As the drone survey indicated, there were three entry points. An old school, abandoned after the Collapse destroyed all civilization. Caelan checked the panel on his forearm. It showed the Rot particle concentration inside. Enough to kill a man in seconds.

Or worse, turn them.

“Check your masks. Want new filters, just in case.” In perfect sync, all seven of the soldiers under his command followed his lead. With experienced motions, they all replaced the filters with new ones. “Donovan and Jahid, you go to A. Makarov, Jenkins, B. The rest, with me.”

Mind racing, Caelan and his team entered through the old main entrance. Giving a prayer that they all returned home and thinking of Sam, he moved on. Night vision active, they moved through halls filled with lockers from long-gone children. They checked every door, hoping to find nothing, but knowing better.

The desks lay scattered like corpses, their frames bent and rusted. A faded mural on the wall depicted children playing, now cracked and crumbling.

An eerie reminder of what humanity has lost.

The desks lay scattered like corpses, their frames bent and rusted. A faded mural on the wall depicted children playing. Now, cracked and crumbling. An eerie reminder of what once was.

In the absolute silence, each step echoed like a thunderous roar. Each a new chance to awaken whatever lurked in the bowels of the ruin. Unlike most of the time, even the humming from the magazines they carried could be heard. Feeling like a foreboding reminder of what’s about to come.

It didn't take long before finding the first crystals. Caelan always felt the term never quite defined those things. When looking at a certain angle, they looked like rocks. From others, a fungus imitating a tree.

“This is why I always skip meals when going into the field.” Matt’s muffled voice came from behind the squad leader.

“At least these ones don’t smell," Kobayashi whispered in return. “Hate when we find those.”

“Focus, people.” Caelan's stern voice had them back in the right tension. “I would rather not warn everything inside before we place the charges.”

One to two meters tall, each jagged and contorted like the profane mockery of a tree. If not for the green from night vision, each soldier would see a myriad of colors. They had no pattern. Each a grotesque piece of art, molded by unknowable hands. They erupted from the grounds, ceiling, and walls. Perverting and taking over the space around.

But the most unsettling factor was the constant pulsing and convulsions. Like a heartbeat, they came at a rhythm, each node moving like a tree in the wind. Caelan swore they even inched a tad closer whenever someone moved by.

The weight of the explosives to burn the whole place down gave him great comfort.

That is, until a faint scraping noise echoed through the halls. Caelan froze, his finger hovering over his comm. No one moved, guns pointed ahead. The crystals pulsed faster, like they were waiting for something.

Matt whispered, "Class 1 spotted," enough to so they heard him on comms. “Should we engage?”

“Wait.” Caelan knew those types walked in packs. And any noise would attract more. Raising his arm, he signaled for them to ready their weapons.

The creature soon entered the range of the googles, one leg dragging behind on a limp. An adult male. His right arm twisted into a grotesque, bulbous mass. It ended in a jagged growth, like a mace of fused bone and crystal. And much to the squad leader’s relief, crystal growths erupting from the eye sockets.

Kobayashi signaled a question with her hands, asking if they should let it go. Just as silent, Caelan pointed from Matt to the creature with the command to do it without noise. With a nod, the man pulled a knife and waited for the thing to pass by.

Aware of each drop of sweat on his body, Caelan counted each painful second as he kept his sights on the freak. He forced himself to breathe in a steady manner, each second an eternity. Soon the thing passed by him, followed by the two soldiers right behind.

Right as its back got exposed to him, Matt moved with the swiftness of a wolf. A desk leg scraped across the floor as he moved, the sound reverberating like a gunshot in the dead air. Kobayashi tensed up, her finger on the trigger. Only Caelan’s raised arm kept her from pulling it.

Placing a chokehold on it, Matt brought it to the ground with as little sound as he could. Even that created a cacophony in the empty ruins. While he stabbed at where the heart used to be, the rest pointed their guns into the darkness. No way to tell if anything else had heard the altercation.

It didn’t take long. Class 1 freaks could be put down by anyone, regardless of training. Only problem? There’s a fuckton of them. And like those spider sacks, you kill one, a dozen pop out of nowhere to make your bad day even worse. Despite the tension, Sarge’s words brought a smile to Caelan.

“Everyone, move out. A and B teams, watch out for more of them. And if any Class 2 or above shows up, do not engage. Wait for the rest, understood?”

“Roger!”

With a deep breath, Caelan kept guiding them deeper into the lair of the beast. A faint but growing vibration rippled through the ground beneath their boots. It was a sound that didn’t belong.

-----

With a grunt coming from his innermost being, Caelan threw the bow away from him. The frustration made all the worse by how Leopold watched him. The smuggest expression he could muster, to pour salt on the wound. “One word and I’ll eat a lifetime’s supply of pickles.”

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The threat made the ghost shiver, even flicker out of phase for a second. He waited for his companion's breathing to calm before speaking. “You can just go and use a sword. Or a knife. You seemed to be good with that one.”

When trying out the training room in the basement, Caelan chose to face human enemies as a test. A single construct made of solidified light came into being, which engaged in a duel upon command.

Armed with a military knife, Caelan brought down one after the other. Each time he increased the difficulty, until his obese body couldn’t keep going.

He had cursed the way Leopold treated his body with disrespect before. But seeing how ill-suited it worked in combat situations only made his mood drop further. And finding out he couldn’t muster the strength to pull a bow with the smallest draw weight didn’t help.

“We can’t…” Realizing Caelan had been talking out loud, he stopped himself. “We can’t use essence, meaning no aura barrier. And the portable ones can barely handle a single hit from anything. So, forgive me if I want to keep my distance from any threat. Even if that means using an archaic weapon like that sh… thing.”

