched, recoiling.
The fire wanted.
Her.
Them.
Everything.
'Vi… what the hell is this?'
[Oops~ Looks like you weren't a complete failure after all.]
[Hidden affinity: Bloodflame—activated.]
[Highly volatile. Also, don't die.]
'NOT HELPING!'
The Husk lunged—
—and Laraine moved.
Faster. Cleaner.
She wasn't dodging anymore. She was dancing, flame trailing from her limbs as she wove around the creature. The fire sang in her blood like a second heartbeat.
One hit. Two.
Her burning hand slashed—flame clinging to the Husk's flesh like molten tar.
The air reeked of smoke and rot and something older than death.
"Elise—NOW!"
A glass bottle sailed through the air.
Laraine caught it, smashed the neck against the well—and *rammed* it into the Husk's skull as her bloodflame detonated.
A flash of red.
A scream that didn't sound human.
Then—
Silence.
Ash.
And Laraine, on her knees, gasping, her veins still humming with embers.
"Elise?" she croaked.
No answer.
Just—
Footsteps.
Slow. Measured.
From the shadows beyond the inn, a cloaked figure emerged, face hidden beneath a hood.
They stopped at the edge of the ruined square.
And spoke in a voice that turned Laraine's blood to ice:
"Well. That wasn't supposed to happen."
Her breath caught.
She knew that voice.
She'd heard it the night she died.
---