Gale walked into the burial grounds with the bag of bones tight against his chest. Stepping onto the grass, it felt lush in his boots, soft and dewy. There was no snow, no ice. Just a calm spring day.

  A large boulder sat in the middle of the grounds. Flat on the top, moss covered one side, hiding what looked like indigenous carvings on it.

  He moved to the boulder, putting the bag down. The tiny bones spilled out of the bag as he let it go. He took out Weber from his storage box and Altered its size to a small blade, allowing him to use it as a makeshift spade.

  Breath of the Void's tendrils spread out around him. No one here but him, probably not for too long.

  Gale pushed the makeshift spade into the soft dirt beside the boulder. He threw dirt as he dug fast, three feet down. The hole got wider as he worked.

  Tendrils showed him the wendigo burst from the trees even more wounded than before. Black ooze flowed from its chest, dripping all over the green grass as it ran straight at Gale.

  He kept digging. Muscles burned. The hole wasn't deep enough yet.

  Twenty yards, it got close. Ten. Five.

  Spun at the last second, Weber back to its original size. Jumped from the spot, and the flat met the claw head on, blocking it from proceeding to the bones beside the half dug hole.

  "Not yet," Gale muttered.

  It faked left, then jumped right. Muscle activation gave its motivations away as Gale moved to block its movement, pretending to aim for its neck.

  The wendigo swung its back hand at him, each swipe stuttering before it hit him. Those stutters gave him chances to block its incoming claw.

  It wasn't trying to kill him.

  Three figures emerged from the tree line. Ollie in front, and the twins right behind him.

  "Keep it busy!" Gale shouted, diving back to the half dug hole to finish the job.

  Kyle's pistol fired. Bullets hit the wendigo's side, making it flinch. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

  "Burying the bones!" Gale dug faster.

  Clyde raised his rifle and looked through the scope. "Make it quick."

  More bullets hit the creature. It roared and turned toward the new threats. Something changed in how it stood, in the air around it. The wrongness grew stronger. Black veins spread across its skin, and its movement became jerky. The antlers fully turned red, and red blood dripped down from their points.

  It stared at Ollie and the twins, then charged straight at Clyde.

  "Shit!" Clyde fired off a shockwave round, its trail shook the trees in its path. Its front leg hit, forcing it to buckle down. Its momentum carried it and crashed into Clyde, sending him flying back. Long gun shattered, pieces of it scattering across the lush grass.

  Ollie stepped forward, palm clutched forward. Blue outline surrounded the wendigo. "I got it!"

  It roared once, loud enough that Kyle and Clyde had to cover their ears. Ollie's hold fell as he covered both of his ears with his hands.

  It broke free. Before anyone could react, it jumped forward, slamming into Ollie. Its claws grabbed him by the torso, clenching tightly.

  Ollie yelled in pain.

  "Shit!" Kyle shouted, aiming down his pistol. "I can't get a clean shot!"

  The wendigo blocked most of Ollie from view. Its claws held Ollie, not squeezing harder but not letting go either.

  Ollie fought under its weight, his face twisted in pain. "Shoot it! Just fucking shoot it!"

  Kyle moved around, looking for an angle. "I might hit you!"

  "I don't care!"

  Gale finished digging. He grabbed the nearest rocks, forming a circle around the hole just like the others in the burial grounds. Immediately, he stood up, holding the parietal fragment from his pocket. "Hey! I have the last piece!"

  The wendigo snapped its head toward him, eyes fixed on the small bone in his hand. It released Ollie from its grasp, letting him fall onto the grass.

  Ollie scrambled back from it, clutching at his ribs, wincing as he touched his sides.

  "Stay down," Kyle said to Ollie, helping him up while keeping an eye on the wendigo.

  It ignored them all. It moved toward Gale, limping with its broken leg that dripped with black ooze, staining the green.

  Gale stood his ground. He held the bone fragment high, making sure it could see it clearly. The wendigo stopped just a foot from him, eyes still fixed on the bone.

  Neither moved.

  "What the fuck is he doing?" Clyde whispered.

  Rachel kept her promise, staying by the treeline, making no move to attack or interfere.

  Gale extended his hand, putting the parietal bone on his palm.

  Its claws extended, two of its nails picking up the bone from his palm softly. It turned towards the grave, where the rest of the bones lay.

  Moving past him to the grave he had made, the wendigo knelt and put the last bone fragment into where it should be on the skull of the child. Its claws moved to fill the hole, leaving the circle of stones intact on the surface.

  No one spoke. No one moved. Even the twins kept their weapons down, watching.

  The wendigo patted down the last of the dirt over the grave. It fixed the stones in a circular formation, turning the moss of each stone towards north, just like the other graves.

  Finally, the last stone was set in place, and suddenly, a gale blew upwards. It blew up around the clearing, bending the edges of the trees away from the centre. Pine needles and snow were blown away from the treeline, revealing the true size of the burial ground that extended beyond.

  Gale raised his arm to shield his eyes. The others did the same as the wind howled, different from its normal tone. Then, just as fast, the gale stopped.

