The giant Soulless stared forward, teetering unsteadily. It had been charred unrecognisable by the dissipating [Inferno]. It suddenly collapsed into a heap at Noah’s feet, falling like a puppet with its strings cut. The Grade-4 Soulless died instantly the moment he successfully removed its Origin Crystal, sending it tumbling through the air with the [Ice Spear]. The Grade-4 black Origin crystal glinted with reflected light from the towering mushrooms, landing a short distance away.

Noah fell to his knees while panting heavily, his stamina had been entirely depleted. He could no longer maintain his Abilities. He sluggishly stepped onto one foot, tightly clenching his fists as a wave of agony washed over him. The [Compulsion] was forcing his exhausted body back to his feet without any time to recover. He felt a sharp pain coming from his side, the motion disturbed a wound suffered during the battle. He clamped a hand over the location while glancing down, he couldn’t move his other arm.

“For fuck sake, this couldn’t be any worse. My armour is destroyed in multiple places. Most of all, over my left ribs. I think a few of them are broken.”Noah said to himself. He hissed in pain as he moved away his hand, exposing a deep wound across his side. It was three lateral gashes oozing with black blood. Tendrils of black lifeforce wriggled under the surface of his skin. “Shit, I could never have anticipated how fast and agile a Grade-4 Soulless would be. It managed to twist at the last moment, clawing me with so much force the System-armour couldn’t even withstand it. I’ve been infected, I can feel it eroding my stamina. I need to stop it spreading, fast.”

Noah urgently looked around himself, sweeping his hands through the ash in search of Origin crystals. There was no longer anything standing between Noah and the tower of stacked cars, or so he thought.

“Is this what you’re looking for, Noah?” Rachel unexpectedly said in a conversational tone behind him. He quickly turned in her direction, she was standing just outside his reach. Her hood was now pulled back, revealing a featureless stone mask. Although it covered her face, he could recognise her voice. She casually tossed an object into the air before catching it. It was the Grade-4 black Origin crystal. “Did you know that Soulless infection can be treated by a [Potion of Healing]?”

After hearing her words, Noah hurriedly retrieved all of his [Grade 1 Potion of Healing] from his [Zero-Space Dimension Ring], arranging them in a row in front of him. He one-handedly fumbled to unstopper the first vial with numb fingers. The infection had quickly spread through his body to his extremities, making it extremely difficult to move his fingers.

He placed the vial to his lips, pouring back the contents. He ignored the bitter taste to focus on its effects. Warm lifeforce spread out from his stomach to spread to his wound. He felt a rush of hope, quickly opening the other vials and drinking their contents, leaving only one. The potion’s effects had made contact with the black lifeforce of the infection inside him. As he raised the final potion to his mouth, he was abruptly interrupted by a fit of coughing.

The black lifeforce reacted violently, immediately consuming the effects of the potion and sacrificing a portion of itself to purge the potion from his body. Putrid black liquid oozed from his pores to soak his skin, it smelt like rotting fish meat.

“Cough, Cough, what? That made things,” Noah weakly said.

“Silly me, I missed the most important part. The [Potion of Healing] must be of an equal grade or higher. Well, this doesn’t look like it makes the cut,” Rachel indifferently replied.

She walked over to him, fiercely kicking him in the chest and knocking him flat onto his back. She sat comfortably on his torso, reaching down to take the opened [Grade 1 Potion of Healing] from his hand. Lifting it to her nose, she tentatively sniffed it before dramatically holding it away from herself. She then slowly emptied the vial beside Noah's head. Noah turned his head to watch the liquid drain away with despair clearly written all over his face.

"Why?" Noah asked simply.

"You ask why? It would've been Raptor laying where you are right now if you didn't interfere. I had it all planned out. Instead, you had to fuck up and get yourself involved. Sigh, I couldn't save you if I wanted to. Do you even understand how rare and expensive a [Grade 4 Potion of Healing] is? No? I know of only one person with the resources to acquire them and they're more than a week's travel from here. You're fucked," Rachel scornfully replied.

Something caught Noah's attention beyond her. He could see the child innocently chasing around an Amber butterfly, giggling in delight. Rachel followed his gaze. The child ignored their attention, stretching his arms out wide, twirling on the spot, the butterfly fluttering around him.

Aside from me, no one else has ever been able to see those butterflies. What's it doing here now? And how can that child see it?

"Ezra, stop running around like crazy. You'll hurt yourself and it'll be your own fault, so I'll laugh at you," Rachel admonished in annoyance.

The child obediently stopped spinning, pursing his lips with tears in his eyes. He enviously watched the butterfly, clenching his chubby little hands into balls. The butterfly gently landed on his arm.

"Look, butterfly," Ezra happily said in a pitched voice, holding up his small arm to display his new friend.

"Ezra, what did I just tell you? There is no butterfly. Now behave," Rachel snapped, her voice becoming distant.

Ezra pouted, squatting down to dig through the ash like a sandpit. Noah's vision started to blur as he watched the child uncover a collection of various grade black Origin crystals. He could feel his consciousness starting to slip as the infection spread. There was the indistinct sound of cursing as the weight suddenly lifted from his chest.

"Fuck, it seems our time's up. I wanted to let you die peacefully before taking your crystal. But, it seems the universe has other plans. More Soulless are coming and I can see Raptor is escaping up that tower of cars. I can't wait anymore, I'll have to hurry things along," Rachel said, brandishing her dagger. She wedged a knee against his chest, poising the dagger above his throat.

"Get off of me," Noah weakly croaked.

Before the dagger could descend, weak flames gathered on the surface of his ruined chest plate. It had activated on its own, causing Rachel to become alarmed. Gold-infused lifeforce flared as she used [Blink] to arrive beside Ezra. She scooped up the surprised child in a fluid motion, once again activating her ability to create distance between them.

"It's good to see there's some fight still left in you. It's too late now, though. You're already dead. I'll be back to collect your corpse," Rachel said, disappearing in a flash of lifeforce.

The flames immediately died away after she left, leaving Noah helplessly surrounded by a crowd of Soulless closing in on him. He was completely helpless as the first Soulless sank their teeth into his flesh. Noah let out an agonising roar of unrestrained pain and terror.