Chapter 71 - 70: A Beacon in the Darkness (part 2)
The pillar of white light pierced the heavens.
Miles away from Velaris...
A group of five survivors pushed through the dense forest, their ragged breaths the only sound beneath the towering trees. Torn clothes clung to bloodstained bodies, while crude wooden spears trembled in exhausted hands.
One of them suddenly stopped. "...Do you see that?"
The others followed his gaze.
Far beyond the endless sea of trees, a brilliant white beam stretched into the darkening sky.
For several long seconds, nobody spoke.
"What is it?" a woman whispered.
"I don’t know."
"...Another monster?"
An older man tightened his grip around his spear. "Whatever it is..." He looked at the frightened faces around him. "...it’s the only thing we’ve seen since yesterday that isn’t trying to kill us."
Silently, the five of them changed direction.
***
Not everyone looked at the light with hope.
Several miles away, another group laughed.
Their blades still dripped with fresh blood.
Three terrified survivors knelt on the ground while rough hands stripped away bags, food, and weapons.
"Please..."
"We’ll die without those."
One of the men answered with a kick that sent the speaker sprawling across the forest floor.
... A guttural roar echoed between the trees.
Monsters.
The bandits reacted instantly. Without hesitation, they shoved the kneeling survivors toward the approaching creatures.
Screams erupted.
The monsters crashed into the helpless victims.
The bandits didn’t even look back. "Run!"
As they disappeared into the forest, one of them glanced toward the distant pillar of white light. "...Looks like that might be people."
"If there are people..." Another grinned "There are supplies."
Their course shifted, not toward hope but toward opportunity.
***
Elsewhere...
Another group emerged from the mouth of a shallow cave.
Only three remained.
One carried an unconscious child across his back while another supported an elderly woman whose legs could barely keep moving.
The youngest among them noticed the strange pillar first. "It wasn’t there before..."
An older man followed his gaze silence settled over them, finally... he shook his head. "It could be salvation.... Or another trap."
Nobody argued.
After everything thus new world had shown them...
Neither possibility seemed impossible. The child on his back stirred weakly.
The old man’s eyes hardened. "...We keep moving." This words brooked no argument
Whether the light brought hope...
Or another nightmare...
Standing still guaranteed only one thing.... Death.
***
{kings Village}
The village was silent, not the peaceful silence of a resting village. It was the kind of silence left behind after too many screams.
The wooden fence surrounding the settlement had been torn apart.
Massive claw marks gouged deep through sharpened logs. Entire sections of the outer wall had collapsed inward, leaving splintered timber scattered across the blood-soaked earth
Broken spears, Shattered shields, Discarded swords and make shift spears littered what was the battlefield still lingered outside the gates, abandoned exactly where countless desperate hands had dropped them.
The metallic scent of blood hung heavily in the evening air.Smoke drifted lazily toward the darkening sky. Not from cooking fires but from funeral pyres.
Several hastily assembled piles of bodies rested beneath rough cloth coverings near the entrance. Men worked silently, carrying another corpse toward the growing line before laying it down with practiced numbness.
No one cried anymore.
There were simply too many.
Inside the territory... The devastation only grew worse.
The unorganized rows of tents that had once housed thousands of newcomers no longer existed.
Many had been flattened during the Beast Tide.
Others still stood, their canvas stained dark with dried blood, their support poles snapped or leaning crookedly into the mud.
Some survivors tried rebuilding with trembling hands.
Others simply sat where they were, staring blankly into nothing.
Nearby, a little girl wandered through the camp clutching a torn blanket. "...Mama?" Her small voice barely rose above a whisper. "Mama...?"
Nobody answered.
An elderly woman pulled the child gently into her arms, tears silently rolling down deeply wrinkled cheeks.
Not far away, a man grabbed another survivor by the shoulders. "Have you seen my wife?"
The younger man lowered his head. "... No."
"My son?"
"...No."
The man’s grip loosened. He stumbled away without another word.
Everywhere...
The same questions echoed.
"My brother..."
"My daughter..."
"My father..."
"My husband..."
Each question carried a little less hope than the one before it. Makeshift treatment areas had sprung up beneath the few tents still standing.
The wounded covered nearly every available patch of ground.
Some groaned quietly while crude bandages soaked through with fresh blood.
Others had already fallen silent, their shallow breathing the only sign they still clung to life.
A healer rushed from patient to patient without pause, her hands stained crimson long ago.
She had already run out of clean cloth.
She had already run out of medicine.
Still... She kept moving.
Because stopping meant someone else would die.
Conversations drifted through the battered camp.
"...The Lord said upgrading would protect us."
"Protect us?"
A bitter laugh escaped another survivor. "Half the people I arrived with are dead."
Someone else spat onto the dirt. "Where was the Lord when the monsters broke through?"
"I never saw him."
"I didn’t either."
