ETA 15 Minutes
When Janus awoke, he found himself feeling no better than before. In fact, frustration gnawed at him for succumbing to sleep in the first place. However, upon surveying his surroundings, it seemed that the [Beast Master] either hadn't discovered him or simply didn't care to look, offering a small glimmer of relief.
Rising to his feet, Janus gingerly approached the area where the demolished tower once stood. Carefully navigating through the scattered debris and rubble, he began his search for Devon, moving aside bits of stone and wreckage in his quest to locate his friend amidst the rubble.
After nearly an hour of searching, he was ready to give up. It seemed likely that if Devon had survived the collapse, he had already managed to escape the wreckage on his own. With no way to determine how much time had elapsed since the tower fell, Janus reluctantly acknowledged that continuing the search might be futile. Resigned to the uncertainty of Devon's fate, he made the difficult decision to abandon his search efforts.
He coughed at the clouds of dust thrown into the air by the shifting rubble and turned the other direction, heading into the station—away from the Backwash.
As he got closer to the boundary between the station and the Backwash, the grim aftermath of the disaster became increasingly apparent. The scene was littered with the gruesome remnants of the carnage, with torn bodies strewn about in horrifying disarray. Overwhelmed by the sight of such devastation, Janus felt a wave of revulsion wash over him, causing him to turn away in horror. Unable to contain his visceral reaction, he suddenly doubled over, retching as the overwhelming emotions and gruesome imagery proved too much to bear.
He took some time to collect himself, doing his best to not linger on the carnage. After a while longer, he proceeded into the station.
The streets were familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He could see the imprints of buildings that used to stand tall, but were now just a pile of debris. The station plaza was a complete wreck. Janus stood near where the fountain used to be, now just a mess of water and mud. He stepped into the leaking basin and sloshed towards the spout above. The water looked clean enough, and he cupped his hands, drinking what he could.
His plan was to head directly to the rail line, but he quickly dismissed that. Instead, he decided to take a detour and visit his home. To his surprise, most of the buildings there were still standing, including his home.
Unfortunately, all but the second floor had been shorn off, like someone had given the house a haircut. The thought set him off, and he struggled to stifle nervous laughter. The laughter turned into a coughing fit, and suddenly he could feel streaks of wet sliding down his face. It was unlike Janus to cry, but the weight of the situation was crushing down on him.
He stepped inside, not really knowing what to expect. Thankfully, his father shouldn’t have been home when the whole mess had started. His stomach twisted in hunger, and he stepped into the kitchen. Light was shining in from above, the ceiling, along with his room, was completely missing.
Rummaging through the cupboards, his hand closed around a can of carrots. Without hesitation, he eagerly tore the pull tab back, and tipped the can into his mouth. The taste of the canned carrots was far from gourmet, but it hardly mattered to Janus. Just as he reached for another can, his attention was abruptly drawn to shouts emanating from the street outside.
His body jolted.
Did the [Beast Master] come back?
The shouts continued, and he could hear the snarl of a wolf. He tried to run to the door, but his battered legs fell out from beneath him. He stood again and, this time approaching more slowly, opened what remained of his door.
Outside was a man and woman being viciously attacked by a [Winter Wolf]. The man was lying on the ground, arm in the wolves mouth, attempting to wrestle the beast into submission.
The sight enraged Janus, pulling him from is melancholy. He had never felt so angry. If the [Beast Master] was responsible, he had already taken so much—destroyed so much! And yet, the bastard was still clearing out the very last scraps of Crow Station.
Janus formed four replica arrow point arrays, two on either side of the beast. As the mana arrows loosed, it was a gruesome display. The beast was beset by projectiles on both sides, blood bursting from its wounds. The arrays had cost Janus a not-insignificant amount of his mana, but his thoughts were mangled by his fury.
The man shouted when the arrays made mincemeat out of the beast.
[Your party has defeated a dangerous enemy: Winter Wolf]
It was only now that the man could free his arm from what was left of the wolf. He turned and spotted Janus.
