1% Lifesteal

During the early days of the post-rift era, all passages were open. It wouldn\'t be until several decades later that society grew stable enough to organize and begin systematically sealing dangerous realms off.

Many of these early seals remained in place until that very day.

But humans… they were funny creatures. Stupid, reckless, selfish, lazy, shortsighted—they repeatedly failed to do the right thing, and tragically, those making these errors rarely suffered from the consequences of their own hubris.

Over a hundred years was a long, long time. During that time, records were lost. Who back then worried about the fact that people a hundred years down the line wouldn\'t know what lay behind a passage seal? It was sealed for a reason; what reason? Who knew, who cared—just keep it closed, lest you unleash a bloody calamity.

And for humanity today, taking the chance to peek behind them was an age-old rule—was the risk worth the profit?

Most of the time, the answer was… no.

Opening a sealed passage was opening Pandora\'s box. No matter how terrible, all of them kept an evil trapped within.

As he sat in the underground chamber, remnants of old infrastructure crumbling around him, he peeked at the empty sleeve on his shirt and then back to the glowing ritual circle.

His avatar was safe for the time being, but those kids were slowly becoming suspicious. Well, no matter. They wouldn\'t act for at least another few days, and during that time, his target would arrive.

His eyes refocused, and he looked at the seal which lay beneath the ritual circle. Several specialized talents and many resources were used to construct this one. If he were more physically powerful, perhaps he could break it through sheer force, but as it was, he had to resort to slowly dissipating the ether constructs holding the barrier together.

A sound akin to crystalline wind chimes rang throughout the room as a critical component finally crumbled, and a tired smile quirked up on his lips.

"Pandora\'s box indeed," he muttered as he placed a palm upon the inscribed surface and pushed a pulse of essence into it.

The sound of screams echoed through the structure, remnants of a will whose master had long passed taking a final, futile stand against his intrusion. The metallic barrier keeping the passage sealed was reduced to a mere layer of ordinary matter within seconds.

His dark essence oozed out of his right hand and turned into a large tentacle of darkness. The appendage latched onto a small nook in the seal and pulled it up. Even though ordinary, it was made to endure. Whoever had built it was well aware of the danger posed by the thing sealed within.

Yet, the creator couldn\'t have possibly predicted how powerful a five-star could become.

With another pulse of essence, the tentacle ripped the metal off its hinges with a loud snap, and he threw it aside, causing it to skitter across the nearby ground as he looked down through the circular passage, which looked like a round trapdoor in the ground and past which a dark chamber lay.

There was little light around him, but that couldn\'t impede his vision. With his Dark Sight, he peered through the darkness, observing the majestic, solemn chamber within.

A smile quirked on his lips as he took a step and jumped down.

He landed with a light thud that echoed through the room, reaching the tall, imposing walls and lines of pillars. He lifted his head and looked at the throne on the other side of the chamber.

Upon it sat a perfectly still figure. It looked like a faceless white puppet, clad in royal clothing and carrying a majestic crown on its head. As it noticed his presence, it slowly moved its head up.

In an instant, the air in the room changed. An unbelievable feeling of suppression coursed through his body as the very concept of authority congealed in the air around him, imbuing him with a burning desire to kneel and obey.

"Not yet," he said, keeping his head up as he gazed upon the eidolon of authority. "I have come here to pledge my loyalty to you, Your Highness," the man said, bowing slightly—respectfully but not obediently. Not yet. "I believe you feel my power just as well as I feel yours. My servitude would no doubt be a valuable asset to Your Majesty."

The eidolon perked up at that. It had no mouth, so it gave no vocal response. It raised a hand and snapped a finger instead.

With a flash of light, a spirit appeared at the eidolon\'s side. Its blue head was massive, and so were its striking golden eyes, and its neat robes swayed as if an intangible wind was blowing over them. It raised a small hand with thin, long fingers balled into a fist to its tiny mouth as it coughed. "My lord says that you cannot be trusted," it said in a polite voice. "If you have a desire to serve, you must prove yourself. Pair your loyalty with an adequate proof of obedience, and you shall be accepted as a servant."

"Duly noted, respectable sir," the man responded without even a hint of sarcasm. "Indeed, I come here not as an enemy. I am more than willing to prove this. But, I have a condition."

Both the spirit and the imposing eidolon tensed at that proclamation.

"As you can see, I have no shortage of power. Dare I say, if we were on opposing sides, it would not be easy to guess who would prevail. Wouldn\'t you agree?"