"They said he was commanding the battle."
"They said a lot of things."
No one spoke loudly, no one shouted rebellion either.
They were too exhausted for anger.... Too broken.
But resentment lingered beneath every exhausted glance like dying embers waiting for fresh air.
The Beast Tide had taken more than lives. It had taken trust.
A dull ringing filled Nina’s ears.
Everything else felt distant. The cries, the shouting, the crackling funeral pyres. Even the footsteps around her sounded muffled, as though she were walking beneath deep water.
Her legs carried her forward without purpose. She no longer knew where she was going. Or why.
The sleeve of her left arm fluttered weakly in the evening breeze.
No.
Not her sleeve.
What remained of it.
The bandages wrapped tightly around the stump beneath her elbow had long since turned a dark crimson. Every heartbeat sent another pulse of pain shooting through what was no longer there.
Her hand was gone.
The monster hadn’t simply bitten it.
It had torn it away.
The memory surfaced without warning.
Rows of jagged teeth.
The sickening crunch of bone.
Her own scream.
Nina squeezed her eyes shut. "No..."
She couldn’t think about it. Not now. If she remembered everything, she wasn’t sure she’d have the strength to keep walking.
Her clothes were caked with dried blood, dirt and torn leaves. Strands of tangled hair clung to her face while scratches covered nearly every inch of exposed skin.
She hadn’t eaten since... she couldn’t even remember.
Her lips had cracked from thirst, and her body felt unbearably heavy. Every step demanded more strength than the last.
Around her, King’s Territory continued trying to survive.
People rebuilt broken tents while others searched desperately through rows of bodies covered beneath Large leaves. A mother collapsed to her knees after recognizing a familiar pair of boots beneath one of the leaves. The sound of her sobbing followed Nina long after she walked past.
She didn’t look back.
She couldn’t.
Because she was afraid she’d recognize someone too. She had lost sight of familiar faces she’d arrived with during the Beast Tide.
Maybe they were alive. Maybe they weren’t.
She no longer had the courage to ask.
"...Nina."
The gentle voice surfaced suddenly in her memories.
Veronica.
She could still remember that warm smile.
"We are leaving."
"Come with us."
At the time, she had smiled politely and refused. This Territory had seemed safer.
A (not so proper) Lord, thousands of people, guards and a wooden fence that seemed capable of keeping out those monsters..
Who would leave all of that for God knows what?
A weak laugh escaped her cracked lips.
How foolish. If she had gone...
Would she still have both hands?, Would she still be smiling?
Or would she simply have died somewhere beside the Hale family instead?
She didn’t know. And somehow...
Not knowing hurt even more.
A pair of rough hands suddenly grabbed her shoulder. "Hey."
Nina flinched violently.
Two men stood behind her. Neither wore the expression of someone trying to help. Their eyes lingered on her torn clothes, the dried blood staining them, and finally settled on the fact that she was alone.
One of them smiled. "We’ve got a place you can stay."
Her stomach turned.
Without waiting for an answer, the second man reached for her remaining arm.
Nina reacted instantly. She stumbled backward, letting her knees buckle as though she’d completely lost her balance. The sudden movement threw both men off for a split second.
It was enough. She spun and ran.
Pain exploded through her entire body with every step. "There she goes is!"
"Catch her!"
She didn’t stop.
She darted between collapsed tents, ducked beneath a broken wagon and squeezed through a gap too narrow for either man to follow comfortably.
By the time they fought their way around it...
She was gone.
Hidden among dozens of frightened survivors.
Only then did she finally stop.
Her breathing came in painful gasps as tears blurred her vision.
Even here...
Even after surviving the monsters...
She still wasn’t safe.
Her shoulders trembled.
This Territory. The place she’d believed would protect everyone.
Now felt more terrifying than the forest outside its walls.
Then...
Someone gasped. "What... is that?"
More voices followed.
People turned toward the horizon one after another.
Nina slowly lifted her head.
Far beyond the towering trees, a brilliant pillar of white light pierced the evening sky.
It stood impossibly straight. Silent. Unmoving. Beautiful.
"What is it?"
"Another monster?"
"A Lord Skill?"
"No..."
"I’ve never seen anything like that..."
The camp erupted into frightened whispers. Nobody understood what they were looking at.
Neither did Nina. She stared at the distant light for what felt like forever.
It could be another nightmare. Another trap.
Another place where people died screaming.
But if she stayed...
She already knew what awaited her.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
Resolve settled into her exhausted eyes.
Tomorrow. At first light...
She would leave. She didn’t know where the light came from. She didn’t know what waited beneath it. She didn’t even know if she’d survive the journey.
Maybe she’d die to monsters. Maybe hunger would claim her first. Maybe she’d collapse long before reaching it.
None of it mattered anymore.
Anything... Was better than staying here.
She looked toward the impossible white beacon one last time.
Then silently made her choice.