“Oh, stars!” The man half shouted, half wept. “Thank you delver!” His words blended together through sobs.
The woman rushed forward, checking the man’s ruined arm, and embraced him in a tight hug.
All at once, the Janus deflated. His anger cooled and retreated deep inside. He felt detached from the situation, almost as if he were watching himself from above.
“The beasts,” Janus asked, “They are still here?”
“I don’t know, we’ve been hiding since the earthquakes. I… I wanted to find my brother…” The woman was sobbing as she tore strips from the man’s shirt, and quickly tightened them around his bloody arm. The man—her brother, Janus assumed—was still blubbering out thanks toward Janus.
Janus looked on while she did her best to create a makeshift bandage. He didn’t know what to do. Devon had held on to the healing potion from earlier.
“You should, uh-” Janus cleared his throat. “You should shelter in one of these buildings. It isn’t safe to be outside if there are still beasts roaming around. I’ll see if there are any others nearby.”
The woman nodded, helping the injured man to his feet. The pair shuffled through a splintered door and into a nearby home.
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Janus slowly shuffled down the street, sweeping his gaze from left to right. He encountered few monsters on his way to his destination. Those he did encounter didn’t survive for long.
-
The grand entrance to the rail line was completely caved in and Janus could only stare at the massive boulders blocking his way. Getting into the rail line would be basically impossible. The chunks of rock blocking his way had to weigh multiple tons.
He was numb. The surrounding destruction was a surreal caricature of what Crow Station used to be. He could make out places in the wreckage from memory. The small clearing before the station rail line, the remains of the station hall, and the border where the neighborhoods started and the commercial district ended.
This part of the station had seen even more destruction than the rest. Here, Janus even spotted telltale scorch marks littering the ground and the cavern wall.
Dario must have been here.
There were more beasts roaming around this part of the station. They crept between the rubble. Janus assumed they were looking for survivors. It was a miracle that he hadn’t been spotted yet.
His resolution was beginning to crumble, but he still managed to make himself move. If the beasts were still searching for survivors, staying in Crow Station would be dangerous. His mana was running low. He could handle the beasts one on one, but had little confidence in taking on a group.
Hiding in the rubble of what might have been an office, Janus searched through the pockets within his robe. He had filled them everything and anything that could have been useful.
He pulled a small map of the Crow Station delver tunnels from his pocket and squinted at it. Dario had given it to him weeks ago. There were a series of small labels, describing various locations. If he followed the map correctly, he could even reach another station. He used his finger as a guide to follow a series of tunnels, finally stopping when he reached a label he recognized: Bear Station.
That’s my way out. I have to make it to Bear Station.
There was a moment of despair as Janus realized he had crossed the entire station for nothing. The delver tunnels would be back at the Delver’s Guild. He would have to make it all the way back.
If his father was still alive, he might have evacuated to Bear Station. The thought steeled Janus’ resolve.
The trip back to his home was interrupted only once. Another wolf had somehow spotted him as Janus had inched from cover to cover. He quickly dispatched the creature.
[You have defeated an enemy: Winter Wolf]
[You have gained 1 level]
[Your Spell Weaving skill has gained 1 level]
He noted that the system only called the [Winter Wolves] a dangerous enemy when he had defended the man who was attacked outside his home, despite many of the monsters being a higher level than Janus himself.
As he approached his home, he stopped and looked towards the building the brother and sister pair had retreated to earlier. He stepped up to the threshold and knocked on the door. The sister answered.
She explained that her brother was resting, and invited Janus inside. He explained that he planned to leave through the delver tunnels, and offered to do his best to guide them through. The sister stilled.
“Our family…. They’re still here. We have to stay. We have to find them.” she said, her voice shaking.
Janus did his best to convince her otherwise, but she didn’t budge. Finally, he scribbled a poor rendition of his map in his notepad and tore the page out. He handed it to the sister and bid her farewell.
