For a moment, Sete didn't know where she was.
There was nothing there, just an empty sparkling space, where yellow, greenish, and pink lights intertwined freely. The silence almost composed a soothing melody, in which the girl's mind floated airily.
Then she caught a glimpse of long black hair, adorable freckles on a serious face, all adorned by mesmerizing coppery eyes, whose irises swirled in a metallic orange glow like the leaves of trees in autumn…
"Maio...?" — The young goddess whispered, blinking as her vision blurred. — "Maio!"
It was him, Autumn, the one Sete dreamed of every night, the one who had gained consciousness alongside her, Dez, and Juno.
Maio seemed to hear her call, his broad shoulders shrugging as he turned toward Sete. However, the young god could not see her, confusion and pain etched between his thick eyebrows.
"Maio!" — Sete tried to call him once more, watching helplessly as Autumn walked away in slow and hesitant steps, until he disappeared amid the colorful lights.
She struggled to keep up with him, running toward the spot where Maio had disappeared. However, the girl felt her legs getting heavier and heavier, until they stopped moving, as if her feet were glued to the shiny floor...
Sete fought as she had never fought before, struggling, using all her strength to take another step... But, gasping for breath, she realized that she would not move from the spot — not in that dream, as in so many others before it.
༻ ༊*·˚ ༺
The first thing Sete heard when she woke up was Vez's annoying voice: "Congratulations, you defeated the Lynx of Chaos and End! Your rewards are 3% power and 4% divinity, plus 15% purifiable area of the refuge!"
She couldn't formulate any solid thoughts for a few seconds, too immersed in that painful feeling of a lump in her throat, whose tightness seemed so vivid that she had to put her hand to her neck to check if there really was anything crushing it. Her eyes were also strange, so moist that the green of her irises sparkled more than usual...
"Wasn't this Lynx supposed to be the easiest mutant creature to defeat around here...?" — The young deity questioned, ignoring those strange sensations and remembering the order of the missions, specially arranged by the System to make her life easier. — "You know I almost died, right?"
"But you didn't die, otherwise this world would have come to a miserable end!" — Vez always seemed cheerful, even when saying such horrible things. — "I almost forgot, you've unlocked the next mission, would you like to take a look?"
The System didn't wait for an answer and made a translucent blue screen appear before Sete:
Cleansing Mission (3/5)
Defeat the mutant Deer of
Chaos and End, a high-level creature
located in the dense forest
south of the refuge.
Rewards: 10% power and
2% divinity.
30% area purified.
According to the slightly higher rewards, the Deer of Chaos and End should really be more powerful than the Lynx... She would need to think of a more effective strategy to defeat it, perhaps even asking the heirs for help...
Interrupting Sete's ramblings, someone unzipped her tent, probably coming to check on her condition after such serious injuries. She didn't look at that person immediately, too focused on her own thoughts and the mission screen before her eyes.
— Sete? Are you okay? — A familiar voice surprised the young deity.