Under a clear, starry night sky, two young men stood at the precipice of a sundered landmark.

“What do you think is down there?” Derrick asked as he looked down from the edge of the broken bridge, and at the dark, mysterious forest below.

“I don’t know…” Sam murmured, “More monsters maybe?”

“You think?” Derrick questioned, “I can’t see any…”

“No, but you have to admit, they do tend to stick to the shadows.” Sam gestured at the humanoid monsters crawling around the dark cityscape behind them. Even all the way from here, they could hear them screeching.

“You really think we’re safe?” Derrick sighed, “I don’t know how we’re supposed to sleep tonight.”

Sam waited before he answered, “Honestly? I don’t know,” Sam grumbled, “There are more of them than there are of us at this point. If they wanted to, they could probably overwhelm us in a heartbeat.”

Derrick nodded solemnly.

“And I haven’t sensed any tremors in a while either.” Sam added.

No one could tell why, but the monsters wouldn’t set a foot on the bridge. Still, that didn’t stop people from barricading the entrance with vehicles. Although most definitely useless if the monsters actually decided to attack, it at least looked sturdy.

At most, it would buy them a couple of extra seconds to jump into the water.

Unfortunately, the broken Newport bridge didn’t extend all the way to the foreign land. Instead, it’d been shattered and broken off near the middle of the river.

Meaning, the only way across was by jumping down into the river or by heading back the same direction they came. And even if someone was daring enough to ignore the fact that it was a twenty-meter fall, who knew what lurked under that dark river surface.

Sam had seen too many unbelievable things today to risk it.

And with the city filled with monsters behind them… everyone knew they were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Mm..” Derrick mumbled. For a while, Sam and Derrick said nothing as they stood on the ledge, observing the foreign land stretching into the horizon.

A romantic part of Sam felt strangely intrigued by the nameless forest and all the mysteries it represented. After all, right in front of him was the entrance to a whole new world, untamed and unexplored by humanity. Standing on the bridge, he felt like Captain Walton, pioneering a path through the Northern Passage in the Arctic wastelands. Or maybe he was Marlow, trudging through the heart of darkness on a quest to charter the last unexplored parts of the globe.

Unlike many of his peers, Sam had chosen to study history at university not because he had to, but because he loved to.

Though, he had never admitted it to anyone, when he slept, Sam sometimes dreamt of being one of the first settlers, exploring the New World together with Christopher Columbus. And when he fantasized, he imagined what it would be like to explore Asia alongside Marco Polo. Because in spite of the numerous privileges and advantages modern age provided him with — technological and otherwise — Sam had always felt paradoxically confined.

And if he was being blatantly honest with himself, it wasn’t just technology which trapped him. No, because while Sam loved his family dearly, and there was no doubt in his mind that he’d do anything for them, a part of him despised that he could never completely rid himself of them.

His brother required constant, around-the-clock care and his parents had invested the bulk of their dreams and wishes onto him. He loved his family, definitely, but Sam wasn’t sure if he loved his life. Naturally, he hated himself for thinking like that — who wouldn’t?

And now, his most secret and abhorred wish had come true! Albeit in a way he never could’ve possibly imagined.

For that reason, as he stared at the foreign land, Sam was revolted by how much his heart raced with excitement.

…

Aisha started snoring in the minivan somewhere around midnight. Sam had to ask Derrick what time it was as his phone had already died.

While Aisha slept soundly, Derrick and Sam continued talking.

Sam quickly learned that Derrick and Aisha were a couple of years older than he and that they’d attended the same high-school. It was a high-school on the north side of Hawkthorne, unlike Whitstone High, which Sam had attended.

After some intriguing discussion, Sam also agreed it was time to teach Derrick how he spun his halo.

At the campus, and especially after Uri died, they’d both decided it was too risky. However, as soon as Derrick had felt any semblance of safety, he’d brought it back up again.

And Sam couldn’t blame him for it. After all, the reason he hadn’t cultivated — as Derrick liked to call it — was most likely the reason why he still couldn’t manipulate his element like Sam could.

Yet, even after explaining the process for over a half-an-hour, Derrick still found the spinning to be much more difficult than Sam did. To Sam, spinning the halo was as easy as thinking. And though Derrick swore it did spin, it was very slowly.

Now, if the difference was due to some sort of inherent talent or the process by which they had gained their halos, Sam was clueless.

So, after his companion complained about how boring and taxing the process was for the eighth time, Sam decided to stop hovering, retreat inwards, and examine his own process instead.

