Muyeon blinked. A gaping hole had ripped out most of the interior display of her helmet. The protective outer layer was bent and twisted beyond repair. An errant spark flashed by her face as the connections inside the helmet overloaded.

  The armor which had stood up to countless monsters, demons, and horrors from beyond the worlds had held up valiantly, but the inhabitants of this world were something to behold. Especially under the influence of Volux.

  Carefully, Muyeon used her armored hands to remove the remains of her helmet. Shattered and bent beyond recognition, it was luck that she hadn’t sustained any major injuries.

  The scene was a bloody mess.

  “Where am I?” she whispered to herself.

  The room was empty with the exception of the gate and whatever passed for technology here that was powering it. She surmised it was a laboratory and the gate had gotten out of control. That could be the only reason she was able to pass through it.

  Two people stood over a third, the infected, and were applying medical attention. She longed to use [libra] and learn more about the locals or her surroundings, but the sparking mess of the helmet in her hands assured her that wasn’t a possibility.

  Astrid, can you hear me?

  There was no response, but Muyeon had expected that. Everything from the foreign language the locals spoke to the strange architecture of her current standings confirmed to her what she had suspected when she first stepped through the gate.

  She was off-world.

  ***

  “Dad!”

  Hana’s shriek echoed off the walls.

  Jinyoung wanted to look up, but he was too busy trying to stop the bleeding. He had attempted to wrap the wound, but there was just too much blood.

  “Willow, can you cauterize the wound?”

  When no answer came, he looked up and saw just how pale Willow was. She had fought past her limits and any additional spells would likely put her life in as much danger as the one they were trying to save.

  A voice murmured behind him. “Jinyoung, what happened?”

  Instinctively, he reached out and grabbed Hana’s hands before placing them against Youngho’s shoulder.

  “Hana, I need to hold pressure.” He tried to sound reassuring, but even he could hear the tremble in his voice.

  Hana’s eyes were wide and full of tears, but she forced herself to nod and pressed her hands into the wet jacket. Under her fingertips, she could feel the blood pooling up and bleeding through. But all she could do was hold her father’s wound tight and make sure to buy Jinyoung as much time as possible.

  The room was a bloody mess.

  It was large, but the rubble and shattered concrete made it feel smaller. Jinyoung [scanned] the room, hoping to find something to reduce the bleeding. But the system returned nothing.

  The laboratory had been emptied long before they arrived, likely to keep anything from damaging the equipment used to keep the gate open. Jinyoung thought back to the control room and remembered seeing nothing that would help their current circumstances. Further back still, the corridor that led them here had been nearly empty.

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  The slow chill of defeat threatened to wash over him. He shivered.

  “Here.”

  The voice broke through his inner thoughts and doubts. The stranger held the spear out to him.

  Jinyoung’s first reaction was to recoil away from the weapon. It wasn’t just the fact he had attacked the old man with it, but the memory of wielding the weapon was like. It was dangerous. Just using it could have killed him.

  The spear wasn’t made of light, he had realized. His hands had burned with a biting chill when he held it. Almost as if it were made out of a frozen coldfire.

  His eyes followed the shaft up the spear to the armored figure who held it out to him. How he didn’t realize the stranger was a woman was beyond him. The armor was slim and gave the unmistakable impression of a female figure.

  “Your confederate’s wound,” she reiterated. “Press it.”

  The spear tip blazed in Jinyoung’s eye.

  Unyielding Lance of []

  [Details unknown]

  User does not meet the requirements to wield this weapon.

  Restrictions will be applied.

  Details unknown.

  Until now, his [scan] skill had given him information on every item, monster, and player he had come across. But the fact that this item was outside the bounds of his abilities reinforced the danger he suspected he was in by taking hold of the weapon.

  “Jinyoung! We need to do something!” Hana shouted.

  Without any more hesitation, he took a hold of the spear and immediately felt the cold travel up his arm and slam into his heart. It was as if an icy hand was making a fist inside his chest.

  “Move…” he sputtered out.

  Hana shifted out of the way and removed the jacket from her father’s shoulder. It was a clean but, without a bandage, the blood vessels bled out freely.

  “Hold him down,” Jinyoung croaked.

  Willow moved to the ankles while Hana placed her hands on Youngho’s chest and braced herself.

  “Please hold still, dad.”

  Jinyoung put his free hand on Youngho’s chest and brought the flat of the spear up against the open wound. The flesh made a sickening sizzling sound as it was cauterized by the un-fire. Youngho’s body grew cold under their hands, but he twitched and jerked with pain.

  After a few seconds Jinyoung pulled the blade away. The wound was completely cauterized, but the skin around had turned blue.

  Willow spoke as if she could read his mind. “It’s not black though, so there’s no lingering infection.”

  Before Jinyoung respond, a hand pulled to his feet and slammed him against a wall. Hana’s face was full of rage.

  “What the hell happened!?”

  Jinyoung tried to respond, but his sister’s grip was tight and she was pressing him hard into the wall. Even if he wanted to fight back, he doubted he could. Just holding the spear for a few seconds had drained him of energy and life.

  “H-he was… infected with sin,” he gasped. “He attacked the stranger and he attacked me.”

  “Sin?” Hana repeated. “How?”

  Jinyoung tried to speak, but the little breath he had was spent. “Can’t…. breathe.”

  After a moment that stretched on just a little too long, Hana released her grip and let Jinyoung drop to the ground. It was the second time he’d been pinned by a family member that day.

  Finally, when he had caught his breath, he attempted to explain what had happened.

  “The cut on his hand,” he stammered. “It infected him somehow.”

  Hana shook her head. It didn’t make any sense. “No, that…”

  She retrieved the vial and the research drive. Jinyoung took hold of the research drive and summarily stomped it out of existence.

  “That’s one down,” he said. “Now just-”

  Jinyoung froze. He checked the quest menu to confirm that the research drive was destroyed, but saw that the quest had changed.

  QUEST: CRADLE of Ice (UNIQUE)

  Destroy the research drive (Complete)

  Destroy SIN (1/2)

  Destroy the CRADLE and close the GATE

  Reward: None.

  “Destroy sin?” He read aloud. “One of two? Willow are you seeing this?”

  It didn’t make any sense. He tried to find the reasoning, but there was no explanation. The quest had simply changed since he looked at it early, without any rhyme or reason.

  Meanwhile, Hana opened the vial and peered inside and saw… nothing. The vial was completely empty.

  Willow’s own eyes went wide when she saw the quest menu. To her mind, it could only mean one thing.

  “Sunbae?” she asked. “Where’s Seunghyo?”