[Nyrel]
"Dad? Mom? W-Where am I…?"
The voice wasn't loud.
Rather, it couldn't be, not down here.
It was thin, vulnerable confused.
Mary's voice. A girl who should've been waking up to sunlight and breakfast and the boring, normal problems of being alive except she wasn't alive in the normal way anymore.
She was in a coffin.
An actual coffin, tight, wooden, sealed shut and buried deep under the ground outside Sekrin town.
Buried alive.
And I watched it happen.
Or… I 'watched' it in that helpless way where you don't really have a body, don't really have a say, and all you can do is stare at the scene like you're trapped behind glass.
Mary was the first one. The first case of that weird poison that had been creeping through Sekrin like a bad rumor. People didn't understand it, didn't have cures, didn't have time. They just had fear. And fear makes people do clean, brutal things.
The one who buried her was her father.
My eyes fell up.
A hooded figure, young-ish, shoulders stiff, face blank. Not like someone grieving. He stood at the edge of the freshly dug hole while Mary, still breathing, still whispering, still not understanding was lowered down.
Then the lid closed.
Then the dirt came.
I remember the sound of the first shovel full hitting wood. That dull, heavy thump.
Mary's muffled screams started immediately. The coffin was sturdy so the sound didn't explode out. It just… pressed.
Her father stayed for a few minutes. Maybe to make sure no one saw. Maybe to make sure he didn't change his mind.
Then he left.
And Mary kept screaming, because of course she did.
"Please! Help! Please—someone!"
No one came.
Not the townspeople. Not the guards. Not her mother.
And not me.
I couldn't move. I couldn't shout. I tried to call Cleenah. Jarvis. Anyone. Anything.
Nothing answered.
Day one was mostly panic.
She pounded on the lid until her palms went red, then raw. She shoved her shoulders against the sides to no avail. She sucked in air too fast in panic.
"Mom! Dad—please! It hurts—something's wrong!"
The poison had already started. At first it looked like bruising. Like she'd been grabbed too hard. Purple spreading under the skin in ugly blooms.
Day two, her voice changed.
It wasn't just desperation anymore. It was pain.
She cried out for her parents until the sounds started coming out cracked and hoarse, like she was grinding her throat down to bone.
"M-Mom… Dad… please… it burns…"
The purple spread thicker now, like the color was eating her. Veins darkened. Fingers stiffened. Her mana, stronger than most people's, something she'd always been proud of kept her from dying quickly.
Which meant she didn't even get mercy.
It kept her alive long enough to understand every second. Right now, her strength and her mana was the greatest curse for her.
Day three, she stopped calling for help.
Not because she didn't want to live.
Because she understood the truth: nobody was coming.
Not because they couldn't.
Because they wouldn't.
The coffin felt quieter after that, but in a way that was worse. Her breathing was heavier as well.
Day four was when she begged for death.
Her voice was small now, barely able to mouth any words through her lips.
"Please… kill me… someone… just…please…"
Her eyesight was fading as well.
She reached out, touching the lid, the sides, her own arms, the only source of comfort perhaps…
And I was starting to lose it too.
I couldn't close my ears to her. I couldn't look away. I couldn't sleep. Her sobs and rasping breaths and sudden cries were carved into my brain by now. Even when she went quiet, the silence screamed in its own way.
Please just end this…this was unbearable both for her and me.
Day five, she snapped.
It wasn't madness like or anything dramatic. It was something uglier. Pure survival terror turning into violence because she had nowhere else to throw it.
She started scratching the lid.
At first it was just frantic scraping. Then the sound changed, wet and sharp as her nails broke. Then it became a smear, because she kept going anyway. Blood ran down her fingers and streaked the wood, but she didn't stop.
She was trying to dig out with her hands.
And then—
Right when I felt like my mind was going to split in half—
I was inside the coffin with her.
One second I was a spectator in the dark.
The next, my shoulder was pressed against the coffin wall, my knees jammed up, and Mary was right there next to me, shaking and scratching and screaming.
"What the—"
"Kill me! KILL ME!"
