Two days later Soren called a meeting. Following the morning hunt, the team sat down to discuss the day’s fights and their rapid improvement. They’d put their second level up point in durability, which gave them the ability to fight less cautiously and their clearing speed had skyrocketed.

“I think it’s time we start exploring the police department,” Soren said once everyone had settled down to eat.

“Isn’t it a bit soon to head there?” Peter asked, his reluctance obvious.

“We don’t need to go to the police station itself— just in that direction. We have to tackle the source at some point,” Soren explained in between slurps of his fourth bowl of soup. The cooks disliked his excessive eating, but they were too scared to stop him after the incident. They did snitch him out to Samantha, but, for some peculiar reason, she was on his side.

“He’s right,” Lee concurred. “We can’t keep opting for easy fights. A blade left unused grows dull. We must remain sharp.”

“Plus, if we meet something beyond our capabilities, Soren can just blast it with fire,” Leia added. Her pinky was twitching.

“It just feels too soon,” Peter said, scratching the dandruff off his head. “Three days ago, I was scared to approach them with a shotgun. Couple days later, I’m dissatisfied with how deadly they are and looking for stronger zombies to kill. It’s crazy.”

“Oi.” Eric slapped him on the back, almost causing him to vomit undigested food. “Don’t count yourself out before the fight has started.”

“That “slap” would’ve killed a normal person, Eric!” Peter complained, his hand already aiming for Eric’s head.

“You’ve got too much space in your head to die from that little hit,” Eric said, sliding out of reach. Frustrated, Peter stood up. In a burst of speed that would put Olympic sprinters to shame, they chased each other around.

 Lee smiled warmly. Leia wanted to laugh but stifled it when she noticed Soren’s deadpan expression.

 “What are your thoughts on the group’s strength?” Lee asked Soren.

 “Level 6 is our cutoff point,” Soren said in a matter-of-fact tone.

 “Without fireballs?” Lee asked.

 “Magic is a safety valve, not something to rely on regularly. If we fight at our full capacity, we won’t have anything to fall back on in an emergency,” Soren explained, licking his bowl clean.

 Lee appreciated that mindset. “That’s a good attitude to have— necessary in our case.” A satisfied burp interrupted him, “Glad you enjoyed it,” he joked.

 “Food always tastes better after combat,” Soren replied with a grin.

 “Will a level 6 zombie offer more attributes?” Lee continued.

 Soren paused, contemplating. “It’s not impossible. I’ve killed a level 5 goblin before, and its partial essence gave me 0.2 Intelligence. I don’t know if the same applies here, though. It was an [Uncommon] monster.”

 Lee’s curiosity piqued. “Uncommon? Why was it Uncommon?”

 “Probably because it used Magic.”

 “Is that where you learned to cast fireballs?” Lee asked, receiving a nod in response.

 “Gotta say, it would’ve been unbelievable if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Flames materializing from nothingness. It’s quite the sight.”

 “I can keep showing you,” Soren offered.

 “Thank you for that, but I sense nothing but heat no matter how hard I concentrate on the spell,” Lee said. He had no talent for magic. No matter how much Mana Soren poured into his hands, the man couldn’t sense even a hint of it. In contrast, Soren’s mind swelled with a yarn-like spherical structure akin to the midday sun.

 “If you ever wish to try again, I’ll be glad to demonstrate,” Soren said.

 Then, out of nowhere, his lazy demeanor dissolved. Twin blood pools simmered.

 “Lee?” Soren asked.

 “Yes?” the older man replied, perplexed.

 “What do you think about the future?”

 As soon as the words left his mouth, Mana suffused the atmosphere. To a mage, the threads in the air would’ve been obvious. A common man, however, felt only the climbing pressure, as if the air itself was becoming heavier.

 “I wish to survive until the army comes,” Lee said. He was a simple man with simple desires.

 “Do you really believe the army will come?”

 “…”

 “Not a single phone call, no radio signal– nothing. Are they really coming?” It was the elephant in the room. Everybody thought it. Nobody addressed it.

 “Hope is a powerful thing, Soren. It grows in places where even love cannot,” Lee replied, his words carrying a deep resolve. Yet to Soren, they sounded hollow.

 “Hope you say? They—” he gestured to the people surrounding them, lying listless on their mattresses.

