Looking at the Starved survivors gathered in the dim chamber, Tian felt an unwelcome stirring of memories he usually kept locked away in the deepest recesses of his mind. There had been a time— though the years blurred together when you lived as long as he had—when he too had been trapped in circumstances beyond his control. Weaker than he was now, desperate and alone, watching people he cared about suffer while he lacked the power to change anything.
He remembered the hand that had reached out to him in that darkness. Strangers who had no obligation to help, who could have walked away and preserved their own safety, but instead chose to intervene. That single act of compassion had set him on the path that led to everything he had become—the power he now wielded, the knowledge he had accumulated, the ability to survive in this catastrophic world where most humans perished within days of leaving protected settlements.
Perhaps that's why I can't just walk away from this, he thought, studying the hollow faces of people who had committed no crime except being too weak to defend themselves. Because someone once looked at me the same way I'm looking at them now, and chose to help despite the cost.
Bin had provided all the details he could during their conversation, his scarred face animated with a mixture of hope and desperation as he spoke. The general direction of the Eastern Coalition's base had been determined from the route the supply wagons used to take—they always approached from the northeast, following what appeared to be a relatively safe corridor through the demon-infested wasteland. Additionally, during the original negotiations with Master Orin, Kessara had mentioned their main settlement was approximately three days' journey for a second chakra awakener traveling at normal pace through the toxic landscape.
"She said it like it was close," Bin had explained bitterly. "Like we could just walk there anytime we wanted to visit our people. But three days for a second chakra awakener means at least a week for us, if we could even survive the journey at all. And that's assuming we could find it without getting lost or killed by the creatures out there."
Tian had nodded, filing away the information while his enhanced perception analyzed the strategic implications. Three days for a second chakra awakener meant perhaps a day and a half for him if he pushed hard, less if he didn't care about conserving energy. The question wasn't whether he could reach the Coalition—it was what he would find when he got there, and how he would handle what was likely to be a complex political situation involving enslaved people and broken promises.
Before leaving, Tian took one last look at Otto's younger brother. The child had finally cried himself into exhaustion, slumped against Lysa with tear-stained cheeks and eyes that stared at nothing. His small hands still clutched the engraved tin his brother had sent back, holding it like a talisman that could somehow bring Otto back from death. The boy's breathing was shallow and irregular, his body so depleted that even the act of grieving had pushed him to the edge of collapse.
He might not survive another month, Tian realized with clear detachment that masked deeper emotion. None of the children will. Their bodies are consuming themselves, and there's a point beyond which even chakra cultivation can't sustain life.
The thought followed him as he and Amisra made their way back through the narrow tunnel, past the glowing runes and filtered barrier, emerging into the toxic wasteland that had become humanity's prison. The transition from the sanctuary's clean air to the poisonous atmosphere outside was jarring, reminding him yet again of how far this world had fallen.
"Master Tian," Amisra said as soon as they were clear of the entrance, her voice tight with barely suppressed emotion. "Their condition is really horrible. They might not survive another month of starvation. The children especially—they're all like they're on their last breath, like they could drop dead any second." She paused, then added with the practical thinking he had trained into her, "We could get them monster corpses. There are enough Vorthaks and other creatures around here to feed them for months."
Tian shook his head, his expression grim behind the protective barrier he had erected around his face. "It's of no use to them as they are right now. They won't be able to resist the corruption that's settled into the flesh of monsters. First chakra awakeners lack the spiritual resilience necessary to consume demon meat without being poisoned by it."
He fell silent, his mind working through the details Bin had provided and the implications of everything he had learned. The Eastern Coalition's location was somewhat far from their initial route—the settlement they had been heading toward before encountering the Greater Hasura. Reaching the Coalition would require a detour of perhaps two days, which meant potential delays in fulfilling other obligations he had made.
But what good are other obligations if I ignore injustice happening right in front of me? he thought. Elena wouldn't have walked away from this. She would have charged in immediately, probably without a plan, driven by that fierce compassion that got her killed in the end.
"Master, we should help them," Amisra continued, her voice muffled by the protective cloth covering her face but still conveying her emotional state clearly. "I really feel sad seeing them like that. But why would there be no response from the ones who took their people? Surely after a year of regular shipments, something must have changed. Did the Coalition forget about them? Or..."
She trailed off, the unspoken possibilities hanging in the toxic air between them.
"It's not as simple as you're thinking, Amisra," Tian replied, his tone serious. "There's much more to this situation than they're telling us. I think these people didn't disclose everything, even in their desperation."
Amisra's surprise was evident in her voice. "They're hiding something even in this kind of situation? What could possibly be more important than—"
Tian cut her off gently but firmly. "There are some things even more important than their own lives. You'll understand that soon enough, once you've lived through more of this world's complexities."
He didn't elaborate, but his mind was already working through possibilities. People kept secrets for many reasons—shame, fear, protective instinct, or because revealing certain information could endanger others. Whatever Bin and his people were hiding, they had judged it worth keeping secret even while starving to death. That suggested something significant, possibly something connected to Master Orin or the other taken survivors.
I'll find out eventually, Tian decided. But first, I need to see this Eastern Coalition for myself.
They set out toward their new destination, and as they walked, Tian activated one of his most refined techniques. It was a barrier spell he had spent years perfecting—taking the basic concept of a protective sphere and compressing it, reshaping it, refining it until it became something far more elegant and efficient. The result was what looked like a second skin, a barely visible layer of energy that surrounded both him and Amisra like form-fitting armor.
