13 : Aftermath

Malakai lay sprawled on the cold, blood-slick concrete of the parking garage.

His chest heaved. Each breath scraped like razors in his throat. Vessels still twitched in the shadows, their threads slowly unraveling with the rift's closure. His arms trembled from strain, knuckles bruised, blood crusted at the corners of his eyes. But rest was a luxury he couldn't afford.

Screams echoed from the elevator shaft — human screams. Not demonic. Not empty.

Real. Damaged. Alive.

The sounds stabbed through him.

People were crushed beneath rubble, others pinned by twisted rebar. One man's legs were twisted backward at the knees, bone spearing through skin like broken ivory tusks. A woman's eye socket was caved in, leaking pink fluid. Children sobbed for their parents, some covered in the ash of others.

Malakai exhaled shakily and forced himself up.

Footsteps. Fast.

Neo and Daniel emerged from the smoke.

Neo didn't miss a beat.

"Kai. Contact Tera. Tell her we need immediate relief. Daniel — go. Yellow Rift. Train station."

Daniel nodded and launched himself upward — a deafening crunch as he burst through the cracked ceiling like a cannonball.

Malakai shakily reached for the transponder. Fingers bloodied. It rang. Connected.

"Tera?"

"Malakai! Are you alright? Did you—did you find Neil? Where's Xae?"

His throat tightened. "Xae... he was taken. We had to force his body through the rift. There was no other way. Daniel's en route to open the yellow rift, and—" He looked around at the carnage. "—we have hundreds of wounded. Some critical. We need a team. Now."

Silence.

Then: "Understood. I'll deploy GRARC medics immediately. Don't speak of Xae to anyone else — he was high ranking in Black Omen. Keep them stable. Lay them out. We'll be there soon."

The call cut.

Malakai gave a grim nod to Neo.

Then they began.

Bodies were clumped near the elevator shaft, limbs tangled, torsos pulped from the fall. Some twitched — others let out gurgled wails. A woman gripped Neo's arm, nails digging into his skin.

"My baby…" she sobbed. "Please—please find my baby!"

Her skull was split at the temple, the flesh caved like wet clay. One leg hung limp, bone exposed like white coral.

Malakai carefully lowered her to the floor, murmuring comfort. His knees hit something wet. Blood.

Another voice.

"My head—oh God, my HEAD!"

Malakai turned — a man thrashed, blood jetting from his ear canal, his pupils fully blown.

Neo knelt beside another —

"I can't feel my legs. Oh God. Oh GOD."

His spine had snapped clean through. The lower half of his body was purple, nerves firing uselessly.

The smell was thick — iron, bile, sweat. You could taste the pain.

They kept moving. Kept lifting. Kept trying.

**

Daniel found Meredith crouched beside a group of newly-awakened civilians, a knife in one hand, holding back a panicked man.

"I'm not opening the rift alone," he said flatly. "But you can tell the truth. I can't."

Meredith nodded. Together, they ran.

They reached the train station. The switch was simple. One motion.

The rift ignited — sickly yellow light spiraling upward like veins through the air.

A GRARC officer stepped through, armored, face grim.

"Report."

Meredith didn't hesitate. "Dozens injured. Most are at the skyscraper garage. Some may not survive the hour."

The officer nodded and stepped aside. More followed. Medics. Stretchers. Silence.

No one dared speak of what truly happened yet.

**

Back near the Gravehowl, Forn woke up with dust in her lungs.

She had seen it. The explosion. Their deaths.

But she had stepped out in time.

The driver offered a hand. "Miss? Are you okay?"

She grabbed her board, quickly writing:

"I'm fine. We need to help them. And find Neil."

The driver's face paled. But he nodded.

**

Malakai crouched beside a man half-buried under debris.

One eye was gone. His jaw was shattered — teeth spilled onto his shirt like broken porcelain. His legs were bent the wrong way, pinned by a chunk of steel.

"Please," the man rasped, blood bubbling in his throat, "my daughter… lives in Zone Alpha… no one but me…"

"Don't speak. Just breathe. Help is coming."

"Crest. Twelve years old. Twelve Olive Street. Promise me—promise you'll find her…"

Malakai gripped his hand. "I promise."

The man convulsed once. Then went still.

"…fuck."

Malakai sat there for a moment. The man's hand still in his. Then stood. Shaking. Smeared in gore.

He moved on.

He began splinting limbs with broken signs and torn belts. Set jaws. Cleaned wounds with what little water he had. Improvised.

He had no medical training. But there was no one else.

Neo stepped beside him.

Malakai didn't look up. "I can't do this anymore."

Neo was silent.

"I try. I do everything I can. But they keep dying… its like I'm trying to hold them all in my hands and they slip past like sand. The worst part is Velnix can't help them I can't just transfer their injuries to a demon or something ."

Neo crouched. "I know."

Malakai's hands trembled, blood smeared across his palms.

"I don't think I can keep going."

Neo placed a hand on his shoulder. "You will. And when this ends… we rest. Together."

Malakai gave a faint nod.

But his hands never stopped moving.

.

**

Forn finally found Neil inside the research offices, dazed but alive. Blood streaked one side of his face, but it wasn't his.

"Neil. We're here. Are you injured?"

Neil blinked. "What? No, I—I don't think so. What… what happened?"

Forn wrote quickly:

"City was overtaken. Demon possessed civilians. Xae's body too. We sealed it in the Underworld. It's over. For now."

Neil looked sick. The driver wouldn't meet their eyes.

Outside, the yellow rift pulsed.

And the scent of death still lingered. Thick as fog.

They were safe but the work hasn't ended yet

But they were alive.