Le Wei used to think the strangest case he'd ever handled was the man who swore his cat was a reincarnated empress. He'd dealt with liars, thieves, even murderers, but at least back then, the world had rules. The streets were solid beneath his feet, the sky stayed in place, and the dead stayed in their graves.
Now, he wasn't Le Wei anymore. He was Zephyros, some unlucky, high-class teenager thrown into a world where glowing rifts split the air open and monsters crawled through like ants from a nest.
He still hadn't decided if this was a punishment for his past life, or some cosmic joke. Probably both.
And that was how he found himself, very much against his will, being carried like a sack of rice toward a swirling blue portal that hummed with hungry light... to the extent of even almost getting eaten by a weird-looking monster.
Zephyros was still staring at the blade when another growl cut through the fog. His head snapped up. From the corner of his eye, he caught the lunge... something black and fast breaking past Darius's guard.
The spider-wolf barreled straight toward him.
"Ah... wait! No, no, no!" Zephyros's voice cracked as his feet stumbled backward. He looked around frantically, but all he had was dirt, roots, and his own two useless hands.
The monster was already on him, eyes burning like sick torches. Its legs tore up the soil as it closed the gap.
Zephyros did the only thing he could think of... he bent down, snatched a rock, and hurled it with all the strength his panic could muster.
The rock smacked the beast square in one of its eight glimmering eyes. It stopped for half a heartbeat, hissing, its many legs twitching as if insulted.
"Ha! Take that!" Zephyros shouted, his voice high and triumphant... until the creature straightened, completely unfazed.
"Oh. Oh, gods. That didn't work."
The spider-wolf lunged again.
Zephyros swung wildly with a branch he ripped from the ground. The stick cracked against the monster's carapace with a hollow thunk. The impact nearly jolted the weapon out of his hands.
The beast didn't even flinch.
Before Zephyros could blink, a blur of steel and black leather passed in front of him. Riven's sword split the air, clean and sharp, and the spider-wolf collapsed with a wet crunch, twitching once before going still.
The mist was silent again, except for Zephyros's ragged breathing.
He was frozen in place, clutching his broken branch like it was some holy relic. His hands trembled, knuckles white.
Darius was already laughing. A deep, booming laugh that echoed through the hollow trees.
"You threw a rock at it? A rock?!" He clapped once, loud enough to make Zephyros flinch. "By the abyss, little brother, that was the bravest stupidity I've ever seen."
Zephyros's face burned hot. "Don't laugh at me! I didn't even want to be here! You dragged me into this death trap without my say-so! I... I was only trying to help! I'm not just going to stand here while you two swing around like demigods!"
"You did help," Darius said, still grinning. "You distracted it. With your pebble of doom."
Riven wiped her blade clean on the monster's fur without looking at either of them. "He's right though. If you're going to drag civilians into portals, Darius, at least give them a stick that isn't going to snap in half."
Zephyros opened his mouth, then shut it again. He glanced down at the broken branch in his hands and muttered, "It was a pretty solid swing."
Darius slapped him on the shoulder so hard he nearly toppled.
"Next time..." Darius said, still chuckling...
"... aim for something smaller. Like a rabbit. Maybe a beetle. You'll have better luck."
Zephyros scowled, but he couldn't hide the shaky relief in his chest. His legs still felt like jelly. He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh, cry, or vomit. Maybe all three.
And through the fog, another growl rolled low and heavy. This one deeper. Meaner.
The forest hadn't run out of monsters yet.
****
Zephyros lay on the dirt, dejected. He was mentally tired. After the spider-wolves... no... Silkfang Howlers, according to the miasma runes Darius and Riven received, Zephyros had spent the remaining five minutes trying to strangle his new brother.
"What a reckless idiot..." he hissed, catching a glimpse of him smirking.
Meanwhile, Riven packed the carcasses of the monsters and placed them on each other. Zephyros sat up to study what she was doing.
After piling them up, she went to a nearby short pale tree and with a few swings of her sword the tree was already split into pieces. She did that to several trees, then carried the wood and started placing them around the wolves.
Zephyros was amused and confused at the same time. What was she doing? Darius remained oblivious, or maybe he just didn't care. He was busy nurturing his sword.
Zephyros caught a glimpse of the bird-pommel and immediately took his gaze away. The sword wasn't ordinary.
'Well... so far... everything in this world is extraordinary...'
Taking his attention back to Riven, he wondered what kind of relationship she shared with Darius and the previous Zephyros. Mostly, the previous Zephyros.
He couldn't explain how he felt when he met her the first time in the room. He did not feel distant to her at all. And when she changed into casual dressing, which she was still wearing and which still looked beautiful on her body despite the large number of lives she had just ended.
At first, he dismissed the feeling as simple attraction. Just a man noticing a beautiful woman. But then the truth settled over him like a weight.
No matter how he had transmigrated into Zephyros's body, the boy's senses remained. Only the soul had changed.
In his old world, he had always believed that humans carried two souls. The first was the Living Soul. It was like a marker, proof that you belonged to a certain world. When you died, that marker was erased and rewritten somewhere else. The second was the Divine Soul. This one was deeper. It held emotions, instincts, and memory. Together, they created the sense of self.
