An incessant, repetitive stinging announced itself on Riza’s forehead, rudely rousing her from slumber.

Bleary eyed and foggy mind, she stared aimlessly at the small bird bouncing up and down on her chest before clarity suddenly returned.

Shit. Shit shit shit. This bird could only mean one thing.

He’s here. The Guardian will be here at any moment. Do I ru- No. No more running.

She brushed herself off and scrambled to her feet, the air frigid and chilly. There was barely any light, the sun just cresting above the horizon. Her mind was still awash in the fugue of exhaustion and tiredness.

Man, what do I do? I-I have to wake up the others.

Lefie was right close by, practically sleeping on her during the night and, unsurprisingly, hadn’t woken up from Riza moving about.

She took a few good shakes but the reluctant girl finally awoke. Daven was far easier, a mere nudge and speaking of his name enough to raise the man.

“Wha-“

“He’s here!” Riza whispered harshly, a primal instinct telling her to keep quiet.

Daven’s eyes sharpened instantly. He gave a curt nod, collecting himself.

Lefie was barely there. It took time for her to wake up even on her good days.

No more running. I’m strong. I’m invincible. He can’t kill me. I can talk to him, and if I can’t…

She looked at Lefie, the girl who had stuck it with her through thick and thin.

And the Fyllopoi too. They don’t deserve to be constantly on the run, being hunted.

“You two will stay in this cave. Let me handle him,” Riza ordered. It was safer for them this way.

“Fine by me,” Daven responded.

“No. I’m going with you,” Lefie said, voice betraying the depths of her tiredness.

“You’re staying here. It’s safer that wa-“

“You’re not going alone. We’re a team!” Lefie passionately argued.

A large sigh left Riza’s lips. She didn’t have it in her to argue.

“You can come, but stay in the forest, near one of the emergency tunnels, alright? And don’t do anything unnecessary.”

Lefie nodded, seemingly happy with that arrangement.

The edge of the forest stood before her, the treeline cutting off sharply. Riza’s critters led the way directly from the cave all the way here.

Heart beating with the force of a train, she was in no rush to get here. She walked slowly and methodically, maintaining awareness all around her. The slightest bit of noise caught her attention.

Pushing past a bush, she stepped beyond the threshold of the forest, where open fields and rolling hills awaited her.

And a man, standing all by his lonesome a good hundred metres out. Even from this distance, he struck a striking figure.

Clad head-to-toe in thick, sturdy armour, he seemed more statue than human. Not one inch of skin could be seen.

Arms crossed, he had no visible weapons. He didn’t move a single centimetre as Riza began walking towards him.

She stopped about ten metres away. If he was as strong as she thought he was, an effective range of his skills were likely over a hundred metres anyway.

Only once Riza showed she wasn’t going to walk any closer did the man finally move, unlinking his arms and very slightly nodding his head.

“Hello, Riza,” He boomed, voice unnaturally loud. His armour was silent as he moved, looking like it was hardly a burden to carry.

Grey, metallic plates made up the bulk of his form, carefully form-fitted to his physique. In between those was what looked to be a flexible, black fabric of some kind. The plates were smooth and shiny, looking impossibly perfect.

His helmet was sharp and angular, the visor coming to a triangular point and with many vertical slits to see through. Beneath all that was what Riza could only describe as a black face mask. How odd. It was like someone cosplayed a knight.

“What do you want?” Riza shouted back, feeling infinitely weaker in how much more effort it took to project her voice compared to him.

First rule of negotiation: finding out what the other party want.

“Why, you, of course,” The man replied with levity. “We’re both aware that you’re too strong to live. Back when you were just another weak, insignificant girl, if you followed the Dominion’s teachings, the guidelines they laid out for you to survive and even prosper, this could’ve been prevented.”

Riza caught a sharp intake of breath as she desperately schooled her face to show no reaction. He’s talking about… Kratten?

“But no. You had to seize power for yourself. Was immortality not enough? Coming back from the brink of death over and over too little for your perverted, immoral, tiny brain? You had to trap the souls of those so close to salvation, to a new life, in their decaying husks of corpses?” His voice dripped with contempt and disdain powerful enough to shake Riza’s confidence.

