Elena stood at the alley's entrance like an avenging angel carved from ice.
She had changed. Three days shouldn't have made such a difference, but everything about her seemed sharper and colder. Her blonde hair was pulled back into ponytail, and her hunter gear, blue and white, had a B-rank insignia on it. It looked like it had seen combat recently.
But it was her eyes that struck seed. Those pale blue eyes that used to hold warmth when she looked at himwere now frozen with rage.
"Elena?" He breathed.
She didn't look at him. Her gaze was fixed on Marcus, and the temperature in the alley dropped several degrees. Ice crystals formed on the nearby walls.
"I said," she repeated, "step away from him."
Marcus's confident smile disappeared as he felt the chill. "Elena. This doesn't concern you. He's a—"
"I know exactly what he is." Her hand rose, and ice began forming around her fingers, forming spikes. "A dead man walking. My former teammate. And mine to deal with."
The traffickers exchanged nervous glances. One of them, the one seed had hit with Darkfire Blast, was still on the ground, groaning. The other two slowly backed away.
"We don't want trouble with a B-rank hunter," one of them said.
"Then leave." Elena's words frosted in the air. "And take that trash with you."
They didn't need to be told twice. They grabbed their fallen comrade and retreated into the darkness, leaving just the three of us.
Marcus's fire intensified. "You're protecting him? After what happened? We all saw him die because he was too weak to—"
Ice exploded from the ground at Marcus's feet, forcing him to jump back. The flames around his hands sputtered and died as moisture in the air flash-froze.
"Choose your next words very carefully," Elena said. "I'm not in a forgiving mood."
For a moment, seed thought Marcus would attack as his hands trembled with rage he was trying to suppress, flames trying to reignite. But he wasn't stupid. The gap between C-rank and B-rank was significant, and Elena's ice magic was her family's specialty, refined over generations.
"This isn't over," Marcus spat, glaring at seed. "You're on borrowed time, Seed. Everyone knows it."
He vanished down a side alley, leaving Elena and seed alone.
The silence stretched. Seed tried to read Elena's expression, but it was like staring at a glacier, beautiful, cold, and utterly impenetrable.
"Elena, I—"
"Shut up." She finally turned those frozen eyes on him, and he felt the full weight of her aura. "Three days. I mourned you for three days, Seed. I blamed myself. I couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat. Kept seeing you die over and over."
Her voice cracked slightly on the last word.
"Then tonight, I feel a familiar aura signature, weak and erratic, but unmistakably yours. So I ask myself, how is a dead man walking?"
[OOH, SHE'S PISSED.]
[ALSO, SHE'S KIND OF TERRIFYING.]
[I LIKE HER.]
Seed opened his mouth to explain, but what could he say? That a mysterious system resurrected him? That he now needed to balance killing monsters with having sex to power his abilities? That he had already created a variant skill that burned souls?
"I don't understand it either," he said finally. "But I'm here. I'm alive. And I—"
"Show me your status."
"What?"
"Your hunter status. Show me. Now" Elena Demanded.
[MIGHT WANT TO RECONSIDER THAT, CHAMP.]
[SHE'LL SEE THE DUAL MANA POOLS.]
[THINGS COULD GET AWKWARD. I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND]
But Seed didn't have a choice. Elena could freeze him solid before he took two steps. So he focused, willing his status screen to become visible to her.
Her eyes widened as she read, scanning through the information. Seed watched her expression shift from anger to confusion to something he couldn't quite identify.
"Symbiotic Duality Hunter," she read aloud. "Dark Mana and... White Mana?" Her gaze snapped to his. "What the hell is this, Seed?"
"A second chance," he said quietly. "I died in that dungeon. Somehow, I came back. This systsem....parasite? Whatever. it's keeping me alive, with weird conditions."
"Dark Mana from killing monsters." She nodded slowly. "That makes sense. But White Mana from..." She trailed off as she read the screen. Her cheeks colored red slightly, the first warmth seed had seen in her face. "You can't be serious."
[AND THERE IT IS!]
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY EMBARRASSED US!]
"I didn't choose this," seed said quickly. "But it's what I've got."
Elena was quiet for a long moment, processing. When she spoke again, her voice had thawed slightly. "So what is with the dark mana and white mana?"
"Dakr mana turned my fire ball into Darkfire Blast. My first variant. I think it burns souls?"
"And the White Mana..?" She looked away shy. "You haven't acquired any yet."
"No." The admission hung heavy between them.
She was quiet again, and seed could practically hear her thinking. Elena had always been the strategic one on their team, the one who planned three moves ahead.
Finally, she sighed. "You look like hell. When's the last time you ate?"
The question caught him off guard. "I... don't remember. Before the dungeon, I guess."
"Four days." She shook her head. "Come on. There's a safe house nearby. We need to talk, and you need medical attention. Those ribs aren't going to heal themselves."
[QUEST ALERT: GAIN ELENA'S TRUST]
[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE INTERROGATION]
[BONUS OBJECTIVE: ... YOU KNOW WHAT? USE YOUR IMAGINATION.]
[REWARD: ???]
Seed ignored the system's implications and nodded. "Lead the way."
They walked in silence through the darkened streets, Elena maintaining a careful distance. Her ice magic kept the ambient temperature around them uncomfortably cold, but he couldn't complain.