Death, he thought, was not really the end. It was just the tearing apart of those two halves. The Living Soul moved on to claim a new place in existence, while the Divine Soul scattered like dust in the wind. Sometimes, small fragments clung to the next life. That was why people occasionally felt odd attachments they could not explain.
A sudden fear of water. A dream that felt too real. A fondness for music they had never heard before. These things are either from the new personality the old user left, or the ones you left behind in your past life. All in all, they're just small fragments that aren't supposed to remind you of your past life but hint at you.
That was the natural order.
But his case was different. He remembered everything from his past life, and at the same time, he could sense the old Zephyros's bonds with Darius and Riven. His mind belonged to Le Wei, but his body still carried the echoes of another boy.
If no one was supposed to reincarnate with memories, then why did he?
Why was he different?
The more he thought about it, the less sense it made. Perhaps all those philosophers and priests who wrote about the soul had been guessing. Perhaps no one truly knew what happened when a life ended and another began.
A colder possibility whispered at the back of his mind.
What if memories were never meant to fade? What if something... or someone... was taking them away?
And what if, for reasons he could not understand, they had failed with him?
His thoughts were halted when Riven pulled an amazing stunt.
She raised her sword in the air and then the impossible happened.
Just right in front of Zephyros, he watched as Riven's sword started to turn deep black. No, no... it was not turning deep black, it was radiating a deep black aura. The aura slowly, then finally, consumed the whole sword, and with a perfect strike piercing the air, it landed on the pile of carcasses.
'It wasn't aura? It was fire? Black fire?'
The black fire from the sword immediately spread around the pile of carcasses, swallowing it in black flames.
'Is that an ability? Or from her sword?'
He couldn't tell. Whether she was channeling it from her body to the sword or it came from the sword itself was still a mystery. Now, he was more focused on what Riven was doing.
She simply stepped back and sat beside Zephyros as they both watched the flames burn the monsters. She dropped her sword beside her as it slowly dispersed into thin air.
She didn't exactly watch; she simply folded her legs and placed her palms together, then gently closed her eyes. Darius, who also seemed unbothered, was already doing the same, but his eyes weren't closed.
Zephyros, unsure of what they were doing, also decided to follow suit. The silent prayers went on for minutes as neither of the young men stopped until Riven was done.
Immediately Riven was done, Zephyros decided to ask her what all that was about.
By this time, the smell of fire and blood was already in the air, mixing with the mist.
Zephyros finally broke the silence. "What was that about? Why the fire? The... prayer?"
Riven opened her eyes slowly. The indifference in her face softened, but only slightly. Her voice, however, carried something heavier than usual, something that made Zephyros sit up straighter.
"They were living beings too..." she said quietly.
Zephyros was confused by her answer. Yes, he obviously knew they were living things, but not the type you make a burial for after death.
He raised an eyebrow and asked:
"So? They're the type of living things that don't deserve being kept alive. Those monsters were ready to eat us..."
Riven just smirked darkly and countered Zephyros' arguments.
"Monsters? Eat us? We kill chickens, cows, pigs, goats, fishes... why? To eat and survive... That's what everyone in this world is here to do... But I don't want anyone to survive... I don't even want such a world to exist... The true existence of this vast world is built on dark emotions which we interchange and try to call survival."
Zephyros glanced at her, already enjoying her explanation. So far, what she had said was right. Feelings are just things formed by humans so as to use as a tool to blame survival.
Riven continued her speech:
"Born into this world just as we were. We kill them because we must, but that doesn't mean their existence was meaningless."
Her gaze lingered on the black flames. "This world doesn't care who suffers. Monster, human, it's all the same. Everything here is forced to claw, bite, and bleed just to see another sunrise. That cruelty... is the only law that never breaks."
She let out a slow breath, then continued, almost to herself, "If we forget that, if we start treating them as nothing more than meat and bones, then what are we? No different than the abyss that spawned them."
For a long moment, Zephyros didn't know what to say. The firelight reflected in Riven's calm, distant eyes, making her seem carved from shadow and flame both.
He then smiled and moved closer to Riven to try and... do what exactly?
But to his surprise, Riven just rested her head on his shoulder as if it was a norm. He felt his heart skip beats. Never in his life had he had time for a girl and now... the definition of beauty was resting on his shoulder.
Riven, clearly unbothered by Zephyros's thoughts, continued her emotional speech.
"I want to help the people of the Hollow Realm and also my people... What made them this way... whatever that thing is... that's where my true survival pawn lies... I don't want to destroy the Hollow Realm or put an end to it... that will be ending countless lives for a few... The thing or those things that turned this world upside down will kneel at the sight of my sword..."
Then her voice suddenly softened, as she slowly turned her face to Zephyros, making passionate eye contact with him. Zephyros wanted to move but couldn't.
"This is my fifth time telling you my aim... Please don't forget this time around... Please..."
Her expression was somber and somehow romantic?
Darius turned in their direction after doing whatever he was doing with himself and smirked.
"So you two have finally gotten back together again for the hundredth time... how about a reunion kiss...? C'mon, big brother wants to see a smooshie kiss... C'mon!"
Zephyros raised an eyebrow and connected the pieces. He turned his gaze to Riven, who was still resting on his shoulder while staring at the flame, unbothered by Darius's taunts.
'Back together? Kiss? The passionate way I felt towards her wasn't coincidental... it was from old Zeph... She's Zephyros's girlfriend?!'