“You’re messing with things beyond your understanding. The demons won’t take your insurgency in their territory lightly. The Empire won’t overlook your selfish corruption of its citizens. You have to learn that there are consequences to your actions.”

Before Riza could even speak, the man’s arm flashed through the air faster than she could even see.

One moment, she was standing in the middle of the field, the air moving in slow-motion through her lungs and out of her mouth.

The next, air whipped past her as she was sent flying backwards. An all-consuming spike of pain stabbed straight through her gut, pushing all air outwards, as pure yellow spear appeared within her.

The world changed in but a second, the blue sky replaced by barren trees and then a rocky overhang as an explosion of dust and debris filled her vision.

Unimaginable pain coursed through her, arcs of lightning licking her skin, burning her at unbelievable temperatures.

Her pierced, empty lungs were getting magically refilled over and over as she felt her skin rapidly repairing itself constantly.

She could barely focus on anything, her hand grasping wildly.

She finally had enough presence of mind to feel towards her, grasping the shaft of the spear. Lightning arced from it, biting at her hand and shocking it still momentarily.

She pushed through the paralysis of her nerves and muscles, coughing up blood that her lungs were continually expelling. Her entire front was coated with crimson.

With all the strength she could muster, Riza pulled herself along the spear, feeling it rake her insides with electricity. Her back arched with pain, but she kept going, pulling herself further and further along.

Finally, with one last, extraordinary push, she fell to the ground, free of impalement.

But she wasn’t done yet. Another arc of lightning stabbed through her foot, pinning her to the ground.

No conscious thought ran through Riza’s mind, just a primitive desire to escape.

Her fingers dug into the hard, stone ground as she crawled away from the weapon, leaving a bloody trail in her wake.

Once she was out of range of the errant lightning strikes, her arms finally gave out.

A second or two passed before she could finally think past the pain, activating [Heal].

Gasping, choking breaths pushed her onto her knees as wave after wave of blood left her mouth.

The pain subsiding, her brain was finally beginning to catch and realise what the fuck just happened.

A glance behind her showed the spear lodged into a… cave? It wasn’t there before.

Pieces of rock was exploding from the wall as arcs of lightning struck it, each probably strong enough to kill Riza in one hit.

She checked the cost of her next parasite, and her worst fears were realised.

That’s, that’s… Fuck! Ten, maybe fifteen, dead. One attack wiped out a sixth of my lives.

She was still gasping for air, her body drained of energy after that excruciating trial.

This was nothing compared to the destruction before her, however. She turned her head, looking at the remnants of the forest with horror.

There was nothing but burning stumps, charred land, and destroyed bodies before her. Acres of forest just… gone. Levelled. Nothing but ash.

That single attack could have wiped out a village, maybe even a city.

Realisation suddenly grasped her. Lefie.

Panic-stricken, Riza sent out a [Message] and [Inform], asking if the girl was alright, if she avoided the worst of the attack.

No response.

Her body collapsed again as she strangled a choked cry in her throat.

Closing her eyes, she focused on nothing, on [Meditate]. It was all she could do to not have her thoughts run in circles.

What was this level of power? Total destruction? Anxiety crept through, as well as fear. [Meditate] wasn’t enough to blind herself to the nature of reality.

This was an incomprehensible level of power. And it was targeted at her.

Her body refused to move, to get closer to the source of it all. How could she fight this? She couldn’t even see the attack!

Was everything that she could do futile?

She opened her eyes and looked at the forest before her. This was the Fyllopoi’s home and now it was just… gone.

What if they were still here? The entire tribe, dead, because of the arrogance of one man. All the animals living in this forest, actually dead.

And Lefie…

He complained about Riza using her powers irresponsibly? That there were consequences for her actions?

With a groan, Riza pulled herself to her feet. Her health may have been full but her stamina sure wasn’t, the attack taking more out of her than anything had ever done. She had even needed to use [Heal+] to top herself up.

In the distance, the man hadn’t even moved at all, standing exactly where he was minutes earlier.

She needed to get close to him, close enough for [Leech] to work, and even closer for [Range Compression] as well.

[Leech] (10/10)+ -Learned

Drain 20020 points of health from a living entity

20m range

Cost: 70 es/sec

If she only had one second, that was 20,000 points of damage. Was that enough?

