Vivi sat up. The pain and exhaustion seemed to disappear. It was all replaced by a sweeping wave of shock and confusion.

"W—" Vivi stuttered, mouth hanging open. Her voice was frail, coming out as a whisper. "What do you mean? Who's dead?"

"Do you remember when I said your grandpa was imprisoned in Frievania?" Andre said. "A storm hit the city two days ago. Citizens were evacuated to the second level. The prisoners, however…"

"No…" Vivi said. "It's not possible. Grandpa was evacuated, right?"

Andre rotated his slab of meat, a difficult expression on his face.

"They wouldn't just leave him there!" Vivi shouted with volume she didn't know her voice had. "The hunters, they… They evacuated him, right?"

"Every prisoner was left in their cells," Andre said. He looked away from her while he spoke. "All of them. I asked around in Paradise whether your grandpa was an exception. He wasn't. They left him there, the same as any murderer or rapist. The city is a ruin."

Vivi's throat burned, as if filled with fire. She couldn't breathe. "You're lying. It's not possible. The hunters wouldn't be that cruel."

"You've seen how they are," Andre said.

"No!" Vivi shouted. "No, no, no! He can't be dead!"

Andre said nothing. He looked like a teacher telling their students about the death of their pet butterfly.

Vivi tried to channel ether in a flash of rage, but Lucius cut off her powers. He, too, sat in her core with his head low.

Vivi screamed. She tried to stand up. Her injuries and aches flared to life. She ignored the excruciating pain, forcing her legs up, until her wounds knocked her back down to the ground by force. She physically could not stand.

She fell on her face and slammed her fists on the moss, tears flowing freely. A wave of nausea washed through her. She had the urge to puke, but her stomach was empty.

"It's a lie…" Vivi said. Her voice was frail and weak, tainted by tears. "He can't be dead. He can't be!"

"I'm sorry," Andre said. "He was a great runesmith. I was planning on hiring him. Losing him is a grave setback."

Vivi shouted mindlessly again. Andre's half-hearted sympathy was like a needle piercing her throat. This cruel murderous man, who had tried to kill Vivi just weeks prior, was pretending to show support.

The awful heart-piercing sensations took control of her head. Vivi didn't feel like a human living in a world anymore. Everything around her was a blur of shapes and abstract objects. She felt like she was being ripped apart from the inside.

Grandpa was dead. The hunters, they abandoned him, leaving him in a prison while a surge pillaged the city.

The uncontrollable pain in her heart continued for minutes. How many, she had no idea. She fought it with tears, pleas, desperate hopes that it was all a lie. At the end of it all, Vivi felt like her soul was drained. Her cries dropped to weak whimpers. Her pleas had no life in them, and her eyes were dried of tears.

"We'll avenge him…" Lucius said. His voice was calm, but filled with anger. "The hunters will pay."

Vivi didn't respond. Her heart twisted again.

"What will you do now?" Andre asked, seeing that Vivi was calming down. "I doubt you'll want to head to the third level anymore."

Vivi lay still for half a minute longer, gathering her wits. After a few deep breaths, she said, "I guess I have no need to clear my name now…"

"I wouldn't want to work with the hunters either if I was you," Andre said. "I understand if you don't want to head back with me."

"Will you turn me into a slave now?" Vivi asked. "After I've lost everything, will you take what's left and force me to work for the ones who destroyed everything?"

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Andre looked down at her. There was a hint of honest sympathy in his face. Mostly, however, he looked thoughtful. "I'm going back to the third level. I won't force you to come with me. If I bring you back, you'll be working, not for me, but for the Greenwitch company. Your runeswords would go to my boss. I'll gain little benefit from your work. I am not so attached to my boss that I'd enslave you."

"Leave me here, then…" Vivi said. "I don't have anything to do with humans anymore. Everything I valued up there is gone."

Andre nodded, as if he expected her to say this. "I'm sorry, Vivian. I truly am."

Vivi looked away.

"You and your spirit should be recovered enough to survive now," Andre said. "You don't need me to watch over you. I will head out now."

"Sure…" Vivi said.

Andre watched her for a moment longer, then turned around. "Good luck, Vivian. And goodbye."

He blew out the campfire with a swing of his spirit blade. Then he jumped off, leaving Vivi alone. The forest became silent.

"Vivi, we'll avenge your Grandpa," Lucius said. "You have the potential to grow strong. The hunters will pay for what they've done. We'll rest, then we—"

Shut up, Lucius… Vivi thought. Stop reading my thoughts.

