The darkness was absolute.
Not the darkness of night-at least at night there is a sky.
Here there was nothing.
No floor beneath my feet. No body. No breath.
I felt no pain.
I felt no cold.
Only emptiness.
And somewhere in that emptiness, a voice sounded.
It didn't sound in my ears. It didn't sound inside me.
It simply was.
"Wanderer…"
The word flared up and immediately crumbled to ashes.
I tried to grasp its meaning-and failed. It was as if the memory of it had slipped away before it had a chance to take shape.
"Vessel… carrier… spark…"
Each phrase crumbled like dry ash.
"You walked through the cold… and did not become ice."
The voice was ancient. Ancient, precisely-old age implies time.
But this voice was timeless.
"You have accomplished a truly worthy feat."
I tried to understand-who was speaking?
God? A demon? Spire? The world itself?
But every time a thought neared an answer, it faded, as if someone were blowing out a candle.
"Now a great path awaits you."
A pause.
The darkness around me trembled almost imperceptibly.
"Within you burns that which this world could not freeze."
The word "burns" did not disappear.
It remained imprinted in my mind.
A tiny speck of light.
Somewhere inside.
"The flame asks for no permission."
"The wind does not yield."
"Ashes consume themselves to shine."
I felt warmth emerging from within the emptiness.
First, a tiny spark.
Then a coal.
The light grew stronger.
The darkness began to recede.
A pause.
And the final phrase rang out clearly, like the toll of a bell.
"Rise, Ashen Wanderer"
And then I saw him.
My Essence.
Not a beast.
A man in a dark mask, though it was hard to make out what it looked like. But I saw it: a black, smoldering mask with large teeth and small onyx horns resembling those of a deer.
Behind him, wings of black fire spread out - not blazing, but absorbing light. Flames flowed over his body, not burning, but shaping it. Armor was forged from the heat - smooth, leathery, black, as if cut from darkness itself and hardened in fire.
The fire did not destroy him.
He was the fire.
And that meant he was me, too.
And in the center of my chest, a flame ignited - even, deep, endless.
The darkness scattered.
----------------------------------------------------------
I can't feel my legs.
After the mental attack, the world felt like fragile glass.
I saw the White King tearing through space.
I felt that horror-a coldness that has no temperature.
When the pressure subsided, I fell into the snow.
And I saw the hooved giant walking toward Oscar.
I tried to scream.
But I couldn't.
I tried to get up.
My body wouldn't obey.
I saw him running on one leg, using the axe as a crutch.
How Oscar was thrown back by the shockwave.
How he scrambled up the tree, gritting his teeth.
My heart was pounding as if it wanted to burst out of my chest.
"Get up…" I whispered to myself.
He jumped.
I will remember that jump forever.
Desperate. Mad. The only option.
I saw him plunge the sword in.
How it was tossed from side to side.
How he held on, despite the pain.
When the blade pierced the monster's head, she knew-he had won.
When they fell-I realized the price might be too high.
With difficulty, clinging to the rocks, she crawled over to him.
The monster lay dead.
Oscar-motionless.
Blood on his lips.
His chest barely rose.
"No… no, no…"
My voice trembled.
I turned him over carefully.
Warm.
But too still.
"You can't… do you hear me?.. You can't end it like this…"
My eyes stung.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd cried.
At the academy? Or before that?
Tears fell onto his face, mixing with blood. Why am I even crying over him?
And then I felt warmth.
Faint at first.
Then-growing stronger.
"Oscar…?"
His skin began to glow from within.
As if a bonfire were burning beneath his skin.
The heat intensified.
I recoiled when the flames flared up.
He was on fire.
Literally.
Black fire engulfed his body.
I screamed, thinking he was burning alive.
But there was no smell of burning flesh.
His skin wasn't charring.
The fire did not consume.
It created.
Ash flowed over his body, forming lines.
Black leather armor emerged layer by layer-as if someone were forging it directly onto his living flesh.
Torn clothing vanished in the flames.
Wounds closed before his eyes.
His chest straightened.
The blood evaporated.
The fractures mended with a quiet, dry crack.
The flames rose higher, flaring up behind him like wings.
And slowly died down.
Leaving him lying in the snow.
Unscathed.