Riza thought of Daven and Sanders. Even focused on spirit, their total essence was around 55,000. It was possible, although the man gave no indication as to what his stats were.

Lightning like Lefie’s but a spear like Meren? Not to mention what looked like quite heavy armour as well. He was a total enigma.

Riza stared at the man in the distance.

He’s so far away. She needed a way to get closer, a way to block his spear.

Intrinsic Tank Excess Capacity 0 m3 Gas Ratio Density (kg/m3) Volume (m3) Mass (kg) Nitrogen 0.02 1.25 15.36 19.20 Oxygen 0.01 1.43 3.84 5.49 Pure Essence 0.97 22.84 652.80 14909.95

In her preparations, she had replaced most of the breathable air for fog, the only substance she could use [Manipulate Air] on.

Gas was compressible. The density was just the natural state of fog but she could compress it, make it denser. Denser than trees and stone.

Deep breath. Riza knew it was unlikely to work but she had to try something.

Resigned, she began to walk towards the man, gradually expelling all the fog through her hand behind her back, squeezing it into a ball with [Manipulate Air].

The man didn’t move, didn’t react, as she walked towards him. Was she outside his effective range?

This walk felt oddly… familiar. It reminded her of some of the forests back home, away from the cities and left to rot and decay by an uncaring world.

Only once she was past the edge of what used to be the forest, did the man make his move.

Further away this time, she could barely see his arm move through all the motions of throwing a spear in an instant.

Normally, she couldn’t react to that in time, like trying to dodge a bullet from a gun.

But her senses were faster. A sudden pull stronger than anything she had felt before tugged her gaze towards the man, her arm moved instinctually as she whipped her hand around in front of her, the swirling ball of fog rapidly expanding into a Riza-sized wall.

A nanosecond later, the spear made contact.

A concussive blast of air knocked Riza to her ass, ripping the grass from the ground and deafening her.

Lightning arcs around the fog wall to lick her, a single bolt knocking off half her health as she pushed through the pain and scrambled back.

“-pressive. Not many can walk away from my spear and even fewer can block it entirely,” She heard the man shout as her hearing began to return with the aid of [Heal].

The lightning stopped and Riza could feel the spear vanish instantly, its glowing spot of power gone from her esoteric sense.

Tentatively, she peeled back the top edge of her defensive wall, prepared to duck down as fast as she could, to see the man standing before her.

Still out of range.

“Full of tricks aren’t you. Let’s play a game: the first one to hit the other wins!” The man spoke calmly yet his voice carried perfectly.

Once again, he moved before Riza could visually understand what was happening but her senses picked up the slack, the fog wall popping right back into place perfectly.

The spear arced towards her in a perfect line and then, at the last nanosecond before impact, it curved above the fog, the spear bending in a way no spear should bend, and landed right in Riza’s stomach.

Pain blossomed behind her eyes as a slideshow of reality ran past her, rocky walls suddenly appearing as she was ten metres in the ground and barely conscious.

Even as her mind was struggling to come to, her body knew what was happening, already grasping the shaft of the spear as lightning charged her body.

Her hands pulled herself up along the spear shaft once again, coating the thing in blood.

Her feet slipped on the stone as her fingers struggled to find handholds to pull herself with.

Her body went slack as she dropped to the ground, fully free of the spear.

[Heal] after [Heal] restored both her health and stamina as Riza struggled to climb the crumbling slope of rocks, stones, and dirt left in the wake of the attack, still maintaining concentration on [Manipulate Air] somehow.

She could sense the fog, still in its perfect wall shape.

The few seconds it took to climb felt like hours, the arduous journey made harder by the lightning that continuously sapped her health. She was down who knew how many parasites.

Finally, her head peeked over the cusp of the earth, seeing both her fog and the man right where she left them. He was inscrutable in his armour but she could bet he was laughing at her.

Maybe-Maybe I can play along. She tiredly thought, flopping onto the ground from exhaustion, both mental and physical.

Her muscles ached in lieu of her stamina.

“Why… Why don’t you… come closer. Beat me… like a man,” Riza sent a [Message].

