Shin opened eyes to a void. He stood on a floating stone drifting through the darkness, just barely wide enough for one person. Ripples began to form, trailing behind the stone. Before he knew it, an endless sea of water spread out from the stone. Shin looked down. The water had a perfect reflection of the sky. Numerous flashes of luminant stars appeared before dimming to small twinkles. Shin shifted his attention to the sky, his eyes following the stars as they slowly fell over the horizon, plunging him into darkness once more.

He looked to his sides and then back down at his hand. A sharp stinging pain developed as a slit about the size of this pinky finger suddenly appeared on both hands. A steady stream of blood ran down his hands to his wrist. His fingers trembled as the pain became difficult to bear.

His head was yanked back, dropping him to the floor. Shin’s bloodied hands reached for his neck as an invisible force strangled him. He panicked, kicking his legs and struggling for a breath of air. His eyes began to close as he lost strength.

When he opened his eyes again, he examined his hands to find that his injuries were miraculously gone. He felt a sense of weightlessness and air rushing past him as if he was falling. He turned around looking for any clues. A white circle appeared ahead of him, it started as a small dot but began to grow larger. The circle had rough edges but the intricacies of its shape were hard to make out. The circle continued to grow in size. Shin suddenly realized that it was a spike. He was overcome by a feeling of dread and fear as attempted to move out of the way but his efforts were pointless. It pierced him, severing his body in half.

Shin screamed and jerked his body upright with his hands over his eyes. Hyperventilating, he didn’t want to open his eyes, fearing the next nightmare that he would have to endure. A shiver ran down his spine as he felt a hand on his back.

“Shin?”

It was a familiar voice. He cautiously opened his eyes and spread his fingers apart, revealing blurry faces. However, it was difficult to make out details from his impaired vision.

“Are you alright?”

One of the figures knelt on the cold pearly floors with one hand on the edge and the other on his back.

His eyes trailed up as a colorful shine caught his attention. Shin started to calm down when he realized where he was.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe.”

He rubbed his eyes, clearing up his sight. It was the Church of Revival.

The figures were his trusted allies. Nightingale patted Shin’s back before pulling his arm back to his side. Fuyumi sat beside him, twiddling her thumbs.

“Sorry… I probably worried you guys.”

Shin scratched his head.

“No, not particularly. Afterall, I knew you would be back.”

Nightingale rolled his eyes when he heard her remarks.

“Let’s get you out of here.”

Nightingale stood up, offering his hand to Shin. Fuyumi mimicked his gesture. He grabbed onto both of their hands as they pulled him out of the pool.

He pat himself down to make sure his body was intact. When he was content, Shin looked back at his friends who stared back at him.

“What did I miss?”

“A lot.”

Fuyumi crossed her arms as she replied.

+++++++++++++

[16:15 | May 04, 2035]

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The three of them sat in Shin’s room. Shin sprawled out on his bed while Fuyumi and Nightingale pulled chairs up to the bedside. They began explaining to him what happened while he was gone. Shin’s voice was muffled as he spoke with his head in the pillow.

“Right, so then what happened?”

“Scottie eventually dropped the necklace down to Prezzo.”

Nightingale stood up, imitating Scottie.

“I’m surprised that all we got was a pouch of gold and a necklace though.” He added, as he sat back down.

Fuyumi opened her mouth but the words escaped her. She was going to mention the sapphire orb but she hadn’t decided if she wanted to tell them about her confrontation with Geoff yet. She leaned back in the chair, lifting the front legs off the ground and balancing herself with her legs on the bedframe.

“Everything alright, Fuyumi?” Shin asked.

The chair legs came back down with a thud. Shin narrowed his eyes.

“You know, I’m the one that has to pay if you break it.”

Fuyumi tapped her foot and pointed at the chair.

“I think the problem is with the inn then if this lousy chair breaks from something as simple as that.”

“Now, now, you guys are arguing like a married couple.”

She crossed her arms and broke eye contact upon hearing Nightingale’s words.

“Anyway, we left Urumel by talking to Toffins again. He opened up a portal that sent us back to the lobby. We just went for drinks after that and went our separate ways.” Nightingale explained.

“Ah… I wish I was there.”

Shin looked down in disappointment. In response, Nightingale leaned forward excitedly.

“That reminds me! We should go for drinks again, everyone else said it would be a good idea to have a second round with you!”

Fuyumi broke her standoffish posture to add to the conversation.

“Yeah, we should.” She said, still wielding her annoyed tone of voice.

+++++++++++++

[21:26 | May 04, 2035]

The three of them talked into the night, poking fun at their other party members and sharing their experiences in their early days of Mythos Online. Fuyumi’s expressions lightened over time as she shoved her troubling thoughts to the back of her mind. After an hour, they got to the topic of the tenth floor boss when Fuyumi asked Shin about his sudden burst of strength.

When Shin heard her question, he sank the back of his head into the pillow.

“I’m not too sure where that came from honestly, it said something about an automatic skill called [Death’s Ambition].”

Nightingale scratched his chin.

“I did find some code that referred to automatic skills when I did some digging but I never actually found specific details. They’re obviously different than passive skills but…”

“The prompt said that it activated automatically when I was under ten percent HP. But it’s not like it was on my skill tree or anything.” Shin said, staring blankly into the ceiling.

“Also, as you guys noticed, I kinda died after the boss died.”

“So the skill automatically kills you after it ends or after your target dies?” Fuyumi asked, tilting her head.

“I guess so. Ugh…”

Shin hid under his blanket, facing the wall.

“I also lost like half of my silver and gold.

Shin sighed heavily.

“I should probably get something to eat, it’s been a long time since I logged off.”

He heard the sounds of chair legs scraping against the wooden floor. He flipped around to see the shadowy figures of his friends stand up through the blanket.

“Don’t worry about money too much, we’ll help you out.” Nightingale reassured him, waving as he walked toward the door.

A thin hand lifted the edge of the blanket, pouring the dim candlelight of the room into his sheets. Fuyumi’s silky white hair came into view, followed by her slight smile.

“Take care of yourself first.”

She dropped the blanket and followed Nightingale toward the door. She waved back at the mound on the bed before closing the door behind her.

After the door shut, Shin sat upright, flipping the blanket over. He put his hand over his mouth in an attempt to stop the wide grin forming on his face.

On the other side, Fuyumi leaned against the door, her face was flush-red.

“What did I just do.” She thought as she rubbed her face.

Nightingale looked over his shoulder as he continued walking down the hall. He smiled upon spying on Fuyumi’s embarrassment.

“Just get together already.”

Nightingale vocalized his thoughts, just barely loud enough for her to hear.

She lowered her hands and silently mouthed the words “fuck you” back to Nightingale.

Nightingale laughed heartily, putting his hands to the back of his head as he turned around the corner.