Celes felt like an eternity was passing as she tried to rejoin her family, a lump of dread lodged in her throat. She felt like a mother not seeing her infant baby who had crawled into the next room without her notice.

She worried about every possible thing that could harm them, but unlike a worrisome and overprotective mother fearful of a car crashing into their mature child on any given day, her worries were valid. There was danger in this city.

Death and terror.

Their city was 'blessed' with the local monsters of Forest Goblins and Blood Sucking Mosquitos.

The Goblins were an alien race but the mosquitos weren't. The news glossing over malaria concerns couldn't have been more right.

The spiritual energy from the great change had transformed the tiny pests into larger pests with an unchanged taste for blood.

Celes wasn't too worried about these two threats. She was more concerned about the activated monsters. The prior goblins and mosquitos were trash monsters that could easily be handled by the hundreds, even in her mid-level state and not even her prime, but some of these activated monsters were real freaks of nature, matching even the Blessed Ones within humanity.

They overcame their racial limits and cordoned off regions as their domain once they grew strong enough.

Even some high-strung alien races took the long way around them. These individual 'talented' monsters were quite rare, but that rarity lessened the longer they roamed free without dying.

In this world, there was no main character. Everyone was just a trying to get by. Until Celes survived to the end, along with many Kings amongst humanity, these beasts were considered the true main characters of this world.

These variant beings were the only threat she could not fully predict.

Back to the present, despite her fears, Celes finally met up with her concerned family, each of them still in one piece.

They wasted no time regrouping with their main force.

They met a few lesser monsters on the way, but she made short work of them. With her vantage point from the sky, she saw any worthy threats from afar and detoured to bring her family to safety.

*

Having made it back to the base safely, Celes had some room to breathe easy and think.

The first order of business was quite simple.

Sweep the city, purge all monsters in the cradle, and fortify a worthy stronghold.

To achieve this and more, she knew she couldn't do it all alone. She needed strong and competent helpers.

‘Now that I think about it, this is the perfect time. There are no Hobogoblins, Goblin Priests, or too many variants amongst the riff-raff to consist of a threat.’

The activated monsters were scary, sure, but they were weakened and with foggy intelligence. It would take a few weeks to recover to their best state. This was the perfect hunting and training ground for an elite force!

The foes were not too strong, and enemy groups were not watching them closely, so this was the ideal environment for growth.

Once they grasped this period well enough, they would be long ahead of most groups, even those with military backgrounds!

But first...

The curtain at her door fluttered open as a guest hurried inside.

"We've got a problem, Les," Minnie announced with wrinkled brows.

"I know…" Celes sighed, hearing the noisy commotion outside.

The groups sent out to gather cards across the city brought back a lot of tails with them upon their return.

Citizens were not blind. They saw them actively seeking out the cards and figured they knew something.

They stuck to the dispatched groups like glue, refusing to leave them. Unable or unwilling to truly chase them away, they ended up bringing them back to the shelter.

Before Celes could enact her plans, she had to deal with this headache first.

She sighed deeply. They were already struggling with a hundred and thirty persons. Adding more, doubling and tripling that amount, with many strangers no less, was out of the question.

Yet, she could hardly threaten them to leave cold-heartedly. Their worries were valid. She herself was in the very same situation at the start, freshly wearing the dress of trauma threaded by the loss of seeing death up close and vivid.

Gruesome deaths, familiar deaths, ugly deaths. She joined the pack of fleeing humans like a zombie, seeking answers like brains. Even with Sapphire's power, she doubted her potential and felt her mind was playing tricks on her, so she never activated her natal card until almost a week into the apocalypse.

Fear had ruled her once, so the crowd had her sympathies.

Celes ascended the underground bunker to the outside.

The bunker only had a few cracks here and there, but nothing too serious. She wouldn't have chosen one broken by the Prime Terraforming Event.

This piece of real estate was fully intact and functional, despite the rough tumbling the city received.