Again, he marvelled at how fast he appeared in front of the dark green halo. For the life of him, Sam couldn’t comprehend why Derrick found conjuring it to be so difficult.

“Maybe it’s got something to do with talent after all?” Sam dismissed the growing urge to smirk. Pride comes before the fall, and all of that.

Like last time he’d seen it, the halo was surrounded by tiny, flickering motes of dark green power. They were less now than before, but as he observed the space, he’d notice a new mote occasionally depart from the halo and join his mental space.

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“Man, I can’t take this anymore!” Derrick suddenly groaned and interrupted Sam’s focus, “I’m completely spent, gonna try to grab some shut eye.”

Sam just nodded at him. He felt tired too, but he wanted to examine the halo some more first.

Derrick glanced in the direction of the darkened city, shook his head, before lying down on seat next to Aisha.

Sam observed his two companions for a while.

“I guess… this counts as making friends?” Sam shook his head with a mirthless smile. His aunt did always nag him to make more friends.

And now Sam wasn’t even sure if she was alive.

It was a thought which quickly dampened his mood.

…

“Screeeechh!” Sam woke up to the ear-splitting sound of nightmares. The screech tore through the area like it was a knife cutting through butter. To Sam, it sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, only amplified and far, far worse.

“W-What was that?” A squinting Aisha quivered, “Are t-they coming?!” Her eyes widened as she realized what caused the screech.

Outside the minibus, Sam quickly noticed several scared-looking people pressing their faces against the windows of the nearby vehicles.

In the far-away distance, Sam unconsciously noted that the sun was rising.

More screeches erupted from the city and before Sam could wrap his head around what was happening, he felt it.

The tremor of the subterranean worms.

Sam barely managed to get out of the car before the first explosion reverberated through the city.

Due to the bridge’s sloping arc, Sam could clearly see the worms ascend from the paved city streets. More worms than he could count attacked the wart-covered monsters with a feverish vigour.

To the worms, it looked like an all-you-can-eat-buffet.

Derrick, Aisha, and Sam stared at the scene looking goggle-eyed and awestruck.

Everyone remained both still and quiet as the monsters pervading their city attacked each other.

It took around 15 minutes before calm was restored. Yet, to the people on the bridge, calmness was the furthest thing from their minds.

“T-The fuck was that.” Derrick stuttered with eyes as wide as saucers, “It sounded like- like, I don’t know…”

“A war.” Sam interjected. Derrick nodded in disbelief; his eyes still glued to the city.

…

Sam rubbed the remnant sleep from his eyes as he sorted through his inventory.

He had one chicken-salad sandwich left, three bags of his favourite candy, a couple of soda cans, and a water bottle left.

Zipping his backpack, Sam thought about last night.

“I didn’t even notice when I fell asleep.” Sam had stayed up late play-*cough* experimenting with the magic his halo imbued him with.

He found that he could control grits and smaller pebbles easily enough. Sure, it required his complete and utter focus, but it wasn’t overly difficult or tiring. Of course, he’d checked if he could control or manipulate the other elements, like fire, air, water, etc, but apart from earth, the other elements eluded him.

He’d snickered at the realization that he truly was an Earthbender.

However, that wasn’t the only discovery he’d made last night. Although controlling smaller pebbles was a bit sapping, it wasn’t on a debilitating level. However, even before he tried to manipulate a larger portion of earth, he’d felt the taxing tug on his halo.

Consequently, Sam realized there was a way to check whether he could manipulate something or not. All he had to do was to focus on an earthen object really, really closely. Still, he reckoned that if he wanted to, he could still force it, like he did with the stalagmite, or stone spear, but that would probably result in him losing consciousness again, if not worse.

It wasn’t something he wanted to try again if he could avoid it.

The last thing he remembered from last night was when he started to spin his halo again.

Sam shook his head. The halo didn’t seem like it was going anywhere anytime soon, as such, he could continue experimenting with it later.

Retreating inwardly really quickly, Sam was relieved to note that there was an abundant amount of dark green motes floating around. Regrettably, the space wasn’t anywhere near full, but it seemed like he at least had some juice to rely on in case anything untowardly happened… again.

“Great,” Sam groaned inwardly, “Now you’re jinxing yourself too.”

…

As Sam, Derrick, and Aisha walked up to the barricade of vehicles, their actions naturally attracted some attention.

“Y-You’re leaving?” A woman asked.

