“And so… a new era begins…”

The man that had been observing it all stood up, and in a blink he vanished. No trace of his existence to be seen aside from a small wisp of shadow that slowly drifted into nothingness. And just like that, the unexpected visitor of Armag Hollow vanished.

* * * * *

Everything turned black, but a muffled voice echoed in my head. Yet, no matter how much I tried to regain clarity, I was unable to⁠. Then, a few moments later, I felt a prickle, and that’s when the voice slowly got clearer, until I felt my entire body being shaken.

“Sybil⁠?!”

It was Sera’s voice, and it became clearer and eventually I opened my eyes to face her. Her crimson eyes stared at me, with tears forming at the base, her hair hung low over me⁠ and she met my gaze and paused before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Ah, you’re alive.”

I blinked. “Wait, was it that⁠— bad?”

“Unfortunately, you were bleeding quite badly,” a voice mused from the side. “Too many cuts, and even then, your injuries have barely closed.”

I barely managed to crane my head and saw Wendell clutching his right arm. He wasn’t wearing the Chaos armor anymore and looked to some extent tired, but also happy as he continued.

“Fortunately, the Mayor is dead.”

“Thankfully…” Sera breathed out before turning to me. “Do you have enough mana to dig into that ring of yours?”

I paused for a moment, and⁠— I began to violently cough as a bout of overwhelming nausea hit me.

“Sybil?!” Sera panicked and held me for a few moments as I recovered.

“I don’t think I can, could you maybe just take it from me and get a [Mana Elixir] and perhaps a [Life Liquid]?”

Sera nodded listening to me and carefully held my hand, sliding the ring off my bloodied fingers. Then after holding it for a moment, it shone and the two items appeared within her hands.

“There.” She slid the ring back onto my finger, all while grabbing the [Mana Elixir]. “Now here, drink.”

She pressed the bottle against my lips and my eyes went wide in surprise, but my pleading gaze didn’t make Sera relent as she forced me to drink the stale liquid. I passed it without thinking twice about it and in just a moment, I felt my mana restore to full.

Though just as I was about to speak, Sera pressed the [Everlasting Elixir of Health] onto my lips, and I blinked.

“A [Life Liquid] is enough, you know?”

Sera shook her head. “Look at yourself and say that again.”

Following her words, I faced down and saw blood pooling around me. There were numerous cuts littering my arms, even on my torso waist and legs, no place was left untouched, and some cuts were so deep I could even see bone. Blood was still flowing out of me onto the ground⁠— and I jolted from a sudden burst of pain. My entire body was in pain.

Perhaps seeing the wounds triggered my senses to actually respond, I didn’t understand but I hurriedly took a gulp of the [Everlasting of Health] its liquid barely enough for that.

And my wounds began to slowly close.

“So I’m becoming tolerant to it…” I gritted my teeth through pain as I pulled out two syringes of [Life Liquid] and injected both of them into my thigh.

A small groan left me as I felt the pain start to fade, and I saw my wounds actually begin to close at an acceptable rate.

“The elixir won’t be as effective on you from now on, right?”

“I think it won’t,” I said with a small sigh, taking it from her hand and throwing it back into the ring. “But it’s fine, I just have to not get injured like this…”

I readjusted my hand only to touch astonishingly cold metal, I flinched and saw the [Soulblade]. It was the Mayor’s sword, and also the sword that belonged in the pedestal back in Laiken, and now, it belonged to me.

I grabbed it and slowly placed it on my lap. It felt similar to the [Ao-kora Blade] but I also understood that to use [Soulblade]’s main ability, I had to use way too much mana, which I didn’t know how to feel about. It was perhaps not a weapon I could use at the moment.

I shook my head and placed it in the [Storage Ring].

“At least now things are over…” I relaxed for a moment, and looked towards the ceiling, where I saw the sky through the torn stone, sparkling dots watching over us. “Now, I’ll finally be able to leave Armag Hollow.”

“Who is I?” Sera jabbed me from the side. “It’s we.”

I sheepishly smiled. “Sorry, you’re right, both of us.”

“Hm, to think Armag Hollow got another Ascended without my knowledge,” Wendell said from behind. “Quite the surprise.”

“Do you have a problem with it?” Sera asked with a frown.

“On the contrary.” Wendell laughed. “A ceremony is due, and you two will be the representatives of humanity.”

“Us?” I blinked.

“Yep.” He nodded. “The Ascended who will reclaim the outside for us, while we reclaim the Grand Mine. It is time for a new era in Armag Hollow.”

Sera’s frown got worse. “And what makes you think we will do your bidding?”