Lucius retreated deeper in her core with a saddened expression.

Vivi lay on the moss silently, feeling like a ripped and tossed-away rag. She couldn't move, she couldn't think straight. She couldn't save Grandpa.

She drowned in the darkness of her mind, until sleep freed her.

***

The next time Vivi woke up, her body felt a lot better. The crushing pressure all over her body had calmed down. Her hands were tired and heavy to lift, but she could move them without pain. And that was without the help of ether. Vivi was probably ready to get up.

Her head was a different problem. Vivi woke up surrounded by total emptiness. She had no desire to do anything at all. Rising from the moss felt like a pointless task with no reward to it.

If Eem was here, the fiend would have cuddled and comforted Vivi. Eem had stayed behind somewhere in Zand. Vivi knew she couldn't take care of Eem forever, but without her, she didn't have a single ally.

"Morning, Vivi," Lucius said. "Are you feeling better?"

I'm not dying and writhing in pain, I guess… Vivi thought.

Lucius looked like he wanted to say something, but he hesitated. He opened his mouth, then shut it again.

I'm fine, Vivi thought. Sorry you had to witness that. How long has it been?

"You slept for seven more days," Lucius said. "Enough to recover from ether abuse. You're still not at your full capability, but your muscles should recover with some rehabilitation."

"Seven days, huh…" Vivi said weakly. "No wonder I feel like a twig."

She sat up and examined her surroundings. She was still in Andre's stupid little camp. She hadn't eaten or drank in seven days. Her throat was certainly dry. Somehow, she didn't feel hungry.

Lucius watched her cautiously, as if expecting her to fall into another fit of tears. Vivi didn't. She didn't have energy for that anymore. Everything around her just felt like nothing. Anything could have happened—a surge could have spawned next to her, and at most, Vivi would have taken a step or two back.

Still, Vivi stood. Her feet felt unstable, but she managed to stand without support.

"Looks like we're alone now," Vivi said. "Just you and me, and a lot of monsters trying to kill us."

"I'm sorry about the hunters," Lucius said. "I'm ashamed to be associated with them."

"It doesn't matter," Vivi said. "Grandpa was already asking for death when he chose to help me make an escape in Fellwater."

It hurt to speak the words she did. Vivi didn't believe them in the slightest. But she knew she'd need to accept Grandpa's death sooner than later.

That would take a while. Thinking about Grandpa already made the awful feelings come back. Vivi pushed them away, pretending like they didn't exist.

"Where are we?" Vivi asked. "How close to Zand?"

"Perhaps fifty miles to the east," Lucius said. "We walked past the descent towards the blight."

Vivi vaguely recalled one of Zand's nimrods—probably Ven—mentioning the blight. Apparently, it was a wasteland where no hunter could survive. "We're in the opposite direction of demon civilization then?"

"Away from the big cities, yes," Lucius said. "Although, there's one town near us with farmland."

"We're fugitives if we enter," Vivi said.

"Yes, we're criminals as Zand escapees," Lucius said. "Andre already killed one search patrol that came looking for escapees."

Fantastic… Vivi thought. That essentially meant she had no place to go. Unless she wished to trot over six hundred miles through the endless wastelands of nothing at all, just to reach a city where she'd be promptly identified as an escapee.

"What about the blight?" Vivi asked.

Lucius frowned. "The blight is a disaster zone. Rogue ether concentrates there. The monsters there are insane. The surges are rampant. Living there is almost impossible. As a hunter, rampant surges might sound appealing, until you realize that monsters in the blight are anomalies. They drop only a fraction of the ether regular monsters would. Bosses don't drop skills. Essentially, the blight is a deadly ground with tons of monsters, almost no food or water, deadly poison everywhere, all for a very slight reward."

"That sounds like a fitting place for us to visit," Vivi said.

Lucius frowned. "It's not worth it."

Vivi shrugged. "We'll need water and food, at least. Then… maybe we should visit that town. They might have a map of the area."

Lucius watched her expression. He looked determined to help. "That's a good plan."

Vivi chuffed through her nose. She wasn't enthusiastic about anything. She didn't feel the drive to grow strong like she had before she entered. Hunting bosses, crafting runeswords, every dream she had felt pointless now.

But perhaps, if she searched for long enough, in some distant corner of the world, she could find a place that didn't try to kill or shun her the moment she entered.

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