After burning down every single one of the mutants Solaire finally noticed Jim and his group. With a smile, he waved at them before coming over, “What are you doing here all by yourself? Where is your teacher?”
Looking straight at Solaire Jim said, “Dead.”
“Hmm…” Being silent for a moment Soalrie just shrugged it off. He had seen too much these past days to be surprised by that so he just said his condolence, “That is very unfortunate. Let us go in and talk. I think we have much to catch up on Jim.”
That was another one of Solaire’s very special characteristics as he almost remembered everyone's face and name. Even if he didn’t help them, but Jim was one of the people who received his help.
It was nothing spectacular. He just helped Jim when he had a very hard time with his parents because he constantly got into fights.
Solaire just gave him some advice which greatly helped Jim in strengthening his bond with his parents. So he was very thankful to Solaire and trusted him.
It was a long process until Jim achieved the bond he had with his parents, today and Solaire was the reason for that. Jim came often to Solaire to seek advice or condolence, even after his family problems were solved.
He was like a grandpa to him. In a time when no one could help him, Solaire gave Jim a helping hand to overcome these hard times. He was also the reason why Jim developed his sense of justice and his desire to help other people.
Feeling this burden, he didn’t even know he had lifted from his shoulders Jim sighed in relief and a warm smile crept on his face. Solaire was an important person to Jim and he was happy to see his special disposition again. “I’m glad that you are fine and your faith is holding strong. Are my parents and little sister perhaps in the church?”
With a sigh, Solaire looked at Jim, “Unfortunately not. These creatures destroyed the city and I fear that most of the citizens are already dead. We should talk inside.”
Following closely behind Solaire they passed the strong iron gates and behind the walls, the priest gave one of the people standing guard a slight nod, and the gates were closed behind them. The person thanked Solaire for his service before closing the gates.
Jim looked at the spectacular church while Solaire guided them inside. The church was like one expected, not normal, and resembled a small city on its own.
Alone the church could easily fit up to a thousand people and there were still buildings along the huge wall, that protected the church and its inhabitants.
The church was supposed to sustain itself in case of a siege so it had a small field, a big food storage, and multiple houses for sleeping along the walls.
The group got inside and was immediately greeted by a huge number of people. He couldn't count them, but there were hundreds of people. Everyone was busy with various tasks such as reinforcing the church or helping the wounded.
Looking at this sight Jim got a very bad feeling. By now a week passed since the start of this and he knew best how hard it was to survive. He had fought all kinds of mutants over the past week and knew full well their weaknesses and strengths.
This church was the only place Jim was sure to find a majority of the survivors. Their city wasn’t particularly big with a population of about fifteen thousand and he was sure to find at least two if not three thousand people at this place.
Observing the people outside and the ones he saw inside the church Jim felt that the survivors here wouldn’t even amount to a thousand people.
If only such a small number gathered here what did this imply? It meant that the population of Churchville shrunk to a size of a maximum of a few thousand humans if not less. Many would be scattered around the city and could die the very next moment.
One could assume that the situation couldn’t be that bad if some teenagers survived this situation but the only reason why Jim and his group were still alive was mostly because of luck.
They also adapted very fast to the situation but the main reason for their survival was luck and nothing else.
The group followed Solaire to one of the side rooms of the church where a huge round table was placed with ten seats surrounding it. He looked at Jim and his group and said, “Take a seat, I'm sure we have much to talk about.”
After sitting down Jim looked at Solaire in bewilderment and asked, “Could you please explain what happened here? We managed to somehow get here and learn a few bits of the situation here and there but we don’t really understand anything.”
With a calm face, Solaire answered, “I don’t understand the situation either. I only know that we have a big problem as we are trapped in this church.”
“Why?” asked Jim with doubt.
Looking at Jim, the priest took a deep breath before speaking, “When this whole thing started I was doing my usual afternoon prayer as suddenly this bright light shone through the church and changed everything.
Afterward, it was pure chaos, by a stroke of luck, and thanks to my training in the military I was able to fend these creatures off. I already had some survivors around me and eventually underwent some sort of evolution.
I fell unconscious and after I awoke again I could feel newfound energy rushing through me. To our luck the sun didn’t abandon us and bestowed upon me a gift to protect this city; the ability to control flames. With this power, I was able to exterminate many of these monsters and rescue many people. With this, I soon underwent my third evolution, which greatly increased the strength of my flames."
Intervening Jim asked, "Wait with evolution you mean the transformation we experience every time we have enough of this energy, right? That means you are already at the third rank?"
Confused by Jim's talking Solaire said, "I indeed underwent three of these transformations, but I think evolution is a more befitting word. We do not transform to something else, but evolve to something... more complex, and what rank are you talking about?"
