Blackened clouds covered the sky, and not even a bit of sunlight got through. The street seemed desolate. The small shop next to his building was empty, the entrance window broken into pieces. The next two small apartment buildings had broken windows and smears of dark substances throughout the walls.

  "I think—"

  "We already checked the neighborhood while you slept. There's no one left in this city block. That building has some dead families, and we couldn't find any survivors. We hope, and believe, some managed to get out."

  Alex stilled himself. Ideally, the authorities should come and identify the people. But now, with no authorities, barely any connection, and the utter chaos that was the city, Marion and her people would have to deal with the bodies.

  As if reading his mind, Samantha addressed his concerns.

  "Marion wants to cremate them. It is dirty work. She doesn't want to get you involved."

  "I see. How many people did you find?"

  "More than twenty. Mind you, it's only this city block. Just so you know, most were devoured by shoggoths and morphs. We spent some time killing the remaining ones in the morning."

  Alex nodded slowly.

  "Well, I don't want to waste any more time here. Let's go."

  The next few city blocks were apparently clear of monsters. Samantha said they had probably gathered where there was a strong human presence. The city, aside from that, was a mess. Windows and doors had been torn open, cars had been left in the middle of the street, broken windows, and flies buzzing inside.

  "So," he said, looking at the scorch marks on the pavement, "that energy blast thing they were throwing around in there. Is it hard to do?"

  "It's super easy," Samantha said. She reached into the pocket of her vest and pulled out a tiny planner. The paper was worn thin at the creases.

  "What's that?" Alex asked.

  "My sigil diary," she said. "I used to write down anything useful to memorize back when Marion was teaching me. Now, the system has made it obsolete, but it can help you."

  "Alright, let's see."

  One page had been marked with a strip of duct tape. On it, there was a sigil of interlocking curves and straight lines arranged around a tight central knot, with two letters that looked Phoenician or ancient Hebrew.

  "This one is a basic mana discharge," Samantha said. "Forty MP. No modifiers. No buffers. It's the one everyone learns first because it works even if your control is garbage."

  Alex leaned in. He traced the pattern with his eyes, following the order of the lines as she tapped them.

  [SKILL LEARNED: MANA BLAST]

  "Alright, the HUD said I've got it," Alex said.

  "See how good you have it."

  "Imma try it," he added.

  He turned around to face a stretch of blank brick wall on the side of a destroyed bakery.

  "Aim between the windows," she said.

  He raised one hand. The skin on his palm prickled as he tried to hold the pattern in his mind. The sigil formed in front of his eyes like a glowing orb of light.

  [SKILL USED: MANA BLAST]

  [MP: 200 → 160]

  A compact surge of force burst from his palm, red in color. It crossed the street in a straight line and struck the brick. Dust blew outward. A chunk of mortar cracked free and fell, scattering fragments onto the pavement.

  Alex lowered his hand, breathing hard. He stared at the mark he'd made in the wall.

  "Badass. And surprisingly easy."

  Samantha nodded. "You have it easy."

  "My inner child is happy," he said.

  Alex flexed his fingers. They tingled, as if he'd held them too close to a flame.

  "Come on, no need to waste any more time."

  After a few blocks, Alexander could hear movement nearby, with uncanny scraping and clicking and things moving through the wreckage. He promised himself that if he heard anyone screaming, he'd go and try to help, but there was no human voice or sound nearby.

  His attempts at shouting had Samantha press her gloved hand to his mouth.

  Fenrir padded beside him. The creature made no sound despite its size.

  "You said Marion taught you," Alexander asked her. "Where did you meet her?"

  She stopped abruptly, taking a deep breath. The way she looked at him told him she wasn't pleased with the question.

  "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to," Alexander said.

  "No, it's okay," she said. "She helped me a lot. I thought I was going crazy. It's... hard to explain."

  "Listen, if you don't want to tell me, I'm good."

  "No. I should tell you; you're part of the team now. I should be open about this stuff. I'm learning, you know. That's what we're trying to do with Marion."

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  "So, is she your coven leader or your therapist?"

  "She's kind of both. Well, just because I was medically discharged. My skills were out of control. People thought I was crazy. I happened to meet her online. I had a bad situation at home, so she's probably not just my therapist. She's almost my mom too. The best mom I never had."

  "Oh," Alex said. "I see. She's a good one."

  "You've got no idea. You're lucky she's noticed you."

  They continued their path toward the city center, now riddled with abandoned cars, some of them still oozing smoke, with charred exteriors; others had been torn apart, metal peeled back like foil. There were bodies too, though Alexander tried not to look too closely.

  To think this had been a functioning city a day prior. Every instinct in his mind and soul tried to assure itself that this was a crazy dream or an elaborate prank. It shouldn't be possible. But it was true.

  "We still have to continue northwest," Samantha said quietly. "Now we will move slowly. Anything you see, you identify before engaging or making any sound. Understand?"

  "Identify?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  She let out a long, exasperated sigh. "With the system. As soon as you think about it, the system will give you information."

  Just as she said that, something shifted beneath two crashed cars ahead of them. Alex heard the ruffling of fur and a garbled sound. His hand reached for the handle of his axe, and Fenrir stepped ahead of him, tensing his muscles and snarling.

  Two creatures stepped out of the car, muzzles soaked in black blood. They looked like hideous dogs, with jagged teeth and mottled hides. They leaned out and stared at them for an instant.

  Fenrir growled deeply, and the two creatures turned their backs on him and fled like cats fleeing from a pit bull.

  "So, more morphs, weren't they?"

  "Correct," Samantha said. "We shouldn't waste our time with them, not yet. You'll get plenty of experience in the market proper. But you need to know what you're up against."

