Chapter 85

  By the time Raime got back home, the smell of food hit him halfway down the street.

  He stepped inside to a wall of noise and warmth, shrugging off the cold like it had never existed.

  He didn’t even sit down before grabbing a plate.

  Victor and Albert were already slumped at the table, chairs pushed back at precarious angles, limbs splayed with the total lack of dignity reserved for the thoroughly destroyed. Their weapons leaned against the wall nearby, abandoned without much ceremony.

  “I can’t feel my legs,” Victor announced miserably, poking his thigh as if expecting it to answer back.

  Albert snorted. “It’s the tenth time I heard you say that…”

  “No, this time it’s different. This time I’m pretty sure my legs are dead.”

  “You said that after the first hour of sparring.”

  “That was normal pain,” Victor shot back. “This is… advanced pain. Like, premium.”

  Alessandro swallowed a mouthful of stew and glanced at them. “You were both still moving around when I got back.”

  Albert grimaced. “That was adrenaline. And fear. Mostly the fear.”

  Their mother waved a dismissive hand from where she sat, rubbing her temples with the patience of a woman who had long ago accepted that her sons would never learn. “Don’t look at me. I warned you. You should have know what to expect after yesterday.”

  Victor groaned. “I didn’t even know my back could hurt there.”

  Albert nodded solemnly. “Same. I think I discovered a new muscle. I’m naming it after Raime so I remember who to blame.”

  Raime, meanwhile, was on his third plate and eyeing the pot like it had personally challenged him. He ate with gusto, since he came back he was rediscovering his passion for the food, in the Rift he ate just to fuel his body, and he still did it, he required much more calories than before, but he was enjoying it immensely, particularly because his mother cooking was exceptional.

  Alice watched him for a moment, then shook her head. “You’re eating enough for four people.”

  Raime didn’t deny it. “I’m doing the work of ten, so it’s fair.”

  Alessandro chuckled, leaning back in his chair. He looked exhausted, but it was the good kind—the kind that came from seeing results. “Honestly? After today, I’m not surprised. Nothing about this makes sense anymore.”

  Victor squinted at him. “That’s not comforting.”

  Alessandro waved him off. “Not about monsters. About work.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “In my whole life, decades on construction sites, I’ve never seen anything like what we did today. We laid foundations to the walls all around town in hours. Hours. Moved materials that should’ve taken days and heavy machinery. Collapsed old structures clean enough to reuse half the damn components.”

  He let out a breath, almost laughing. “In one afternoon we did more than we could do in weeks before the System.”

  Alice nodded, fingers wrapped around her mug. “The coordination helped. Once people realized they weren’t working alone, that there was a plan… things clicked. Everything started moving faster.”

  She hesitated, then added more quietly, “Not everyone liked taking orders from me, though.”

  Alessandro grimaced. “Yeah. I saw that.”

  Alice shrugged, but there was steel under the motion. “Some people don’t care what you know if they think you’re too young to know it. Or if you don’t look like what they expect a leader to be.” She took a sip. “Still. Most listened.”

  “And the fighters?” Raime asked, finally slowing down long enough to speak.

  That got smiles.

  “They were ecstatic,” Alice said. “The moment Michele shared what you’d found—the rift locations, monster patterns—it was like flipping a switch. They split into teams almost immediately and went to tackle some of the beasts still in town.”

  Alessandro nodded. “Worked like they’d done it before.”

  “They hadn’t,” Alice replied. “But the information gave them confidence. They knew where to go, and what to expect. It made a massive difference, at least from what Michele reported.” Her eyes flicked to Raime. “They’re already levelling faster. A lot faster.”

  Victor perked up slightly. “We need to level up more too!”

  Albert groaned. “Ask me again tomorrow, now I can’t...”

  “The town’s safer tonight,” Alice continued. “Noticeably. Fewer stragglers. Fewer things creeping around after dark. People feel it.”

  “And the scavengers?” Raime asked.

  Alessandro smiled. “The people in the plaza nearly cried when they saw the stockpiles. Food, meds, tools. They worked off shared maps, hit places no one had thought to check yet. No overlap or wasted time.”

  Their mother listened quietly, eyes softening just a little. “So it’s really starting, then.”

  Alice nodded. “Starting… yea, that sound right,” She glanced around the table. “It’s still going to take time. And effort. But it appear that maybe we will survive this phase too.”

