---
The bronze text shimmered, then faded. Only the howl of the wind through skeletal ruins and the distant, fading sounds of Vorlag's impotent fury remained. Kael had escaped. But he was deeper in the dark, his mind fraying, and the only path forward lay through the corpse of a dead city, haunted by the ghost in his skull. The cost of the next level? **200 XP.** The War God's path was paved in ever-increasing blood and madness.
Kael crawled from the Styx Canal's foaming filth, the System's Level 3 stat boost the only warmth in the desolate chill. Old Aethelburg's ruins loomed – skeletal towers clawing at a bruised sky, streets choked with rubble and twisted metal. The air tasted of rust and decay. Vorlag's shouts were distant ghosts across the toxic water. He was alone. And breaking.
> **SYSTEM:** *"BIOSCAN: TOXIC EXPOSURE (MINOR). SANITY: 54/100 - CRITICAL THRESHOLD. PSYCHOTIC EPISODE PROBABILITY: 78% NEXT 12 HOURS."*
> *"OBJECTIVE: FIND SECURE SHELTER. PRIORITY: SANITY PRESERVATION."*
The whispers started before he'd taken ten steps. Not just memories now – *voices*. Limpy's gurgle, Blinker's neck-snap, twisted into Vorlag's sneer: *"Contagion... Weakling... Zero..."* Shadows writhed at the edge of his enhanced Perception (**PER: 2**). A crumbling gargoyle seemed to track him with stone eyes.
*"Focus!"* Kael snarled, clutching Elara's herb pouch. He shoved a pinch of bitter leaves into his mouth, chewing. A fragile calm, like thin ice over chaos, settled. The whispers receded to a hiss. Sanity: **54/100 (Anchored - Temporary)**.
The System overlaid a flickering grid on his vision, highlighting structural weaknesses and potential paths through the collapsed avenues. It tagged a half-buried structure ahead: **[STRUCTURE: PRE-COLLAPSE ARMORY. INTEGRITY: 18%. POTENTIAL SHELTER.]**
Kael picked his way through the debris field. Shattered war-machines, ossified bones still clad in corroded armor, spoke of a cataclysm that drowned gods and cities alike. His boot kicked something metallic – a pitted, bronze bracer etched with fading runes. The System pinged:
> **ITEM DETECTED: [WRATH-BAND FRAGMENT] (DAMAGED)**
> *"ANALYSIS: CONTAINS TRACE WAR GOD ENERGY SIGNATURE. POTENTIAL CATALYST FOR SYSTEM REPAIR OR SANITY DEGRADATION. RISK: HIGH. REWARD: UNKNOWN."*
Kael hesitated. The whispers surged, hungry. *Take it. Power. Vengeance.* He snatched it up. Cold fire shot up his arm. Sanity: **52/100**. The whispers sharpened into a chorus: *"MORE! GIVE US MORE!"* He shoved the fragment into his ragged pocket, the cold a constant, gnawing presence against his thigh.
Reaching the armory, Kael squeezed through a fissure in its buckling ferrocrete wall. Inside was a tomb of rusted racks and dust. Moonlight speared through a collapsed roof section, illuminating a surprisingly intact corner – a reinforced storage locker, its door warped but sealed.
> **SYSTEM:** *"LOCKER COMPOSITION: STARSTEEL ALLOY. INTEGRITY: 62%. CONTENTS: UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE (FAINT)."*
> **"METHOD: APPLY FORCE TO HINGE WEAK POINT (MARKED). STRENGTH CHECK: DIFFICULTY 12."**
Kael braced. Level 3 Strength (**STR 13**) surged through him. He slammed his shoulder into the marked spot. Once. Twice. Metal shrieked. The hinge tore free. The door crashed inward.
Inside wasn't weapons. Nestled in moldering insulation was a small, humming cube of obsidian stone – a **Portable Warding Generator**. And beside it, wrapped in oilcloth: five nutrient paste bricks and a canteen of stale, but clean, water.
> **SYSTEM:** *"WARDING GENERATOR: ACTIVATES LOW-LEVEL ANTI-SCrying/Psychic BARRIER (RADIUS 5M). POWER: 48 HOURS ESTIMATED. EFFECT: SIGNIFICANT SANITY STABILIZATION WITHIN FIELD."*
> *"DEPLOY? Y/N"*
*"Deploy!"* Kael rasped. The cube pulsed with soft violet light. An almost imperceptible hum filled the air. The crushing weight of the ruins, the insidious whispers... they dulled. The cold ache from the Wrath-Band fragment lessened slightly. He sagged against the locker, gulping water. Sanity: **52/100 (Stabilized - Ward Active)**.
He was safe. For now. But the System's next notification chilled him more than the ruins:
> **SYSTEM:** *"LONG-RANGE SCAN DETECTED. ORIGIN: EAST BANK OF STYX CANAL. SIGNATURE: TEMPLE LIGHTBRINGER (ELITE)."*
> *"ANALYSIS: SCAN FOCUSED ON USER'S LAST KNOWN POSITION. PROBABILITY OF CROSSING ATTEMPT: 91%. ESTIMATED TIME TO PURSUIT RENEWAL: 6-12 HOURS."*
> **"OBJECTIVE: UTILIZE GRACE PERIOD. RECOVER. PREPARE. LEVEL REQUIREMENT FOR SURVIVAL VS. ELITE LIGHTBRINGER: USER LEVEL 4 (200 XP)."**
Vorlag hadn't given up. He'd called in the big guns. Kael looked at the pathetic bounty from the locker – food, water, temporary sanity. Then he touched the cold Wrath-Band fragment in his pocket. Power demanded sacrifice. Sanity. Blood. He had 200 XP to earn before a holy executioner came knocking. The War God's path grew ever steeper, ever darker. He closed his eyes, the generator's hum his only shield against the storm inside and out.
--