The Emperor's Regression

Glowing Girl

Ethan ran until his lungs burned, cutting through alleys he remembered from a world that no longer looked the same. The beginner dungeon waited two miles east, hidden behind a collapsed parking garage most people would walk right past without a second glance.

"Almost there," he muttered, jumping over a fallen street sign.

Monsters were already crawling out of cracks in the pavement, small things, weak things, easy kills for someone with his memories. He didn't stop for any of them. Every second mattered now.

The parking garage came into view, half its structure caved in from the first tremors of the System's arrival. Ethan slipped through a gap in the concrete and dropped down into darkness.

[Dungeon Detected: Hollow Roots.]

[Difficulty: Beginner.]

"Right where I left it," Ethan said, pulling a broken pipe off the ground since his knife alone wouldn't cut it against what waited inside.

He moved fast through narrow tunnels lit only by faint blue crystals growing along the walls. He remembered this place well. He had cleared it a hundred times in his old life, teaching new guild members how to survive their first real fight.

Then he heard her.

A scream, sharp and furious, echoing from somewhere deeper in the tunnels.

"Lila," Ethan whispered.

He broke into a run, pipe raised, following the sound until it led him into a wide chamber lit by more of those glowing crystals. Three goblins circled a girl backed against the far wall. She held a broken chair leg like a weapon, swinging wildly to keep them back.

"Hey!" Ethan shouted. "Over here!"

Two goblins turned toward him. The third lunged at the girl.

Ethan crossed the distance in seconds, driving the pipe through the lunging goblin's skull before it could reach her. The creature dropped, twitching, then dissolved into gray dust.

"Behind you!" the girl shouted.

Ethan spun and caught the second goblin's claw on his forearm, gritting his teeth against the sting. He drove his elbow into its throat, staggering it long enough to finish it off with a hard swing.

The last goblin hesitated, looking between them, then turned and fled into the dark tunnels.

Silence settled over the chamber, broken only by their heavy breathing.

"Thank you," the girl said, lowering the chair leg with shaking hands. "I thought I was done for."

"You're welcome," Ethan said, turning to face her properly for the first time.

Lila. Younger than he remembered her, hair not yet grown out long, eyes not yet hardened by years of war. But it was her. He would know her face anywhere.

"You're bleeding," she said, nodding at his arm.

"It's nothing," Ethan said. "We should get out of here before more of them come back."

"Wait," Lila said, staring at him strangely. "Do I know you?"

"No," Ethan said quickly. "We've never met."

"That's weird," she said, tilting her head. "You feel... familiar."

Ethan opened his mouth to brush the comment off, but something happened before he could speak. A soft golden light began to glow beneath Lila's shirt, right over her chest, pulsing gently like a second heartbeat.

"What is that?" Ethan asked, stepping back.

Lila looked down at herself, confused. "I don't know. It wasn't there before."

The light grew brighter, spilling out from beneath her collar, painting the whole chamber in gold. Lila gasped and pressed a hand to her chest like the light was burning her from the inside.

"It hurts," she said, gritting her teeth. "It actually hurts."

"Lila!" Ethan rushed toward her.

Before he could reach her, she looked up. Her eyes were no longer their normal blue. They glowed gold, matching the light spilling from her chest, ancient and endless, like something far older than the nineteen-year-old girl standing in front of him.

"I know you," she said, her voice layered strangely, like two voices speaking at once. "I've always known you, Ethan."

Ethan froze mid-step. "How do you know my name?"

She didn't answer. Her whole body trembled, gold light pouring out of her like water breaking through a dam.

Beneath their feet, the stone floor let out a deep groan. A crack split open right between them, wide and jagged, spreading fast across the chamber.

"Lila, move!" Ethan shouted.

She didn't move. She only stared at him, eyes still glowing, as the crack widened into a full fracture, swallowing the ground beneath both their feet at once.