Kara stood on the Second District wall, overlooking the kingdom. The night did not hinder her. She extended forward with her sight. Being such a large distance away and at a vantage point, the different Life Force and Mana signals painted the battlefield in Kara’s head

She could easily imagine the ones that would use this chance to take out a business rival, or the soldier that would be able to feed their family if they did well enough. Growth, progress, desires. They were fighting for someone, for something. It was a beautiful sight.

By the time she fully repaired the Life Force Seals and purified her blood from the bone fragments, the Second Phase would be over. Considering she made some progress of her own with her Life Siren profession, she didn't feel too bad about leaving it early.

“Would you like a hot cup of tea?”

Kara tilted her head slightly, seeing Ron striding towards her. He held two cups in his hands, their steam clashing against the bitter air.

“Is that a question or statement?” Kara replied, sighing.

Ron smiled so widely that even she could sense it. “How goes the night?”

She'd thought things would get awkward, considering what she did to him, but apparently having three quarters his HP shaved off, not to mention the Injuries he got, wasn’t enough to get on his bad side. “No sign of hostiles,” she replied. The emptiness in front of her made reading Mana much easier. Anything oddly shaped or that moved with an irregular speed would be sensed well before it reached them.

Ron paused, cup half-way up, before giggling quietly. “I meant how you were looking up."

Kara’s eyebrows straightened. Weird kid. “Fine.”

“Careful, it’s hot."

“I can see that,” Kara lied as she promptly proceeded to burn her tongue on it. Instead of nerves, she begun using her Notes to feel more sensations. It wasn’t temperature, but it was something. The Note itself was the size of a fist, but after some practice, Kara was able to stretch them all over her body. It was a more accurate method to sense deformities in her body. Injuries, such as her knees, will become obvious once she tries to channel Mana, but it was better to know before she got to that point. Blowing off her limbs was not a fun way to find out.

It was not a perfect system, however. Notes couldn’t be damaged but the feedback did overload her senses. For a moment her Life Force and Mana became hazy. It made her flinch.

“I tol-”

“Don’t finish that,” Kara said, resisting the urge to toss him over the battlements. Sounds of battle could be heard far away. Her proficiency in Kinetic Mana allowed her to hear further than any creature could. The way sounds mixed and combined held its own beauty.

After a moment passed, Ron began to wiggle in place. It took a few more moments after that until he spoke again. "You have a lot of spirit, you know.”

"180 of it," Kara said, the words coming out faster than she could catch them.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Why do you say that?" Kara quickly said. Her stupid jokes would be the end of her.

"You...had such a painful injury, yet you didn't make a squeal," he said, leaning over the battlements. He looked down at the depthless darkness before them. He was unlikely to see anything.

"I've seen a lot of strong rankers quit the grind because of it. You are a ranker, right? You’re too strong not to be."

Ah. Kara realized. There was a skill for just about everything—everything but pain reduction. There were status effects that removed sensations, such as Berserk, but it was more of a loss of consciousness than anything else. This fact was one of her favorite things about The Game. Ranker or not, everyone suffered the same.

They could always choose the route Kara went and die in agony, become a grumpy shade, and then revert into something that was a reminiscence of their old selves, but most people wouldn’t prefer that.

"And you were even able to blow me away!" Excitement filled his voice as he leaned in. "To channel such a large amount of Mana under those conditions in such a short time! Oh, and sorry about that. You must have been in shock and all but I was the one that was panicking," he said in quick succession, stepping back when he noticed how close he had gotten.

Kara resigned herself inwardly. The misunderstanding kept growing, and she didn't even know where to untangle it. "It's alright. I overreacted... a bit," she said. After she had calmed down, she found her actions were slightly overboard. He lost on a great number of points because he tried to help.

He was wrong to butt his head into other people's business, of course, but still. Almost killing him for it was a step too far.

"I’m Ron The Iron Will, by the way. What’s your name?" he asked.

Oh boy. Introductions among rankers was a peculiar thing. Most were quick to perish, if not during the Phases, then during Dungeons. Because of the risks they must take to keep up with the pact, their fatality rate was actually higher than commoners. There were a thousand different ways to die, and very few to live. Every day of breath was a victory. It was a sadistic, cruel form of life that Kara had fallen in love with.

Asking for someone’s title was a sign of respect and admiration. Giving yours was a show of infamy. Doing both was an extension of comradery.

"Kara The…” The blind mage? The silent mage? None of them fit. “Defier. Kara The Defier.”

“I like that,” he said, nodding. “May I ask how you got it?”

“I defied something I wasn’t supposed to,” she said. “You?”

“I…it’s not that good, honestly.”

“Try me,” Kara said. Titles were obtainable upon performing amazing feats--they were always good. Her previous title, The Marauder granted her a guaranteed drop from killing Sentients that were within 30 levels of her. When people found this out, most of them surrendered when she hunted them. It was better for both parties. She took all their items, and they kept their lives.

It was a fair trade.

“When I was a kid, my father thought I couldn’t run 10 laps around the kingdom…”

“And?” Kara said. Did he double that to prove his abilities? It wasn’t life or death, but that would be impressive. Maybe his title allowed him to move or use Life Force even when they ran out for a duration.

“And I did…3,” he said, quickly sipping on his hot chocolate.

“That’s not even close,” Kara said, genuinely baffled. “That’s actually stupid. You could have calculated the distance you can run.”

He sniffed, muffling his whimpers before they came out. “I wasn’t very smart.”

“Well, it could have gone worse. At least you didn’t—”

“I passed out.”

“Never mind,” Kara said, giving up. It was amazing to do such a stupid thing, in a way.

"I told you so--again!"

Before Kara threw him overboard, a Game nonfiction interrupted her.

Defeated.

The Anima king has surrendered. The Second Phase ends with the victory of the Animus!

You have gained a grand total of 0 points.

Interesting score for the self-declared most powerful Sentient of the world.

“Well, that’s the end of that,” Kara said. She ignored the second notification--she spent enough decades agonizing about her mistakes. A couple mean words from the Game could do little harm to her at this point. Instead, watched intently as the kingdom calmed. In mere moments, the turbulent flow of mana and Life Force died down.

In a year or two, most people will forget this civil war ever occurred. After all, this was just child play compared to what horrors and wonders the Game is truly capable of creating.