The Silver Spear came into view, standing quietly in place just where they left it. It seemed almost abandoned, likely because everyone was gathered near the dungeon still.

'We will need to be ready for some unpleasant welcomes when we exit the dungeon from now on. There's no telling what might greet us.'

Anny seemed fine enough to walk alone now, but she didn't ask him to stop, so he kept guiding her. Up the wooden stairway that creaked softly beneath their weight, through the dimly lit corridor where wall sconces cast flickering shadows, and in through the door to their room.

He sat her on the edge of the bed, before settling down right next to her. The mattress dipped slightly beneath their combined weight.

"...Did you remember something unpleasant?" Nova asked after a moment of silence, studying her profile in the warm light filtering through the window.

Anny just sat there for a while, staring straight ahead. Then she took a deep breath. "...At the end of my last life… The gods came down to our land, finally having seen the holy wars end at my hands. But…" The words seemed to catch in her throat.

The frustration in her voice was so thick that Nova could almost feel it himself.

"They just laughed at me, ridiculing my fight for peace... Then they explained it was all just for entertainment. I was so mad..." Her hands clenched into tight fists, knuckles turning white.

Nova remembered her talking about her sixth life when they first met in this world. She had mentioned the gods' betrayal in passing. It had stayed with him, but he had failed to realize how deep the wound was.

"You made them bleed, right?" he asked gently, recalling that one detail she had shared with pride.

The early light caught in her hair, illuminating the white streaks that had appeared near her temples after her recent transformation. "I lashed out, barely managing to make a small cut on one of their arms. I made them bleed like a mosquito makes us bleed, totally insignificant..."

Her voice broke slightly on the last word, revealing a vulnerability she rarely allowed to show.

"Then they started playing with me, creating this unbearable pressure on top of me. The pain was fine, but..." She paused, searching for the right words. "The humiliation, it was so… so frustrating… That was how the divine warrior died, with her face buried in dirt."

"...Anny," he said softly, almost as a sigh. "How much damage you did, or how weak you were, has no real meaning. What matters is that you tried. That you never gave up, despite the insurmountable odds."

He reached out, keeping his small hand hovering near hers without quite touching her, offering comfort—if she wanted it.

"I didn't do it for some moral high ground!" The words burst from her with sudden force. Color rose to her cheeks, bringing life to her pale features. "I just did it because I felt insulted! All my work was for nothing, and I was just a pathetic pawn in their game!"

"That's perfectly fine as well." His voice remained calm despite her yells. "We're all human. Like you saw in the lighthouse—"

"That wasn't even real!" Anny cut him off, turning to face him fully now. Her eyes flashed with an emotion too complex to name—something between admiration and resentment, longing and despair. "You're perfect, unlike me!"

"I still failed to save them." Nova's voice dropped lower, carrying the weight of his own regrets. "I fought an unbeatable foe, just like you. And I reacted with anger and frustration, just like you. I'm as weak as you are, Anny."

He leaned in closer, meeting her eyes with unflinching honesty. "Just look at what lengths I'm willing to go to for Millie."

"That's not the same." Anny looked down at her hands, examining the faint trace of stripes beneath her skin.

"It's being human. Whether it's love, hate, frustration, hope… I'll never fault you, or anyone else, for being human."

He shifted slightly, causing the bed frame to creak beneath them. The sound seemed to mark a change in his approach as he posed a gentler question: "What did you do before fighting in that war, in your fifth life? Didn't you make sure the poor in that country were fed and cared for?"

Anny's shoulders relaxed marginally. "...Yeah," she admitted reluctantly. Her fingers twisted a loose thread on her sleeve, winding it tight around her fingertip. "But just so I could feel like I honored your ideals."

Nova laughed, unable to help himself despite the situation. Her stubbornness in being self-deprecating was charming in a way—it was very like her.

"Is it really so bad to do things to feel better? Do you think I'm any different?"

"Maybe you're not." A hint of a smile touched her lips, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "But that just shows how great you are, that you have to bring justice and kindness to the weak to feel good about yourself."

