Another week later, both Tess and Lily seem to be doing better, with only the burns on their bodies as a reminder of what happened. Sophie remains in the same state she was in when we returned. There are no wounds anywhere on her body, but according to Izzy, her mind has been broken and scattered.

In some ways, it could be said that Sophie is dead, but it's not that simple. Sophie can't save herself, but she’s done something that might allow her sister to help.

Pieces of her mind are scattered in her brain, and then there’s Blackie, still clinging to her shadow, with a few more pieces. That construct, created long ago by a Champion, now akin to an artificial bond to Sophie, holds what Izzy thinks are the most important parts of her.

Then there’s something else. More than just memories or instructions, it feels like a fragment of Intent. A piece of guidance that could help, something Sophie must have put together when she was left with no other choice.

But even with all of this, Izzy can’t do anything at the moment. She tries hard and pushes herself constantly. She hasn’t slept or eaten in days and stays with her sister as much as possible, accompanied by Noodle and Biscuit, who quietly stay by her side.

And Izzy just keeps pushing herself more than I’ve ever seen before.

The image of her struggling is heartbreaking. She doesn’t know if there’s a time limit, if it’s even possible, or if she’s just clinging to delusional hope.

During that time, I can’t even count how many times I’ve felt tempted to enter Beyond by myself and likely die trying to kill those two. But every time, I hold myself back. Oh, how much I dislike it. And I feel like a coward somewhere in the back of my mind.

Min-Jae’s words still cut deep. That dark part of my mind, the one everyone has, keeps spiraling into those self justifying thoughts, the kind that come when you can’t sleep and start reflecting on your life and everything else, always in the cruelest of ways. It keeps reminding me of what Sophie did to me on the 1st floor. It keeps telling me Sophie would’ve thrown me to those two without a thought if it saved Izzy. It just keeps finding ways to make me feel better about myself.

It’s pathetic.

So I listen to it and continue to prepare, but at the same time, I grow more patient. I only have one life after all.

I'm not scared of death, but if I just run off and die, those two will survive. They will continue to live as if nothing happened, and, in a few decades, they might even forget what they’ve done or even about having met us on the first floor of Beyond in the first place.

How could I possibly allow something like that?

They will die, and I don’t care how it happens. If I’m strong enough by the time I meet them, I will do it with my own hands. If not, I will use any dirty tactic I can think of to make it happen.

Over the next week, I try to help Izzy as much as possible. We get the twins to help, and everyone with even the faintest hint of mental ability. And we keep trying.

Tess, despite her wounded state, holds herself together really well. A part of me thinks she just sees it as another obstacle to overcome. Another part of me knows Tess, while realistic, tends to be optimistic. It’s part of a more childish side of her, shaped by all the stories where the heroes always win out in the end.

She believes, even more than I do, that everything will be fine. The wounds she and Lily suffered will heal and become just faint memories, used only as fuel to grow stronger. And in the meantime, we’ll find a way to help Sophie.

Everyone seems to believe her more than me. She smiles, knows exactly what each person wants to hear, and delivers those words with a weight that makes them stick. It’s a little bit scary. Almost as if, by saying those things, she’s convincing herself, too. Maybe it’s not quite brainwashing, but a strengthening of her resolve?

Still, I can’t help but agree with her somewhat. We have Lily. We have Izzy, the twins, and their [Connection], and Tess is even working on something with [Declaration]. Even if it takes time, I believe we'll find a way to help Sophie, and this will just be another obstacle we've overcome.

Meanwhile, I notice everyone stepping up. We had other moments like this during the tutorial, especially with Hadwin on the 4th floor. This is just another reminder to never underestimate this place.

Izzy, who always trained and worked hard, is now pushing herself more than ever. Min-Jae, with all his potential, is stepping forward too. And Maya, who felt so lost while Tess was out, now moves to scout the forest alone, sometimes for days, to level and train, and oftentimes she finds herself joined by the twins.

Like that, seven more days pass, and there is no progress at all. Lily has to forcefully put Izzy to sleep at some point. The rest of us also clear the area, and I erase any apes that appear.

Even though more and more keep coming after each one is killed, I deal with the huge swarms and erase them by the hundreds.

Meanwhile, one of the three seals on the Ignition Heart is entirely and permanently gone, even though I haven’t been using thermal energy lately because I’ve been worried the fire might bring in monsters too powerful to face on a floor we still know so little about.

At the same time, I abuse my body further. Lissandra’s warning is long gone from my mind, and three more new constructs have been etched into my body. I'm sure it will make things difficult in the future, as they clash with my system-given traits, passives, body upgrades, and the small changes high-level skills are starting to make to my body. I've only just begun to notice them recently.

Still, even with all of that, I have three new constructs now. None of them is perfect, but as always, I'll modify them along the way. Each one is something I’ve thought about over time and planned to do eventually, though the timeline got pushed forward.