  Raime leaned back at last, plate empty, gaze unfocused for a moment. Outside, the light was already fading, winter pressing closer with shorter days and longer nights. “This is just the beginning, things will become only more difficult going forward, but at least we set the ball rolling,” he said.

  Alessandro raised his mug. “And for once, it’s rolling the right way.”

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  Victor tried to lift his own cup, failed halfway, and let it drop back onto the table with a clatter. “I’d toast too, but I think my arms resigned.”

  Albert smirked. “You’ll recover. Probably.”

  Their mother sighed, standing up. “Eat up, and go to bed early, tomorrow it will hurt more if you don’t rest enough.”

  “Actually,” Raime said while looking at his brothers, “The higher your Vitality the less it will take to recover, you got some levels under your belt, I’m sure by tomorrow afternoon you’ll be ready for another lesson.”

  The twins looked looked at themselves, then at one another, then they looked at Raime with a horrifying expression.

  “Do you mean that we have to do again the same thing even tomorrow?” Albert was starting to look sick. “But you said that we’ll go level too…”

  Victor agreed with his twin for once. “Yea! We need to level up if we want to catch up to you, we can’t just train all the time!”

  Raime took a second to look at them, his expression settling into the calm, distant severity he’d worn during training only hours before.

  “If you think half an afternoon of practice is already too demanding,” he said evenly, “then maybe you made a mistake in wanting to fight at all. You can barely wield your weapons with any real proficiency. A couple more points in Strength won’t save your lives by themselves. Stats don’t swing swords. People do. And right now, you can’t even properly use what you already have. So what’s the point of getting more?”

  The words landed like a hammer.

  Albert opened his mouth, closed it, then slumped back in his chair. “That’s… unfair.”

  Victor nodded vigorously. “Extremely unfair. Borderline cruel, even.”

  “You’re exaggerating,” Laura said flatly, arms crossed.

  “We’re suffering,” Victor insisted. “My legs feel like they’re made of wet cement.”

  “And who wanted to learn how to fight?” Laura asked, arching an eyebrow.

  Albert tried a different approach. “We’re just saying that maybe—maybe—some balance would be nice. Training and levelling. You know. For morale.”

  “Morale doesn’t keep your guard up when you’re tired. Skill does. Muscle memory does. Instinct does. And those are built through repetition, not fighting weak monsters for experience points.”

  Victor muttered, “I liked it better when all of this was theoretical...”

  Laura sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Enough. Both of you.” She fixed them with a look that brooked no argument. “You asked him to teach you. He’s teaching you. Complaining now just makes you sound ungrateful.”

  Albert slouched lower. “Yes, Mom.”

  “And you,” she added sharply, turning to Victor. “Don’t think I didn’t hear you earlier, calling him crazy for using a stick against you.”

  Victor winced. “In my defence, it was a stick.”

  “And yet,” Laura said dryly, “you’re the one who ended up flat on your back.”

  That earned a weak snort from Albert.

  “Shower,” Laura continued, already standing. “Both of you. Then bed. Early. No arguing.”

  The twins exchanged a look—silent, resigned communication honed over the years before hauling themselves upright with exaggerated groans.

  “If I don’t make it,” Victor said solemnly, gripping the doorframe, “tell my swords I loved them.”

  Albert patted his shoulder. “I’ll inherit them.”

  “Like hell you will.”

  They shuffled off, bickering all the way to the bathroom, their voices gradually muffled by distance and running water.

  The house grew quieter.

  Raime picked up an apple from the table, turning it slowly in his hand. “I went to the old hospital,” he said, biting into it.

  That got their attention immediately.

  Alessandro frowned. “And?”

  “It’s compromised,” Raime replied without embellishment. “Infested. The creatures there aren’t just occupying it—they’re changing it. Half-arachnid things. They infect everything they touch, consume biomass, reshape the environment to suit themselves. Floors, walls, even the ground outside. The spread is slow, but constant.”

  Laura’s expression tightened. “So… no survivors.”

  “No,” Raime said quietly. “No signs of life. Only monsters.”

  Alice leaned forward. “Can it be reclaimed?”

  Raime shook his head. “Not realistically. The structural integrity is gone in the affected sections. Even if we cleared it, the contamination would remain. Maybe you could scavenge some equipment. Some drugs, if they haven’t degraded yet. But as a functioning building?” He took another bite of the apple. “It’s finished.”

