A cracked street. Blinding sky. Air too still.
Zareth opened his eyes.
The silence was wrong—heavy, dry, like the world had stopped breathing.
He lay on his back, staring up at empty sky. Heat pulsed off the broken pavement around him. The scent of ash and burned metal hung in the air.
His fingers curled into dust. His body ached.
"...Where..."
His voice came out hoarse.
Beside him, someone stirred. Black hair. Lean frame. Sharp eyes.
Saedra.
She sat up slowly, scanning the empty ruins with narrowed eyes.
"...This isn't Murim," she said.
Zareth's jaw tightened. He nodded.
The energy was gone. No qi. No flow. Just dead air and a strange stillness that set his nerves on edge.
Then—
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE]
[CLIMBER CANDIDATE DETECTED: ZARETH]
[STATUS: CLASS — UNDEFINED | ABILITIES SEALED | STATS LOCKED]
[REASON FOR SEALING: ???]
[SYSTEM CALIBRATING TO LOCAL DIMENSION...]
[READYING TUTORIAL...]
Zareth's brow furrowed.
The text floated in the air, crimson and black, flickering like a glitch in light.
"...Do you see that?" he asked.
Saedra's eyes widened. "Yeah. It's... floating?"
[CLIMBER CANDIDATE DETECTED: SAEDRA]
[STATUS: CLASS — UNDEFINED | ABILITIES SEALED | STATS LOCKED]
[REASON FOR SEALING: ???]
"I don't like this," she muttered. "What even is this?"
Pain hit them both like a spike to the brain.
Zareth clenched his head, gasping. Images stabbed into his mind—
Flashes.
Steel.
Blood.
A shattered sword.
A name he almost remembered.
Saedra staggered back, teeth grit. "I... saw something—"
He steadied her.
"Me too," Zareth said. "But it's broken. My memory's fractured."
She held her side, breathing heavy. "I know we're not from here."
"I remember who we are. I remember fighting."
"But not how we got here."
They stood together in the broken street. Wind didn't blow. No people. No sound.
Only ruins.
And each other.
"...Our strength," Saedra said. "It's gone."
Zareth clenched his fists. "Sealed. Whatever this system is, it's holding us down."
[CLIMBER STATUS ACCEPTED]
[TUTORIAL INITIATION INCOMING]
He looked at her.
She looked at him.
Neither had answers. But they had each other.
Then the light came.
A glow rose beneath their feet—pure white, humming with strange energy.
Zareth's eyes widened. "Saedra!"
He reached for her.
She grabbed his hand.
And they vanished.