She was breathing hard, her primitive brain amazed she was still alive. Knowing the fog wouldn’t help any more, she sucked it all back into [Intrinsic Tank]

Tilting her head, she watched as the man displayed no reaction to receiving the [Message] until he abruptly began walking towards her.

Yes!

She had planned to maybe come up with something but before she knew it, the man was right beside her, looking down with what Riza could only imagine was a look of utter contempt.

“Why-“ Riza attempted to talk, immediately after strangling a scream of pain as the man stomped down hard on her hand, definitely breaking all of her boots under his metal boot.

“You don’t get to talk,” He spat at her.

She could hardly think consciously. As she [Healed], the pain returned right away as her bones were broken anew. In fact, it just made things worse.

Eyes moistening, Riza focused on [Meditate] to get through the pain.

“Why did you do this? Why choose this path?”

Through hurried, panicked breaths, Riza tried to respond.

“No, no, no,” The man cut her off by stamping down on her arm, breaking the bones in two this time.

A blood-curdling scream left Riza’s mouth, not even [Meditate] enough to stop it.

In one, scarce moment of conscious, rational thought, she realised he was finally in range, finally close enough for [Leech] to do something.

[Leech] (10/10)+ -Learned

Drain 25872 points of health from a living entity

2m range

Cost: 70 es/sec

And nothing. The man didn’t even react. No essence was consumed. It was like the skill didn’t even activate in the first place.

Any vague feeling of hope of confidence vanished in that instance.

All that was left was despair as the man grounded his foot down into her broken arm, drawing out another whimper of pain.

“What’s with that look? Did you try something and it didn’t work? Oh, what a shame,” He taunted with glee.

Riza’s mind was like a run-away train, completely out of control.

Her head rolled over to the side, looking back towards what was left of the forest. Somewhere, in there, was Lefie, all alone.

The thought swirled around in her head and before she knew it, her one free hand had curled up in a fist and with all her strength, she reached over and punched the man’s leg as hard as she could.

“That’s the best you could do?” The man said, not even moving from the attack. “You’re weak. Pathetic. Not even worth my attention.”

To punctuate the end of his sentence, the man stepped off Riza but then immediate kicked her in the side, cracking multiple ribs and piercing her lung as she flew through the air, hitting the ground hard and rag-dolling like a corpse.

She bounced and rolled another few metres, kicking up a trench before she finally came to a stop, barely conscious.

[Heal] solved that issue, the remnants of the pain still fresh in her head.

The man was back on her in an instant, crossing that distance like it was just a hop, skip, and jump away.

With a gauntleted hand, his fingers reached around her throat and dug in an uncomfortable amount as he lifted her limp body off the ground.

“You really are quite remarkable, able to survive all of this. Most people would either be dead or too strong to truly feel the pain that I’m inflicting, but not you.

“You’re worse than that. You hide your soul in pests, prolonging your life while still letting you feel every ounce of pain and suffering I’m inflicting upon you. And I can thank you for that. This wouldn’t be nearly as fun if you were smarter.”

Air whipped by Riza for less than a second, her whole body breaking instantly as a shower of rubble rose and then fell back onto her, a mini-crater made by the slamming of her back into the ground.

She could feel her skull break and compress, popping back out as her brain instantly reformed and her health ticked up the slightest amount by the consumption of a parasite.

Her whole body felt numb to the pain by this point. She spat out blood at her lungs instantly inflated, her ribs bending back into place.

“How long will it take to truly kill you, I wonder.” She couldn’t even see him, his hand blocking her sight.

Her body was practically as light as a feather to him. Riza felt herself being lifted up and then slammed back down, another life lost.

Is this it? Is this how I die? An attempted chuckle turned into a gurgle of blood. It’s completely out of my hands. Literally.

Her whole body reverberated with the ground as she was crushed into it once more, her bones breaking like twigs.

The man was talking, probably mocking her, but she heard none of it.

Memories of her past flashed before her eyes. The image of her parents, so stern and strict, was the most prominent.

As soon as she was born, she was a second-class child, forever following in her sister's footsteps. The schools she went to, same as her sister. What she studied, the same as her sister. No choice, no agency.

They had her whole life planned out for her, even setting her up exclusively with ‘nice boys’ with stable jobs and good connections.

