{One Year Later}

The western horizon lay painted in hues of crimson as the sun began its descent, casting elongated shadows over the rugged terrain.

A group of adventurers, led by a seasoned, Rank C warrior named Captain Thorne, traversed the narrow path that led to the beleaguered village. Among them, a young boy named James clutched the hilt of a basic, iron shortsword, his eyes wide with both fear and excitement.

A couple of others were there with them. A girl with a bow on her back that James didn't know too well, and James's brother standing next to him.

The air grew tense as the distant echoes of chaos reached their ears. Captain Thorne raised a hand, signaling the group to halt. He met everyone with a reassuring smile.

"Listen up, lads," the captain spoke in a low, steady voice. "We're approaching the village. Ghouls are nasty creatures, but stick close and follow my lead. We'll get through this."

"Pissed yourself yet?" James's brother asked him in a mischievous whisper.

"Fuck off, Bam..."

His brother slapped his back reassuringly.

"Can't wait to get started!" Bam clapped his hands together. "I'm aching for some action!"

"You'll get it," the captain replied. "But, try not to lose focus."

"Ugh, I wish I could have eaten a little more on the way here... I'm starving." That girl rubbed her stomach in circles, as though to illustrate the point. Her bunny-like ears looked slumped.

"Hold out a little while longer, Keisha. This'll be over faster than you think."

James nodded, his small fingers tightening around his sword. The group resumed their journey, the rhythmic clinking of armor and hushed whispers filling the air. The village lay nestled between the hills, its buildings silhouetted against the dying embers of sunlight.

As they got closer, it all became visible.

Shadows draped themselves along the outskirts of Eldermare, the malevolent presence of the Ghouls manifesting as tendrils of dark mist. The moon, a silent witness to the unfolding struggle, cast its silvery glow on the landscape. It was a night where the boundary between the ethereal and the corporeal blurred. From this spot, the group began hearing the sounds of ongoing combat.

"Element of surprise," Captain Thorne murmured, holding a hand up signaling for stealth. "Element of surprise."

The adventurers moved with deliberate steps, their boots making almost no sound on the cobblestones. Eyes, gleaming with anticipation, scanned the surroundings, every flicker of movement scrutinized in the moonlit darkness.

The echoes of the ongoing attack grew even louder, a timbre of despair that refused to be silenced.

Captain Thorne's hand clenched the hilt of his longsword, a silent acknowledgment of the imminent clash. Keisha pulled her bow out, nocking an arrow, Bam held up his mace and shield, and James unsheathed his short sword.

The adventurers, expressions tense but determined, faced the Ghouls. Shadows swirled, and the skirmish erupted, an intricate dance between the corporeal and the ephemeral.

Within another couple of minutes, the group was standing on the edge of the battlefield. Fragments of mist collided with steel up ahead, and the air was thick with the acrid scent of Essence. The struggle permeated every cobblestone, every garden, every street as the Ghouls sought to consume the village's very essence.

Finally, they joined the fray.

"AAAGH!" Bam cried out heartily as he ran up to the closest ghoul and slammed his mace into its ghastly body.

Keisha began launching arrows. Captain Thorne took one ghoul on and began facing it methodically, taking his time to kill it through calculated swings and parries as it tried to sink its teeth into him.

James ended up standing in front of one, about five meters away from it, all on his own.

It was his first time seeing one such creature. An actual, genuine monster in the flesh.

The ghoul appeared like a skeleton with some of its rotted skin still left on it, exuding dark, purple-black smoke coming out of every orifice and gap in its bony body.

James had never been more terrified.

"Aaaaeehhh..." The ghoul gave a haunting hiss as it stepped forward.

Slowly, it sped up. One step at a time, it sped up further and further until it was now running straight at him.

As the ghoul advanced, its skeletal form encased in swirling dark mist, James felt an overwhelming surge of fear. His hands trembled, the sword he held threatening to slip from his grasp. The ghoul's haunting hiss echoed in his ears, each step it took sending shivers down his spine.

As his dread reached a fever pitch, a figure materialized from the corner of his eye.

A dark silhouette against the moonlit night, the newcomer moved with an otherworldly fluidity. The only part of her that James caught before she fully moved in front of him were her eyes, a mesmerizing amber, gleaming with an intensity that seemed to pierce through the darkness itself.

With a swift, powerful motion, the figure lunged forward carrying nothing but her own fists into the fight.

Clad in tight, black armor that seemed to absorb the ambient shadows, the mysterious warrior intercepted the ghoul's path with a fist to its head. A clash between the ghoul's bones and the stranger's gauntlet-clad knuckles ensued, the clash echoing through the village.

James stood frozen, his eyes wide with awe and uncertainty.

The stranger fought with a determination and ferocity that almost made her look like a monster all on her own. Each strike, each evasive maneuver, was executed with a precision that let James know there was a gap as wide as a canyon between his level of experience and hers.

One more fist landed and James outright gasped as the girl's right hand went straight through the enemy's head.

