Perspective: Alessio Leone
While Alessio still watched the small golden cub — which was now stubbornly trying to climb up his leg with trembling paws — he heard a faint sound.
A soft scrape against the ground.
A light, distinct movement.
He turned his head — and saw her.
Sith was awake.
At first, she only stirred slightly, her body moving sluggishly, like someone returning from a dream too deep to escape.
Her black hair hung in disarray over her shoulders and face, clinging to damp skin.
She seemed disoriented, her breathing shallow, her gaze fixed on nothing.
For a moment, she tried to lift her torso — and the cub sleeping atop her slid down, landing softly on her legs.
The impact made it let out a low, sleepy sound, almost a mewl.
Still with her eyes closed, Sith exhaled softly.
She raised one hand to her head, massaging her temples with slow, instinctive motions — a gesture Alessio recognized well.
After an Essence Awakening, that pain was almost inevitable.
He knew exactly why.
Even for experienced players, enduring a trial like that — living for months inside a beast's body, in a world where time itself was distorted — left scars.
Inside the trial, they had lived nearly four months.
Outside the Tower, in the real game world, only minutes had passed.
The human brain was not built to withstand such a gap.
All those overlapping experiences, instincts, and emotions now collided inside them — a storm of data trying to fit into a space far too small.
And the result was always the same: pain.
Even so, Alessio couldn't help but smile.
She was here. Alive.
Sith took a deep breath, still with her eyes closed. Then, slowly, she opened them.
The deep green that emerged was exactly as he remembered — that predatory, vivid, razor-sharp gaze that carried both the power and danger of the wild.
It was the gaze of a born hunter — even exhausted, still fierce.
But what came next shattered that feral composure completely.
Sith looked down at her own hands.
For a moment, she simply turned them over, as if seeing something unfamiliar, almost unbelievable.
Long fingers, pale skin, smooth nails — human. Entirely human.
The shock on her face was immediate.
But then came the light.
And then, joy.
Silent but real — reflected in the faint tremble of her lips and the sudden brightness in her eyes.
It was only natural.
No human being — no matter how proud or strong — truly wished to remain trapped in the body of a beast, even if that beast were the king of the jungle, the apex predator, the master of the food chain.
In the end, everyone longed for the form that reminded them of who they were.
She exhaled deeply, her shoulders relaxing.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she turned her face toward me.
Her green eyes — still hazy, but alive — met mine.
The connection was instant.
Recognition, relief — and a flicker of something deeper, something neither of them dared to name.
And then, with a hoarse, trembling voice, she spoke.
"The little ones…"
Those were her first words.
And Alessio's chest tightened.
Nothing about the place.
Nothing about the throne, the battle, or the strangeness of being alive.
Her first concern was for the cubs.
For their children.
That — that pure, instinctive reaction — was something only a true mother could have.
Alessio didn't answer right away.
He simply took a breath and pointed.
"They're safe."
Sith lowered her gaze and followed his gesture.
There, in her lap, the small cub that had slipped from her chest slept peacefully — its tiny body fragile but serene.
The small muzzle twitched with every breath, its slow rise and fall mesmerizing the air around it.
Her expression softened.
For a brief moment, the whole world seemed to shrink to that small, sleeping life resting on her lap.
Sith placed a hand over the cub, brushing her fingers gently through its golden fur — and the touch was so tender that Alessio felt his own heart react.
The silence that followed was strange — fragile, almost sacred — as if the universe had granted them a short pause before the next storm.
Unfortunately, that storm came swiftly.
The serene stillness of the room was ripped apart by a scream —
A sound that belonged to nothing living.
Shrill, distorted, so loud that the stone walls trembled.
The vibration shook the ground beneath Alessio's feet, echoing across the ancient columns.
The air grew heavy, vibrating, dense — as if the very fabric of space was being torn open.
Alessio turned toward the source.
The coffin chamber.
He already knew — even before seeing.
The smell had changed.
The air, once merely foul, had turned suffocating.
The dead energy that had slumbered beneath the stones was now awakening, rising in visible waves, warping the light.
He opened his system panel.
The timer read 14:30.
Forty minutes.
That was all.
Forty minutes inside the Essence Awakening trial.
A ridiculously short span for everything they had endured — nearly four months of survival, hunting, and war within beastly bodies — yet more than enough time for the monster in the coffin to awaken.
The Lich.
The same creature that, in his previous life, had turned this ruin into a field of bones, silencing hundreds of players at once.
The same that had forced even the strongest guilds to retreat.
And now, it was awake.
Alessio inhaled deeply, the acrid scent of ancient magic filling the air.
A creeping chill began to spread across the floor, climbing up the stone, as though something was draining the very heat from existence.
He knew, in that instant — peace was over.
He turned quickly.
The small cub was still climbing his leg, its claws hooked in the torn fabric of his pants.
Its curious, innocent eyes stood in brutal contrast to the sinister presence emanating from the other side of the chamber.
Without hesitation, Alessio reached down and picked it up.
The tiny paws struggled for a moment, but he held it firmly — with the care of someone who knew exactly what he was carrying.
Two long strides later, he placed it gently in Sith's arms.
"Stay with them," he said — his voice low, but steady.
Sith stared at him, still dazed.
The green glow in her eyes flickered between clarity and instinct.
But before she could speak, he was already moving away.
The warrior had returned.
His breathing steadied.
His heartbeat slowed.
Every motion regained its purpose.
With a practiced gesture, he drew his shield and locked it onto his left arm.
The cold metal greeted him like an old friend.
Then he crouched, took up his helmet, and fitted it over his head — the sound of the latch echoing solid and final.
The visor came down, and the world changed.
Light filtered now in bluish tones, the edges of the visor painting the world in battle hues.
Alessio drew his axe.
The twin blades glinted with the pale reflection of the blue flames beginning to flicker in the next chamber.
The scream had ceased — but the silence that followed was worse.
The kind of silence that comes before catastrophe.
He knew what awaited him.
Before, he would have run.
And he would've had every reason to.
Facing that Lich alone was suicide — entire guilds had failed before him.
But now…
Now his essence was awakened.
His blood burned and thrummed.
Every cell pulsed with newfound power.
It was as if the air itself recognized him — as if the world, for the first time, answered his call.
Maybe it was madness.
But he felt no fear.
Only hunger.
The hunger to test himself.
To face the impossible that had once killed him.
Past and present intertwined within him — the man and the beast, the player and the predator.
He took a step forward.
The sound of his boot striking stone echoed through the room.
Then another.
The ground trembled faintly, as if the world itself recognized what was about to unfold.
And as the bluish lights of the coffin chamber flared brighter, dancing across the walls like cold fire, Alessio smiled behind his helmet.
It wasn't the smile of a madman.
It was the smile of someone who finally understood the weight of his own name.
He had earned the right to live as a beast.
Now, he would earn the right to fight as a man.