In new black armor.
And a mask hiding his face-it was unnaturally hard to look at that mask, as if my brain refused to remember what it looked like, so it remained a blur in my memory.
His breathing became steady.
I stared at him, unable to move.
Fear.
Relief.
Awe.
And something else.
What I had just witnessed wasn't just a victory.
I had witnessed the birth of something else.
And when his fingers twitched ever so slightly, I whispered:
"Oscar… you're alive after all."
----------------------------------------------------------
Cold.
The first thing I felt was the cold of the snow against my back.
The second was warmth.
Someone was standing over me.
I opened my eyes.
Scarlett was sitting over me, resting her knees directly in the snow. Her face-usually composed and stern-was now bewildered. Her eyes were shining.
"Oscar…" Her lips trembled.
I blinked.
I tried to breathe.
And the world exploded.
Not literally.
With information.
It poured into my head like a burst dam.
Essences. Symbols. Concepts I'd never known-but understood. Words without language. Structures. Flows. Something about mana. About vessels. About ranks. About cores. About the Spire. About the fact that we're not just people anymore. He's watching. He's waiting.
Pain pierced my skull as if a red-hot wedge were being driven inside.
I groaned and clutched my head.
I doubled over.
Nausea rose to my throat.
"Hey, hey! Calm down! Can you hear me?" Scarlett's voice was somewhere far away.
I could see her lips, but the words were drowned out by the roar.
The essence is awakened.
The core is formed.
New epithets are bestowed.
Every thought sounded like someone else's, yet it was my own voice speaking.
I closed my eyes tightly.
It felt as though my brain couldn't take it anymore and was about to burst.
The seconds dragged on forever.
Gradually, the flow began to subside.
It didn't disappear-it just became… deeper. Quieter. As if the information had settled, taken its place.
I was breathing heavily.
The snow beneath me began to melt from my own body heat.
After a couple of minutes, I was able to focus my gaze.
Scarlett was holding me by the shoulders.
"Can you even see me?" Anger, masking fear, seeped through her voice.
"I can see…" I replied hoarsely.
She froze.
"You just… burst into flames."
I sat up with difficulty.
My head was still ringing, but my thoughts were already under my control.
I knew.
Not everything.
But enough.
What mana is.
What the core is.
That the pearl inside the monster is a concentration of energy.
What the Essence is.
I looked down at my hands.
My fingers.
All five of them.
The ones that had been corroded-restored. The fingers that the device near the shelter had taken were back in place. The skin was smooth, as if nothing had ever happened.
I touched my chest.
My ribs were intact.
No pain.
No crunching.
Complete healing.
"I… will tell you," I said quietly, standing up. "But later."
I approached the dead hoofed king.
Now he seemed smaller.
Just a carcass.
I summoned my sword.
The blade responded softly in my hand-as if it were an extension of my thoughts.
With a single stroke, I sliced through his sternum.
The flesh parted more easily than it should have.
Inside, amid the dark tissues, something glowed.
A pearl.
Bright. Almost white, with golden veins. Pulsating.
I carefully removed it.
It was warm.
And heavy-not physically, but in sensation.
"That's their core," I said. "The thing that allows them to become… like this."
Scarlett looked at me as if she were seeing me for the first time.
"And when did you find that out?"
I gave a wry smile.
"Um, just now?"
I looked around.
I looked around.
The night wasn't over yet.
And the blood of the two kings had already begun to draw something in.
"We need to go back," I said. "We'll wait out one more night in the shelter."
She nodded.
We set off.
Slowly at first.
Then faster.
And almost immediately, it became clear-this wasn't going to be peaceful.
Silhouettes began to move out of the darkness.
Small.
Short.
Too fast.
Their outlines blurred, as if they were made of shadow themselves.
The first one lunged at Scarlett.
I was in front of her faster than I could think.
The sword drew an arc.
It sliced the shadow in half.
Without resistance.
Too easily.
You killed a newborn minion
Two more - on the right.
I stepped forward.
A fire flared inside my chest.
The world slowed down.
I saw their movements in advance.
The sword moved on its own.
A slash.
A step.
A turn.
The creature tried to grab my leg - I slammed the hilt into the ground.
A wave of heat spread across the snow.