A strange mood fell over Janus as he returned to his home. He worried that Dario could have been defeated. He wondered what would happen if the [Tinebrand] had lost. Did the [Beast Master] know about the other stations? How could they possibly defend themselves if even Dario had failed to face the threat.
And despite Dario’s rough demeanor and tendency to push his students into dangerous situations, the man had grown on Janus. Dario had nearly gotten him killed by a massive snake, but the skills and experience he had gained from the [Tinebrand] had saved his life multiple times. It left Janus with mixed feelings.
Will I ever see Dario again?
The thought struck him harder than he had expected. Dario had seemed like an invincible figure. He was a hero of the stations. Janus had looked up to him, wanted to be like him.
He stepped back through his home’s ruined door. A dirty coffee mug sat on the living room table, reminding Janus of his father.
He’s not dead. Everything will be fine.
Janus took his pack to the kitchen and starting shoving food into it. They hadn’t gone shopping in a while, and the selection was mostly heavy canned vegetables. As he shoved another can into the pack, he nearly smacked himself on the head.
I can get food from wherever I need to. It’s not like the station police are going to stop me.
Janus spent the next hour or so scouring the nearby empty houses. He checked in one last time with the pair he had saved from a [Winter Wolf], but they were still resolute in their desire to stay where they were.
The pack was heavy and uncomfortable on his back, but he pressed on. The food and water inside would be his greatest resource. Bear Station was usually only a 45-minute trip away by rail line, but taking the delver tunnels by foot would significantly increase the time it took to get there.
Without a sub-train it could be weeks before he reached the other station. The thought of scrabbling through the dark for such a long time had Janus consider returning to the rail line. He shook his head, there was no chance for him to get around the rubble.
For all I know, the entire rail line is collapsed.
It was not a comforting thought.
The Backwash had been even more devastated than the station. Here, almost every structure had been reduced to rubble.
He did his best to navigate the wreckage.
I should see if Fao and the others made it out.
It was labyrinthine. He followed winding pathways only to be cut off by another wide crack In the earth. It was hard to gauge his exact position in the aftermath of the earthquake.
He remembered the Jacks hideout being carved into the cavern wall and continued to push through. He combed the edge of the Backwash, searching tirelessly until his efforts were rewarded by the discovery of the chalk drawing depicting a playing card. However, his hopes were dashed as he observed the entryway below, completely collapsed and impassable. There was no telling if Fao survived or not.
He couldn’t afford to spend time despairing, however, and continued along the cavern edge toward the Delver’s Guild. The pyramid had collapsed inward, leaving only the square base behind. It was strange to see such an icon of his childhood in ruins.
He had spent nearly every day as a child reading books about delvers and their adventures. The Delver’s Guild had represented an unstoppable force in Janus’ mind. It was his aspiration to call himself a delver.
Now, the guild was basically indistinguishable from the rest of the Backwash. Just another pile of rubble. The only signs that this had even been the Delver’s Guild were the seals that remained over the tunnels in the cavern wall, and the reinforced sparring platforms.
The damned sparring platforms.
He sat down on a splintered bench and collected himself. He pretended that he was simply waiting his turn to spar with the other. The self-imposed delusion was comforting, if only for a moment. Standing, Janus made his way to one of the platforms. He kneeled, knees crying out in agony, and placed his palm on the platform’s hard surface.
He never thought he was one for sentiment, but that platform was basically the last standing remnant of the Delver’s Guild.
Shifting his pack to the side, he unclasped his weapon from his robe. With quarter staff in hand, he turned towards the tunnels and fished the map out of his pockets.
His fingers pressed into the metal of a tunnel entrance, but no runes lit up in response. Grabbing a handle, he pulled back. The seal slowly screeched open in response and the tunnel ahead was surprisingly clean and a lit with [Torchstone]s. He had half expected it to be collapsed like the Jacks’ casino.
Janus turned, giving one last look at the ruined guild. In his mind, he could faintly hear the sub-train intercom from the day he had first planned to meet Dario.
“Departing to Bear Station. ETA 15 minutes.”