Dawn crept over the treeline like a shy flame licking at the edges of night. Golden light spilled across the ruined clearing, brushing gently against the shattered trunks and blood-stained soil. Amid the quiet aftermath, Raiden sat motionless on a jagged rock, his breath slow, steady, but heavy with fatigue.
The once-savage forest was eerily silent now—its beasts slain, its corruption burned away by lightning and willpower. Smoke rose from the darkened earth where his final strike had landed, the scent of ozone still sharp in the air.
Beside him lay the unconscious girl.
Her silver hair shimmered faintly under the morning light, streaked with soot and blood, framing a face that still held traces of nobility despite the suffering it had endured. Her once-pristine combat suit was torn, scorched in places, and covered in grime. She couldn't have been older than twenty, maybe younger—but there was a weight in her stillness, a silence that told of too many nights spent in fear.
Raiden's eyes softened slightly as he watched her chest rise and fall.
He sighed, leaning back and glancing at the hovering blue panels flickering faintly before his eyes.
---
[ Quest Complete: "Purge the Corruption" ]
[ Calculating Rewards… ]
[ +2 Stat Points to all Stats ]
[ +5 Unassigned Stat Points ]
[ +1 Skill Point ]
[ +1800 Exp ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ Current Level: 7 ]
[ Exp: 700/6000 ]
---
A faint hum pulsed through his veins as the system finalized the updates. His muscles ached, his skin burned, but he could feel the quiet reinforcement — a subtle flow of strength weaving through his body, knitting the broken pieces of himself back together.
Raiden flexed his hand, small arcs of lightning dancing faintly between his fingers before fading away.
"Level seven, huh…" he muttered, exhausted but faintly smiling. "Guess that's something."
He glanced at the girl again and stood up, brushing the dirt off his tattered suit. "Can't leave you here."
Raiden gently lifted her onto his back. She was lighter than he expected, fragile even, though something about her presence — the faint hum of residual energy clinging to her — told him she wasn't an ordinary victim.
With a deep breath, he began the long walk back toward the city.
---
By the time Raiden reached the Adventurers' Hub, the sun was already past its peak. His uniform was half-burnt, his boots slick with dried blood and ash. Conversations halted as he stepped through the glass doors, every pair of eyes turning toward the battered man carrying a bloodstained girl across his back.
The marble floors of the lobby echoed beneath his heavy steps. Whispers rippled through the crowd like wind through dry grass.
"Isn't that… the guy who took the forest purge request?"
"Holy hell, he's still alive?"
"And who's that girl—?"
The receptionist from before, a tall brunette named Tessia, immediately stood from her desk. "Raiden Ignatius?! Gods, what happened to you? Bring her here!" She gestured urgently to a pair of medics who appeared from the side corridor.
Raiden laid the girl carefully on the stretcher. "She was being held captive near the corrupted zone," he said, voice low. "Black Halo facility. She's… the only survivor I found."
The mention of that name silenced even the nearest adventurers.
Black Halo. A name that reeked of rot and fear.
Tessia nodded grimly. "We'll handle her treatment. You should report to registration and rest—your data shows your mission was a high-risk type. You'll get your merit points and rank recalculation once the review finishes."
"Right." Raiden gave a faint nod, watching as they rushed the girl away toward the upper floors.
He turned and walked slowly toward the main reception counter. The automated scanner on the desk glowed as he pressed his Adventurer's Watch to it.
---
[ Hub Mission Log Updated ]
[ Mission: Purge the Corruption — Completed ]
[ Merit Points: +500 ]
[ Rank Evaluation Pending ]
---
He stood there for a moment longer, feeling the strange duality of systems at work — the Hub's clean, bureaucratic data and his own private interface humming like a heartbeat in the back of his mind. Two worlds, never meant to overlap.
He sighed and turned toward the windowed hallway on the third floor, overlooking the forest in the distance. The skyline was painted gold and crimson now. His reflection flickered against the glass — tired eyes, cracked lips, soot on his face. A warrior and a ghost all at once.
A soft beep sounded behind him.
"Ugh…"
The girl's voice.
Raiden turned. She was sitting up on the medbed, eyes half-open, blinking against the sterile white light of the medbay. Her gaze darted around in confusion before settling on him.
For a moment, her body tensed, as if ready to defend herself — then softened when she realized he wasn't an enemy.
"You're awake," Raiden said quietly.
"...Where am I?" Her voice was hoarse, like wind scraping stone.
"Adventurers' Hub. You're safe."
She blinked several times, taking in his soot-stained clothes and the faint scars on his face. "You… were the one who saved me?"
Raiden nodded silently. "Yeah."
The girl took a shaky breath, brushing a lock of silver hair behind her ear. "My name's Lyra. Lyra Voss."
Raiden's eyes flickered slightly. "Voss? As in—"
"My father," she said before he could finish. "Dr. Halden Voss. He was the head engineer at the VossTech Corporation before…" Her voice trembled, hands clenching in her lap. "Before Black Halo took us."
Raiden's jaw tightened. "They forced him to build something."
Lyra nodded, eyes distant. "Something terrible. A pulse generator — it used condensed corrupted essence to amplify mutant energy fields. They wanted to control beasts… turn them into living weapons. Father resisted at first, but they took me. Threatened to kill me if he didn't comply."
Her hands shook faintly. "He hid something from them — data files, research notes. He said it could undo what they'd made… or destroy it. Before they took him away, he gave me this."
She reached to her neck and unclipped a small pendant. Inside, a narrow black data chip glimmered faintly.
Raiden's heart thudded once.
A possible key. A lead.
The beginning of something larger than either of them.
He stared at the pendant in silence, then looked back at her. "You think your father's still alive?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "But if anyone can find him… it's probably you."
Raiden blinked, caught off-guard by the quiet conviction in her voice. He wasn't sure why, but for the first time in a long while, he felt something other than vengeance stirring in his chest.
He took the pendant carefully, storing it in his jacket. "Then I'll find him."
Lyra looked down, her lips curling faintly into the ghost of a smile. "Thank you."
---
That night, the Hub quieted as most adventurers retired to their rooms.
Raiden stood by the balcony outside the infirmary, the city lights stretching endlessly before him. The faint hum of machinery below mixed with the whisper of the night wind.
He opened his system interface.
---
[ System Log ]
[ Level: 7 ]
[ Strength: 22 ]
[ Agility: 24 ]
[ Sturdiness: 23 ]
[ Perception: 21 ]
[ Stamina: 25 ]
[ Unassigned Points: 10 ]
[ Skill Points: 1 ]
[ Active Skill: Lightning Slash (Lvl 2) ]
[ Passive Skill: Tenacity (Lvl 1) ]
[ Exp: 700/6000 ]
---
The faint glow of the blue panel reflected in his tired eyes. His hand trembled slightly as he closed it, clenching into a fist. "Black Halo," he whispered, lightning sparking faintly around his knuckles. "You took everything from me once. Never again."
Far below, the city buzzed in oblivious peace. But somewhere in its depths, dark men whispered of failure and the loss of their research core. The Black Halo had noticed.
Raiden turned his gaze to the horizon, where faint smoke still curled upward from the forest he had cleansed. The sun dipped below the skyline, painting the world in crimson.
And then, as if in answer to his resolve, his system flickered with one final message.
---
[ Hidden Quest Unlocked: "Echoes of the Black Sun" ]
[ Objective: Investigate Dr. Voss's Research Trail ]
[ Recommended Level: 10+ ]
---
Raiden's eyes hardened.
A new storm was coming.
And this time, he would meet it head-on.
---