She screamed right beside my ear and it was so loud in that cramped space I saw stars. My head rang.
Mary didn't even notice me at first. Not really. Her eyes were open, but they weren't focusing. Her hands were a mess, fingers split, nails gone, blood everywhere. Her arms were purple, the skin torn in places where she'd clawed herself in panic.
I grabbed her wrists, hard, more out of instinct than kindness honestly. I was on the verge of losing my mind because of that sound and her screams…
Mary froze.
Then she turned her head toward me with this stiff, mechanical motion.
Shit!
Her eyes were… black. Not literally like ink, but empty. Like the light behind them had been snuffed out.
And it scared the hell out of me.
"Mary…"
"…"
She stared at me like I was a hallucination.
Which, fair.
After five days of suffering alone, if some random guy suddenly spawned in your coffin, you'd assume you were dead already.
"W-Who…?"
"Nyrel."
"N—Nyrel…?"
"Look at your hands," I told her, then realized I should take my own advice.
I looked down.
My hands were smeared with her blood.
And my arms—
Purple.
The poison was crawling into me too, staining my veins like spilled dye.
"No. No, no, no—shit!"
I yanked my hands back like I could undo it. Like touching her was the only reason. Like I wasn't already here, breathing the same air, sealed in the same box.
Fuck this hurts!!
The pain started quick. A burn under my skin. A tightness in my chest. Breathing felt heavier, like the coffin suddenly got smaller just to mess with me.
Mary watched me for a second, then turned away again, face blank.
At least she stopped scratching.
We sat there in the dark, breathing like two people sharing the last scraps of air in the world.
After a while, I forced my voice to work.
"How about you become my spirit contract?" I asked, trying to sound calm even though I could feel my pulse in my throat. "If you do, we might get out of here."
She didn't answer.
"Mary," I said, more gently. "I'm talking to you."
Nothing.
The whole day, she ignored me.
Not aggressively. Just… empty.
I tried different angles.
"Hey. There's worse stuff in life than this," I said, immediately realizing how stupid that sounded the second it left my mouth.
She gave me a very scary glare as answer.
I shut my mouth immediately.
By the third day with her, I was tired. My body hurt. The poison chewed at me. And the silence between us felt like a wall.
"Mary," I snapped. "If you want to get out, you have to listen to me!"
"…"
She didn't move.
By the fourth day, I stopped pushing. It wasn't helping. Being angry at her in a coffin was like yelling at a storm. All it did was make me feel smaller.
So instead, I tried something else.
"Yann," I said.
"…!"
She flinched.
It was tiny, but it was real. The first real reaction she'd given me in days.
"It's his fault," I said. "If you're going to die down here… it's because of him."
Silence.
Then, finally, she spoke with her weak voice.
"You're going to die with me too."
I laughed.
Not because it was funny. Because if I didn't, I'd start screaming again.
Mary stared at me for a long moment. Then she looked forward into nothing, like she always did.
On the fifth day, she cried.
Not the early panic sobbing.
Not the angry screaming.
Just quiet, shaking tears, like her body finally gave up pretending it was strong.
"Are you angry at your parents?" I asked.
She nodded, biting her lip so hard I heard teeth scrape skin.
"Are you going to forgive them?"
She shook her head.
My throat tightened before I asked the last one. The ugly one.
"Do you want to kill them?"
For a long time, she didn't answer.
Until she squeaked out.
"N—No."
She shook her head.
"I… I love them," she whispered. "But I won't forgive them."
That was it.
That was the difference between a girl breaking into a monster… and a girl staying human to the very end.
I reached for her hand.
She slapped mine away, weak but fast.
"It hurts."
"…"
I tried again.
She swung again, but I caught her fingers gently this time and held on. Not tight, but just enough so she couldn't pull away without choosing to.
"I'm going to stay with you," I said. "Till the end."
"…!"
It had quite reaction on her this time as she glanced at me.
She squeezed back. Then her other hand grabbed my shirt like she was scared I'd disappear the way I'd appeared.
She pressed her face into my chest.
