Darius moved forward, drawn toward the nearest cage as though his body knew what his heart feared. His eyes swept over the prisoners, searching desperately for something or someone familiar. Faces stared back at him, hollow and grey with exhaustion. Many did not even lift their heads. It was as if the hope of rescue had been beaten out of them long ago.

  His throat tightened.

  “What happened here?” Darius called out, his voice echoing softly through the hall.

  A few heads turned. Eyes met his for a heartbeat, then looked away again. There was no anger in them, only weariness.

  Then, from one of the cages, a hoarse voice spoke. “You should leave.”

  Darius turned.

  The man sat against the bars, thin hands wrapped around his knees. His eyes were keen despite the fatigue etched into his face.

  “The guard just stepped out,” the man continued quietly. “He’ll be back any moment. If he finds you here, you’re dead.”

  Darius stepped closer, lowering his voice. “What’s your name? Are you a Truther?”

  “No,” the man said, shaking his head slowly. “If I were, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

  Darius frowned. “Then why are you imprisoned?”

  The man let out a dry snort. “Does it matter?”

  “It does to me,” Darius said.

  The man studied him for a moment, wondering whether Darius was worth the effort. Then he sighed.

  “My name is Halren,” he said. “Halren of Orlan.”

  Darius stiffened slightly at the name of the city but said nothing, urging him on with his eyes.

  “They brought us here in chains,” Halren continued. “Some of us from Orlan, others from towns that don’t even matter enough to be named. Most of the Truthers…” His voice faltered, just for a heartbeat. “They never made it this far.”

  Darius swallowed. “Then who are all of you?”

  Halren gestured weakly at the others in the cage. “People who made mistakes. Or people who were said to have made them.”

  “Mistakes?” Darius pressed.

  Halren’s mouth twisted bitterly. “Feeding a man who asked too many questions. Letting someone sleep in your barn for a night. Speaking against a Viceroy when wine loosened your tongue.” He looked down at his hands. “I argued with a tax collector. Told him the levy would starve my village.”

  Darius’ fists clenched.

  “They called it defiance,” Halren went on. “Others here were accused of helping Truthers. Some of them probably did. Some of them didn’t. Didn’t matter either way.”

  “So that’s it?” Darius said quietly. “That’s enough to end up here?”

  Halren met his gaze again. “Here?” he echoed. “Here is mercy. Those they were certain about— the real Truthers —they didn’t cage them.”

  A chill crept up Darius’s spine. “What happened to them?”

  Halren shook his head. “We heard screams the first night. After that…” He trailed off. “After that, there was only silence.”

  Darius looked around at the defeated faces behind the bars, then back at Halren.

  “And now?” he asked.

  Halren gave a small shrug. “Now we wait. For judgment. For transport. For execution.” His lips pressed thin. “Or for someone foolish enough to try saving us.”

  Their eyes locked.

  For the first time, something flickered in Halren’s expression. Not hope, but curiosity.

  “And you?” Halren asked softly. “What are you doing here, stranger?”

  Darius turned away from him with panic. He scanned the cages again.

  “Ron,” he called softly at first. Then louder. “Ron!”

  Silence answered him.

  The prisoner looked at him with something close to pity. “If the one you’re looking for isn’t here,” he said, “then he’s likely already dead.”

  Darius clenched his fists. “Ron was from Orlan. I heard the Arch-Valiant brought prisoners from Orlan.”

  The man opened his mouth to reply… And then Darius’s wrist burned.

  He glanced down just as the yellow gem began to blink.

  His breath caught.

  Valiant was approaching.

  “They’re coming back,” the prisoner whispered urgently.

  Darius stepped away from the cage. As he backed toward the alcove, he met the prisoner’s gaze one last time.

  “I’ll come back,” Darius said fiercely. “I promise. I’ll find help. I’ll free you.”

  He didn’t wait for a response.

  Darius turned and sprinted for the alcove, pressing against the hidden wall. It slid open just long enough for him to slip through. The moment he was inside, the stone sealed behind him.

  Almost immediately, he heard it. The heavy creak of the main door opening.

  A Valiant had returned.

  ?══════? ?─?─? ?══════?

  Darius did not linger, he slipped back into the secret corridor, moving fast now, every nerve screaming that discovery was moments away. He expected shouts behind him, and the alarm of bells rising, but none came.

  Still, he ran.

  The corridor dipped again into stairs, then another set beyond that. His breathing grew heavier as he descended.