Explaining Charlotte said, "It is a simple system that tells how often you underwent this evolution. The first evolution is the first rank and the second evolution, the second, and so on."
"Okay that makes sense, then I'm really of the third rank. To return to the topic after reaching this rank I not only increased the strength of my flames but I was able to feel this new energy more clearly. You could say my awareness increased. Due to that, I can tell that you all are of the second rank."
Realizing the usefulness of this ability Emma said, "That is great so you can tell the rank of each person, just by feeling their energy."
Stroking his beard Solaire replied, "Yes that is indeed useful, but more important is the catastrophe that struck us on the morning of the fourth day. There I witnessed the first time this…” The priest took a deep breath while recalling something before he continued, “Monster.”
Jim asked curiously, “What mutant is it?”
With a face of pure hatred, Solaire said, “Mutants? Is that what you call these beasts? A befitting name for these monsters. A spawn of pure evil and hatred.”
With a sight, Solaire looked outside the window. “These creatures or mutants are killing us. Every single one of them wants to see us dead. To survive we have to exterminate every single one of them and make sure they never claim the life of another person.
In the past few days, I saw nothing more than death… people I respected, helped even loved… dead. After my long service in the military, I was sick of the battlefield and swore never to return to it. The bloody scenes of a battlefield, and their thick stench of iron, gunpowder, and burning flesh are all still vivid memories of mine and haunt me to this day.
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It seems like I can’t escape this fate even in my old years. This time the battlefield is vastly different… more brutal and with unknown enemies. I will use this old body of mine to protect as many people as possible, but there is a limit to what one person can achieve. What an irony to give me the ability to control the flames I so very despise.”
Jim knows little of Solaire's past and was taken aback by his speech and powers. Before he could ask any questions Solaire looked directly at Jim, with the most serious expression he had ever seen on the normally so kind priest.
“Jim, my boy. No, all of you have to remember one thing; this is not a war we have seen before, this isn’t a battle for resources but one for survival. It is killing or being killed and surviving is the only thing that matters.
We humans always killed animals and destroyed nature just to gain more resources and to further satisfy our greed for more. In the end, it was never enough. Human greed is truly insatiable.
All of this is like a redemption for all the things we humans have taken and destroyed. The now stronger animals will try their best to be at the top of the food chain and take everything back humans once robbed from them. We have to adapt and fight!”
After a moment of being lost in thought, Jim nodded his head with a face of understanding before saying, “ I understand what you want to say but what mutant has caused you so many problems?”
With hatred, Solaire began to recount the events, “This thing alone is the only reason why I was able to save so few people. I don’t even know why it let you guys through probably because it felt a little threatened, by your huge number and rank.
After the light, I was forced to fight yet again for my life. This time I used magical abilities to protect as many as possible but this power doesn't come without costs. To activate this power I have to use a lot of this energy. Due to that, I need to constantly absorb energy from the killed creatures to fuel this ability.
That is the reason why only about a dozen adults are of the second evolution, while everyone else is still at their first. The problem is that my ability is useless against this monstrosity.”
Taking a short breath Solaire explained, “The monster I’m talking about is a raven but to call it that would be a huge insult to every normal raven. That thing is very cunning and careful. It got stronger by killing every lost human who wanted to seek rescue in the church.
It flows in the sky waiting for prey. If it finds someone it silently gets ready to dive down. It then pierces through your skull, sometimes ripping the whole head out, killing you instantly before you even realize what hit you.
It then retreats high into the sky and repeats the process. This technique claimed many lives and prevents people from reaching or leaving the church. With this, the raven quickly rose to its third evolution and if this goes on will soon be able to reach its fourth.”
With a grim face, Jim said, “That is really a problem. The most annoying enemies to fight are those that can fly and a cunning foe at that, is an even more terrifying enemy.
I just don’t understand why you didn’t kill it until now. I mean you are also ranked three and you killed almost two dozen animals just five minutes ago. So how big of a problem could one raven be?”
Shaking his head Solaire explained, “The reason is the power the sun gave me. Even if it is a very strong power and great at defeating a great number of foes it has its limitations.
For once this power is very draining of this new energy everyone has. If the flames don’t kill creatures I cannot replenish this energy. Secondly, is my control over these flames limited, additionally they have a limited range and lose quickly power after about a dozen meters. With the raven being so fast the flames would never reach it.
We are in a stalemate where I can’t reach the raven and the raven can’t reach me, as it would be burned to a crisp. It wants to reach the next evolution to break this stalemate and kill me.”
Jim thought for a moment before saying, “This does make sense but there is one more thing I don’t understand. Why are there so many mutants in the vicinity? I mean shouldn’t they kill each other too? It feels like they are teaming up to defeat the humans here.”
