Somebody please help me. Somebody please get me out of here.

Get me the fuck out of here!

“ARGH!” Shadow shot up from the bed as dark blades formed from the midst of her palm, and she launched herself straight up as the bandgage tore off her body thanks to the violence in her movements.

“AHHH!” Wu also screamed right beside her, shocked by the sudden act before he parried her swipes right against his gauntlet. The metallic clank rang true within the room and caused Shadow to slow down.

“What?! You?” Shadow blinked multiple times, eventually recognizing Wu that’s watching over her before he pushed her into the bed and pointed straight up, "Oh~ You can't even wait until all this is over?"

“Watch the tent! Watch the tent!” Wu said quickly, and Shadow finally realized that they weren’t staying in a house, but rather, in the middle of a small tent.

Hearing the ruckus within, Lera poked her head in only to see Wu pressing his body on top of Shadow. Suddenly, an aura of death surrounded Lera’s body, and dark and thick vines rose from the ground before it grabbed onto Wu’s waist and picked him up like a little doll of Shadow's body.

“Wait!” Shadow said, launching herself up like a bug before latching onto Wu’s body as she pressed her face into Wu and started rubbing it back and forth, “Don’t take my man from me!”

“He’s is MINE!” Lera declared, her face lit up by the bold statement, but she stood still and used another vine to loop around Shadow and place her down on the bed before covering her with the sheets, “You lie down and heal, you reckless…delinquent!”

“Delinquent?” Shadow blinked a few times before laughing so hard that the back of her head slammed into the tent and the sheet came flying right off, “That’s the best word you came up with?”

“W…What about it?!”

“You are both too adorable~” Shadow finally decided to lie back down and rested her hands over her head. What got over her? Why was she so excited...why was she feeling so happy?

She knew exactly why.

“You…you came to help me…” Shadow said slowly while peek at Lera and Wu through the gaps between her fingers. Lera had placed Wu down on the ground outside of the tent as he dropped to his knees and started apologizing, “You…really did.”

“Of course.” Wu looked up from his dogeza when Lera smiled and squatted down.

“You called for us, remember?”

“With that ugly Cast clinging on that piece of paper…” Shadow smiled lightly and closed her eyes, “Us Valkyries…we were trained to be able to work alone, and we were trained to rely only on ourselves only. There…was no one for me, and no one to help me just cause I called…

"Thank you.”

“I…don’t know if that matched what I saw.” Wu said, scratching the back of his head, “Even if the training wanted the Valkyries to not have to rely on anyone else, you still have each other, right? That’s why the Valkyries split up to both go for the Polar Prison and Alina. It’s to-”

“You don’t know a thing!” Shadow burst before curling her legs and rolling to the other side, “You…you don’t know that.”

“Maybe…” Wu said, sitting down beside Shadow when she nearly drew her blade again but stopped herself, “So…you mind helping us understand what happened to you?”

Shadow looked so bummed out before she hid under the blanket. A small pool of darkness leaked from under, and tiny dark dolls jumped around on it like little puppets. And then, one of those became morphed to become a skinny person, while another became condensed with black and another pure grey.

Then, Shadow recalled everything that happened.

“That bastard…he was up to no good…” Shadow said, “And Alina was too blind to see…anything! She's supposed to be the strongest out of us, and she's supposed to be able to think on her own! That idiot!”

“The closer you are to the top, the more tightly you are controlled...” Wu pressed into his chin before turning to look at Lera, “We need to get Alina away from that man.”

“Even if you do, you can’t undo his conditioning!” Shadow threw her hands up under the sheet and propped it up like a tent in a tent.

“Well…it seems like you fared pretty well against that, didn’t you?” Wu said before Shadow gave him a death stare.

“What are you trying to say?!” Shadow raised her hand and chopped Wu on the head, “How can you be so cool and so uncool at the same time! Damn it!”

“I…meant you ssomehow managed to overcome his conditoning, right?” Wu con tinued, “How did you do it?”

“I am just that impressive, what could I say!” Shadow laughed, crossing her arms and looking away. She felt a burning stare on her body coming from Lera, and she tried to ignore it.

“Shadow.” Lera finally opened her mouth as she shuffled closer, “What was really the reason?”

It was that obvious, huh? Damn it, Alina.

Shadow tried to maintain the outlook of a successful Valkyrie, and Lera pressed further, asking the questions and repeating it again and again and again and again…

“Fine! Fine, I will spill the beans…” Shadow lowered her head as a dark aura covered her entire body. She started shivering and shaking, and Lera quickly increased the intensity of the Warmth Cast in the tent. However, that didn’t stop her shivers, “But…I want Wu to hug me while I do it…no, I need it.”

Wu looked toward Lera, who nodded slowly back at him. Then, he shuffled over before placing his hands on top of Shadow. She was initially unsatisfied, and she yanked his arms across her body before wiggling to be the little spoon before finally starting to relax.

That was the exact same way that Alina comforted her.

“I was recruited into the Valkyrie program the same way countless other girls were. I was decently smart, have some natural talent in the Wave, and was deemed malleable and young enough for the program…” Shadow said, leaning in closer towards Wu before she captured his other hand and placed it on top of her head.

