Then she released the robe and pointed—not toward the corpses, not toward the fire, but toward a building on the right side that might once have been a barn, now just a pile of charred wood and a collapsed roof.
Mara followed the line of her small index finger. At first nothing was visible. Only rubble, charcoal, scorched wooden beams. But then, when she focused, something flickered. A faint glimmer, like light reflected from glass at a certain angle, but there was no clear light source. That glimmer was pale green—a sickly green, an unnatural green—and appeared only for a moment before vanishing, like a blink of error data.
[System Feedback: Anomalous Energy Signature Detected.
Classification: Hidden Object (Tier: Unknown). Coordinates logged.]
That notification appeared. Hidden object? Like a hidden item in the game? But this... in the real world?
She looked back at the child. "You see that?" she asked, her voice unintentionally returning to Nyxaria's flat and analytical tone.
The child nodded, once, slowly. Her golden and gray eyes now stared toward the earlier glimmer with a strange fixation—as if not seeing a physical object, but something behind it. "Numbers... messy," she whispered, her voice slightly disturbed. "Not supposed to be there. They flicker. Painful."
Numbers? Is she seeing system code? Statistics? UI?
As a former player who knew about bugs, glitches, and exploits—who had spent midnight hours hunting for loopholes in the game system—Mara's mind immediately worked. This child sees system code. She sees something that shouldn't be visible to players let alone NPCs. That meant... she was an anomaly. A glitch in this world. Like me, but different.
And monsters ignored her. That made sense if monsters were system entities programmed to attack targets based on status data and level—if this child's data was unreadable, or read as neutral...
Lumi drew her attention again by tugging her robe. This time harder, more urgent. "They're coming," she whispered, and for the first time there was a bit of emotion in her voice: pure fear, primal, like a small animal scenting a predator.
Mara raised her head. Her senses enhanced by level 999 statistics had already detected it first—faint vibrations in the ground, heavy footsteps muffled by dust, low growls from throats that weren't human. But what was more striking was the change in air pressure, like before a storm.
She turned, stood quickly, her body instantly settling into an elegant defensive stance though unconscious—one foot slightly behind, hands raised waist-high, wings partially spread with the sound of smooth skin friction.
From behind the ruins across the square, between the long shadows cast by fire and twilight, three figures emerged.
They were wolves, but not ordinary wolves. Their size was that of small horses, with dull black fur like clinging soot. Their eyes glowed red—not ruby red like Nyxaria's eyes, but blood red, without pupils, just points of lustful light. Thick saliva dripped from their jaws filled with teeth like small layered knives. On their backs, bone spikes protruded irregularly, and from their mouths wafted thin black smoke that smelled of sulfur and rotten flesh.
[Corrupted Timberwolf – Level 45] [Elite]
[Status: Aggressive – Territory Intruder]
[Corruption Source: Unknown]
Levels and status appeared above their heads. Forty-five. Elite. For average level 60-80 players, even one would be a serious threat requiring a tank and healer. Three was a challenge for a full coordinated party.
But they didn't see Lumi.
Their red eyes were focused entirely on Nyxaria. They growled, a low rumbling sound emerging from their chests, stepping forward carefully, circling with a trained pattern—one in front, two spreading to the sides. Their predator instinct might sense something wrong—that this target wasn't like usual, her aura too dense, too heavy—but their aggressive program, driven by the corruption eating away at them, pushed them to attack.
She looked at Lumi. The child was still sitting on the foundation stone, now staring blankly toward the wolves. Not afraid. Not hiding. Just... observing.
And the wolves... ignored her. As if she didn't exist. Their red eyes didn't even glance briefly toward her. They remained focused entirely on Nyxaria, sniffing the air, then growling louder.
[System Feedback: Anomaly Confirmed. NPC juvenile entity exhibits zero threat recognition from hostile mobs. Logging incident for further analysis.]
Then another notification:
[Internal Metric: Anomaly Designation Updated.
Entity: Lumi (Temporary)
Classification: Glitch-Linked Observer
Status: Passive – Non-combatant – High Priority Observation
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Additional Note: Entity demonstrates perception of underlying system code. Threat immunity appears to be system-level oversight, not active concealment.]
Mara absorbed the information. So the system had already acknowledged her as an anomaly. Glitch-Linked Observer. That meant she was useful—could see what others couldn't. But also dangerous—if other players or NPCs knew, they might consider her a bug that needed cleaning, or a tool to be exploited.
Lumi pulled Nyxaria's robe so hard the fabric stretched. "Mama Ghost," she whispered, her voice now clear and calm though her eyes were still teary. "They won't stop until you get rid of them."
Mara stared at the child, then stared at the three corrupted wolves—one in front, two preparing to attack, all driven by something unnatural. Fire still burned in the ruins around them. Corpses still lay everywhere. The twilight sky grew darker, and the two moons began to shine brighter.
And in the distance, from the same direction as the corruption source indicated by the green glimmer earlier, she could hear more growls. More footsteps. More coming.
Lumi drew closer again, her small body now almost clinging for shelter against Nyxaria's legs. Her tiny hands still gripped that robe tightly, as if it was the only anchor in a world falling apart.
"You... must kill them," she whispered again, her golden and gray eyes now staring at Mara with an intensity that made the human soul inside that demon queen tremble. "All of them."
The night wind whispered through the ruins of Elmwood Village, carrying with it the sparks of dying fire and the promise of death still fresh. Lumi's sobs had stopped, replaced by small tremors crawling from her tiny body to the fabric of Nyxaria's robe that she gripped tightly. "Mama Ghost... I'm cold."
