We were on the move. This woman – I still knew nothing of her – guided me through dense woodlands, unseen trails winding amongst roots and ancient trees. I hadn't the slightest clue where we were heading, my head still buzzed with the abrupt change of location. But this place...something primal stirred within me. Like a long-forgotten echo, not an entirely unwelcome sensation.
"Your name," she finally said as we ducked between two boulders. We emerged on a cliff overlooking a cascading river, rushing silver in the twilight.
"Jason," I mumbled. "Yours?"
"They call me Lilith," she answered, her gaze focused on the distant horizon. Not her name from back before 'Initialization', something assumed in this…reality. She held an air of command, even with that casual clothing - worn jeans and a faded tunic. It wasn't just confidence, it was the hint of something far older lurking beneath the surface.
Finally, I gave voice to the burning question, "Where are we?"
"Not the right question," she countered. "Better to ask 'when'... or if that even has meaning out here." Her words hit me like a bucket of cold water. Not only outside the system, but... she might not even be from my time at all? "But for clarity's sake, let's just say this space exists somewhere between cracks in their grand creation."
"Their creation? The System?" I was barely keeping up, each bit of information throwing me further off balance.
"Not something I enjoy explaining." Lilith sat on a smooth grey stone, looking up at the vast expanse of stars. "Let's call them Administrators. And their Initialization project - that's how all this insanity began." She gestured with a sweep of her hand, not just indicating the landscape, but something far larger.
"Initialization was an…experiment,” she continued, her voice distant. “Not the first, not the last. You've had an unusual journey, a glitch that allowed you to…see glimpses outside the normal loops. The Administrators would prefer no one see things from this side.”
She paused, and the memory of that dark mist with its suffocating presence flashed across my mind. Those weren't glitches or fragments – they were watching me. A chill ran down my spine. But this woman, the way she spoke… it was the first shred of real information I'd received about any of this.
"Who are you?" I asked again, more urgently this time. "Why haven't I seen you before? If...if any of this has happened multiple times..."
"Perhaps I didn't want to be seen," Lilith countered, her lips twitching into a half-smile. "We out here in the Cracks exist differently. Time isn't a tidy line of before and after."
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It was an infuriating yet fascinating concept - those like her, they moved freely from loop to loop, while people like me were just pawns stuck in the maddening repeat. It made sense of my growing strength, the intuition beyond my experience. And it sparked a new question.
"Why help me? I wouldn't have escaped that last room without you."
She paused, eyes locked with mine. "Let's just say I had the pleasure of meeting someone like you once before. Your strength is different from most who wind up stuck in the Initialization. Some might see that as a threat. To me, it's a spark of rebellion."
I mulled over her words. Were there people, maybe even versions of myself, who survived this before me? The idea ignited a strange determination in my chest.
She stood up. We weren't moving forward just yet. “I have another errand to attend to before taking you onward. Stay within sight of this river. Do not venture farther, if you value your life.” There was a weight to her words, a subtle warning. Were we even safe here? I was about to object, but Lilith was already a fading shadow vanishing into the deeper forest.
With that, I was alone. I walked closer to the edge of the cliff, mesmerized by the rushing water. Below, a series of waterfalls spilled into a swirling pool, foam glistening in the pale moonlight. I watched the patterns for a while, letting the constant sound lull me into a meditative state.
It was there, under the open sky, that I felt a familiar warmth spread through me - the leftover energy from those earlier battles. I closed my eyes and focused, guiding that warmth along my limbs, letting it fill my muscles, tingle in my fingertips. It was more than just raw power, there was a rhythm to it, a pulse akin to my heartbeat.
For the first time, it felt like control rather than this chaotic overflow.
When I opened my eyes, everything was sharper. Colors bloomed in the moonlit twilight, the faintest rustling of leaves was suddenly crystal clear. And that wasn't the only change. There was something faint…shimmering around my own hands, the same subtle red glow that surrounded those defeated creatures. Was this their true nature? An energy, a potential that the System crudely converted into stats and levels?
Suddenly, a figure in the distance caught my attention. A man stumbled along the riverbank, clothes disheveled. Panic flashed in his eyes as he spotted me.
No time to contemplate my change – was he dangerous? Another survivor? An Administrator hunting prey? Something primal kicked in, the old fighting instincts honed in the loops now mixed with this newfound sense of...potential. This wasn't a creature from the tutorial system, but a real life.
Whatever his intent, it quickly became obvious that he posed no real threat. His movements were frantic, his breath ragged. "No more! Please," he whimpered as I drew closer, cowering under the starlight. My heart dropped. In his eyes, I wasn't a human – I was an avatar of that brutal cycle, come to collect some new prize. I had to break through this fear.
"Wait, who are you? It's okay," I tried to assure him, hands held open. My words seemed only to deepen his terror. The damage of this System ran deep. It left not just physical scars, but wounds in the mind that perhaps a journey with this 'Lilith' woman was meant to heal.
Maybe I could heal too. But for that, I'd need answers.