Grunt! Grunt! Grunt! Ethan's eyes fluttered open. His head was throbbing like a blacksmith's hammer on an anvil. He tried to move, but couldn't. Not only was he too weak, but something heavy also held his body down.

Cold metal chains bit into his wrists and ankles, pinning him to a hard, stone chair. Ethan's dry eyes recognized the walls and the braziers. His nose smelled the damp moss smell. He must still be in the white caves.

Grunt! Grunt! Orc faces loomed over him, grunting at him with hostility. Panic seized the boy, his heart lurching in his chest.

Were they Garkash's goons? Had they caught him after Luka's abduction, ready to tear him apart for betraying their assassin squad?

"Where's Queen Voltha?" a gruff voice barked, disrupting his spiral of thoughts.

The Orc leader stepped closer. He had a lean figure, not as hulking as Garkash's light green brutes. His color was also paler, with wart-free skin. The Orc's armor was crafted from polished bone, gleaming faintly, a stark contrast to the crude iron of the greens.

These weren't Garkash's savages. They were Luka's followers. Their builds were slimmer, their movements precise, almost cultured, like warriors trained in discipline rather than brutality.

Relief flooded Ethan, but it was fleeting as the leader grabbed his collar, shaking him so hard the chains rattled.

"Speak, human girl!" the Orc growled. "We found you in the exit corridor where our Queen was abducted! You reek of her scent! Where did they take her?"

Ethan froze, his mind trying to process the words. Human girl? He opened his mouth to respond, but the voice that came out was higher-pitched, softer, and definitely not his own.

"I don't—wait, what?" His gaze dropped to his body, and his heart skipped a beat. His frame was smaller, curvier, with long, dark hair spilling over his shoulders. Cassie! He had switched to User2 without even realizing it.

Internally, he pinged the System while his thoughts went into a frantic jumble. [System, what the hell happened? Why am I Cassie?]

[System advice: MP and HP critically depleted during prior combat. User1 offline due to system failure. Emergency reserves activated to restore User2: Cassie]

[Current MP: 0/100. HP: 10/100. Recovery requires sustenance—food, water, rest, potions]

Cassie swallowed hard and sighed. The chains clanked as she shifted uncomfortably. The Orcs glared at her, their sharp, brutal eyes boring into her like daggers.

As a human, Cassie was really attractive. The Garkashian green Orcs would have gangraped the unconscious girl already. Luka's followers were different. Perhaps they would listen to reason before their impatience ran out.

As Cassie, Ethan had to talk fast, or things would get ugly. "I'm on Luka Voltha's side," she said, her voice trembling to sound submissive. It carried a feminine lilt that felt alien to Ethan's mind.

"I came to warn her about Garkash's assassins. She's been protecting Gulchtown by keeping the greens from attacking my mother, Velma Cromwell, and the human-Elf forces bunkered there. Before I could warn Luka, the assassins gassed us and took her. I tried to stop them, but... as you can see, I couldn't do much as a helpless human."

The leader, Korath, narrowed his eyes. His grip tightened on her collar. "A human girl supporting our Queen? Lies!"

He backhanded her across the face. The sting was sharp but was dulled by Jelly Skin. The blow barely registered on Cassie, leaving only a faint throb on her cheek. Ethan could tell Korath was holding back strength.

[HP: 9/100]

"What do you think, Lagarza?" the Orc leader asked one of their females. "Is the human girl telling the truth?"

"She thinks we're idiots!" Lagarza spat, stepping forward. Orcs were usually bald, but this one had dark green hair, braided tightly. "She snuck into the Queen's chamber, got caught red-handed, and now is spinning a tale! She's nothing more than a filthy, guilty spy! Let's finish her!"

The other Orcs gathered in the chamber raised slogans in support. Ethan's stomach twisted, fear creeping up his spine like icy fingers. Orc punishment wasn't a pretty scene, having witnessed Garkash's Orcs rape, murder, and eat human and Elf soldiers.

"Finish me? What are you going to do? Eat me?" Cassie's voice cracked. The image of a green gnawing at a human leg flashed through her mind. Her stomach churned at the thought, causing nausea.

Korath snorted, his expression twisting with disgust. "Eat you? Little girl, we ain't like Garkash's filthy savages. Their depraved diet, human flesh, Elf blood might be ideal to grow in size, but it poisons the mind, and drives Orcs to madness."

"No, girl," Lagerza chimed in. "We don't eat our enemies in Queen Voltha's horde. We burn them alive, setting an example for any who would dare betray her."

Ethan's eyes widened. "You can't! I'm telling the truth! Luka trusted me! I fought for her! You can see how many of Garkash's goons I killed with my own hands!"

All the Orcs heard was Cassie's desperate voice, echoing off the stone walls. The female Orc laughed darkly. "Keep your voice healthy enough so that you can scream your guts out. Burning alive is very painful, you know."

