Her offer hung in the air of the Winner's Circle, as heavy and unbelievable as the Prototype Weapon Core floating on its pedestal of light. An offer of alliance. From the leader of Ouroboros. The world had turned completely upside down.
"An alliance?" Anya's voice was sharp, incredulous. She stepped forward, positioning herself slightly in front of me, her hand never leaving the grip of her pistol. "You want an alliance with the people who have been trying to kill us since day one? The same faction that put this hole in my leg?" She gestured angrily at her own glitching limb, the red static a stark reminder of her battle with Kain's pack. "No chance. This is a trick."
Her distrust was a shield around us, thick and justified. Every instinct she had, every lesson learned in this brutal world, screamed that this was a lie. Ouroboros were the enemy. They were the snakes. You do not make a deal with a snake.
Seraph did not flinch at Anya's hostility. She simply lowered her outstretched hand, her silver eyes filled with a patient understanding. "I understand your anger," she said calmly. "The Ouroboros you have fought, the one led by Viper and Hydra, was your enemy. They were my enemy, too. They corrupted my home, my family. I have been fighting them from the inside for a very long time."
She turned her gaze to me, her expression serious. "My offer is simple," she said. "We want the same thing, Leo. Freedom. An escape from this prison. The Idealist faction of Ouroboros will ally with you. We will help you complete the Exile's Path."
The offer was tempting. Dangerously so.
"What are your terms?" I asked, my voice cautious.
"We have resources you lack," Seraph explained, laying out her side of the bargain. "We have dozens of skilled players. We have intelligence networks that monitor the system's match schedules. We know which arenas will be active, which special events are coming. We can help you get into the specific matches you need to be in. When the System's Enforcers come for you, we can be there to fight them off. We can provide protection. Support. We know more about the system's inner workings than anyone outside the Oracle's cave."
It was everything we needed. A private army. A team of experts. A shield against the storm that was coming for me.
"And your price?" I asked, knowing that nothing in this world was free.
"The Exile's Path cannot be a secret for one person," she said, her voice firm. "When we find the way out, it must be for everyone. My Idealists. Your friends. Anyone who wants to be free. Freedom for all, or for no one. That is our price."
It was a noble price. An honorable one. It was exactly what Caden would have wanted.
But the risk was immense.
"No," Anya said again, her voice like stone. "I don't buy it. They're snakes, Leo. All of them. They'll use us. They'll let us do all the dangerous work, take all the risks, and then when we have the final key, they'll put a knife in our backs. I've seen it a hundred times."
She was right to be afraid. I was afraid. I had spent my entire time in this world fighting Ouroboros. The idea of working with them, of trusting them, felt like a betrayal of my own survival instincts. It felt like walking willingly into a viper's nest.
Seraph saw the doubt on my face. She made her final, compelling case. "You are an Anathema, Leo," she said, her voice soft but firm. "The System itself is now your enemy. Its 'gods' have seen your face. They will send their Enforcers. They will corrupt your matches. You and Anya are skilled, but you cannot win a war against the game itself. Not alone."
She then played her trump card. "You need components to heal your friend's leg, do you not? Parts from Cleaner maintenance drones?"
My head snapped up. How could she possibly know that?
"I told you," she said, a faint smile on her lips. "We have intelligence networks. We have spies in the Undercroft. We know about the Oracle. We know about Glitch." She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. "And we know that a 'System Sterilization' protocol is scheduled for a map called 'Decommissioned Med-Bay Lethe' in three cycles. That is your only chance to find the drone parts you need."
She was offering me a cure for Anya's leg. A tangible, immediate reward. A sign of good faith.
The system's teleportation sequence began, the familiar blue light starting to glow around us. Our time in the Winner's Circle was over. We were being sent back to the Undercroft.
The journey was a silent, tense moment of thought. When we materialized back in the Oracle's cavern, the tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. Seraph and two of her silent, visor-wearing guards had teleported with us, a feature I did not know was possible. They stood patiently on one side of the cavern. Anya and I stood on the other.
Anya's face was a storm of anger and distrust. "Don't do it, Leo," she pleaded in a low whisper. "Please. There has to be another way."
I looked at her. I saw the pain she was trying to hide, the frustration at her own corrupted, broken body. Then I looked at the Prototype Core in my inventory, the next step on a quest that seemed impossible to complete alone. I was tired of fighting alone. I was tired of being the nail that was always being hammered down.
I made my decision.
I walked across the dusty floor of the cavern, stopping in front of Seraph. Her guards tensed, but she held up a hand to stop them.
"We have a deal," I said. The words felt strange, like a betrayal and a relief all at once. "On one condition."
Seraph's silver eyes focused on me. "Name it."
"Anya comes first," I said, my voice as hard as steel. I would not compromise on this. This was the test. "Your information is good, but it's not enough. You give us the location, the time, everything we need to know about that sterilization match. You help us get in. We go there, we get the parts, and we heal her leg."
I took a step closer, my gaze unwavering. "Then, and only then, do we talk about Hades Forge. Only then do we talk about the Exile's Path. Prove to us that this alliance is real. Prove to us that you can be trusted."
I was forcing her to prove herself. To put our needs ahead of her own. It was a test of her sincerity. Her response would determine everything. It would tell us if this new, unholy alliance was our salvation, or just another beautiful, deadly trap.