Die. Respawn. Repeat.

I spin and charge for the center of the village, where I know both Mari and Tarin are. A part of me desperately hopes I'm not too late, even knowing that I can't be — that there will be another chance. Seven loops, it seems, are not quite enough for the brain to recognize that there will be other chances.

But then I don't want to act like there's always going to be a chance in the future, do I? Sometimes there won't be. The Interface has made that very, very clear.

Which means it's time to use the points I've been holding on to.

[ Are you sure you wish to bank 67 Speed credits? ]

Yes. I'm going to need to find a way to turn off that confirmation prompt. I suppose it's useful, but still.

[ 67 Speed credits spent! Rolling for results... ]

[ Select between:

Rapid Oscillation (Rank C)

Firestep (Rank C)

Despite my hopes, there's no critical roll this time. I suppose it's a bit much to ask for.

Kinetic Transfer and Firestep are both presumably better than Rapid Oscillation; the latter sounds too situational, even beyond the fact that I'm not sure what it even does besides make me vibrate. Firestep seems more immediately helpful, assuming it makes me faster, and Kinetic Transfer seems like the type of skill that would have a lot of broad applications...

Damn. This is the first time I've really wanted both skills. Hopefully I'll get another chance to pick, but Firestep is more immediately useful, both now and for the foreseeable future.

As long as I don't set the forest on fire, anyway.

[ Firestep obtained! ]

I activate the skill as soon as I get it, feeling Firmament suddenly churn to life inside of me. The reason for the name of the skill becomes immediately clear — the Firmament it uses is hot, burning inside of me like I have a furnace boiling just underneath my skin.

Every step I take is excruciating. But they're fast, too. They channel a power I still don't understand, blurring my feet beneath me and leaving a literal trail of fire in my wake. I can feel the small trickle of Firmament I'm leaving behind, and even that small trickle is enough to burn ferociously.

Fortunately, the ground beneath me is simple dirt, and I don't have to worry about the fire spreading. I catch some of the crow guards staring at me slack-jawed, and some harpies turn towards me, recognizing me as a threat, but I blaze past them all.

I only have a second to process the sight I'm seeing in front of me.

Mari is struggling, her throat gripped in the hands of a harpy that looks exactly like all the others — and yet the sheer strength of the Firmament I feel radiating off of it is wrong. It's a step above everyone else. Mari is putting as much as she can into her wings, trying to tear off the harpy's grip, but with her Firmament suppressed and half of it keeping her neck intact and reinforcing her lungs...

She's stronger than most of the others in the village, but she's not strong enough.

Tarin's occupied. There's a second harpy that's radiating a similar amount of Firmament, the thrum in the air powerful and chilling. He's not exactly doing better than his wife, either. Mari is relatively unscratched, but Tarin is bleeding all over, deep crimson clumping his feathers together, and his breathing is hard and labored. He can't spare a second to even look away from the harpy he's fighting — they're both moving so fast it's hard for me to keep up.

This... this explains why the crows all died so quickly in the last loop. I should have realized.

Where there are raids, there are raid bosses.

With the crows prepared, they can last a little longer, but—

I'm wasting time.

Firestep is still active, burning away under my skin, and I charge forward in a burst of speed, targeting the harpy holding Mari by the throat. She seems willing to wait, taking a certain sadistic pride in watching the crow's life ebb away. It's more intelligence than I've seen from any of the other harpies.

Fortunately for me, that intelligence takes away from pure animal instinct. One of the other harpies might have noticed an angry, partially-on-fire human charging towards them; this one does not, and my fist crashes into her face with all the Firestep-fueled force I can muster. Fire trails behind my fist as it does, carrying with it a blistering heat.

It's a powerful blow. I know it's a powerful blow, and for a moment — when the sound of a sharp crack rings through the village — I think that I've won. I think that I've broken her neck, and that the rest of the raid will be easy.

It's my mistake, of course. It's only when the pain filters in through the haze of Firestep that I realize that crack isn't the sound of her neck breaking. It's the sound of my hand, my knuckles fracturing and splintering under the force of my own blow.

Even with Tough Body, it's not enough.

Second Wind.

I don't have time to be crippled by the pain of a broken fist. Blue light springs to life, cradling my broken fingers and washing away the pain, and I swing with my other hand, the one holding the scythe. The plan had been simple: the first blow was meant to stagger her and force her to let go of Mari, and I'd wanted to follow it up with a second strike to slit her throat and kill her.

But now my first blow's failed. The scythe glows with my Firmament, Second Wind reinforcing it, and the edge of the blade gleams wickedly as it streaks towards her neck. It cuts into her neck just barely — I can feel it threaten to tear its way out of my hand and snap in half, and it's only Second Wind that holds it together—

—But she spins rapidly, swinging Mari towards me to catch me in a heavy strike. I hop backwards to put myself out of range of retaliation, leaving more fire in my wake, and in response the harpy simply throws Mari at me.

