Wind barely managed to brush his face before he moved.

[Star's Path]

Space folded inward as his body dissolved into light, the pressure vanishing all at once.

For a fraction of a heartbeat, he ceased to exist.

Ryn appeared beside Snow, fingers closing around the hilt just as his boots scraped against the ground.

He didn't stop moving, as the second blink was already tugging at his consciousness.

The world snapped back into focus above the Gale Mantis, directly behind its head, where he'd managed to place a palm on.

The exposed gap at the back of its neck filled his vision, and there was only one thing left to do.

Ryn drove Snow forward with everything he had left.

The blade plunged in deep, going all the way down into the sword's guard.

The Gale Mantis convulsed violently as winds dispersed, sending its original attack into a burst of chaos.

It shrieked loudly, tearing through the plain and rustling every leaf within the area. The creature's massive frame shook violently beneath his feet.

Its leg buckled all at once, body tipping as it began to sway.

Ryn's balance went with it.

"—Tch."

The mantis fell sideways in the same moment, its enormous weight tearing free from its own center of mass. Ryn was thrown clear as the corpse slammed into the ground, the impact shuddering through the earth.

Snow flashed.

Essence surged weakly into the blade as Ryn shaped the soft ice particles, condensing them into a small slope.

Ryn hit against it hard.

His boots skidded violently as he slid down the frozen incline, momentum ripping through his legs and spine. The shock rattled every cracked bone in his back, sending pain through his body.

Ryn clenched his teeth as he slid all the way down, the path disappearing quickly as his MP bottomed out.

He finally hit the grass as his body dropped backward into the leaf-strewn ground.

[HP: 12/150]

[Critical Condition!]

"Yeah," Ryn muttered weakly. "Thanks for telling me the obvious."

Ryn groaned as he tried to move.

The attempt was… optimistic.

Pain flared instantly along his back, sharp and immediate, like someone had punched nails in between every bone.

His body seized, breath hitching hard in his chest as he collapsed back into the leaves.

"…Yeah," he rasped. "As expected."

He lay there for a moment, teeth clenched, cataloguing the damage the only way he knew how.

The small bones along his back were definitely broken. Ryn could feel it as he moved around, almost like little ornaments that he never asked for.

His spine itself was probably not much better.

Every shallow breath sent a tremor through it, each one threatening to turn cracks into something more permanent.

Ryn swallowed and forced himself onto his side, moving one limb at a time. His fingers dug into the dirt as he dragged himself forward, flinching every time his back shifted even slightly.

That was when he saw it.

A narrow cave mouth nestled into the rocky outcrop nearby. Just a shallow hole in the stone, wide enough to offer shelter and narrow enough that nothing large would follow him inside.

Good enough.

Ryn let out a shaky breath and started crawling.

His forearms burned as he pulled himself forward, his own blood sticking to the fallen leaves.

The cave never seemed closer.

But eventually, mercifully, stone replaced dirt beneath his hands.

Ryn slumped against the rock wall just inside the mouth, letting his head fall back as his body finally gave up trying to hold itself together.

For the first time, he allowed himself a breath, just to avoid breaking anything else.

Ryn stayed still for a long moment, waiting for the worst of the shaking to pass.

Then he reached inward.

His Essence answered sluggishly.

Ryn guided it carefully through his body, letting it trace what was intact and what wasn't. The feedback came almost immediately.

His diagnosis hadn't been wrong.

Multiple microfractures along the smaller bones of his back. The spine itself was holding, but only barely. The rest were stressed just enough that any careless movement could turn "injured" into "paralyzed".

Ryn shifted his focus and let his Essence change.

Cold spread gently through his core, he guided it along his back in thin layers, careful to keep the temperature just above freezing.

The pain dulled almost immediately.

Cold Essence wasn't true healing. It didn't mend bone or knit muscle. But it slowed inflammation, reduced internal bleeding, and eased the strain enough for the body to start repairing itself on its own.

A stopgap, like trying to restrain a flooding dam with wood chips.

Jay had taught him this technique in his first life, back when broken ribs and shattered limbs were a common occurrence.

It really was a technique born from desperation and repeated survival.

"Don't heal the wound. Give the body room to do it itself."

Ryn followed the same principle now, layering cold carefully, reinforcing without freezing, easing pressure without locking anything in place.

