Aira looked around herself. The Council Hall bore the scars of its tumultuous history. Once grand and commanding, its broken doors sagged on their hinges, and blood stains streaked the once-pristine marble floor, remnants of the chaos that had unfolded here. Even the banners that once hung in pride now looked useless, forgotten in the hollow silence.

  She'd been in this world for only a few months, and how much this Council Hall had changed already. When she was first brought here, she was disoriented and silenced. There were so many people here then. All dead now.

  Aira moved around the grand room and found the exact spot where she stood when Lila brought that fateful slateboard. Would her friend's voice still carry the warmth Aira remembered?

  No. It wouldn't.

  Aira knew well enough that the undead had issues with their vocal cords. She was a good example of that, even if she didn't know the reason.

  Or, what was even worse, would she be hollow, like the gnarlfang she once raised? The thought sent a chill through her core, but Aira pushed it aside.

  "Everything is going to be alright," she thought. "I'll get her back."

  Necrocommunion (Level 8 / 2,187 SP to upgrade to Level 9)

  - Chance of boosting cooperation among high-level undead.

  - You can sense the undead and scan their stats.

  - Ritual: You can raise medium-sized organisms as undead. Energy consumption: low.

  - Maximum skill use distance: [1.25 km x Level] = 126 km

  Upgrade further [Y/N]?

  Aira looked through the broken doors. She could sense people slowly moving in the side rooms, too scared to go out. They were barricading there, only occasionally risking peeking out and checking what the undead beast was doing. They weren't a target for her anymore. Aira roared at no one in particular, making most of the hide.

  "So, who's going to be the next Elder?" Aira thought distractedly while leaving the building. "Thanks to me, they are going through them pretty fast."

  Outside, the faint murmur of townsfolk huddled in fear reached her ears. From the cracks in shuttered windows, wide eyes stared out. Mothers pressed their children to their chests, muttering prayers to gods they hadn't thought of in years.

  "The town is waking up," Aira thought. "Don’t worry, you aren't on the menu today…"

  ***

  Aira returned to Lila's cell to find out the rat was still there, near her friend's body. The rodent wasn't in good shape, with small wounds covering its body. Around Lila's bunk, lay a few corpses of gnawing beasts.

  "Ah, so you were useful," thought Aira, approaching the small animal and stroking its fur. "It's funny that they don't have beavers in this world but rats… Rats are everywhere. Here, let me at least boost you. Maybe your health will replenish faster this way."

  ========== Character Status and Skill Overview ==========

  Name: Adult Rat

  Race: Undead Rat

  Class: Rat

  Level: 3

  --- Current Status ---

  Health: 4/63

  Mana: ???/???

  SP Used: 0

  SP Available: 7

  XP: 7,000 / 10,000 (Next Level: 4, Initiate)

  "Oh, you rascal!" thought Aira with warmth. "Level three already! Let me do what I came here for, and we'll think about what to do with you later."

  With that, Aira switched her attention to the dead body of her friend. Somehow, after this rampage through the human town, Lila seemed peaceful to Aira. Serene. Or maybe it was just rigor mortis setting in.

  Aira touched her friend's cheek once again. Preparing herself to perform the raising. The energy she accumulated from all these rangers and guards was boiling inside her, risking to spill over. But Aira couldn't allow it. She couldn't waste it. And she didn't know how much of this power she would need for what had to be done.

  As with the gnarlfang, the ritual wasn't something elaborate. She'd probably even just call it a spell. Aira didn't need to prepare anything, draw arcane symbols on the floor, or bring in additional people for accumulating and focusing the elemental magic like the enlightened did.

  She began by focusing on her Necrocommunion skill and beginning to gradually move the energy she gathered towards a new goal: raising Lila as an undead.

  As Aira drew the swirling energy toward Lila's body, the air thickened, pressing down on her shoulders like a storm about to break. Frost began to creep across the walls, and the faint scent of ozone tingled in her nostrils. Even the undead rat darted into the shadows, chittering nervously as the prison walls groaned, seemingly in protest of the unnatural forces. The prisoners in the nearby cells suddenly became silent and still. Every person in the vicinity of the building felt something… unnatural.

