"Am I dead?" Vi asked herself after a long moment of silence.

The darkness of this place stretched forever. In the distance, she could see light spiraling toward the center of something so massive it hurt her mind looking at it.

Her Mental Restructuring skill kicked in and arranged the spiral into something she could understand.

A massive silver pillar holding up everything that was.

She paused as she realized she had all her skills back after so many years. "Don’t tell me I have to play the system’s games even in death..."

"You’ll have to find out for me when you die," a deep voice said smoothly.

Vi’s eyebrow twitched as she recognized Faust’s voice.

’Unending Feud.’

Her Schema targeted Faust the moment he set his eyes on her without permission. The repayment was that she could see him despite being blind.

He was a burnt mess. His skin and clothes had been blackened by the golden beam. Serves him right. Having such a broken Schema was ridiculous.

But then she changed the repayment so she could see herself through Faust’s eyes. She looked as stunning as usual. Vain as it might sound, Vi was more used to watching herself through the eyes of others than her own.

She was lightly burnt but not the half-corpse Faust was right now.

Meaning only one thing...

"Can you not save me from your own attacks?" she grumbled. "I’ve already resolved myself to hate you."

"Oh, really? Thank you so much," Faust said with a wide smile.

Dealing with this boy was a hassle. The things he valued were so far from normality even among his kind.

’His kind. It’s strange that we’re both human seeds. His eyes are so comically tiny and why does his hair look like that.’

She hadn’t expected human seeds when the system confined her to the Skyworld, but she was somewhat glad to...

Lose to them?

She didn’t really know. But whatever happened there, she was glad a human would benefit at least.

"If I have to spend the afterlife with you, I’d rather go back to being alive," she grumbled nonetheless.

Faust handled pain so well it unnerved her. He pulled out a healing potion, uncorked and downed it like half his face wasn’t overcooked beef right now.

Despite how much she wanted to hate him, she couldn’t deny that he was the kind of Player her father always wanted as a son.

"Can you stop?" Faust said, twitching as his skin knitted itself back together. "You know we aren’t dead."

She opened her status screen and grimaced. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

The list was so long. So many skills. Her three Schemas were back. Level 12 (Gold rank).

"So I can squash you now that the system isn’t protecting you anymore," Vi said, flaring her aura.

Her soul was strong enough to house three Schemas. She could bring even Silver-rank experts to their knees in a rage.

But Faust had a soul so strong it was abnormal. He stared back at her with interest and scratched his chin like the Gold-rank aura was a slight tickle.

"I’m sorry—actually, I’m not sorry about what I said. Nems is dead." Faust shrugged. "What I said was true. You were too concerned with being exiled that you didn’t save her. Then you still got exiled just so you could avenge her."

Vi’s rage made the dimension tremble a little. She was holding herself back. She had been warned since she was a kid about her anger issues, after all.

"It’s a value thing to me," Faust continued, unbothered. "You were stuck between how much you valued your world’s rules and how much you loved Nems."

"Shut up!" Vi snapped, tired of his voice. "You don’t know me. I’ve lived for centuries under those rules. I loved Nems more than anyone."

Faust nodded. "Age is a good indicator of wisdom, but it’s not a guaranteed package."

Vi’s jaw hung open, utterly flabbergasted that she was getting scolded by what is essentially an infant.

"So what?! You would sacrifice everything you have to save somebody? You were willing to kill Nirvana to force me to deflect your attack out there. Don’t lecture me on doing what’s right!"

Faust sighed and shook his head.

"I don’t care what’s right or wrong. Like I said, this is a problem of values. Do I love Nirvana? Of course, I’d kill anyone for her. Except my father. But am I willing to risk her life to win? Yes."

Faust walked around her, taunting, "At least I know what I’m willing to sacrifice for her. I wouldn’t wait till she was dead; I’d kill anyone that laid a finger on her. I’m even willing to take a temporary loss to save her."

Vi wanted to be mad, but she got where he was coming from. The benefit of being trapped waiting for a century. There was no one she opposed more than herself.

"Just tell me where the hell we are."

She looked at the dark dimension and the pillar of light at its center. Faust was flinching when he looked at the pillar; his mind didn’t have the skills to protect it from things not bound by rules.

"Just before you attacked me in your blind rage, I attempted to replicate Nirvana’s position beside me with my Schema."

Vi scoffed. "Impossible. You can’t pull the original to you, so your Schema would try remaking her from her soul to body. Schemas apply personal laws to reality, but they have limits."

Faust made a yapping gesture with his hand and continued speaking, ignoring Vi’s furious glare.

"Anyway, I opened a gap and was invited in by that." He pointed at the pillar without turning. "Here, we’re away from the system’s eyes. So we can make a deal."

Vi grimaced, sensing danger. "What kind of deal?"

He means alliance/partnership/pawn. Welcome Vicius/Unlucky passenger/servant of paradise. Let us commence the deal-making.

Vi jumped at the strange voice from the pillar. Her skill reordered the information and intent behind the pillar’s words and still barely made sense of it.

She saw Faust grinning at her and snarled, "What do you think you’re dealing with, boy?"

"I have no idea; I’ve only been here for two days," Faust admitted. "Now let’s make this quick. I have a falling castle to stop."

***

A/N: Support the story with power stones and golden tickets :)