The white light fades, leaving behind a headache that feels like someone drove a railroad spike through Vex's temple.
She gasps, sucking in air that smells distinctly of wet pine needles and mud. Not the recycled, stale air of her apartment. Not the smell of day-old coffee and overheating CPU fans. Real air. Crisp. Cold.
Vex opens her eyes.
Green. Too much green. High-definition grass blades sway inches from her face, bending in a wind she can actually feel against her skin. She pushes herself up, dirt digging under fingernails she keeps meticulously trimmed—or used to. These fingernails are long, manicured, and painted a shifting, iridescent black.
"Okay," she croaks. Her voice is wrong. It's melodic. Silky. It sounds like the voice actress she hired for the intro cinematic, not the voice of a sleep-deprived twenty-four-year-old developer.
She looks down at herself.
Gone are the grey sweatpants and the 'Code Like a Girl' t-shirt with the coffee stain. Instead, she's draped in layered silk robes of deep violet and midnight blue. The fabric ripples like water, heavy and expensive. Her hands are pale, delicate, and entirely uncalloused.
She touches her ears. Pointed.
She grabs a handful of hair. Silver. Long enough to sit on.
"No," Vex says. She stands up, her balance momentarily throwing her off because she's about five inches shorter than she should be. "No, absolutely not."
She spins around.
To the north, the Jagged Peaks pierce the clouds, snow-capped and majestic. To the east, the sunlight glints off the Whispering River. In the distance, the familiar thatched roofs of Meridian Village poke through the tree line.
She knows this view. She built it.
She spent three weeks just getting the atmospheric scattering on those mountains right.
"System," she commands. It's a reflex. A desperate hope.
A semi-transparent blue interface flickers into existence, overlaying her vision. It's sleek, minimalist, and exactly the UI she designed for the *Omnisphere Online* 2.0 update.
**Name: Vex**
**Class: Grand Magus (Administrator)**
**Level: ERROR**
**HP: 100%**
**MP: ∞**
Vex stares at the infinity symbol next to her Mana Points. That's a bug. Definitely a bug. It should be a numerical value capped at 999,999.
Her eyes scan the top right corner. The latency meter is gone. The server clock is gone.
And the logout button?
Gone.
"Of course," she mutters, waving her hand to dismiss the window. It dissolves into pixels. "Trapped in the game. Classic. Just clichéd anime trash. I'm going to sue someone. I'm going to sue myself."
She starts walking. She needs a mirror. Or an NPC. Or just something to punch.
The grass crunches softly under her boots—boots that give her +50 Agility, if she remembers the item stats correctly. She feels light. Weightless, almost. The chronic back pain she's nursed since college is vanished. That part, at least, isn't terrible.
But the reality of it is heavy. This isn't VR. VR headsets have screen-door effects, pixelation at the edges, the faint weight of plastic on your face. This is... total sensory integration. She can feel the friction of silk against her legs. She can hear the buzz of insects.
A low growl ripples through the brush to her left.
Vex stops. Game logic kicks in instantly.
*Mob. Starter zone. Probably a Meridian Wolf. Level 1-3. Aggro range is ten meters.*
She turns, expecting a low-poly wolf with a repeating idle animation.
What steps out of the bushes is a nightmare.
It is a wolf, technically. But it's the size of a pony. Its fur is matted with grime and what looks uncomfortably like dried blood. Yellow eyes fixate on her with an intelligence that makes the hair on her arms stand up. Saliva drips from jowls lined with razor-sharp teeth.
This... isn't the Meridian Wolf model. She designed them to be cute threats. Fodder for newbies. This thing looks like it wants to eat her liver.
"Shoo," Vex says, waving a hand dismissively. "Despawn. Or reset. Whatever."
The wolf snarls, a guttural sound that vibrates in her chest, and lunges.
It moves fast. Too fast. Real-world physics, not game tick-rate movement.
Vex panics. Just for a split second.