Even then, many buildings that were slowly crumbling from the assaults of the week of calamity, had the terraforming beat them to the ground.

One out of five buildings being safe for inhabitants was better than none. It could have been worse.

Arriving outside, she spotted her parents and even Uncle Gale trying to hold back the crowd from rushing into their bunker.

Seeing her, they sighed in relief and almost rushed to her like excited pups.

The crowd had elevated from weary distressed citizens traumatized by the horrors of the New World, to a furious mob.

They were convinced this group were government-related, knew about the end, and kept them out of the loop to save their skins.

Within the short time of their arrival, they were already protesting passionately.

Their fury grew palpable in the air. They had suffered mentally and physically up until this point; they were all at their wit's end.

Crying babies unaware yet responsive to their environment, wailing children alone or with their relatives, sobbing grandparents, fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters.

There they were, demanding answers.

The adrenaline rush was still fresh, the cluttered crowd sweaty and dirty, ragged and bloody, radiating ear-grating screams from women and children. Their mental faculties were spiraling.

They had watched their loved ones die. They needed clarity, closure, justice.

The chaos was unchained.

The riot was unbridled.

"Silence."

A powerful voice swept over the crowd like waves. It was like a voice whispered into their ears, close yet far away.

The magical sound transmission technique. It was such a minor trick, yet it still took humans of the New Age about a decade to discover they could actually use the essence from their aperture to perform such a convenient skill.

Celes looked into the crowd icily. Her sapphire eyes held hundreds of displeased gazes, not wavering one bit.

"I know you are traumatized, fearful, worried, and want answers, but nothing will be resolved if everyone speaks at the same time. Nonetheless I have an idea as to why you're all here,” she began. “We ourselves do not know all that is happening. If you could gather orderly in the perimeter outside the yard, we will do our best to help you in the coming days. However, you are better off rushing to the actual military. The base remains in the same region it once was, more or less at Bella Howser Spring Fields. The Marine Corps stationed there is at least three hundred strong, with active combatants present. They have many weapons, food reserves, and bunkers to put you in. Here we have very little space."

The crowd looked around. Eyes ripe with uncertainty, lips quivering in fear.

Someone shouted from within.

"I'm not going back out there. There are monsters everywhere!"

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"Yeah!"

"We'll die on our own!"

“You have guns too, you can fight them! Help us!”

The chatter began to sprout once more.

"Silence." Celes once again calmed their uproar. Her expression a stone-cold mask of displeasure.

In fear, the crowd quickly grew silent once more.

Her voice had that effect. She stood tall with a proud figure, blue embers flickering about her like will o' wisps.

A dominating queen.

They couldn't help but feel something akin to that as they stared at her.

When she summoned a blue bird to fly above them, a few unsteadily stepped back in fear, but the majority could tell there was something different about this bird.

It moved with regal grace, a disciplined being, clear to even the ignorant naked eyes.

“M-Monster!”

“It's listening to her!”

The crowd was rattled.

Celes continued her speech. "I understand your predicament and will not drive you away. I will assist in getting you to the military base in due course. Until then, you will obey. My people will assist you out of our yard."

With that and with Sapphire as an intimidating factor, the unruly mob settled down and began to listen.

*

"That should do for now." Celes smiled at the sight of Minnie, puckering her lips in a teasing manner.

"My my, that was amazing,” Minnie chuckled. “I knew you would be important one day, but you sure tamed that crowd like it was a room of children."

"They were unable to control themselves or think clearly," Celes nodded dismissively.

"So…” Minnie switched subjects, “the most pressing matter right now are the cards. We've collected all the cards from groups that went out, but they noticed how magical they were and started demanding to know how they work. Some want theirs back, others didn't release theirs." She sighed. It was already a pain in the ass.

It was a headache trying to control people who watched them grow from kindergarten to college. Her Aunt Gertrude, already a nagging spinster in normal times, was even worse now.

Celes walked with Minnie, her steps determined and graceful. "Yes. We need to bring everyone to an altar and let them awaken. I can lead the first team. The sooner we turn our cards into actual strength, the better. Did you get a count of all the cards?"

