The adventurer guild of Ormas categorizes beasts, monsters, and threats in general into ten different ranks.

Rank one regrouping unnaturally strong beasts like iron hide bears and smaller groups of beasts like wolves.

Rank two to eight regrouping powerful beasts and cunning predators. To be categorized as a rank two or above monster, it must possess a core that fuels its power. The power of the core generally determines the rank of a monster.

Rank nine and ten monsters are powerful enough to threaten empires and must be faced by groups of A or S-rank individuals.

An eternal frost spread through her body, the crippling sensation like nothing she had ever felt before. The arctic chill was eating into her flesh and freezing her bones while every cell of her body broke apart under the sapping cold. Her mind was a constant flow of pain. She couldn't move, she couldn't run away, all she could do was to suffer under the cold wich slowly ripped apart her body.

So she screamed. She screamed and pleaded to every god she knew to make it stop. But the darkness around her didn’t respond, her screams unheard.

Lena had thought dying was peaceful, like softly falling asleep into a warm dream made of one's memories. But the truth was, it hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It HURT.

“AHHHHHHHHHhhhh……”

And so she screamed into the unbothered darkness. Floating in the abyss until agony was the only thing she felt, pain her only memory and her own screams the only thing she heard. In the abyss, time didn't exist, it was but a mere thought without relevance. Drifting through the endless dark Lena had long forgotten the meaning of time, all she knew was the cold. All she breathed and all she needed was the cold.

It all changed when a sudden flash of light, a bright pulse of energy ripped through her, and the darkness crumbled.

Lena opened her eyes, confused. The first thing she noticed was the pain, or rather the absence of it. It was completely gone, the cold was still present but now it felt like it was a part of her. The second thing she noticed was the darkness around her, it was still dark but less dense.

As she stared into the darkness, her memory slowly returned.

Confused she tried to turn her head and something in the dark moved to. After a panic-filled minute, she realized that it was a ceiling. It was the ceiling of a cave, the same cave where she had died in. Lena was lying on the floor staring at the dark cave ceiling. She was overwhelmed by the new information, relieved to have escaped death itself. She wanted to jump in the air and laugh at her newfound life. The overwhelming thought of being alive filled her heart with joy. I’m alive, ALIVE.

But another piece of information pushed her newfound joy aside. She couldn’t stand up. Her arms and legs didn’t respond, the only thing she could move was her head. This realization made her panic again.

Maybe she was paralyzed? Yes, the sword that pierced her hadn't killed but paralyzed her. She tried to look down at her wound, it was still there, a large black wound right under her heart. Wait black?

As she stared down at her wound, she realized what had happened. She hadn’t magically returned to life, she had died. And she was still dead. Even in a remote village like Maryda people knew what an undead was. They were lost souls that took over corpses to prey upon the living. And Lena was now one of them.

She was now part of something that had once been her body. That had once been Lena.

She tried to scream in anger, but no sound escaped her mouth.

To know she wasn’t completely dead somehow hurt her more than the cold pain of death itself. She was just a soul, she could feel it. It was a mind-shattering feeling. To know that she was no longer human but still part of the mortal world. She didn’t know what to do but cry, so she cried. Without tears, without any sound escaping her mouth.

Until suddenly a loud, fiendish wailing sounded through the dark cave. She new that it was hers, but Lena didn’t stop. The new sound only fueling her sorrow. Her voice had once been beautiful, not like a bard but still melodic. Now it was nothing more than the screech of a monster.

Lena cried until only an occasional rasping whimper left her mouth. It took her a few moments to retake control of her mind. The fact that her voice didn't belong to her anymore had only proven her theory. Nonetheless she wouldn´t just stay her and cry.

Even if she had died, that didn’t mean she had to bury herself in this cave for eternity.

“Fuck you Death!” She said, ignoring her inhuman voice.

The fact that she could even use her mouth only showed Lena that she still had possibilities.

She was now a soul that had taken over her own corpse, that’s okay. It was still her own body after all. She could work from that, she had just learned how to speak. Learning to move her own corpse couldn't be that hard. It had been her body for over seventeen years after all. And so Lena tried, she tried to remember how it felt to walk, to grasp with her hands. She tried to remember how to wake up in the morning, the feeling of her muscles moving under her skin. It didn’t help, her arms and legs did not even twitch.

Then she started ordering her limbs to move, to stand up. But it was in vain, not a single muscle moved.

“Fucking move, you´re my body so get up damn it.” She yelled, ignoring her screeching voice.

After a few minutes of desperate silence, Lena had an idea. She tried to move her body as a human would, but she wasn’t human anymore. She tried to suppress the emotions that came up with that thought.

Nonetheless, she tried. Lena closed her eyes and focused on herself, the cold filled her mind. But it wasn’t hurting her anymore, it was a part of herself, her very essence was now a cold orb of brilliant silver. Small silvery-white wisps surrounded it, almost like smoke. The orb pulsed regularly with cold energy, reminding Lena of a heartbeat.

It was strange to see her own self this clearly, the small orb of pure Lena was located in her head, or to be exact, in the head of her corpse.

