Tarnisha grunted and quickly looked at Brenda. "I can't fight with your friend being here, nor can I teleport her with my powers."

  "She can't die," Vernisha replied just as fast.

  "Naive child… If—if you think I'm going to get myself killed for some stranger, you must've lost your damn mind."

  Child…?

  "You were just healing her!"

  "The situation changed! Why don't you heal her?"

  The house kept trembling. Vernisha replied, "I can't heal people."

  "What the hell does that mean—" The house almost seemed to sway to the right.

  Tarnisha abandoned the conversation and ran to the windows, throwing the curtains aside to peer outside.

  Vernisha carried Brenda, whose limbs had twisted back to normal but who was still unconscious.

  Tarnisha glared at her. "You have a crush on her or something?"

  "No. Is human empathy a strange concept to you?"

  Tarnisha didn't reply, but took something out of her pocket—about five coin-like objects, though they were thicker and etched with writing.

  Tarnisha held up the white one and handed it to Vernisha. "This contains a teleportation skill. It has two uses, but don't use it yet. Darsean darkness can disrupt skills."

  Vernisha held the Sealed Token with a tight grip.

  "Oh yeah? When do we use it?" Vernisha asked.

  "When we don't have freaks up our damn—"

  "Princesses!"

  Tarnisha grunted, then grabbed Vernisha's hand. "I'm going to give you a speedrun on these powers. Darsean Darkness is about breaking and connecting things. We're not cultists—we're just connected to them for reasons I don't know. Because of that, we can hide our presence if we try. You have to try to hide it. It'll hurt. It'll be uncomfortable. You'll probably feel like dying. The first time."

  "You're telling me this now? I asked you about it before, you... you jackass!"

  "I was worried you would've failed and released even more Darkness."

  Then there was a piercing sound and a boom. The shaking of the building stopped, and Tarnisha rushed to the front door and kicked it open.

  Vernisha followed, holding Brenda. "What was that? And what about Katie and the house staff? How protected are they?"

  "Self-defense traps being triggered. And Katie and everyone in the bunkers are safer than us. The freaks are after us, not them."

  As soon as they stepped outside, Vernisha looked up and saw a massive ball of white fire.

  She pointed upward. "Is that an attack?! White fire? White?!"

  "It's the estate traps."

  "Oh. Where are we heading?"

  "Somewhere I can use these powers properly."

  They run towards the squared battleground, which lacked a safety zone.

  Tarnisha's hand rose, pools of darkness bubbling from her palm—right before a giant blade cleaved through her forearm.

  Her severed hand hit the ground.

  She stared at it in momentary confusion before dropping to her knees in agony.

  Oh shit.

  Vernisha's fingers flexed, and Crushbull was released. It was the monster she had used most recently and thus gained the most levels, now sitting at level 29.

  There weren't many tricks Crushbull could use. For whatever reason, after level 20, monsters didn't gain skills as often.

  The ball of fire in the sky vanished, and a massive figure slowly levitated down toward them.

  At the base of his neck were two Cs.

  He walked toward them, saying, "I have waited so long for this opportunity. We have searched so hard for this chance. We could never let you go. Never."

  Tarnisha reattached her hand while flooding it with healing. "Why are you trying to kill us? We're on the same side."

  "No. We're not." He rushed toward her.

  Vernisha surged between them, metallic rock armor snapping into place around her body. It was still experimental, so she only had seconds before she would have to shed it before the metal venom spread to the armor joints.

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  Vernisha swung her axe at his chest, and the man kept moving like she wasn't a threat.

  The axe struck.

  Nothing happened—obviously. She knew it wouldn't have been effective.

  He grabbed Vernisha by the shoulders and lifted her off the ground. The armor trembled under the pressure and began to crack.

  Yet she kept the axe in her grip.

  He spoke calmly. "My name is Ismanel, and like you two, I had sinned against the world. Against mankind. Against intelligent life. But unlike you two… I've changed."

  His face tightened as he glanced at the axe still pressed against him, now coated in a red aura.

  He didn't know what it meant, but the moment he felt something invasive in him, his expression sharpened.

  He threw Vernisha aside and was about to rip open his own chest—before abruptly stopping.

  Vernisha dropped to her knees, shoulders screaming in pain.

  She didn't understand why he had stopped. She figured the aura would have been slow to take effect, but that wasn't a good reason to abandon removing infected flesh. Unless Darseans had high resistance to its effects.

  She remembered what Tarnisha had said. Darkness was about breaking and connecting things.

  Don't tell me he's breaking down my aura.

  His eyes snapped back to them, expression turning serious. He reached for the battle axe strapped to his coat.

  Vernisha's palm was one of the few exposed parts of her body.

  She summoned Aquaren's head and made it spit out the Golden Cup.

  She had no idea what it did, but she prayed it had some kind of combat function.

  She didn't even know how to activate it. But it was a cup. A cup was meant to hold liquid—to be drunk.

  That was when she noticed the blue ethereal liquid inside it… something that hadn't been there before. Before she made actual contact with it.

  She raised the cup toward her lips—

  —and the blade of an axe appeared an inch from her head. Vernisha couldn't move fast enough to do anything.

  The axe vanished into a window of darkness.

  The man looked surprised for only a fraction of a second before he looked at Tarnisha.

