The sewers were more daunting than I remembered, but at least my wounds from the shadow creature had stopped stinging as much.

  Like before, I toned down my sense of smell to block out the stench, which meant that I was running with one less of my enhanced senses.

  Without a team to keep all angles covered, I found myself constantly on edge.

  Luckily, we hadn’t taken any random turns on our way in, so getting out was just a matter of following the tunnel until I reached the exit ladder.

  My footsteps hitting the cold concrete were the only sounds as I pressed forward.

  I nearly jumped out of my skin when my foot caught on something, sending me stumbling back.

  With a yelp of surprise, I quickly shot a [Needle Strike] at whatever had touched me.

  The spike impacted something and stood suspended in the air less than a foot off the ground, completely unmoving.

  I let my shoulders sag in relief as I realized what it was.

  It was just the corpse of the DarkStalker we’d killed on the way in. Now that I knew it was there, I could make out a subtle stench wafting off of it, like it had been decaying for a few days.

  Maybe rift monsters decomposed faster than normal animals?

  Regardless, its corpse meant I was getting closer to the exit.

  Soon, the hatch was in sight. Climbing up, I pushed it open and stepped into the open air, letting out an immense sigh of relief.

  Maybe my shard would let me get a call out to Myra now that I was out of that hell-scape.

  The weight left my shoulders when I saw that it had a signal. I quickly called Myra.

  It rang for a brief moment before Myra answered.

  “Who is this?” Myra’s voice was tinged with anger… and guilt?

  Well, she should feel guilty after leaving me alone in that place, but why was she asking who I was? The shard showed caller ID. Just like an earth phone.

  “Hey, it’s me, Nyxia.” I answered, letting the slight annoyance I felt slip into my tone. “You know, the person you left behind?”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Yeah, right.” She scoffed, her words slurring a bit as she talked. “I will admit, that’s a damn good voice changer you’ve got, but you’re a few days too late. Nyxia’s dead. Scam someone else.”

  With that, she hung up on me, leaving me gaping at my shard.

  What the hell was she talking about?

  “What the hell, Myra!” I cursed at the blank screen, my frayed nerves finally snapping me out of my stupor. “What’s your problem?! I almost died trying to get back on my own and this is how you react?”

  Did she really not believe I was alive? Did they even check before leaving me behind?

  Taking a breath in a fruitless attempt to calm down, I glared in the direction of Myra’s hideout.

  If not for the potential lead on my reincarnation, this whole thing would’ve been a complete waste.

  After what I’d overheard from Ellen and Myra a few nights ago, I wasn’t quite willing to jump to conclusions about their intentions, but I wasn’t leaving until I got some answers.

  It was only fair after they left me down there to die.

  ———

  I knew I wasn’t being very stealthy as I stomped up to the warehouse, but I was too angry to care.

  Even if they thought I was dead, they could have at least checked before brushing me off!

  I forced my anger down a notch as the heavy doors of the warehouse came into view.

  The doors creaked open as I approached, and Cobra stepped out with his rifle in hand, giving me a brief sense of deja vu.

  “Miss Nyxia,” he said in that same flat voice he always used. “I am rather surprised to see you, as your vital signs ceased five days ago. I had classified you as deceased.”

  “How did you read my vitals—” I started, but something he said caught my attention.

  Five days? What was he talking about?

  I couldn’t have been down more than two, maybe three days, if you count the trip back.

  “What do you mean, ‘five days’?” I asked, my voice tinged with confusion. “I couldn’t have been gone longer than three.”

  “We lost contact with you five days ago.” Cobra reiterated, tilting his head in confusion. “You were pulled down that elevator shaft and fell to your death. I caught a glimpse of your body at the bottom. You had sustained multiple fractures and major lacerations. Though, strangely enough, you seem to be in better condition now than before you fell.”

  I quickly pulled out my shard and checked the date.

  They were telling the truth.

  Was I just unconscious for that long?

  Then the realization hit me like a freight train.

  I’d died.

  And the nanites brought me back.

  The memory of the glass cylinders in the lab filled my mind. If the corporations managed to capture me, it would be an endless hell of experiments and tests that not even death could save me from.

  Or what if I got trapped in a rift monster’s lair, becoming an endless source of food.

  A shudder ran through me as images of giant spiders feeding on me over and over again crawled into my thoughts.

  Being unable to die.

  A blessing, and a curse.

  It would paint a huge target on me and anyone I cared about if word ever got out.

  Namely, Valerie.

  “Five… days,” I whispered, the words catching in my throat as my thoughts drifted to my sister. She must be worried sick.

  “I need to call my sister.”

  “I believe that to be wise, yes.” Cobra nodded stoically. “However, I would like to ask you to come inside for a moment. It would ease the ‘sour mood’—as Gordon put it—that has taken hold among the team, and perhaps get Myra to set down the bottles of alcohol she’s been draining for the last few days.”

  That explained Myra’s attitude during the call. In her mind, there was no possible chance that I survived, if Cobra had seen my body and verified my vitals.

  “…Yeah,” I sucked in a deep breath of the cold, polluted air before letting it out slowly. “I can do that.”