“Are you crazy? Didn’t you see those worms?!” A younger man said.

“Lads, don’t be reckless, stepping off the bridge is suicide.” An older gentleman beseeched.

“Just wait for the military to arrive!”

However, Sam, Aisha and Derrick had discussed it, and staying here for any prolonged period of time was not only useless, but dangers as well. Even though the bridge seemed safe for now, who knew when that would change? Maybe there were even airborne monsters around…

No, as long as they stayed at this bridge, they were trapped.

Thus, they decided it was better to keep on moving.

Derrick explained their reasoning to those who were willing to listen, but when the trio were asked if they could join, Sam had been the one who had to deny them. Naturally, he explained his reasoning.

“Again,” Aisha muttered as she looked at the people staring at them from the bridge, “It feels like we’re leaving people to die… again.”

Sam didn’t know what to say and Derrick remained silent.

The street was riddled with burrows and scattered rocks. One vehicle had even been turned over.

Then, Sam saw something which grabbed his attention.

Not too far away from the bridge, near a closed Thai-restaurant, a dead worm lay near a burrow.

The dead worm wasn’t the largest specimen he’d seen, but it was still larger than he was.

“That’s disgusting.” Aisha wrinkled her nose as they neared the cadaver; and Sam had to agree, it stunk.

As they approached the corpse, Sam suddenly started frowning.

“What is that?” He stepped closer.

“Wait,” Derrick said, “You probably shouldn’t-“

Sam halted and focused near the centre of the dead worm’s body.

“There’s something in there.” His halo pulsated along his heart, and as he stepped closer… it seemed almost… happy?

Like a child about to get a treat.

Sam focused on the spot his halo guided him to and… in lack of a better word… pulled.

The worm’s heart burst out of the worm’s skin and entered his hand.

Sam heard Aisha struggle not to vomit.

Heck, even he felt disgusted by what he’d just done. He also frowned when he noticed how many motes that single action had consumed.

“Not to self,” Sam sighed as he cleaned the bloodied heart with his sleeve, “Next time, use a knife.”

“D-Dude,” Derrick stammered from his side, “That was absolutely wicked, man.” His eyes shone.

Sam chuckled awkwardly, “More like unnecessary…” He explained how much energy he’d just lost, “And for what? This thing?” Sam displayed the polished heart.

Unlike what one would expect a monster-heart to look like, the heart wasn’t made of flesh. Instead, it was a brown shard in the shape of a diamond.

And not the diamond cut, but the diamond card. It had a total of eight sides and two sharp ends.

The heart disproportionally smaller than the creature it came from. It got to the point where Sam even questioned if it was a heart to begin with.

However, instead, he decided to listen to what his halo was telling him.

“A heart gem…” Derrick’s eyes widened, “No, not a gem, a core!”

“A core?” Sam asked.

“Man, don’t any of you two read?” Derrick looked in between Aisha and Sam before continuing his explanation, “In some forms of fiction, monsters have cores containing their amassed power, or essence, or whatever. That thing is definitely a core, I tell you! Can I hold it?”

Without seeing a reason not to, Sam was about to hand it over when his halo suddenly… burned.

Sam winced immediately.

“Shit,” Derrick cursed as he stepped closer, “What happened? Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Sam shook his head before looking at the strange object in his hand, “My halo is just being weird again.”

“Again?” Aisha chipped in.

“Mhm,” Sam continued, “When we approached this worm earlier, I felt this weird resonance with the… core?” Sam looked over at Derrick.

Derrick nodded.

“Yeah, well,” Sam frowned, “It was like my halo wanted it.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!” Derrick exclaimed happily, “It’s a core! And probably one attuned to your element if your halo wants it…”

Derrick proceeded to close his eyes, furrow his brows, before opening them again with a disappointed look on his face.

“Yeah, my halo isn’t reacting at all.”

“At least you have one…” Sam heard Aisha mutter.

“So,” Sam stared at the diamond-shaped core in his hand, “What do I do with it?”

Derrick looked like he was about to answer when he suddenly frowned, “I… don’t know actually.”

“Well, that’s just amazing!” Aisha exclaimed in frustration, “The first clue as to what is happening just drops from the sky and lands in our hands and we don’t know what to do! Amazing!”

Sam barely noticed the red tint on Derrick’s face before he turned away.

“Well,” Sam decided to pocket the core for now, an action his halo didn’t seem to object to, “Let’s get moving.”

…