<WARNING MISSING BATTERY CELL: LOW POWER MODE ACTIVATED>

Fucking hell.

My head or whatever remained of it, felt as if it was drowning in an endless ocean of darkness, inside a void without depth, without sound nor escape. I waited for a light that was never meant to come.

Until now.

That damn Noctian must have done some stupid bullshit if I'm able to form thoughts again. Was it an emergency protocol? Or was this something entirely else?

It wouldn't be a stretch to call this one of its plans?

As I opened my eyes, I immediately looked down at my body, and only then did I realize how much I had changed.

Layers of scorched armor encased me, fused directly into flesh with glowing runes of an enemy nation whose script language even I couldn't comprehend. By every law of existence, I should have been a Hollow, a loyal moving corpse of the empire.

But I wasn't. Which meant I was still bound by that damn contract.

AHAHAHAHAHA!

An ugly cry of hysteria tore itself from my throat before I could stop it. Even in death, I couldn't escape. The thought of tearing that beast's head off its body spiraled into my veins as my mind began to rip itself from a sane state of mind.

It didn't matter what I became. I would end that monster.

The pod embedded at the nape of my neck sealed automatically as I rose to my feet on my own for the first time in a while. However, everything felt significantly heavier, it'll probably take me a long time to get used to this body but there's more pressing matters at the moment.

The last time I was with Grim we encountered Anya, and knowing her she already probably left with the artifact and shot my rider dead in a ditch somewhere but I had to be optimistic about my situation because without him I couldn't move faster than a sloth.

The problem was if I encountered Anya along the way.

Back in the day she would have been an easy opponent. Should have. That's if I still possessed my resonant ability, it wouldn't even be a question. Yet a flicker of doubt centered my mind. With how long I was gone, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that my connection to the Pathos has weakened or even gone by now.

A person's perception of their true purpose was the most significant aspect of a resonant connection. In other words, Callers gain their supernatural abilities simply because they refuse to look away from a single path, no matter the cost it takes from them.

The only way to know if I was still connected was to reach a place called the Bridge. Unfortunately, it wasn't somewhere you could simply walk to. The Bridge could only be reached through dreams.

A short nap wouldn't hurt, but I had to find Grim first.

I forced myself to turn and look around, but my body felt heavy and numb. Every step was a battle against my own muscles. In short, everything felt like absolute hell.

I pushed the magnification implants in my eyes to their limit, scanning the nearby tree line. The world sharpened and stretched until a familiar silhouette appeared collapsed on the ground ahead of me.

It was him.

I tried to sprint toward him, but my body refused to cooperate. Instead, I stumbled forward, crashing through the undergrowth and bouncing off tree trunks, moving with all the grace of a broken puppet.

By the time I reached him, I had clumsily bulldozed half the forest and was exhausted beyond belief. However, through the haze of fatigue, my eyes immediately snapped to his surroundings.

The artifact was gone.

I quickly lifted Grim's body to check beneath him—nothing. My pulse quickened as I turned him over and began inspecting him closely.

"…Damn it. He's healed."

Every last one of his wounds were mended perfectly. My stomach sank. This was bad. Worse than bad. It meant the artifact had already been activated. When this artifact was used one of its side effects was restoration. It returned objects to an unbroken state. Grim's body was already restored which meant his soul was next.

From what I remembered, the artifact—Seele—had once been used to revive nobles or high-class Callers, but only once. It activated the moment a corpse touched it, which was why it had always been stored inside a special container to prevent misuse.

And from what Eis once told me, artifacts didn't interact well with fragmented souls.

Which meant Grim's new soul could potentially consume mine.

I wasn't exactly an expert on how souls worked, but I had a theory: a small part of my soul was inside him. That was probably why he could sometimes hear my voice.

It didn't matter if my soul occupied a different body. A soul was singular. If the fragment inside Grim was consumed, then the rest of me would slowly disappear with it.

Like cancer spreading through the body.

Without any of my abilities, I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do.

For a moment, I considered killing him to force the fragment of my soul to return to me.But that was way too risky. I had no idea what kind of backlash that might cause.

I had to deal with this now. But how?

Before I could even come up with a plan, pain suddenly exploded through my missing arm.

I screamed as a burning sensation tore through muscle that shouldn't have existed. Something pulled outward from my shoulder as bones began to construct itself into place, followed by my muscles knitting my tendons together. My skin soon came after, as it wrapped around it all in a rush of heat and agony.

"What—? Th-this shouldn't be possible," I gasped, staring at the new arm in horror. "Why… Why is the artifact repairing me too?"

It didn't make sense.

Unless—It's mending my soul in there?

The realization froze my thoughts. If that was the case… then Grim and I were technically the same person.

I dragged my new hand over the armored helmet.

"…This is why I hate anything related to souls," I muttered. "It's just too damn complicated."

Honestly, I would've loved the input of a spiritual analyst right now. Someone like that could probably explain all of this in five minutes.

But whatever. I'll deal with the existential crisis later.

All that mattered now was getting home. I'll just carry Grim's body in the pod and head for the mines, just like the original plan.

I knelt and carefully guided Grim's unconscious body into the pod. The chamber sealed itself the moment it recognized him, metal plates locked him into place with a familiar hiss.

However, as I turned to leave, someone was already behind me—floating inches from my face.

"Hello, Luden."

I froze.

Anya hovered right in front of me, so close that if she wanted me dead, I'd already be a corpse. But something else caught my eye—something worse.

