Sen wasn’t used to feeling cold air in Dubai.

And yet, as they drove deeper into the sea of fog, all he could think about was the unnatural chill in the air. It was as if the entirety of this section of the city was refrigerated, to the point that Sen saw a slight coating of frost creeping along what corals they passed in the mist.

Bali drove the car farther along the highway, up until they rounded a corner. They stopped there and quickly changed cars, abandoning the Volkswagen with the shattered windshield. Instead, they boarded an unassuming Honda Civic, the white car seemingly merging into the fabric of the mist.

With a purr in the engine and another swift curve, they headed down a U-turn, the road splitting into a path that stabbed down towards the south of Dubai. There, passing along the side of the road, Sen saw the coral-flooded forms of International City’s buildings. Italian architecture stood stark in the mist, looking like giant, concrete corpses infested by coral. Down below, the roads were almost unrecognizable as salt pattered across the asphalt, piling into a thin coating above the street.

Sen felt it beat against his back as well, but his armor and clothes kept the salt from touching his skin. He held a shield over his head like an umbrella, blocking the rain from draining the Flow out of his flesh.

“Bali,” Sen said, his hand knocking on the roof a second time. “Do you think you and Tasha can hide for a few hours when we get to Academic City? I don’t want to drag you two into the university, if I can help it. It’s too dangerous.”

“But you will go, won’t you?”

“Yeah. Em and I are going inside to check for people that we can evacuate to Maladh with us.”

“…I see,” Bali said, after a pause. Sen couldn’t see his face from where he sat, but he imagined the man looking worried—his crow’s feet deepening under a frown. “Then Tasha and I will find a place to hide nearby once we arrive. Be careful inside, my friend.”

Em thumped the roof from underneath Sen. “We will,” she said. “I want to get in and out of there as quietly as possible. I don’t want a repeat of what happened a few days ago.”

“A few days ago?”

“I’ll spare you and your daughter the details, Bali. Just… don’t go anywhere underground. Ever. And if you ever end up below the streets, and the walls start looking like flesh, don’t ask any questions. Just run.”

"Alright, my friend. I'll trust your word on that."

Sen nodded. “Get to an exit as soon as you can. Under the city is more dangerous than above ground.”

Below him, Sen heard Bali make a sound of acknowledgment. The man pushed his foot into the gas a little more, driving the car around the sparse collection of abandoned cars and corals sprouting along the overpass. “Once we are at Maladh, I don’t ever plan on leaving again,” Bali said. “Tasha and I stay inside the refuge. This city is… terrifying, now. Enough that I never want to see it again.”

“You and me both, Bali. I want out of this place as soon as I can; towards anywhere that can feel like home again. A safe place with other people.”

“You used to live alone in Dubai, my friend?”

“I do. And I have an aunt and a horde of rowdy cousins waiting for me back home.”

Bali nodded, and the air between them turned silent. There was an unspoken worry in the air. One that mentioned the possibility of having no family to get back to. That his home in Spain was a crater on the landscape, melted down into slag by Ardor Crystals and infested with monsters that feasted on the fiery energies they emitted. Or maybe it was a wasteland—one filled with vampires and other inhuman threats, lurking in the shadows of the dead country.

Sen didn’t want to think of that possibility right now. Not when he still had so many things to take care of here. His friends in Belmont, his curse, finding the authorities and Maladh and hoping for a way out of Dubai—his worries seemed endless. And yet, there was only one way to the end.

Forward.

And so their car plunged deeper into the thickening mist. The cold bit into Sen’s skin and he shivered, before clambering down the side of the car. He clung on tight, his clawed fingers flexing into what handholds he could find on the metal. Sen tapped on the passenger side door.

“Can you open up, Bali?” he asked, his breaths leaving his mouth in clouds of thick, white vapor. Sen’s teeth chattered in his mouth. “It’s freezing out here.”

Sen heard a tap on the adjacent door, before it swung open. Em poked her head out of the back seat door.

“In here, Sen. I’ve got a blanket.”

With a nod, Sen shifted along the side of the moving car. He shoved himself inside through the door and soon found himself beside Em, the door clicking shut to his right. Sen shivered again. The cold was filling him, now. And it was familiar in the same way that Ardor was, filling his body with a chill that felt beyond physical. It was like rubbing an ice cube against his soul. Or shoving a ball of snow straight into his lungs.

Sen hugged his arms around himself. “There’s Flow out in the air,” he said, his teeth chattering. “Can you close the windows and turn on the heaters?”

With a nod, Em reached forward through the back seat and turned up the heat. It blasted into the car, combating the chill in Sen’s bones with a comfortable warmth. But still, the cold persisted. It refused to melt away. Sen shifted the Flow in his body, and for the first time, he felt his reserves straining to hold the amount of energy he had inside of him.

In a flash of quick thinking, Sen spoke a commandment.

“Sen Salazar doesn’t feel cold.”

