Miles kept rolling the gun around his finger as Sarissa’s lips bobbed up and down.
"Ho-how did you manage..."
"I couldn’t sleep last night." Miles answered in a flat tone, focusing intently on the gun, as if taking his eyes off of it would cause the weapon to vanish in a myriad of sparks. "I didn’t wake you up, because you were sleeping so peacefully with Dee, that it just didn’t feel right."
Sarissa let out a sigh and shook her head, while Dee rubbed its head against her leg.
"You’re so hopeless..." She chuckled lightly. "But you didn’t answer my question."
"I was getting there." Miles scoffed. "I began to think about the hunt with Jorrin and the rest of Ashmark, and how it felt slightly different than back in Thalan’dor. And when I thought of it, I decided to try and reach out to my Stories, focusing on the... Echo that we got in touch with back then..."
He paused for a brief mont, letting his words linger in the air like mory, and then added.
"That was when one of the Stories kind of... Answered . Well, not answered. It was more like it echoed back my intentions, my curiosity, my... Will. And I was able to manifest the [Bulletstorm]."
"Manifest?" Sarissa tilted her head, looking confused. "You didn’t summon it?"
"No." Miles retorted, taking his eyes off the gun.
And as soon as he did it, just like he feared, the weapon vanished in a storm of red sparks.
"See?" He sighed heavily. "It’s not like it’s tethered to an [Inventory] anymore. Whatever we have stored within us, that we brought from our world, is now tethered to our Stories. And our Stories are getting stronger here."
"And how is it related to the System?" Sarissa rebuked. "You said that it had sothing to do with the System, how?"
Miles thought for a second, and then answered, gesturing towards her.
"I guess you can’t see it with mine, so try to manifest sothing of your own. It might be easier for you than for ."
Sarissa thought about asking what he ant by that, but said nothing. Instead, she closed her eyes, focusing on the thrum that she could still feel echoing within her, like a soundwave resonating with sothing, echoing through walls made of words, life, and mory.
"What-" She began, but Miles interrupted her.
"Just focus, you’ll know what I’m talking about as soon as you get there."
She did as Miles told, and it felt like diving into the ocean.
Only that the ocean was made of words, essence, mory, threads of sothing that she could not quite recognize.
’A Story...’ She thought, looking inward, reaching as deep as she could, trying to grab anything that felt like an answer to her. ’A Story...’
And then...
[A Story is blooming within your soul]
It was not the System’s voice. It was more of a mory of its voice than the voice itself, but Sarissa heard it, like the tolling of a bell, echoing and ringing through her soul, her mind, her very muscles.
[The One Who Moves Forward]
The Story she beca able to write when she chose to get rid of [Regression]. But when she felt it closer, the Story didn’t feel like a culmination of her will to get rid of her skill at all...
She felt the urge to speak, to ask, but focused even harder instead, reaching even deeper.
Deeper into that one specific Story, this ti.
And when she did...
***
A scream echoed through the walls of the throne room, inside the castle in the Crown’s Circle.
The Queen Regent contorted on the throne, screaming like her whole body was on fire.
"Shhh... Shhh... It’s alright, my dear." A white snake curled around her neck, and as suddenly as the Regent began to scream, she stopped, and silence drowned the throne chamber once more.
"You felt it... That’s good... Good..." The snake hissed, looking the Queen in her eyes. "It ans you’re finally connected to it, and now you’re able to see them for what they are..."
"A... Threat..." The Regent stamred through ragged gasps. "They need to..."
"No..." The snake hissed again. "Not yet. They still have a role to play, and it shall serve your purpose, even if they don’t want it..."
The snake’s lips curled upwards in a slithering smile as it spoke again.
"They bring it with them, and this is what will give you the totality of your power over Tir’Serene."
"But before that..." The Regent finally broke out of her painful stupor. "I need to get rid of the princess... Before the System arrives to claim this world..."
***
Sarissa suddenly heard a scream and opened her eyes in shock, only to see white sparks swirling around her fingers, taking the shape of sothing she thought she’d never be able to see again.
"But... How?" Her eyes went wide as she inspected the weapon that manifested from the white sparks.
It was a rifle, but not just any rifle.
It had Mara’s signature mark engraved in the stock. And it felt completely functional, perfect for Sarissa’s grip, almost as if it had been repurposed or even reforged, exclusively to her.
Miles’s eyes went wide as soon as the weapon fully manifested on Sarissa’s hands.
"You tell ..." He sighed, feeling his heart tighten, as if sothing grasped it in an iron grip.
Sarissa felt a tear run down her cheek as the tal of the weapon touched her skin, and as soon as it did, she heard it.
And Miles let out a gasp, as if he was able to listen to it, too.
"Hi, Sarissa, Miles... Well, I hate to say it like it’s a heartbreaking scene of a movie or anything like that... But if you’re hearing this, it ans I’m dead...
Hate to break it to you, but I already knew it was going to happen, and that’s why I prepared so contingencies, in case you ended up with few to no answers at all." Mara’s voice let out a chuckle before continuing. "You guys are so la. The End-boy and the first leader we ever had, and you still need to take care of things before shit gets real... You probably miss , and are feeling guilty about how I died, but know one thing, I didn’t tell you everything about the vision, because you didn’t have to know it until now, but what I’m about to tell you is going to blow your minds..."
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