  At the bottom of the second stairway, he skidded to a halt. It was a dead end.

  Stone wall but no door or obvious passage.

  Darius cursed under his breath and immediately ran his hands along the surface, fingers probing for seams, for the slightest irregularity. Panicking, for being trapped again, would end him.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  Then his fingers brushed a shallow groove and he pressed.

  The wall shuddered and slid aside, opening soundlessly. Darius slipped through at once and found himself in yet another corridor, longer than the last, stretching far ahead into near-total darkness.

  He hesitated.

  His first instinct was to turn back, retrace his steps to Thaddeus' room, and escape through the service door he had used earlier. He knew that route. It was risky, but familiar.

  Then another thought struck him cold. What if I emerge into another Arch-Valiant’s chamber?

  Thaddeus was not the only one of his rank. If he stumbled into another white cloak and into a room already occupied, there would be no hiding.

  And unlike before, the alarm would be immediate.

  Darius swallowed and turned his gaze back to the corridor ahead. Darkness, yes—but also certainty. Whatever lay at the end of this passage had not been meant for casual discovery.

  He chose forward.

  As he took a step, then another, something uneasy stirred in his mind. Darius slowed and glanced back over his shoulder, tracing his path mentally.

  He frowned.

  He had only needed to descend one more stair to reach the ground floor. But he had come down two.

  The realisation hit him immediately.

  The last stairway had not led him to the ground level at all. It had taken him below it.

  Darius was underground now, beneath the Arch-Valiant’s building.

  ?══════? ?─?─? ?══════?

  Darius pressed the stone back into place, sealing the hidden door behind him. The corridor responded at once. Lamps flared to life along the walls as he moved, their light following him in measured intervals, while darkness reclaimed the path he left behind.

  He walked for what felt like a very long time. At last, he reached another dead end.

  Without hesitation, Darius ran his hands along the wall. He found the lock and pressed it, bracing himself for another sliding wall.

  Instead, the ground beneath his feet shuddered.

  Darius staggered as the floor began to rise. Above him, the stone ceiling parted silently, opening to the night sky. He tightened his grip on his sword, planting his feet wide, ready for a fight the moment he emerged.

  But no blades greeted him.

  The platform lifted him into open ground, and the cool night air rushed over his skin. Trees and thick bushes surrounded him, their leaves whispering softly in the breeze.

  Darius turned slowly, and there, a little far ahead, stood the Red Dome, its circular roof faintly visible through the foliage.

  Relief washed through him.

  Darius stepped off the square platform. The stone beneath him sank at once, lowering itself back into the earth. With a muted rumble, soil and grass slid neatly into place, leaving no trace of the opening.

  A hidden escape.

  He exhaled and nodded to himself. The passage had been built for Arch-Valiants— an unseen route of flight should the Red Dome ever fall under attack.

  Following the direction the dome faced, Darius began making his way back toward Karev’s building, careful to keep to the shadows. He pushed through undergrowth and wove between trees, moving quietly and alert to every sound.

  He had gone only a short distance when he froze. Voices could be heard.

  Two men were speaking somewhere ahead, their words low but distinct. Darius slipped behind the nearest tree just as two figures emerged from the darkness, walking away from the Red Dome and deeper into the woods. One of them carried a flaming torch.

  They were Valiants.

  Darius’s wrist grew warm. He pulled his sleeve back just enough to see the yellow gem blinking urgently, just as before.

  It was a warning.

  He cursed under his breath and quickly covered the band again, pressing his arm to his side so the glow would not betray him. From behind the tree, he watched the men pass, scarcely daring to breathe, knowing that even here, outside the fortress, the danger had not yet released its grip on him.

  The men moved closer to where Darius was hidden, though not directly toward him. He watched them slip through the trees with hurried, deliberate steps, as if they themselves feared being seen. Even at a distance, he recognised them at once.

  It was the same men. The same two Valiants he had glimpsed from Thaddeus’ room.

  Darius remained still as stone, scarcely breathing, until they passed him and vanished deeper into the woods. Only then did he ease out from behind the tree and turn back toward the Red Dome.

  He had taken no more than a few steps when he stopped. Something was wrong.

  The way the Valiants had moved—furtive, tense, constantly scanning their surroundings—was not the behaviour of men merely on patrol. It was the manner of those guarding a secret. One they did not even trust their own order to witness.

  Darius hesitated, his instincts warring with caution.

  If the Valiants were hiding something, then perhaps this was something he needed to know.

