Harvey awoke to the sounds of his own screams, his body writhing under searing light.

  “Harvey!” Elena fussed, scooting closer towards him under the cover of the fallen watchtower. “It’s just a level up, Harvey. You’re safe.”

  She was right, the pain quickly subsided, and a notification appeared at the edge of his mind. Gasping for air, he pushed himself up to a sitting position.

  “How long was I out?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe 20 minutes?” Elena answered.

  He heard heavy hoofbeats clopping towards them, but relaxed when Buttercup’s muddy legs appeared through the hole they’d crawled through.

  “You can come out now. It’s over,” Hannah called.

  Arduously, the duo crawled back into the rain, the muddy earth beneath them coating their arms and legs. Agony ravaged his body and weave, but more than anything, Harvey was tired. Hannah reached down and helped pull him up, and Harvey leaned on Buttercup’s back for support.

  “We won,” Hannah whispered.

  “Barely,” Harvey replied.

  Bones and bodies littered the ground all around them, the mud a grotesque soup of life and undeath. Black smoke billowed high into the air from the forest still being consumed by the wildfire Harvey’s charges had created. Kill notifications still trickled into his mind as beasts and insects lost their lives to his handiwork, but luckily, the clearing between the fallen inner and outer walls protected the hotel’s rubble from the blaze.

  Lone Veilstriders wandered aimlessly through the destruction. Some picked up the bodies and legacies of dead friends, while others simply fell to their knees. He barely counted 100 still moving, and almost all were covered in grievous wounds.

  “Can we really call this a win?” Elena stammered.

  “Yes, we can,” Hannah growled. “Every man, woman, and child in this trial who's still breathing is proof of that. Hell, everyone on Earth is saved from these monsters because of us. Because of Julian…”

  Her body trembled, tears streaming down her face as she clenched her fists tight.

  “I know,” Harvey shuddered, wrapping his arms around her waist in an awkward attempt at a hug while she was still sitting in the saddle.

  “I never want to hear you talk like that again, Elena,” she snapped.

  “I… I’m sorry,” Elena stammered.

  Harvey watched her already diminutive frame shrink back, staring at the ground like a scolded child. He understood both women’s perspectives. The despair of realizing only a fraction of those who fought to see their home again actually would, and the rage of questioning whether what they’d done was enough. Both emotions fought for control in his own mind, but he was too exhausted for either to take root.

  “We’ve lost too much, and we’re not going to condemn the fallen for not saving enough,” Hannah said.

  “You’re right. I didn’t think of it like that,” Elena replied.

  “It’s… it’s ok,” Hannah sighed, her shoulders finally relaxing. “Let’s see if we can dig any survivors out of that basement. Harvey, you’re riding with me.”

  A pang of fear shot through him as he clambered onto the deer’s back. Collapsing the hotel on the dragon’s head was the best of a lot of bad options, but he knew that he might’ve killed an entire room of Veilstriders in the process.

  No. They couldn’t fight, but they probably had enough attributes to survive a little dirt in the bunker. Right? Sure, they were probably spooked a little, but surely the reinforcements John added would hold up.

  Right?

  He could check his notifications to see if any included the word Veilstrider, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull any up. Buttercup trotted over to the rubble, moving slow enough for Elena to walk beside them. He was happy to see her basically unscathed, even with all the chaos. Surely, that was thanks to Hannah. Once everything settled down again, he hoped the two would still be friends. He didn’t think Elena’s comment was enough for Hannah to completely turn on her, but trauma like this played tricks on your mind.

  “Do you have an idea where the stairs to the basement were?” Hannah asked.

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  “Umm, yes. If this was the front door,” Elena lilted, looking down at a pile of shattered glass, broken tile, and mangled metal. “Then it should be over there.”

  A mountain of rubble covered the spot she indicated, but with the help of a few slipsacks, they managed to quickly carve a path. Moving debris was a lot easier when you could shove huge chunks into spatial storage and then empty them out in a pile a few hundred feet away. It only took a few minutes before they found the hole where a concrete staircase filled with debris led down to a metal door. Upon uncovering it, they saw the metal was dented and deformed, but hadn’t collapsed entirely.

  “Hello! Anybody in there?” Hannah shouted, banging on the door with a chunk of rock. She tried pulling the door handle, but it was jammed. Every second, Harvey felt his heart rate rise until a tiny voice in the distance answered.

  “We’re in here!” a young man replied.

  “Thank god,” Harvey gasped, moving past Hannah. “Stand away from the door! I’m going to break it down!”

  “Ok! Everyone back up!”

  A burst of adrenaline helped him swing Aftershock, the first strike caving the door in like a bowl before the second blew it right off its hinges.

  “Harvey?” Gabe asked when the dust cleared.