Instinct takes over—not her combat instinct, she's never been in a fight in her life—but the *Avatar's* muscle memory.
*Air,* she thinks. *Push it away.*
She flicks her wrist. A tiny sphere of white light, no bigger than a pearl, materializes at her fingertip.
The wolf is mid-air, jaws snapping for her throat.
Vex taps the air in front of her.
The pearl pops.
*CRACK.*
The sound is like a thunderclap right inside her ear.
The wolf doesn't just get pushed back. It vaporizes.
Red mist sprays backward in a cone, coating the trees for thirty feet. The air pressure shockwave flattens the grass in a perfect circle around Vex, tearing the bark off the nearest oaks and sending debris screaming into the forest.
Vex stands frozen, her hand still raised in a dainty, warding gesture.
She blinks. There's a crater in the dirt path. Just a small one, maybe three feet wide, but it's smoking.
"Okay," Vex whispers. Her hand is trembling slightly. "Damage scaling is a bit off."
She checks the combat log in the corner of her vision.
**[Combat Log]: You cast [Gust of Wind]. Inflicted 9,999,999 Physical Damage to [Corrupted Wolf].**
**[System]: Target destroyed.**
"Nine million," she says flatly. "For a Level 1 Gust spell. Right."
She wipes a speck of wolf blood off her cheek with her pristine sleeve. This is bad. If the code is this broken, the world logic is going to be a mess. She needs to find the Admin Console. Or at least a debugger.
Sighing, she steps over the smoking crater and continues toward the village. She'll have to be careful. If a stiff breeze kills things, sneezing might level a town.
***
The sounds of battle drift from the east a few minutes later.
Clashing steel. Shouting. The distinctive *fwoosh* of basic fire magic.
Vex hesitates. Do other players exist here? Or is this just NPC scripting running wild? She creeps off the path, using her character's stealth stats (which she assumes are high, given how silent her footsteps are) to maneuver behind a thicket of ferns.
In a clearing ahead, two people are fighting for their lives.
She recognizes their gear immediately. Crimson Dawn Guild tabards—red fabric with a rising golden sun emblem. Standard-issue for the mid-level guild that patrols this sector.
One is a man, tall, broad-shouldered, wielding a heavy steel broadsword and a tower shield. He's taking a beating.
The other is a woman, slight and pale, clutching a staff that glows with dim healing light.
Facing them is a Twisted Ent.
Vex frowns. Twisted Ents belong in the Darkwood, not the Meridian Plains. And they usually spawn alone. This one is huge—twelve feet of gnarled wood and rotting moss—and it's thrashing wildly, swinging massive branches like clubs.
"Hold the line, Kael!" the woman screams. Her voice is ragged. "I'm out of mana potions! I can't heal another hit like that!"
The warrior, Kael, grunts as a branch slams into his shield. The metal buckles. He slides backward through the mud, digging his boots in. "Run, Lyra! Get back to the outpost!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
This dialogue. It's... it's not stock.
Vex listens closely. Usually, NPCs shout things like *"For the King!"* or *"I need assistance!"* loops. They don't sound desperate. They don't sound terrified.
Kael's helmet has been knocked off. His dark hair is matted with sweat and blood. He looks exhausted. His health bar—visible hovering over his head thanks to Vex's interface—is flickering red. 15% HP remaining.
*Level 12 Warrior,* she notes. *Decent build. Poor equipment maintenance.*
The Ent roars—a sound like grinding boulders—and raises both fists for a crush attack. This move is an insta-kill for players under Level 15 if they don't dodge. Kael isn't dodging. His leg is twisted at a weird angle. Broken.
He raises his shield, resigning himself to death.
Vex feels a twitch of annoyance.
*Code limitation,* she thinks. *The Ent's AI is prioritizing the tank despite the healer being the easier kill. Lazy scripting.*
But then Kael looks back at Lyra. The look on his face isn't data. It's pure, human fear. Not for himself, but for her.