  But that wasn’t the end of it, the sensation spread even further.

  "What are you doing now, Aira?" sent Alliot through the party chat. "What kind of ritual is that? You know I'll have to report that to Ainorrh!"

  Aira ignored him. There was nothing he could do to prevent Aira from following the plan. A wild grin appeared on her face as she felt ambient energy shifting and moving around her.

  It was time for the decisive step.

  Aira scooped all the energy she could reach and, with her skill, sent it toward the corpse of her friend.

  Lila's body was covered with flashes of ethereal light and tiny lightnings that reminded Aira of the scene she just witnessed at the Council Hall. Was she doing it wrong? Was her skill level still not compatible with humans? Was she making it even worse?

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  "No, it can't be," thought Aira. "How could it be worse? She's already dead."

  With that thought, Aira doubled her efforts, intensifying the push of her arcane powers toward Lila. The human's body was jittering, and the glow only intensified.

  "Was there a glow when I transformed that gnarlfang?" thought Aira. "For sure, it took much less time to do that."

  Suddenly, Lila's body emitted a series of repugnant crunching sounds. Lila's body jerked violently, her limbs snapping into place with sickening cracks that echoed through the cell. Aira's heart wrenched as she watched dark veins spidering across Lila's pale skin, pulsing faintly as if seeking life where there was none. Now, only the dried blood reminded that Lila was ever tortured.

  "What?!?" Aira thought. “What the hell???“

  This was no ordinary use of Necrocommunion. Even while she only did the ritual twice before, Aira could feel the intricate web of energy threads she wove straining against her will, threatening to snap and lash back at her. Raising a human—no, raising Lila—was rewriting the boundaries of what her skill could achieve. The sheer scope of it threatened to consume her reserves faster than she anticipated. Aira was losing her energized state quite fast, feeling the reserves that seemed fathomless moments ago depleting.

  But this time, finally, she felt the limits much better than before. She should have enough. Aira knew that. She believed in that.

  Not only Lila's body was changing. The ambience in the whole of the prison had shifted. If the people in other cells were silent before, now they have become active and even agitated. Some of them screamed, others moaned and wailed.

  "Final push," thought Aira. "It has to work!"

  Aira felt a voice trying to reach out to her from somewhere far away. Something about following the rules. Aira didn't care about that whisper anymore. Just a feeble sensation that was really hard to concentrate on.

  ***

  Alliot was intrigued by the human settlement. Without any magic, they were able to survive here and even create at least some protective barriers. They even withheld his attacks for a while. And he was trained in defending and breaking defenses.

  Trained in the arcane ways, not the primitive measures the humans could offer right now. Ultimately, it all turned into an exercise in removing rubble for them. It seemed the rangers didn't even figure out there was a sentient power behind all this devastation, so well Alliot used the force of wind and nature to hide his attack.

  "They're swarming the breach," he sent his report to Aira. It was time for her to move.

  After that initial moment of violence, everything was relatively peaceful for some time. Periodically, Alliot had to hit one segment of the wall or another to keep the humans busy. But it seemed that most of the town's rangers should have gathered here near the damaged part of the wall.

  His part of the mission was going entirely according to the plan.

  It was peaceful until it wasn't. Alliot blinked, and some force stormed in so fast that Alliot couldn't even see it. Only its effects.

  And he felt it well enough. Without any doubt, it was Aira. Mere moments after her arrival, the scene changed completely. All the rangers were now dead. Not only dead, but they became withered husks, all energy sucked out of them.

  Alliot could feel a maelstrom of elemental energy electrifying the air for a few seconds, sending ripples all around the area. And then, it all was gone as if it never existed.

  "But that's against our principles!" thought Alliot. "We had an agreement! What am I to do now? Should I reach out to Ainorrh?"

  Alliot's fingers hovered over the communication artifact entrusted to him, his usual precision faltering. His mind raced—Aira was violating every principle of their order, yet the sheer force of her power pulled at something deep within him. He clenched his fists, his jaw tightening. Was this awe… or dread?