Her whole body trembled.
She didn't want to die.
Neither did I.
Hours passed like that, our breathing slowing, the coffin heat pressing in, the poison burning through us in waves.
Eventually we fell asleep.
When I opened my eyes again, Mary's face looked… calm.
Peaceful, even.
Like the pain had finally let go.
I poked her cheek once.
No reaction.
She was dead, still clinging to my side like she didn't want to face whatever came next alone.
I looked away and swallowed hard.
My own body felt numb.
I knew what was coming.
Pain flooded everything. My vision flickered. Memories hit in messy flashes.
I was dying.
"We'll meet again, Mary," I whispered, not even sure who I was promising. "Somehow."
***
-BOOOOM!
The four-star kangaroo hit the ground like a cannonball, then sprang again in the same motion launching itself straight at Miranda with a leap that didn't look physically normal.
Miranda stayed calm however.
She yanked an arrow from the quiver on her back like she'd done it a thousand times, nocked it clean, and drew her bowstring back until it sang.
Her tangerine eyes were focused.
Mana gathered at the arrowhead, a tight concentration that shimmered like heat in the air.
And she released.
-WHOOSH!
The arrow punched through the air fast and it slammed into the kangaroo's left leg mid-jump.
-BAM!
The beast jerked sideways, its trajectory twisting. It still didn't fall—four-star monsters didn't go down easily but the hit was enough to throw it off.
Miranda was already moving.
She sprang to the opposite side, light on her feet, drawing another arrow, then another. Her hands moved fast and controlled.
She let a little more mana flow into the shots enough to bite deep, not enough to destroy everything around them.
Two shots.
And two resounding impacts.
The arrows drove into the creature's left and right hands.
The monster shrieked right after. It yanked, twisting, trying to rip the arrows out, and then it did something even worse.
It slammed its fist into the ground.
-CRACK!
The earth split under the impact, spiderweb cracks racing outward like lightning. The whole field shook.
Miranda's boot slipped as the cracks reached her position. For half a second, her balance broke.
She recovered at the last instant, knees bent.
But she'd lost time as well.
The kangaroo saw it.
It launched again, faster, angrier, claws already raised, aiming straight for her face.
-Thud!
"…!"
Miranda's eyes flicked behind her.
Wall.
She had no space to retreat.
Just left or right, she had to pick a side and pray.
For the first time, actual tension pulled at her expression. Not fear exactly. More like her brain doing the math and not liking the answer.
The monster came down—
-BOOOOM!
Its punch smashed into the wall, blowing stone apart in a burst of dust and shards.
Miranda ducked low and shot right, rubble slamming into her back like hail.
She was already reaching for another arrow when the kangaroo's shadow covered her again.
It jumped again.
Miranda gritted her teeth—then her gaze snapped sideways, just for a heartbeat, and that heartbeat almost got her killed.
Across the battlefield, her teammates were struggling with the other four-star kangaroo.
Lea was hurt, blood running down her right arm, her stance shaky. Theo and Dylan were shouting, trying to close in, trying to help, but they were a step too slow.
The monster's fist drew back for a finishing blow.
Miranda didn't hesitate a second.
She nocked an arrow and fired, so fast it looked like she didn't even aim.
-BOOOOM!
The arrow crossed fifty meters in less than a second and buried itself in the kangaroo's foot, pinning it just long enough to ruin its strike. The monster tumbled, roaring, and Lea staggered away as Theo and Dylan hauled her back.
Miranda saved her.
However…
Her own opponent was already on her.
Clawed hands lunged for her face.
Miranda's eyes widened. It came too fast.
She wouldn't have to raise her bow.
She shut her eyes immediately.
-BOOOM!
She didn't feel claws.
She heard only something like glass explode.
She snapped her eyes open.
A mirror had appeared between her and the monster, and it had shattered under the impact, scattering shards like glittering knives through the air.
It had protected her?
"A… mirror?" She breathed, stunned.
Then she saw the person behind the kangaroo.
The one who'd summoned it.
Her mouth fell open.