The ghoul fell, but before its body had even hit the ground the stranger was on her way to the next opponent.

The valiant defense, suddenly led by the mysterious warrior, was short-lived now that she'd arrived.

As the battle unfolded, James couldn't help but just stand there and watch.

[Who is she?]

---

With the fall of the last ghoul, the once tense atmosphere now carried a sense of relief as Eldermare emerged from the shadows of danger.

That lady, whose raven hair was so long it almost flowed behind her back with the wind like a cape, stood in the middle of the street. The eyes of every surviving villager and many of the warriors were fixed on her.

The mysterious warrior breathed a sigh of relief and the aura of intensity that had surrounded her gradually faded. She turned toward the group, revealing her amber eyes that gleamed like the moonlight.

Then, she gave them all an oddly warm smile.

"Hi!" She cheerfully greeted every onlooker. "I was just passing through and saw you folks could use a hand. I hope you're all okay!"

A collective murmur of awe and curiosity rippled through the group. The other adventurers eyed her, a mixture of relief and gratitude in their expressions. James, still processing the recent events, took a hesitant step forward.

"I-I'm James," he stammered, still holding his sword tightly. "Um... thank you for saving us."

"No problem," she replied, her tone casual. "Glad I could help out. Now, what do you all say we clean up this mess?"

With a swift and practiced motion, she bent down and started collecting the remains of the defeated ghouls. The villagers moved to help out as the woman said that some graves would need to be dug for both the monsters and the fallen humans.

"Excuse me," Captain Thorne stepped up to her as she dumped a pile of bodies into one ditch. "Are you an adventurer?"

"Yep," she replied. "Rank B, at your service."

A look of surprise fell upon Thorne's face. James noted that it was the first time since he'd met the man earlier today that he looked shaken.

James never could have imagined him making a face like this when he first walked up and asked him and his brother if they wanted to come and help with this mission. It was unthinkable.

"Is that so? Well, I'm glad we had here you to help."

The other adventurers hesitated for a moment before joining in, following the lady's lead.

"I'm glad I caught up in time!" The amber-eyed woman laughed. "It's kinda funny that a lot of you guys got here before I did."

"What do you mean?" Keisha asked hands on her hips.

"I mean, I started walking here the instant the mission was given out. Still, lots of you managed to beat me to it!" She laughed a little louder.

[Wow.]

James didn't make much of that. For some reason, however, a strange tension suddenly settled among them.

[Uh...?]

"Did you walk here from Libera?" Thorne asked.

"Yep." The lady popped the "p" in that quick reply, that smile still on her face.

"Ah, well, shame we didn't meet on the way. We must have seen the notice around the same time."

"Maybe," she replied. "I do doubt it, though... Given that I literally saw the notice get put on the board." She began walking from side to side. "I was relaxing in the Liberan guild hall when the notice got put up and took the mission on the spot. don't know, I don't really remember seeing you guys in the guild."

James had something helpful to offer when he heard that.

"Uh, we didn't get the mission from a notice."

A deep silence instantly settled in the village.

All eyes fell on James in an instant. He felt so much smaller all of a sudden.

The woman, however, walked toward him with great kindness on her face.

"Really?" She asked, softly. "How did you know this attack was happening, then?"

"Captain Thorne told us," Bam stepped in. "We were in the guild this morning and he, and Keisha," Bam pointed at them, "said an attack was underway, and asked if we wanted to make some money defending against it. We said 'sure' and uh, we'd been walking to the village ever since."

"Is that so?" the woman's golden eyes shifted to Thorne. "Well, I'm sure everyone here is very thankful that you had that kind of foresight."

"..." Thorne remained perfectly silent. The hand resting on the hilt of his sword was completely frozen, and tight.

"By the way," the lady said, "I guess I should probably introduce myself at this point. Name's Rin," she said. "Rin Asahiro."

"Oh," James said, stepping forward. "Nice to-"

Thorne dashed forward.

In a blink, he'd unsheathed his blade and aimed it at RIn's throat. James's breath caught in his throat.

Rin leaned to the right, moving out of the blade's way. Then, her left fist was infused with Essence and she punched forward, a fist aimed straight at Thorn's gut.

The fist went straight through him.

It happened so quickly that James didn't truly register it until after Rin had dealt the killing blow.

Thorne's blade hit the dirt. Rin retrieved her fist.

Bam and James were both shocked. Keisha, and certain others among the adventurers, looked angry.

"Xhez, who else just happened to know the future?"

[W-What? Who is-]

A figure appeared next to Rin.

Like a veil of shadows had been taken off her, a woman with blue skin and hair-like blue tendrils on her head materialized out of thin air.

"That one, that one, and that one," the creature, clearly not a human, spoke coldly, pointing at some of the adventurers. Keisha was one of them.

"You, you, and you," Rin confirmed, pointing at them all as well. With that same smile, one that retained all of its warmth but now had a dark, murderous edge to it, she asked, "would any of you like to offer an explanation or can I skip straight to taking your heads off?"