Leopold raised an eyebrow at that statement. “Oh? And do tell me, what form of advanced militaristic technology you had, oh enlightened one!”

Biting the inside of his lips, Caelan weighed telling him or not. Coming to the conclusion he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else, he started talking. “Firearms. Imagine a bow that hits much farther and requires much less training.”

Leopold absorbed the information, arms crossed as he circled around in place. “Sounds cool. How much further?”

“The longest shot ever recorded was 5200 meters… or around 10400 stones.” The former soldier chuckled at the way the spirit’s mouth dropped. “Before you ask, this was a feat only achieved a year before I got here, using the best technology we had."

Leopold raised both hands in the air, a smile creeping in. “It’s still the other side of the fucking continent!”

“The common ones can’t even dream of getting there. But even those reach several hundred stones in reach. Not to mention, some can fire hundreds of projectiles each minute.”

The ghost looked as if he were searching for signs he was joking. Finding none, he covered his mouth with one hand. “So, you people think it’s normal to kill things from miles away? Damn, I wouldn’t want to be your enemy.”

Caelan looked down at the knife, thoughts lost in its surface. “If only that were enough.”

Leopold seemed about to offer a retort or question, but one look at Caelan’s expression had him in silence. Much to the appreciation of the man himself. Couldn't help but recall flashes of the many Rot Touched he fought. And the resulting endless war. Every inch gained paid in the blood.

Lying down on the cold floor, the young man thought of Matt, whose child would be born soon. His godson. Guess Matt will have to find someone else. Up until that point, he had kept his mind active, not letting the implications of his arrival there slow him down. He had a mission, one he would see through.

He would find someone else. He had to. But it didn't stop the guilt gnawing at Caelan's chest. It reminded him of what he'd left behind—people who counted on him.

The displaced man never felt more tired. For a fleeting second, he wished he could let go of it all.

Only for a second.

Leopold floated in silence for a moment, watching Caelan's distant gaze. With a sigh that didn’t quite match his usual bravado, he lowered himself to the ground.

“You alright?” Opening his eyes, Caelan saw Leopold lying down beside him.

“How are you not going inside the floor?”

He gave a quick glance at the stone material beneath him. Before shrugging. “I’m just floating here instead of up there. No difference.”

“Then why do it there?”

It took him a long time to respond. “Feels better than floating up there.” Another silence, longer and heavier than the first, followed. “You didn’t answer the question.”

“You, worrying about someone else? What’s next, flying pigs?” Caelan chuckled, but seeing how his companion kept a straight face had him clear his throat. “Just remembered home.”

“Do you miss it?”

He thought of all he had lost. All the scars, visible or not. How what awaited him, despite his friends, amounted to an empty house devoid of warmth. “I’m not sure I do.”

“I think I get it.” The little spirit looked at the ceiling of the vast room. Its plain walls hid all the advanced aethertec machinery necessary for its operations. Master Falkner said it needs a few updates. But, it would suffice for now. “Hey, you want to build shit, don’t you? That’s why you picked the lunatic’s course.”

“Among other things, yes.”

Leopold turned to him with bright eyes, claiming he could make one of those “firearms” of his. To give them an advantage. Caelan sighed, explaining it wouldn’t be a good idea. The first reason being he didn’t know how to make one.

“Didn’t you ever use one?”

“Oh, so since you used a staff to weave essence a lot, you know how to build one?”

“Point taken.”

Caelan could figure out how to do it, though. He dismantled several guns for years while in service. With some trial and error, he could do it at some point.

But he thought it best not to.

When people of Earth found out how to turn fireworks into weapons, it changed everything. And those were primitive models, far weaker than anything he could come up with. How much damage would introducing such a technological advancement do to this world? Caelan shuddered, thinking about it.

If any of the antagonistic forces of the original story got hold of one, bloodbaths would ensue. Worse still if they could replicate the designs he came up with. And a civil war loomed on the horizon. One that could be made even worse if a new type of weapon showed up.

Best that knowledge remains buried.

Still, a crossbow could be a safer alternative. Even with modern materials from his world, its fire rate still paled compared to a bow. Not to mention its limited range. And despite the ease of use, the wands and staffs already shouldn’t diminish.

“I think I might have a good enough weapon, though.”

Leopold questioned him for details. But sleepiness crept in, taking its hold. He decided to go to the Aethertec workshop the following day. To begin learning its secrets and figure out how to create his new weapon.

But as soon as they climbed the stairs back to the ground floor, Caelan froze in place, hand reaching for the knife. A sound from the darkness. Subtle enough that most people would never notice. But few people spent years crawling in the dark corners of Rot-infested ruins.

In response, he smiled. “For people under the ‘etiquette consultant,' you all sure lack some proper manners.”

“Who are you talk… what in the wastes?”

Leopold’s reaction to feeling the edge of a blade pressed to their neck felt amusing. As for Caelan, he just waited until two more people stepped out of the shadows, blades in hand. Without a word, they covered his head with a sack, bound him, and started pulling at him.

“Took them long enough.” This was all he said about the situation.

“Can you please explain what is happening right now?” Leopold’s voice came out cracked beside him.

“We have been summoned. By someone we must get as an ally. Regardless of how dangerous she might be.”

“Bloody wastes!” he muttered, a swarm of complaints coming out of his mind as he moved ahead. “Next time, warn me a group of shadowy figures might kidnap us. I’ll keep track of where we are going, in case we need it later.”

“Look at you, using your head for once.”

By the time they got placed inside a carriage in a much gentler manner than Caelan expected, Leopold continued to throw profanities at him. And despite his calmness, the soldier knew the stakes ahead. One mistake and they would be taken off the board.

Isn’t that my whole life now? Mused the displaced as he moved into the unknown.