A chuckle left Wendell. “You’re misunderstanding, you two will set off on an adventure and your names will be used to establish order. You will be free to do whatever you want, I’m just asking for this small amount of cooperation.” And his face turned serious. “Which I hope you can provide.”

“We can provide it.” I sighed. “You two should just get along.”

“Well I’m trying but this girl⁠—”

“He is trying to exploit you Sybil, why don’t you see it⁠—”

“I’m not exploiting her!”

Another sigh left me as I shook my head. “Okay, I know Wendell is exploiting me.” Wendell paused as I glared at him. “So no use denying it, but I’m also allowing it.” I turned to Sera. “So no need to be so hostile either.”

Both of them slowly nodded, as they gave each other weird looks.

I shook my head. “So what happens now?”

Wendell took a pause to see if Sera wanted to say something before continuing. “Right now, there is nothing for us to do but wait for the situation to quiet down. Well, if there are no monsters in the second Tier roaming around.”

“And if they are?” I asked.

“One of us has to kill them,” Wendell said simply. “Except, Sybil and I are too injured so that leaves you Sera.”

She blinked and then slowly nodded. “I guess, I’ll have to do it.” And a small sigh left her.

“Well, for now, we should get back to Prowelwater,” Wendell said with a small shrug. “Then you can say goodbye to Sybil.”

“Yeah, that works for me,” Sera quickly agreed as she stood up. “Let’s go, Sybil?”

She offered her hand, which I took and she pulled me up, helping me stand up. My legs trembled for a moment, as she gave me a concerned glance.

“I’m fine,” I said as I took a small step, and⁠— almost fell over.

Sera quickly held me, and forced me to use her shoulder as support. A snort left her before a smile blossomed on her face.

“You’re not fine, but it’s okay because I’m here.”

“Ha, thank you.” I smiled, and just like that we began to slowly walk in the direction of the city.

Wendell held the Sword of Chaos in his left hand and was now carrying the same heavy backpack, though our pace was slow, mostly because of me. But it was nice, I could tell that Wendell wasn’t in any hurry, and Sera seemed to be enjoying it, so it allowed me to take things in.

The dim light coming from the sky was illuminating a large part of Armag Hollow now, and finally I could see how badly the ground had been torn from our battle. While everywhere else seemed to be a relatively flat land of rock, here on the other hand, it was something else in its entirety.

There were rifts, gashes, broken rock and even tentacles from the Malformed Calamity littering our surroundings, even though it was relatively peaceful around us, there were traces of our battle. Black blood stained the land, and as we continued to step forward I couldn’t help but notice that we were leaving a massive crater, one made by the Malformed Calamity.

I shook my head as we trekked on, before turning to look at the distance where I saw the shadows of the monsters of the Dark Hollow still trying to siege the city of Prowelwater, and other monsters running across the land looking for their victims.

It was fair to say, Armag Hollow had never been in such a state before.

“Worried?” Wendell asked.

I nodded slightly. “A bit.”

“Don’t be, even the Overseer had been preparing for this event. All of the cities in Armag Hollow and major towns should be able to withstand the siege of the Dark Hollow.”

“And the small towns?” I asked, raising my brow.

“They were supposed to evacuate, though there is the possibility that some refused to move…” He shook his head with a mournful tone.

“I see.”

It was a bit weird to consider that taking down the Mayor involved unleashing the apocalypse. But considering everything it took, it made sense. If he hadn’t lost the Soulblade at that moment, I would have died, so in that sense…

I turned to look at Sera who was observing Prowelwater.

She saved my life.

I smiled and nodded, I was lucky. Lucky to have found someone that I could trust. Things weren’t like back in the mine with her, or with other people. I could actually talk to her about my struggles, I could voice my deepest fears and biggest hopes, and she’d listen.

In that sense, I truly felt like I trusted Sera with my whole being.

And well, hopefully she felt the same.

My gaze turned to look at the sky, and I couldn’t help but smile.

At last… freedom…

◇ ◇ ◇

I didn’t know how long it took, but eventually, we made it to the city gates where monsters were constantly trying to claw their way in. Though it didn’t last long as Sera just snorted and pointed her finger.

In an instant, a yellow bolt of lightning hit a Prowling Harvester and it⁠— bounced. The attack chained from target after target, killing the twenty plus monsters in a single moment as they were all slashed to charred bits, all while their harrowing death throes echoed in the air long after they died.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

My mouth hung open for a moment as I turned to look at Sera and this time, I saw her level.

