Everything felt hot as my blood spilled over my fingers and onto the forest floor.

My vision slowly blurred as I shivered in cold numbness, slowly surrendering to the cold emptiness creeping over my skin, until my consciousness began to loosen its grip.

It felt as if time paused as darkness eventually stilled my thoughts and emptied my mind.

My memories eventually pulled me towards a strange dream where every hand that had ever mattered to me began to pull me somewhere. I tried to drag myself through them, clawing them back through the darkness, forcing them to follow me whether they wanted to or not.

Eventually they consumed everything, leaving only a single point of light which I broke through.

The light shattered the emptiness. Glowing lines shot outward like lightning, racing toward me and wrapping around my arm. They seared into me, pulling at my soul, stitching me together in sharp, exquisite agony.

Their strings bound me once more to Pathos.

When I opened my eyes I was back in my human body.

I stood once more in the landscape of a grey desert, where vast and trunkless legs of stone stood in the distance. Before me was a broken chair and upon it rested a black phone. Behind it were two grey metal doors, locked behind chains with intricate patterns inlaid within them.

I was back at the bridge.

Every time I returned here, something always changed. Sometimes there was an animal, or an object in front of me and most of the times it made sense and yet it didn’t. The shifts always seemed connected to my life, as if this place was reshaping itself around my choices. Or my sins.

At least, that was my theory.

I picked up the phone and a man’s calm voice spoke from the other end; he seemed to be the only constant in the bridge. Some Callers theorized that he was the voice of Pathos itself; others claimed he was a soul stranded at the end of time.

To be honest, I didn’t expect to know the truth.

“Doctor Faust, we meet again. How long has it been?” The man was practically chuckling like some excited friend on the other end.

I scoffed at his casual tone. “I wouldn’t know mister”

He chuckled like a fake business-man before replying. “Of course, how silly of me. Forgive me doctor with the dozens of callers I listen to, my memory is foggy at times... In any case, let’s get to business. What is the purpose of your visit?”

“I want to know if my Resonant ability is still active”

“Hmm…let me check” He remained silent for a few moments as if he were actually checking records. “It says here doctor, your path has been revoked.”

“Revoked? What? Why?” my heartbeat had reached my ears, I couldn’t tell if it was from nervousness or frustration. “What do you mean, revoked?”

“It has become quite clear for us that Luden Faust is no longer resonant with his previous contract due to his actions, therefore he has been revoked of all resonant abilities as of late.” The man on the other end of the line responded as if he were reading off a document.

My heart felt like it fell out of my chest, without my ability I had no way to heal myself when I woke up, I would die instantly. “You gotta be joking right?”

“Now, now. I know the mere thought of losing everything must be distressing for a caller of your status but—”

The phone’s plastic began to crack from my grasp. “No- NO.. I- I’ve spent decades helping people, I did what I had to do for the betterment of my country! Just because I killed a few people doesn’t mean I fucking–”

I hitched my breath to stop myself from fighting a primordial being, there was too much on my plate and fighting a celestial wouldn’t do me any good.

The man remained silent as if he was waiting for me to relearn my manners.

“You know better than I do, Doctor, that all actions have consequences, despite your claims. What you did that day was irredeemable, killing a person was the sole restriction of your contract, and you still managed to break it.”

His words stitched my mouth shut. I had no answer.

“I understand how desperately you wish to bury the past, Doctor,” the voice went on, calm as ever. “But the past has already shaped your present in more ways than you realize.”

A brief pause followed. “Tell me… have you not noticed that your soul is corrupted? It happened the moment you broke your restriction. Even if I did give you a resonant ability, you will never reach the heights you once reached.”

My eyes drifted toward the top of the metal doors wrapped in twisted chains, carved upon it was a face of an angel crying blood.

The sight sparked a strange, almost heretical idea in my mind.

“If my old contract is gone… then let’s make a new deal.” My mouth quivered as the words left me.

A genuine laugh came through the other end of the line. The man sounded thoroughly amused by my audacity.

“Oh, Doctor, did you not hear a word I said? I’m amused by your brashness but you have nothing left to offer us, unlike the knowledge and purpose you once possessed.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said quietly. “I do have something.”

“And what might that be?”

“My soul.”

Silence fell as the slow tolling of bells rolled across the desert wind.

“I have no use for a corrupted soul,” the man finally replied. “What leverage do you imagine that gives you?”

“That’s true,” I admitted. “But have you forgotten something?”

My grip tightened on the phone.

“In this state, I’m the only one who can kill the Moon Beast.”

A pause.

“And we share the same enemy, don’t we?” My voice lowered. “That fiend took everything from me.”

The wind carried the echo of the bells again.

“Do you really want it to do the same to you?”

“…Interesting.”

A voice I had never heard before cut through the line. It was deep and distorted, like a creature struggling to imitate a human voice. “You are quite an interesting human, I must say.”

“Who is this?”

“Who I am does not matter. What matters is that I find your determination to slay the Beast… fascinating. Not many humans even know of its existence. Yet you do.”

“Of course I do,” I said flatly. “It’s the reason the Burn War began in the first place.”

“Oh? And how did you arrive at such a conclusion?”

“I like reading.”

A low, amused hum answered me. “Human, I hope you realize you currently resemble a disaster I cannot look away from. Such an interesting soul would be wasted if it returned to the Pathos now. So I will offer you something.”

The voice shifted, almost pleased with itself.

