Soren Arden POV
A warm touch brushed against his cheek; it was gentle, steady, and slow.
His mind clawed its way back from the darkness one drag at a time.
'…'
For a while, he didn't open his eyes.
The images from his dream lingered too vividly, clinging to the inside of his skull.
Isaac's apartment.
The ruined car.
The blackboard.
Aria crying.
The messages.
The final apology
A life he had already lost once replayed in perfect, cruel detail.
His head throbbed dully, like someone had driven a spike through his eye and into his brain.
His chest felt heavy, tight, as if there were a weight pressing down on it that refused to move.
That nightmare had not been random.
It had dragged up everything he had tried to bury.
It reminded him, mercilessly, of why he was so scared to act.
Why he hesitated.
Why he second-guessed every choice until it hurt.
Even now, long after transmigrating, that echo of fear clung to him like a shadow that refused to step out of the doorway.
The warmth brushing his cheek didn't go away.
Fingers traced lightly through his hair, combing through the strands again and again with an almost mechanical patience.
Minutes passed before he finally lifted his eyelids.
The first thing he saw were two large mounds blocking his vision.
Soft.
Pressed lightly against the side of his face.
His brain stalled.
He blinked up, focus shifting slowly, and realised his head was resting on someone's lap.
The person whose legs he was using as a pillow had one hand in his hair, the other braced lightly beside him on the stone floor, as if she were shielding him from something.
There was only one person Soren knew with a body like this.
"...Amelia?"
His voice came out hoarse, rough from disuse and sleep.
Flinch.
Her hand jerked back as if shocked, the warmth leaving his cheek.
The fingers that had been stroking his hair retreated, hovering awkwardly mid-air before falling to her lap.
She didn't answer right away.
Soren stared up at the ceiling of the catacombs, the faint smell of smoke and ash filling his nose, waiting.
Eventually, she parted her lips.
"Are you okay?" she asked cautiously.
Her tone was calm, but her eyes searched his face in a way that gave her away.
There was a stiffness in her shoulders, like she hadn't relaxed once since finding him.
"...Yeah," he muttered.
He forced himself upright, his body protesting.
His limbs felt stiff and heavy, as if he had been lying there for hours.
A dull ache spread across his muscles and spine as he pushed himself into a sitting position beside her.
He took in his surroundings.
They were still in the same catacombs he had fought in.
The stone floor was scattered with piles of ash, the remains of the skeletons he had destroyed.
The air was thick with the smell of burnt wood and charred bone.
The flames he had spread earlier had mostly died down now, leaving only the occasional crackle from the last embers clinging to blackened coffins.
The place was quiet.
Too quiet.
"Where's the wraith?" he asked.
His voice carried a tired edge; he already suspected the answer, but he needed to hear it.
Amelia lifted her chin and pointed wordlessly to something near the far wall.
Soren followed her gesture.
All that remained of the wraith was a small, scorched scrap of cloth lying on the stone.
The rest of its form had been burnt away, its curse broken with it.
He exhaled slowly, shoulders slumping a fraction as relief loosened the knot in his chest.
'So it really died… thank god.'
His gaze drifted back to Amelia.
"So… why are you here?" he asked after a moment.
He tried to make it sound casual, but the question was genuine.
He had, after all, snuck out of the dormitory in the middle of the night, using a spell to climb out of the window.
He hadn't told anyone where he was going.
Sure, the plants had been obvious, but even if someone noticed them, it didn't explain why she was here.
"You were acting… off," she said simply.
She said it as if that alone were reason enough.
"So I followed you."
Soren's lips twitched.
A small, tired smile tried to pull at his mouth, but his face didn't quite remember how to cooperate.
"...And you didn't just… say hi?" he asked.
"You were busy," she replied, as if that explained everything.
Her tone was matter-of-fact, exactly what he had come to expect from her.
There was no embarrassment, no attempt to hide that she had trailed after him into a forbidden area and watched him fight for his life.
He let out a small laugh, more of a breath than a sound.
"Thanks," he said quietly.
She didn't answer, but she didn't need to.
Only then did Soren push himself fully to his feet, using the sarcophagus beside them as support as he stood.
His body still felt drained, his mana sluggish, his mind heavy from the nightmare and the curse, but at least he was upright.
His gaze drifted to the stone sarcophagus ahead.
'I should've gotten the [Pendant of Mentality] first,' he thought.
The criticism came out instantly, the familiar voice in his head reminding him how stupid it had been to rush like this.
If he'd had better mental defence, the wraith's curse might not have hit him so hard.
He might not have been knocked out and forced to relive everything.
Frustration stirred for a moment, but then faded.
He was still alive.
He had cleared the catacombs.
He had killed the wraith.
And somehow, he had not died down here where no one would have found him in time.
That alone was something.
'At least I've confirmed my strength,' he thought, a small, careful smile tugging at his lips.
He had grown stronger.
For the first time in a long while, he could admit that without immediately trying to take it back.
Up until now, his confidence had been steadily slipping away.
Surrounded by monsters in human skin like Alex, Amelia, and all the other geniuses, it was easy to see only what he couldn't do.
His own progress felt pointless compared to them.
He had been stuck in his head, trapped in a constant loop of comparison and hesitation, unable to objectively look at himself.
But now, after fighting alone in this place and surviving, he could see it more clearly.
He wasn't strong.
Not by this world's standards.
But he had grown.
And he was still growing.
The sarcophagus lid creaked as he pushed it aside.
The sound echoed loudly in the chamber, stone scraping against stone.
Under the lid, as he already knew from the game, was a corpse.
The air grew colder as he looked down.
It was the corpse of Lunaris Sona, the assistant of Stella Nocturnis, the founder of Stellaris Academy.
Even as nothing more than bones and scraps of clothing, the name alone carried weight.
An existence that had changed the world once, now reduced to a silent body in a forgotten tomb.
That in and of itself was a significant find, the kind of thing that would have shocked any historian or scholar.
But for Soren, the real treasure was what the corpse was holding.
Its skeletal hands were wrapped rigidly around a glass bottle clutched to its chest.
Soren swallowed.
He reached out and gently pulled the corpse's hands apart.
The bones were brittle, shifting with an unsettling scrape as he pried them open.
A wave of nausea rose in him at the feeling of handling an actual dead body, so close he could see the cracks in the ribs and the way the clothes clung to what was left.
He forced himself not to flinch.
He needed what it was holding more than he needed to avoid discomfort.
His fingers closed around the glass, cool against his skin, and he pulled the bottle free from the corpse's grasp.
Without hesitating, before he could change his mind, he popped the stopper and brought it to his lips.
The liquid slid down his throat in one sharp, bitter gulp.
.
▶ Item [Lunaris's Liquified Mana] Consumed! ◀
[Lunaris's Liquified Mana]
[Mana stat increased by +0.5. Mana control increased by 200%. Mana can be materialised. ]
.
▶ Title [Stella's Secrets] Upgraded! ◀
[Stella's Secrets]
To the one who has embarked on the journey to recover Stella's creations, the world grants you strength.
[+400% Mana and Health recovery rate!]
.
The familiar text flashed in his vision.
A small, involuntary breath escaped him, almost a laugh.
A faint smile appeared on Soren's face.
"…Good," he muttered.
"「Status」"
The translucent window opened in front of him.
————「❤︎」————