The shadows scattered like ashes.
But there were many of them.
About a dozen.
They were closing in from all sides, drawn by the scent of blood and energy.
I took a breath.
And let the flame rise higher.
Ash-colored lines streaked across my armor.
I lunged forward.
Every movement was precise.
Every strike - deadly.
I felt no fatigue.
I felt no cold.
Only clarity.
And dozens of notifications from my own voice about the killings.
The path to the refuge cleared step by step.
The last shadow lunged from above.
Without looking, I raised my hand.
The sword pierced it through and through.
Silence.
Only our breathing.
"Let's go," I said calmly.
We reached the entrance to the shelter.
The stone crevice greeted us with its familiar darkness.
I stepped inside.
Scarlett followed me.
Only when we were finally inside and had blocked the entrance did I allow myself to breathe.
Outside, the night was still alive.
But now we had more than just a plan.
We had my power. And that changed everything.
It was dark and quiet in the shelter.
Only our breathing and the distant, muffled howl of the wind outside.
Scarlett sat across from me, leaning against the stone wall. There was no panic in her gaze anymore-only intense concentration.
"You have to explain everything, Oscar," she said quietly. "Because if I didn't make all this up… then the world just got even crazier."
I smiled wryly.
"It's become more complicated. It was crazy from the very beginning."
I ran my hand over my face, gathering my thoughts.
"When I blacked out… I didn't just lose consciousness. I found myself in some kind of space. Complete darkness. And a voice."
Scarlett frowned slightly.
"A voice?"
I nodded slowly.
"After we got into the Spire, you must have heard the voice. But back then it was… fragmented."
I exhaled.
"It spoke to me almost coherently. Almost. Everything slipped away. But the essence remained."
I closed my eyes, lost in thought.
"Mana."
The word sounded different than before. Deeper.
"Mana isn't energy in the usual sense. It's not just fuel for spells. It's… the foundation. An integral part of all living things. And non-living things, too."
I ran my hand over the stone nearby.
"Stone, air, blood, snow-everything is permeated with mana. In varying densities. In various forms. Living beings are nodes of mana concentration. We are literally made of it, just as we are made of flesh."
Scarlett listened in silence.
"But," I continued, "an ordinary body is a limitation. Physics dictates the limits. How much strength you can muster. How much you can endure. Simply put, as long as your body is ordinary, you can't control mana, only sense it-and even then, only if you try really hard."
I touched my chest.
"The soul is stronger than the body. Much stronger. But usually it sleeps; it cannot influence the world directly."
"And the Essence?" she asked quietly.
I nodded.
"The Essence is a reflection of the soul. Its true form. Not how we look… but what we truly are."
I closed my eyes, lost in thought.
"Mana."
The word sounded different than before. Deeper.
"Mana isn't energy in the usual sense. It's not just fuel for spells. It's… the foundation. An integral part of all living things. And non-living things, too."
I ran my hand over the stone nearby.
"Stone, air, blood, snow-everything is permeated with mana. In varying densities. In various forms. Living beings are nodes of mana concentration. We are literally made of it, just as we are made of flesh."
Scarlett listened in silence.
"But," I continued, "an ordinary body is a limitation. Physics dictates the limits. How much strength you can muster. How much you can endure. Simply put, as long as your body is ordinary, you can't control mana, only sense it-and even then, only if you try really hard."
I touched my chest.
"The soul is stronger than the body. Much stronger. But usually it sleeps; it cannot influence the world directly."
"And the Essence?" she asked quietly.
I nodded.
"The Essence is a reflection of the soul. Its true form. Not how we look… but what we truly are."
The words sounded strange, but they were absolutely correct.
"When the Essence awakens, the soul and body cease to be separate. They become a single mechanism. Then you gain the ability to manipulate the mana around you."
I looked at her intently.
"Not just to sense it. To control it."
Scarlett exhaled slowly.
"Is that why you… caught fire?"
"Yes."
I fell silent for a second, listening to myself.
"And along with the Essence's awakening, the mana core hardens."
"The pearl?" She nodded toward the one I'd placed nearby.
"For monsters-yes. For us-it's inside the core. I can feel it."
"It's like… an extra heart. It stabilizes the mana. It allows you to shape it. To compress it and store it more efficiently."
