He stepped out into the frigid cold, the wind cutting sharper at his exposed skin. The twin moons hung above the sky, one of them visibly tinged with a rusty red at its edges, a detail that became clearer the more he focused on it. He walked through the deep snow, the level now past his thighs, threatening to swallow him whole with every step. He moved toward the source of the pull, the faint flicker of Fate Essence he was feeling. It did not feel like the rapid, chaotic pulse of an Unfaithful beast, but something calmer, more ordered, like that of a human. If that was the case, what was someone doing out here in the middle of this deadly night, especially when he was the only fool supposed to be on this trail?
'Am I being followed?'
'Is someone lost?'
'Is it another traveler?'
He pressed on, his eyes catching sight of trails of crimson red in the snow. This was different from the usual fine red dust coating the mountain. This was a rich, dark crimson color that resembled blood. It had spilled and trailed forward, leading directly toward the source of the fading Fate Essence.
"What the hell happened here?" he muttered aloud, his breath a cloud of vapor.
"Lucid, be careful. It is dark," Alice urged from within.
He did not hesitate. He put his free hand forward as if holding something and channeled a trickle of Fate Essence through it. A faint, pearlescent white light bloomed from his palm, illuminating the immediate darkness around him. The encroaching night threatened to swallow the small sphere of light, but it did not deter him. He walked onward, following the bloody trail.
A guttural growl resonated through the frozen air. It was a twisted, unnatural sound from a distorted vocal cord. He knew what it was. An Unfaithful. A Fallen, as he used to call them in his old world.
From the darkness ahead, a beast emerged. It was a wolf, but its fur was coated in a strange, bioluminescent blue light, with malevolent red eyes gleaming like hot coals. Jagged blue crystals, like jagged ice, protruded from its back and shoulders.
But something was different.
The beast was badly wounded. Thick, purple blood poured from a deep gash below its belly, staining the snow beneath it. Someone had injured it before he arrived.
He looked at the beast. The blue coating, the crystal growths. This one was without a doubt a C-rank threat. Before he could properly evaluate its essence core, the system he vaguely understood from this world suggested that grades were tied to the density and color of a Fallen's Fate Essence core. He could not get full details, but the color palette matched what he remembered. Yet now, the evaluation felt internal, like sensing the energy inside the creature. It was weird, inefficient. For now, Lucid relied on his keen instincts, the same way he had operated prior to this world.
The wolf growled again, low and pained, as Lucid shifted slightly to the right, trying to maneuver in the deep snow. He manifested chains from the air, the luminous white links wrapping around his forearms. The light from his palm vanished as he focused, but the chains themselves glowed with twice their usual brightness, illuminating his immediate area. He was not the same person who had fought Ivy inside the rift. He had changed.
The wolf lunged forward, a pained but desperate pounce.
Lucid yelled, "Chain!"
He threw both arms forward. The chains shot out, wrapping around the beast mid-air. It was a tactic quick to subdue and crush under the weight and strain, but the wounded beast struggled with a ferocity born of agony. Its growl turned into a piercing howl, and with a surge of bestial strength, it shattered Lucid's bonds. He was caught off guard for a moment, stunned, as the wolf scrambled and charged him directly.
He frowned, focusing intently. He gestured with a hand, and a new chain erupted from the snow beneath the wolf, tangling its legs. He summoned another and shot it forward like a spear. It pierced the beast's left eye. It was enough to maim, but not enough to kill.
The beast broke free again, shaking its head with a wet, furious snarl.
'Tch!' Lucid spat the sound in his mind, disgusted he had not managed a clean kill.
He resolved to the thing he hated most in a fight. Close combat.
The chains he summoned now wrapped tightly around his forearms, enveloping his hands and gloved fingers, forming ethereal brass knuckles. He held both fists up, letting the excess chain links dangle from his elbows.
The beast lunged at him again. This time, Lucid jumped back, gaining a bit of distance, then danced on the balls of his feet, shifting left and right. The wolf lifted its right paw, claws extended, to strike him. Lucid met it with a punch wrapped in glowing chain-links. The impact shattered the bones in the beast's paw with a sickening crack. The creature shrieked in pain.
"You feel pain, don't you?" Lucid stepped closer, his voice cold.
The wolf tried to bite him, but he blocked the snapping jaws with his chain-wrapped forearm. He could feel the immense pressure of the bite through the barrier. A small, frightening smile cracked Lucid's obscured features. A sincere, almost exhilarated smile.
"Gosh, why didn't I fight close combat more earlier?" he yelled, the words for no one but himself and Alice. "It is so fun!"
For someone who had always been at the back of his teammates, covering their weak points, now he could fight all he wanted for himself. He could indulge in hand-to-hand combat, expressing his pent-up frustrations directly. He found he liked it.
He readied his other arm and drove a fist, sheathed in solid light, directly into the beast's skull. It collapsed into the snow, finally still.
"That is animal cruelty," Alice posed from within, her tone conflicted.
"It is not an animal. It is a Fallen. It wanted to feed on our life and Fate Essence," he shot back, breathing heavily.
But Lucid did feel a twinge of guilt for killing something that was already injured. If he could have avoided it, he would have. But these things devoured people. He could not let it live and be responsible for some other unfortunate soul's death further down the mountain. With little more thought, he focused, and the beast's form dissolved into bright motes of light that traveled into his body. A monotone, system-like voice rang in his perception.
***
The Divine Maiden Alice has slain a C-rank Mountain Wolf.
Fate Essence Absorbed: +1851.
Your path shines brighter.
***
'Though it is their own fault for even coming up the Red Mountains in the first place,' he argued in his mind, trying to justify the action.
Alice did not reply, but he felt her quiet observation, a silent witness to his moral balancing act.
He continued walking, following the trail of purple and crimson blood further into a small, sheltered gully.
Just there, nestled against a rock and half-buried in thick snow, was a dark shape. The snow around it was heavily stained. Lucid's heart immediately sank, though he did not recognize the figure. He rushed forward, crouching down to turn the silhouette over.
It shocked him. The person was cold, so cold they felt like a corpse. But as he lifted them with an arm supporting their back, he felt the faintest, shallow breath against his wrist.
There, in his arms, was a young woman in her early adulthood. Her skin was as pale as the surrounding snow. She had sharp, elegant features, sharp brows, and soft lips that were a slight, numb pink from the cold, contrasting her otherwise severe look. Long, smooth black hair, almost too dark, flowed down her back, tangled with ice and blood.
"Who is this person?" Alice asked from within, her voice full of concern.
"She is dying!" Lucid yelled internally, scrambling back. He hurriedly gathered her in both arms, lifting her with a grunt. For someone so slender, she was surprisingly heavy.
But that did not deter him. He turned and began the arduous trek back to his cave, step after agonizing step through the deep snow, the freezing wind whipping at them both, carrying the spark of life he now held closer to his chest.
It was not like him, this role of a savior. Lucid was not that. He was the one who took lives, who betrayed trusts, who used others for his own benefit. Not directly, perhaps, but indirectly, through omission and cold calculation. That had been the case with Alice, a transaction wrapped in necessity. And that fateful encounter in his very first rift, where he had let his partner die, choosing survival over solidarity, had cemented it. Now, in another world, at this time, he had taken the noble path. He had shouldered the noble task. He had saved someone. He did not hate the act itself. But it sparked a cold, familiar feeling inside him, a deep and quiet self-hatred. It made him feel like a hypocrite, wearing a mask of virtue that did not fit his soul. He was not worthy of any praise. In fact, this felt like a long-overdue debt he was finally being forced to pay back.