[ DUNGEON CLEARED ]
[BOSS DEFEATED : VOID SERPENT ]
[ RARE DROP : VENOM CORE : Contains remnant ability VOID ACID ]
[ SHADOW DOMINION : ACTIVATE ON DEFEATED ENTITY?]
[YES / NO]
Aaron looked at the Void Serpent lying still on the dungeon floor.
Bodies of every other beast already behind him. The Mountain King standing next to Aaron breathing heavy shadow smoke. Third portal in two days. The Void Serpent had been the strongest boss yet. Fast. Too fast. The kind of fast that had made Aaron's healing factor earn its keep.
He pressed YES.
The shadow rose from the Serpent slow and coiling. Dark and fluid. It circled Aaron once before settling. Smaller than the original. More concentrated. Acid dripping faint from its fangs onto the stone floor.
SSSSS.
The stone dissolved wherever a drop landed.
The Mountain King watched it.
The Void Serpent shadow watched the Mountain King back.
"Okay," Aaron said. "Three of us then."
[ SHADOW DOMINION : VOID SERPENT BOUND ]
[ VOID SERPENT : SHADOW FORM ACTIVE ]
[ SYNC RATE : BUILDING ]
Both shadows went back into the dark under his feet and Aaron stood alone in the empty dungeon and checked his status.
[ 2ND STAGE ADAPTED PLAYER : LEVEL 9]
One more level.
One more and he hit 3rd Stage.
He thought about the Being. About SOUL STRIKE going through everything. About Zxara taking it full in the chest and coming back harder than before.
He thought about what S rank felt like from the inside.
He picked up the Venom Core and walked out.
Home smelled like Theren's cooking.
Aaron came through the door and dropped onto the couch and every single part of him voted unanimously to not move again.
Theren came out of the kitchen holding a wooden spoon and looked at him.
"Where were you," Theren said.
"Just walking. Clearing my head."
Theren looked at him. That specific look. The one that had twelve years of reading situations behind it.
"Since morning," Theren said.
"Yeah."
"Just walking."
"Yeah."
Theren's eyes moved to Aaron's neck. The collar had shifted. The mark visible. Running up from under the jacket all the way toward his jaw.
"Aaron what is—"
BREAKING NEWS.
Both of them looked at the TV.
Screen gone red. Reporter talking fast. Behind her live footage of the sky above the city.
Wrong colors. Wrong lights. The specific wrong that sat in Aaron's stomach like a stone the moment he saw it.
Theren sat down slowly.
Neither of them spoke.
People in the footage standing in streets looking up with phones out. The reporter's voice getting faster and faster. Officials saying words nobody was fully hearing.
"It's starting," Theren said. Quiet.
Aaron said nothing.
Theren looked at Aaron's neck one more time. Then at the TV. His face made a decision. The mark conversation was not gone. Just postponed.
He turned the volume up.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
Aaron opened the door.
Rei was standing there. Phone in hand. Live footage of the sky playing on the screen. Face doing several things at once.
"Are you SEEING this," Rei said.
"We're watching it right now."
Rei came in without being invited. Standard Rei. Dropped onto the couch on the other side of Aaron and stared at the TV with his mouth slightly open.
"It's actually happening," Rei said. "Tonight. Right now. The actual Third Opening." He sat with that for a second. Then looked at Aaron. "Are you okay."
"I'm fine."
"You look tired."
"I'm fine."
"You look like you haven't slept properly in days."
"I slept."
"How much."
"Enough."
Rei looked at him sideways. Then noticed the mark on Aaron's neck.
"WHAT IS THAT."
"Nothing."
"AARON that goes all the way up to your JAW—"
"It's nothing."
"It is so clearly not nothing—"
"Rei."
Theren. From the other end of the couch. One word. Calm. Final.
Rei closed his mouth.
Theren looked at Aaron.
Aaron looked at the TV.
The reporter talking about awakener teams being mobilized. Portals opening across every district. The Third Opening different from everything before. No monsters coming through. Just portals. Sitting there. Waiting. Something on the other side waiting for people to come in rather than pushing through itself.
Rei leaned toward Aaron's ear.
"So," Rei whispered.
"No," Aaron said.
"I haven't said anything yet."
"You're going to say something about the S ranker."
Rei sat back with an expression of complete innocence. "I was going to ask about the portals."
"No you weren't."
"I genuinely was." A pause. Then quietly. "But also. Zxara Hashimi."
Aaron stared at the TV.
"She is on every single channel right now," Rei whispered. "Every one. I checked." He cleared his throat. "And I just want to say. She is extremely—"
"Rei."
"Very extremely—"
"Rei."
"The MOST extremely—"
"REI."
Theren turned the volume up again.
Rei sat back. Arms crossed. Stared at the TV.
Four seconds passed.
"Have you seen her up close though," Rei whispered.
Aaron closed his eyes briefly.
"She talked to me," Aaron said. Just to end it.
CRASH.
That was Rei dropping his phone.
"SHE TALKED TO YOU."
"Rei—"
"WHAT DID SHE SAY."
"She said I looked terrible."
Rei stared at him. Full silent stare. Three whole seconds of it.
"She looked at you," Rei said slowly. "And said you looked terrible."
"Yes."
"To your actual face."
"That is where talking usually happens yes."
"And you said."
"I said I was fine."
Rei put his face in both hands.
"You said you were FINE." His voice came out muffled through his fingers. "The most extremely beautiful S ranker anyone has ever seen talked to you directly and you said you were FINE."
"I was fine."
"Aaron."
"Rei."
"You were NOT fine. Nobody is FINE in that situation. That is not a FINE situation."
KABOOM!
Theren put a plate of food on Aaron's lap.
Aaron looked at the food.
Looked at the TV.
Looked at Rei still sitting there with his face in his hands making small sounds of personal suffering.
"She was also very—" Rei started again.
"Eat something," Theren said.
Rei ate something.
The TV kept going. The sky outside the window doing wrong things to the dark. Portals sitting open across the city. Every awakener team in the country getting ready for something nobody fully understood yet.
Aaron sat in the middle of all of it, thinking calmly.
Level 9. Two shadows. A mark from palm to jaw. Null on every system in the world.
And one portal on his screen still just saying UNKNOWN.
He looked at it for a moment.
Then put his screen away.
Picked up the food.
"She was also—" Rei whispered.
"Rei," Aaron and Theren said at the same time.
Rei eat your food.
Outside the sky was colours were changing yet there were the Awakners waiting for it.
KABOOM!