Sebastian stopped in place for a moment, feeling the ambient mana abruptly shift directions, a quiet wind brushing through his hair and flowing towards the left side of the Convoy. His eyes narrowed briefly at the sight, but his attention was quickly grabbed and forced back by the sounds of howling beasts in front, their cries clashing with the new sounds of the wind. Dozens had attacked their small group at the front of the convoy, but each individual monster was so weak that they didn’t have much trouble.

Having to ignore the disturbance in the mana, he winced with a frown as a random pest leaped through the horde and dug into his arm. Grabbing the creature with a quick Identify, he ripped it from his flesh and tossed it back into the horde. His arms were covered in a fair few of these wounds, albeit not very deep and mostly scabbed over. The issue was, though, that it was delaying the convoy’s movement every time they got attacked by a massive group like this.

This group especially. It wasn’t made up of solely one kind of beast, but multiple. Rats, squirrels, raccoons and birds. None were very high level, but the quantity was almost overwhelming. The only plus side was the levels the other three earned from it, while Sebastian remained Lv. 9.

Circulating his Vitality along the routes he discovered work best, he felt some of the pain fade away from his new wounds. He was trying not to use much of his Vitality reserves, saving them for the most likely inevitable fight against the T1 Fire Beast, but without his Vitality he wasn’t much different from everyone else, meaning he ended up having to use Vitality to heal all his wounds instead. Sebastian sighed and shook his head at the thought.

Bringing his hand up to scratch Therin’s head gently, he took a look at the surroundings. The paw prints remained a constant no matter where they went, going in random directions. Apparently the beast was roaming around in the few days it took them to get ready, which really just means it’s nearby somewhere. It could even be watching them right now. The thought sent shivers down his spine.

Other than the paw prints though, the city of West Cairn was just.. a sad sight to see. Once bustling streets turned barren, cars left abandoned all over the road, forcing the convoy to move them out of the way. Blood stains appeared occasionally on the sidewalk, sometimes even reminding Sebastian of the first night of The Light when he saw streaks of red lead into dark alleyways.

The sight though, really, just showed him how lucky he was that night. Maybe even every night afterwards, too. Escaping from the swarm the first time wasn’t really luck, and even the fight against the Demon Bird wasn’t luck. But the swarm afterwards? He easily could have died if he was wounded differently, or if the Hivemind was even slightly smarter.

And if Dallas wasn’t there to get people in line at the Supermarket, if the group didn’t have enough people who could stay calm even as the world apparently ended? He doubted any of them would still be here right now. Sebastian couldn’t imagine what his end would be like if he didn’t have a group of people to take care of him after fights like the second Swarm Attack. He grabbed a cigarette from the pack in his jacket and was in the process of lighting it when he was approached by Sarah, clothes bloodied and torn, but physically okay.

“Sebastian?”

“Sarah.”

“We’ve found something up front. We’re not sure what it is. It’s some distance away but-”

“Do you mean the wall of coloured light?”

Sarah blinked momentarily as she followed the bladesman’s gaze down the road, smiling wryly when he pointed it out. Their group of three had easily gone another 100 feet before they were able to see the colours, and then had to go another 50 to confirm it.

“Does that mean Sir knows what it is?” She perked up as curiosity got the better of her, a sight Sebastian just smiled at as he took a puff from the cigarette in between his fingers.

“Not a damn clue, but it might be an answer to an earlier question”

The response only confused the woman some more but Sebastian shrugged at the response and rolled his shoulders a bit. He wasn’t planning on rushing over, it was on their route anyways, and they had almost left the city. He could take his time getting there without wasting his energy.

Turning around to take a look at the convoy, he frowned slightly. Everyone had stopped in place, and when he focused he heard the occasional shout from the left flank. Sebastian wanted to check it out, of course, but the front needed to be protected too. He simply had to believe Ken could get through whatever was happening over there. He’s a tough kid. Some random beasts won’t bring him down.

Besides, he had even tougher beasts waiting for him.

He took the chance while the convoy was stuck in place to sit down and take a breather, waving the other three over to do the same. As they found their places to rest near him, he sunk his mind into his own body, overlooking his Vitality.

It was still ice blue, though if it was comparable at first to a stream, it now felt like a river as it coursed through his meridians. Quantity was all that had been improved over the past week and a half, and the quality hadn’t improved at all. Not necessarily a bad thing, but a stronger Vitality would mean a stronger Sebastian, while a larger amount of Vitality just meant a more durable Sebastian. He wanted both.

He felt stifled though as he controlled the flow of Vitality throughout his body. He had cleared all the meridians he could find, an estimated tenth of the total within his body, that didn’t ravage his mind with pain. He felt he had the vitality required to clear more meridians, but he had long just been trying to figure out which ones now to clear.