The freezing silver orb felt different from the rest of her body/corpse, it was soothing to watch the small tendrils of fog move inside of her head. An idea came to her mind, and she tried to push the silvery tendrils into the rest of her body. At first, nothing happened and Lena was about to stop when a small tendril extended further than the others from the pure Lena orb.

Like a small snake made of mist, she slowly moved it through her arm and towards her hand where it split towards each finger. It glowed slightly before Lena opened her eyes again and tried to move her hand. At first her arm twichted slightly, but a few seconds later her arm raised itself and formed a fist. She actually moved it.

“It works!” She yelled, as cheerful as one could with the voice of a monster.

Now fully motivated she began to connect every limb and muscle with her cold Lena orb. It took Lena at least a few hours to connect every part of her corpse to her soul. She didn’t know if it was her soul, but she didn’t know what to call it other than a soul.

Also, I’m not gonna call it super cold pure Lena connection Orb. She thought.

After connecting her entire body she looked inside of her, all the connected tendrils spread inside of her, they almost looked like veins. Lena was excited as her arms and legs slowly moved, it looked unnatural. With her limbs twitching from time to time it took her over a minute to stand up.

When she finally stood, she raised her head and looked right in two black holes belonging to the creature that had killed her.

A silent scream escaped her mouth and she fell back on the ground. The creature looked at her for a brief moment before turning away and silently walking away. Why doesn’t it attack me?

The answer to that question was both simple and shocking. She was already dead. Lena gulped at that thought and pushed it out of her mind. She might be undead but she wasn’t a monster, she was still Lena. The fact that they weren’t attacking her was good, disturbing but good. Now she could focus on her next step. Walking.

It was difficult, Lena fell four times and had to get up again which wasn’t easy. Lena moved more like a zombie with crippled legs than a human. After some practice, she still stumbled over bones or small rocks but didn’t fall anymore. With each step, her legs seemed to move a little smoother, a little faster, but it still took way too long to even move one leg.

After reaching the entrance to the cavern that seemed to be the creature's Lair, she saw two shapes lying on the ground. After getting closer she recognized the corpses. The cold feeling that was now part of her became stronger. The fact that she hadn’t thought about them before made her sick. As she looked at Leila’s and Devos mangled bodies, she realized that quite a bit of time must have passed since her revival.

And not just a few hours, but days if not months. While looking at her dead friends she felt lost, she had lost two of her friends and had been reborn as an undead corpse. Even if she returned to Maryda she would be hunted down, undead were feared, hated, and hunted down. Even Arim wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. She suppressed the urge to cry and lose herself in the cold.

She took a small bronze necklace that lay beside Leila’s corpse, she would remember them. After saying her goodbyes she left the large cavern and made her way back to the entrance.

She continued stumbling through the cave tunnels with the speed of a slug, slowly passing the wolf corpses. After what felt like hours she reached the cave entrance and looked at a pile of boulders.

The once relatively large passage, through which she and her friends had come in, was now filled with large rocks. Somehow the cave entrance had collapsed. Was it an earthquake? Or had the people from Maryda collapsed it to prevent the monsters from escaping? It sure sounded like something Arim would do to protect the village.

Looking down at her hands, Lena thought about moving the large boulders away. But it was a futile thought, she wouldn’t even be able to move one of these boulders. They seemed to be made of hard stone, not dirt and their sheer size made it clear that they wouldn’t move an inch.

Lena didn’t know how long she had looked at these stones when she realized something. “I can see.” her rasping voice exclaimed surprised. She hadn’t realized it all this time, it seemed so natural. Cave was entirely dark and there wasn´t a single light source, but Lena had no difficulties seeing in the completely dark cave. Well, I guess that's only fair, after all, I’m undead.

She didn’t think too much about it, all that mattered was to get out of this cave. I might find another way out.

With her slow walking technique, it took her an eternity to return to the wolf cemetery. On the way back she discovered that her sight was quite good, she could see every crack and every stone inside of the tunnel up to thirty meters away. At least she didn't have to crawl on the ground to find her way through the cave.

“What now?” Lena didn’t feel like returning to the creatures, even if they didn’t attack her. Just because they took her for their new undead friend didn’t mean she had to be around them, they had killed her friends and her.

After reaching the cavern with the dead wolf pack she stepped through a different crack than the one that lead to bone creatures. Beyond was just another long tunnel leading deeper into the cave. Lena decided to follow the path. At this point she had no other choice.

Walking was still slow and anything but smooth, but it still was a lot better than before. If I train enough I might even be able to walk normally soon enough.

With new vigor she followed the dark tunnel, the darkness not bothering her in the slightest. Instead, she tried to regain her old voice. Her walking was improving so why couldn't her voice. This was her body, so she should be able to regain her old abilities if she trained enough. Lena's training technique was simple, singing.

It was a miracle that the bats and other small critters in the tunnels didn’t die instantly from her performance

Her voice sounded rough and crude like a grinding stone on steel and not soft and warm like before. But it still had a distinctly feminine touch to it. Like a demon from hell, but at least a female one. She was optimistic tho, regaining her original voice with enough training should be possible. Even if she had to kill every single animal inside the cave with her demonic singing performance along the way.