  However, while Alliot was paralyzed by indecision, Aira wasn't waiting. Alliot could sense even more humans perishing under her attacks. It was hard to be sure, but it felt like Aira had extinguished and consumed a hundred human energy signatures.

  "A hundred lives…" Alliot thought. "Such a waste. So many new enlightened could have been created instead."

  But it wasn't the end of this dark night yet. Something even more sinister was brewing. When the ritual began, Alliot could feel familiar sensations. He remembered it from his own transformation and from the rare occasions when he had a chance to witness transitions of younger enlightened.

  "No… She isn't…" Alliot thought. "That's not possible. Lila is already dead! This is so wrong!"

  Alliot, positioned on the outskirts of the town, felt the surge of elemental energy. It wasn't ultimately compatible with the flavor he was familiar with the most: Air. But still, Alliot was able to recognize the patterns. His eyes widened in alarm, and he tried to warn Aira through the party chat, but she was beyond reach. The connection was there, but her mind was closed off, too consumed by the ritual to respond.

  "Aira, stop! You don't have to do this!" Alliot's mental plea went unanswered.

  He felt the desperation and determination in Aira's actions and knew he couldn't stop her. The power she wielded was too great, her resolve too fierce.

  Alliot felt the power building, his magical senses sounding alarms. The flavor of this magic was simultaneously antagonistic to everything he knew because of his affinity, but in some ways, very familiar, calling to something deep inside of him. What was that? Why was he lured by this obviously destructive power that went against everything he held dear in his life?

  Moments later, it was all finished. The energy was raving no more.

  "I need to do something," he thought. "Judgment will come later. And I need to gain information. I'll have to give my report to the shamans."

  As he made a decisive step over the ruined wall's rubble, Alliot could only mourn the lost lives and opportunities.

  ***

  The ritual demanded all of her—her attention and her energy. Her hands trembled as she pressed them to Lila's chest, the faint warmth of her friend's skin a cruel reminder of what she had lost. Or was it the warmth from her magic?

  Aira's breathing quickened, coming in shallow gasps, her vision blurring as she funneled every ounce of energy into the ritual. "Just a little more," she told herself, though the doubt clawed at the edges of her mind.

  She gathered everything left within, and there was almost nothing there to find without. In the prison and its vicinity, no more rangers were left. No more people who Aira condemned as enemies. The trees on the nearest square were destroyed by her earlier spark of anger. If she didn't want to make more human sacrifices, she'd have to hope what she had would be enough.

  How far away did she step from her initial path. Aira smiled wickedly. What she did today was truly a dark ritual with human sacrifices. Even if she tried to silence her consciousness with thoughts of revenge, punishment, and justice. It was what it was. There was no good in denying the truth.

  Aira needed skill points. She needed that energy. So, she went out there and took what she needed.

  Was that her path from now on? Should she just raise an undead army and become the dark lord of this world?

  She smirked. Aira could uncover the true nature of these 'enlightened.' The System knew they were just undead like her, not some sublime beings.

  They confirmed… they confessed that they were turning humans. How did Ainorrh call that process? Transformation? Transcendence?

  It didn't really matter. They were the same.

  Afraid to see that her efforts were in vain, Aira stole a glance at Lila. Her friend's body stopped shivering. Any motion seized. Her hair, previously bright green, was now dirty and bloodied. But the changes weren't only superficial. Streaks of white were now seen in Lila's hair, even from under all that muck.

  Aira took Lila's hand in hers, but there was nothing to sense there. Even probing with Necrocommunion didn't bring any results either.

  "Did I do something wrong?" Aira thought.

  Suddenly, she felt the vibe in the prison shift once again. The silence was deafening, punctuated only by the faint rustle of chains as the people held here shifted nervously in their cells. People were silent. In fear? Or exhaustion? It didn't matter for Aira anymore. She was happy if they just didn't get in her way.

  Even the rat stopped squeaking and cautiously moved toward Aira.

  "Ah, you are still here," Aira smiled, finally finding a way to distract herself from her ordeal. "You are a little defender, aren't you. Should I call you Al? Would you like that?"

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