Mortal Commandment flooded into him and robbed him of the chill. Sen felt the Flow in him diminish, and with another cast, his reserves dwindled back into a normal level. Sen let loose a sigh of relief as Em unfolded a blanket beside him, before draping it over the three of them at the back.

“You okay?” she asked him, and Sen nodded.

“I am. But don’t let any of the fog get inside. Bali and Tasha don’t have a way of using their Flow—I’m not sure what’ll happen if either of them overdose on the energy.”

Em nodded. She tapped around the buttons by the door, confirming that the windows were up.

As she did, Sen found himself glancing across the car, finding Tasha sitting behind the driver’s seat. The little girl sat with her curly hair in thick pigtails, sitting with her arms wrapped around one of the Honda’s cushions. She stared ahead into nothing, quiet. Thinking. Her face was still pale under the shadows cast by the ceiling light, but underneath all the stress, Sen saw her eyes moving in a pattern.

Left to right. Then shifting down, before going left to right again. Sen pursed his lips.

She was reading a notification on her interface.

“Hey,” Sen said, giving the girl a concerned look. He reached out to touch her arm. “Are you—"

Tasha jerked away from his hand. She stared at him, her eyes wide, as if only now realizing that she was in a car with three other people. The small girl was even paler, now. Her eyes were bloodshot, and every corner of her trembled, staring at him with soundless… Sen didn’t know. Her gaze was of shock and terror; of a dark pool of emotions, whirling under an overcurrent of fear.

Sen glanced at the front seat, and he saw Bali’s eyes move away from the rearview mirror. His hands tightened around the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles turned white. Sen pulled his hand away from Tasha.

As soon as he drew away, Tasha curled into herself, shivering as she turned quiet again. She breathed long, hard breaths out of her nose, her stare blank once more.

“Sorry,” Sen whispered, and Bali shook his head, his jaw clenched.

“It’s not your fault, my friend. It’s… this. All of it. She hasn’t spoken more than a few words to me for days, now. She doesn’t sleep, she barely eats, I—”

Em reached forward and squeezed Bali’s shoulder. Sen looked ahead.

“…I can help her sleep, if you’ll let me. I have an Ability.”

Bali hesitated for a moment, before nodding.

“Please.”

Sen nodded as he recalled Mortal Commandment. He could use it on anything he’d touched for the last minute. And Tasha… he looked down at his hand and felt it. The slight brush on her sleeve had been enough. Sen pulled the blanket closer around himself as he spoke a decree.

“Tasha feels sleepy.”

The Flow drained away from him yet again. It was a subtle use of the Ability—one that he’d puzzled out from using it in different ways. Sen glanced to the side and saw Tasha nodding forward, her eyes falling. Her pale face, previously filled with a whorl of uncertainty, now fought against the pull of sleep.

Sen watched her eyes close until she feel unconscious.

He counted down Mortal Commandment’s duration.

One… three… ten.

Tasha stayed asleep.

“Thank you,” Bali said, and Sen nodded. They continued driving through the mist in silence.

Beside him, Em similarly tugged on the blanket the three of them shared, pulling it tight around herself to stave off the chill. She looked at Tasha and breathed out a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you managed to get her rest,” she said, before pausing. “But how did you do that? Doesn’t your Ability fade away after ten seconds?”

Sen nodded. “It does,” he whispered. “If I ordered her to just sleep, she would have woken up in ten seconds. But I only ordered her to feel sleepier. That kind of effect isn’t as powerful as an outright command, but if you’re like Tasha…”

“She probably isn’t even willing to resist it. Right. So she’s still asleep because that’s only a result of your Ability, instead of its direct influence?”

“Yeah. I’ve been… experimenting. On how to use this Ability better.”

Em huffed into the blanket. “I should’ve figured you didn’t spend the two days we had hiding doing nothing,” she said. Em leaned back into her seat and looked ahead, her gaze tired. “Could you maybe use it on me, as well? Just wake me up if… yeah.”

“Sure,” he nodded. Sen touched her arm and spoke the commandment again.

Immediately, her eyelids started to fall, as if suddenly affected by gravity. Em let out a long breath as she squeezed his hand underneath the blanket. “Thank you, Sen.”

“Have a good night,” Sen said. “I’ll wake you up when we’re close.”

“Yeah. Good… night.”

Sen watched her eyes flutter closed. Her breaths slowed. She fell into unconsciousness. Sen leaned back on his seat and sighed, his gaze moving to the window. Outside, the world of fog was only getting thicker. So thick that thin streams of Flow seeped through the glass, trying to slither its way into the car. Sen wasted his own reserve by practicing with his Skills, using Psionic Force to push and pull and hold at the air in front of him. It drained him of Flow.

And it had the exact same reaction as that of a plug being pulled away from a sink. The Flow infiltrating the sedan slithered into him, filling his bones in a cold wave. The sensation crawled up his arms and down his spine, before settling around his heart.