More than before, I realize these changes and the imbalance and interference they bring will either hurt me terribly or kill me sometime after the tutorial if I don’t put a stop to it. Strangely, that realization calms me down. As if the effect of shortening my life and risking this much makes it feel like I’m actually doing something.

That feeling is like running downhill on a steep slope, where you have to keep going faster and faster, even though it increases the risk, because stopping would make you crash hard.

I just need to keep improving and find a way to fix things faster than I'm breaking them.

The first of my new constructs is the Mental Frame, it exists to aid me with my ability to split my mind with [Focus]. It’s largely inspired by Logic Cores and my experimentations with [Foundation] and [Framework] in the Academy. It’s probably the least developed of the three, but I like its foundation. I’ve begun layering subroutines onto it, using my previous experience and feedback from focus splitting. It holds at the moment, but only for short bursts. I’m aiming for longer durations, where I can maintain multiple thought tracks at once without degradation. It really is very similar to a logic core, just built around my mind to automate certain tasks while I train my mind to do it without the help of the construct.

It isn’t perfect. After all, it’s just an imitation of a passive mixed with an active skill made by me. I’m sure it’s terribly lacking, even though I’ve been kicking around the idea for months. But at this point, I don’t care about the damage to my body, and I’ll continue to upgrade it as I go.

The second one is the Thought Maze Circuit. I’ve created it for a single goal: to improve my mental defenses by creating a sort of external maze that must be passed to reach my mind. It is also made of something akin to a Logic Core fused with part of my mind, now tied up to the construct to help keep it up and working.

The third one is the Thermal Flux Regulator. Similar to Mana Regulator, but mostly here in case I need to focus my concentration elsewhere instead of circulating thermal energy through my body, the way I circulate mana with Mana Cycling.

Construct compatibility remains a problem. Not a critical one yet, but the tension is building. My system traits are pushing back, if only slightly. The feeling is very subtle, mostly feedback resistance, and mana circulating slower through modified areas. I don’t try to fix it yet, and instead, I watch. Knowing the pattern is currently more important than rushing to patch it.

I’ve also started working on control. Not just raw power, but on the level of precision and efficiency, I use my mana and primordial energies with. I’ve been experimenting with channeling traces of thermal energy through isolated pathways, something akin to test runs. The Thermal Flux Regulator stabilizes most of it, and while it's meant to be temporary, I’ve already started working on Cycling to eventually make it obsolete. It’s just training wheels, after all. The goal is automation, promoting circulation without thought, more akin to muscle memory.

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Later that night, it’s just me and Tess at the top of one of the huge trees. Even now, it’s still hot and humid outside, but at least the screeches of the apes sound a bit more distant from here. If I remember correctly, it’s Min-Jae dealing with them right now.

"I think you should go," she says, legs swinging as she sits with them hanging over the branch.

After leaning back, I look up at the sky and start swinging my legs too, in the same childish way. Not like I ever cared how it looks.

"I’ve been thinking the same," I answer. "For the next thirty days or so, and then I’ll return to check on you guys. Of course, we could also make a plan..."

Tess interrupts me. "No. Just go solo for a while, even if it's two months or longer. Lily spoke with Leticia and Jean during the tournament, and we have a way to try to get in contact with them. So if we go, we go with them instead."

"Oh," I let out, not knowing what else to say.

Looking to the left, I see Tess just nodding, then looking up at the sky again. I wonder what she sees with her [Farsight], and just how far she can really see.

"Got it. I’ll leave tomorrow," I say in the end.

"Just don’t get yourself killed," she says with a smile as a sudden gust of wind tosses her golden hair across her face.

"That goes for you guys, too."

The night feels quieter after that. Neither of us says much more.

Tess eventually leaves to get some rest. I stay a little longer, still sitting on that branch, watching the stars through the crowns of the trees. There’s something comforting about being this high up, almost like I’m standing at the edge of the world.

I pack light the next morning. Just enough food to last for a while, some items I’ve been experimenting with, a few books, and mana stones from the Academy that might be helpful. I don’t say goodbye to everyone, since not all of them are here. I just give a quiet nod to Lily, who still seems to be caught in a sour mood, a short wave to Maya as she returns from a hunt, and a glance at Izzy, still asleep beside Sophie.

Of course, Biscuit, as always, seems to know what I’m planning and sits there waiting for me. The fee for leaving is, of course, the rest of my dried meat. There’s this feeling he sends me, like if I truly asked, he’d come with me.

I think about it for a moment, and even before I say anything, he already knows. He licks my face, then hops down and waddles off toward where Izzy is sleeping.

Truly the best corgi of the 8th... no, the 9th floor.

I’m sure they’ll be fine without me for a while. They’ll probably be much stronger by the time I get back.

After walking a bit into the forest, I activate the token. The shift is immediate. Just one step, and I’m once again in the same safe zone. This time, there’s no one waiting to welcome me.

Without any reason to linger I immediately make my way outside.