"You dare!" the small servant spat. "Direct your petty threats at your lessers, fiend! Begone at once!"

I overdid it, he thought, sighing as he lifted his right hand. A small mass of shadow coalesced around his middle finger, and with a burst of his will, it tore his finger off. He showed not even the slightest reaction to the pain.

"My apologies," he said, bowing deeply. "I hope a finger is enough to excuse my misbehavior."

The two ether constructs remained silent for a long moment, and then, the king nodded a single time.

"Hmph," the servant scoffed. "You are lucky that my lord is feeling generous today. Very well. We shall hear you out. What is it that you wish for in return for your servitude?"

He smiled, raising his head as he used shadows to plug the wound on his finger. "I would like your help with a coup d\'etat."

***

In one of the open realms in Nova York, a group of terrorists had walled themselves off. The realm in question was one of many that had been affected by a large, coordinated attack. It was a C-rank realm located in the Taranccia realm, a small world of purple fields and tall, dinosaur-esque monsters.

A thick, undulating barrier of opaque liquid blocked the passage, acting as a near-impenetrable barrier against every force that tried their hand at piercing it. As for who had placed the barrier, nobody knew.

The only thing that was clear was that it was incredibly difficult to break.

It was to no small surprise to the people within, then, when the sound of an explosion echoed through the realm and a veritable horde of people rushed in.

Within less than half an hour, the group of terrorists were apprehended, and the horde of monsters they had gathered was slowly being dispersed. As was predicted by many, as soon as these people were captured, a ritual circle lit up on their forehead, and they died, committing suicide the moment their plan had failed. There were no indications of who exactly was behind the group. There were no signs pointing to anyone specific.

Kaiya stood near the passage, just a bit inside the realm, acting as little more than a watch dog ensuring nobody escaped.

Her imposing figure stood firm as her eyes scanned the inside of the realm. The immediate area surrounding the passage was a gruesome sight. Numerous corpses—torn, burned, doused in acid, hit by necrotic spells, and sliced apart—were scattered all around, heads, arms, and legs floating in pools of blood.

The empress sighed, shaking her head slightly as she spat on the ground. "What a mess."

This was hardly the first time she was seeing such a sight. While it was rare for her to step up like this, she needed to remind everyone of her existence every once in a while.

Yet, as she stood there at the entrance, her intuition told her something was off. Her arrival in the capital was by pure chance, and it was no surprise that her help wasn\'t accounted for. Despite that, this entire thing was… off. It was too organized for such a risky, foolish endeavor.

There were few five-stars in the empire, and most of them were in Starhold. Had any of them decided to come to Nova York while this was happening, they could have stopped it. It wasn\'t a guarantee, granted, but there was a solid 30% chance of it happening. That was too much risk for an undertaking with such a pointless cause.

No, there was more to this. What swam before her was a red herring—the shark was hiding deeper in the water.

Leona suddenly appeared by her side, dropping her veil of invisibility. "I have found no signs of anyone more powerful than a three-star being here."

"Anything else?"

"No. From what I\'ve gathered, their intent was to cause an artificial break. Secondary motives are unclear."

"We\'ll move on to the next passage immediately," Kaiya declared. "Something is off about this attack. I want to clear every barrier by the end of the day. We\'re aiming for the big ones first."

***

Sophia stirred slowly. A massive headache pounded in her head. An intense hunger raged in her gut. As she opened her eyes and got up, she came face to face with a decrepit undead creature. She screamed. Well, tried to, but her parched throat produced a long, scratchy voice crack instead.

"Relax," the living mummy eked out, keeping a hand above its mouth. Every second, a small drop of water condensed on the creature\'s hand, wetting its lips.

"Wait… Freddy?" she asked, frowning at him. "What the hell happened to you!?"

He looked absolutely horrible. The skin all over his body had shriveled up, making him look like… well… a mummy.

"Essence poisoning," he eked out barely.

"Oh…" she said, relaxing for a moment and then breaking into a panic again. "Are you okay?"

"No," he said simply. "But I will be once I rehydrate."

Given the absurdly slow trickle of water coming from his finger and the fact that he was using water essence to condense that water, thus making his poisoning even worse, she doubted his recovery would be smooth.

"Stop with the condensing, you dunce, you\'re gonna make it worse. I\'ll go fetch some water."

"I\'m not an idi—ahem," he coughed to clear his tight throat. "I\'ve calmed the poisoning already. I\'d still appreciate some water, though. Just be careful. Monsters."

