The air in the quiet district of Skyridge carried the evening's chill. Lin felt it seep into her bones, a cold that had little to do with the weather.
Then a voice, bright and familiar, cut through her thoughts.
Long time, no see…" Riona said as she waved her injured arm casually, her tone upbeat as she guided Lin toward a nearby bar.
Riona Ayane an S-rank warrior, high-value asset, and one of Lin's old associates — approached with unexpected enthusiasm.
"...!?" Lin's eyes narrowed at the sight of the injury but brushed it off.
"What do you want?" Lin replied, her voice flat.
"Wow going straight to the point" Riona
shifted her posture into something more serious.
"I'm more concerned about you. You don't look well."
Lin looked down, offering no response.The silence stretched.
"You didn't come here just to check on me," Lin stated, finally looking up.
"You're right." Riona's smile faded, replaced by a grim focus. "I didn't come for drinks. Let me be direct." She stepped closer, her voice dropping.
"There have been massive, coordinated disappearances in Skyridge. As an Elite Warrior, it's my duty to investigate. My team was deployed to the eastern quarter."
She paused, her jaw tightening.
"We found them. Or what was left. They weren't just missing. They were… transformed. Ghoulified. Their eyes were hollow, and they burned with this unnatural red flame. They felt no pain, no fear."
Riona's bandaged arm twitched slightly. "We lost half the team before we could disengage. The ones they touched… they started to burn from the inside out. We had to retreat."
The pieces connected in Lin's mind with a sickening clarity. The huge crowd earlier, pleading with Valdren. The desperation. This was the source.
"Not only that..Nazuna went missing so that why i came to ask for your help." Riona's voice softened, losing its official edge.
For a moment, she was just the girl Lin had known. "I know what you think of me. I know our history isn't… friendly. I don't blame you for your resentment.
But these people… they're being turned into fuel. This is my request. Please, help us find the source."
Then, she did the unexpected. Riona, an S-rank warrior of the Southern Arizona Empire, bowed her head to Lin. It was a profound, silent plea.
Lin reached for her teacup and she raised it, a tremor ran through her hand. Hot liquid sloshed over the rim, staining the worn wood of the table.
Her face remained a placid mask, but inside, a memory surfaced.
A younger Riona, face smudged with ash, gripping her hand with desperate strength.
"Lin, we have to go! NOW!" The smell of smoke and magic, the sound of something breaking.
"So that's why you came," Lin said, her voice strangely distant. She set the cup down with deliberate care and stood.
"You created this scenario yourself."
Riona looked up, confusion and hurt flashing in her eyes. "...?"
"You chose the path of the Elite. You accepted their orders, their silence." Lin's gaze was unwavering.
"The distance between us… you built it. And now their system is failing, and you come to me?" She touched her own right arm, the one that still ached sometimes from an old wound.
"I understand your situation. I will think about it."
Without another word, she turned and walked away, leaving Riona alone at the small table.
Riona didn't move. She stared into the steam curling from her untouched tea.
"What happened to us, Lin…" The whisper was swallowed by the evening air.
A teammate, a young man with a worried frown, approached from the shadows of a nearby archway. "Captain? Did she agree?"
Riona didn't answer. She simply closed her eyes, letting the fading warmth of the cup and the weight of her failure be her only reply.
Outside, Lin moved through the streets, her mind a storm. Disappearances. Ghoulified humans. Red flames that consume from within. The description was too specific, too vile. It clawed at a new, raw fear in her mind.
'Corrupted essence.'
"Could this be tied to the corrupted essence saturu spoke of."
"Young Master" Lin exhaled from the thought.A bitter taste filled her mouth. "Of all the people to ask… Why did it have to be her?"
Her stomach growled, a stark reminder of the mundane. She spotted a cake shop, its window full of colorful, impossible to miss confections.
***
Day bled into a tense, quiet night. Skyridge was a city that lived after dark, but tonight the streets were eerily empty, the usual laughter and music replaced by a watchful silence.
"It must be because of the disappearances…" Lin murmured.
A spike of worry for Saturu pierced her focus, sharp and sudden. She forced it down. He's a knight. He can handle himself. The logic was sound, but the worry lingered like a ghost.
As she turned into a narrow alley serving as a shortcut, voices, hushed and urgent, stopped her cold.
"....We need to transport these people now, or we'll end up like those things from earlier throw her in."
Figures in dark clothing shoved a struggling woman and children into a barred carriage.
Lin's senses snapped into focus. A lead. A direct link.
She calculated her move—disable the two at the back, free the girl, interrogate the driver. She took one silent step forward.
The presence behind her was a vacuum in the air, a professional's perfect silence. She realized it a fraction of a second too late.
As she whirled, her pupils shrinking, the world exploded into a constellation of white pain. A blunt, weighted cosh connected with the base of her skull. Her legs vanished from under her, and the cobblestones rose to meet her.
The last thing she heard was a gruff voice above her.
"...Load her in with the rest. Pretty thing like this? She'll be a premium bonus unit."
***
The carriage was a dark, jolting box smelling of sweat, fear, and old hay. Lin swam back to consciousness, her head pounding in rhythm with the horse's hooves.
A dim lantern swung from the ceiling, casting swaying shadows on the huddled, terrified faces of a dozen other captives.
The man who had struck her sat on a crate near the front, cleaning his nails with a knife. He glanced up as she stirred. His eyes met hers—and widened in shocked recognition.
"....!?"
He never finished. Lin was a blur of contained fury she snapped his neck then throwed him out of the carriage.
"Hey! Jimbo? What's going on back there?" the driver shouted.
Jimbo was the name of the man who had been killed by lin.
The captured civilians trembled.
"Shhh," Lin warned, her voice low and deadly calm.
Lin stayed silent, listening. She heard the driver curse, felt the carriage slow.
The driver jumped off his seat. "I'm coming back there—"
Lin lunged. The knife flashed in the lantern light, a silver arc that pierced the driver's heart as he leaned in. His eyes bulged with surprise.
She shoved the body out into the rushing darkness. The carriage swerved violently before steadying.
The remaining driver panicked as Lin leaned into view, knife in hand.
"Continue driving unless you want to end like them."
Terrified, he complied, sweat pouring down his face.
After what felt like an age, they reached a dense part of the northern woods. The driver waved a shaking hand, holding a small, runed token.
The air shimmered. The very trees seemed to part, revealing a crumbling church.
"Leave" Lin said, her pupils glowing red.
He ran for his life as Lin pushed the carriage forward alone.
Inside the hidden church, a figure knelt on a makeshift altar. Valdren, his form gaunt and aged, had his hands plunged into the radiant aura of a sobbing captive.
Energy, visible as shimmering silver light, drained from the victim into Valdren. As it flowed, his wrinkled skin smoothed, his stooped back straightened. He was consuming their life to renew his own.
The heavy doors creaked open, and the carriage rolled into the center of the floor.
"Took you long enough," Valdren sighed, not turning around, his voice gaining youthful vigor.
"Unload them. I have quotas to meet."
He finally glanced over his shoulder—and froze. It wasn't his lackeys standing by the carriage.
It was Lin, with her red glowing eyes.