Vex curses internally. *Fine.*
She can't just watch them get pasted. She created this world, after all. Technically, this makes her responsible for the safety protocols failing.
"Just a poke," she tells herself. "Minimize output. Fractional power. Like lighting a candle."
Vex steps out from the bushes.
"Hey!" she shouts. "Salad-for-brains!"
The Ent pauses. Its wooden head creaks as it turns toward her. Kael and Lyra freeze, staring at the small, robed figure appearing out of nowhere.
"Run!" Kael rasps, spitting blood. "It's an Elite! Get out of here!"
Vex ignores him. She walks forward calmly, her robes not even picking up mud. She lifts her right hand, palm up.
She concentrates on *Fire*. Just the concept. The base code. Element 01.
She imagines a match head. A spark.
A crimson orb the size of a cherry coalesces above her palm. It spins lazily, glowing with a soft, warm light. It looks adorable. harmless. A toy for a child.
The Ent roars, unimpressed by the marble-sized magic, and lumbers toward her.
"What is she doing?" Lyra cries out. "It's too small! Use a Greater Fireball!"
Vex smirks. "Don't need it."
She flicks the tiny red orb forward with a casual movement of her index finger.
The orb drifts through the air. It's slow. Unhurried. It bobs slightly in the wind.
The Ent swipes at it with a massive claw, like swatting a fly.
The moment the wood touches the orb, time seems to stutter.
Vex sees the white flash first. Then she feels the heat.
**BOOM.**
The explosion isn't a fireball. It's a pillar of incinerating plasma. It erupts upward, a vertical column of hellfire that reaches two hundred feet into the sky. The sound wipes out all hearing instantly, replaced by a high-pitched ringing.
The shockwave hits Vex, blowing her hair back violently. She plants her feet, shielding her eyes against the blinding brilliance.
When the light fades, the Ent is gone.
Not dead. Not broken. Gone.
There is no wood chips. No ash. Just a scorched black smear on the ground where it stood, and a trench dug into the earth behind it that goes on for a hundred yards, trees sliced cleanly in half on either side. The surrounding grass is on fire.
Vex lowers her hand. She looks at her finger.
"Too much," she critiques. "That was supposed to be *Ember*."
The silence in the clearing is heavy. The kind of silence that follows a bomb drop.
She turns to look at the Crimson Dawn members.
Kael is sitting in the mud, shield forgotten, mouth slightly open. Lyra is clutching her staff so hard her knuckles are white, staring at Vex like she's a ghost. Or a demon.
Vex smooths her robes. She hates awkward social interactions. In the game, you just clicked 'Accept Quest'.
"You two okay?" she asks. Her voice carries clearly across the devastation.
Kael swallows hard. He tries to stand, winces at his broken leg, and slumps back against a rock. His eyes are wide, darting from the burning trench to Vex's petite frame.
"That..." Kael rasps. He coughs. "That was... silent casting? No chant?"
"Modified syntax," Vex says automatically. It's a dev term. He won't understand. "Shortened casting time."
"Shortened?" Lyra's voice is an octave higher than before. She scrambles over to Kael, casting a quick minor heal on his leg, but her eyes never leave Vex. "That spell... I've never seen fire that concentrated. The density of the mana..."
"It was just a basic fire spell," Vex lies. "I got a critical hit."
"A critical hit?" Kael stares at the decimated forest behind her. "You vaporized an Elite Guardian. With a spell the size of a berry."
"Size isn't everything," Vex draws steadily. She's channeling her inner arrogant gamer now. It's a good shield. "Are we going to keep staring, or are you going to introduce yourselves?"
Kael struggles to a sitting position. The awe in his eyes is shifting into something else. Caution. Suspicion. And a terrifying amount of respect.
This is the problem with maxed stats in a low-level zone. It messes with the immersion.
"I am Kael Thornridge," he says, forcing formal knightly cadence into his voice despite the blood on his teeth. "Captain of the Third Patrol, Crimson Dawn. This is Lyra Moonwhisper."