  “Gabe!” he beamed, rushing in to wrap him in a tight hug. Elena rushed in behind and joined, their grasp nearly cutting off his airflow.

  “You guys keep saving me,” Gabe groaned.

  “Is everyone ok? Nobody got hurt when the hotel collapsed?” Harvey asked.

  “That’s what that was? Yeah, we’re fine. Scared as hell, but fine.” Gabe replied.

  “Hallelujah,” Harvey sighed, an invisible weight finally rising from his chest. Releasing his grip on Gabe, he stumbled over to a plastic chair and collapsed into it. Looking around, he counted close to 30 people, all wearing simple clothes, suggesting their non-combat roles. Most were a little older, and he assumed they’d been right near the cutoff of people the System sent into the trial proper or placed inside the fortress guarding the portal the Undead would use to invade Earth.

  Thinking about it now, the System had created a pretty sinister scenario if the Veilstriders hadn’t managed to win. Upon arriving at the portal, the Ossari army would’ve found thousands and thousands of children and the elderly who would either be forcefully turned Undead or killed for a final boost in levels.

  Well, no need to worry about that now.

  Hannah came to sit next to him, dragging a second chair over the tiled floor. Buttercup had picked his way down the precarious stairs, carefully turning his head to maneuver his majestic antlers through the human-sized door. His hooves clopped loudly on the linoleum floor until he too collapsed on the floor in front of them.

  Neither spoke for a long time, simply watching the other Veilstriders filing out. Eventually, they were alone, the sound of Buttercup munching on carrots dipped in health potion echoing off the walls.

  “Thank you,” she finally said.

  “For what?”

  “Saving us.”

  “I did my part, but so did everyone else,” Harvey replied.

  “No. Harvey, we wouldn’t be here without you. That fireball you blocked? The one from the dragon? It was coming right for me. Elena and I would be dead right now.”

  “Really? Well, it’s a good thing I had the right skills.”

  “It’s not just that. We all have magic now. I’m sure someone could’ve tried to block it, but nobody else did. They were all too busy running for their lives, but you charged into danger and killed that thing all by yourself.”

  “It wasn’t all me. The dragon was already weakened from the initial barrage, and your arrow blew up an entire wing! Not to mention Emily, and…”

  “Fine, you had help. Can you take a freaking compliment?” she laughed. “What I’m trying to say is you’re a different man than the one I met. We both spent a lot of time hiding inside Julian’s shadow back then, but…”

  She trailed off, body slumping at the mention of his name.

  “I miss him already,” Harvey replied. “He was the best of us.”

  “No. He was amazing. One of the strongest people I’ve ever met, but I don’t think he’d want to be remembered that way. As the best Veilstrider or something cliché like that.”

  “You’re right. He never made a big deal about himself. Honestly, I think he was a little too selfless,” Harvey chuckled.

  “I guess you kind of have to be to spend your life charging into burning buildings,” she agreed. “I know I’m struggling to get the words out, but I want you to realize that you’re strong enough to stand on your own now. Julian helped us both get back on our feet after we died, but now you’re running all on your own. YOU killed the dragon. You killed Gary. You killed more Ossari than anyone with all your traps, and you were the one to finally kill Marcus.”

  “Ok, and YOU helped me every step of the way, just like Julian.” Harvey smiled.

  “Sure. I just want you to see yourself the way I see you. I know how you get sometimes, so trapped in your own head to see the real world around you. I don’t want to see your obnoxiously kind brain turn what happened today into a story about you getting lucky. It wasn’t just about being at the right place at the right time. You stepped the hell up, and that Stain you’ve been carrying? It’s gone as far as I’m concerned. System be damned.”

  Harvey froze, involuntarily running his hand over his chest. He’d wondered if something had really changed with his Stain ever since the blazing radiance burst from his chest while he flew towards Marcus, but couldn’t bring himself to look.

  It’s probably just another Mark.

  He could easily find the answer. All he had to do was open his status screen. But… he couldn’t.

  “You ok?” Hannah asked.

  “I… I think it might actually be gone. Something happened after I killed Gary, but I’m afraid to look.”

  “Something happened?” Hannah asked.

  “Yeah. Bright, burning light coming out of my chest,” Harvey responded.

  “Like with your hand?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I swear, if you got another Imprint before I get my Mark,” she muttered. “Let’s check your stain together. Here, let me help you take your armor off.”

  Buckle by buckle, strap by strap, they removed the dented steel molded into his body. He traced his fingers over every scar carved into the metal, his mind replaying the battles in his head before setting the pieces aside. Finally stripped down to his undershirt, he lifted it up to expose his bare chest.

  “You’re looking more muscular than the last time I saw you shirtless,” she smiled.

  “Shut up,” he groaned. “What do you see?”