As John was making his steady way back towards the house, moving with the unconcerned gait he was starting to default to, the sky started to change again. John froze as the flaming atmosphere seemed to brighten, and it took him a moment to realise the cause.

The dark curtain that had shrouded the world was starting to draw back, flowing towards the centre of the city. He had to move a few streets over to get a good view of what was happening. When he did, his eyes widened behind his shades.

In the distance, the great black hole in reality was shrinking. As if it was collapsing in on itself, it pulled the dark shroud into it. It was like watching water drain down a hole. There was no sound to accompany it. Nor did the temperature change. The feeling of the fiery sky's light shining on his skin was no different from before.

But by the time the black hole had contracted so small he couldn't see it any more, there was a marked change in the feel of the world. Checking his watch, John saw it had just turned 6:30AM. If the sky wasn't on fire, the sun would've been rising about now.

So that thing only shows up at night, huh?

John didn't understand the significance of that, but he was thankful for it. He found he much preferred the idea that the dark phenomenon wasn't going to be a permanent fixture in the London skyline. He'd been worried it was going to continuously darken the sky until they were plunged into an eternal night, only restoring daylight by defeating the immense… whatever the fuck it was. This was far preferable.

Jade was awake when he returned to the house, but she hadn't moved from her spot. There was a deadened looked in her bleary grey eyes, and she stared at John uncomprehendingly when he entered. She hadn't put her armour back on, leaving her in a knitted red jumper with a high collar and tracksuit bottoms. Having been protected from the mayhem of the last few hours, her clothes contrasted severely with the layer of grime and soot that covered her face and much of her hair.

John stood in the doorway, enduring her confused scrutiny. It didn't take long for her eyes to gain recognition and sharpen, at least. She blinked a few times before screwing her eyes shut and taking a deep breath. A shudder went through her body and she seemed to steel herself.

"Where've you been off to?" she whispered, opening her eyes just to squint at him.

John thought about how to answer that. He didn't want her knowing he'd seriously considered ditching them while they slept, multiple times over. Had come close to actually doing it, even. As it was, he'd already left them ostensibly undefended. "Killing monsters in the area," he said, because that was true, and maintained his cool, mysterious badass stranger image.

+200 Aura

The system probably wouldn't have appreciated him fist-pumping in triumph, so he refrained. It was a near thing, though. That was the first time he'd gained Aura from saying something to a person, right? Well, deliberately anyway. He'd done it by accident a couple of times.

Jade stared at him for a moment before her shoulders slumped with a sigh. She let her head fall back against the headrest of the recliner sofa she'd picked out, gaze straying to her discarded armour. "I cannae help but think that explains that difference between you and us. Even after the shite we went through, first thing on your mind was getting more power out of your system, am I right?"

John nodded slowly, buying himself time to think of another cool line. "We need power to survive."

He waited, but got nothing for that one. Damn it.

"And the path to power leaves a trail of bodies in our wake," Jade said softly.

"Monster bodies," John pointed out, frowning. Hadn't needed to think for that one. "They don't deserve any kind of sympathy."

"I know that. I saw the shit some of these abominations have done. Killing these evil bastards can only be a good thing." Jade sighed again, and this one seemed to deflate her, like something fundamental was leaving her body with the breath. "It feels like I've spent my whole life tellin' anyone who'd listen that killing other living creatures for our own benefit is wrong. It's not easy to just throw that off, ya ken? And now I have a system that rewards me for killing shit. Feels designed to torment me. Irony, or whatever."

John thought of his own system. "Yeah," he said with a sigh of his own. "Yeah."

The other two had named their own systems, John recalled. Attention for Chester, and Accuracy for Lily. The idea that such a hugely muscular guy struggled with attention in some manner seemed strange, but he supposed everyone had their own shit going on internally. He couldn't really guess at Lily's accuracy situation, or how that would translate to tormenting her in the way Jade described.

Was this how it was going to be for everyone? Was there some guy out there who was scared of heights and had to climb up to high places to gain points with his own system? Some poor girl who was forced to face her fear of holes if she wanted to survive?

It all seemed so arbitrary. Cruel, even. Killing off an enormous percentage of humanity, only to put the remainder through misery. Bring hell to Earth, then force everyone to go through their own personal hell. It sounded almost poetic.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Whoever or whatever was behind this was going to be sorry for it, if John had any say in the matter. He'd already sworn vengeance against the black void monster that had hovered over central London all night, might as well add another immensely powerful entity to the list.

Arching one eyebrow, Jade shot him a curious look. "What about you, John? What's your system torturing you with?"

John just shook his head. He couldn't. There was just no way he'd be able to act cool in front of these people if they knew that was what he was doing.

"My working theory is that you have to kill stuff, too," Jade said. "You're just not as squeamish about it as me."