Without knowing she walked for days on end, not needing to sleep and seemingly endless energy without any need for food was quite useful. After all, being undead might not be too bad. She thought but quickly banned that thought from her mind. It took her minutes, just to walk a few meters. If she had to eat or sleep she would never get anywhere.

The dark tunnels stretched endlessly underground turning left and right, splitting dozens of times. After the first day, Lea was lost and had no other idea other than to continue her way through the tunnels. Sometimes she came across small and large caverns but none of them were inhabited (monsters or else).

And so she traveled, without rest or real direction. She was able to walk nearly normally at this point, running was still impossible but she was getting better. Her voice on the other hand still sounded more like a screeching beast that ate a demon, than a 17-year-old girl, but she continued to practice every once in while.

The ground was always hard rock, the walls made from the same gray stone. It was a seemingly unending path dug through the stone. Until one day the ground was more and more covered in moss that absorbed the sound of her footsteps. Eager to embrace the change she tried to move faster, and soon she realized that the tunnel before her became brighter.

A few turns later, the tunnel opened and revealed an unexpected view. She exited the dark tunnels through a large cave entrance that seemed to be placed at the bottom of a large mountain. Outside lay a forest. Her mind tried to process what she saw. After days on end of dark gray stone tunnels, a beautiful green forest with moos-covered trees opened before her.

She could hear dripping water, flying insects, and dozens of small birds chanting above her head. Lena didn’t know what to do, it was beautiful. It almost seemed like a dream, after all the pain and death she had experienced, she could now feel the warm sun on her skin.

Lena continued through the forest towards the sound of dripping water until she found its source. A small creek was dripping out of the mountainside. The creek ended in a small pond surrounded by moss-covered stones.

Smiling cheerfully she walked towards it. Even if she didn't need to drink anymore, she wanted to feel the water and clean herself. While she bend down to the water to wash her face and hands she froze just before touching the water.

The reflection on the surface of the water showed a creature that Lena didn’t recognize.

Lena had always been a rather pretty girl with long dark hair and emerald green eyes. She was neither tall nor short, and even with the occasional lack of food, she wasn’t thin.

The girl that looked at her from the surface of the pond wore simple leather armor and dark pants. From a dark wound under her heart dripped black blood, covering her entire lower body with the dark liquid.

Her skin was smooth but had an unnatural pale, nearly grayish color. Long white hair framed the bloodied young face. The most shocking change, however, were these brilliant eyes of pure silver. Lost were the always joyful green eyes that Arim always complimented. Replaced by eyes made from liquid silver, reminding her of her soul, both had the same intensity eradiating from them, the same shimmering silver, swirling like smoke.

Lena stared at the shining silver eyes that looked back at her. She would have described them as beautiful, as magical, maybe even compared them to the stars if it wasn’t for the total lack of life that they emitted. They weren’t lifeless and dull like the eyes of a corpse, but rather emotionless. It made her shiver. These weren’t the eyes of a human.

She looked back at her reflection in the water, the shining eyes, the sick looking skin, the unnatural white hair, and the still bleeding wound under her heart. She had thought that she hadn't changed that much, that life had given her a second chance even if she feared her own voice. It had still been her body after all. She had thought that she could still live normally, far away from Maryda. She stumbled away from the pond and against a large rock. As she realized how much she had been wrong, how much her new life had changed her. She felt fear.

This wasn't her body anymore, these weren't her eyes. This was the body of a monster, a corpse, an undead abomination. She would never be able to live a human life anymore, she would be damned to hide in dark caves for the rest of eternity. The cold spread into every fiber of her body as her emotions overwhelmed her.

“AAAAAaaaaaaaahhhh!” her scream thundered through the forest.

Eshen’darr was on the way back to his home when he heard the monstrous screech rolling through the forest. After more than five hundred years on this continent and numerous battles against powerful monsters, he easily recognized a dangerous monster. Without much thought, he unsheathed his blades made from dark steel and sprinted silently towards the wailing screeches of the monster.

In his life, he had faced many dangerous monsters, but the undead were one of the most deadly foes that existed. They were gruesome foes with even more gruesome magic. From zombies to elder liches and skeleton wyverns, each one is a danger on its own and could kill even experienced hunters like himself easily.

When he reached a clearing with a small pond he was ready to face an undead dragon with vile death magic or an army of zombies wielding cursed weapons. But nothing of that sort awaited him, instead he found a crying girl sitting on the ground, wailing while hugging her knees.

He wasn’t blind of course, he saw the pale skin and the dark blood on her small frame. He could also feel her core, that pulsing orb of mana that clearly identified her as a monster, and not a weak one either. Before him was clearly a rank six undead monster, a threat to even him.

If one asked him why he didn’t slay the dangerous beast that was clearly in a vulnerable position, he wouldn’t have an answer. All he knew was that when the girl looked up at him with her silvery eyes he couldn't do it.

Hundreds of years of monster hunting were pushing him to kill the vile beast before him. But all that his eyes could see was a frightened girl.