Dear Elena,

Writing this email has been a lot more difficult than I originally thought. Many things have happened in the past few months, to the point I had to rewrite this letter at least seven times.

Five months have passed since the time I sent you this letter. I made sure to visit the fracture constantly to try and slow down my aging so that when you return, I won’t have aged as much.

These past few months have been pure hell. Kiriam divorced his wife after she returned from an expedition with another man. Apparently, she lost a close friend while subjugating a green-grade demon and found comfort in this stranger. Thanks to him, we learned something shocking: the fractures are connected. I don’t know all the details, but the fallout has been brutal.

My brother still hasn’t recovered from the trauma and has doubts on whether his kids are really his or not. Within a few days, the entire village became aware of the affair, and despite divergent views on the appropriate punishment, the majority believes a reconciliation is necessary for the children's benefit.

I don’t know what's best for this family, so I tried to not meddle with it and simply lend Kiriam a shoulder to cry on; honestly, this whole thing made me uneasy. I don’t know what to think, and your parents haven’t been easy on me either.

Every day they come checking for me, forcing some small talk; they’re starting to make everything uncomfortable, and it quickly backfires on them as the neighbors accuse them of trying to turn me into a cuck.

Tensions are rising, and my parents haven't exactly been easy on me either, so by the time you come, you might hear a thing or two from my parents and yours.

I never really thought how such a small incident could spark such a wild drama, with investigations starting left and right and some adulterers almost stoned to death. Carl, for example, the good old Carl, was having an affair with Cynthia, the married lady you hated so much. Turns out, all of her kids are actually Carl's. I can’t even imagine how poor Jessie is feeling right now, and it was such a long affair too. Did you know anything about those two?

There were a couple of assassination attempts on both Carl and Jessie, and they both managed to best their assassins, but for the sake of keeping peace, both were kicked out from the neighborhood.

Apart from the affair incident, a bunch of visitors came in for the usual harvest. Since there were more than usual, we managed to sell everything. I even managed to sell the last few packages of Ashen for more than double their usual price.

I hope you’ll be able to return within a couple of months so that you won’t miss out on the New Year's festival. This year we’re collaborating with a bunch of neighboring villages to create something truly unique. (mainly Tursa, Bellina, and Costa) I think this is all I had to say.

I hope you’re doing fine wherever you are, your dear boyfriend,

Robert.

___

The girl chuckled as she read the first paragraph. She was resurfacing after an eleven-month expedition into the fifth level of the Fracture, a place few dared to explore. Around her, the tension was palpable, but she seemed unfazed, her casual clothes a stark contrast to the heavy gear of her companions.

“What’s that? Didn’t they tell you to keep all devices turned to minimum light?Are you trying to get all of us killed?” One of her companions snatched the small device from her hands and turned it off.

The man who stole the device was a man who seemed to be in his late forties; his head had gone completely bald, his forehead filled with wrinkles as his old skin was starting to grow flaccid around his cheeks, and dark circles around his eyes indicated that he hadn’t had a good night of sleep in a while.

He was a veteran explorer with over seventy years of experience under his belt, the second strongest member of the group.

The group was in the middle of traveling through a very dark section of the fracture; they didn’t know what dangers were lurking around, and their nerves were already stretched thin, but the sudden reckless action to turn on a communication device brought everyone to action before they could even realize who they were stealing from.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Oi, who do you think you are to piss me off right at this moment?” 

The red-haired girl spoke; she was the captain of the expedition and their strongest member, a powerful explorer who had made a name for herself by being the first to ever return with her entire team alive after having explored the deepest levels of the second fracture.

The old man was startled when he heard her voice; having realized the severity of his action, he tried to immediately hand back the small device, but his head fell to the ground before he could do so.

The group froze, flashlights scanning the shadows for the attacker. But there was no one—nothing—there.

‘Julian died fighting the Laughing Widow,’ the girl said, her voice cold. ‘That’s what you’ll write in your report. If anyone says otherwise…’ She didn’t need to finish. The message was clear.

Most of those who already knew her simply nodded without turning around; they also stopped anyone from accidentally turning around and witnessed the demonic form she took whenever she started using her borrowed powers.

