It was the second time Kara felt this particular sense of wrongness. The first time was 45 years ago, when The Games began, when her name was Sayrina The Marauder. When she had her original body, when she was alive.

It distracted her from her song. It brought her attention back to this poorly created body that cracked with any abrupt movement. Music was the only thing that distracted her from its tension. Even in sleep she could feel the echoing sensation of her skin crumbling to the ground all those years before.

Music was her only way of lessening the pain, but even that had begun to fade as her body deteriorated further. This hobby was no substitute for power. Ranking was all she had. It was her entire purpose, the very existence of her war-made race. There was nothing else. It was everything. Hunt monsters, gain levels, and loot more and more powerful items. Rinse and repeat until you ruled the world.

Envy. What a horrendous emotion it was. She was familiar with anger. She was familiar with grieving when her brothers and sisters fell in the Games. She felt it even more vividly after Shinkro’s betrayal.

But envy? And envy of humans at that? The Vandrans were a beautiful race, they were perhaps worthy of jealous eyes. The Free Tribes were both fierce and diverse, and so there was bound to be reason for envy there. But humans? What did they have?

A weak, feeble body. And yet, even that, what the average human had, what every man, women, and child in this café had, was more than what she could create herself. Her own body was flawed. Inferior.

Kara felt the temperature of her blood raising. Thermal Mana began to build inside her, almost radiating off her clothes. The urge to blast the piano to bits began to tug at her nerves. The urge to destroy was always there, but this time it was coaxed by jealousy. It was coaxed by the coming of The Games that she would not be able to participate in.

She took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, consciously relaxing the Mana swirling within her. Even with three-quarters of it sealed away, this body could barely contain what little of her power remained. Kara had to mentally prevent the dam from breaking. It was an active effort, at all times. One impulsive thought was all it took for the mana to be set loose.

Such a release wouldn’t help anyone, least of all the people around her. She wasn’t an obscure corner of the world anymore, where mistakes costed nothing but her negligible progress in resurrection.

Shinkro. It was all because of him. He was supposed to be the most peaceful of all her brothers and sisters—he despised violence. He was supposed to be the naïve one of the family.

Ironic that he would be the one to kill her.

You only bring destruction, he said as he killed father and mother, sister and brother. You’re too dangerous, he yelled as he ran away with what was left of his minions.

Shinkro had succeeded in destroying the entire family. Even Kara herself. Well, her body, that was for certain. Her Soul, though? Most of it lived. She had put enough points into her Soul stat that even without a body she was able to keep herself from fading away.

According to her research, the state she was in was a rare one. Lordans were one of the few Sentient races capable of dual-wielding Life Force and Mana—usually, if someone trained one, they could not train the other. Life Force was made by the physical body, while Mana was made by the Soul. Without Life Force to trap the Soul in its dome, the Soul would just leave the body and break apart.

The concept was easy—because her class allowed her to convert Mana into Life Force, she was able to perpetually contain her Soul without a body providing continual Life Force. So, while she was probably one of the few people in existence that was able to survive the destruction of her body, her luck ended there. A body was needed to interact with the world.

The one she created over the past four decades barely held her Soul in place, thus signifying the end of her tale. She had come to this foul city to seek further knowledge but it seemed they knew little she had not already learned in her years as a Ranker.

So what now? She was a literal a shell of herself, a moving corpse with memories of grandeur.

And now, as the Game begins, I sit here with nothing, being no one, unable to do anything. Once this feeling would have excited me, the wrongness in the air that signals the coming of the Game. Now it is hollow, this body is incapable of properly enjoying the thrills of the game, of battle. I have become weak. So weak.

As emotion welled up in her, her song changed. Despair and hopelessness was something the Sylvia family was unaccustomed to. It was a weakness that clouded the mind, but Kara was too tired to fight it anymore. Everything amounted to nothing. All the training, all the years, just to end up playing the piano in some insignificant part of the world to sub-par mages and aristocrats.

She lifted her fingers from the keys, but the song continued. The familiar black tables manifested in her mind as the shaking in the air as the music reached a crescendo.

The Games have arrived. Some will lose, others will rise, and the mindless cycle will repeat. But for her, it didn't matter. She lost before it even began.

Congratulations!! Entering the game in an unnatural state of life has allowed you to become the first Life Siren in The Game's history!

Weep your songs upon the broken battlefield, for where Souls depart will be your greatest verse.

There is always a way.

You have lost the profession Grimoire Keeper. You have gained the profession Life Siren.

Kara couldn't help but chuckle. There is always a way. Skills, monsters, and mechanics changed from Game to Game, but those words were the only thing that did not. It was a phrase that could be dated back to the very first Games, long centuries ago.

She brought up her resource bars, and then immediately placed one hand around her ribs, afraid that her growing laughter would crack them.

Tell me, just what is the way for this?

Kara The Blind Mage

HP 0/0

STM 0/0

Overall STM 0/0

Life Force 0/0

Mana: 1800/450 (18/Minute)

Equilibrium: 5/5 (1/minute)