Remembering something Solaire said, “Yes that is the most problematic part about this raven, as it seems to have a certain control over other mutants.”
With confusion, Jim asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Gathering his thoughts for a moment Solaire started to explain, “I don’t know if it is due to a special trait of the raven or the fact that he reached its third evolution. I only know that the third evolution is not comparable to the previous ones and brings greater changes.”
Bewildered by the revelation Jake asked, "What do mean by that?"
"I mean that there are only a few special scenarios where mutants work together. Observations of mine have shown a pattern that most mutants follow. The first is when they are from the same species. Mutants of the same species seem to ally with one another.
The second is when they form a temporary alliance to defeat a bigger threat. After killing said threat the alliance immediately breaks and they start to kill each other.
The last and most important situation is something that I call suppression. I only saw it once for myself, but the raven was staring at another mutant and after a while, it lowered its head in submission and followed its commands.
As I said, this thing is very cunning so it sends wave after wave of mutants to the church to deplete my energy reserves. I barely make it even with the energy and slowly lose more, than I gain and can’t advance further. The same goes for the others meaning that we can’t get stronger, while the raven is free to absorb more energy.”
After hearing Solaires explanation, everyone was lost in their thoughts to understand the new information and the difficult situation Solaire and the other survivors were in, and how they could fix it. Lukas was the first to break the silence and asked a question.
“It seems like you are well aware of your situation, so you surely have some plan in mind?”
Nodding his head Solaire said, “You are right I can’t leave the vicinity of the church, as the raven could use this moment to attack. I’m its biggest threat and if I leave I would essentially risk the lives of all the people in this church.
I planned to make a group composed of elites in the second rank lay an ambush in its nest to kill it. Even if heavily evolved, the raven still needs to sleep and rest and build a nest for itself over the past week.
Now that you guys are here I can speed up this plan. I feared that by the time this team was formed it would be too late. By then it would be very likely that the raven reached its fourth evolution, at which point everything would be lost.
I’m not feeling good about sending teenagers to kill such a horrifying monster but difficult situations demand difficult choices,” looking at Jim, Solaire went more serious before saying, “I won’t force any of you to fight against this monster, as the small team I have will go with or without you. We don’t have any other options left.”
Jim smiled and said, “It’s fine. We fought the past week constantly with our lives on the line. One monster more or less makes not a big difference for me. Or how do you guys see this?”
Looking at his group they briefly looked at each other before smiling. The past week boosted their confidence. They survived in this new hell for a week without receiving any serious wounds and killed countless mutants. How hard could it be to kill one more?
With the agreement of the rest of the group, Jim turned his attention back to Solaire before asking, “Where exactly is this nest of this raven?”
Solaire stood up from his chair before going to a table in the corner of the room where countless papers were scattered. He grabbed one of the pieces, which turned out to be a map, and laid it out on the round table.
It was a map of the city and was marked with multiple symbols and small notes. One of these symbols resembled a raven and had a circle around it. Solaire pointed at it.
After looking at the map Jim realized that the nest wasn’t even that far from the church. It was on one of the higher buildings with multiple apartments in it. It was just about one and a half kilometers north of the church.
Solaire looked at Jim again and said, “This raven is hunting for the most part in the night but sometimes it also hunts in the day. The best time to go would be tomorrow morning.
At this time it should be sleeping but you still have to be careful. After getting there you hide in his nest and wait for its return. I will try to exhaust it as much as possible with the energy I have left. When it returns to rest you will strike and kill it before it even realizes what hit it. Any questions?”
The group thought for a moment before Clay asked, ”How are we going to restrain it if it tries to flee?
“We don’t. I don’t really have anything that could restrain it, either you kill it instantly or wounds its wings somehow. You will be accompanied by my good friend Dave and four of his men. Anything else?” Solaire asked.
The group shook their heads. Solaire nodded in satisfaction before looking at Charlotte with a smile and saying, “You should go see your parents.”
Then he looked at Lukas and added, “You too. Sadly most of your parents' locations are still missing. I tried to stop some of them from storming off and rescuing their child as it would be suicide but some didn’t want to listen. Who would have thought that the children would come to find their parents first.”
Realizing that their parents were here, Charlotte and Lukas charged off to the door into the big hall of the church.
After searching for about four minutes Charlotte was the first to find both her parents alive and doing well. With tears of joy running down her eyes Charlotte sprang into the arms of her parents. With a heartwarming embrace, they started to cry together.
Their family was finally complete again. Shortly after Lukas found his mother and the same scene repeated itself. But there was a difference, Lukas's father was missing and after some time his mother broke down to her knees.
Her tears of joy turned into tears of grief as she looked her son in the eyes and said with a broken voice.
“Lu-Lukas my angel! Your… father he is… d-dead.”