It would take Ken far too long to reach his Vitality standard, and Mariah was going the magic route, so Sebastian didn’t have much he could do. He could take the risk to break through this bottleneck he was feeling, sure, but that would either be time consuming or extremely painful, and the convoy could afford neither of him at the moment.

Keeping a portion of his attention on healing his sparse wounds, he elected instead to practice magic. The benefits of practicing magic weren’t as forthright as Vitality, but instead they gave creativity. Vitality couldn’t form an exploding ball inside a Coyote’s throat. At least not yet. Take into account all the other uses of ice or ice mana, and Sebastian was quite excited by what it meant he could do.

So, with a quiet hum, the man once again began drawing mana from the air and forcing it into shape within his palms. The process of willing mana into shape was rather arduous, but Sebastian had gotten used to doing it with smaller amounts of mana. It was essentially condensing it into shape, which was pure will, there was no other mechanic to it.

With that, he began to practice.

It lasted approximately fifteen minutes until he felt the air churn and dust fly through the air nearby, the telltale signs of the convoy restarting their engines and getting ready to move again. The pace had upset the bladesman slightly, but ultimately moving hundreds of people could never be fast. Not if you wanted to be safe about it at least.

Standing up, he took a final look at the still standing buildings of West Cairn, taking a deep breath. These buildings stood tall and proud now, but the city itself is dead. He sincerely hoped a group of people could still survive by staying in West Cairn, but their group couldn’t. Their location just wasn’t good, and the park was too close. They wouldn’t have the time to build up enough strength before they were eventually covered by the overgrowth.

It didn’t take long for their group of four to eventually reach the multi-coloured wall, and it caused Sebastian to frown as he got close. He felt the ambient mana pouring into the wall like a gushing flood. His brows furrowed for a moment.

“Are those.. cracks in the wall?”

Chris spoke up quietly, tracing his fingers along the edges, an action that prompted Sebastian to do the same. The wall itself felt solid, almost a glass-like texture, but still gave the feeling that breaking it would require quite a bit of effort. Walking along a small portion of the wall, his eyes narrowed abruptly and he froze in place.

The scenery on the other side of the wall was changing.

Some portions of the myriad coloured glass showed the exit of the city and the highway, other sections showed towering forests, trees reaching towards the sky like angry giants. The cracks in the wall of light separated the two different scenes, and it gave Sebastian the feeling as if it was really just all a piece of stained glass.

The silence told him that the other three had discovered the same thing that he had, so he just shook his head and tried to think for a moment. The ambient mana was flowing into this wall, and the wall definitely hadn’t been there before The Light; people would know, hopefully, if they were driving into a massive wall of super hard glass.

The cracks didn’t seem like they were formed due to force, but rather like the glass was cracking from structural damage, like it had been heated and cooled too quickly. Was the mana supporting the wall?

“Do you think we could break this?” Sarah asked quietly, a hand placed against the glass. Her breathing was a little heavy, but she seemed calm, as did the other two. Sebastian appreciated the calmness in all of them.

“I can’t break it at least. Not right now.”

“When do you think you can?”

“When I level up or breakthrough in Vitality.”

“How long would that take?” Hasan piped up, gripping his saber’s handle tightly as he kept an eye on the surroundings.

“A few days at the rate I’ve been killing things. Depends. Vitality though? Unsure.”

“But the convoy needs to get through now, people will panic-”

“Shut up!” Hasan hissed out, turning back to the other two as Sebastian kept a hand on the wall, his expression warped slightly as he tried to ponder the situation. “Do you hear that?”

Sarah and Chris looked back at Hasan with some attitude in their tone, but their eyes widened quickly as they saw the scene down the road behind him. The expression caused Hasan to turn almost immediately after. “Fuck! Run!”

“Run?” Sebastian abruptly sensed some danger as the sudden shout tore him from his thoughts. Turning quickly, his body tightened up and his mind began to churn. His back literally to the wall. A dry heat suddenly washed over him, overwhelming the naturally cold aura his Vitality exudes as he dove to the side as fast as he could.

A collision, one that almost sounded like a fist slamming into glass, echoed throughout the area, sending heat rolling out and scorching the cold winter air. Sebastian coughed, trying to catch his breath as he turned to look at the spot he was just standing.

Standing at two meters tall, a panther-like creature stood in front of the Myriad Colours Wall. It’s fur a deep crimson, as if fire had come alive. It’s tail swayed like a calm flame, but the look in its eyes was anything but calm. It wanted to consume. Devour. Conquer the earth like a spreading wildfire. It’s claws were a bright orange, but Sebastian could see how they dug into the asphalt of the road like it was nothing, and it’s paws burned the earth as it walked.

Trembling, Sebastian felt his heart race as he looked at the creature, almost forgetting to breathe. The sight of the creature, the look in its eyes. It made him freeze up in fear as he felt himself stuck in place in the middle of the road. It took all of his strength to shake away the feeling of helplessness. Because he did feel helpless

Like a piece of ice amidst a firestorm.