Damian and Jasper had found themselves in the remnants of a broken down megastructure, a tall tower of apartments which were once used to house the cities poorer residents towards the edges of the town, the apartment was small but made for a convenient base of operations for the time being, its previous inhabitants had left in hurry leaving many vital supplies behind in the process.
They were currently resting after another battle with what they came to know as Devils, powerful creatures which possessed strange abilities much like the Lesser Devourerer but far less insidious, not commanding an army of thralls made it a far more dangerous foe in direct combat, this one in particular had the ability to corrode whatever it touched which made ranged attacks from regular bullets nearly impossible. The battle was hard fought and had nearly cost them their lives but that was nothing new by this point, staring at his runes after consuming his final share of the shards Damian smiled. In the weeks since the tyrant chased them down they had stayed on the edge of the town which was great for safety but not so much for gaining greater strength.
Looking at the number he let out a small chuckle as he became lost in his own thoughts,
'We've finally breached forty each…at this pace we should reach one thousand in about a year and a half. Not good enough'
Damian was determined to gather as much strength as he could in order to protect as many people as possible, the trail to the shelter had turned sour once they found the original abandoned with clear signs that a tragedy had taken place within its walls, he had nearly broken down before he noticed evidence of a desperate escape. He hoped that his family had made it out alive…he made sure to personally kill the creature responsible, the first devil they killed, the [Wandering Vagrant] just in case.
Jasper appeared from a shadowed hallway with a bag slung over his shoulder, his armour covered in various scrapes and minor damages from their many battles,
"I found everything on the list Damian sir. What's the next move, have any idea where the trail leads next?"
Jasper's face was tired, they hadn't managed to get much sleep the past week and it was clearly taking its toll on the young man,
"We will resume our travels in the morning, from the looks of it there was some evidence they went further west so we'll check the site tomorrow and start moving. Until then just leave the pack with me and get some sleep, kid, you look terrible."
Jasper didn't need to be told twice, he immediately dropped the pack and made his way to a small cot in a nearby room, passing out the second his head hit the pillow, Damian wasn't planning on sleeping any time soon, someone had to keep an eye out, in the age of nightmares someone had to remain awake. To pass the time Damian was looking out over the city, they were staying in one of the upper levels, to the point that the destroyed PTV's bellow looked more like ants than imposing mechanical wonders.
To anyone else the sight would be a muddled mess with no way to tell what they were truly looking at, but he could see it all in vivid detail, every loose brick, every broken alloy panel and even every smear of blood was as clear as day to him, the darkness of night did limit his sight but he could still see far better than most, not quite night vision but not to far behind.
He spent the hours of the night watching the streets below in utter silence, the scenes below still made a well of emotions swell in his heart, feeling him feeling of great sadness, he had a duty to protect the people of his country from everything that dared threaten it, him and his fellow service men and women had done everything they could and more to protect this nation, all for it to come to this.
He could see the shattered remains of military units scattered here and there, how many of his friends had already died at the hands of these creatures? Had any of the ones he has killed so far been any of his former friends? He would never know, in all honestly he didn't know what the future of humanity looked like any more, before all this the governments, or at least those of the surviving nations had formed a number of coalitions and entered into joint cooperation with each other in order to support the remaining populations, billions where dead already so protect the ones who still lived they had decided on peace until they had rebuilt their strength and could fight another day, but those days would never come now.
The false peace which he had spent his life building had fallen away in a matter of weeks at the cost of millions, maybe even billions of lives all over the world, the current governments would quickly fall if they had not already and in their place what would rise from the ashes? He didn't have an answer the world was changing and the rules they had known for millenium had changed with it, during his sweep of the city he noticed something that had been hidden before, a building off in the distance, a large abandoned factory with ancient chimneys which reached into the sky once used for the production and processing of various precious metals into commercial goods, the windows had faint flickers of light dancing on the inside. The flames were too small to be a fire that had broken out due to the wear and tear of the apocalypse, instead it reminded him of candlelight, and if the candles were lit that must mean…survivors.
Others who had managed to survive the cruel injustice of the new world order, people who may be the remnants of the settlement his wife and daughter were meant to find, if there was chance they were there he had to find out, however he couldn't leave now, he would have to wait for morning when Jasper awoke to start the trip, it would take them the better part of a day to get there, but the possible reward outwayed the potential risk. He stayed staring at it over the many hours of the night, catching faint glimpses as figures walking back and forth between the windows.
Soon after the morning light shone through the windows Jasper rose from his cot, the mattress felt like it was filled with concrete with the sheet almost like sandpaper, and despite that it was still some of the best sleep since he had awoke from his nightmare, he used to be a very lucid dreamer before but now there was nothing anymore, it was a little sad knowing a piece of him had been taken away but if that was the price he paid for surviving the horrors of the Twilight Sea then he would graciously accept it, he wished to never see that place again.
He had walked into the hallway where Damian sat, his eyes glued to the windows. Jasper knew he hadn't slept at all last night, he couldn't blame the man really he didn't know if his only remaining family was alive or dead so he was chasing after every possible answer. Luckily for him, Jasper knew exactly where his family was for a long time yet he didn't wish to join them any time soon, they would have to wait a little bit longer before they met again on the other side.
Damian turned to Jasper and explained to him what he had seen during the night, the idea of meeting up with other survivors was both great and terrible news, good because it meant that more people had survived everything that had gone wrong, but bad because they didn't know if these people would be friendly or not, but surely everyone would put aside their beliefs in order to survive…right?
Soon after they started the Journey to the old factory, it took the better part of a whole day before they arrived, they effortlessly scaled the high fences guarding the perimeter which seemed to be reinforced by random pieces of old discarded machinery. They walked through an old containment yard for a while where large machines laid dormant waiting for the day they would once again be called to work, but as they moved forward they were suddenly confronted by a group of people, all wielding strange looking spears and pointing them towards the pair, looks of fear and panic etched onto each of their faces as a voice echoed out.
"WELCOME FELLOW SURVIVORS! IF YOU ARE HERE FOR SHELTER YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!"
The crowd of people broke apart into to rows, and walking down the middle was a tanned man, his long dark hair reaching all the way down to the base of his back, wild an unkept yet had a sublime shine to its appearance, his body was inhumanly toned with the muscles pushing against the skin as if trying to break free, his smile was wide and charming, in contrast to his eyes which were a brilliant shade of shimmering silver. He wore finely made shorts and sandals, his body covered in a number of intricate tattoos with a dark greyish blue cloak broken down into separate thick strands which almost seemed to fade into his shadow covering his back and a large Spearlike weapon in his hand.
He looked over the two of them, never dropping his smile,
"Welcome to Reserve!"