Nyx climbed back into bed and settled against the raised pillows. Having decided that she and Lucian would leave the capital before Realmfall, another question immediately followed.
Where should they go?
She sighed and closed her eyes.
Bellmont was out of the question. She had no intention of taking him anywhere near it, no matter how different this life might become.
Haven City was another possibility.
Haven Base had eventually become one of the strongest survivor bases on the East Continent. Nyx had never been there herself, but she had heard enough about it from other survivors to understand its importance. Even before the apocalypse, Haven City had been a popular tourist destination and an international city with a large and diverse population. When Realmfall began, those numbers had initially made the situation more chaotic, but the survivors who eventually established Haven Base had access to a larger population, more resources, and people from a wide range of professional backgrounds.
Over time, it became one of the few survivor bases whose influence extended beyond Seren.
Nyx had never considered going there in her previous life.
Back then, surviving from one day to the next had been difficult enough. Choosing the safest place in the country had been a luxury she simply didn’t have.
This time was different.
Aside from a few cities like Alder and Haven City, which had been primarily affected by a single realm during the initial stages of Realmfall, many other cities experienced invasions from multiple realms.
Two realms could invade the same region.
Sometimes, three.
In the worst cases, their areas of influence overlapped.
Nyx had first heard about overlapping invasions during her time at Alder City Base.
She had been standing in the mission hall when a group of survivors returned from another region and began describing what they had seen. At the time, Nyx had been horrified by the idea of two different realms occupying the same area.
But hearing about it and seeing it with her own eyes were completely different things.
She learned that after Alder City Base was destroyed.
After fleeing with the other survivors, Nyx and Lucian eventually reached Bellmont Base. Several months later, Nyx joined a mission traveling toward the Bellmont-Halden border region.
Halden was a city in Norland, the country bordering Seren to the east.
The mission had been organized after several groups reported unusual monster activity near the border. Bellmont Base wanted to investigate the area, determine whether there were survivors nearby, and eliminate any immediate threats if possible.
Almost forty ability users had joined the mission plus the 30 military members.
At the time, Nyx had thought their numbers were enough. She had been wrong.
The first thing they noticed was the silence.
There were no birds, no insects, and no wind moving through the trees.
The road leading toward the border had gradually changed as they traveled. The damaged highways and abandoned vehicles they had become accustomed to eventually disappeared beneath dead vegetation.
Enormous trees stood along both sides of the road. Their trunks had swollen until several people would have been needed to circle one with their arms. Thick roots had pushed through the asphalt and spread across the ground like twisted veins.
Yet the trees were dead.
Their bark had turned gray and black, hanging from their trunks in long strips. The branches were completely bare, while patches of dark, decaying growth covered the wood.
The deeper they traveled, the more unnatural the landscape became.
The vegetation created by the Beast Realm had continued growing without restraint, swallowing buildings and roads beneath its roots. Then the influence of the Nether Realm had killed it.
Massive plants stood frozen in various stages of decay. Some had collapsed across entire streets, their enormous stems split open to reveal blackened interiors. Others remained upright, but their branches hung heavily beneath strange growths that resembled clusters of dark flesh.
The ground was even worse.
The soil had turned black and wet.
At first, Nyx assumed it was mud.
Then she saw something move beneath the surface.
The entire group stopped.
Something slowly pushed upward from beneath the earth.
A hand.
A cluster of pale, jointed bones emerged from the soil before sinking back beneath it.
Nyx still remembered the feeling that spread through her body at that moment.
Cold.
Not because of the temperature but because she realized that the ground beneath their feet was filled with corpses.
Human corpses.
Animal corpses.
And things she couldn’t identify.
The Beast Realm caused uncontrollable growth and mutation. The Nether Realm brought death and corruption.
Together, they created something far worse.
Nyx’s group continued forward for only a few more minutes before they reached the edge of the overlapping zone.
The landscape beyond it looked like another world.
The ground had been split open in several places, exposing enormous roots that twisted through the earth. Some of the roots were still alive, slowly moving beneath layers of decaying flesh and blackened vegetation.
Skeletons were tangled between them. Some were human and others were various beasts and monsters.
Nyx remembered seeing the skull of something that resembled a wolf embedded in the remains of a collapsed building. Its body was nowhere to be seen, but the skull alone was nearly as large as a car.
Dark mist drifted between the trees and the ground. Whenever it touched the vegetation, the plants decayed.
Then they heard the first roar.
It came from somewhere deep within the forest.
Another roar answered it.
Then another.
The group immediately prepared to retreat but it was already too late.
The first creature emerged from the trees.
Nyx had seen wolf-like beasts before.
This wasn’t one of them.
Its body was larger than a car with thick muscle layered under grey hide, with patches of it hanging loosely from its body, exposing blackened flesh beneath. Bones protruded from its shoulders and spine and its eyes were completely black.
And behind it came more.
Some were beasts or human corpses.
The mission collapsed almost immediately as the leaders shouted for everyone to retreat.
Then the first person died.