The barrier suit, as Amisra had taken to calling it, filtered the toxic atmosphere while providing protection against both physical and spiritual attacks. It was far superior to the crude full-body barriers most practitioners used, which were energy-intensive and cumbersome. This technique conserved power while maintaining full mobility, allowing them to move freely through the wasteland without the constant drain of maintaining separate defensive shields.
Their eyes, enhanced by focused chakra energy circulation, could pierce the oppressive darkness that blankets the whole region. Where normal humans would have been blind, stumbling through a world of absolute black, Tian and Amisra could see the landscape in varying shades of gray—not perfect vision, but enough to navigate and detect threats.
And threats were everywhere.
Vykras were the most common—beast-like demon creatures that resembled wolf crossed with something even more nightmarish. Their bodies were twisted and wrong, all elongated limbs and too many joints, covered in matted fur that seemed to drink in light. They were rabid and agile, moving in coordinated packs with the kind of group intelligence that made them far more dangerous than their individual power suggested.
The population density of Vykras in every region was staggering. In any given square kilometer, you could expect to encounter twenty to thirty of the creatures, sometimes more if they had gathered around a particularly rich source of life force. For most survivors, such numbers would be a death sentence—even a second chakra awakener would struggle against a full pack working together.
But for Tian and Amisra, the Vykras were barely worth acknowledging as threats.
Every time a group of the creatures came into view—drawn by the life energy they radiated despite their protective barriers—Tian would simply wave his hand with casual dismissal. A square-shaped transparent surface would form in the air directly above the pack, and when his hand descended, the magical construct would slam downward with tremendous force, crushing the Vykras against the ground like insects under a swatter.
The ease with which he eliminated them was almost disturbing. Creatures that would have required coordinated effort from multiple warriors to defeat were dispatched with gestures so casual they looked bored. Amisra followed behind, occasionally finishing off any Vykras that survived the initial crushing—rare, but it happened when the creatures were particularly large or infused with higher concentrations of demonic energy.
"If only these things were consumable," Amisra muttered after they had eliminated their dozenth pack. "There wouldn't be people starving if we could just harvest Vykra meat."
"Unfortunately, their corruption runs too deep," Tian replied, stepping over a twitching corpse. "The demonic energy is too concentrated in their flesh. Even I would have difficulty consuming Vykra meat without suffering spiritual poisoning, and I'm well beyond the level where such things should concern me."
The consumable monsters—the ones whose meat could sustain human life if prepared properly—were primarily Vorthaks and Grimjaws. Both were much larger than Vykras, more physically imposing, and ironically easier to harvest because their size meant the corruption was more diluted throughout their mass. A skilled butcher could identify and remove the most contaminated sections, leaving meat that a second chakra awakener or higher could safely consume.
They encountered their first Vorthak pack after about six hours of travel. The twisted creatures—all spiral horns and predatory intelligence—detected them from a distance and began coordinating their approach with tactical precision that spoke to intelligence beyond mere animal cunning.
Tian eliminated them with the same casual efficiency he had shown the Vykras, but this time he took care to preserve the corpses. With precise applications of his barrier magic, he carved through their thick hides, extracting slabs of meat while leaving the most corrupted organs and tissues behind. The harvested flesh floated behind them in three perfectly cubical spaces formed from compressed energy—magical containers that would preserve the meat and prevent its corruption from spreading.
Grimjaws proved even more valuable. The massive hippo-like creatures, with their bone-crushing jaws and armored hides, contained enough meat to feed a person for weeks. Tian took down several of them during their journey, adding their flesh to the growing collection floating behind him.
After approximately twenty-three hours of continuous travel—Tian had long ago developed the habit of tracking time precisely, even in a world where day and night had lost all meaning—he finally called a halt. Amisra, despite her second chakra enhancement and dedicated training, was showing signs of exhaustion that could no longer be safely ignored.
He created a semi-spherical barrier around them, larger and more stable than their traveling suits, and watched as it pushed back the oppressive darkness. Inside their protective bubble, visibility improved dramatically, and the spiritual pressure that constantly pressed against them from all sides finally eased.
Amisra immediately collapsed to the ground with a sigh of relief, her legs folding under her as she sat heavily on the cracked earth. "Master," she said, her voice carrying the plaintive tone of someone who had been thinking about food for hours, "I'm really hungry. I want smoked barbecue Grimjaw meat and wafer-crisp Vorthak meat."
Her eyes gleamed with anticipation as she looked up at him, exactly like a child asking a parent to prepare their favorite meal. Despite everything—the exhaustion, the danger, the grim mission ahead—she could still find joy in the simple pleasure of eating well-prepared monster meat.
Tian felt something in his chest loosen slightly at the sight. This was why he trained students, why he took on companions despite knowing they would eventually die and leave him alone again. These moments of simple human connection, of shared meals and comfortable silences, were what made survival worthwhile rather than simply an endless struggle against inevitable entropy.
"Very well," he said, allowing a small smile to cross his face. "But you're handling the preparation. Consider it training in field cooking techniques."
Amisra's delighted laugh echoed within their barrier as she scrambled up to begin preparing their meal, and for just a moment, the broken world outside seemed a little less hopeless.