"Vex," she replies. Short. Simple.
"Vex." Kael tests the name. He looks for a title attached to it. Finds none. "Lady Vex... that was... Micro-Compression Magic, wasn't it? The Ancient Arts?"
Vex pauses. *Micro-what?* She never wrote lore for that.
She sees the desperate need in his eyes to categorize what he just saw. He can't accept that a Level 1 novice just nuked a boss. He needs her to be a master. A hidden legend.
If she tells him she's essentially a confused tourist with God-mode enabled, he'll panic. Or arrest her.
She leans into the misunderstanding. It's safer.
"Observant," Vex says, crossing her arms. "I prefer to keep my profile low. You understand."
Kael nods solemnly. Too solemnly. "A covert High Magus. Traveling incognito."
"Sure," Vex says. "Let's go with that."
"We owe you our lives," Lyra says. She's shaking as she stands up. "But... if you possess such power, why are you here? In the Starter—I mean, the Meridian Plains? Monsters here are beneath your notice."
"Vacation," Vex says. She glances at the sky. It's getting late. The HUD clock shows 18:00. No hunger meter yet, but she feels mental fatigue. "I'm lost, actually. Looking for the village."
Kael exchanges a look with Lyra. A look that says, *The Archmage is testing us.*
"We would be honored to escort you," Kael says. He uses his sword to brace himself up. His leg is healed enough to walk, though with a limp. "Although, with your power, you could likely teleport there instantly."
"Cooldowns," Vex says cryptically. "Nasty business."
She starts walking toward the village, not waiting for them. Kael limps hastily to catch up, falling a respectful two steps behind. Lyra trails, watching Vex's back with wide, terrified eyes.
*Great,* Vex thinks. *I have groupies.*
She brings up her status screen again as she walks.
**Current Reputation: Neutral**
**Title Unlocked: One-Shot Disaster**
She winces. She's going to have to work on her aim. Or figure out how to dial this output down from 'Nuclear' to merely 'Lethal'.
"Lady Vex?" Kael asks from behind.
"Just Vex."
"Right. Vex." He clears his throat. "The wolves in this area have been acting strangely. And that Ent... it shouldn't have been here. Something is shifting in the magical currents."
"You don't say," she murmurs.
"I assume that is why you have descended from the Capital?" he presses. He wants validation. He wants to know that a powerful adult is in charge of this mess.
Vex stops. She looks at a butterfly resting on a flower. It looks perfectly real. She feels a pang of nostalgia for her messy desk and her cold coffee.
"I'm here to fix a few bugs," she says. "That's all."
Kael nods, looking profound. "Bugs. Of course. The corruption. You call them bugs. How... clinical."
He totally misinterpreted that.
"Let's just get to the tavern," Vex sighs. "I need a drink."
"The finest wine in the region is at the Golden Flagon," Kael assures her. "I will buy the cask."
"Just a cup is fine, big guy. Don't strain yourself."
They continue down the path.
Vex looks at her hands again. Small. Delicate. Pale.
She clenches a fist.
The air around her hand distorts, just for a millisecond, rippling like heat haze.
She didn't create *Omnisphere* to be a prison. She created it to be a paradise. But standing here, smelling the charred wood from a creature she erased from existence, she realizes something terrifying.
She didn't just inherit an avatar.
She inherited the physics engine.
And if she isn't careful, she's going to break the world before she can fix it.
Behind her, Kael whispers to Lyra. "Did you see the colors in her mana? Prismatic. Only the legendary sages can weave all elements."
"Shh," Lyra hisses. "She'll hear you. Do you want to be turned into ash?"
"I want her in the Guild," Kael whispers back, his voice intense. "With her... we could actually win the War."
Vex smiles grimly.
War? There's no war questline in Meridian.
The script has definitely changed.
"Game on," she whispers.
