Walking the streets at night was a little eerie at the best of times. With fires spreading, replacing the light normally shed by the streetlamps and screams, some distant, some nearby, replacing the general din of life, it was worse.

And yet, in these eerie streets, I was feeling remarkably safe. After killing a dozen Shattered, I had already reached level three, their uncoordinated movement and somewhat solitary nature allowing me to fight them with confidence, raising my abilities in the process. The biggest beneficiaries were, as one would expect, Darkness Magic, keeping me constantly concealed, Ice Magic, allowing me to bludgeon my foes to death after the initial strike, and Ice Rune Mastery, for that all-important initial strike. The skills had reached level four for Darkness Magic and Ice Magic and level five for Ice Rune Mastery. All in all, a nice harvest, though the Sun would be rising soon, making me look for a quiet place to hide and rest. While I was planning to test just how much the Curse of the Sun would afflict me, I wanted to be somewhere that would allow me instant shelter, if I happened to start going up in flames, vampire style. Or worse, start to sparkle.

With that in mind, I made my way towards the worst part of town, where quite a few buildings had been abandoned in recent years. I had considered breaking into some random, solitary house, hoping that I wouldn’t run into the owners, or if I did, that they’d already be Shattered, but I decided against it. Simply not worth the hassle, and given that electricity seemed to be the cause of the spontaneous fires, I wanted to go somewhere the power had been long since cut. Finding an abandoned house would have been the best, but barring that, I would take any abandoned place, hopefully finding shelter there.

Looking at the sturdy, yet derelict fence, the thick layers of graffiti and the mix of broken or boarded-up windows, I was reasonably certain that the building I was looking at had been abandoned a while ago, at least a year, maybe longer. Either way, I doubted there would be many people interested in it, certainly not with everything going on. Just the place for me to hide out and rest.

Getting past the fence was quite simple, I just had to follow it until I found the spot that had been cut, maybe by the artists that had sprayed layers upon layers of “street-art” onto drab, grey walls, or maybe by somebody else. There might have been homeless using the building as shelter, or some other groups. Not that it really mattered to me, or to anyone at the moment. I was quite confident that people had bigger fish to fry.

Sneaking up to the building, I made sure to be as quiet as could be, intently listening, just in case somebody was already there, Shattered or not. Either way, I wanted to have the initiative, just in case somebody needed a hailstone to the head or a blade in the back.

Moving around the building, I soon found a smashed-in window, one where someone had already removed all the glass, making for an easy entrance, if you were somewhat fit. For me, it was easygoing, at least without my backpack.

Landing softly inside, I pulled my bag after me, setting it down a short distance from the entry point in a dark corner, my senses still dialled up as much as possible. They were telling me quite a bit, making it obvious that there had been people here recently. The scent of urine was pungent in the air, making my face scrunch up in disgust, even as I tried to be extra careful in the dark building.

I almost felt as if I had my longer, elven ears back when I tried to twitch them towards a distant noise, an almost inaudible clicking that came from another part of the building, but given my circumstances, the only thing I could do was focus my eyes in that direction and pull my blades, making sure that I was ready for combat. By now, I had experimented enough that I could draw runes with just one finger extended, allowing me to hold the blades while stretching my pointer-finger so I could draw. It wasn’t the best solution, but it was adequate and allowed me to cast my spells while armed, which was good enough for me.

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For a few, tense seconds, I simply waited, before I continued forwards, trying to find out where the sound had come from. Moving to one of the partitioning walls, I noticed a concrete staircase leading upwards and more openings, to other parts of the building. A small, idle part of my mind tried to figure out what this might have been in the past but the attention needed to search for whatever threat might be in here soon forced it to the back of my mind.

It likely didn’t matter what they had done here, the change seemed to have made a lot of ideas obsolete anyway. The best examples of that were the exploding electric appliances and the spontaneous fires breaking out everywhere. I had yet to understand where those might be coming from but I was confident that things had changed on a fundamental level, not just the living, but everything. The system, and magic, had infused the entire world and at least for now, that meant chaos. Uncontrolled magic…

Wild Magic?

The thought flashed through my mind, as I remembered the vast swathes of land that had been deemed hazardous by the inhabitants of Mundus, too dangerous to even attempt to settle there, due to the chaotic effects of magic in the area. Just the idea made me shiver, for that would almost certainly spell doom for all of humanity. If the levels of Astral Power remained at such a high level, magically induced mutations would warp and distort everything, minds, matter and even souls would be changed.

I resisted the temptation to delve into the Astral River, just to experience it in this new world, but that would be utter foolishness, given that I most likely wasn’t alone in the building and just sitting there, spaced out while my mind was wrestling with the literal force that was currently in the process of changing the world wasn’t most conducive to good health. Not if some random Shattered, or even a normal human, might attack me at any time.

Another soft noise chased away all the unnecessary considerations, making me focus. Now, I even managed to locate the sound and follow after it, both blades at the ready. Past yet another hole in the wall, what had been a doorway in days past, my eyes were immediately attracted by the Shattered that was trying to hide, maybe to ambush me. Its efforts brought a harsh grin to my face, the idea to hide in a dark room, when your eyes were literally pits of burning, blue fire, didn’t speak highly of its intelligence. But compared to the other Shattered that had just shambled towards me, trying to grapple or tear me to pieces, it spoke of a certain cunning.

I didn’t like it.

And to demonstrate that dislike, I rapidly drew a magical formation into the air, just three runes of Ice and Hail, my body slowly building the muscle memory to go with the mental abilities. Just knowing their shape was just a small part of the battle, the more important part was to have them down instinctively, so that the mind could take a backseat and focus on connecting the shapes, to give them true meaning and power. That ability was slowly coming back but it would take a while to get it to Morgana’s level.

But in this case, that wasn’t needed, while the Shattered was immediately attracted by the glowing and the movement, I was quick enough to get the Hailstone into the air and its face before it could reach me. Staying at a distance, I focused on my Ice Magic, beating the blunt block of Ice against its head, until it slumped to the ground, just like the other Shattered I had killed this day.

Looking around once more, I tensed, realising that even after the Shattered had crumbled into a motionless heap, I wasn’t alone in the dilapidated building.

Claws made soft, clicking sounds as a canine shape came out of a dark corner, moving slowly and keeping an eye on me as if trying to determine whether I was friend or foe. What made me frown was that the canine looked normal, no burning eye-pits, nothing that made it appear to be more than a very large dog. Its back easily reached my hips, making it roughly the size Ylva had been when we first met, though the fur was completely different as was the physique.

Trying to imitate both Ylva and Sigmir, I pulled myself up, trying to appear as big as possible while staring at it, the bloody chunk of Ice hovering above my shoulder, ready to strike if the dog chose to attack.