[(Deserted Elite Member of Soulblade) Ancient Human of the Golden Era (Ascended). Lvl. 64]

“Wait, when did you get so strong…?” I asked in confusion.

Sera blinked before turning to me. “The Elf gave me three levels and since he was corrupted he gave me ten too? I don’t understand it if I’m being honest…”

“Huh…” I blinked. “That’s nice.”

“Well you got nineteen levels from the entire scuffle, no need to be jealous.” She grinned.

I got flustered for a moment and looked away. “I’m not jealous… I’m just impressed…”

A laugh left her as Wendell began to walk towards the small gate to the side, after recovering ourselves we went to him as he knocked the door in a pattern. And shortly after, a small eye-hole opened before the whole door opened.

“Hurry, monsters still lurk outside,” a somewhat familiar voice hastily said.

Wendell entered and Sera took me along as we quickly entered the city. We stood on the empty cobbled streets as a tense feeling permeated the air, the cries of monsters resounding in the distance. Some lights in our surroundings were on, some were off, however, there was not a single person to be seen.

Then finally, I turned to look at the guard who was closing the door only to pause.

“Revy?”

The young man blinked looking at me. “Sybil?”

“Who?” Sera asked, raising her brow.

“Someone I briefly met in the Grand Checkpoint, a Supervisor,” I quickly explained. “He sort of introduced me to human society and to a friend of his, the guy that was looking for me last time.”

“Yeah, that’s a way to put it,” he said awkwardly. “Well, now you’re all safe and I assume the Mayor is…”

“Dead,” Wendell said simply. “If you could escort Sybil to a nice hotel room to stay it’d be great.”

Revy paused before nodding.

Then I turned to Sera. “I guess this is goodbye?”

“For now.” She smiled. “I’ll murder those things as fast as possible, don’t worry.”

A dry laugh left me. “Ha, don’t hurt yourself.”

She smiled walking towards me. “Goodbye for now Sybil, I’ll be back soon.”

She gave me a small hug that took me by surprise but I quickly reciprocated. After that she briefly spoke with Wendell before setting off. Leaving the old man at the gate, Revy guided me towards my destination.

“So, you three killed the Mayor?” He asked as we walked down the cobbled street.

“I guess…” I said awkwardly. “It was pretty, rough.”

“Yeah, the old man lost his arm,” Revy mused. “But now, hopefully it should be a new start for Armag Hollow.”

“A new start, huh?” After thinking for a bit I smiled. “That’s nice.”

“Well, I won’t bore you with conversation, you’ll see the changes soon.” He smiled. “For now, let’s get you some rest.”

I nodded, and immediately decided to open my status as we walked.

And what I saw surprised me greatly.

[Name]: Sybil

[Level]: 71

[Life Essence]: 2nd Tier, Tear of the Dragons

[Primary Aspect]: Fallen Flames of Fallen Heat Lvl. 62

[Secondary Aspect]: Broken Shadows Lvl. 9

Free attribute points: 44

[END]: 20 [STR]: 13 [AGI]: 47 [WIS]: 47

Free skill points: 9

[Skills]: [Passive: Fallen Succession], [Passive: Fallen Flame Caress], [Passive: Fallen Heat. Lvl. 5], [Fallen Ember Shot. Lvl. 3], [(Maxed) Explosive Point. Lvl. 5], [(Maxed) Fallen Reignition. Lvl. 5], [(Maxed) Fallen Ignition. Lvl. 10]

[Secondary Aspect Skills]: [Passive: Broken Manipulation], [Passive: Shadow Manipulation], [Shadow Sculpting. Lvl. 2]

The attribute points made absolutely no sense once more⁠—

Then it clicked.

I was being rewarded two attribute points per level instead of one. So the more levels I was into the second Tier, the stronger I would be, and by a large manner. But that didn’t also mean that even if I was close to the Third Tier there would still be quite the difference?

A small sigh left me, muttering to myself. “I guess everything relating to the Beyond is an uphill battle.”

“What was that?” Revy asked.

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Are we almost there?”

“We’re here actually,” he said as he came to a stop in front of a grand building with some lights on, but with no receptionist in sight. “Just follow after me.”

With those words, he stepped onto the red carpet and headed inside as I followed behind. I took in the fancy white wallpaper with flower patterns and the golden metal pipes in the ceiling, before finally, we arrived at a room on the highest floor. It was the only door there.

“And here we are, this is for you.”

With those words, Revy stepped forward and opened the door to a grandiose room. A golden chandelier hung high, a regal bed with golden linings, and furniture that seemed to be almost made out of wood. I stepped inside, more confused and surprised than anything, and the door shut behind me.

