Vivienne stopped in front of them.

Even in the middle of all that noise, she carried herself like the scene had arranged itself for her arrival. Cameras were still aimed across the barrier. Government agents moved in and out of the cleared area. Survivors sat or stood where they could, covered in blood, dirt, and the sort of exhaustion that made everyone look older than they were. In the middle of all that, Vivienne Mourne reached their group with the same red hair and ruby-bright stare Neo remembered.

Snot gave a tired huff through his nose.

"Didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Vivienne Mourne."

She answered with a faint curve at the corner of her mouth. "Neither did I."

Her attention drifted to the covered body beside Marika. Whatever else she was, she understood what she was looking at. Her voice lowered.

"I’m sorry for your loss. I intended to enter the Breach as well, but other matters delayed me."

That irritated Neo more than he liked.

’Does she really think one more person would’ve changed all that?’

He kept it to himself.

He also remembered what Snot had told him before, that the last time they came out of a Breach, she had been looking for him. Back then, Neo had vanished too fast with Richards to deal with it.

Snot nodded once. "Thanks for the condolences."

Marika remained on the ground beside Max, too deep inside her own pain to bother with anything else. Alice stayed beside her in silence.

Vivienne turned toward Neo after that and extended a hand.

"Nice to finally meet you properly, white-haired boy. Last time, you ran off."

Neo looked at the offered hand for a breath.

There was no real reason to refuse. It was a simple greeting, and more than that, it gave him something useful. Soul Reader would work the moment he touched her.

So he took her hand.

The system window appeared in front of him at once.

[Soul-Window]

Name: Vivienne Mourne

Age: 16

Soul Core: Heart

[983/5000]

Class: The Mourning Princess

Rank: Divine

[Description: A princess who trades away what she cherishes for power, piece by piece. Frustration faded first, then surprise, gratitude, joy, sorrow. In the end, whatever her hands hold too closely is doomed to turn to dust.]

Neo froze.

A Divine class.

Another one.

Not some hidden monster buried inside a ruin. Not a dead thing chained beneath a mountain. A real person. A girl standing in front of him under open sky with cameras nearby and blood still drying on his clothes.

Vivienne Mourne.

Of all people, her.

Snot noticed the change immediately. He could read enough from blood to know when something in Neo had gone badly off script. The spike came sharp suddenly.

Snot understood it in the worst possible way.

It was one of the rare moments he had seen Neo in physical contact with a girl who looked like Vivienne, and his tired brain made a stupid leap. A crooked smile pulled at his mouth. He kept the thought to himself, mostly because Marika was still there beside Max and this was not the time to start being a bastard for fun.

Vivienne, meanwhile, had grown confused on her own.

The handshake had lasted longer than it should have.

"Um... are you alright?" she asked.

Neo let go at once.

A trace of heat rose to his face before he crushed it down. Whatever that had looked like from the outside, it had almost certainly looked strange.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "I’m Neo."

"Neo?" she repeated. "Interesting name."

There was no mockery in it. Only curiosity.

She reached into her pocket, pulled out a small folded paper, and placed it in his hand.

"My number."

That simple gesture caused far more damage than any of them needed.

Several reporters caught it. Cameras shifted almost together and the attention that had been scattered across the survivors suddenly swung toward Neo. He hated that immediately.

’Finally.’

That thought came the moment he saw Richards approaching with several government agents and a line of vehicles behind them.

Richards raised his voice enough for the survivors nearest him to hear.

"Alright, everyone who can walk, start getting into the vehicles. We’ll notify your families. You’ll also need to come with us for evaluation and follow-up."

That cut through the media frenzy better than anything else could have.

Marika lifted her head for the first time in a while and spoke to one of the agents nearby.

"What happens to my friend’s body?"

The man’s expression softened.

"His family will be informed properly," he said. "And thank you for bringing him back. Because of that, he can be given a real burial. The government will cover the costs."

Marika lowered her head again and gave a small nod. That was all she had left to offer.

Neo folded Vivienne’s number without looking at it and slipped it away. The cameras were still pointed at him. That part only got worse once people realized exactly who had handed him the paper.

Vivienne didn’t seem bothered by that. If anything, she looked more annoyed by the crowd than by the attention itself.

Behind them, the pressure around Leo Duplain had changed as well. Her earlier reaction to seeing him had already done enough damage on its own. Reporters had started swarming that side of the perimeter with renewed hunger the moment his name left her lips. Neo noticed she was already turning in that direction again.

Richards reached their group and motioned toward one of the vehicles.

"You four, with me."

Neo moved first.

Snot followed with his usual loose stride, though the exhaustion in him was easier to see now that the fight was over. Alice came next, quiet as ever. Marika rose more slowly, like her body understood movement while the rest of her had not fully caught up yet.

Before climbing in, Neo glanced once toward Vivienne.

She had stayed behind.

And she was walking toward Leo Duplain. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Inside the vehicle, Neo took a seat beside Snot. Alice got in across from them. Marika sat near the door, not speaking, her hands resting in her lap with Max’s blood still dried over the knuckles.

The door closed.

Outside, agents were still moving. Cameras kept flashing. Richards was talking to someone just out of view. Vivienne continued across the cleared ground toward Leo while the whole mess around him thickened.

Neo leaned back against the seat and exhaled through his nose.

They had made it out.

Less than twenty awakened had survived. More than two hundred had entered that Breach. The number sat in his head like something heavy and filthy. A ten percent survival rate for kids who had only recently gone through First Resonance. That was what Breaches really were beneath all the promises of growth and treasure. A grave with rewards hidden under the bodies.

His attention drifted back toward the window.

Vivienne Mourne.

Divine class.

Heart Core.

That part alone would have been enough to leave his head spinning.

Leo being outside alive made it worse.

Neo watched the scene beyond the glass and kept one thought buried under everything else.

If he saw Leo too closely before this day ended, he still wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop himself without Snot around.