After Summer woke up, Damien and Luka quickly informed her of their situation. Given the aftermath of their battle and how loud it must have sounded across the dead streets, the trio agreed they needed to move.
The clash would've drawn monsters—and maybe worse.
Unfortunately, Damien couldn't move a muscle. His body was a symphony of dull aches and sharp stabs, every breath another reminder of the punishment he'd endured.
In response, Summer encased him in a shimmering, translucent bubble, floating just above the cracked pavement.
Three smaller orbs followed beside him, each carrying the broken, lifeless bodies of the rabbits they'd killed. Luka scouted ahead in silence, eyes sharp, blade ready, ensuring their path remained clear.
As Damien drifted forward, the ruined city whispered around him. The wind wove through crumbling alleyways and collapsed rooftops, carrying dust and the faint, rotten tang of time. Shadows stretched like long fingers across the shattered pavement. Already on its way out, the sun cast only a weak amber light through the broken skyline, painting the ruins in soft, rust-colored gloom.
He guessed it was just past seven p.m. The fight couldn't have lasted more than thirty minutes, and they'd been walking—or floating—for another half-hour since. That meant they'd woken up around six.
'Good to know,' Damien thought, watching a twisted street sign dangle from one rusted chain. 'Keeping track of time might be more important than I thought. The top ten teams'll probably take a month, maybe more, to clear this trial, and we need to beat them all.'
His mind wandered, piecing together fragments of academic lectures, dusty textbooks, and whispered rumors. The terrain felt familiar in a wrong sort of way. Forgotten but remembered, he knew this place.
The Conquered Islands, one of the many they'd studied. That meant…
'We're on the Fractured Isles,' he realized, heart dropping like a stone. 'Great.'
To his left, Summer walked ahead of the floating corpses, silent and focused. Her eyes swept the road, flicking between rusted cars and half-collapsed storefronts like she expected something to lurch from the shadows at any second.
"Hey," Damien said, breaking the silence. His voice echoed strangely inside the bubble. "You know where we're at, right?"
She didn't look back, just kept her gaze pinned forward, but after a moment, she answered. "Of course I do. The Fractured Isles, right?"
He nodded slowly, thankful he could even do that now. Forty minutes ago, even moving his neck would've sent fire through his spine. The bubble was doing more than just carrying him—it was healing him, bit by bit.
Still, the way she hadn't looked at him made something twist in his chest. So, quieter this time, he muttered, "Yeah. I think so too."
Summer shook her head faintly, voice just above a whisper. "Thank god we landed in the ruined city, and not the lake."
Her tone was flat, but Damien caught the tension laced in it. She wasn't saying that for small talk; she was saying it because she meant it.
The Fractured Isles split into four distinct regions: the ruined city, the great lake, the barren wasteland, and the mountains.
The ruined city was dangerous—of course it was—but only third on the death scale. Second went to the wasteland. First? The lake.
'Thank the Gods is right,' Damien thought grimly. 'After everything I've read about that place, I never want to set foot near that water.'
And the moment the thought formed, dread coiled in his gut.
'Shit. Did I jinx us?'
He turned to speak again, maybe to shake off the creeping feeling crawling up his spine, but before he could say anything, the echo of approaching footsteps snapped both of their heads toward the road ahead.
They came fast, sharp taps on concrete, rhythm too even to be a monster's.
Damien's eyes locked with Summer's. Urgency flared. "Put me down."
Her expression tightened. "Are you sure? You're still messed up and those injurie—"
"I'm fine now, do it!" he snapped, cutting her off.
Total lie. Every inch of him still screamed in protest, but at least he could fake it thanks to her.
The footsteps drew closer, echoing louder through the skeletal remains of the city.
A figure stepped around the bend in the road.
Damien's pulse spiked—then quickly settled.
It was Luka, returning from his sweep ahead, dust clinging to his boots and the faintest smirk playing on his face.
False alarm.
"Don't scare us like that, idiot!" Summer shouted, louder than intended. The sound echoed sharply down the ruined street. Realizing it, she clamped both hands over her mouth like she could somehow pull the words back in.
Luka blinked at her, head tilted with genuine confusion. "My bad," he said dryly, voice low. "Next time, I'll shout your names at the top of my lungs and attract every monster within a mile. That better?"
Damien chuckled, the sound short and weary as he lowered his sword. He jumped in before Summer could fire back. "Did you find anything?"
Luka's face lit up like an eager pup. "As a matter of fact, I did," he said with a bit too much pride. "There's a two-story building just up ahead—still intact."
The tension in Damien's shoulders eased slightly at the news. Relief swept through the group like a quiet exhale. Shelter before nightfall meant survival. Without it, they'd be exposed—wounded, exhausted, and glowing targets for whatever else prowled these streets after dark.
Luka gestured down the road. "If we move now, we'll make it before sunset."
None of them wasted another second.
Or at least, they tried not to.
Damien took a step, and pain exploded up his legs like fire threading through his bones. His knees buckled, and the sword nearly slipped from his grip as the world tilted sideways.