The Valkyries program, for all of its glory, also had initial intake exams in order to weed out those that were deemed completely ordinary. Shadow was just over the threshold, and she was given number 321, designating her as the last place Valkyrie candidate out of her class.

She didn’t even remember what her parents looked like, though when the guards dropped off the compensation at their houses, she remembered the celebratory cheer before they swarmed her younger brother.

The training program itself was grueling, and the girls were pushed to the brink of collapse almost daily throughout the first two years. However, they were also placed in stasis within recovery Casts at night, only for things to repeat the next day.

Obviously, the Casts only took care of the physical aspect, not the mental side. It was a genius tactic, really. There was nothing better than clean-slate humans, ready to be morphed into whatever tools that were needed by the kingdom. All senses of self and normalcy was made irrelevant, and all that mattered was their mission, which swiftly became their purpose for living.

In the first year, Shadow was driven by the anger she had against her family. But by year two, she no longer felt a thing for them. The day-to-day motivations were simple. Pass the exercises, and you get to eat and survive. There were no meaningful alternatives.

Coincidentally, that was also the year when the challenges started to weed out the weaklings of the group.

Or rather, the weaklings were systematically purged in the midst of the challenges. If they were not up to par, then they simply don't make it. Like whispers in the night, those failures simply faded away, disappearing into winter only to never be seen again. They were removed quietly, and nobody would notice.

By the end of year two, her number became 123. She had also obtained her Shadow manifestation abilities. During one of the seduction and infiltration challenges, she used her manifestation to its full ability, clearing the challenge without any of the instructors realizing how she did it.

That was when she realized that she could use it to escape this hellhole. But then, that meant she had to figure out a way to eat out there...She could steal. She could lie, and she could threaten.

She could live out her own life, but that means not being told what to do...She will figure something out. That's what they were trained to do, regardless. With every moment that she knew she could get out, she started to hate her environment more and more, and eventually, she could no longer hide her disdain for her existence within the walls of the compound.

She wanted to get out.

And so she did. Waiting until the nighttime when shadows were cast all over the earth, she swiftly made her move. Sneaking from one patch of darkness to another, with her heart nearly jumping out every time she silently blew past sets of guards, Shadow used standard calming techniques taught to her and kept on going.

It was all smooth sailing until she reached the main door. Despite the dark interiors of the castles and the thick and dark tinted windows blocking out the majority of the light, the outside of the castle was lit up by light Casts as if it’s the middle of the day.

There was no hint of darkness anywhere, even as the night sky above was like a black curtain of pitch black.

Shadow cursed, dissolving back into the darkness right behind the door before she tried to turn around. Perhaps the other corners of the Castle would be different. She had already memorized the exact layouts of the castle through the first go around, and now it should be fairly simple to exit from the back.

That was when Shadow spotted sets of guards carrying something while exiting the back of the castle, where there was supposed to be a garden. However, the only thing there was a tree that towered even above the castle itself. Sinking deep in the darkness, Shadow simply created a tiny opening to see and hear through.

“Damn, is it just me, and were the bodies heavier than before?” One of the guards said, his footsteps hastened

“No kidding, they were older than before.” Another said, “Hurry up. There are three more sets to move tonight.”

Shadow peaked her eyes through, and she saw the guards grabbing onto the shoulders and feet of a naked girl as she was carried through the door. Her eyes widened before she gasped for air and threw herself back and away from the peeping hole as she bite into her fingers to suppress the scream.

She's finally noticed where all the girls had gone.

That girl’s hair was messed up, and her body was bruised. She recognized those wounds as the same ones that she had experienced in today’s challenge, but it was nothing as bad…that shouldn’t have killed anyone…Then, why were there streaks of blood over her body?

There was a suppressed thump before the guards waddled back into the room and carried out yet another body of a different girl.

What…what is happening…Is that going to be me? Is that going to be me?! Shadow’s entire body started shaking as her shallow breathes rushed in and out from her lungs. The cold of Talonia had nothing compared to the patch of darkness that she’s hiding in right now.

No…She can’t hold her current form…any longer.

Shadow cursed, trying to push back away from the light and stay hidden in the shadow, but her body was not listening to her. As the guards moved past in front, the head of the dead girl tilted off to the side and a girl with black hair and lifeless purple eyes glared blankly at Shadow.

That will be her. Just another number on the page.

“AHHHH!” She screamed, ejecting herself from the shadow before dropping onto the ground, “AHHH! AHHHHHH!”

“What the hell?! How did you get here?!” The guards dropped the body to the ground before their hands glowed as battons were conjured in the Wave, “Who let you out?!”

“Get away from me!” Shadow spun around and tried to run on her feet, but her legs were shaking so hard that she tripped after mere meters. The guards shared an amused laugh before they slowly pursued Shadow as she dragged herself along the ground, her oxygen quickly running out in her body due to the inefficient way she’s breathing, and she knew that exact fact.

However, it doens’t matter. To someone drowned in fear, nothing mattered.