  "What should we find in the market?" Alexander asked, his voice low.

  "Mostly shoggoths," she said, watching the place from where the creatures had left. "Bigger than the ones you killed. They adapt fast. Fast enough that if you're sloppy, they'll kill you. And..."

  She stopped for a moment, shutting her eyes as if meditating. "We'll see something much more interesting than either."

  He narrowed his eyes. "How do you know?"

  "Come," she ignored his question.

  They walked a few more blocks and passed behind an overturned bus. Pike Place Market loomed ahead. The neon sign was dark. Smoke and ash filtered through broken windows. Scavenger, dog-like morphs feasted on bodies strewn in the open, low snarls punctuating the air.

  Alexander drew a deep breath. He felt the mana coil in his chest, raw and angry. He focused that anger, imagining the small creatures threatening the weak and helpless. He didn't have to imagine much. There had been a massacre there.

  He noticed, however, marks and stains on the ground, similar to what had been left on his gym mats after the demons dissolved. There was evidence of tire marks drifting hard. Someone had killed demons and escaped. That gave Alex a tiny bit of hope for humanity.

  Grunts and deep barks brought him back to focus. A small pack of morphs moved toward them, and these looked mean. Two had the appearance of deformed grey-furred tigers. Had they been cats in their past life? They had grown three feet in size and were now the size of pit bulls. And not cuddly at all. Their skin was patched and mottled with red dots, as if affected by some kind of skin disease. The other two had probably been pit bulls, with red eyes and flexible jaws that looked disturbing.

  Fenrir leapt to his side, fangs bared. The two cats lunged at him with the speed of a fist.

  Alexander swung his hands, quickly visualizing a [MANA BLAST].

  The sigil came to life before him.

  The wave of energy shot forward, like a ripple in the air, striking the first creature squarely. Its body convulsed, dark fluid seeping from its torn skin. HP dropped:

  [SKILL USED: MANA BLAST]

  [MP 168 → 128]

  [CAT MORPH HP: 35 → 0]

  The second cat tried to flank Fenrir, jaws snapping. Fenrir twisted, biting through its flank. The creature yelped, thrashing and trying to bite back. But Fenrir was much faster, avoiding a claw and biting the feline's neck, biting hard and tearing it up, pulling out its trachea and liters of blood.

  [CAT MORPH HP: 30 → 0].

  Alexander ducked as one of the dog morphs came from behind a wrecked cart. He thrust the sigil forward again, letting his rage guide the flow. The creature was pushed back, then recovered and stared at him, snarling with massive fangs and tensing its muscles.

  [DOG MORPH HP: 45 → 14]

  Fenrir came just in time, getting in between them. Both creatures lunged at each other, fanged mouths closing. Fenrir almost got bitten but dodged and sank his teeth into the other demon's neck.

  Alex considered binding the creatures. After all, they had probably been someone's dog before being demonized, but now it was too late. The creature lay whimpering with a bloodied neck before collapsing in oozing bubbles.

  When Alex turned, he found Samantha with the last morph dead at her feet, bubbling before dissolving in black liquid.

  "Not bad," she said. "You're a natural with your pet. And you're using your mana strategically. Don't waste it all; focus on control."

  As she said that, another figure darted toward them. Another morph, like a massive Rottweiler with a broken jaw, darted from a broken doorway. Fenrir pounced, jaws clamping around its neck, while Alexander followed with a final mana blast. The creature shrieked, collapsed, and stopped moving. HP: 50 → 0.

  Alexander's chest heaved. His mana had dropped to 200 → 145, but a small notification flickered in his vision: EXP gained: +12.

  [EXP: 13/200]

  He hadn't felt the rush of battle like this before—the mixture of fear, calculation, and the exhilaration of controlling the flow of energy.

  Fenrir shook himself, droplets of dark fluid scattering across the pavement, then nuzzled Alexander's hand, letting him know the fight was over for now.

  Alexander exhaled. Pike Place Market loomed ahead, dangerous but promising for training. "That was a warmup, huh?" he asked.

  "Less than that," Samantha said. "Next is the real test. Bigger entities, smarter ones, and the market is crawling with them. Time to see what you can do under pressure."

  Fenrir padded forward, tail high, leading the way. Alexander followed, feeling the pulse of his mana, ready for what was coming, knowing he had already taken his first steps into real combat.

  "There," Samantha pointed. The main entrance was blocked by rubble, but one of the side entrances seemed unaffected. "That's our way in."

  They crossed the street. The entrance was a heavy door, designed to keep tourists from wandering into service areas. Someone, or something, had forced it open and broken the hinges.

  They walked into darkness, except for minimal emergency lights, and it stank like rotten flesh.

  Samantha pulled out a flashlight and pointed it downward. They moved through the corridor. There were storage rooms on both sides, open doors and desks, and to Alex's surprise, no entities crawling and moving around.

  Even Fenrir tensed up and began snarling. Alex had to hush him.

  The hallway widened into the lower market, where stalls stood in uneven rows—some collapsed, some intact. Crates and tarps formed narrow lanes that forced them into single file.

  Then he was surprised to find a line of dead demons, their bodies torn open, claw markings precisely placed on vital organs.

  "How come these didn't dissolve?" Alex asked.

  Samantha exchanged a glance with him, then crouched down to examine them.

  "Something's in there. And it's powerful."

  There was something she didn't say.

  She moved even slower, walking on the edges of her boots, softly pushing the next iron door.

  The open floor in the center gave them a clear view; dozens of smaller morphs and even shoggoths crowded the space.

  And there, surrounded by dead feeders and hunters, stood something that Alex didn't expect.

  It was beautiful.

  And it was scarier than any demon.