  Tarnisha’s hand was stretched in Vernisha's direction, and then she looked at him. He shifted his foot toward her, but once again, a plane of darkness opened right at her neck.

  He jumped back at that. Tarnisha was far from composed. Getting your hand cut off so easily did that.

  He looked at the Golden Cup and said, "Whose soul have you already taken? Ah, it matters little."

  That gave Vernisha pause. She expected something eerie from the cup, but souls? And if she drank it, what would happen?

  There was also something else bugging her. But there was no time to question it.

  He moved again and threw a red orb past her, which hit a tree, then bounced onto another tree.

  Vernisha assumed the attack was for Tarnisha. She was wrong. The ball collided against Crushbull’s head and exploded it. The monster fell to the ground, dead.

  Tarnisha and Vernisha's eyes widen, but not for long.

  Vernisha dropped to her knees, mouth agape. Blood erupted from her nose and mouth, and she even began crying blood.

  "One down," he said. He continued walking toward the shocked Tarnisha.

  When he stepped past Vernisha, she suddenly grabbed his leg.

  He looked down, confused. "Why are you not dead?"

  Vernisha struggled to form words, so he picked her up.

  She spat in his face. "Go... fuck yourself."

  Then, with a white flash, he was gone.

  Vernisha fell to her knees, coughing up blood. She grabbed her head and poured as much healing into herself as she could.

  The blood flowing from her facial orifices slowed, but not fast enough. Tarnisha rushed over, healing her too.

  Something odd happened. The two powers met and fused, becoming a light purple.

  The rate of her healing dramatically increased, and in mere seconds, the bleeding stopped.

  Tarnisha was puzzled but didn’t question it. Instead, she asked, "What did you do?"

  Vernisha’s eyes were unfocused, and she took heavy breaths as she responded. "Teleported him away using that thing you gave me. I hope his darkness messed with the skill and got him scattered all over."

  Her eyebrows furrowed. "I assumed it would have simply failed… but that thing had only two uses. Once you teleport yourself, you won’t be able to use it again."

  "That’s okay. What about you?"

  "I can hide my darkness. I’ll just need a lot of time. But you have no experience controlling darkness."

  Vernisha nodded. "Then do that fast. Hide."

  "And leave you in that state? How the hell are you even alive?"

  Crushbull was clearly dead. Its lifeless body lay on the field, brain matter scattered around.

  "I had Meloporian underground in case I got a mortal wound. That’s not important now. I’m…" Vernisha struggled to keep her balance. "I’m… I’ll recover."

  She held the Sealed Token in her hand. "I’ll go somewhere far away, but I'm worried. Wouldn't my Darkness mess with the skill?"

  "No. You merely smell of darkness; there is no actual Darkness in your vicinity."

  "Oh... Good. Good." Vernisha said without an ounce of energy.

  Tarnisha pointed at Brenda. "Don’t forget your friend. The Darseans have seen her and will surely use her to get to you and me. It wouldn’t work on me, but it’s good bait for you."

  Vernisha grimaced. "What about everyone else? Katie, this place, you?"

  Tarnisha took a while to answer. "I’ll think of something."

  She added and looked away. "I must survive. Not just for my destiny, but because Miss Abella needs me, and I owe her my life."

  Around her, a pool of darkness formed. She waved Vernisha goodbye. "I hope to see you again. Survive."

  Then she sank into the darkness and disappeared. Vernisha grabbed Brenda and activated the token.

  She wasn’t sure where to go, so she wished for the best and gave the instruction for her to be teleported far, far away from Terrafall.

  Vernisha tumbled onto the beach of an unknown place. Brenda was still on her shoulder, so she shrugged her off before collapsing onto the sand.

  Her head hurt too much. She wanted to rest, to sleep, and never wake up. But it was too soon to feel safe.

  She forced herself to sit up and looked around her. The sea was orange, the same color as fire, and pulled and pushed against the shore.

  She suddenly felt partially relieved. This was the Pyro Sea, which meant she was far from Terrafall.

  But she was worried about everyone else back in Terrafall. Tarnisha, Katie, Ferzan, Abella.

  She hadn’t even given them a proper goodbye. Nothing was proper, for that matter.

  She and Ferzan hadn’t really had a talk where they got rid of the awkwardness between them.

  Half a week hadn’t even passed since she had become a Freebird—started making money, making plans for her future.

  Vernisha’s hands ran through her hair and she struggled to contain the intense emotions in her chest.

  But even then, she didn’t have time to cry, to get emotional, to be distracted.

  She had to get to work, learn to control this Darkness so a repeat wouldn’t occur.

  Then she would have to hide so the Darseans wouldn’t track her by name and appearance. But… the idea of hiding once again clawed at her heart.

  She was tired of it. So damn tired. If she was to hide again, it would be in a way that made her feel comfortable, free. It would be the final time.

  She thought about it, then decided no. She wouldn’t hide. She would start anew. A new life.

  And she would need to become stronger. A lot stronger. So strong that she would fear no one. So strong she wouldn’t worry about her old life—this life—being discovered.

  She knew she was backtracking into old habits. She was becoming obsessed with power again. It was going to take over her mind.

  But she couldn’t stop it.

  Because it was the only solution.