Mara leaned against her station, crossing her fingers and looking at the young players.
"He just looked at , as soon as the portal to the Horizon closed, colors and sparks bleeding from the tear in space as it shut..."
***
"You awakened your [Classpect], didn’t you?" Miles asked. His voice was flat, but there was a tinge of sothing, maybe pride, in it.
"How did you know?" Mara’s brow lifted. She tilted her head, studying him.
Miles gave a half-shrug, almost nonchalant, but his eyes were sharp.
"I can see it. Not the [Classpect], I an. It’s more of a glimr of a story blooming in you, just like in Sarissa. You got a system notification about a story blooming within you, right?"
There was silence for a mont as the weight of that settled, and then Mara nodded once.
"I did." She said, frowning at Miles. "I didn’t think it would matter much. I an, we ended up never knowing what the requirents were for admittance to the First Dungeon and to the [World Quest], and yet here we are. But now... Maybe it does matter, even if just a little bit."
"Well, what’s its na, then?" Miles raised an eyebrow.
Mara took a breath. Her voice was quiet, almost reverent when she answered.
"[Heiress of the Forgotten Forge]."
The words carried weight. They humd in the air, like the sound of a hamr striking an ancient anvil, the echo of sothing long buried. And as if answering her, a distant thunder rolled through the cracked sky above.
"Damn. That’s a hell of a title." Miles murmured.
"Fitting, maybe." Mara replied with the faintest smirk. "There’s sothing... Old in it. Sothing bigger than , I haven’t tapped into it to know yet."
"Want to test it? Although my gear self-repairs in the inventory, I’d rather not have it hanging on by duct tape and faith after a fight... Try it on one of mine, let’s see what it does."
"You’re always so quick to weaponize sentint." Mara chuckled.
"No." Miles said, shaking his head. "I’m quick to adapt, big difference."
They walked towards the city quietly, minding their own stories, when the sky scread.
A deep, unnatural rumble cracked across the horizon, the kind of sound that ca before buildings fell and worlds broke.
Miles’ eyes widened as he looked towards downtown, his eyes glowing in dark red.
"We have to go." he said. "Now!"
"What’s wrong?" Mara retorted, already moving.
"Monsters, attacking downtown." Miles sprinted forward, already summoning back the [Harbinger’s Scythe].
The road back to the city center was cracked and overgrown, vines crawling out from ruptured sewer grates, buildings leaning precariously toward one another. But the deeper they went, the louder the screams beca.
By the ti they reached the main street leading towards the plaza, the battle had already begun.
It was chaos.
Monsters were pouring over the broken barricades like a living flood. Spined beasts with too many eyes, half-lted things that breathed acid and ash, goblin-like fiends, and many others that they had already encountered before. But thankfully, there was no one of the aberrations they had fought in the [Mouth of the Abyss].
Players were fighting back in clusters, spells flaring and weapons breaking under the onslaught.
"They’re being pushed back!" Mara gasped.
"Yeah." Miles replied. "Not for long."
He summoned the [Ender’s Mask] without hesitation. The mask materialized from a swirl of black sparks, hovering in front of his face for a beat before locking into place.
Mara pulled her hood up, her [Trifle] materializing too, in the form of a pair of pistols, blinking as if responding to her [Classpect].
One second it was a blade, then a hamr, and then a spear, it pulsed in her grip like a living thing.
And together, they charged.
Miles was first into the fray, his scythe sweeping through monsters with clinical finality. Every strike was efficient, brutal, and aningful.
He wasn’t fighting like a player, he was fighting like soone writing the end of every creature he struck down.
Mara followed close behind, her weapon shifted mid-swing, responding to threats before they arrived. She moved like she had always been ant for war, like the city was just another piece of steel in need of shaping.
The tide began to turn.
Players started to rally around them. With the sight of Miles and Mara on the battlefield, the morale surged. A berserker shouted and charged, a trio of support mages rejoined the line, rangers found perches and laid down cover fire.
The monsters didn’t falter, but now, they t resistance.
One of the aberrations scread, launching itself towards Mara, limbs flailing like torn branches. She pivoted, ducking low, and slamd [Trifle], now a heavy hamr, into its gut.
It exploded in a shower of molten ichor.
"Miles, left!" She shouted.
He moved without even looking.
His scythe curved through the air and split another creature cleanly down the middle. Dark mist scattered across the field, the stitched smile on the [Ender’s Mask] widened just a little bit.
"How many waves are left?" Mara yelled.
"No idea!" Miles replied. "But we’re not losing this city!"
For the next hour, the fight beca a blur.
Not of chaos, but of order born through battle. Mara reforged weapons in the middle of the field while Miles helped the players hold the lines. He redirected teams where they were weakest.
It wasn’t clean, and it wasn’t easy, but they held on tight.
Eventually, the battlefield stilled.
Bodies of monsters lay smoking in the streets, broken barricades crackled with residual magic, and yet, there was a heartbeat in the city again.
People lived.
And the night was on them.
Mara exhaled deeply, wiping soot from her brow.
"You alright?" Miles asked, stepping beside her, [Ender’s Mask] now back in his inventory.
She nodded, then looked down at her fingers, still faintly glowing.
"That was the first ti I used it." She said.
"You picked a hell of a stage for your debut." Miles grinned.
"You always know how to ti your entrances." She chuckled, her breath shaky.
***
"After the players learned that Sarissa went away, the morale fell a little bit, but with Miles’ bounty dismissed after he was killed by Sarissa, and we saved downtown and the other players from the swarm... They kind of accepted Miles as their new centerpiece, temporarily." Mara stretched and looked at Jake, whose eyes were gleaming with excitent.
"And where is he now?" Jake shot back, smiling wide.
"You’re a fan, huh..." Mara chuckled. "Well, while he left in charge of the Union Guild, and I learned to delegate obligations, he left the city to look for the other irregular dungeons."
She paused a little bit, and then added.
"After all, he still has an egg to take care of, and so scores to settle with Shinji..."
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