The scent of heavy smoke filled Pyre’s nostrils, and her eyes snapped open.

Carnage was the first word that came to mind as she took in what she’d done. The once green grass was gray and deadened. Cracked pottery littered the grounds. All semblance of enclave infrastructure had been charred to a crisp. Nothing remained but soot and disfigured drotling corpses, piled in great black heaps.

Feeling something tickle at her ankles, she looked down. Her feet were bare—her shoes had seemingly been burned off, as had her gloves, and her hood. Her pants were still with her, but they were frayed at the edges, blackened. She knew this would happen someday when she reached a higher power level, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

The boar’s curse had been serious business.

Thankfully, the Avatar’s blessings were even more serious business.

Unlike Akemi, Pyre had managed to progress to the second level of her Archetype, which included a skill called [Cleansing Fire]. The skill could be cast any time she had a status effect applied to her—anything from a minor poison to a major curse. It was a ridiculously powerful skill, but it had a hefty cooldown of three weeks, so she had to use it sparingly.

While the skill was great at getting rid of minor diseases without much fanfare—maybe producing a small fire fit for a cooking stove—its effect scaled with the degree of the debuff. And the curse the boar had attached to it was nothing to snort at.

In fact, it was so severe that Pyre hadn’t actually managed to see what actually happened; she heard what sounded like a nuclear explosion in her right ear, and then everything around her was suddenly painted in a raging red. The explosion—or rather, explosions—were so loud that they drowned out what she assumed was a righteous amount of screaming. She had felt the literal earth shift beneath her, reacting as if it had been bombed.

She kneeled down in the dirt, and took a handful of soot into her palm. She had done this. It was difficult to comprehend, but rabid blood pumped through her regardless. She got that heady feeling in her chest, a delighted, powerful thing, but it came like ocean waves—plowing over the shore, then immediately receding. All she was left with was that familiar hollowness.

She wasn’t like Akemi. Blowing things up—whether it be back on Earth, or here in Kodra—had always been a calculated strategy for her, not a murderous power trip. This time had been no different. In the corner of her eye, she could see the experience points stream in. She had killed the equivalent of an entire village in the blink of an eye, and she had the achievements to show for it.

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You have leveled up! [Lv. 16 -> Lv. 17]

You have leveled up! [Lv. 17 -> Lv. 18]

She brushed off the notifications. She wasn’t desperate enough that she needed to invest in any skills just this second. She knew she was more than capable of killing Akemi as she was right now. She had more than ten levels on the girl, and she knew all of her tricks. As long as she snuck up on Akemi before she brought that demonic insect ball out, this would be a piece of cake.

But all that bravado didn’t make it feel any less shitty.

She swallowed hard, staring at her bare feet as they tracked through the darkened mud.

She had killed countless people. Shit, she had just killed an entire village of children, if you went just by appearances. It hadn’t even made her stomach turn.

So why did this feel so annoyingly different? Why did she feel so violently, spiritually opposed to it?

They weren’t even close. They were unfriendly acquaintances at best. But okay, sure, Pyre hadn’t exactly made any other friends here in Kodra—the villain business wasn’t exactly one you entered for the good company—and sure, Akemi was the only other person she’d met from Earth, so maybe it was a little comforting to know that someone, anyone, could understand just a little bit of what it was like to be torn from everything you knew into this.

But it didn’t make any difference if she was lonely. And that’s what this was, she knew, despite the disgusting degree to which she didn’t want to admit it. Loneliness. The aching feeling that none of this effort was worth it if she didn’t have someone to share it with. If all she was left with was this unabetting hollowness.

But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered until the Sigil was etched onto her skin.

Just as she was ready to put all her inner turmoil to rest and move on, the last voice she needed to hear rang out in the hot air.

“Pyre? What the hell are you doing here?”

It was hard to tell who was more surprised to see the other.

“Akemi?” The words left Pyre’s mouth dry and weak, and she hated it.

Akemi stood in front of Pyre ridiculous as ever, her torso completely exposed except for a small black bra, her shirt tied in a complicated knot around her hand. She looked like she had just waltzed out of the Halloween edition of a pinup magazine.

“Did you do… this?” Akemi said, gesturing to the carnage. She was looking at Pyre in genuine awe, and Pyre had to try her best not to feel flattered. “You toasted the little beasts like marshmallows.”

Pyre’s heart picked up pace, goosebumps prickling at her skin. She didn’t respond.

Instead, she tried to keep her mind clear and focused. She needed to.

This—Akemi looking at her so imploringly, her hair a mess over her shoulders, her torso half-naked—wasn’t the surprise attack she was planning for. She’d need a new strategy.

“Pyre? Hello? Did the drotlings pull out your trachea?”

Or maybe she didn’t need a new strategy. Akemi certainly had her guard down. If Pyre attacked now with a quick [Fireball], it would be enough to do the job. The girl would be nothing but ash, just like the rest of this village. She could leave it all to burn.

Biting down on every emotion rising in her chest, Pyre thrust her hands up.

Her mind was made.

Voice breaking, she cast “[Fireball].”