Vivi waited for death to come.

The death tyrant's minions inched toward her. The scarlet claws had killed everything in her immediate surroundings, but the remaining skeletons advanced. Flying skulls filled the air, most floating aimlessly above, but several plunged her way.

Soon, she would be mauled alive. She had no idea where Aang was—he wouldn't save her this time. Vivi had nothing more to use. Without ether, she was useless.

This was the life of an ether hunter. Fighting with one's life on the line didn't come without risks. One loss in a battle to the death was enough to end it.

Sounded stupid, but the risks were easy to forget.

I'm sorry, Grandpa, Vivi thought. A tear flowed from her eye. I couldn't keep the smithy alive.

She didn't want to die. Of course she didn't. But lying there, utterly powerless, Vivi couldn't do much more than accept her defeat. She'd already panicked her way out of death too many times today. Realistically, she had nothing she could do. The death tyrant's minions would kill her.

She was shaking. No… I can't accept this.

Vivi gritted her teeth, attempting to push herself up. She collapsed under her own weight. Nothing worked. Without ether, her limbs were totally spent, useless.

A crash sounded from below, as if a tree had been swiped in half. The death tyrant's footing wavered.

Then another crash, followed by the death tyrant's pained wail.

Vivi raised her eyebrows. She peeked into the hole and saw Aang at the very bottom, taking swings at the death tyrant's legs. Vivi's vision was too blurry to see details, but Aang's face was coated in red. He swung at the death tyrant's legs with his remaining strength.

The boss's left foot was cut from the leg, and its weight collapsed.

Its upper body wavered, head tilting to the left. Then the boss lost balance completely and crashed against the floor some distance away. More bricks fell from the ceiling from the impact.

Vivi watched in awe. The skeletons were still approaching, only a few paces away from lunging range. The boss still lived. Its gaping black eyeholes stared at her, head lying sideways on the ground ahead of her.

A burst of energy reignited within Vivi. She groaned and forced herself to stand. Her body protested, but with the sight of victory pumping blood to her veins, she managed to take a few slow steps.

"Lucius!" Vivi screamed. "Power!"

"Got it…" he said. Vivi felt his ether reserves permanently drop by another fifty. He was totally exhausted.

A slight bit of control returned to her. She sped up to a run through pained steps, charging toward the death tyrant's fallen head. Even while sideways, the skull was many times her height. It clanked its teeth, eyes staring at her. Its arm was stuck at an awkward angle, mostly useless. The boss had nothing to defend itself.

Vivi had one desperate idea. She jumped to the death tyrant's lower eye socket, grimacing as she pulled herself up. She entered the boss's head.

Hostile wisps coated the air. Everything around her told Vivi she was in the wrong place, commanding her to get out. Breathing was difficult. But nothing attacked her.

Her sword poked out from the back of its skull. Ether still flowed within its veins—the sword contained power well. The area around the sword was thoroughly cracked, crumbling bits of bone falling off. The sword was close to piercing through.

With the last of Vivi's strength, she yanked the sword free. She barely had any ether to strengthen her swings. Her sword was only partly filled. But with proper technique…

She swung at the cracked spot with all her might.

New cracks formed. Vivi hit again, then again, each time further cracking the spot in the boss's head. Her entire upper body was burning. Her hands wanted to fall off. Her legs wanted to collapse. But she kept swinging, hacking away as if she was a mine worker picking at metal.

Until eventually, a hole opened up, and the cracks finally crumbled to bits.

The ether within the boss's head escaped through the hole. Wisps rapidly dissipated, and the suffocating feeling inside calmed down.

Vivi wheezed heavy breaths. She barely remained standing. She'd worked herself to exhaustion dozens of times in her life. None of those sprees had brought her close to this level of weariness. Her muscles looked for any excuse to stop; to collapse and fall asleep to start repairing the countless aches all around her body.

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With a heavy step, she turned and peeked out from the death tyrant's eyehole. Across the room, skeletons fell limp. One by one, the minions disintegrated. The flying skulls dropped from the sky, each one filled with ether. Soon, the ground was covered in collectible ether. Calm wisps rose to the air. Thousands of them, coating the air in a cloud. The sizzle sounded heavenly.

A beacon of wisps rose to the ceiling from the death tyrant's skull.

"We did it…" Vivi thought. "Lucius, are you there?"

Lucius's presence was weak. He had spent his all and more to keep Vivi alive. If spirits could die, Vivi guessed Lucius had come close. He had fallen briefly unconscious multiple times.

The amount of ether in the air, however, seemed enough to wake him. Lucius's translucent figure, barely visible, flew weakly from Vivi's core.

He immediately began collecting fresh ether. His movements were sluggish, taking in only a few dozen ether every second. But as fresh ether made its way to his reserves, energy slowly came back. He flew back to her core and pumped ether into her muscles to help her stay awake.