“Get some rest Sybil, you might’ve been a miner once, but now, you are one of the heroes of Armag Hollow.”

He left, his footsteps echoing as I just stood there.

“A Hero…?” I whispered in confusion, and then shook my head.

Perhaps that was the case, but I was just doing my duty. Without hesitation, I made my way to bed and laid down, feeling exhausted but also happy. I flopped over to look at the ceiling as I extended my hand towards it.

“She saved me…”

Then, I brought it back to my chest, feeling my heartbeat before I flipped over again and immediately began to tear up. I didn’t know why, I didn’t understand it, but every time I saw Sera turn hostile at anyone that tried to approach me it made me happy. Every time she showed concern, worry, care, attention. Everything.

Were these the things I had been missing my entire life?

Ignoring the freedom, I felt happy with her around me. It was…

Liberating.

Finally, I wouldn’t be alone. Finally, I could trust someone. Finally, I could relax…

“All this time I’ve been selfish, only focusing on myself…” I spoke quietly. “But now, that will change, at least for you…”

It was weird. True friendship was weird. My feelings were weird, but even then, I understood that I was happy⁠—

The door opened, and a fake sigh echoed in the room.

“You really did miss me, huh, Sybil?”

I turned in horror only to see Sera smiling ear to ear.

“W-Wait how did you⁠—”

“Wendell told me he’d deal with things and to come back to you and surprise you,” she said softly. “Though I didn’t think you’d turn into a crybaby.”

“I-I’m not⁠—”

She turned off the light of the room and with a small flash of light Sera appeared before me as my eyes grew wide, her crimson irises staring right into me.

“Relax, I feel just as happy with you around, so let’s just not get awkward.”

“Right…” I nodded slowly, trying to calm my rushing heart. “Thank you, I…” and I trailed off.

“Human connection is terrifying isn’t it?” She chuckled as she took a seat on the bed. “And to think I expected to be the one that would be flustered, but turns out you were always way more lost than me.”

I turned away. “Well… I was a miner so…”

She laughed. “I get it, I get it, I’m not trying to embarrass you.”

I nodded this time finally calming as I saw Sera smiling. “So how did your Advancement go?”

Surprise flashed by her face before it turned weird and she shook her head. “Let’s talk about it later, not something I want to think about for now.”

“Right…” I nodded. “Then, what should we do then?”

“Hm,” Sera pondered before plopping down. “Well for now we should sleep, Wendell said he’d deal with everything, so…”

I blinked. “Would it be alright to sleep together? I mean, won’t you like, get alerted or something if I move around? If I kicked you or woke you up?”

She just smiled and shook her head with a chuckle. “You’re silly, Sybil.”

With those words she got more comfortable in the bed and took one side. All while I just stared before shaking my head.

“I guess I’m overthinking it…”

Then, I joined her, not bothering to undress or do anything as I wrapped myself in the bed sheets. It was weird, my heart had calmed, but I still felt weird. I felt happy, appreciated, cared for. It was… odd. It was an odd feeling to know that things would be alright even if I were to suddenly faint or anything else happened to me.

I wasn’t used to these things…

I stared at the ceiling for a few more moments, and felt a deep warmth within me. I didn’t think it was the mysterious thing called love, nor did I have any desire to go to Sera and kiss her or hug her or whatever people did with their lovers. Well, perhaps there was a desire to hug her, but it ended there.

A small sigh left me.

My emotions didn’t make sense to me now. Though I guess, I felt vulnerable, just like when I had left the Grand Checkpoint. But this time, it was a feeling dedicated to a person, rather than a reward for all my efforts. I didn’t really know what I was supposed to feel, or what a normal person would feel in my situation, but at least right now, right at this moment, I knew I felt happy.

“You’re not sleeping eh?” Sera asked from the side as I tensed a bit. “It’s okay, I kind of walked in on you while you were in an emotional moment, sorry for that.”

“It’s fine…” I answered in a whisper. “I just don’t know how to process this happiness.” I breathed. “And well, you make me happy I think.”

A small chuckle echoed in the room. “You make me happy, I’m not really processing my emotions though, I’m just acting on that happiness. In that regard, I’m selfish, I’m just doing things that make me happier.”

I thought for a moment. “So making me happy makes you happy?”

“You could say that,” she said gently. “You’re my first friend so I don’t really know how to treat you, I’m just following my emotions, and well that seems to be working, though there is a time and place for things. Right now, I can afford to be happy, but if we were outside of Armag Hollow probably not, so I’m taking what I can get.”

“Hm…” I pondered what she said for a few moments, before nodding in agreement. “Then I guess I should enjoy it too.”

