After gasping for a long while, Ophelia roughly wiped the blood from her mouth.

“Ptooey.”

Dragging her exhausted body upright, she walked toward the bed.

Irregular, wet crimson footprints marked every place she passed.

When Ophelia finally reached the bed, she collapsed upon the tattered blanket. The sight of her legs trembling as though convulsing merely from walking such a short distance seemed almost ridiculous.

‘It will all be over soon anyway.’

A sense of liberation filled her lightened heart. The prospect of soon escaping the dark, cramped confines of the Spire brought her immeasurable relief.

Perhaps she would finally enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep for the first time in her life.

As she gradually drifted off to sleep, Ophelia was filled with anticipation.

Clank.

“……What?”

Ophelia raised her head at the sound of an unfamiliar metallic clatter and saw that one of the iron bars that had guarded her window all her life had fallen.

Why had it fallen?

Was she seeing things?

She pushed herself upright and narrowed her eyes.

The iron bar that should have been firmly embedded among the others was now lying alone on the floor.

Dazzling light streamed through the window into the attic, which had always been dim.

“Ah……”

It was real.

The bars on the window had been removed.

The cramped attic. The pitch-black stone walls.

Everything else was exactly as it had always been, yet the mere absence of the bars made the room feel profoundly unfamiliar.

As though entranced, Ophelia rose.

Her steps towards the window were unsteady at first, but gradually became steadier. Her pounding heartbeat thundered in her ears.

Ophelia hurriedly reached outside.

The cold winter wind brushed her palm, but no matter how widely she swept her arm, she felt nothing.

“My goodness……”

Lost in thought, Ophelia stared out of the window.

She had never seen such an unobstructed rectangular view before.

She rested her hands on the windowsill and leaned her head out of the window. Vast, snow-white mountains and an immense blue sky filled her vision.

Although she had only put her head out of the window, the world instantly felt much bigger.

“……So far away.”

So the sky was truly that high.

She raised her arm, but she could not reach it. Even if she climbed upon the bed and stretched out her hand, it seemed impossible to touch.

The brilliant light stung her eyes, but Ophelia could not look away.

“Haa—”

Ophelia took a deep breath in and out.

Cool, fresh air filled her lungs before flowing out again.

The winter wind was cold enough to ache deep within her bones, but she was not troubled by it.

Her heart pounded as though it might burst.

Was she dreaming?

She did not know why this had happened, but the outside world unfolding before her tasted impossibly sweet.

It felt as though her airways had opened and her vision had become clear.

This was completely different to peering through gaps in the bars that were barely wide enough for a single finger.

“……No.”

Ophelia murmured without thinking.

Although she had only looked outside once, she no longer wanted things to be the way they had been.

When she woke up from her dream, she didn’t want to see the iron bars obstructing her view of the snowy mountains again.

Tap.

Ophelia immediately stepped onto the windowsill and threw herself outside.

The act required not even a second of hesitation.

She was greeted by the weightless sensation of falling and the unrestrained wind.

***

“Hoo……”

A desert under a blazing sun.

The heat was unnatural, caused by the rampage of a fire spirit.

Kapkan walked across the sand with two unconscious desert warriors draped across his back.

Despite the weight of the two fully grown, well-trained men, who were almost his size, draped across his shoulders, Kapkan advanced without faltering.

Sweat streamed down his sun-darkened skin.

The ivory-colored cloth wrapped around him to block the scorching sunlight seemed to be of no use. His sweat evaporated almost instantly, leaving faint stains on the fabric.

“Haa…… Haa……”

“Haah…… Hngh……”

Several camels laden with supplies and around twenty warriors followed behind him, breathing heavily.

The brittle sand sank deeply beneath their feet with every step. Hardened patches of sand, melted into glass, caught against their feet.

The intense, unique desert heat rose from the endless dunes.

Kapak’s black hair was drenched in sweat as he drew a laboured breath.

“Hngh…… Hoo……”

It had already been a month since they began wandering the desert in search of the fire spirit’s altar.

Yet not only had they failed to find their destination, but it had also been nearly two days since any of them tasted even a single drop of water.

‘……D*mn it.’

Were human beings really this powerless against nature?

Kapkan bit down on his parched lips. His breath caught in his throat and his skin burned with searing heat.

The dry, moistureless air made him feel as though his lungs were being roasted.

Green afterimages flickered before his eyes. Whenever he took a step, his vision would black out repeatedly, as though a fuse had blown, before gradually returning.

He wasn’t a medical expert, but he immediately recognized these as dangerous signs.

‘……If only we could see the stars, at the very least.’

Their map was lost, their compass was broken and sandstorms obscured the night sky.

As if that were not enough, the temperatures were so erratic and extreme that their clothes sometimes caught fire spontaneously.

They had never wished for so many terrifying disasters to descend upon them all at once in this vast desert.

Who in the world would willingly wander across the desert for a whole month without any assurance of returning alive?

Their food was almost gone and they had run out of water two days earlier.

The relentless heat and thirst were more than enough to bring even Kapkan and his most elite warriors to their knees.

The heat made even a single step unbearable.

Yet the moment they collapsed, it would be over for all of them.

The reality was brutally simple and clear.

‘D*mn it.’

Kapkan clenched his molars until they throbbed.

Countless curses repeated endlessly inside his mind.

Then, the moment he passed his limit, every thought converged upon a single thing.

‘Water……’

If only he could drink a mouthful!

If only he could swallow a single drop… His thirst knew no bounds. He resented the seemingly endless desert stretching out before him, and the gritty sand beneath his feet felt unbearably heavy.

Soon, Kapkan could no longer deny what his instincts were telling him.

The long journey across the desert, undertaken in the desperate hope that they were travelling in the right direction, would end in the deaths of the dozens of people following him.

He had fought hard to save his miserable life, but no miracle had occurred.

They would all become sun-bleached skeletons on these desolate dunes.

For someone who had lived with a certain degree of pride, it was a remarkably ordinary way to die.

Kapkan continued forward in bitter resignation.

But at that moment, one of his warriors pointed to a spot in the desert and cried out.

“……W-what is that?”

The warrior’s desperately extended arm trembled violently. He shouted in astonishment.

“Is…… Is that water?”

Every warrior’s gaze snapped toward the same place. Dozens of eyes blazed with sudden intensity.

“What did you say?!”

“Water?”

“Where? Where is it?!”

The desert warriors, driven nearly mad by the heat, erupted into a frenzy.

They had all crossed the desert for two full days without drinking a single mouthful of water.

None had spoken of it aloud, but every one of them was suffering from thirst and nearing complete exhaustion.

“O-over there!”

With terrifying determination, the warriors followed the youngest man’s outstretched finger.

Far in the distance, beyond the golden-yellow dunes, they discovered an unidentified white shape.