The shaking in his hands subsided.

His breathing steadied.

Pain was still there, but he could still afford to move around.

Ryn let his head rest against the cave wall, eyes half-lidded as he maintained the circulation.

"…Thanks," he murmured quietly, not sure who he was saying it to.

For now, it was enough.

He wasn't better.

But he was stable.

Ryn exhaled slowly as he maintained the circulation, keeping the cold Essence steady and controlled.

That was when something caught his eye.

A faint movement against his chest.

His gaze shifted downward.

The vial hung loosely from the cord around his neck, resting just above his chest.

Though…the liquid inside was moving.

It wasn't spasming like usual, feeling more like it was drifting comfortably through space.

The black substance pressed gently against the inner glass, stretching toward him instead of away like usual.

It was orienting inward.

Ryn stilled his Essence immediately.

The movement slowed.

"…That's new," he muttered.

Carefully, he adjusted the flow again—just a tiny bit this time, barely enough to qualify as circulation. The response was immediate.

The liquid surged closer to the glass, spreading wider, flattening as though trying to shorten the distance between them.

Ryn's fingers curled slowly.

He'd confirmed it clearly.

The vial had stopped reacting to the external source, but now…to him.

Ryn swallowed, chest thudding heavily as he reached up and lifted the vial away, holding it at arm's length.

He frowned at the glass.

"…So you weren't pointing the way," he murmured. "You were pointing at a frequency."

"But…" Ryn slowed.

"Why me?"

He rotated the vial slowly between his fingers, watching how the black substance shifted to follow the motion, never quite losing its orientation toward him.

Yet, a part of him wanted to know more, of why it was reacting like this.

Ryn weighed the sensation carefully, measuring it against his own condition. His Essence circulation was stable now.

He'd survived worse states than this before.

And he knew exactly where his limits were.

"If you're dangerous," he said quietly, "I'll feel it."

Ryn promised himself to expel it immediately if he felt any discomfort or felt that it was consuming something from inside.

Slowly, carefully, Ryn loosened the cord from around his neck and brought the vial closer, thumb resting against the cork.

He paused there.

Not because of fear.

But because once he opened it, the answer would stop being theoretical.

"…Alright," he breathed.

With a controlled twist, he eased the cork free.

The vial opened with a faint, almost inaudible sound.

Ryn had half-expected it to zoom towards him, and he'd have to dodge it like it was an arrow.

However, as soon as it left the glass, the tiny bit that did—hovered in the air, like it was waiting for permission.

So far, so good.

Ryn adjusted his circulation minutely, opening a narrow path through his core and opened a path from his left hand.

He reached out and grabbed it.

The substance felt smooth and cold, just a faint sensation, like static brushing against the nerves.

Ryn tensed.

His Essence flared reflexively, tightening around the intrusion, testing it for resistance.

The black substance didn't push back.

It adjusted itself to his circulation as though it had always known how to fit.

Ryn frowned.

"…That's not normal."

The moment it crossed into his core, the sensation changed, not violently or abruptly, but unmistakably.

His Essence flared, like it had just realized what was supposed to happen.

Ryn's circulation seemed to be smoother, like he'd been training this one skill for years on end.

"What's…going on?"

Out of all things, it was the system that gave him answer.

[Essence: 82]

[Essence Rank: Low-Knight]

How…that's not possible. How did my Essence increase by two?

Then, the sensation came without warning, a splitting headache scraped his mind in half.

A sudden pull brushed against his thoughts, like a hand urging him to come closer.

Ryn's eyes unfocused as he breathed heavily.

The feeling didn't originate in his body, like it was threading itself along his senses.

He swallowed hard and tried to anchor himself, cutting off Essence circulation entirely.

The pull weakened.

But it didn't disappear.

It lingered, patient and unbothered, as if fully aware that time was on its side.

He clenched his jaw, resisting the impulse to move. The urge wasn't loud, wasn't urgent, but that was what made it dangerous.

Ryn forced his gaze downward, focusing on something solid, something real.

The vial rested in his hand.

The glass was empty now.

Ryn's fingers tightened around the vial as his heart began to pound, a cold unease creeping up his spine.

"…Was this," he murmured quietly—

His voice faltered.

He lifted the vial closer, staring at it as if it might answer him.

"…a mistake?"

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