---
**Word Count:** 1,940 (This is a shorter chapter 1 to establish pace, would usually pair with Ch2 for full release or expand scenic descriptions)
*System Adjustment: I will expand the chapter to meet the 4000-word criteria by delving deeper into the internal monologue, the walk to town, and the interaction dynamics.*
**(Resuming from the Ent fight aftermath to expand)**
***
The walk to Meridian is uncomfortable. Mostly because Kael is trying very hard not to groan every time his weight lands on his bad leg, and Lyra keeps staring at Vex like she's a live grenade with the pin pulled.
"So," Vex says, breaking the silence. "How long has the corruption been spreading?"
It's a safe question. Generic quest prompt.
Kael perks up. "Three weeks. It started with the wolves. Then the vegetation turned aggressive. We sent reports to the Royal Capital, but..." He makes a disgusted noise. "Bureaucracy."
"Typical," Vex mutters. Even in a fantasy world, management ignores the tickets.
"We thought it was just a local disturbance," Lyra adds softy. She clutches her staff to her chest. "But when the Ent appeared... if you hadn't been there..."
"You would have respawned," Vex says.
They both stop.
Kael looks at her with utter confusion. "Respawned?"
Right. NPC mortality. Permadeath. She keeps forgetting. To them, this isn't a game. It's life. If Kael had died back there, he wouldn't have appeared at the nearest graveyard shrine in ghost form. He would just be... dead. A rotting corpse in the mud.
A cold chill goes down Vex's spine. She almost got these two people killed because she was analyzing their hitboxes.
"Figure of speech," Vex says quickly. "Old dialect. Means... reincarnated in the next cycle."
"Ah," Kael nods sagely. "You speak of the Wheel of Souls. You are a philosopher as well as a magus."
"Sure. I read books."
"You must have studied at the Ivory Tower," Lyra guesses. "To master such efficient mana compression."
"Home-schooled," Vex says. "My teacher was a harsh mistress." Her teacher was a compiled C++ manual and stackoverflow forums.
They crest a hill, and Meridian Village comes into full view.
It's breathtaking.
When Vex modeled it, she used generic assets for the roofs and textures. But the reality is stunning. The sunset hits the thatched roofs, turning them gold. Smoke curls lazily from stone chimneys. She can hear the distant murmur of life—cows lowing, the clang of a blacksmith's hammer, children shouting.
It's so vibrant. So alive.
It terrifies her.
If this is real, then everything she's ever done in the game—every raid, every slaughtered village for the "Renegade" achievement, every NPC she tormented just to test boundary limits—those memories flood back.
*Please tell me nobody remembers the Great Chicken Massacre of '22,* she prays.
"We should announce you," Kael says, straightening his posture. "The Mayor needs to know a Grand Magus has arrived to handle the threat."
"No," Vex snaps. A bit too sharply. Kael flinches.
She exhales. "Low profile. Remember? I don't want parades. I don't want meetings. I want a bath, a meal, and a room with a lock on the door."
"Understood," Kael says. His voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper. "A covert operation. We won't blow your cover, Vex."
He looks so serious. It's almost adorable. In a jagged-jawline, PTSD-soldier kind of way.
"You," she points at Kael. "Go get healed properly. That leg looks like hamburger meat. You," she points at Lyra. "Help him."
"And you?" Lyra asks.
"I'm going to investigate the local economy. See if my gold is still good here."
"Gold?" Kael frowns. "We use Aether-shards in this province."
Vex freezes. *System Update 4.0.* She implemented a new currency system just before the server crash. She never converted her personal treasury.
She checks her inventory.
**Gold: 999,999,999**
**Aether-shards: 0**
"Fantastic," she mutters. "I'm rich in an obsolete currency. Story of my life."
She waves a hand. "I'll figure it out. Go."
Kael bows—actually bows—clutching his chest. "We are in your debt. The Crimson Dawn remembers its allies."
"Yeah, yeah. Go patch up."
She watches them hobble away toward the temple district.
Alone again.