As the wisps inside the skull were collected, something was revealed beneath. A large wisp, tinted a dark purple, brooded in the middle. Flame-like tendrils spun around it, attacking smaller wisps. Something was weird about this wisp. As if it was possessed.

Is that a skill? Vivi thought.

"Looks like so," Lucius said. "I've never seen anything like that."

Vivi stared at the wisp. She couldn't help but feel off.

Lucius was too tired to fly around in excitement, but the awe was clear in his voice. "It must be a rare skill or above. Common skills wouldn't behave like that. Pick it up."

Vivi gulped and prepared herself. Slowly, she reached for the skill, pulling it into one of the two unoccupied slots within her core. The wisp was heavy, as if it didn't want to be transferred.

"Keep going," Lucius said. "Skills can't cause harm if you don't activate them. Pick it up, and I'll tell you what it is."

Vivi completed the transfer. The weird skill found one of the three slots in her core. It continued thrashing, its tendrils invading Vivi's core. The presence was oppressive. But it didn't seem like the skill was harmful.

Zooming in on the skill, its structure was hazy. Vivi couldn't see branches or runes at all. A misty cloud floated above it, blocking Vivi's access.

Lucius examined the skill curiously. He floated around it in Vivi's core for a long time.

"Um, Lucius?" Vivi asked. "What skill is it?"

"I… don't know," Lucius said, sounding confused. "The skill is listed in Ythar's library of skills… It's familiar to him. The name is Death Sense. But Ythar has hidden its details."

Vivi raised her eyebrows. "What does that mean?"

"I'm blocked from accessing the skill's details," Lucius said. "Ythar has connected spirits to his skill encyclopedia. When hunters find a skill, we can access his encyclopedia to see if our creator knows anything about skills. Around half of the world's skills are written down. Death Sense is listed… But the details… They're…"

"What does it say?"

"'To all hunters, return this skill to my palace in Surchester immediately upon collection.'"

Vivi paused. Surchester was Ythar's capital city on the surface. The city where his palace—his real palace—was located.

"What rarity is it?" Vivi asked.

"It doesn't have a rarity," Lucius said. "Its details are totally blank. I can't tell you anything about this skill. It's… I've never seen anything like this."

The skill made its presence clear within Vivi's core. She felt it more clearly than she felt the collectible ether across the room. "Should I activate it?" Vivi asked.

Lucius thought about it. "It could be dangerous. I really don't know what this skill does. Ythar wants us to return it to him."

"Does Ythar know we've collected the skill?" Vivi asked.

"No," Lucius said. "He shouldn't. If we go near him, he can sense us. I'm connected to him. But he doesn't keep track of spirits down on earth."

"Well," Vivi said. "That's interesting. We're obviously not going to return it, then."

Lucius appeared concerned. Almost afraid. This surprised Vivi. Lucius, the most rebellious spirit she'd ever heard of, was afraid of defying his god.

"Ythar isn't someone you can just mess with," Lucius said. "If he finds out, we're dead."

We'll talk about this later, Vivi thought. For now, fill your reserves back up. Give me enough ether to keep me walking. Let's go get Aang. Hopefully he's alive.

Lucius wasn't enthusiastic, but he began collecting ether. The boss itself dropped enough ether to max out Lucius again with a few thousand more into Vivi's debts.

Vivi climbed out of the death tyrant's skull. The boss's ethereal aura was gone, but the bones hadn't disintegrated like most lesser monsters. The giant skull, and the rib cage, hands, all remained intact.

The arena was coated in ether. Thousands more were free to be collected from the fallen smaller monsters. Those had all disintegrated. There was enough ether to clear a considerable chunk of Vivi's debts. All of what Lucius had spent to ascend were returned. He also found Vivi's hammer and returned it to spatial storage.

Still, Vivi wasn't in a hurry to collect it all. She glanced down the hole, where Aang had destroyed the boss's leg.

The leader, with a frown on his face, was climbing up the death tyrant's bones. He jumped from one rib to the next, before hopping to the platform.

"Aang!" Vivi called. His face was bloody, wounds and bruises covering his body. His shirt was barely hanging on. His left eye was shut and swollen.

"Alive and well…" Aang said. He collected ether from the surroundings, replenishing his reserves. The signs of early venerium poisoning were visible on his right hand. He handed Abyss Destroyer back to Vivi.

"I'll lose myself if I swing that any longer," Aang said. "Take it. Thank you for letting me experience that."

Vivi didn't have time to say anything before Aang continued.

"Did you collect all the ether you need?"

"Yes," Vivi said.

Aang nodded. "This was the main boss. Zand is cleared. That's a problem."

Vivi agreed. They didn't have time to mess around.

"The Stewards will see that something is off," Aang said. "We're too exhausted to fight them. Let's head out and escape. We can hide in the hidden dungeon and recover. Did the boss drop a skill?"

Vivi hesitated before answering. "It did."

"We better pray to dear Tyvlan that the skill is powerful enough," Aang said.

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