  With a quiet breath, he turned away from the Red Dome and followed them.

  ?══════? ?─?─? ?══════?

  Darius moved carefully, keeping to the shadows, placing each step with deliberate care. The men ahead whispered to one another, their voices in a hush.

  Every few moments, one of them glanced over his shoulder, forcing Darius to melt back into the undergrowth, flattening himself against trees and shrubs until the danger passed.

  They walked for a time before the forest thinned, then a small clearing opened before them.

  Darius slipped behind a fallen trunk at the edge of the clearing and watched from a distance. The two Valiants stopped and waited. Moments passed long enough for Darius to wonder if he had misjudged their purpose.

  Then another figure emerged from the trees.

  A third man.

  And beside him, a young boy.

  Darius’ breath caught.

  He stared, trying to understand where they had come from, how a child had ended up here, alone in the woods with Valiants. The boy stood stiffly between them, eyes unfocused, his posture slack, as though his will had been drained away.

  The look in his eyes struck Darius like a blow. He had seen that gaze before…

  Oliver.

  Realisation washed over him. The boy was charmed.

  One of the Valiants stepped toward the child while the other two moved back, forming a loose perimeter. The man raised a hand and began to chant in a low and rhythmic voice.

  The ground responded.

  Glowing markings flared to life beneath the boy’s feet, forming a perfect circle etched in light. The boy did not flinch. He did not even blink. Beside him, a second circle ignited—empty at first, its symbols burning brighter with each spoken word.

  The chant deepened.

  The second circle darkened, its glow collapsing inward until it became a hole in the earth itself— a swirling, lightless portal that seemed to drink the air around it.

  Darius’ heart lurched.

  Something moved within the darkness.

  From beneath the portal, a Rageler began to emerge, its form dragging itself up from whatever foul depth lay below. Darius clenched his jaw, forcing himself not to move, not to make a sound.

  Darius’ wrist burned.

  He pulled his sleeve back just enough to see the gems blinking wildly. The yellow gem drummed its warning, but beneath it, another light throbbed to life.

  The Violet gem.

  Darius swallowed hard.

  Violet is for Rageler, he thought grimly. His blood turned cold as the creature fully surfaced into the world.

  The dark hole sealed itself the moment the Rageler had fully clawed its way into the world, the swirling void collapsing with a dull, final thud, as though the earth itself had swallowed its secret.

  The chanting did not stop.

  Instead, the Valiant altered the rhythm— his voice rising and falling in a strange, twisting cadence that made Darius’ skin prickle. The air in the clearing thickened, warping as if reality itself were being kneaded by unseen hands.

  The Rageler convulsed.

  Its body twisted violently, limbs bending at impossible angles as dark sinew rippled beneath its skin. I

  It let out a low, broken sound, one of half growl and half scream, before its form began to shrink and reshape. Horns dissolved. Claws retracted. The monstrous bulk collapsed inward, folding upon itself until…

  A boy stood where the creature had been.

  Darius’ jaw dropped.

  The boy was identical to the one standing beside the Valiants. The same height. The same face. Even the same worn clothes, copied down to the smallest tear and fold of fabric.

  A perfect replica.

  One of the Valiants—the one who had led the original child into the clearing—stepped forward and seized the real boy by the arm, turning him away without ceremony. The child did not resist. He did not even seem aware of what had just occurred.

  At the same time, the other two Valiants grabbed the transformed Rageler, now wearing a human face, each taking an arm as though escorting a common prisoner.

  Darius’ heart thundered in his chest as all three men turned toward the same direction. Towards the Red Dome.

  Panic surged through him.

  If they reached the fortress before him, whatever he had just witnessed would be unleashed into the world.

  Darius spun on his heel and ran.

  Branches snapped beneath his boots as he tore through , no longer caring about silence. His breath came fast and his pulse roared in his ears.

  Behind him, a voice barked out in alarm.

  “Who is there?!”

  Darius did not look back.

  Another shout followed, closer this time, accompanied with moving boots.

  The Valiant had heard him and the hunt had begun.

  System Girl [Error: Consciousness Not Found]

  Death isn't a game over. For Ana, it's a server transfer.

  Once a game tester, she's now a System AI forced to guide incompetent heroes through lethal worlds. But every time her User dies, she keeps the upgrades and gets a new host in a new reality.

  Tired of being a tutorial for the universe's biggest losers, this rogue System has a new goal: absorb enough power to stop patching the game and start rewriting the code of reality itself.