 “They are hopeful. They’re content to lie down and wait for their hope to arrive,” he paused, letting the pressure intensify. “You, Lee, are much more. Hours after the destruction, you organized a resistance. Against insurmountable odds, circumstances incomprehensible, you moved forward, no matter how insignificant your steps might have seemed. A man clinging to a crushed hope would’ve been busy picking up his hope’s pieces. But not you, Lee. You, are driven by something more. You… are greedy.”

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 “It wasn’t that hard a decision to make. Everybody needs to occupy themselves somehow, if only to distract themselves from reality. I simply had a Plan B,” Lee said, his voice audible over the suffocating pressure.

 Soren smiled. His title wasn’t a haphazard nickname. Few humans could remain clear-headed when facing the bloodlust of the demon.

 “Plan B’s are exactly that– secondary. You… acted instantly.” Soren constricted the Mana around Lee like an encroaching boa. “A hopeful man would have hesitated, at the very least, until he had some information. He wouldn’t risk his life without reason.”

 “Perhaps my faith in the army isn’t as steadfast as I’d thought,” Le conceded. “But the point remains. Someone has to fight. I was just the first to do it. You did, as well.”

 Soren chuckled, not a boisterous laugh, but more one shared among friends at the most inappropriate of moments. The kind of laughter that couldn't be contained, no matter how much you tried to do so. It was an honest laugh, a chilling contrast to his usual distant demeanor.

 “Don’t lie to me, Lee,” Soren chastised, his tone reminiscent of a kindergarten teacher reprimanding a toddler.

 “A man who merely initiates doesn’t venture out on the first day of the apocalypse. He doesn’t welcome strangers into his home. He doesn’t probe for information to gauge their willingness to cooperate. Be honest, Lee, you would’ve shot me right then and there had I said the wrong thing, wouldn’t you?”

 The blood pools roiled, flooding the radiant forest, colouring it crimson. Yet, they could not touch the radiant sun above or the treetops rising above the scarlet sea, whose green leaves shimmered in the golden light.

 “I do not kill innocents. If I thought you a threat, I would’ve denied you shelter,” Lee asserted, his words steady and distinct as if he stood amidst a soft breeze rather than being bombarded by a raging mana storm.

 Beside him, Leia trembled, her heartbeat rapid and erratic, her breaths choked and labored, like a boat on the verge of capsizing.

 “More lies. We are so alike, Lee, you and I. The only difference is your dishonesty; your delusion of being moral and just,” Soren spat as if trying to rid his tongue of the disgusting words. “The both of us are greedy—” Soren said, yanking the strings taut to spike the pressure. Leia couldn’t breathe. Lee stiffened ever so slightly.

 “—but I, Lee, I am careful about what I consume.”

 The pressure subsided.

 Leia gasped, hyperventilating and shivering.

 Soren patted her back. “Be cautious about what you consume, Lee. You might choke if you bite off more than you can chew.”

 Lee remained stoic as Soren stood up and retreated to his corner. It wasn’t long before the grey-haired man heard him snoring. Leia continued to choke, coughing up blood. The influx of Mana had damaged her throat.

 “Come with me. Samantha must have something for your neck,” Lee said, helping her to the nurses’ quarters.

…

 In the dead of the night, a man roused from his sleep. The whisper of grinding rust echoed through the shelter a moment later and the woman who slept beside that man stirred. She tiptoed around slumbering children and drained mothers, snuck past the snoring doorkeeper, and walked a couple blocks further, where two men awaited her.

 “Where’s Peter?” Leia asked, puzzled.

 “Peter can’t keep a secret if his life depended on it. And in this case, it does,” Eric said. “But don’t be worried about that right now. You’re late,” he scolded.

 “Don’t mind him, girlie. He’s worried sick. We anticipated something like this, but it came too abruptly.” Lee’s poised demeanor didn’t match the shocking nature of his words.

 “You knew? Since when?” Leia shouted, dumbfounded.

 “Do not yell! You’ll alert the zombies— or him.” Eric warned, his eyes darting around, ready to muzzle her if she raised her voice again.

 “Ignore him,” Lee advised. “We’ve had our suspicions from the start.”

 “Emancipated guards might be as believable as flying pigs,” Eric interjected. “Now that I think about it though that’s pretty believable,” he murmered to himself

 “Recently, though,” Lee continued. “We thought you were cooperating, but that changed when–”

 “When Soren fed Lee those essences,” Eric said sharply, his tone laced with venom.