I looked at my hands.
"Spells are just structures. Patterns you create with mana. Influencing the environment is the pressure of your soul on the world."
Scarlett was silent for a moment.
"And you just… know all this?"
I smiled.
"Well, I didn't exactly choose this knowledge; it was forced into my head. With pain and side effects."
For the first time that evening, she gave a faint smile.
"You're lucky, Oscar."
"I couldn't agree more-I might just be the luckiest person in the world right now."
I held my hand out in front of me.
I focused.
Without straining.
I simply let the sensation rise from deep within.
A warmth flared in my chest.
It was as if a spark had run through my veins.
And a flame ignited above my palm.
Black at the base, fading into a rich crimson glow at the edges.
It didn't burn my skin.
It didn't scorch the air.
It existed because I allowed it to exist.
Scarlett froze.
The fire reflected in her eyes.
"I didn't learn this," I said quietly. "I just… know how to do it."
I clenched my fingers-the flame grew denser, stretched into a thin tongue, then broke into sparks and vanished.
"Now it's instinct. Like breathing."
It grew a little warmer in the shelter.
And much quieter.
Scarlett looked at me for a long time.
"So," she said slowly, "if I awaken the Essence too…"
"You'll be able to influence the world," I finished. "In your own way."
I leaned forward.
"And if mana is part of all living things… then we're no longer just surviving here."
I felt the core inside me respond.
Smoothly.
Steady.
"We're starting to play by the same rules as this world."
The flame had died down, but the sensation of warmth remained-no longer on the outside, but deep inside.
Scarlett stared at me intently.
"So how do I awaken it?" she asked bluntly. "The Essence."
I hesitated.
"That's the problem…" I replied quietly. "I don't know."
She frowned.
"Not at all?"
"Not at all."
I leaned my back against the wall, searching for the right words.
"What was passed down to me… isn't a manual. It's an understanding of principles. But the path to awakening is different for every being."
I looked at her.
"It's not universal. But it's… predestined."
The word sounded strange, but there was no other way to put it.
"By fate?" she asked skeptically.
"Perhaps. Or the structure of the soul. Or something this world considers the 'natural order.'"
I shrugged.
"For some, it's the limit of pain. For others, a moment of choice. For others, self-acceptance. For others, loss. Or anything else, really."
I fell silent for a second.
"I don't know what exactly triggered it for me. Death? Determination? Or something else?"
Scarlett looked away.
"So… sooner or later?"
"Probably," I said honestly. "If we survive long enough."
I paused, then added:
"But that's just a guess. No guarantees."
Silence hung in the shelter.
Then I continued:
"There's something else."
I shifted my gaze to the pearl lying nearby.
"Monsters."
Scarlett tensed immediately.
"What about them?"
"No idea."
I said it calmly, but inside I had an uneasy feeling.
"They're not just animals. And not just mutated creatures. Their nature… is different. They're made of mana in a much more concentrated form. Their bodies are like the world's crystallized aggression."
I picked up the pearl.
"And they have a hierarchy."
Scarlett nodded.
"That makes sense. That hoofed one was clearly different from the smaller shadows."
"Yes. And it's not just a difference in strength."
I concentrated, recalling the structure embedded within me.
"The classification looks like this."
I began to list them out, clearly, as if reading an excerpt from an ancient text.
"Minions are the lowest rank. They're weak. Almost instinctive. They obey anyone higher up. Those are the ones that attacked us on the way."
Scarlett nodded.
"Lord is second from the bottom. They already possess a will of their own. They can act consciously. But they're still inferior to those higher up. They can also rally the Minions."
"Did we see any of those?" she asked.
"Hardly. I think we only encountered Minions and two Kings. Well, personally, I most likely saw one Emperor and that spider…" Maybe you saw him too.
I continued.
"A King is a self-sufficient monster. An independent entity. Strong. Dangerous. Despite its name, it doesn't always control others. Usually, a King gains increased influence over some aspect of this world; that's where the name comes from."
I looked at her.
"The White One and the Hooved One-they were kings."
She swallowed.
"So… we killed a king."
"Yes."
The silence grew heavier.
I continued:
"Emperor."
The word sounded different-deeper.