“Yeah, I think you should.”

I pondered for a moment, and just smiled. “Thank you, you’re very special to me Sera.”

She paused. “You think so?”

“Yeah, the most special person to me in all of Armag Hollow,” I chirped. “It’s you.”

“T-That is…” She stuttered and I just chuckled.

“We should sleep now Sera.”

“Right… let’s do that…”

◇ ◇ ◇

I didn’t know how long we slept, but I was gently rocked awake as I heard mutters and murmurs in the background. They were akin to distant hushed whispers. My eyes slowly fluttered open to strange light filling the room from the outside, and looming over me was Sera.

“Wake up, something is happening.”

“Something?” I asked with some confusion as I rubbed my eyes with tiredness. “What is something…?”

“You should wake up and see.” She chuckled in strange amusement as I let out a small sigh and got up from the bed.

My whole body felt sore, probably from the battle. I didn’t think I had strained myself that much, but it clearly wasn’t the case. Still, following Sera’s clearly amused expression I groggily got up from the bed and stood upright, before turning to look at the source of the light and paused.

“Huh…”

“Yeah, familiar isn’t it?” Sera asked from my side.

“It’s like the place of the Advancement…”

Sera turned to me and asked amusingly. “Do you know what it is?”

“I don’t…”

She smiled. “It’s sunlight, it comes from the sun, from outside of Armag Hollow.”

I blinked, my mind slowly processing what she had just said before walking forward towards the balcony in the room. And as I moved closer I could see it, the sky. It was bright blue and vibrant, and entering Armag Hollow from the ceiling, there were rays of sunlight illuminating a large portion of the underground.

My mouth hung open for a moment, before the clamor outside brought me back to reality. I finally got close enough to look down at the streets of Prowelwater only to see thousands of people pointing at the sky, everyone discussing the rift in the ceiling of Armag Hollow. However, rather than enjoy it there seemed to be unrest amongst the people, and for good reason.

My gaze wandered outside of the city and to the rocky plains, now with the sunlight it was rather easy to see the thousands of corpses littering the ground. To see dried bloodstains, and even the occasional dead human outside of the cities.

I heard Sera reach me as she let out a small sigh. “Well I was hoping they wouldn’t ruin the mood.”

“They didn’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I do wonder how Wendell will deal with this though…”

“Hm, he seems to be a careful man, so I’m sure he has it all figured out,” Sera said somewhat dismissively. “Though I guess it’s not like we can go out and enjoy the streets or food either.”

A sigh left her.

“Hopefully a sense of normalcy is established soon…”

I nodded. “Yeah⁠—”

At that moment, a buzzing sound echoed throughout the city, one that I identified to be from speakers.

“The siege of the Beasts of the Dark Hollow has been successfully repelled.” The voice belonged to none other than Wendell. “The Mayor was critically injured protecting this city from the terrors of the Dark Hollow, however he entrusted me with these words.”

There was a brief silence and Wendell continued.

“Everyone, I am sure this was an unexpected event, but it has been handled. Unfortunately, the Grand Checkpoint fell without anyone’s knowledge. But the traitors have been dealt with and parties to reclaim what is rightfully ours are being assembled. It is fair to say these are hard times for everyone, I am sure a lot of you are worried about your families and relatives, but I can assure you that there were minimal casualties.

The Knights fought valiantly to protect Armag Hollow, and unheard of Heroes emerged from the shadows to fight for humanity. A ceremony will be held at a later date, but for today, I want you all to remember.

All I did was fight a single monster; the tide was handled by the denizens of Armag Hollow. Stand proud, for humanity has repelled the claws of the Dark Hollow. Do not mourn for the lost heroes but celebrate their achievements instead.

Today will be remembered as the day we repelled the Dark Hollow and reclaimed what was rightfully ours.”

Just like that, the announcement ended as there was a silence across the streets. But then, there was a cheer⁠— and soon the entire crowd exploded in cheers and celebration. It seemed that the Mayor’s words mattered to everyone.

“Smart, using a dead person to still control the town,” Sera commented. “Though it is only a measure that will last a few years at most.”

I shook my head. “Well, it doesn’t matter.” And I smiled at Sera. “It’s not our problem to deal with after all.”

She chuckled. “And here I thought I was the cold one, but you’re right, it’s not our problem.” Sera turned to me with a smile, proffering her hand. “Well, I think we should just go out and enjoy the festivities, don’t you think Sybil?”

I nodded, and accepted her offer. “Let’s go then?”

“Yep.”

We left the room, to enjoy the day and joyous atmosphere.