  Silence.

  Gale lowered his arm.

  Dyani stood before him.

  Not the solid kid he'd played with in the forest, but the see-through spirit as her edges blurred from reality. Her dark hair hung loose. She wore the same clothes as always, the light jacket and jeans, but now they looked new.

  "Dyani," Gale whispered.

  Behind him, Rachel gasped. Ollie's mouth dropped open. The twins stood frozen, guns hanging at their sides. Before anyone could answer, she threw herself forward, hugging Gale around the waist.

  "Thank you," she sobbed against him.

  Gale hugged her back.

  Dyani sniffled. "I wanted to play more and more, you know?"

  "Hey," Gale said, "there's always plenty of time to play, isn't that right?"

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  "Right," Dyani replied. She pulled back just enough to look up at him, her dark eyes swimming with tears. "But I guess.... This is probably the last time we'll ever see each other. You're going to go back after this, aren't you?"

  The wendigo stood behind her. Its red eyes had dimmed, the black-red corruption receding from its antlers, showing the yellow glow once again as its leather hide turned into the healthy fur of a deer.

  Gale crouched down to Dyani's eye level.

  "Come on, don't say that," he said softly. "I'll come visit. I'll be here and then we can play snow fort again. Maybe build an even bigger one next time."

  "How big?" Dyani asked.

  "Bigger than you. Bigger than me. Bigger than that stupid guy over there," Gale said, pointing at Kyle.

  Dyani giggled and then said, "You promise?"

  "I promise."

  The wendigo moved forward and changed shape. Its body shrank, antlers as well. The red eyes faded to a soft brown while the bullets inside its body spewed out, dropping from its skin.

  A doe stood where the monster had been. Graceful and tiny, far from what it looked like before.

  But that wasn't all.

  On the space where the doe stood, the image of a woman appeared. Tall and slim, with the same dark hair as Dyani. Her body was littered with wounds all over. Bullet holes on her thigh, torso, back. Knife cuts on her shoulder and her flanks.

  Despite the wounds, she smiled.

  "Mom!" Dyani let go of Gale and ran to the woman.

  The woman knelt and hugged Dyani. Her see-through form matched perfectly with the doe's solid one.

  Dyani turned in her mother's arms, pointing at Gale. "Mom, this is Gale. He played snow fort with me in the forest and threw snowballs at me!"

  The woman looked at Gale. She didn't speak, yet her smile conveyed everything. A thank you, and something more.

  She took Dyani's hand in hers.

  "It's time for goodbye," Dyani said, turning back to Gale. "At least for now. You'll still visit, right? You promised."

  "Right. I promise." Gale took off his gloves and held out his pinky to Dyani's. "Pinky promise, the most-most sacred kind of promise there is."

  Dyani smiled. She stepped forward, her small pinky wrapping around Gale's. "Pinky promise. If you break it, I'll haunt you forever."

  She giggled and suddenly, the wind picked up again, stronger than before. It swirled around Dyani and her mother, lifting their hair.

  "See you again, Gale!" Dyani called, her voice already sounding distant. "Don't forget! I'll haunt you if you forget your promise!"

  Gale waved to say goodbye as the wind grew fierce, forcing everyone to shield their eyes once again. Trees bent low at the clearing's edge, branches cracking. Snow and leaves whipped into a blinding mix of white and green.

  When the wind finally died down and Gale lowered his arm, Dyani and her mom were gone. Only an empty burial ground remained, with fresh dirt over a small grave marked by a circle of stones.

  The doe was gone too, leaving nothing but a set of small hoofprints in the grass, leading toward the forest before disappearing.

  Rachel stepped forward, standing alongside Gale. She didn't speak a word but placed her hand on his shoulder.

  "You did the right thing," she said.

  Gale nodded, still watching where Dyani had disappeared. It didn't matter if he was wrong or right about this call. Dyani was a friend who needed help. Hopefully, they all saw that.

  Ollie limped toward them, saying, "Next time you go off script, maybe give me a signal or a wink or anything first before doing your thing. Or maybe even tell us what you planned. Or maybe even tell us what's happening. Or maybe I don't know."

  "I did tell you." Gale turned to face him. "None of you listened."

  "You could've tried."

  "I did. You shot at me."

  Ollie opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. "Fair point."

  The twins approached, weapons still at their sides. Kyle wiped the remnants of the black ichor from his dagger while Clyde shook his head as he stared at his broken long gun.

  "So," Kyle said, "We going back to that creepy-ass hotel, or what?"

  Before Gale could answer, something came from the trees. Not the big corrupted thing that had fought them, but the divine beast they'd seen days ago. Seeing it up close, it was larger than life with a crown of antlers that seemed to scrape the sky.

  It stepped into the open, head held high. Its eyes met Gale's across the distance.

  The deer threw back its head and made a call that filled the clearing. When the call stopped, Gale felt rather than heard what it meant. "It wants us to follow."

  Rachel nodded.

  "Yeah, everyone heard that," Ollie said. "It talked to us without words."

  "Cool. Now we're following Bambi," Kyle said.