Some part of her felt ridiculous as these thoughts floated through her head as she was quite literally being pulverised over and over again.

And then, it stopped. The gauntlet rose from her face as the blurry world showed itself to her, the man standing before her.

She didn’t even know his name.

Groaning out a breath, the man looked almost surprised she was still alive.

“Wow. You really must’ve tortured a lot of souls to have this many dying to keep you alive.”

He nudged her with his foot, searing hot pain coursing through her even with the gentlest thing he’s done yet.

Blood surrounded Riza’s mouth, covering her face. Her eyes were glazed over, not focusing on anything, even him.

For a moment, the man seemed to falter. He crouched down, bringing himself closer to Riza.

“The depths you went to is truly quite remarkable. All of this,” He gestured out towards the forest, towards the mountain. “You caused all of this. Remember that.”

Riza’s arm rose weakly, barely a few inches off the ground, before flopping back down.

“What are you without your ‘prized weapon’? Just a sack of meat that doesn’t die.” He poked her head, like she was a child. “You’re a leech. Haven’t you ever thought about how ironic it is that you rely on such a fitting skill?

“Think of all the people you have killed. Hotton? That demon wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for you.

“Do you remember the quarry? All the people who were there? Dead. Slaughtered by the demons who were angered so much by what you did there.

“Your… acquaintances,” He gestured at the forest again.

“And then, all the demons. All the animals. Everything you’ve killed, siphoning their strength for your own. Was it worth it? When this is how it ends?

“I’ll do you a favour. I’ll make it so it can never happen again. So you can never be a leech again.”

An overwhelming sense of dread settled with his last sentence.

The man reached with both hands towards her head, the ends of his fingers sharpened to a point. The tips dug into the sides of Riza’s face, her cheeks, as his forms cut a line down across her brows, pressing harder and harder as the pain slowly elevated.

Her vision was eclipsed by his form as she began to press down into her eye sockets, digging in unrelentingly.

The pain skyrocketed as her eyes burned with the fire of hell itself.

The man’s fingers dug trenches in her sky, all joining his form around her eye, penetrating her socket as well,

It was unbearable. [Heal] was doing all it could to lessen the feeling, even maximised and on continuously like it was.

And then, not even the worst of it happened. The pointy tips reached the back of her eye socket, and her brain went numb. Incapable of thought, just a machine to cast [Heal] indefinitely.

The man’s fingers dig around for a second, trying to get a grip, until finally connecting.

One second, Riza sees the darkness of his hand. The next, nothing, as her eyeball is ripped from its optical nerve, a trail of blood splattering along her face as [Heal] is the only thing keeping her awake and not comatose.

There was nothing in the eye anymore. Nor darkness, no sight, nothing. Riza’s vision was entirely overwhelmed by her last remaining eye, and [Heal] wasn’t bringing it back.

As the man dug for the second eye, Riza’s panicked mind ran through every skill available to her, looking for one that even might do something.

As she saw each one, a deluge of information accompanied them.

The forest. Waking up, a dagger stuck in her side, the first boar she killed. All were fresh in her memory as she looked at [Leech].

Then she saw [Cleanse]. The fog. The way it ate at her bones, chunked off her health. She couldn’t heal it.

Then Sylan, in Kratten. Healing and helping the people with essence poisoning. Nobody wanted to get close to the fog.

Skipping over every other skill, Riza darted to [Intrinsic Tank] pulling on it as she felt her other eye being pulled from its socket as well.

The world disappeared before her as she felt the draw of essence, fog filling up the crater perfectly.

Coughing and then screaming followed. Riza could feel vibrations from the man’s worried steps backwards.

She felt the sudden, intense energy that meant a spear was summoned, emanating heat hot enough to boil a person alive.

It wasn’t even a second until the air ignited around her, a concussive explosion of fire torching her body as the very flammable fog exploded.

The ground shook and broke apart, Riza’s organs pummelled by the shockwave.

And then it was over, the damage intense but quick.

Then there was nothing. Riza’s vision didn’t return. [Heal] nor [Parasite] was able to bring it back.

But she heard nothing, as well. Felt nothing. No man, no spear, no demon. There was nothing but Riza.