Sophia nodded curtly as she left the small hole they were hiding in. Five minutes later, she came running back inside while a large nebber head peeked in after her. From the safety of the hidden hole, she swung her swordsword and stabbed it in the eye. The monster screeched a long, pained note and dropped dead.

"These things are so damn annoying!" she said, breathing out as she collapsed on the ground. "Oh, I\'m so hungry I could eat this thing whole."

Freddy snickered. "Did you bring my water?"

"Yeah, here you go, shrivelhead," she said as she passed him a canteen of water. "Drink deep of that since I\'m not going back outside to get more."

Freddy downed the water in the small container, then moved over to the dead nebber\'s bleeding neck. He placed his palm on the wound, and with a small burst of blood essence, he started absorbing the blood through his palm. Meanwhile, he swung his dagger at the spark of undeath.

"Uh… that\'s not—"

"I know this isn\'t a good idea, Sophia," he said with a shake of his head and a snarky chuckle. "But I\'ll live."

Naturally, absorbing the blood of an unknown monster was… well… the same as injecting the blood of an unknown monster. Not good for anyone who enjoyed being alive. Thankfully, the unholy combination of undeath and 1% Lifesteal could keep him from suffering too much damage while his body fought tooth and nail against the influx of foreign blood.

Over the next ten minutes, his skin tone and overall state rapidly improved.

Sophia partook of some meat—after processing it first, naturally. It was an upgrade compared to the god awful gorel flesh, but it was still far from luxury cuisine.

The two of them recovered in silence for a while. Freddy was the first to speak up. "We\'re alive," he said.

"That we are," she confirmed.

"That\'s good, yeah."

"Yes, sir."

"Yeah, no, I\'m just… yeah." He coughed. "I\'m happy we\'re safe."

"You have something to say?" she asked.

"I\'m just…" He scratched his head. "Sorry for the legs."

"The what?" she asked. "Oh! Yeah, don\'t worry," she said. "That sucked, yes, but it\'s not like you did it on purpose."

"Yeah…" His voice trailed off as he twirled his fingers. "So… How are you feeling?"

"I\'m good. You?"

"I\'m great… Great, yeah… My blood feels like I\'ve injected a million fire ants into it, but the feeling is… well… let\'s say I\'ve entered only six-figure territory. Of fire ants, I mean."

She chuckled. "I\'ll prepare a spark or two to help you out. I could also use a few to deal with this headache."

"Yeah… but we\'re alive… and we\'re safe."

Sophia stared at him for a long moment. He met her eyes for a brief moment and then looked away. It was painfully obvious that he was dancing around a certain topic. She couldn\'t help but sigh. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Isn\'t it obvious?" she suggested with a smirk.

"Well, it would be, but this was one of those dramatic thank yous that you just know has a bit of something behind it, you know?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She looked away, unwilling to show her face to him. Her mind rushed with thoughts. She thought of the cult. No, not the cult.

Her old family.

Her old friends.

Her old life.

They were out there, hurting people, doing terrible things in the name of their cause. How easy it would have been to end up among them.

More than death, more than danger, more than pain, she had been afraid of having to confront them. The thought of finding someone she recognized was like a dagger in her heart. It hurt. Even at that moment, she couldn\'t brush off the connection she had with them.

But as morbid as it might have sounded to someone else, she was glad that they were out here doing this. Being so cruel. Being so obviously evil from an outside perspective. It made it easier to justify her choices. Even if it didn\'t make her feel any less lost.

Freddy coughed again, as untactful and goofy as he was. "So… I was waiting for you to wake up so we could decide on what to do next."

Indeed. While they were tentatively safe, there was still a threat of being discovered.

"Yeah," she said. "We should move out further."

And so they did. Carefully, ensuring they didn\'t attract one of the demonic capragorns, they went from one grove to another. Just not being in the same grove as the passage was already a world of difference, and they decided this was safe enough.

This time, they climbed up into one of the trees. There were no airborne predators in this realm, and nothing dangerous should climb the trees, so it was a better option than waiting underground.

There, they waited for what felt like days. The realm was perpetually sunny, however, and it was hard to tell exactly how much time was passing. The pocket watches they had brought with them had been left behind with all the other unnecessary equipment they brought in rucksacks. For a long while, they were simply waiting, entirely alone.

Then Freddy heard voices in the distance.

"Shhh," he shushed Sophia as he strained to hear better. "Someone is coming."

Sophia grew pale. The voices were quiet and distant, and soon enough, the sound vanished. Just as the two of them started to relax, a loud voice shouted from below.

"Two on my position!"