Levi treaded water, forcing his breathing to slow. The first rush of panic dulled, giving way to sharp thought.
This wasn't normal water. Every stroke dragged him back into the same place. The leech had shown him— there was no straight path across.
"A puzzle, huh?". His voice sounded small in the vast silence. "Just what I needed…"
He sent the leech to the right. It surged forward, then blinked out of sight. Levi spun, scanning— until he spotted it, not beside him this time, but drifting a few paces behind.
His eyes narrowed. "So that's how it is."
The basin wasn't just water, not at all. It was a maze. Directions bent in on themselves like mirrors folding over.
He tested again— left, then down. Each time the leech vanished, only to reappear in warped places, at angles that didn't make sense. A map formed in his head, piece by crooked piece.
"Not endless". He muttered. "Just twisted."
He recalled the leech, summoned it back, then tried again— forward, right, forward. Nothing. Again— still nothing. Frustration burned, but he pressed on.
At last, the water rippled. The leech vanished, flickered, then appeared far ahead— closer to the hidden bank.
Levi's lips curved in a thin, humorless grin. "There it is."
The path wasn't straight. But there was a path.
He drew a deep breath, pushed the cold away with his origin energy, and struck out. Stroke by stroke, he followed the leech's example, threading through the warped geometry of the basin.
The only movement were the leech's as it exploded the path ahead with Levi trailing behind it.
Silence pressed at his ears, every ripple swallowed too quickly, until finally— the leech shivered into view only a few lengths from solid ground.
They had made it to the bank.
Levi hauled himself onto the bank, collapsed on the cold stone, and let out a ragged breath. Already the biting chill in his body was fading, slipping away like a bad dream.
His gaze lingered on the still, greenish water. Now that he'd seen its trick, the answer seemed almost obvious. The basin's warped flow wasn't natural— it was caused by spatial interference.
The house he had crawled from wasn't meant for this world. When the golden crow tore through it, the structure had slipped between realms, leaving fractures in its wake. Those cracks spilled into the basin, twisting its waters into a maze.
Another possibility crossed his mind—that the basin was a trap laid by some lurking, malevolent creature. But he dismissed it. He was still alive, wasn't he?
If ordinary water could twist space like that, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.
Levi gave a dry chuckle and closed his eyes. His channels were still raw from being opened, and he had pushed them far too hard. No wonder exhaustion was pulling him under.
Then a chime rang in his ears.
[Congratulations, Host. You escaped from untimely death].
Levi's eyes cracked open, his face caught somewhere between disbelief and a scowl. For a long second he just lay there, staring up at the pale sky.
Then, slowly, his lips twisted.
"…You've got to be kidding me." His voice was hoarse, almost a groan. "The system's so useless, I actually forgot I even had one."
A laugh broke out of him, rough at first, then rolling into something genuine. It hurt his ribs, made his tired muscles ache, but he couldn't stop.
[~Sigh, I should have remained quiet]. Hearing the system words made Levi laughter turn more monsterous, if someone were to look at him right now, he would look like he was having a epilepsy seizure.
****
The laughter finally ebbed, leaving Levi breathless on the cold stone. He wiped his eyes, shook his head, and let silence settle around him once more.
Time to think.
He pushed himself upright, legs trembling but steady enough, and let his gaze sweep the strange horizon. The air, the land, even the weight of the silence—everything screamed southern domain. That much he knew for certain.
His mind drifted back, unbidden, to Cecilia.
Back when he first marked her as one of his potential pieces in his chessboard, he had hoped she would keep her memories. If she did, then when he gave her an order, she'd have those memories to guide her—especially for the day she might face her mother back in the clan.
But Levi wasn't the type to rely on hope alone. He had prepared for the other outcome.
If Cecilia lost her memories… if she became just another hollow piece on his board, then he would fall back on his other plan. The dangerous one.
The golden crow.
He had meant to use it to destroy the realm— just as it had done— should Cecilia's mind be erased.
And he knew where the broken fragments of such a realm would drift. In the story, when the crow ripped apart the domain, the shards didn't vanish. They drifted… toward the Phoenix.
And the Phoenix's nest was here, in the southern domain.
That had been his backup plan. All of it, just to escape death. But now, reality was different— he was stranded somewhere in the south, alone.
"I hope I'm not too far from civilization, or I'm screwed".
He drew a slow breath and focused on the two things that mattered most.
First, the Deity's words. He still remembered them clearly—
"Demios… you are at it again."
'Who the hell was Demios?'. The name had never once appeared in the story. Maybe the Deity had only said it to rattle him, to get a reaction.
But Levi knew better. Things were never that simple.
Not seeing any way forward there, he turned his thoughts to the second problem.
His cracked soul.
In the entire story, he knew of only one technique that could repair such damage. But that technique belonged to the most extreme group of all—
The Sympathizers.
.
.
.
[Just one power stone is enough... Probably]