"Possesses the ability to control an army of monsters. Including kings. This is no longer just a powerful creature. It is a command center. Likewise, its influence on the world reaches its peak, since to become an emperor, one must evolve from a king."
Scarlett exhaled slowly.
"So if something like that shows up…"
"It will drag everything below it along with it."
I didn't sugarcoat it.
"Next up is the Monarch."
Even as I said it, I felt a slight vibration in my chest.
"A disaster-level monster. Its appearance could spell death for everything within its reach."
I stared into the darkness of the shelter.
"Its power and abilities are beyond human comprehension. And most importantly-its arrival is accompanied by pressure on the world itself."
"Pressure?" Scarlett repeated quietly.
"Enormous." Under this pressure, the laws of the world can change. Physics. Space. Probability.
I turned my gaze to her.
"Existence itself begins to warp."
Scarlett was silent for a moment.
"And above that?"
I shook my head slowly.
"The divine level."
The words seemed to dissolve into the air.
"Unknown."
"Meaning?"
"No data. No descriptions. Either no one survived to tell the tale. Or the knowledge itself is inaccessible."
I clenched the pearl in my hand.
"If the Monarch is a catastrophe… then the Divine Level likely already transcends our understanding as a species."
It grew very quiet in the shelter.
The wind howled outside.
Scarlett looked at me with a long, heavy gaze.
"And where do we fit into this system?"
I smiled slightly.
"For now?" I looked up. "Probably at the minion level."
I felt the core in my chest respond-with a steady, confident pulse.
"But if we awaken the Essence, we gain the potential to become stronger."
I looked at her seriously.
"And if Emperors, Monarchs… and something higher exist in this world… then sooner or later we'll face them."
The flame inside me didn't flare up.
It just burned.
Exactly.
"The only question is whether we'll manage to become stronger before that moment."
I was about to fall silent, but another realization surfaced inside me.
"That's not all."
Scarlett sighed wearily.
"Of course."
I smiled slightly.
"Rank is a position in the hierarchy. Minion, Lord, King… and so on. But that's not all that determines power."
I ran my finger over the pearl.
"There's also the mana level. It's… the degree of saturation. The volume of the internal reserve. Its density."
I began to list them, as if reading from a blueprint.
"Newborn - minimal concentration. Just a nascent core."
"Matured - a stable core capable of sustained mana use."
"Nightmarish - high density. Their presence alone weighs heavily on weaker beings."
"Relic - ancient or having survived many battles. Their mana is thick, heavy. Almost tangible."
I paused.
"Next come levels that are rarely encountered."
I spoke slowly:
"Cataclysmic - a being whose mana is capable of distorting the terrain around it."
"Limit - a state where the core is so saturated that either evolution occurs… or destruction."
Scarlett listened intently.
"So, one King could be a Newborn, and another a Relic?"
"Exactly."
I nodded.
"Rank is a status. Mana level is the actual saturation of power."
I tossed the pearl in my hand.
"Monsters increase their mana reserves by killing other creatures. By absorbing their cores. Or simply by feeding on their life energy."
I looked her straight in the eye.
"We can do that too."
Silence.
"You mean…" She narrowed her eyes.
I nodded at the pearl.
"Their mana cores. It's enough just to eat it."
Scarlett grimaced.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Well, I suppose that makes sense," she said listlessly.
I shrugged.
"I don't see anything… unnatural about it. It's like a concentrate. Pure mana."
And I added:
"There's also a natural way. A slow one. Through meditation, through the circulation of mana in the body, through… resonance with the surrounding world.
I frowned.
"But I don't know exactly how to do it. The knowledge is there, but the method is vague. Maybe it comes with practice."
I set the pearl aside.
"And one more thing."
I concentrated.
A sensation of a thin thread resonated within me.
"If you kill a monster… your Bond will tell you who you killed."
Scarlett raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"Bond?"
"That interface you saw as soon as you entered the Spire is called 'Bond'."
The word settled into my mind correctly.
"This is a reflection of you. Of your Essence. Of your core. Of your soul. I have no idea how it works or where it came from. But it's there."
I focused even harder.
A translucent structure flashed before my inner vision-lines, symbols, parameters.
"Through the Bond, you can see who you've killed. What rank they were. What mana level. And whether you've obtained any artifacts."
