[SAFE ROOM - LEVEL 3 - NIGHT CAMP - 16 HOURS AFTER START]

  The safe room they'd found at the end of Level 3 was surprisingly cozy—by legendary dungeon-filled-with-death standards, at least.

  Ten meters by ten meters, with a low three-meter ceiling. Protective runes glowed softly on the walls, creating a barrier that prevented anything hostile from entering. There was even some ancient furniture—two worn-out sofas, a table, a few chairs.

  Alex had colpsed onto one of the sofas immediately after entering, every muscle in his body screaming in protest. The battle with the Archmage Lich had been... intense was an understatement.

  Seraph sat on the other sofa, methodically cleaning her armor with a cloth she'd produced from some dimensional pocket. Maya was on the floor, Akari (in big cat form) curled in her p while she stroked his fur mechanically. Raven leaned against the wall, pying with one of her daggers, spinning it between her fingers with distracted skill.

  Grim was in the corner in his 80-centimeter form, seemingly... asleep? Alex wasn't sure if skeletons could sleep, but Grim was definitely motionless.

  Silence had stretched for almost thirty minutes—all of them too exhausted to talk, too tense to properly sleep yet.

  Finally, Raven broke the silence.

  "So, Alex," she said casually, still pying with her dagger. "How does it feel to be officially the most wanted man on the continent?"

  Alex looked at her. "Excuse me?"

  "Well, think about it." Raven smiled—that mischievous smile that always meant she was about to annoy someone. "You escaped Temple custody. You're technically a fugitive. You have a Reaper Fragment. The Gods probably want your head. The Temple definitely wants your head. The Academy probably does too."

  She leaned forward, smile widening.

  "You're basically public enemy number one. How does it feel?"

  Alex considered. "...Tired. Mostly I just feel tired."

  Raven ughed—genuine, warm. "Honest. I like it."

  "Raven, leave him alone," Maya said without looking up from Akari. "The kid has enough on his mind without you bothering him."

  "Oh?" Raven raised an eyebrow, her tone turning more pyful. "'The kid'? That's very protective of you, Maya. Do you like our little necromancer?"

  Maya froze, her fingers stopping mid-stroke on Akari. "That's not it. I'm just saying he already has enough problems without you adding more."

  "Mm-hmm." Raven clearly unconvinced. "So if you don't like him, why exactly are you here? Risking your life, your Guild career, everything—for someone you met only a few months ago?"

  Maya opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. "I... it's my duty. As his temporary captain. He signed a contract with me, so—"

  "Bullshit," Raven interrupted cheerfully. "The contract expired weeks ago. You could have left anytime. But you didn't."

  She stood up, walking towards Maya with a predatory step.

  "So I'll ask again: why are you here?"

  Maya blushed—slightly, but visibly. "Because... because I respect him. He's a good person. And someone needs to make sure he doesn't kill himself doing something stupid."

  "Aha." Raven knelt beside Maya, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper that everyone could still hear. "So no problem if I keep him for myself then, right?"

  "What—?" Maya blinked.

  Raven turned to Alex, winking at him. "What do you say, sweetheart? When we get out of here, want me to show you my collection of rare poisons? I have some really interesting ones that—"

  "Raven!" Maya stood up abruptly, almost knocking Akari from her p. "You can't just—!"

  "Can't just what?" Raven stood too, smiling widely now. "Show interest? Why not? He's an adult. I'm an adult. Both single. Both attractive—"

  "He's nineteen!"

  "And he's thirty-two! Perfectly legal. Besides," Raven walked over to Alex, put a hand on his shoulder, "younger men like experienced women, right, sweetheart?"

  Alex looked completely out of his depth, caught between two women arguing about him as if he weren't there. "I... uh... I have no opinion on—"

  "See! You're making him uncomfortable!" Maya grabbed Alex's other shoulder, pulling him slightly towards her. "Just leave him alone, Raven. This isn't the time for your games."

  "Games?" Raven pulled back. "Who says I'm pying?"

  "I do! Now let him go!"

  "You first!"

  Alex found himself literally being pulled in two directions, each woman gripping a shoulder, gring at each other with what could only be described as territorial competitiveness.

  Seraph watched from her sofa, expression completely deadpan. "Should I intervene?"

  "Please," Alex said in a strangled voice.

  Before Seraph could move, a loud CRUNCH came from the corner where Grim had been.

  Everyone froze.

  They turned.

  Grim—still in his 80-centimeter form—was... eating?

  No. Not exactly eating. More like... absorbing.

  He had dragged one of the specters they'd defeated earlier (apparently he'd saved the remains without anyone noticing) and was now... consuming it somehow. Spectral energy flowing from the corpse into Grim's body in streams of pale green light.

  CRUNCH. SLURP.

  "Is that...?" Maya blinked.

  "He's feeding," said Alex. "He does this sometimes. He needs to consume death energy to maintain his form."

  They watched in fascinated and slightly disturbed silence as Grim finished absorbing the spectral remains.

  When he finished, the small skeleton turned—and apparently realized everyone was staring.

  He froze.

  The red lights in his eye sockets flickered—almost like... embarrassment?

  Grim shrunk slightly, trying to make himself even smaller.

  "Sorry... I was... hungry..."

  "Aww," said Raven, her tone completely shifting from seductive to maternal instantly. "He's adorable when he's embarrassed!"

  "Don't make him feel bad," said Maya, also softening. "He needs to eat. It's natural."

