The bar smelled like dust, old wood, and the faint tang of disinfectant. Dane sat with his elbows on the counter, a half-empty glass between his hands. The light above him flickered every few seconds; it was just enough to remind him he hadn't passed out yet. His reflection in the glass looked older than he remembered. Harder. Like something that had been left too long in the sun.

  Rebecca wiped the counter beside him, not saying much. She'd stopped trying weeks ago. Each night, he came in with the same coin, the same stare, and the same silence.

  Every night, she tried her best to ignore her big brother.

  The door swung open, and laughter spilled in. It was a pair of girls from their block of the old communal zones. Familiar faces from before his proving. Before the mines. They ordered cheap ale, giggling until one of them noticed him.

  "Is that...?" she whispered.

  The other shushed her, voice dropping. "It's him. Don't stare. They said he was one of the mining slaves."

  The first girl glanced again, quick and guilty. "Oh my god… look at him. He looks so old."

  The word hit harder than any blade. Old.

  Rebecca shot them a glare. "He can hear you."

  They mumbled apologies, but Dane didn't react. He just stared into his drink as if it might explain something to him, why he was still breathing, why everything hurt, why the world had moved on without him.

  Two years in the dark, and now the light burns.

  The girls went quiet. The bar hummed with the low buzz of a holo-screen showing Imperial news in the corner. It showed another world undergoing its own "trial." Explosions. Screams. Commentators are talking about the "Cycle of Strength." It broke to a commercial. "The space affinity crystals are brought to you by the brave mining team. Each one volunteers for this sacred and dangerous duty."

  Dane's eyes lingered on the image of the dungeon mine and the smiling faces of the inhabitants from the new world. Was I ever in one of these commercials with a photoshopped face? Rebecca reached to turn it off.

  He stopped her hand. "Leave it."

  Rebecca's hand froze halfway to the remote. "You really want to watch that?" she asked. "You'll drink yourself blind before it's over."

  Dane didn't answer. On the screen, a city burned beneath a fractured sky. The commentator's voice was calm, almost reverent.

  "The trials of the Outer Ring continue. Only the strong will pass."

  Rebecca snorted. "Same thing they said about Earth."

  He swirled the dregs of his drink, watching the liquid tilt and catch the light. "They were right."

  She leaned on the counter, voice sharpening. "You know, this is the reason you can't find a girlfriend."

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  That got his attention. Slowly, he looked up.

  "They said you used to have a fire," Rebecca went on. "Said you made people believe in something. Now you just sit here."

  He gave a short, humorless laugh. He lifted his glass, staring at the amber surface like it might hold some kind of answer.

  "What do you know of love, little sister?" he said.

  He took a slow drink, finishing what was left. The burn hit hard, but not hard enough.

  He set the glass down and stared at his reflection in the rim.

  "That's the problem, isn't it?"

  Rebecca frowned. "What is?"

  Dane's voice came out quiet, hollow.

  "Who needs a hero when the world saved itself?"

  The holo-screen flickered in the silence, and another world took the place of the burning one; this one, they celebrated the successful conquest of a world led by the Red Rage Forrest. Sometimes they would play reruns, and one subplot had garnered his interest. It was the one about how the Emperor defeated the Demon of Chronowell. His face had been changed into something less heroic and more sinister, with sniveling features.

  Oddly, they were almost spot on with his Beast form; however, he didn't unlock that until his training on Shattered Reach long after the Emperor took a holy sword and banished the Demon to a pocket dimension.

  They even changed his real name to Deign Maledict. After all, they couldn't let out that the hero of Earth's son was the villain. They didn't show this much since they retconned the traitorous elf Amelia into a misguided hero who returned to her family. At least he could still see her somewhere.

  He let out a sigh as he waited for his little sister to come out of the back. Her shift was done. Even though he had everything that he ever wanted, it felt hollow.

  It was closing time. Even with an ascended body, he still felt the effects of alcohol, and everything was spinning. Rebecca was still in E rank, and his dense body was hard for her to drag around. About halfway back to his new apartment, he felt his other arm get lifted. The smell of wild berries filled his nostrils. He looked to the left, and it was Lyra.

  She still wore her dungeon uniform, all tactical and black. Fortunately, the diving teams were now entirely made of humans. The Earthbound System was still close enough to the Imperial one that, unless it were a high-ranking official, no one would be able to tell the difference between the two.

  "You need to start training again. If you get any fatter, you'll have to sleep in the bar."

  "Lyra, do you ever think we made a mistake leaving Shattered Reach?"

  "I think you would have been a king full of regrets, sire. And besides, Zeph looked majestic at his crowning ceremony."

  Dane went limp as sleep took him, and his boots dragged on the concrete sidewalk. He had little snores, no doubt a symptom of his recent weight gain. It was nearing twilight, and soon the monster bats would take to the sky. They were twisted things with pig snouts that curled upward. Their blind eyes had been completely removed during the introduction of mana.

  They were the size of grown men. For some reason, they never approached them. Rebecca thought this was strange, considering her brother couldn't put up a fight if he tried. She didn't believe his stories. Maybe at first she did. But the things he said he did, how powerful he said he was, she hoped it was true, but if all of that were true. Why did he sit and drink all day?

  At the very least, the streets of Austin should be the safest on Earth. No, what was more likely was that he made all of that stuff up in his head while he was enslaved. It was sad, but many people had gone into complete delusion to keep their psyche intact. Pushing out the evil thoughts with a happy place.

  A large wooden door greeted them at her brother's apartment. She put the key in the door when she heard loud footsteps, as if someone was running. Shit, not again.

  "Ms. McAlister, please wait up."

  She let out a long sigh and poised herself for the unwanted conversation.

  "Hello, Mr Edgar, how are you today?"

  "Please call me Francis. You really are a good little sister, you know that."

  "It's been a long day. Can you please get to why you ran up three flights of stairs to catch us?"

  "Well, you are three months behind on rent. I can extend it another week. However, next Friday I will be changing the locks. Here is your official notice. I am sorry."

  "Um... Thank you, Mr. Edgar. I'll have your money next week."

  Lyra looked at her for a long moment. She would offer to help pay, but this world seemed set up to squeeze every copper piece out of the people, and she could barely keep up on her own rent. They entered Dane's apartment and walked past the strange cube that he kept on a pedestal. The smell of half-rotted food and alcohol was strong. Rebecca dropped him off on the worn couch and turned on the Holo-screen.

  Though she lived two floors up, she sometimes heard her brother screaming in the middle of the night. The noise of the Holo-screen helped to drown out the noise he would make.