The Laughing Widow was the main cause of this expedition; after the original owner of her powers had died, she was once again unleashed into the world. The red-haired girl had organized this expedition to capture her and assimilate her powers. 

“That dummy, why does he always have to be so indirect? If he wanted to know if I had a lover that badly, he should’ve just asked… Now, now, how do I deal with this?"

Her subordinates were all trembling in fear; the sudden shift in tone of her voice was clear: she was in no mood for any other mistake.

"No matter what I say, I doubt he'll blindly believe my words that everything is alright; he won’t believe it no matter how true that is, especially after what happened.” The other members of the team could hear the sound of flesh exploding, bones cracking, and something very flaccid and sloppy fell to the ground retrieving the communication device.

All of them were somewhat used to seeing people turned into creatures with a demon-like appearance due to the nature of demonic abilities, but nobody had yet witnessed her full transformation, and they all were starting to be terrified of even witnessing it.

Whatever that girl assimilated was strong enough to have earned her the title of the strongest; her powers worked in strange ways, but everyone knew, the moment they saw glimpses of a red glow coming off of her, that the man named Julian had already died.

“Alejandro!” Suddenly the girl started walking in front of the group; her body and clothes had gone back to normal, which immediately made the others feel even more uneasy. Most transformations were sure to rip clothes and dirty them with demonic fluid and whatnot, but she was as clean as ever, even while exploring an extremely humid environment.

“You've also got a girl knocked up on the surface; how do you keep her calm? Doesn't she fear you might get a little handy with some other gal you may find down here?” She asked her while leading the group towards an unknown route.

“Relax; there’s nothing around these parts; it’s safe.” The woman said to calm down the rest of her teammates while some others were starting to put the corpse of Julian inside a large bag to carry it back to the surface. The head of the man was missing, and his chest was split in two.

How would you know?

They thought no one, however, voiced their opinion in fear of the chances of getting killed for it.

“Alejandro! I’ve asked you a question!”

The man named Alejandro jumped in place; he was still recovering from seeing one of his friends die a futile death at the hands of that tyrant and couldn’t quite comprehend the question she had posed to him.

A partner? My partner? How does she—

As soon as he saw the girl turn around, impatiently he stepped forward and cleared his throat and tried his best to keep his head attached to his body.

“I don’t, or rather I can’t; we just came to an agreement that I wouldn’t bring back any kids—any kids that are mine.” After answering her question, the small man held his breath until he saw the satisfied look of the expedition leader as she turned around; only then did he finally exhale.

Holy shit, I almost died there. Why did—It’s obvious why; she has a husband! But what kind of husband could put up with that… no, it must be a girl; that is the only logical explanation, but if that’s the case, how can a girl handle being left alone for over…

No matter how much he tried, Alejandro couldn’t seem to be able to calculate how much time passed on the surface.

Still, it must’ve been at least a year, give or take. I had to take this job because I was in urgent need of money, but even then I had to fight with teeth and nail to get permission to go. What kind of person would be fine with seeing their partner once every couple of years?

The man thought as he quietly headed back to help his other companion put the corpse in the bag.

"You're thinking of something useless again; I can see it in your expression. You should concentrate more on your surroundings rather than in other people's businesses; this is the fracture after all."

After admonishing the young guy, the lady with red hair began speedwalking into the unknown dark tunnels of the cave they found within the large

“A kid! That’s probably what I should do, but then how will I raise it? What will happen to my job? Argh! But if I don’t, then he could decide to stop waiting for me..." Her voice echoed in the dark cave; the others had already turned off every flashlight to preserve battery and proceeded to cautiously follow the girl from a safe distance.

“That fucking bitch! What was her name again? Why couldn’t she just keep her legs closed instead of making life harder for everyone, including me? Robby was already nagging me enough as it is, and now this…”

While the girl was complaining, the men accompanying her noticed a swarm of tiny, microscopic ants had surrounded them, and as the girl kept walking towards the unknown direction, they opened up a path for her.

What is going on...?

They thought, their sixth sense was warning them of an imminent danger.

Before they could follow her footsteps, the ants rapidly closed off the path they had carefully made for her and began swarming the group of explorers.