Chapter 26: Encampment.
The cold storm was unforgiving. Every step sank knee-deep into fresh snow, while the howling wind clawed at their bodies, stealing the warmth from beneath their clothes.
Seris stumbled again, her legs finally giving way beneath her, but before she could sink into the snow, a strong arm caught hold of her and pulled her back to her feet. She had long since reached her limit.
This wasn’t the first time she had fallen, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, yet every single time, Damien was there to catch her before the storm could.
The blizzard showed no sign of easing. Thick curtains of snow swept endlessly across the frozen wasteland, while the relentless wind clawed at every inch of exposed skin, making it difficult to see more than a few metres ahead.
Damien narrowed his eyes until he finally spotted Micah’s silhouette through the white haze. Raising his knees higher to push through the deep snow, he gradually matched his pace.
"Hey, Micah. That was your ability that got us out of the Eidolon settlement, right?"
Micah glanced sideways before nodding.
"Yeah. My dormant ability is called Beacon. It can teleport anything it touches."
Damien’s expression didn’t change, but deep down he suddenly felt the urge to strangle somebody. They had been moving without rest for nearly a day and a half.
Chad and Seris had already been exhausted before they even left the ruins, and no amount of rations could restore the strength they had already burned through.
Yuri remained unconscious on Priesty’s back, her body growing colder with every passing hour. Even the undead priest’s thick fur wouldn’t be enough to keep her warm forever.
Damien himself was an exception. Being undead meant hunger no longer bothered him, nor did exhaustion weigh down his body the way it did everyone else. Even his shattered skull and broken arm had almost completely recovered. Unfortunately, the freezing cold cared very little about whether someone was alive or dead.
"Then why don’t you just teleport us back to camp?" Damien asked. "Seems like a much better way to travel than marching through this endless blizzard."
Micah’s expression softened with guilt. He understood Damien’s frustrations, but there simply wasn’t anything he could do.
"My ability has strict limitations. I can only create one Beacon each day and give it to someone else. They can activate it from anywhere in the world, and it’ll bring them straight back to me. The Beacon can even last forever, as long as it isn’t used... but I have to already be at the destination. So no, I can’t teleport us back to camp unless I was already there."
"Oh..."
Damien nodded helplessly before gradually slowing his pace until Seris caught up. The moment she reached him, she quietly wrapped both hands around his arm.
"What were you two talking about?"
Damien instinctively drew her a little closer. None of them had clothing suited for weather like this, and dormant bodies simply weren’t built to endure such relentless cold.
"I was asking if he could teleport us back to camp."
"And?"
"He can’t."
Seris let out a small laugh.
"Yeah... I know. His ability is amazing, but it still has its limits. Honestly, we’re all like that. We’re too weak, and most of us barely understand our own abilities, let alone how to use them properly."
She lifted her head and quietly watched Andrea leading the group through the blizzard.
"Andrea taught most of us how to use our dormant abilities. The rest, we have to figure out ourselves."
A particularly violent gust of wind tore through the frozen wasteland, forcing the entire group to brace themselves as the wind threatened to throw them off their feet. Snow exploded into the air, swallowing their figures in a wall of white before slowly drifting back to the ground.
Andrea wasn’t immune to the cold. The relentless wind hammered against her pristine white armour, while the freezing air crept through every opening it could find. Her fingers had long since gone numb, and every breath she drew burned against her lungs.
But she was the leader.
She couldn’t afford to look weak.
Right now, everyone behind her was following the direction of her footsteps. If she faltered, even for a moment, doubt would spread through the group far faster than the storm itself.
"Should we slow down... maybe find a cave and wait for the blizzard to pass?"
Chad struggled to keep pace beside her. His bloodshot eyes barely remained open against the wind, while frost clung to his eyelashes and his cracked lips had long since lost their colour. He had already lost too much blood during the battle in the Ruins of Humanity. Seris’ dormant ability could mend flesh, but it couldn’t replace the blood his body no longer had.
Andrea looked at him for only a moment before facing forward again.
Her resolve was no less relentless than the storm surrounding them.
"No."
Her voice was calm, but left no room for argument.
"We keep moving. We’re only half a day away from camp... We’ll make it."
Without waiting for a response, Andrea forced her exhausted body onward, leaving nothing behind but a trail of footprints.
One after another, heads gradually lowered beneath the weight of exhaustion. Damien was the only one who still managed to keep his head raised.
Then, through the endless curtain of white, he caught sight of a faint orange glow.
At first, he dismissed it as another trick of the storm. The blizzard had a cruel habit of playing with the eyes, but as the light refused to disappear, his heart began pounding faster.
"Everyone!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "There’s fire ahead! We’re close to the camp!"
Every head snapped upward.
Even Andrea’s usually composed expression softened with relief.
As they pressed onward, the furious wind gradually began to lose its bite. Two towering cliffs ahead rose like colossal walls piercing into the heavens, shielding the narrow valley beyond from the worst of the blizzard.
Hundreds of tents stretched throughout the valley, illuminated by scattered campfires. People moved between them, some carrying supplies, others stopping mid-step as the exhausted group emerged from the storm.
Damien slowed to a stop.
His gaze wandered across the camp, taking in the countless tents fashioned from weathered, ancient materials.
"So this is the camp, the structure resembles a military encampment? ... this must be where the people of the ruined city gathered to fight back against those Eidolons".