Uncovering the Plan

T

he camp was quiet after the battle, but it wasn’t a peaceful quiet—it was the kind that hummed with tension, as if the air itself was holding its breath. We had won, for now, but victory felt fragile. The golem was defeated, the immediate threat extinguished, but something deeper churned in my gut. The puppeteer’s letter weighed heavily in my hand, each word a taunt, a reminder that this was far from over.

Victor sat across from me by the remnants of the campfire, his face cast in shadow by the flickering flames. His expression was hard to read, but there was a grimness to him that hadn’t been there before. Aria stood a few paces away, arms crossed, her gaze locked on the map spread out on the ground between us.

“Destabilizing the core of the virtual realm... it's worse than anything we imagined,” Victor said quietly, breaking the silence. His voice was low, measured, but the weight of the words hung between us.