'Damn it—'
But before he hit the ground, warmth wrapped around him. A shimmer of golden light swept over his skin, and he was weightless in the blink of an eye, hovering gently inside another translucent bubble.
He looked up to see Summer smiling down at him, the glow of her magic soft in the fading light. "Just let me carry you, dummy," she said, her voice gentle now. "It's the least I can do after you guys saved me."
He opened his mouth to argue. Damien didn't like being baggage—loathed the thought of slowing them down, but the words never came. Logic won this round, and pride could take a backseat for once.
'Cute and reliable,' Damien thought, watching her walk beside him with steady focus.
"Thanks," he said quietly, returning her smile with one of his own.
And then they moved together. Luka led from the front, blade in hand and eyes scanning every corner. Summer walked just behind, guiding Damien's floating bubble with practiced ease.
In the air behind them, drifting like grim trophies, were the three bloodied rabbit corpses.
The ruined city stretched before them, shadows growing longer by the second.
Night was coming.
…
After about twenty minutes of walking, the trio arrived at the building Luka had found.
It stood roughly eight meters tall—cracked and weather-worn, but still holding itself together better than most of the city's ruins. Where others had crumbled into twisted steel and concrete piles, this one remained upright, a tired survivor in a dead land.
The sun had vanished by the time they stepped inside. Shadows swallowed the horizon, and somewhere far off, monsters howled under the newly risen moon. Other noises followed—screams, screeches, things unidentifiable. The kind of sounds that made your spine twitch and your grip tighten around a blade.
They climbed to the second floor and claimed a room with no windows and only one entrance. The air inside was dry and heavy, but the flooring was solid, and the space was large enough to lie down without being cramped. That alone made it a palace according to island standards.
Summer placed glowing barrier bubbles at every entry point in the building—soft, golden spheres that shimmered like warm lanterns. If anything breached them, they'd pop instantly, acting as alarms. With their perimeter secured, the trio could finally turn to what they'd been anticipating since the rabbits fell.
Absorbing their energy.
As newly awakened, none of them had done it before. This would be their first step toward becoming stronger.
Like monsters, awakened humans were ranked from Grade One to Five, depending on their strength. And the only way to climb the ladder—beyond honing your ability—was to siphon the raw energy from dead monsters or humans.
'Finally,' Damien thought as Summer released her barriers. The lifeless rabbit corpses dropped to the floor with a thud. Thanks to the cleansing properties of the bubble, they didn't smell like rot—they smelled faintly of soap and detergent.
His eyes immediately fell on the one he had kicked against the wall. It was still partially splattered across the side of the room.
They'd gathered what they could from it before leaving the field.
'Damn right, bastard. Don't ever run from me again,' Damien thought, still irritated that the creature had targeted Summer mid-fight.
"How do we want to split them up?" he asked, scanning the bodies.
He expected Luka to answer first—he hadn't wiped the grin off his face since they entered the building—but surprisingly, Summer spoke.
"I'll take the broken one," she said, stepping forward. "I was out for the fight. It's only fair I get the least reward."
Luka piped up next, still grinning. "I'll take this one," he said, pointing to the rabbit he'd clashed with head-on.
Damien shuddered involuntarily. He remembered the look in Luka's eyes during that fight.
Still, he said nothing. Instead, he quietly made his way to the last corpse—the one that had nearly killed him. Thanks to Summer's healing, he didn't feel the damage anymore, but part of him welcomed this moment—he was ready to take something back from the thing that nearly ended him.
'Guess who's getting the last laugh, bastard.'
He sat down beside the rabbit. It was missing an arm, and its head had been split cleanly in two. Damien placed his right hand on its cold, fur-covered body and focused.
'How do I do this again?'
He'd read about energy siphoning in his textbooks, but this was his first time. Reading theory didn't exactly prepare you for the feel of a cooling corpse beneath your palm.
"Feel its energy, dumb goblin," chimed a grating, sarcastic, and familiar voice.
Damien blinked.
'Hey, you're back. Where'd you go? Vacation?' he thought, amused. He knew better, of course. His so-called teacher lived inside him, bound to his soul.
But no response came.
'Strange,' Damien thought, but he didn't dwell on it.
He focused on the body beneath his hand, letting his senses expand. Slowly, he began to feel something subtle but powerful coiling deep within the rabbit's remains—a faint hum of raw, wild energy.
He visualized it: energy moving from the beast into him, mixing with his own, and then, as if obeying his will, flowing, rushing through his energy network like a river of heat and static.
Power surged through him, tightening his muscles and increasing his stamina. His energy became more condensed, sharper, and heavier.
He could feel the difference, but it ended just as quickly as it began.
The energy ran dry.
'Huh. Guess Grade One beasts don't give you much.'
Still, he wasn't disappointed. It wasn't much, but the change was there.
He slumped back against the wall, letting out a soft exhale. Across the room, Summer and Luka had just finished siphoning.
All three of them had done it.
They were stronger now.
It wasn't much, but it was a start, and for now, that was enough.