  Alessandro exhaled heavily. “That place served all the towns in the valley, and some down south too.”

  “I know,” Raime said. “But leaving it standing is worse. The biomass is expanding. Given time, it’ll spread further into the surrounding area.”

  Laura was quiet for a long moment. “So what do you suggest?”

  “Burn it,” Raime said simply. “Cleanse everything. Don’t let it fester.”

  Alice grimaced. “Fire’s risky. Are you sure there’s no way of saving it?”

  “Those things are already terraforming the area. Maybe with the right skill set someone could do something about it, but it’s better to focus on what we can do, and to minimize risks.”

  Alessandro rubbed his jaw. “I hate agreeing with that, but… he’s right. A compromised structure like that is a liability even without monsters.”

  Laura nodded slowly. “If it’s beyond saving, then people need to accept that.”

  Raime glanced at Alice. “Do we have anyone with fire abilities? Or someone with some kind of purity skill. Strong enough to handle it?”

  Alice thought for a moment. “There are a few in the fighters’ groups. One guy, Simone I think, his ability manifests as high-temperature plasma bursts. He’s still learning control, but under supervision…”

  “That could work,” Raime said. “I could do it myself, but it would take too long. My time’s better spent elsewhere.”

  “Like the other rifts,” Alessandro said.

  Raime nodded. “Especially the one in the plaza.”

  The mention of it drew another round of uneasy looks.

  Alessandro spoke first. “You know, staying near it doesn’t feel the same anymore. At the beginning, it was… unsettling. People got angry faster. Short tempers. Now?” He shrugged. “It’s almost gone. We weren’t sure if it was real or just the stress of the situation…”

  Raime took another bite of the apple, chewing thoughtfully. “It’s real.”

  They all looked at him.

  “Rifts leak mana,” he continued. “Well, not only mana, there are other kinds of energy, more broadly. But it’s not neutral. Mana has… flavor. The System uses the most unattuned version possible—bland, adaptable. Mana from the Rifts is different. It carries characteristics of where it comes from. Emotions. Elemental. Sometimes even intent.”

  Laura frowned. “So the anger…”

  “Was environmental influence,” Raime confirmed. “Subtle, but constant.”

  “And now?” Alessandro asked.

  “Now you’re awakened,” Raime said. “You have cores or channels, so your astral bodies have started adapting to ambient energy. Before, you were like sponges. Everything soaked in immediately. Now, the unattuned energy you’re processing acts as a buffer. Other mana seeps in much more slowly, if at all.”

  Alice’s eyes widened slightly. “So that’s why it faded.”

  “Yes,” Raime said simply.

  Laura let out a slow breath. “That’s… reassuring. And terrifying.”

  Raime gave a small, humourless smile. “Welcome to the new normal.”

  He finished the apple, setting the core aside. “Tomorrow, I’ll close the plaza rift. After that, the others won’t take long.”

  Alessandro nodded. “We’ll go on with construction, you’ll see the beginning of a wall already by noon.”

  Alice straightened. “I’ll handle coordination. And I’ll talk to Simone about the hospital.”

  Laura looked toward the hallway where the twins had disappeared. “And we’ll keep training.”

  Raime met her gaze and inclined his head slightly. “About the training, dad, love… I promised that I will train you, so let’s get to it.”

  “What? Now?” Asked Alice with incredulity.

  Raime got on his feet as he made plates and cutleries float to the sink. “Yes, you in particular need more practice, so I’ll train you with a melee weapon and with your new drones, you dad instead, I think that going full earth-bender will bring out the most out of your capabilities.”

  “Son, I have no idea what that means, and I don’t use earth, just stone…” Replied Alessandro while looking forlornly at the couch in the living room, then sighed and stood up too.

  “It means dad, that I think you’ll be stronger while learning to use your own body as a weapon, in conjunction with your stone manipulation. I have some ideas about your powers that will make you a beast, but we’ll see.”

  Alessandro looked at him strangely but didn’t argue, Alice on the other hand had something to say. “Raime I’m tired, can’t we do it tomorrow?”

  “No, the sooner you start to learn the better, and I promised to teach you, I can’t be around all the time, what if someone or something attacks you while I’m not around? I need to know that you’re going to be able to defend yourself, please…”

  At that Alice smiled, “Ok…”

  “Perfect, let’s go out. I have thought deeply of how to best train you today, here’s what we’ll do…”