Nova shook his head, still with a gentle expression. "If we measure ourselves by our true intentions instead of actions, no one is good. But by looking at our actions, we can see who is on the right path. And you are, without a doubt."

Anny's breathing had steadied, the worst of her emotional storm passing. She leaned back slightly, resting her weight on her palms against the mattress. The simple cotton sheets bunched beneath her fingers as she shifted her position.

"I'm fine now," she said, looking up at the wooden ceiling. "You can tell me what happened."

Nova studied her carefully, noting how the last traces of her distress had faded from her features. "Okay, what's the last thing you remember?"

Anny's brow furrowed as she searched her memory, trying to piece together fragments that seemed to slip away. "...The governor was talking about taxes?"

"Right. We were arguing about proving our citizenship—we should ask Sar to fix that for us, by the way. Then I asked what forced us to pay, and the governor activated a formation that pushed us to the ground."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Ah..." Anny's eyes widened slightly as understanding began to dawn.

"Yeah, that's when you started shouting at the top of your lungs. You managed to get up from the ground somehow, eventually breaking the formation through sheer force. Your eyes had turned golden again, so I assume it has to do with qi, and the true form of the Thousand Beast Sovereign again."

"Then you stopped me?" Her voice held a note of uncertainty, still trying to close the gaps in her memories.

"Yeah. But you also drew your sword and wielded it in a strange way. It was like it weighed tons in your arms. Even though I'm the one who made it, I was convinced it was unbearably heavy." His fingers sketched patterns in the air, tracing the remembered path of her blade. "I don't think that's part of the beast technique..."

"Oh, that's just how I wield the sword."

Nova blinked, his hand freezing mid-gesture. "...What?"

"The sword. You need to wield it with force to be able to do more damage." She mimicked holding a blade, gripping an invisible hilt while her arm moved in a slow, deliberate arc. The movement carried a strange gravity, as if the air itself gained weight around her imaginary weapon.

"You mean you do that every time you use a sword?" Nova's voice pitched higher with disbelief.

"Yeah?" Anny tilted her head, genuinely perplexed by his reaction. Her dark hair spilled across her shoulder with the movement. "How do you wield it?"

"Like a metal stick with sharp edges?" Nova spread his hands in a gesture of bewilderment.

"Oh, come on!" Anny sat upright, completely forgetting her earlier melancholy. A spark of enthusiasm showed on her face as she gestured. "You need to understand the sword!"

"Sword dao as well?!" Nova's exclamation bordered on indignant. "You can't just do that on instinct!"

The floorboards creaked beneath them as Anny shifted her weight, leaning forward with interest. "...Sword dao? The understanding thing you mentioned earlier?"

"Anny!" The exasperation in Nova's voice was filled with wonder. "I've never seen anything like that before! And I lived in a world of cultivation! Granted, I never reached the peaks… You really were born in the wrong world."

Somewhere in the distance, a temple bell rang, marking the hour with a deep, resonant tone.

"...Well, I can teach you?" Anny offered, smiling confidently.

"People have tried… I understand the sword perfectly. Its shapes, its physics, its edges—no part of the sword is any secret to me. But the dao…" He shook his head, caught between fascination and frustration. "It doesn't follow any logic."

"Oh, right." Anny chuckled lightly, looking down at the sword still in its sheath. "Yeah, logic isn't really needed. You need to wield it differently, like it weighs more than anything else. Like it can cut planets in half."

"But it can't," Nova said, feeling a need to state the obvious.

"Exactly. No wonder you never learned it." Her smug smile touched a nerve.

Nova feigned a sudden realization, touching his chin with a finger. "Ah...So that's why magic isn't your thing. You can't instinct your way through it."

"Hey, don't turn mean just because I'm better at you in something." Anny nudged him with her elbow. There was a hint of pride mingling with the teasing in her voice.

Nova sighed, leaning back on the bed next to her. The mattress dipped beneath his weight. "Let's just sleep. We have a lot of preparations to get through when we wake."