  "Just go, idiot," Clyde shoved Kyle.

  The deer turned, took a few steps back toward the trees. It stopped, looked over its shoulder at them, waiting.

  The group followed as the deer led them into the forest, moving between the trees. The snow got deeper as they walked, up to their calves. Cold air bit at their skin, totally different from the weird warmth of the burial ground.

  The deer walked ahead of them, never more than a short distance away, but repeatedly looked back to check on them. It led them across frozen rivers, the ice holding under their feet. They climbed small hills, went down into valleys, and skirted the base of what seemed to be a small mountain.

  "Anyone else notice we're not leaving tracks?" Kyle called from the back of the group.

  Gale looked down. Kyle was right. Though they walked through deep snow, no footprints showed behind them. The snow stayed smooth and untouched.

  The slope grew steeper. The deer went up a narrow trail that wound along the side of the mountain. Boulders stuck out of the snow, serving as stepping stones for the party to ascend.

  "Better be worth it," Ollie sighed.

  The trail turned suddenly to the right, winding about some boulders. The deer disappeared around the bend.

  When Gale followed, the world changed.

  The snow stopped suddenly, like someone had drawn a line across the mountain. Green grass covered the ground, with small wildflowers. The air turned warm on his face, smelling like summer with fresh growth, clean water, life coming back after winter, different from the untouched burial grounds.

  "What the fuck?" Kyle stopped short behind him.

  They stood at the edge of the clearing, and a massive boulder sat in the centre, cracked right down the middle. A small flowing creek circled around the rock.

  "This is..." Rachel stepped forward.

  "Yea, Kyle's right. What the fuck," Ollie said.

  The deer waited beside the boulder, looking at them, and all of them knew it wanted them to come near.

  "No, I mean... this is beautiful," Rachel said.

  Gale agreed. The clearing felt untouched by time or seasons, a pocket of spring and summer hidden in winter. Birds called from the trees even though birds should have left months ago. Butterflies flew above small patches of flowers.

  Suddenly, the deer moved toward the cracked boulder. It galloped onto the rock, landing hard on top of the stone. Its hooves hit the crack hard, sending a shockwave through the ground, shaking the trees around with the force.

  New cracks spread across the boulder, originating from the original crack. The deer threw back its head and called again, sending another message.

  "It wants us to open the rock," Gale said. "Something's inside."

  "What could possibly be in a rock?" Kyle asked.

  "I'm not wasting bullets on a rock," Kyle holstered his pistol at his side. "I vote fire girl to punch the rock or maybe sword boy."

  "Shut up," Clyde elbowed his brother.

  Ollie looked at Gale. "You seemed to understand this whole situation best. Want to do the honours?"

  Gale nodded, stepping forward. The creek was narrow enough to jump across, which he did easily. Up close, the boulder looked ancient, worn by years of rain and sun. The crack down its centre had been there a long time, but the fresh ones from the deer's hooves still spread, small pieces of stone falling away.

  He reached for his storage box in his left pocket, the interface appearing before him. Weber materialized in his right.

  The divine beast watched from atop the rock, its eyes showing something Gale couldn't name. It stepped aside, giving him room to work.

  Gale took a deep breath, getting into position. The sword felt right in his hand, Dainv Sword Arts guiding his muscles without thought. He pulled back, focusing on the largest crack, then swung forward. No whistle, a perfect cut.

  The blade hit the stone with a sound like thunder. Sparks flew. The sword didn't manage to cut through, yet it was enough. The crack widened even more, spreading and spreading further across the surface.

  A deep groan came from inside the rock. The existing cracks widened, new ones forming between them, creating a web across the old stone.

  With a final crack, the boulder split open.

  [Mission Complete.]

  [Reward: 1000 points, ???]

  [Current points: 1100]

  [Latent Origin fragments detected.]

  [Extracting Origin from environment.]

  Warm light poured out of the continuously growing cracks, the feeling of Origin extraction from prey. The grey grains flowed out of the cracks and swirled around him.

  ...

  Name: Gale Hathie

  Race: Dainv

  Core Class: Awakened

  Core Density: 11.84/12

  Core Attributes: [

  Max Load: 100

  Efficiency: 100

  Essence: 122/200

  ]

  Skills:

  [Phase Touch Lv.3][Alter Lv.2][Distort Lv.3]

  Passives:

  [Breath of the Void Lv.2][Essence Control Lv.1][Dainv Combat Arts Lv.1]

  …

  Trying to suppress his grin, Gale saw the jump from 11.33 to 11.84. Each single point took a lot of effort at the current stage due to not being able to kill freely. The journey wasn't for nothing at all, and the sight of progress told him that his choices were right.

  "Holy shit," Kyle whispered, interrupting Gale's thoughts.

  An orb floated at the centre of the broken stone, no bigger than a baseball. It pulsed with the familiar energy of Vianne's fragment, but slightly different. The orb wasn't quite solid, not quite liquid, nor gas. It was something of all three. Inside it, colours shifted like oil on water between an off white, gold, and purple, never settling into any fixed pattern.