That sentence, simple and innocent, pierced deeper than any war cry. Cold. Amidst the smell of burning flesh and earth still warm from violence, the child was cold. And her request wasn't for fire, not for a blanket, not for escape. It was an acknowledgment. A fact conveyed to the only warmth she felt in this collapsed world: the dark and frightening aura of a demon queen.
Mara, inside Nyxaria's head, felt slapped by contradicting reality. This body radiated power that could break mountains, but couldn't provide simple warmth to a child. Or could it? Her gamer logic spun fast, scanning the countless skill list. There's a heat aura buff, right? There must be. But where was the time to search now.
The growls from the three Corrupted Timberwolves grew louder, tearing the fragile silence. Their blood red eyes locked on Nyxaria, totally ignoring the small figure beside her. Their muscular legs clawed the ground, preparing to charge. Their predator instinct, though blurred by corruption, could still sense unmeasurable danger—but also unmoving prey. They were confused. That made them more aggressive.
Lumi tugged the robe again. "They won't stop," she whispered, her voice flat like reporting weather. Her heterochromia eyes—one analytical gold, one dead gray—didn't see the wolves. They saw something behind them, around them, messy data lines. "The numbers around them... blinking red. Very red."
Great. Elite mob with angry status. Of course. Mara took a deep breath, an action that felt foreign in Nyxaria's lungs. She had no choice. Lumi was here. She couldn't Shadow Step bring someone else? Could. Cooldown? Still. How much longer? Check. [Shadow Step] – Cooldown: 2 minutes 17 seconds. Too long. They would charge long before that.
"Don't let go," Nyxaria muttered, her voice low yet clearly caught by Lumi's small ears. Not a command to the child, but to herself. To Mara inside.
She raised her right hand, palm facing the three predators stalking closer. Her mind opened [THE INTERFACE]. The skill list flashed, dozens, hundreds of names and icons glowing with power that made her dizzy. [Void Severance]. [Abyssal Chains]. [Crimson Tide]. Each deadly. Each could clear this threat in an instant. But radius? Accuracy? Lumi was behind her, beside her. Was there a definite single-target skill? The wolves had already begun to spread, encircling tactics.
Think, Mara, think! You used to be a healer. You know how to crowd control. But your heal skills now... all labeled 'Corruption', 'Vampiric', 'Annihilation'.
Then her eyes caught one name among the sea of dangerous abilities. A skill that stood separate by itself, surrounded by a dark purple and black border, like a hole in the list. [Death's Embrace] – Absolute Annihilation Domain. Its description was brief and final. She hadn't read it carefully before. Now, she did.
Absolute execution zone. Radius up to 1 kilometer. All entities objectively categorized as enemies – instant death. Does not affect neutral or innocent. Cooldown: 10 hours.
Mara's heart—or whatever beat in Nyxaria's chest—stopped briefly. This was crazy. This was overkill. This was like using a nuke to kill mosquitoes. But... it was certain. It was absolute. And most importantly: Does not affect neutral or innocent. The system would determine. The system would know that Lumi wasn't an enemy. That was more reliable protection than her own messy shooting accuracy.
"Close your eyes, Lumi," Nyxaria's instruction came out, softer than she planned.
The child only blinked one eye—the golden one—while the gray one remained open, staring blankly. "I see the numbers from your skill too. They're very big. And... there's the word 'Authority'."
She can read my UI?! No time for that.
The wolf in front, the largest, lunged. Its movement like a dark furry bullet, leaving a trail of smoke. Its jaws gaped, ready to tear.
Nyxaria didn't move to dodge. She activated the skill.
No spell shouts, no ritualistic movements. Only an intention released from the core of her existence as an entity programmed to judge. A decision made by Mara, channeled through Nyxaria's authority framework.
The world stopped breathing.
Then, with a sound that wasn't a sound—a disconnection sensation echoing in the spine of every living creature within a half-kilometer radius—everything changed.
A perfect circle of dark red, like old wine spilled on the world's parchment, radiated from beneath Nyxaria's feet. It spread at impossible speed, crossing the ground, passing ruins, climbing valley slopes, without caring about physical obstacles. Inside that circle, colors faded into red and black monochrome. Sound vanished. Wind died. Even the last fire hiss was extinguished, not by a blow, but because the concept of burning itself was suspended.
The three Corrupted Timberwolves froze mid-leap, their bodies stretched stiff in the air. The red light in their eyes extinguished like candles blown out. Then, starting from the tip of their snouts to their tails, their bodies unraveled. Not exploding, not bleeding. They turned into fine gray dust, which then drifted and disappeared as if blown by a wind that didn't exist. No remains. No blood. Only sudden absence.
The effect didn't stop there.
Throughout the destroyed village, from behind rubble and shadows, other hidden creatures—level 30 Goblin Scouts scavenging, level 35 Skeleton Warriors rising from unmarked graves—suffered the same fate. They collapsed in absolute silence, becoming piles of ash that then vanished. A large corrupted vulture, perched on the broken church roof, slumped and turned into particles before it could flap its wings.
That red zone pulsed once, gently, then faded.
Color returned to the world. Sound returned—the sudden rush of wind that felt very loud, the rustle of small falling debris. But no growls. No footsteps. Only the natural silence of night blanketing the valley that had just been cleansed.
In the middle of the square, Nyxaria still stood with her hand raised. Lumi still clung to her robe, eyes wide open. Not a strand of her white hair was damaged.
[System Feedback: Authority [Death's Embrace] executed. Hostile entities within 500 meter radius eliminated. Named entity 'Lumi' confirmed as Non-Hostile – No effects applied.]
[Internal Metric: Cooldown initiated – 09:59:59 remaining. World Attention Threshold: Breached.]