He pressed a kiss to the damp skin between her shoulder blades, then carefully pulled out.
The mess he left behind leaked down her thighs onto the already ruined sheets.
"Heart still fine?"
"Heart is fine. Dignity is another matter."
She made no move to close her legs.
"That’s not how you treat a princess."
"You asked for it."
Misha blushed hard.
"The boat leaves the morning after next. You’re going to be able to walk onto a Giant’s threshold without limping because of me. I’m going to sit in meetings with elven commanders for the rest of today smelling like this under a cloak. We’re even."
Kane stretched out beside her, brace scuffed, bruises standing out against flushed skin.
"Not even," he said.
"You still owe me the face-riding arrogance in writing. For the record."
Kane dressed slowly.
The brace made the shirt awkward.
He worked the buttons one-handed, pulled on trousers that still smelled faintly of soap instead of blood, and settled the new shoulder plates into place long enough to test the fit before taking them off again.
Full armor could wait for the boat.
Today was recovery and loose ends, not a march.
Mjoldr rested against the wall.
He picked it up, weighed it in his good hand, and opened the system with a thought.
[Rank: Resonant Axe – Bound]
[Upgrade path: Locked]
[Required materials: Not present in current inventory]
[Required condition: Host level/resonance threshold not met for next tier]
"Can I upgrade it before the island?"
[Negative. Current resonance ceiling reached for available resources. Further advancement requires densified materials of Giant-grade or higher, or a successful binding event under extreme stress.]
Kane exhaled through his nose.
"Figured."
He set the axe down and stood in the quiet of the side chamber for a moment longer.
The question that had been sitting under the recovery numbers and the departure clock surfaced the way it always did when the noise dropped.
"Once this is finished, the devils, the coalition, the fifty days. Do I go back to the real world?"
The system’s reply came without warmth or comfort.
[Host query: Return to origin reality]
[Status: Incomplete]
[Primary objective chain still active]
[Devil manifestation timeline unresolved]
[Coalition integrity unresolved]
[Return protocols: Locked until primary threat conditions are met or Host termination]
[Clarification: Completion of current continental board does not automatically trigger extraction]
Kane stared at the floating text.
"So even if I lock the Giants, even if the sky breaks and we hold, there’s no guarantee I wake up in the pod."
[Correct. Extraction is contingent on system-defined clear conditions. Current clear conditions include verified neutralization or binding of Supreme Devil influence on this layer. Partial coalition success is insufficient.]
He let the window fade.
The real world: the stream, the body that was not this one, the life that had existed before a barbarian frame and a blood-soaked tutorial, sat somewhere beyond a lock he could not pick with gold or axes.
He had known it in the abstract.
Hearing it stated while the sheets behind him still held Misha’s scent made it heavier.
He would think about it later.
Kane stepped into the corridor.
The main hall of the guest manor held the familiar noise of his household in a rare soft configuration.
Thora sat on the edge of a bench, cleaning the compact axe he had given her, expression settled.
Misha, already washed again and dressed, white hair bound, a faint flush still visible if you knew where to look, stood over a spread of harbor notes with Firlia.
Sira strung the new bow and quietly argued with Kessa about draw weight.
Griselda watched the yard through a window, wings folded.
For a moment, none of them threatened corridor sieges or rewrote rotations.
They were simply there, overlapping in the same space, and when Sira said something sharp enough to make Kessa’s ears flick, Thora’s mouth curved and Misha shook her head without looking up, and the whole group briefly shared the same unguarded expression.
They were smiling.
Kane paused at the threshold and let the image sit.
The system’s lock on extraction and the devils, all of it receded for one clean breath against the simple fact of them in one room, alive, fed, armed, and still choosing to stand on his board.
To him, they were never fictional.
"I’m going out," he said.
Several heads turned.
Thora’s eyes narrowed.
"Out where. The harbor already confirmed the boat."
"Past the outer markers. The forest belt where the first tribes used to run. I want to see if anything is still moving out there worth recruiting before we cross. Barbarian bands. Scattered fighters. Anyone who still answers to strength instead of city ledgers."
He adjusted Mjoldr across his back.
"I won’t be long. System’s clear enough for a circuit. I’m not starting a war before breakfast."
Misha studied him for a moment, golden eyes reading the decision underneath the words.
"Take a signal flare. If the devil-taint readings spike, you turn around. No solo heroics in the trees two days before a Giant landing."
"Agreed."
Sira pointed the unstrung bow at him.
"If you come back with another woman, I’m setting the sheets on fire for real."
"I’m looking for spears, not thighs."
Kessa’s tail flicked.
"Spears can belong to thighs. You’ve established the pattern."
Kane’s mouth curved despite himself.
He left them with the noise and the notes and the residual morning heat still hanging in the manor air, and walked out through the guest halls into the pale light of the elven capital’s edge.
The road from Sylvander’s outer markers into the deep forest was older than the current alliance.
This was the belt where his run had properly begun, scattered camps, hostile tribes, the first brutal lessons in what this layer considered a fair fight.
The trees closed in faster than the city maps admitted. Birdsound thinned
He walked with Mjoldr loose in his good hand and the brace a dull reminder on the other side.
"Any active bands in range?"
[Scan radius: 3 km]
[Humanoid heat signatures: 2 clusters]
[Cluster A: 6 – Low organization, likely hunters]
[Cluster B: 14 – Semi-permanent camp structure, weapons present]
[No devil-taint markers detected in immediate belt]
"Cluster B."
[Direction: northeast, 1.4 km. Terrain favors approach from creek bed.]