Chapter 74 The Aftershock
The silence in the rocket silo was heavy.
Just minutes ago, the room was filled with the screams of the Hollow Queen and the roar of a thousand monsters. Now, there was only the soft hum of the cooling rocket and the sound of our own breathing.
The Commander stood by the console. He stared at his hands. He was alive. He should have been glad. But he looked angry.
"You didn't shut it down," whispered the Commander. Now he cast a frosty gaze at me. "I told you to shut the magic down. Instead, you ramped it up."
"I saved your life," I murmured weakly. I was sitting on the cold metal floor, with my back against the railing. The Origin Stone pulsing in my chest looked dark, like a battery exhausted of juice.
"Were you really saving me?" spat the Commander. He gestured toward Ryker. "Look at him."
Ryker stood at the door. He didn't bleed anymore. The wounds on his arms, the deep Hollow bites, were mending. I could see his skin close. It was fast. Too fast.
His golden eyes were glowing. They didn't even blink. He looked strong. He looked dangerous.
"I feel..." Ryker flexed his fingers. "I feel awake." The air near his fingertips shimmered like heat distortion above black asphalt.
"The air is saturated," Kael said, looking down at his datapad. "Magic levels in this room are 500% higher than normal. Elara, you didn't just fill the Hollows; you flooded an atmosphere."
"Is that bad?" asked Vane, cocking his head to the side. He was tapping his mechanical arm, which was spitting sparks. "Because my arm really is twitching; the magic is very much interrupting its circuits."
"It means the rules have changed," the Commander said grimly, picking up his shotgun. "We want to get to the surface and contact my fleet. If the Overcharge turned global...god help us all."
The Climb
Leaving the bunker, with the elevator down, we had to make our way on an emergency ladder, ascending the height of the world.
Ryker lifted me. He wasn't even sweating. One arm was on the ladder; the other held me tight.
"You weigh nothing," Ryker said softly.
"I'm drained," I whispered. "I'm empty, Ryker. I gave it all up."
"You're not empty," Ryker had said. "You are just resting now. I'll be your strength for now."
There was not much left. The heavy vault door, which I opened with the commander's hand, was now wide open.
We stepped out into an alleyway.
Ruins of the city, we thought. Grey concrete, black vines, and dead bodies.
We halted. Staring.
"What...what is this?" Vane dropped his rifle.
The city was gone.
In the place, there was now a jungle.
But it wasn't the pretty type of jungle. It was nightmare-neon jungle.
"Overcharge" had hit every seed, spore, and clump of grass in its path around the city and made them grow. Fast.
Great purple-leaved trees had smashed their way through the pavement, trees that were clearly growing through skyscrapers. Bright green glowing vines were gnawing street lamps, not the dull black, dead ones of the Hollows.
Giant flowers, as large as cars, bloomed on the building sides, glowing blue.
Inhale. It was thick. It was sweet—sweeter than perfume with a tinge of ozone. Exhalation was painful, as if the air was choked.
"It's... beautiful," Kael said, extending his hand toward a fern sprouting from the crushed hood of a taxi.
"Don't touch it!" the Commander snapped.
SNAP.
The fern moved, not from the wind but snapping toward Kael's hand like a mouth.
Kael jerked back in time; the plant had teeth.
"Flora mutations," the Commander said, checking his scanner. "Hyper-aggressive growth. They are eating the magic from the atmosphere. And they are craving for protein."
"Wonderful," Vane sighed. "First with shadow monsters. Now killer salads."
"We need to get to high ground," Ryker stated. "Street is too dangerous. Look."
He pointed down the street.
Grass was moving. Not growing, but moving. Roots were tearing up the road. Nature was reclaiming the city in front of our eyes.
"To the Palace," I said. "It's the highest point. We need to go back."
"The Palace is five miles away," the Commander said, "through that."
He pointed to the dense glowing forest that was once the Financial District.
Suddenly, a shrill war cry wracked the urban jungle.
ROAAAAAR.
It was neither a wolf nor machine. It sounded like a dinosaur having sex with a thunderstorm.
Huge four-winged birds took off from the rooftops, screeching.
"What was that?" Vane asked, drawing his pistol.
"Nature hates a vacuum," Ryker replied, eyes scanning the green shadows. "We killed the Hollows. The top predator was removed. Something else just filled the space."
The Commander commented, referring to his dropship. "I have a beacon. If I can get to the roof of the library, I can call for extraction," he said.
"Your leave?" asked Kael.
Rejoining, the Commander said: "Regroup. My mission failed. I have not scrubbed it from this failed planet. I have just made things worse. I need to report back to High Command."
High Command?" Ryker asked. "You mean those who built the bomb? The ones who want to kill us?"
"The people who are the only hope for humanity!" shouted Commander. "Look around you, Wolf! This isn't a world for humans anymore! It's a garden for monsters!"
Ryker grabbed the armor of the Commander tightly.
"Surviving adapts," growled Ryker. "Call your fleet; they will simply drop more bombs. Their bombers won't come with them. No."
"Under threat of command, your hands are off me," the Commander warned.
Graves, the other Grey Knight, pointed his rifle at Ryker.
The tension was back. The truce was over.
Crash.
The argument froze.
An explosion rocked beside us - it was a part of the library's wall.
Something huge crashed inside the brickwork. Not a plant, but an animal.
It was bear-like but tank-sized. Its matted coat and glowing crystals were garnished by filth. Its eyes burned with pure blue magic.
A mana-beast.
It roared, drooling from its jaws as the drool hissed on the ground, burning the grass.
It looked at us. It looked at the Commander.
"Run!" Ryker screamed at the top of his lungs.
He shoved the Commander aside just as the Beast swiped a massive claw.
The claw hit a car and sent it flying into a tree.
"Scatter!" Vane bellowed.
We ran into the glowing jungle.
The world hadn't ended. But the rules of survival had changed. No longer were we vying for the throne. We were fighting to stay at the top of the food chain.