"Killing stuff does help," John admitted, turning to stare out the window.

The street outside felt so lifeless, somehow. It wasn't as if this neighbourhood would've been a particularly busy place, before all this shit had gone down. If he'd stared out of this window two days ago, he probably would have witnessed a scene that was little different to this one, ignoring the state of the sky and the battered front doors and smashed windows. There were no cars on the road or people walking by.

His knowledge of what was out there beyond this street coloured his perception, he supposed. Mana Sense revealed there were monsters as nearby as the next street. And there were a few dozen more just in his 500-metre range. Who knew how many lurked beyond that, in the wider neighbourhood, then the district, the city itself, the country, the continent, the world. There were probably more monsters on Earth than humans, at this point. Than any animal in general, maybe. London wasn't exactly a biodiverse place, but he felt he should've seen more animals around than literally none.

So the relatively mundane scene before him took on a darker edge. An empty street on another day wouldn't have been any cause for concern. Now, he couldn't help wondering when the next person to walk this street would come. Would another human being ever set foot on this road, once he and his companions had moved on? It was entirely possible the answer was no.

He turned back to the living room and moved to the last free sofa, trying his best not to show any discomfort. Dropping his backpack at his feet, he lounged on the seat, crossing his arms. He nodded at Jade's armour. "Where'd you get that?"

"Museum," Jade said with a shrug. "Don't know which one. That's how I met Lily; she had the same idea as me."

John glanced at the American girl. She was still dead to the world, flopped over her sofa with her limbs all over the place, her state better described as unconscious than asleep, face utterly slack. Without her motorcycle helmet, he had a better view of her face, and figured she was closer to thirty than twenty. The grime and soot made it hard to tell. There was no sign of her crossbow anywhere, he noted. Presumably, it was a magic weapon she could summon at will.

"We helped each other into the armour as best we could, then fought back to back for a bit." Jade grimaced, then lowered her voice. "I get the feeling the poor lass was here with a bunch of her mates, like. She hasn't taken her chain mail off, but underneath it… Well, she was fuckin' covered in blood when we met, but I didn't see any wounds on her."

"I see," John said with a grimace of his own, eyeing the Floridian woman. "And Chester?"

Jade shrugged. "Met him a couple of hours later, when we were trying to get the fuck out of the city centre."

John spent a few seconds digesting that. "You were in the city centre?"

"Yeah. I was right by Hyde Park when this shit kicked off." Her expression darkened, eyes haunted. "It was bad, down there. Really bad. Absolute carnage. Don't know how the fuck I got out of it, honestly. Feels like a nightmare."

"You seem competent…"

Jade shook her head violently. Her top lip curled. "I got lucky. Some little roadman twerp had a machete. Was probably there to cause trouble or rob someone, but he ended up using it to halfway bash a monster's head in. Only, the monster got him good before he could end it. I took the machete and finished the job, and that was when I got my system. Enough Soul for a level up and a Spell."

"And you haven't levelled up again?"

"I have," she said, closing her eyes. "I'm saving up until I get something… better. You should see the shit it's been offering me, John. The first Spell was good. B-rank. Did its job. But since then…"

She trailed off, shaking her head.

John grimaced. He couldn't really criticise that, since he hadn't exactly been spending all his Aura as soon as he got it, either. But that was mostly because he had so much to choose from. Jade seemed way more limited.

Why is my system so much more versatile than hers?

It didn't feel like it was a revelation that would go down well if he brought it up. He'd already managed to offend Chester with the implication that there was a difference between them, even when he hadn't meant to. Directly stating it seemed like a recipe for resentment.

With the system that had been inflicted on him, he couldn't risk drawing any negative feelings towards himself.

Speaking of which, he thought, dread pooling in his stomach. About time I start really seeing what Aura I can get out of interacting with people. I already know I can get Aura by shit-talking monsters, and impressing people by killing shit in cool ways gets way more. Combine those with the fact I've already seen Aura gains from human interactions… Well, there's a high chance that farming Aura by acting cool in front of humans would be more efficient.

In theory, that method would be a safer way to accumulate power than fighting monsters directly, too.

Its drawbacks were obvious, though: he was highly likely to fuck it up. Losing a bit of Aura wasn't the end of the world, but irreparably shattering the cool image he'd built up with these people would be a big problem. It'd almost certainly mean having to ditch them once and for all.

Which doesn't sound so bad, come to think of it. Finally giving himself the excuse to go his own way sounded enticing, but he wasn't going to deliberately sabotage his efforts. He was no masochist. Intentionally inflicting more embarrassment upon himself was out of the question. It was best to avoid adding new humiliating memories to the montage that tended to play when he was in bed, trying to sleep.

John took a deep, fortifying breath. Can't know unless you try.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.