“I will grant you a resonant ability aligned with your purpose—to destroy the Moon Beast.”

A pause. “With two restrictions.”

“I’m listening.”

“The first condition: you must slay the Moon Beast within three years. Fail to do so, and your soul will be obliterated completely.”

A moment passed before it continued.

“The second condition: you may not speak of the Moon Beast to any mortal. Any mention of it will result in both your deaths.”

“Three years?” I whispered, disbelief turning bitter in my mouth. “How do you expect me to kill something like that in three years?”

“That,” the voice replied lightly, “is entirely up to you.”

It chuckled softly.

“Besides… killing the Moon Beast will end this pointless war. And isn’t that what we all want?”

I hesitated in weighing the impossible. Three years, was that enough time to destroy something like that?

The Moon Beast was the fiend that cursed mankind so that no one could live in the dark. It had created the Errata and nearly reshaped the world in the process.

And I was supposed to kill it in three years?

Just as I was about to refuse such an impossible task I could somehow feel the literal hole in my chest bleeding the last of my strength away, each heartbeat weaker than the last.

The bell’s tolls grew ever closer.

“Oh, come now, Faust,” the voice said with lazy amusement. “Don’t think too deeply. You’ll keep the readers waiting.”

A pause.

“Readers? Wha—”

“So,” the voice purred, cutting me off, “will you do it… or not? I suggest remembering what you’ve already lost.”

I drew a slow, shuddering breath.

“I… you have a deal.”

A distorted end tone dial brought me back to reality but everything seemed more dull than usual with a sinking feeling burrowing slowly into my chest as my flesh healed itself perfectly from my wound.

Afterwards, violet summoning circles unlocked behind me. Burning arms tore free from the circles, like fragments of a creature dragged up from hell.

Their glow cut through the smoke, Anya instantly noticed something amiss and relocated towards the skies with her rifles still firing at me.

One arm slammed its hand in front of me, shielding my body.

The other snapped forward faster than I could command. It instinctively crushed one of Anya's rifles like a toy and hurled it aside.

“Impossible! A new resonant ability?!” Anya screamed.

I willed one arm to hunt her down and it immediately obeyed.

She dodged it like a mosquito escaping a swat and fired back with her two remaining rifles. A white beam sliced through the arm, severing it cleanly in half. The limb's fire died and it froze for a heartbeat, then it immediately began to regenerate.

As it did, fire erupted in my own arm. My flesh immediately blackened and shriveled as if it were part of a corpse.

<INTEGRITY: 10%>

Shut up you stupid system! I don't care!

I went on the offensive, forcing the other arm to lunge for her. She emptied every round into them with beams of light and mortar blasts which tore through the summoned constructs. They regenerated instantly, but the feedback burned through my legs and seared into my torso.

This suddenly became a fight of attrition.

<INTEGRITY: 1%>

Her rifles kept shredding the arms and everytime they were damaged it sent waves of agony through me. My organs felt like they were caving in on themselves.

<INTEGRITY: -10%>

As I was about to give up, silence resounded in the forest.

Her rifle gave a hollow click.

She was out of ammo.

A look of horror was strewn across her veiled face. "Wai-"

I did not wait.

The arms obeyed my will, closing with unstoppable force. Her shield stopped the initial impact but it began to slowly crack under the pressure, she had nowhere to run anymore. As she realized her fate, she began to wail and plead for mercy, but as the shield broke she was eventually silenced by an unending flame which burned her to a crisp.

When the arms finally released her, nothing but a charred silhouette fell from the sky.

As I watched her fall, my strength suddenly vanished. The summoned arms also began to crumble into ash and fade into nothingness, however my wounds did not fade along with them.

As I gazed at her sizzling body I couldn't help but feel bittersweet.

Screw you Anya. So this ends in a stalemate.

Well at this point, I was just relieved that it was finally over, that she was finally dead, I was oddly satisfied with this ending.

Until her charred body twitched and moved.

She began screaming on the floor in agony and as she tried to stand, I could see pieces of her flesh fall off her skeleton. However, due to her resonant ability bits of her flesh slowly began to knit itself back together.

Despite her body healing at a quick pace, something changed.

The resolve in her eyes had vanished along with her weapons, all that remained was fear.

As her skin began to reform she forced herself to float into the air and flee into the sky. Dawn had broken so it was unlike for the curse to kill her anymore either.

“Come back you damn traitor! I'll kill you!”

My body collapsed as I tried to pointlessly try to reach for her, my charred armor crushed my brittle bones which snapped like twigs beneath the weight. In the end, I lay on the ground as a burnt husk, completely destroyed.

The system’s voices finally fell silent. In their place came a stranger’s voice.

“This is Varrick. I’m at the mission area. The artifact isn’t here.”

A gruff, annoyed voice cut through his radio.
“Look… the witch probably took it. Time is of the essence, recover it quickly.”

Varrick scoffed. “Woah, hold on there. That isn’t part of the deal, if you want to get that artifact it’s going to cost extra. I work by the hour, just so you know—”

The radio went dead.

“Hey! Don’t cut off the signal! I still have something to report.”

I could hear Varrick’s footsteps creeping closer.

“ I’ve got one of your M.T.s here,” he continued with a softer voice. “ Yeah, severe burn damage…actually no, what the hell it seems like its body is rotting. But its core doesn’t seem broken like the others. I think it’s still recoverable."

<ACT 1 FINISHED>

Author note: An Interlude chapter is next before Act 2 :)