"They made it very difficult, but yes. A grand total of sixty-three." Minnie had crossed her arms falling into step beside her blue-headed leader. Wrinkles traced her brows, thinking of the backtalk she got not long ago because of the cards.

The grandmothers in age were particularly vocal, although they didn't even leave the base. She barely made it without screaming at them.

‘Sixty-three was a bit less than expected… All the more reason to sweep the city as soon as we can.’

Celes slowly let her thoughts stir as they entered her room.

Bam!

"Um - I...may have accidentally let it slip about the awakening bit and my family is right behind me!" Giselle rushed in, panting out of breath, yet her her eyes darted around, not daring to face anyone in the room out of embarrassment.

Stoic Xia trailed her, shutting the door and casually leaning against it.

Celes and Minnie facepalmed.

"While it's important to give them the strength, a few groups have fewer cards than the others,” Minnie sighed. “How to distribute them will be an issue. Not to add to the headache, but it's also something we have to consider."

"I'll add in my own cards to try and even it out," Celes pitched in after a thought. She had eighty-six cards of her own. That was enough for everyone when added to the sixty-three.

"Yeah, that might work," Minnie nodded. Anything to tame the wild beasts.

But someone wasn't satisfied.

"No," Xia firmly disagreed, lightly glaring at Giselle. Her family was the largest here, with sixteen members present, many young and middle-aged. Yet she wasn't saying anything, why should Giselle act selfishly?

"You don't like it, Xia?" Celes whispered in surprise. This was an odd development. For sensitive matters such as this, Xia usually kept quiet and allowed them to call the shots.

"You're both too close to see it. You're too soft on them. Without you, we would have nothing; we wouldn't even know to collect the cards. The way I see it, you should take all the cards and allocate them based on merit. Let them earn the cards, with the exception of your family. Mine, hers and Minnie's should all earn their keep and not freeload." Xia decisively put forward her view. Her own family had mostly women with few in their twilight years.

Her mother, father, and grandmother had all spouted it to her since she was a child, to earn her place. She had a feeling they would love to be handed everything on a platter, but not if she had anything to do with it.

Minnie tried to protest. "But, they're —"

"Family, right?” Xia scoffed, pushing herself up from the door and stepping closer to Minnie. “You of all people should know that's nepotism and it's disgusting, especially with lives on the line now. I don't have a problem with them awakening, but cards? They get them when they deserve it."

She made her case while glaring at Giselle. Giselle only scrunched her freckled nose, hesitant to voice her thoughts.

Minnie met Xia's determined eyes. Thinking of Celes's burden, she slowly nodded and added on.

"It might be a bit harsh…but I agree with Xia. You gave us everything and you are the core of the group. We need to lay down the law now and not cultivate any entitlement. Like you said before, the coming days will be hard and bloody. To weather them, we need real men and women, and not—"

"Pussies." A voice came from the door as it swung open. It was Priya, Jasmine and Cele's troublemaker of a cousin, joined by her elder brother, Justin.

"Excuse us for eavesdropping,” Priya said with a polite smile. “We were waiting for the right moment, but things were getting a bit heated in here."

"We don't have the whole story, but based on our guess, we're here to offer our services,” Justin chipped in. “We're willing to earn our spot alongside you."

The duo's entry caught them by surprise, but they waited on Celes's decision.

Giselle felt a lump in her throat, wanting to say something but still battling with her guilt. She eventually squeezed out a barely audible whisper, more to herself. "We don't have to be so harsh with our loved ones, do we? They're scared, too..."

No one else in the room heard her but Celes. With her heightened senses as a Tier 0 Card Apprentice, she was always alert.

Celes felt Xia's argument had merit. She wanted to protect her family and give them the best, but would it be fair to leave everyone else out?

Those were her family, too. She played with them when she was younger, visited them on holidays, went to their birthdays and weddings, and received help from them when she needed a hand.

