Chapter 24: Somewhere Not here

Rylan bent a knee in front of Peter who stood completely unharmed, a smile curved his lips, this boy was proof that not everything in the world had been ruined.

“What's your name?” Rylan asked with the softest voice he could muster.

“Peter.” His voice was quiet, too quiet as his eyes wandered back to where his father's hand stuck out, Rylan held his Chim gently and turned his gaze back to him.

“Don't worry about that.”

“My dad—”

“He's ok—” a lump formed in his throat. “He's just resting.”

Peter stared at him with eyes that made it clear he didn't believe Rylan's words but he continued, he didn't care about what was going through the boys mind, all he cared about was getting him somewhere he could be safe.

“Where's your mom?”

“She's—” His eyes drifted again but before he could see the blood covered limb of his dead father Rylan nudged his head back in his direction.

“I told you, Don't worry about that, just focus on me, Only on me.”

“Ok.” Peter replied softly. Rylan smiled.

“Now peter, Where do you live?”

He didn't answer, instead he just pointed in the direction Rylan had come from. Rylan kissed his teeth, He didn't know why but for some reason there was an excessive amount of beast currently occupying that part of the city and he honestly doubted the survival rate of anyone caught off guard by this storm and as sad as it was to admit, his mother was most likely dead. Worry lined his forehead but he tried his physical best to maintain his calm demeanor.

“Nahh, sorry Pete, Can I call you Pete?”

“Yes.”

“Good boy.” Rylan mustered another smile. “We can't go back there Pete, the scary monsters have taken over that place, we can't go back.”

“But my mom is still home, she was baking cookies, she said I was gonna eat as many as I wanted because of my good report card.” The boys words hit Rylan hard but he managed to keep his smile.

“That's nice, wanna know a secret?” Rylan asked softly, Peter nodded. “I really want a cookie right now.” He admitted with a chuckle and for the first time since they met, a smile crossed the little boys face. “You're mom's waiting for us somewhere safe, She isn't home anymore.”

“Where is she?”

“Somewhere safe, somewhere better.”

His large soft green eyes beemed with joy.

“She's ok?” His bright tone made Rylan feel fuzzy and nauseated but it was his turn to nod in response. “Can you take me to her?”

“Yeah.” He lied through his gritted teeeth. “You told me your name, Do you wanna know mine?”

He nodded in response.

“I'm Rylan and I swear, I'm gonna get you somewhere safe.” He rose and extended his hand to Peter. “Can you walk?”

He nodded.

“Good, Don't let go.”

Peter had fallen asleep on his back, hangs slung over Rylan's shoulders, head resting on the back of his neck and legs held steady by Rylan as he walked through the burning remains of what was once a great city. Cracked walls, stained by the people who once resided in them, The cafes, the parks, the restaurants were all vacant of human life but beast still lingered, searching and lurking, he'd managed to avoid beast by taking longer routes and ducking behind rubble and suppressing his Arkana whenever they came across anything his system would warn them about, he'd gained something from the chaos though, his understanding of how it is the beast now attacked now that he could no longer rely on data set aggro range for beast he'd never seen, they sense Arkana first before senselessly attacking it's source, during this excursion he'd also learnt how to imbue small amounts of his Arkana into inanimate objects to serve as distractions when they refused to leave a road.

He cursed Daragura again and again, fuck their dying world, they had no right to dump their problems unto his. He was walking and grumbling inwardly when he stepped on something that slided forward and almost took his footing but quickly he slammed his feet into the ground and steadied himself, He checked to see if Peter had woken up and was glad he was still asleep, an exhausted but grateful smile crossed his lips as he let out a sigh.

\[Stamina : 23/100\]

Low, too low to continue a journey with an uncertain destination, He'd soon be rendered involuntarily inactive when his stamina hit zero, He needed to find a shelter for Peter soon, but did something like that even exist, it was definitely too early for anyone to start organizing shelters but even if the probability was gutter low he still hoped that someone had. He tilted his head to see what it was that had tripped him and immediately regretted it, Scattered remains of human flesh, his stomach turned painfully and he could feel everything he'd consumed earlier bubbling at the back of his throat begging to be released, but he shut his eyes and swallowed. He said a quiet prayer and cursed Daragura one last time before he continued toward the rail track, crossing over into the next city just as a wave of energy shot down into the earth from the growing ripples in the skys, The sound was thundering, the skies colored purple by the ripples that tore through it, slight red sparks traveling through the sky like irregular bolts of lightening, He stared at the sky, Something was about to happen and as if waiting for his thought to cue it's next action, another wave of energy burst through the ripples like sound waves and crashed into the ground with earth shattering force, gravity shifted and all of a sudden he was feeling unnecessarily light, pebbles began to lift off the ground, collections of debri unstacking themselves and floating into the air, the thought sped through his mind again, Something was about to happen, He felt a chill as all the pebbles, broken slabs of concrete, fallen poles and irreparable structures halted mid air.

\[Merger Second stage begins in : 3—2—1\]