Level Up Legacy-Chapter 1424: The Witch Who Stayed

The sky above the Spirit Realm didn't follow logic. It pulsed. Shifted. Sometimes it turned violet, other times it was a dome of stars. Gala never questioned it anymore. She had spent too long here. Too long breathing spiritual mist instead of real air, too long watching seekers rise and fall like leaves in a wind that didn't always blow.

She sat atop a ridge that overlooked the Valley of Hollows, her fingers tracing the edge of her staff. The crystal embedded in the wood throbbed faintly, alive with a spirit's heartbeat. Below, a group of seekers under her command were preparing their nightly defenses, weaving nets of spiritual runes across the valley's edge. Silent figures, disciplined, loyal. All hers.

"Commander Gala," one of them called. A young girl with fox ears and nervous hands. "Scouts report movement from the east. Abyssal kind. A swarm."

"Let them come," Gala said, her voice soft but resolute. "We've danced this dance before."

The girl hesitated. "It's not just the usual swarm. There's a Seeker among them. A human one. Using abyssal sigils."

Gala's fingers paused.

A human contracting abyssal spirits was more dangerous than the spirits themselves.

"Ready the anchors. Double the outer binds. No lights," she said, standing up. Her cloak billowed behind her like a shadow stitched with moonlight. "And make sure no one dies tonight. That's an order."

"Yes, Commander."

The girl vanished into the trees.

Gala remained.

She looked toward the horizon, where dark wisps were beginning to gather like crows.

Her hand gripped the staff tighter.

---

It had been years, or something close to it. Time didn't pass the same here.

Since she stayed behind.

Since she told Diana to keep going.

Since she chose to face the Spirit Realm's decay while Arthur moved toward his next battle.

Arthur.

She hated how often she still said his name in her head.

They weren't friends at the beginning. Their meetings were more like skirmishes—sharp words, tense silences, and unspoken judgment passed like coin between strangers. He was smug, brooding, self-righteous—and always right. And she was everything he didn't understand.

But somewhere along the line, he became the only person who saw through the masks she wore.

And she let him.

They'd traveled together in Alka, across deserts and ruined cities, through dreams and dying gods. She still remembered the rain the night they first spoke without trying to hurt each other. Just a witch and a man with too much weight on his shoulders.

Now, she led a legion of seekers, most of them lost souls and wandering spirits. She gave them purpose. Trained them. Bound them with contracts she forged in fire and silence.

But none of them were him.

And sometimes, late at night, when she stared into her reflection in spiritwater, she wondered what he would say if he saw her now.

Would he still laugh at her when she got too serious?

Would he still call her "the witch with too many secrets"?

Would he still look at her the same way—like she wasn't broken?

Gala breathed in, exhaled slowly.

A shadow fell across her from above. She didn't flinch.

It was one of her contracted spirits—a falcon made of dusk and ink.

"They've stopped," it said, its voice scratchy and hollow. "Waiting. Watching."

"Then let them watch," Gala replied.

The bird landed on her shoulder, talons light. "He is getting closer. The one you wait for."

Gala didn't answer.

Because deep down, she knew.

Arthur had finally entered the Spirit Realm.

And the world would never be the same again.

---

She descended from the ridge once the stars blinked in for the third time. The camp had already shifted into its night cycle, quiet and alert. Fires were forbidden, but spiritlight drifted between the tents in faint trails of blue.

Her tent stood apart from the others. Not by design, but by consequence.

Inside, the air was still. Hanging charms of bone and crystal swayed slightly from the ceiling, as if caught in a breeze that wasn't there.

Gala removed her cloak and stood before the low basin in the center of the room. Spiritwater shimmered within. When she looked down, it did not show her reflection.

It showed a mountain. Chains. Golden light.

And him.

He was changing. Slower than she'd expected, but deeper than she'd feared. There was clarity now where there had once been chaos.

The Spirit Realm was teaching him something none of them could.

She whispered a binding around the vision and stepped back. The water went still.

Outside, a runner approached.

"Commander," the voice said, out of breath. "The forward sentries report the abyssal Seeker has retreated. Left his spirits behind."

"He was testing us," Gala said. "He'll be back."

"Should we pursue?"

"No," she said after a moment. "Not yet."

The runner left.

She sat alone again, listening to the faint hum of the contracts stitched into the air around her. Her fingers hovered over a sealed scroll marked with her personal sigil—one she'd written months ago and never sent.

Arthur would be here soon.

She didn't need to warn him.

She just hoped that when he saw her, she still looked like herself.

---

Two nights later, she stood atop a jagged ridge near the outer rings of Nexus. Mist hung low across the ravines, and the spiritlights of the city blinked like stars trapped in glass.

She saw him.

He didn't see her.

Far below, Arthur walked alongside two others—Tiara and the strange one, Ali. Their steps were slow but sure. Their spirits glowed through the haze like quiet fire.

She said nothing. Did nothing.

The falcon beside her tilted its head. "Now?"

Gala shook her head. "Not yet."

"You do not wish to speak with him?"

"I do," she whispered. "But if I speak to him now, he'll stop. And right now, he can't afford to."

She watched them until they passed beyond the slope and into the lowlands leading to Nexus's gate.

"I'll meet him in the upper layer," Gala said quietly, voice like a promise. "When he's ready. When he's earned it. When the weight doesn't pull him backward anymore."

She turned away from the ridge.

And vanished into the fog.