At the last second I correct my course and steady myself, allowing Firestep to fall away and catching Mari as best I can without being knocked completely over. She gasps for breath as I steady her, huffing a word of thanks, but my eyes aren't on her. They're on the harpy.

A second of distraction means death. Death isn't permanent, but I haven't found out everything I can. I need to make sure the harpies have no more surprises in store for me. This is the last chance I'll have to gather information.

It's three against two, and that's going to have to be enough.

"Together!" Mari squawks, and I nod in agreement. She knows as well as I do what's at stake here. I switch the scythe over to my dominant hand, noticing for the first time the way my Firmament reacts as it moves from one hand to the other. Second Wind keeps me intact for as long as the skill is running, and it tries to extend to whatever I'm wearing and holding as well.

It's like discovering I have control of a muscle that I didn't know I had. It's a difficult muscle to flex, certainly, but with what little focus I spare I force just a little more Firmament into the scythe.

I'll need it.

The harpy smirks at us, perfectly confident in her own power. Tarin groans to the side, a half-scream emerging from his beak as talons cut deep into his chest — but he stands again, staggering to his feet, and squares off against his opponent.

The blood around him is almost a puddle, and none of it is the harpy's. He seems alright for now, but he's keeping himself alive through Firmament and determination and little else. If he doesn't get medical attention...

Mari bursts into action, and I follow suit.

We need to take care of what I'll call Harpy 1 fast. Tarin won't hold off Harpy 2 for much longer.

Harpy 1 isn't just going to let us charge at her, of course. I see the way Firmament begins to build in her throat, and I dart out of the way. "Dodge!" I call, and Mari trusts me immediately, swerving to the side; the scream that bursts out of Harpy 1's throat is several times more powerful than the other, lesser harpies. It's a solid block of sound that digs deep into the dirt and blasts out a shockwave powerful enough that both Mari and I are knocked away. Tarin stumbles, and Harpy 2 is sent sprawling.

It's a moment he can capitalize on, but we don't have time to assist. Harpy 1 is already rounding on me, kicking up a solid cloud of dust as she darts in my general direction. I grit my teeth and activate Firestep again, charging to meet her. I'm trusting Mari to back me up—

—and she does exactly that. She slams into Harpy 1 like a beautiful, winged meteor, her Firmament wrapped around her like a shield. It's not quite enough to knock the harpy entirely off course, but it's enough to slow her down, and it gives me just enough time to react to the talons that come up to eviscerate me.

I step to the side, grabbing her by the ankle and pulling. My scythe glows with Firmament and speeds towards her neck, and for the first time I see a flicker of panic enter her eyes. She lets her other leg slip and falls, gravity assisting her with the dodge — I try to react, to angle my scythe down, but it's just enough to slice deep into the flesh under her chin and not quite at her neck.

Even then, there's a surprising amount of resistance.

I have to be quick. Second Wind isn't going to last forever, and I don't want to push it like I did last loop. Even Firestep is starting to fade from my veins.

Thankfully, I'm not alone. Mari's wing cuts towards Harpy 1's throat like a vengeful god, and at the last second I reach out, my hand brushing against her wing. I treat it like an extension of my own body, the way I had with the scythe, and my Second Wind Firmament reaches out to envelop her wing.

It's pure instinct that drives me to do this, and I see from the look of surprise on Mari's face that she hadn't expected it. But it works: her wing slices through Harpy 1's neck like butter.

[ You have defeated a Lament of a Sister (Rank D)! +10 Strength credits. +3 Durability credits. +6 Reflex credits. +12 Speed credits. +9 Firmament credits. ]

The name makes me freeze. A horrible suspicion worms its way into my mind.

Right on cue, Harpy 1's corpse begins to flicker with Firmament.

This time, the thrum is loud enough to be audible, and within that thrum I hear a song: an old, grief-stricken song, sung through a melodious voice.

There's nothing I can do about it when the air, thick with Firmament, whirls towards Harpy 2. Even Tarin seems to sense that something is wrong — he jumps back warily, just in time for that Firmament to wrap into Harpy 2.

It's almost like an embrace.

But the effect is nothing like that of an embrace. Harpy 2 grows angrier than ever, and the sheer weight of her Firmament pushes out across all three of us. I'm the only one that's really affected — Mari and Tarin don't seem to notice, but they do recognize that Harpy 2 is a bigger threat now.

I don't think they realize how much. Second Wind and Firestep are both tapering off, and another activation is going to strain my Firmament again.

It's three against one, but I don't like our odds. On cue, Harpy 2 gathers her Firmament. I scramble to get out of the way, yelling for Mari and Tarin to do the same, but what comes out of her mouth isn't a scream at all.

It's a song.

A song with an impossible weight to it, dangling over us like an inescapable trap — and then it descends, crushing all three of us in a single, grisly instant.

[ You have died. +4 Firmament credits. ]