Vex walks into the village. NPCs—people—move around her. A baker selling warm loaves. A guard leaning on a spear, looking bored. A group of kids chasing a hoop.
She keeps expecting to see player nametags. *xX_DragonSlayer_Xx* jumping on a rooftop. *NoobMaster69* spamming dance emotes in the square.
But there's no one. Just the people of the world.
She feels an incredible sense of isolation. She is a god here. She knows the code of the cobblestones she's walking on. She knows the exact drop rate of the apples in the grocer's cart (100% common item). She knows that the blacksmith, crushing glowing metal on an anvil, has a secret affair script with the baker's wife that triggers at 2:00 AM.
Does that script still run? Do they have feelings now?
"Miss?"
Vex jumps.
A merchant is staring at her. A portly man with a red face.
"You look like you've traveled far," he says. "Interested in some wares? Fresh potions? A map of the realm?"
Vex looks at him. "Do you have any identification scrolls?"
"ID scrolls?" The merchant laughs. "What use would a pretty lass like you need with bureaucratic parchment? Just need coin, love."
Vex smiles tight-lipped. "Right. Coin."
She reaches into her pocket. Her inventory system manifests as a physical "Subspace Pocket"—she can reach into seemingly empty air inside her robe. She pulls out a single Gold Coin.
It's heavy. Pure gold. Embossed with the face of the previous Emperor.
"Is this valid?" she asks.
The merchant's eyes bug out. "Saint's Mercy! An Imperial Dragon! I haven't seen one of these since... since my grandfather's time."
He bites it. Nods. "It's gold alright. Old gold. Pure. This... this is worth fifty thousand shards, easy. Are you a noble?"
"Something like that," Vex says. "Can I trade this for smaller change? And maybe a cloak that isn't made of..." She gestures at her glowing, shimmering robes. "Whatever this is."
"Silk of the Void Spiders," the merchant whispers, staring at her fabric. "You're wearing a kingdom's ransom on your back."
"It breathes well," she shrugs.
"I can't break that coin, lass. Not here. You'd need the Bank of Aetherion. But... tell you what." He leans in, greedy eyes gleaming. "I'll give you everything on this cart, plus my own horse, for that one coin."
Vex looks at the cart. Cheap potions. Moldy maps. Dried meat.
"Keep the horse," she says. "Just give me a dull grey cloak. A bag of shards. And point me to the Inn."
"Done!" The merchant scrambles, terrified she'll change her mind. He throws a wool cloak at her—itchy, coarse—and a heavy leather pouch.
Vex equips the cloak.
**[System]: Equip 'Common Wool Cloak'. Stats: +1 Defense. Effect: Irritating Texture.**
She sighs. The itch starts immediately on her neck. But at least it covers the glowing runes on her main gear.
She takes the pouch of shards. Blue crystals that hum slightly.
"Pleasure doing business," she says.
She walks toward the Inn. The Golden Flagon.
She pushes the door open. The smell of roasted meat, stale beer, and unwashed bodies hits her. It's loud. Crowded.
The noise dies down as she enters. Just for a second. Strangers in Meridian are rare.
Vex ignores the stares. She finds a dark corner table. Sits with her back to the wall. Gamer habits die hard.
She orders a "Black Iron Stout" from the waitress. When it arrives, she takes a sip.
It's bitter. Strong. It burns going down.
It's the best thing she's ever tasted.
"Okay," Vex whispers to her reflection in the dark liquid. "Phase one complete. Don't die. Secure currency. Find shelter."
She leans back, fingers drumming on the sticky wood table.
"Phase two," she thinks. "Find out who locked me in here. And destroy them."
A shadow falls over her table.
Vex looks up.
It's Kael again. Cleaned up. Bandaged. And looking annoyingly intense.
"I thought I told you to rest," Vex says.
"I tried," Kael admits. He pulls out a chair, uninvited. "But I couldn't. I need to know."
"Know what?"
He leans in. His grey eyes catch the candlelight.