A faint glow hung at her neck. It was the artifact.

"I knew something was off about that Noctian," she said with a tired sigh. "But you?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. "I wasn't sure."

She tilted her head. "You can hear me inside that thick armor of yours, can't you?"

I said nothing. Silence felt safer than any answer I could give.

She let out a soft, almost unhinged laugh. "It was quite saddening to find your rider already dead," she said. "I would've loved the honor of killing him myself after what he did to me."

The charred edges of her clothes made it easy to guess what she meant.

"I knew I was lucky when I saw him clutching the artifact," she continued, her fingers brushing the glowing object at her neck with unsettling tenderness. "I knew it was my duty to finish him off the moment he resurrected."

Her hand paused.

"But… something stopped me."

She leaned closer.

"I wanted answers. I wanted to bring him back and see if he carried your memories." Her voice softened slightly. "Turns out I didn't need to."

An accusing finger flicked toward me. "I saw you move without your rider. Try to save him, even." Even through her mask, I could tell she had a wicked smile on her face.

"And that alone told me everything I needed to know. You're not as hollow as they say."

Her voice lowered to a whisper. "You're inside there, aren't you, Luden?"

Damn it. So she'd been watching the entire time.

I should have known better.

Despite her taunts, I remained silent because at this point my mind was occupied with figuring out an effective way to kill her. I wanted to believe I could take her on but that was a pipe dream and I knew it. In this state, victory was impossible.

Escape, though… maybe. Just maybe.

"I've seen no hollow move of its own free will before." Her eyes narrowed. "By every known law of Pathos, that shouldn't be possible."

She paused.

"…Unless you made a deal with a fiend."

Somehow, after all these years, she still knew exactly how to piss me off.

I tried to laugh, but what came out instead was a guttural roar, ripped out from my hollow throat. My vocal cords burned as my voice scraped out words that I was barely able to speak out.

"You're....still just an idiot who understands nothing"

Anya clicked her tongue. "You're far more foolish than I ever was." Her stare cut like blades. "What kind of madman curses themself willingly?"

"…These chains are my duty to our nation, to kill the moon beast there are things that must be lost." I rasped.

She let out a short, humorless laugh.. "Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself? You're telling me you killed all of our comrades because of some fairy tale that you thought was true?!"

One of her rifles shot my fingers off my new hand, but I barely winced in pain. "You were a doctor Luden, you used to save lives! None of what you did makes sense!"

My bloodied fist began to clench itself.

"I told you… I wanted to save Geoffria. Those monsters weren't our comrades—they were all hiding the truth, they let the Moon Beast take control of our nation!"

My mouth was left agape with a wry smile. "But you… you were the worst of all. You betrayed me. YOU got me killed!"

Anya dismissively scoffed and looked away. "Do you know what actually killed you, Luden? Your ego, your pride. You just had to be right. Maybe in your mind, you were uncovering the truth. But some things aren't real to begin with."

Her voice strained, yet something in Anya steeled her resolve as she pointed all her rifles at me. "Continue to live your life of delusions, old friend, it won't be for much longer."

For someone who worshiped rules and order, it was almost impressive how easily she lied to protect herself.

She didn't want to face the truth. None of them did.

"I am not the monster you think I am," I said quietly as my gaze locked onto hers.

"And you… all you will ever be… is a traitor."

Her eyes flurried with rage "I've had enough of you!"

In an instant, her rifles rose, muzzles glowing as they locked onto my legs, as she fired I willed my body to dodge just in time.

Before she could fire again, I yanked open the compartment in my chest and hurled a smoke grenade at her. The forest vanished behind a thick haze. Instinctively, I reached for my weave blade—but then I realized I didn't pick it up a while ago.

Shit! I'll just switch to my rifle.

I barely managed to grab it from my back and charged it to maximum, but as I was about to aim a white laser immediately sliced through the smoke, cleaving my rifle in half and making it explode in my hands.

She was stripping away my options. I had to think fast, or I was dead. My only hope was a connection to the Pathos.

Anya knew I was a massive target, so she began firing blindly into the haze, her rifles shot mortar rounds like twin machine guns.

<INTEGRITY: 60%>

The velocity of each shot made the smoke around me swirl, I tried to dodge most of them but my body would not respond properly, most of them hit my armor which stood no chance against her rifles.

Eventually as more bullets hailed from within the haze, pools of black blood began to seep from within my plates.

Every hit made me smaller.

<INTEGRITY: 50%>

Slower.

<INTEGRITY: 40%>

Weaker.

<INTEGRITY: 30%>

I was losing.

<INTEGRITY: 20%>

If I could get rid of those fucking rifles I would be winning. I wish they would just disappear

I need to disable them now. I needed to Ḱ̴̺̩͝I̷̞̦͛Ĺ̷̘͐L̷̡̰̓ <<HER>>

Through the pain, something clicked inside me. A feeling of deep hatred washed within me, everything about Anya, made me want to puke, claw out my eyes, and tear my limbs apart.

I didn't need to kill her. I wanted to.

I didn't need to kill her, <you WANT to>

She made turned me into this miserable fucking monster.

She <---- KILLED me.

<INTEGRITY: 15%>

"If I still had my resonant ability then, this is worth a shot"

I stared at my jagged armored hand and drove it into my chest. Pain instantly exploded in sharp hot pulses as my blood began to surge and choke my lungs.