The darkness was not empty.
That was the first thing Marcus noticed.
He had experienced empty darkness before. The kind that came with closed eyes or a windowless room. This was different. This darkness had presence, had weight, had texture, like something ancient that had existed long before the first light ever appeared and had every intention of existing long after the last one went out.
It pressed against his ears and sat heavy in his lungs and the silence inside it was so complete it had its own sound.
He turned slowly in every direction.
Nothing. No ground he could see beneath his feet even though something was holding him up. No ceiling. No walls. Just dark in every direction going on forever.
"Am I dead again," he muttered.
Not a question. Just a thing that needed saying out loud to hear how it sounded.
Then the bell tolled.
CLANG!
One note. Single and deep and resonant, coming from everywhere simultaneously, not fading the way sound was supposed to fade but hanging in the darkness like it had nowhere better to be and no particular schedule to keep. The kind of sound that didn't just enter your ears but settled into your chest and stayed there.
Then the voice followed.
"Listen carefully, lost one."
Marcus looked around. Nothing. No shape, no source, no indication of direction.
"Who said I was lost." He kept his voice flat. "And more importantly, where exactly am I. Because this is the second time today something strange has happened and I'm starting to keep score."
"You are among the few chosen to wield a power bestowed only upon those deemed worthy of its weight." The voice came from the darkness itself, from every point at once.
"This land has been consumed by corruption. My subjects have been scattered into fear and uncertainty. You, who have faced the sharpest edge of deceit, have been selected to walk the path that liberates them. And within that fulfillment you will find what you truly seek."
Marcus was quiet for a moment.
"Show yourself," he said. "First the system, now a voice in the dark. Nothing really comes free does it." He looked around at the nothing surrounding him. "I'll listen but I want to see who I'm listening to."
Nothing appeared.
"Liberate." He let the word sit in his mouth like something that tasted wrong. "Let me be perfectly clear about something. I don't want to liberate anyone. I want one man's head in my hands and the heads of everyone who stood beside him. That is the complete and total extent of my ambitions.
I'm not a saviour, I'm not a messiah, and whatever quality you think you detected in me I'd strongly suggest you look again."
The voice grew quieter. Thinner. Like something that had said what it needed to say and was already beginning to leave.
"Your path will take you to what you seek most."
Then it was gone.
The darkness went with it.
Light arrived slowly, pushing in from the edges, warm and low and carrying the smell of dried herbs and enclosed wooden space. Marcus felt something soft beneath his head. Movement nearby. The low sound of someone breathing and shifting weight.
He opened his eyes to wooden ceiling beams.
He turned his head.
He was lying down. Something warm and soft was beneath his head and above him, pressing gently together, covered in brown linen, unmistakably feminine in shape and considerably close to his face.
His hand moved before his brain caught up with it.
His left palm closed around something that was exactly as soft as it looked, warm and yielding, like fresh bread straight from the oven, and for approximately two seconds his exhausted brain decided this was completely reasonable.
A soft sharp sound came from above him.
"Mmh."
His hand withdrew at the speed of a man who had just remembered where he was and what year it was.
"He's awake." Liz's voice. Then her face appeared above him, looking down with an expression balanced precisely between relief and something she was choosing not to name. Her dark curly hair fell forward slightly around her face. She said nothing about what had just happened and the specific quality of her silence on the subject communicated that she had noticed and had decided, for now, to file it away rather than address it.
Marcus sat up slowly with her help.
"Where am I," he said, his voice carrying its usual flatness as if his hand had not just committed an act of independent decision making approximately thirty seconds ago.
"A hut in the village." She settled back and pulled her knees up, watching him. "You've been out for two days."
He took in the hut. Small, plain, practical. Clay pots near one wall. Dried herbs hanging from a low beam. Two sleeping mats on the floor, one of which he was currently on. Through the single small window the light sat at late afternoon.
"You fainted after the battle," Liz said. "I brought you in and kept you from dying face down in the dirt. I thought that was fairly generous of me."
"It was." He moved to stand and felt the weakness across his shoulders immediately. "Thanks. I need to get moving."
Then the system chimed.
Three notifications stacked neatly in the corner of his vision, waiting with the patience of something that had been holding these while he was unconscious and was now presenting them in an orderly fashion.
[SUMMON STATUS UPDATED]
[MALACHAR — THE CRIMSON TYRANT]
Status: Unawakened
Summon Cost: 50 MP
Abilities: Titan's Advance, Crimson Verdict, Warlord's Presence, Unbreakable, Conqueror's Return
[NEW PASSIVE SKILL UNLOCKED: VOID HARVEST]
Residual energy from defeated enemies is automatically converted into currency with universal usage across Veldrath. The weaker the drop the higher the conversion rate. Has been running since your first kill.
[STATS]
Name: Marcus Vael
Level: Unclassified
Class: Summoner
Subclass: Sovereign Tier — Unclassified
Race: Human
STR 10+5 / 100
DEX 5 / 100
SPD 12 / 100
CON 3 / 100
INT 10 / 100
HP 98 / 100
MP 20 / 100
Skills: Void Harvest (Passive)
Currency: +5 coins
Points: Auto allocated
Marcus read through everything with the focused attention of someone treating information like it was the last supply of a critical resource.
He stopped on Void Harvest longest.
So I just need to keep killing these creatures and the currency comes automatically. The corner of his mouth moved. More entertaining than having a job.
He looked at the MP stat. Twenty total. Malachar cost fifty to summon. Which explained why he'd passed out face first in the dirt immediately after.
He'd pulled from a reserve that wasn't deep enough to cover the withdrawal and his body had paid the difference.
System, he thought. Auto assign future stat points to STR and SPD. That's all I need for now.
[Affirmative.]
He closed the windows.
"You were saying something," he said to Liz.
She looked at him with her large dark eyes carrying an expression that sat somewhere between patient and mildly exasperated. Not angry. Just the look of someone who had been mid sentence when the person they were talking to checked out entirely for two minutes.
"I've been having visions for months," she said.
"That's why I came to this specific village. The visions showed a summoner moving through this land. Someone with power capable of pushing back what's been consuming it." She paused. "I believed I was meant to be his guide."
Marcus looked at her. The dream from the darkness clicked somewhere at the back of his mind, the voice, the word liberate, the path leading to what he sought most.
A guide, he thought. And a beautiful one at that. In my previous life only the wealthy kept company like this. No harm in accepting what's being offered on a platter.
"A messiah," he said out loud, testing the word the same way he'd tested liberate. He didn't love it any more the second time. "I'll be honest with you. I'm not sure I'm your messiah. I'm a regular person with a specific purpose and that purpose has nothing to do with saving anyone." He looked at her directly. "But I'll take the guide."
Liz pressed on without missing a beat.
"I know the roads, the factions, the cities worth stopping at and the ones worth burning down. I know which guilds are legitimate and which ones will sell your name to whoever pays most." She met his gaze steadily. "You need that information. I can provide it faster than you'd find it alone."
Marcus was quiet for exactly three seconds.He was scorned how wild he's guild might be.He's facial expression gave him away.
"Fine," he said and stood up. "Two travels better than one. Talk while we move."