Nyx remembered turning just in time to see a beast tear through one of the ability users. Before the man’s body even reached the ground, several dark vines burst from the soil beneath him.
They wrapped around the corpse then dragged it underground.
Panic spread through the group.
They all ran with everything they had but the creatures followed.
Beasts emerged from the dead forest while undead creatures crawled from beneath the earth. Some of the trees themselves moved, their enormous roots tearing through the ground as though they were searching for something.
People screamed as abilities exploded around them.
Fire burned through the mist, wind tore apart the decaying vegetation, and someone created a wall of earth behind the retreating group.
Yet, it lasted less than a minute.
By the time the survivors escaped the overlapping zone, nearly 40 ability users and 30 soldiers had entered the region, and only a fraction returned.
That incident permanently changed Nyx’s understanding of Realmfall.
A single realm invasion was already capable of destroying an entire city.
An overlapping invasion could transform an entire region into something humanity could no longer understand.
Nyx slowly opened her eyes.
She had no intention of taking Lucian anywhere near a place like that.
Haven City was different.
During the initial stages of Realmfall, Haven City had been predominantly affected by the Arcane Realm. Its influence had transformed parts of the city, but the situation there had eventually stabilized enough for survivors to establish one of the strongest bases on the East Continent.
The Realm Essence that saturated an area could influence the way living things changed after Realmfall. Humans exposed to it could die, become undead, remain unchanged, or eventually awaken abilities, while the dominant influence within a region often affected the types of abilities that appeared there.
Alder City’s invasion had been dominated by the Beast Realm while Haven City had been dominated by the Arcane Realm.
Maybe things would be different this time.
Maybe, if she went somewhere else before Realmfall began, she could awaken a different ability.
A more powerful one.
Nyx frowned slightly.
Then again, her past ability hadn’t exactly been weak.
Assimilation.
That was what she had eventually named her ability.
It allowed her to absorb and store certain forms of kinetic force before releasing them.
The ability had saved her life.
Without it, Nyx would never have survived long enough to reach Alder City Base.
But she had also spent three years wondering what might have happened if she had awakened somewhere else.
Before she could continue that thought, her phone lit up silently beside her.
Nyx glanced down.
She had received a message.
Her brows drew together when she saw the sender.
Her company’s Human Resources Department.
Was it about her injury? Who had informed them?
It certainly hadn’t been Livia.
Nyx had no difficulty imagining her stepsister enjoying the thought of her being hospitalized. Livia was far more likely to laugh about it than to contact Nyx’s workplace.
And Edmund and Camilla certainly wouldn’t have bothered.
Nyx slowly turned her head.
Lucian was still asleep on the couch.
Could it have been him?
Her expression softened slightly.
She opened the message.
—Good morning, Ms. Arden.
We were informed that you were recently hospitalized following an accident. We hope you are recovering well.
After discussing the situation with your department manager, the company has approved medical leave effective immediately. Your current responsibilities will be temporarily reassigned while you focus on your recovery.
Please provide any required medical documentation when you are able to do so. If your recovery period needs to be extended, you may contact Human Resources or your department manager at any time.
We wish you a smooth and speedy recovery.
Human Resources Department
Nyx read the message once before dismissing the notification.
She never had any intention of resuming work.
Besides, that damn business trip she and her colleagues had taken was one of the reasons she had suffered so much at the beginning of the apocalypse.
Nyx had no intention of allowing history to repeat itself.
The medical leave had arrived at the perfect time, although the company certainly wouldn’t imagine that it would eventually become indefinite.
Nyx left the messaging application and opened her banking app.
Her phone scanned her face before unlocking the account.
Two balances appeared on the screen.
Nyx stared at them.
Her job paid relatively well. She had worked hard during the past two years, often taking on additional responsibilities and projects whenever they were offered. The company also provided performance bonuses, and Nyx had always made sure she qualified for them.
She had needed the money.
Even before the apocalypse, Nyx had never trusted her family enough to depend on them.
Her checking account contained a little over twelve thousand dollars while her savings account contained exactly fifty-eight thousand dollars.
Altogether, she had approximately seventy thousand dollars in personal savings.
Nyx stared at the number.
In her previous life, seventy thousand dollars would have seemed like a significant amount of money.
Enough to move out, to rent an apartment, and to live independently for several years if she was careful.
But now?
Nyx slowly leaned back against the pillows.
She had to prepare herself and Lucian for the end of the world.
Food, water, medicine, vehicles, weapons, fuel, equipment, and shelter.
The list was already growing inside her mind.
Seventy thousand dollars wasn’t enough, not even close.
Nyx stared silently at her phone.
To stockpile at that scale, she needed space—and privacy. Buying in bulk meant nothing if a truck full of non-perishables showed up at a suburban driveway for every neighbor to see. She needed a secure place: a commercial warehouse or a secluded storage facility on the city’s outskirts, somewhere with a loading dock, high fencing, and minimal foot traffic.
And that alone would be rented at a steep price.
She opened a map app, her thumb hovering over the industrial districts bordering the highway, before stopping mid-tap as another thought surfaced.