They dragged her from the chair, hauling her through the winding tunnels of the white caves. Orcs stared at Cassie as they passed, some whispering in their guttural tongue, others spitting at her feet or hurling insults.

"Human filth!" one growled. "Queen Voltha is too soft on their species."

"She's pretty though!" another hissed. "Would have made for a good house servant and wife."

"Shh…" his friend chastised him. "We don't enslave humans or Elves, remember? That is the Queen's decree."

"My bad. I got carried away. Let's go and see the little bitch burn."

The weight of the Orc hatred pressed down on Ethan. He couldn't believe things would go south so fast, leaving him helpless. A part of him actually thought he deserved it, having failed both Luka and Artis.

The central hall of the white caves opened up. It was a vast chamber with a soaring ceiling, stalactites dripping like jagged teeth from above. A large crowd of Orcs gathered in a rough semicircle, their eyes glinting with anticipation.

In the center stood a sturdy wooden post, surrounded by a hastily built pyre of dry wood, straw, and kindling. The sight sent a chill through Ethan's core. His female knees weakened as they shoved him toward it.

"No! Please!" Cassie pleaded, struggling against the chains as they bound her to the post. "I'm not your enemy! Luka would tell you! She believed me!"

Korath stood before the crowd, raising a lit torch high. "This human dared to invade our queen's sanctuary, leading to her capture by Garkash's assassins!" he bellowed. "Humans are never to be trusted! Let her burn to warn all who would cross Queen Voltha!"

The Orcs roared their approval, a deafening wave of sound that made Cassie's ears ring. She tugged desperately at the chains, but her strength was gone, sapped by hunger, thirst, and the beating she'd taken.

Ethan's MP was still zero. As Cassie, he couldn't even summon the system interface. He tried to generate Ghost Hands, Magmatis Stagnum, anything, but nothing responded.

[System, please! Give me something!]

[System advice: Resources too low. Shutdown imminent.]

Cassie bit her lip in frustration. Her only recourse was to consume food or water, but the Orc hadn't given her a scrap to replenish her MP or HP.

Her stomach growled, her throat so dry it felt like sandpaper. The crowd's chants grew louder. It was a rhythmic pulse of "Burn! Burn!" as Korath lowered the torch toward the pyre.

The flames caught instantly. The dry straw ignited into a large flame with a whoosh. Heat washed over Cassie, sweat beading on her skin as the fire climbed higher, licking at the wood near her feet.

"Nooo!" Ethan screamed in the female voice. The heat was suffocating. The smoke stung his eyes.

Was this how it was supposed to end? Burned alive in a fantasy world, after everything he'd fought for? His vision blurred as the flames crept closer.

Then, something impossible happened. A shimmer rippled through the air, like a heat haze rising from the fire. An ethereal figure emerged from Ethan's body. It was translucent and glowing faintly, a mirror of Cassie's appearance, but not quite her. Perhaps older.

The figure hovered just above the pyre. "I'll protect you for a few minutes," it whispered. The voice echoed in Ethan's mind like a distant song. "Go to sleep."

"Whoever you are," he managed to mumble. "Protecting me for a few minutes is not enough. I'll still burn after!"

Ethan's Cassie body reeled. The hunger, thirst, pain, and exhaustion overwhelmed his senses. The flames' heat felt distant now, his limbs heavy as lead.

Ethan's vision darkened, and the vision of the ethereal Cassie fading was the last sight he saw as consciousness slipped away. He slumped against the post, the world fading to black.

***

Ethan's eyes snapped open to a scene of utter mayhem. Shouts and clashes filled the vast hall. The ring of metal against metal mixed with the sizzle of magical fire.

The boy was still chained to the post, but the pyre around him was out. Not only was it extinguished, but it was also dripping wet, as if doused by a sudden flood.

Ethan's body felt heavier and broader. He was User1 again! He glanced down, confirming he was back to his male self. The boy was unburned despite the faint smell of smoke clinging to his blackened tunic.

[User1: Ethan] [HP: 7/100] [MP: 0/100]

The System had rebooted, barely scraping by with emergency reserves. Or perhaps that Cassie image did something miraculous?

Ethan's ribs ached from the earlier beating. His head throbbed like it had been clubbed again, but he was alive. How? His question was answered immediately.

Two figures were before him, fighting as if their lives depended on it. Beatrix and Athena.

The witch's silver hair glowed in the light of her magic, fireballs erupting from her hands to scorch Orcs. The latter screamed as their bone armor melted into slag.

Athena swung her massive sword in wide arcs, cleaving through two warriors in a single stroke. Her linen tunic was soaked with sweat and splattered with blood.

Luka's Orcs fought back fiercely, but the two women were a whirlwind of destruction, cutting a bloody path through the crowd.

Ethan tried to call out to them, but his throat was raw from smoke and shouting. "They are here… For me?"

Didn't Beatrix and Athena hate him? After everything, the fight, the breakup? They came back to rescue him? Why?

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