"...Should we notify Larena about Millie?" Anny remained sitting upright, tugging at a loose thread on the bedcovers.

"Right, good point."

Nova sat back up and started shaping a spell in the air, leaving trails of blue light suspended in the bright room. It was the communication spell he had given Morten before he left. He also taught it to Larena in case they needed to get in touch with each other.

Anny started removing her armor in the meantime, looking relieved to finally get rid of the leggings still caked in troll blood.

The formation took shape gradually, individual runes connecting to form a cohesive whole. The completed spell hung in midair, pulsing with gentle light that cast strange, shifting shadows across their faces. Nova leaned toward the glowing pattern and spoke into its center.

"Larena, Millie is here with us. She is in deep trouble, but we will manage to get her back home safely. She snuck along on our trip…"

The formation remained in the air while he waited for a reply. Light flowed through the intricate patterns, maintaining the connection across the distance. Nova tapped his fingers against his knee while he waited.

'I hope she didn't forget how to make it… No, she wrote it down and everything. It's probably fine.'

Just as he started to worry again, Larenas' voice came from the other side.

"Finally! I've been trying to reach you ten times already! Quinn came here gasping for breath after you left, telling me Millie was nowhere to be seen. What do you mean she's in deep trouble?"

The spell vibrated slightly with the force of Larena's words. Nova could hear the anxiety in her voice, even through the magical transmission. His mouth set in a grim line.

"She's in the dungeon. Some system error teleported her to one of the lower floors, so now we have to dive as fast as we can and save her."

The message was sent, but due to a delay, it took some time before a response was received. The spell's light dimmed temporarily, then brightened again as the connection strengthened.

"System error?! She's alone on one of the lower floors?! How could you not realize she was with you?"

Nova winced at the accusation in her tone. His shoulders tensed as he absorbed the blame. "Yeah, I know… We will get her back, don't worry. We already beat six floors."

Another pause. The magical formation continued to pulse in the air between them, waiting for Larena's next response.

"Do you think it was a good idea to tell them that much?" Anny asked. She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. "They'll worry."

"They can handle it… Well, maybe Quinn would be better off not knowing." Nova glanced at the still-active spell, thankful that nothing else had happened during their absence.

Larena's message sounded from the formation again, "You know as well as I do that each floor is a massive increase in challenge. Gods… Just do what you can. Losing all three of you would be the worst-case scenario, so don't take too great a risk."

The tone in her voice made Nova narrow his eyes slightly. Of all people, she should know what lengths he would go to for Millie.

His voice was harder when he responded. "...I'm not leaving this place without her, if that's what you're asking of me. Don't tell Quinn too much, he'll worry. Now we need to sleep."

Another pause. Anny was silent this time, watching Nova carefully.

"You know I care for her, but I also care for the thousands of other children here. They'll be helpless without you two. Just don't rush into danger without planning as well as you can, that's all I ask. And sleep well."

Nova's expression softened slightly. He knew she meant well, and that she would die for any single child in her care. His priorities were the skewed ones. "...We will do what we can to survive. Sorry about the harsh tone."

"That's alright, I understand your position. Contact me again when you have updates, and goodbye."

"Goodbye."

The formation shrank down to nothing, disappearing with a tiny flash of light. The room suddenly seemed darker without its glow. Nova stared at the empty space where the spell had been, lost in thought about what lay ahead.

"It's bedtime," Anny said, patting the bed next to her. She seemed worried for him now, swapping roles from earlier.

"Yeah… Long days ahead." After removing most of his outer clothes, Nova lay down next to her, starting another formation with his hands.

A protection formation first. Then a dampening formation for sounds. And finally, a darkness formation, letting them sleep soundly during the day.

"Sleep well," Anny said from his side, turning the other way.

"Yeah, you too…"

'That's right, we still haven't talked about the kiss. Or, it's really about us, and how we should move forward… Well, it can wait a bit longer…'

Exhausted, and with more than enough to think about, they both eventually drifted to sleep.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.