Serenity and Lancaster were both bitten repeatedly. Serenity was pretty sure this Tutorial would have no risk of transmitting vampirism of any variety, but he knew he’d be checking both of them carefully when they finally got off the level.

It was the vampiric dog pack that eventually drove the group to take shelter inside a building. There were enough dogs that it just wasn’t worth trying to keep moving forward. They weren’t making progress anyway, and knew they would need time to find a room they could defend and clear, so they’d have a place to sleep.

They didn’t have much choice in buildings, so they picked the first one they found with a door they could enter through. It led to a maintenance area filled with large objects shrouded in shadow. The lights didn’t work, but they pushed forward to find a better place to stop and defend.

“AHH! NO! OW!” Serenity was at the other end of the room when he heard Rissa cry out from behind.

She’d somehow fallen behind everyone else, then tripped. There was a vampire leaning over her, and another that had just pressed its hand onto her back, holding her down. They must have been behind the equipment and come out when she tripped. If the vampires had been more intelligent, he’d have guessed that they might even have tripped her deliberately to separate her from the group.

There was no way he could get there in time.

There was a reason he’d felt safer on this level than others. That feeling of safety had just bitten them, but there were still options.

Serenity gathered his Death Affinity, infused it with the knowledge of his Death Concept, and reached out to command the undead. “STOP.” It didn’t have the power of the Final Reaper and there were no Path Skills backing it up, but it should still stop almost anything here.

One of the two vampires - the one leaning over Rissa - turned and looked at him, then froze in place.

The other one bared its fangs and leaned lower. “Mine.”

It was the first intelligent one they’d seen. It probably HAD set a trap, and they’d fallen right into it.

Another command might work, but it clearly wasn’t guaranteed. He only had one guaranteed option left.

Serenity threw everything he had at his Death Affinity. He needed his Aspect, and this was the only way he’d thought of to open it. He just hadn’t intended to do so until he was in a place with a much higher concentration of Death magic, and preferably alone. There wasn’t a good place in the Tutorial.

He was pretty sure he could contain it to only risk himself, and he’d rather be undead again than lose anyone he’d pledged to support.

Especially Rissa.

As he was thinking that, he could feel the seal over his Death Aspect shift. He needed to grab the vampires’ power, steal it from them. He didn’t have the control right now to command them, so destroying them was the best option. He shoved again and the seal ripped loose.

His Aspect felt like a black hole, pulling everything he was into itself.

He directed it at the vampires over Rissa. They were pulled in, and he saw them dissolve into dust.

Now that his Aspect was directed outside himself, he could feel it eating all of the Death energy outside himself. For a moment, he saw each undead creature as it died for the final time.

For a moment, Rissa was sure she was dead. This had to be the death she’d forseen, first as Serenity’s grief then a short flash of her own future. Pinned to the ground, her neck torn out.

Then she heard Serenity shout, and the weight on her back was gone. She started to get up and looked towards her man.

He was standing with a hand reaching out to her, but she didn’t think he saw her.

His eyes were completely black.

She felt something flow into her, then back out. It hurt, and she let herself drop back to the ground.

Why hadn’t she told him? He’d saved her once, why hadn’t she trusted him to save her again?

Now he had, even without her warning, but she had the feeling it was going to cost him.

And that cost was all her fault.

Serenity felt the last of the undead on the level die and be sucked into the endless need that was his Aspect. He knew it wasn’t truly endless, but at that moment it felt that way.

There had been far more undead on the level than he’d ever imagined. They’d also been more powerful than he’d expected. One group of them had definitely been the “hidden boss”, and he had no idea how an ordinary group was supposed to handle it.

At a guess, it wasn’t intended for an ordinary group.

They’d tackled the entire city wrong. They should have been far more careful, and worked their way forward slowly, establishing lit safe zones during the day that could be easily defended at night. Trying to move at night had been stupid. That was how he’d have handled it if he had to assault a true city turned to undeath, not this stupid charge for the end.

It was his fault. He’d been too confident he could handle it if things went wrong, so he’d made choices that meant he had to.

Serenity felt his Aspect reach for something that wasn’t there. It wanted more power. He felt it ripple across his friends and then himself. His friends were unconscious, but it still looked like it was painful for them. He needed to get farther away from them.

It was painful for Serenity, too. Each time his Aspect twitched, it felt worse. He wasn’t sure what the final result would be. The best would be that it would settle down, but that seemed unlikely since it was still getting worse. Most likely, he’d be undead. At worst - well, he needed to get farther from his friends. That way, maybe he could make the worst solution be his own death and not theirs as well.

As he headed away from his friends, there was one option he realized he needed to consider. The level crystal should be able to finish his core. With that, he ought to be able to get a Path. Maybe between the two, that would be enough to save him.

It was the best option he had, so he headed towards the only death magic he could still sense. It had to be the level crystal.

It was hours later when Moira was woken up by the light coming in from outside. She ached all over, but it was a familiar ache; it reminded her of after she woke up from what she thought of as “the monster core incident”. She seemed to be fine, other than a surprisingly large increase in her Death affinity.

Everyone was there except for Serenity. She could feel him vaguely in the distance. He seemed calm, so she figured that everything was fine, or at least as fine as it could be. She could wait.

It was a good time to make tea. It was too bad she didn’t have any aspirin to go with it; a painkiller would have been helpful. She tried a healing potion, but it didn’t do anything. The pain eased with time and as she moved around. She was still tired, but she wanted to leave the dungeon before she slept more.

As the others woke, they seemed to feel the same aches and tiredness Moira did. None of the others had had Death affinity before, but they all had it now. Echo made a joke about being around Serenity being the best way she’d heard of to gain Affinity. Rissa didn’t react well to that. She seemed more distraught than Moira had expected.

“He’s fine.” Moira couldn’t help but reassure Rissa.

“Then why isn’t he here? Something has to be wrong.”

“I’m sure we’ll find out when we catch up to him. It looks like he’s gone on ahead.” Moira finished packing up and they left the building, headed towards Serenity.

The level core was inside a building. Rissa was glad they hadn’t had to fight their way to it; it was a maze of tight corridors interspersed with large rooms with lots of places for monsters - vampires! - to hide. Rissa really didn’t want to see any more vampire jumpscares. Ever. They weren’t funny anymore.

When they reached the room it was in, they found an empty pedestal, two chests, Serenity’s gear, and a very large black egg with a few white splotches leaning against the backpack. “But … where’s Serenity?” Rissa just couldn’t believe he was gone, but he wouldn’t have left his gear behind.

Moira pointed at the egg.

The egg was as tall as Rissa’s waist. She’d assumed it was an extra reward, a pet or something. It was Serenity? It wasn’t nearly big enough for him.

It didn’t seem possible, yet … his stuff was here, and Moira had led them here without any detours. She had to accept that Moira knew more than she did, right now.

I know what I didn’t tell you. What didn’t you tell me?

Rissa knelt down and put her hand on the egg. It felt like an egg. “I’ll be waiting here for a while. For however long this takes.” She hadn’t meant to cry. She didn’t feel sad, did she? Yet there were tears running down her face.