To build the strongest force in this shattered world, crystals ca first. Soldiers, weapons, supplies, vehicles - those were all secondary.
Magnus’s biggest advantage? He got that one-month head start. He knew those teorites held all kinds of crystals inside. But wanting to control the whole lot ant he couldn’t do it alone. Didn’t matter how strong he or Sarah were - two people couldn’t dig up hundreds of massive teorites.
He only truly understood a handful of these crystals.
Fire Crystal - deep red. Once activated, it cloaked the user in a faint, red fla for an hour. No harm to the body or clothing, but monsters? Burned to ash. With that one trick, you could wade through hundreds of mutant spiders or centipedes and co out clean - unless you ran into a damn boss-level rat.
Water Crystal - light blue. A support type. When an Awakened used it, water ca pouring out of it non-stop.
Emily once got her hands on one, just the size of an egg. Even that tiny thing filled up two firetrucks, let all hundred or so mbers of the Ice Regint take a full bath, and still had water left afterward. Nobody asured exactly how much, but it lasted days.
tal Crystal - golden. Once you’ve used it, you glow faintly for an hour. Bullets can’t pierce you, and the monsters can’t hurt you either.
Difference was, fire hurt monsters - burned the damn things until they fell off. tal? It just protected you. Say you got twenty or thirty centipedes wrapped around you. You’d be fine for an hour, sure, but you wouldn’t be able to move. And once the hour’s up... you’re at.
Fire Crystal’s different. Monsters latch onto you, they burn and drop off. Problem is, fire doesn’t block bullets or those boss rats with bite force like iron jaws. tal Crystal does.
Each had its uses.
These three were the pills the Ice Regint actually owned. Magnus knew how they worked. As for the rest? He’d only heard rumors. So conflicting. Nothing solid.
Like the Life Crystal - pure white. Supposedly could raise the dead within an hour. Didn’t matter how bad the injuries, or how rotten the corpse. As long as the brain’s intact, the person cos back. Even lost limbs grow back.
Earth Crystal - light green. Said to make ten acres of crops ripen instantly. Another support item.
Then there’s the Nature Crystal. Emberleaf Legion’s own commander once had one. No one knows its color. No one knows what it does. Rare as hell. Emberleaf’s gang dug up more than 30% of all the teorites around Springvale City and found exactly one. That says enough.
*****
"Why... why did they open fire on back then?"
The city hadn’t gone completely dark yet - so energy-saving lights still flickered on the ceiling of the underground garage, throwing the place into a false sense of brightness. Magnus looked around, recognizing faces he’d fought beside before. So had died in battle, so stayed with him ’til the bitter end - and even turned their guns on him.
But there was no ti for sentint. If his mory was right, they had 48 hours - just two days before the Emberleaf Legion stord into Springvale City.
That legion wasn’t so ragtag militia. They ca from Northreach Province, under the Sinovar Sovereign Vanguard Seventh Army. Tanks, armored vehicles, combat helicopters - the real deal. Only a portion had entered Springvale back then, the rest were scattered, providing support elsewhere.
After the fall of Sinovar’s central governnt, everything shifted. Military groups took over cities and renad themselves. Springvale’s forces beca Emberleaf Legion, claiming dominion over the surrounding regions.
So right now? Magnus had 48 hours, and he had to make every second count. Loot Springvale for the best supplies, build up his force, bring in new fighters and loyal Awakened.
And this ti, no n would be recruited - didn’t matter if they were the strongest Awakened alive. Unless they were direct relatives of current team mbers, they were out.
This policy wasn’t ideal, but Emberleaf left them no choice. n could switch sides for good food and shelter. Won? Tossed into slave camps, beaten down to tools.
n had reason to defect. Won? As long as you didn’t drive them into despair, they’d never turn on their own.
*****
"I know. I know you’re scared. The world’s changed..."
Facing more than two hundred faces, wide-eyed and on edge, Magnus spoke slowly. He’d just killed soone. He didn’t want these girls terrified of him - he wanted them strong.
"The world’s gone mad, yeah. We’ve all seen it, lived through it. But look around. We’re still breathing. That makes us lucky. As long as you keep fighting to live, you’re the lucky ones."
Magnus stepped a little closer to them, keeping his tone steady. "From right now on, we’ve all lost our families. I’m not spared either. From here on out - we’re each other’s family. I know you hope to find your loved ones, but the truth is - we can’t help everyone search for their families. And even if we could, chances are what we’d find... are just their dead bodies. And soone helping you search might die for it."
He’d picked that speech up from Emily once. She’d delivered it better, more heart. Maybe she should handle this kind of thing going forward.
Talking about family stirred sothing in him. These girls, they still had hope their folks might be alive - slim as it was. He didn’t. The only one who’d raised him, his grandmother, had been six feet under three years ago. No hope. No one left.
People said it was freedom. Sounded noble. Truth was, it was just loneliness.
The word "family" hit hard. The group broke down crying all at once. All that fear, grief, frustration - they let it pour out in a wave of sobs.
He gave them ti. Let it all out. When the tears dried up, he had them change - motorbike suits, hiking gear, helts, towels around their necks. When all two hundred gathered again, geared up and expecting a plan -
What Magnus did next made every one of them scream in shock.
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