Scarlett exhaled slowly.
"So now we have a scoring system too?"
"Well, I suppose there's a more sacred meaning to it. Maybe knowing the monsters' real names will give us something."
I shrugged.
"But this isn't a game. Honestly, I don't really understand the point of it myself."
I reached out my hand.
From the depths, from that very space within the soul's arsenal, I pulled out an object.
A light flared up in my palm.
It was pure, bright-not fire, but like a compressed star.
Small. Spherical. With shimmering facets inside.
Scarlett held her breath.
"What… is that?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know. But it's described as a star of wishes."
Honestly.
"It ended up in my soul's arsenal. After the king's murder."
I held out the star to her.
The light fell softly on her face.
"I took the blade for myself. It would be fair-if you were to take it."
She didn't reach out right away.
"What if it's dangerous?"
I smiled.
"Everything here is dangerous. But this doesn't look like it'll kill you."
Then I added more gently:
"The artifact's description says that this star grants you what you need most at this moment. All you have to do is crush it."
Scarlett carefully crushed the glowing star.
And the moment the light touched her fingers, its hue shifted slightly.
The light didn't burn her.
Scarlett clenched the glowing star in her palm-and it didn't resist. On the contrary, it seemed to dissolve into her skin, passing through her fingers in thin threads of light.
She gasped sharply.
"I… I can feel it."
I tensed.
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
She closed her eyes.
The light was no longer outside. It shone beneath her skin as a barely perceptible flicker-like the reflection of a distant galaxy.
"This is a weapon..."
I bowed my head.
"A weapon?"
She nodded, still keeping her eyes closed.
"I think it's better if I show you."
I felt the mana around us shift slightly.
Scarlett opened her eyes.
It appeared in her hands.
A slender rapier made of silvery metal seemed to combine the light of day with the silence of a moonlit night: its blade glowed softly-on one side, delicate rays of sunlight were engraved; on the other, a series of lunar phases stretched out. The elegant guard resembles the intertwined orbits of celestial bodies, where a warm golden hue smoothly transitions into cool silver. The hilt, the color of the deep night sky, is braided with a thin silver thread resembling a starry path, and at the pommel glows a pale stone, like a small moon in which barely perceptible golden sparks flicker. She raised her hand.
Light flashed beneath her skin for a second.
And a thin, almost invisible ripple appeared in the air before her-like the heat-risen air above a fire.
She immediately lowered her palm.
"I can't control this. Not yet."
I smiled.
"So it really is yours."
She looked at me intently.
"Why are you so sure?"
I shrugged.
"It suits your temperament…?"
Scarlett snorted.
"That's a strange compliment, but I'll take it."
The silence in the shelter felt different.
I suddenly became acutely aware of my core.
It was spinning slowly, steadily. The flows of mana inside my body were balancing themselves out.
"We need to be careful," I said.
"Because we've become more noticeable?"
I nodded.
Scarlett looked at the pearl in my hands.
"Are you going to eat it?"
I rolled it between my fingers.
Inside, I could feel dense, thick mana. Much more concentrated than that of the small shadows.
"Not now."
"Are you afraid?"
"No."
I met her gaze.
"Haste is a poor ally when it comes to the core."
She nodded.
I set the pearl aside.
"Let's rest first. Let's think this through."
Scarlett smiled slightly.
"And then we'll start eating monsters?"
I chuckled.
"It sounds awful when you put it that way."
She leaned against the wall.
We stood in silence for a few seconds.
Then she said quietly:
"Well, I hope you don't mind being my knight in shining armor for another month or two?"
I looked at my palms.
At the black armor that no longer felt foreign.
At the faint warmth in my chest.
And I laughed heartily.
"Yes. I suppose I don't mind."
Outside, the wind howled.
But now it didn't sound like a threat.
More like a reminder.
Somewhere in this world there are Emperors.
Somewhere-Monarchs.
And perhaps, something divine.
I looked up at Scarlett.
"We can no longer be prey."
The flame inside me responded with a steady pulse.
"We must become a rising force that this world will have to reckon with."
And for the first time since arriving in this world, I felt not just a desire to survive.
But a desire to become stronger.
Although one without the other now seemed simply impossible.