Could she really single out her own direct family and leave the others out? Their own brothers and sisters and their children? What would her parents say?

If it was another group, she would favor Xia with zero hesitation. In fact, she would be even more brutal and strict. But this was her family. Her good friends.

She couldn't decide.

Sensing her warring thoughts, Minnie further tried to strengthen her case. "You told me yourself, remember? Cards are incomparably precious and are a controlled resource and weapon of war. We should centralize our control over it as much as possible."

Xia was right. She was too close, too reluctant to face it, but that was the reality. Although they were their family, they couldn't be biased. Celes alone had that right.

Just then, someone turned the handle of the door, but Justin held it shut, glancing at the ladies as loud knocks were rapped on the other side. Giselle lowered her gaze, biting her lower lip in guilt.

"I'll think on it. Give me a little time." Celes knew time was tight, so she didn't intend to waste too much daylight making her decision.

Minnie nodded, then she stepped outside the room to deal with Giselle's relatives.

***

Elsewhere in the city, green-skinned humanoid monsters wreaked havoc in groups. They were armed with stone and wood, blunt and sharp weapons.

Some chased and beat the fleeing humans in droves, seeing them scatter and flee in fear.

While some humans fled, some were frozen to the spot. The goblins examined in wonder the ones peeing themselves and shaking in the same spot, those paralyzed in fear, small children not knowing how to run, the unfit elderly unable to run, obese persons... The unathletic baffled the war-like race.

Why don't they run? Why don't they fight? Why so big, yet so cowardly?

They poked and prodded, shrieking in communication to one another.

Their yellow eyes shone with malicious light.

These fragrant delicious animals with tender meat actually didn't resist. One screamed in emotion, rushing forward.

Blood spurted from open wounds.

Most of the goblins didn't even have to use their weapons. Their muscular arms rivaling chimps were enough for the helpless humans unable to run.

One goblin ripped an old woman's head clean off. Her eyes were thick with terror, even in death. Holding her by the hair, a few bundles of muscles and veins were pulled out before the tearing force ripped off her head straight from her shoulders.

Kyaaa!

Children cried even louder, seeing this. Separated from their parents, they were lost in the terror.

Their cries only attracted the creatures.

Lifted by their short legs, yellow dagger-like fangs punctured their tender flesh.

Bone grating sounds echoed as teeth met bone.

Screams intensified.

"This isn't real. This isn't real. I gamed for too long, that's all. It's just a nightmare. A bad dream. That's it. Wake up!" A fat man in an undersized t-shirt huffed to himself as he struggled to run. He tripped over himself, crashing to the ground. He began to kick in the air, trying to keep the goblins away.

Two goblins looked at him in wonder.

This one was fatter, but the energy was still about the same in his body, though? Weird.

Humans saturated by spiritual energy from the change were the most delicious meal they had ever had since birth. They emanated a reiki-like stink.

Attractive stink to predators. Dinner never smelt so good.

Uncaring, the two goblins grabbed their weapons and tenderized the fat man with clubs, then violently ripped him apart from the middle.

As he lay still with his final scream, he watched as they dug through his stomach and partook in his organs.

One scooped out his heart as their second dish after devouring his lungs in four chomps.

In excruciating pain, he watched as it beat one final time as his vision faded into the void.

Elsewhere, this scene played out in different forms. The weary fell first to chasing goblins who colored the streets with their blood and guts, while the rest, emboldened by adrenaline, ran even faster.

A choir of shrill screams echoed throughout the city like unleashed banshees.

Blood-sucking mosquitos hunted in hordes of hundreds and thousands.

They appeared like black clouds, swarming humans, puncturing them full of holes, sucking their blood in gulps. In a matter of seconds, only flesh and bones were left, muscle tissue dried up like exposed plant fibre, organs drained and flattened inside the sagging flesh.

The metallic scent of blood, the whiteness of bones, the corpses scattered about, were the new morbid decoration of the streets.

At that moment they all felt it, everything had changed.