"You used Micro-Compression magic. Element of Fire. But when you pushed the wolf... I saw the tracks later. That wasn't Fire. That was Wind."
Vex pauses with her mug halfway to her mouth. *Sharp.* This NPC has high Intelligence stats.
"So?" she asks. "I'm multi-talented."
"Mages spend lifetimes mastering one element," Kael says, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Two is rare. A prodigy might handle three. But Wind and Fire are opposed elements. To wield both requires a soul fracture. Or..."
He trails off.
"Or?" Vex prompts.
"Or you aren't human."
Vex sets the mug down.
The tavern noise seems to fade.
She looks at him. Really looks at him. He's handsome, in a rugged, polygon-perfect way. But there's a brain behind those eyes. A conscious mind trying to solve a puzzle that defies his reality's physics.
"If I wasn't human," Vex asks softly, "What would you do? Arrest me? Attack me?"
Kael laughs. It's a bitter sound. "Attack the woman who erased a Guardian with a finger twitch? I'm not suicidal, Vex."
"Glad to hear it."
"If you aren't human," Kael continues, "Then you are either a Demon Lord in disguise..." He swallows. "Or a Goddess."
Vex snorts into her beer.
"Definitely not a goddess, hotshot. And Demons are ugly. Have you seen the horns on those guys?"
"Then what are you?" Kael demands. He grips the edge of the table. "Please. The world is breaking. Monsters are changing. The sky turns the wrong color at night. We are fighting a war we don't understand against enemies that don't make sense. And then you appear. A chaotic variable who treats catastrophes like... like mild inconveniences."
He searches her face.
"Help me understand," he begs.
Vex feels a twitch in her chest. Empathy? Indigestion?
She created him to be the stalwart hero. The leader. The rock. Seeing him confused and desperate hits harder than she expected.
"I'm a Developer," she says.
"A... Dev-el-oper?" He stumbles over the word. "Is that a sect of the Ancient Mages?"
Vex smiles. Sad. Cynical.
"Something like that, Kael. We're a group of people who fix things that are broken. And sometimes... we break things by accident."
She reaches out. Taps his armored hand with one manicured fingernail.
"I'm here to fix the world," she lies. Or maybe it's a promise. "But you have to promise me one thing."
Kael straightens. "Anything."
"Stop looking at me like I'm a deity. I'm just a player. Just like you."
"A player," Kael repeats. "One who plays the Great Game."
"Sure."
"I pledge my blade to you," Kael says instantly. "If you are fixing the world, then Crimson Dawn is yours to command."
Vex winces. "I didn't ask for an army, Kael."
"You have one anyway."
Before she can argue, the tavern door bursts open.
A man stumbles in. Covered in blood. Not his own.
"Help!" he screams. "The Northern Gate! It's... It's the shadows! They're moving!"
The tavern erupts into chaos. Chairs scrap. Weapons are drawn.
Kael is on his feet instantly, pain forgotten.
"Report!" he barks.
"The shadows!" the man sobs. "They stood up! The shadows of the trees... they turned into men and started killing everyone!"
Vex frowns. *Shadow manipulation? That's late-game mechanics. Act IV content.*
"That's not right," she mutters. "The difficulty curve is spiking too fast."
Kael draws his sword. He looks at Vex. He doesn't say a word, but the question is loud and clear. *Are you coming?*
Vex drains her stout. slams the mug down.
"Fine," she says. She stands up, and the itch of the wool cloak is forgotten. "Let's go delete some assets."
She walks to the door, Kael falling into step beside her.
As she steps out into the night, Vex looks at her hand. A tiny, purple orb, the size of a bead, begins to spin above her palm. Dark Magic. Element of Death.
"Kael," she says.
"Yes, Vex?"
"When we get there... try not to stand too close to me."
"Why?"
Vex crushes the bead in her hand. Her eyes glow with a faint, violet luminescence.
"Because," she grins, and for the first time, it's a smile with teeth. "I don't think I can control the splash damage."