 “Control your voice,” Lee reminded him. Eric shrank back. Crossing his arms, he leaned against a wall. “That was the only warning we got.”

 “Why would that be a warning?” Leia asked, dazed. Those who had fought on the first day of the apocalypse truly couldn’t be underestimated.

 “Would you ever absorb multiple essences at once?“ Lee asked.

 “No. That’s torture,” Leia replied, her voice trembling under the weight of memories refusing to fade.

 “Now imagine absorbing two at the same time. I absorbed three— I was on the brink of losing myself,” Lee stated gravely, more serious than Leia had ever seen him be.

 She understood. She understood too well. The essence’s call disturbed her sleep every night.

 “Yet he eats them like candy. Damn monster,” Eric snarled. “We should end him while we still can.”

 “Impossible,” Leia said. “He’s been hunting alone during the night. He’s much stronger than us. ”

 Eric frowned. “We didn’t know that.”

 “Have you seen him leave?” Lee asked.

 “No, but I’ve felt him move, and he comes back with multiple essences.” Her gaze lowered as she sniffled, trying to contain the tears and the snot. “I’m already halfway to level 4.”

 A comforting warmth embraced her. “You’re safe, girlie. Let it out,” Lee reassured. Leia clutched him tightly. She wanted to cry, to let it all out—she really did—but she didn’t allow herself; not a single tear. She had to be strong.

 “Then it’s worse than we thought. We have to catch up, immediately,” Eric said.

 Leia was silent. Her thoughts swirled like the circles Lee traced upon her back.

 “Not all is lost. He is scared—otherwise he wouldn’t have lashed out. He needs us, but his control is slipping,” Lee said. Feeling a slight push, he let Leia go.

 “But now he’s isolated. One versus four, the odds are on our side,” Eric said.

 “It’s not as one-sided as it seems. Before, he was a lion in a dark cave, surrounded and blinded by the shadows. Eric and I were in front of him, and Leia was behind him. Now, with the shadows dispersed, he can see clearly. His back may be against the wall, but it’s shielded, and all his enemies stand before him,” Lee explained. “We stand there, the three of us, weaponless, facing an enraged lion. Who truly holds the upper hand?”

 “I dislike this. Everything’s too calculated. It feels like we’re playing into his hand—like he wants us to betray him,” Eric voiced his skepticism.

 “And we will. But not yet,” Lee said.

 “If not now then when?” asked Leia, rubbing her puffy nose with her dirty sleeves.

 “First, we need to hunt. Those who seek control are the most vulnerable. He feels uncertain, so he had to regain the upper hand. His method, however, was too drastic.” Lee brimmed with confidence as he outlined their strategy

“He anticipates betrayal, but he doesn’t know when it will come. So we bide our time and hunt. By himself he can only do so much. Together we can outpace him. And when the time is ripe, we’ll strike, at the exact moment he expects it— at his most vulnerable, but with far greater force than he anticipates. Our full strength versus his weakest state."

 Eric’s eyes were glinting. Leia, though, doubted the plan. “We can’t. We’ll never get even close to him if we spend our time walking around and searching for zombies. And if he finds us at the police station he’ll kill us regardless of how much he needs us. We have no hope.”

 “There’s a second portal,” Eric said nonchalantly.

 Leia's jaw dropped. “You planned this.”

 “No,” Lee denied. “Not entirely. Everything we told you was genuine. We held back certain information in case of emergency.”

 Eric couldn't resist a sardonic remark. "Unfortunately, our suspicions were right. Two people miraculously escaping on their own—from Mastone, no less. What fortuitous circumstances," he quipped, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his lips as Leia winced.

 “Even then, if we don’t get more than triple the essences he does, we still can’t beat him.” She wanted to believe in them. She just couldn’t. Soren was just too powerful. They couldn’t defeat him. They had no chance.

 “Who said we’ll distribute them?” Lee said. He and Eric were both smiling.

 It was dangerous; a single person absorbing so many essences in such a short amount of time…but it could be done. Leia felt the plan falling into place. This was their best chance—their only chance to seize their own fate.

 “Are we in agreement?” Lee's question punctuated the air, drawing Leia’s and Eric’s attention. They nodded.

 “In that case, let’s not waste any time. He sure isn’t.”