  Grim shrunk further, clearly mortified at being the center of attention.

  Alex got up, walked over to Grim, knelt down. "Hey. It's okay. You don't need to hide. Eat when you need to eat. No one here judges you."

  Grim looked up at him.

  "Sure?"

  "Sure."

  "...Thanks. Master."

  The moment was interrupted by another sound—this one more like a wet SLURP.

  Everyone turned to Seraph.

  Who was sitting on her sofa, her spectral scythe (her Fragment 2) materialized in her hand, and the scythe was... glowing. Pulsing. And Seraph had her eyes closed, an expression of concentration on her face.

  They all stared at her with identical expressions of "what the hell?"

  Seraph opened one eye, saw everyone staring, sighed.

  "What?" she said defensively.

  "What are you doing?" Maya asked cautiously.

  "Feeding my Fragment," Seraph said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  "But... your Fragment is a scythe," Raven pointed out.

  "Yes. And?"

  "Scythes don't eat."

  "This one does." Seraph raised the weapon. "Fragment 2 is the Original Reaper's Scythe. It's a living weapon. It needs to feed on soul energy, like Alex's Fragment. But since it doesn't have its own body—it's just a scythe—it feeds through me."

  Pause.

  "Using our shared connection to absorb soul energy from souls I reap."

  Everyone processed this.

  "So," Alex said slowly, "your weapon... feeds... through you."

  "Correct."

  "Does it hurt?"

  "It doesn't hurt exactly. More like..." Seraph searched for words. "Like having two stomachs. One mine, one the scythe's. And when she's hungry, I feel the hunger too."

  "That's deeply weird," said Raven.

  "Says the woman who literally creates weapons from her own blood," Seraph replied dryly.

  "Valid point."

  The atmosphere in the room had shifted—the earlier tension (both from the battle and the Alex/Maya/Raven situation) had dissipated, repced by something lighter. Camaraderie, perhaps.

  Alex returned to his sofa. Maya sat next to him—not too close, but definitely in his personal space. Raven flopped down on the other side, effectively trapping him between them.

  Seraph watched with the tiniest smile of amusement.

  Grim climbed onto the sofa too, curling up in Alex's p in his 80-centimeter form like a very strange skeletal cat.

  "So," Alex said after a moment of comfortable silence, "does anyone want to talk about Level 4?"

  Collective groans.

  "We have to eventually," he pointed out.

  "Yeah, but not now," said Maya. "Now, we rest. Eat. Recover."

  She pulled rations from her inventory bag—Viktor had packed them well. Bread, aged cheese, dried meats, even some dried fruits.

  She distributed everything, and for the next twenty minutes, they simply ate in companionable silence.

  Alex hadn't realized how much he needed this—not just the food, but the moment. The normalcy. Sitting with people who didn't hate him, didn't fear him, just... existing together.

  "Can I ask something?" Maya said after finishing her meal.

  "Sure," said Alex.

  "What are you going to do? After all this. After gathering the Fragments—assuming we survive."

  Alex considered. "Honestly... I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead."

  "You should," said Seraph quietly. "Because what you do with the Fragments will determine the fate of the world. If you become the new Reaper, you need to know what kind of Reaper you want to be."

  "What do you mean?"

  "The Original Reaper maintained bance," Seraph expined. "Life and death in equilibrium. But it was neutral—it didn't care about good or evil, only bance. If you become Reaper, will you maintain that neutrality? Or will you use the power for something else?"

  "Like what?"

  "Like punishing the Gods for what they did to you. For what they did to all of us." Seraph's eyes bzed with intensity. "They've had absolute power for a thousand years. Dictating lives. Sealing away what they feared. Wouldn't you want revenge?"

  Alex thought about his life. The orphanage. The Academy. The expulsion. Years of humiliation.

  "Yeah," he admitted. "Part of me wants revenge. But..."

  "But?"

  "But revenge doesn't fix anything. It just perpetuates the cycle." He looked at Grim, who watched him with steady red lights. "If I become Reaper, I want to be better than the Gods. Not just repce them with another tyranny."

  "Noble," said Raven. "But naive. Power corrupts. We all know it."

  "Then I'll resist the corruption."

  "How?" Seraph pressed. "One Fragment has already corrupted you 67%. What happens when you have all seven? Will anything be left of you?"

  Heavy silence.

  "I don't know," Alex admitted finally. "But I have to believe there will be. I have to believe that humanity is stronger than corruption. Otherwise..."

  He didn't finish. He didn't need to.

  Otherwise, he was already lost.

  Maya pced her hand over his—a simple gesture, but it meant a lot.

  "We'll make sure," she said firmly. "Seraph, Raven, Grim, me—all of us. If you start losing yourself, we'll pull you back. That's the agreement."

  "Agreed," said Seraph.

  "Same," Raven added, though her tone was lighter. "Though if you go completely evil, I'll have to poison you. Just fair warning."

  Despite the gravity, Alex ughed. "Noted."

  The conversation faded naturally after that.

  They set up guard shifts—Grim first (he didn't need sleep), then Seraph, then Maya, then Raven, then Alex.

  Everyone except whoever was on guard curled up on the sofas or the floor with emergency bnkets.

  Alex found himself between Maya (who had cimed half his sofa) and Raven (who had squeezed in on the other side "because it's cold").

  He didn't compin. Honestly, the body heat was nice.

  As he drifted off to sleep, his st thought was:

  Maybe, just maybe, I'm not as alone as I thought.

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