The alarm crystal shattered the morning calm.
Not the warning bell for monster attacks—Haven's Reach had three distinct signals, and every resident knew them by heart. This was the council summons. The sound that meant everyone to the central square, immediately, no exceptions.
Reven set down the bracer he'd been working on and joined the flow of residents converging on the square. Fifty people didn't make much of a crowd, but the tension was thick enough to cut.
The Council of Five stood on the raised platform near the heartstone chamber. Behind them, visible through the chamber's viewing window, the heartstone flickered and pulsed with sickly, irregular light.
It looked worse than when Reven had arrived two weeks ago.
Mira raised her hand for silence. "I'll make this brief. Lysa?"
The young Keeper stepped forward, her face drawn with exhaustion. Dark circles under her eyes suggested she hadn't slept in days. "The heartstone's degradation has accelerated. I've been running diagnostics constantly, trying to stabilize the output, but the core crystal is cracked. The fracture is spreading."
She pulled out a chart—hand-drawn, precise, terrifying in its implications.
"At current decay rates, we have eighty-three days before total failure. When that happens, the protective barrier collapses. Every monster within fifty kilometers will sense the absence and converge on this location within hours." Her voice remained clinical, but her hands trembled. "We won't survive the first night."
Silence.
Someone in the crowd—Borin, the Provisions Chief—spoke up. "What do we need to repair it?"
"Thermal regulation components. The heartstone is a heat-based system. It needs materials that can withstand and channel extreme temperatures without degrading." Lysa consulted her notes. "Specifically, we need Mantle Crown Shards from an Elder-class volcanic titan. Three shards minimum. Five would guarantee stability for another decade."
More silence. This one heavier.
"We tried that," a hunter in the crowd said. "Six months ago. Before you got here." His name was Doran—scarred, bitter, one of the survivors. "We sent fifteen hunters to the Magma Wastes. Seven didn't come back. Twelve came back broken. We got nothing."
"I know." Lysa's voice cracked slightly. "I was there. I saw what a Mantle Colossus can do."
Kael Drift, the Cartographer, stepped forward. "I've mapped every possible alternative. There are three Elder-class monsters within range that drop materials we could theoretically use. The Mantle Colossus is the closest and the most viable target. The other two—a Void Leviathan in the northern deep-sea trenches and a Storm Phoenix in the eastern peaks—would require expeditions we can't afford and face creatures we have no experience fighting."
"So it's the Colossus or nothing," Mira said flatly.
"Yes."
Garrick spoke next, his one arm gesturing at the assembled residents. "Look around. We have maybe twenty people capable of combat. Half are injured. A quarter are too old or too young to face anything beyond basic threats. We don't have the manpower for another attempt on an Elder-class monster."
"Then we evacuate," someone suggested. "Pack what we can, head to the nearest stable Aegis—"
"And go where?" Mira's voice cut through the murmur. "Ironhold Bastion? They're at capacity and won't take refugees. Trader's Rest? They'll charge entry fees none of us can afford. The Wandering Star barely has room for their own people." She looked around the square. "We're a dying settlement full of people nobody else wants. Craftsmen who lost their edge. Hunters who got injured. Families too poor to relocate. If we abandon Haven's Reach, we don't have anywhere else to go."
"So we stay and die?" Doran's voice was angry. Desperate.
"No." Mira's jaw set. "We find a miracle. Or we make one."
"With what? We can't even—"
"I'll do it."
The crowd turned.
Reven stepped forward. He hadn't planned to speak. Hadn't even fully processed what he was volunteering for. But he'd seen Lysa's chart. Seen the flickering heartstone. Seen the fear in everyone's eyes.
These people had given him a chance when nobody else would.
Time to return the favor.
"I'll hunt the Mantle Colossus," Reven said clearly. "And get you the shards you need."
The square erupted in noise.
"—he's insane—"
"—been here two weeks—"
"—isn't he level one—"
Mira raised her hand again. The crowd quieted, but the tension remained. She looked at Reven with an expression somewhere between exasperation and dark amusement.
"You're volunteering to hunt an Elder-class monster. Alone. At level one. With abilities nobody understands." She crossed her arms. "Did I miss anything, or is that the full extent of this suicidal plan?"
"I'm not going alone," Reven said. "I'm asking for volunteers. Anyone willing to hunt with me."
"And if nobody volunteers?"
"Then I go alone."
Mira stepped down from the platform. Carefully placing one foot in front of the other the make the most sound until she was face to face with Reven. Up close, he could see how tired she was. How much weight she carried trying to keep this place together.
"You've been here two weeks," she said quietly. "You fixed some equipment. You turned trash into serviceable gear. That's useful. That's valuable. But hunting an Elder-class monster isn't smithing. It's survival against something that's killed experienced hunters by the hundreds. You understand that?"
"Yes."
"You drew blood from Vyraxes. I believe that. But drawing blood from a Calamity while it was distracted by other things is different from hunting an Elder that knows you're coming and wants you dead."
"I know."
"Then why are you volunteering?"
Reven looked past her at the heartstone chamber. At the flickering light that was all that stood between Haven's Reach and oblivion. At the fifty people who'd stayed when everyone else left. Who'd given him shelter and purpose when he had nothing.
"Because somebody has to. And I'm probably the only one crazy enough to think I can actually succeed."
Mira studied him. "That's not an answer."
"Because I owe this place." Reven met her eyes. "Nobody else gave me a chance. You did. Garrick did. Even Lysa, who voted against me, didn't throw me out when the majority overruled her. This settlement took in a corrupted exile with nothing to offer but broken tools and dangerous abilities. Now you need something impossible, and impossible is the only thing I'm good at anymore."
Silence stretched between them.