Out of everyone in the car, he was a glass that kept emptying itself.

The Flow sought to fill him out instead of bothering the others.

As he practiced with his Skills and wasted Flow, Sen brought up his interface yet again.

Status

Name: Sen Salazar – Tier 1 Human [21/30]

Ability: Mortal Commandment [Spirit] – Tier 1

Attributes

(0) Mind – Rank V [0/500] (+)

(1) Body – Rank III [0/250] (+)

(1) Spirit – Rank III [0/250] (+)

Essence: 1167

Skill Orbs [6/6]

Psionic Force (Tier 1 – Purple) [Spirit] – Basic Defense Augment Fiendish Physique (Tier 1 – Yellow) [Body] – Demonic Resilience Augment Bone Armor (Tier 1 - Yellow) [Body] – Bone Manipulation Augment Shield Fighting (Tier 1 – Orange) [Body] – Shield Bash Augment Claw Fighting (Tier 0 – Orange) [Spirit] – Upgrades Available Darkvision (Tier 0 – Blue) [Mind] – Upgrades Available

Sen sighed in relief. It seemed that despite the monster hogging all the salt, their escape through the city had resulted in him passively absorbing the ambient essence in the air. He’d siphoned it from the crystals, the dead, the kills—all of the carnage in the city they’d left behind had left a fraction of its scope with him.

And it was enough to get an upgrade he dearly needed. Sen shoved half of the essence he’d gathered into upgrading Claw Fighting.

Phantom Strike [500/500]

Active. Moderate Flow cost. The user’s next claw strike is enhanced by Flow. Two phantom claws attack alongside the next strike, inflicting both physical and spiritual damage for each. Both phantom claws have a moderate armor-piercing effect.

The effect was immediate. Sen felt the knowledge of how to use the Augment flood into his brain. It told him how to direct his Flow into the correct shapes—how he could shape the chilling energy into a construct that not only inflicted physical wounds, but also shredded into the core of his target’s spirit, tearing into the energies circulating inside of it. Sen closed his eyes and drank it in.

And then, he brought his Mind up to Tier 1 as well.

Mind [Tier 0] increased! Rank V -> Rank I

Mind increased to [Tier 1]! Attribute reset to Rank I.

Mind [Tier 1] increased! Rank I -> Rank III

The upgrade used up all his essence, bringing Mind straight into the same level as the rest of his attributes. Sen had been tempted to save the extra hundred-and-thirty essence he’d used to bring it from Rank I to Rank III, but ultimately decided against it. The boost was too big to ignore for such a cheap price.

Not like he had anything else to spend his remaining essence on, either way.

Sen closed his eyes and let the changes ripple through him. The shift was a drastic flood of sensations. Smells, sounds, feelings—they rushed into him in new dimensions, striking his senses in ways that he never thought possible. He smelled the sweep of salt on his skin. He heard the sound of Em’s nearby heartbeats, thumping in her chest, and he felt each and every pore brush and push against the clothes he wore.

And when Sen opened his eyes—

Sen paled. He reached forward through the back seat and grabbed Bali on the arm, squeezing. “Stop the car,” he whispered harshly. ”Now! And do it quietly!”

Bali reacted immediately, his foot going down on the brakes. Sen swept his arms to the side, using a blanket of psionic force to keep the sleeping Em and Tasha from jerking forward on their seats. They remained there, sleeping soundly, as Bali ground to a halt in the middle of the highway. They stopped just beside a curling spire of coral reaching up over the side of the overpass.

Sen tightened his grip on Bali’s arm as he stared out into the mist, cold sweat rolling down his back.

“Turn off the lights,” he ordered. “Kill the engine.”

Bali acquiesced. He killed the car’s engine and the man looked back at him, opening his mouth to speak, when Sen pushed a finger up against his lips. Shh, he motioned, and Bali shut up.

The four of them sat in the shadows, silent. Two asleep, two waiting—

…Until a low hum echoed out from up ahead; a deep, resounding call.

A dark shape drifted into sight, flying over the highway. It was bigger than an elephant—even bigger than a whale. It was a quiet silhouette in the mist, passing through with the sound of a million, muted sighs. As it drew near, Sen felt his ears pop from the pressure. His heart stopped beating. His breaths fell short. A vast shadow passed over the car, and it just kept going and going.

Sen and Bali stared out of the window, watching its shadowy underside pass overhead. Sen glimpsed scales that looked like human fingernails. Then mouths full of teeth, scattered along its length. The lips of those mouths peeled back, and they breathed as they passed.

The mouths sighed and whispered as they passed the car. Milky, white eyes stared down from between the circles of teeth on the creature’s skin.

One of the eyes stared into the car.

It locked gazes with Sen.

A moment of terrible, waiting silence passed. But the creature kept moving. The eye kept looking, staring at him, but the creature didn’t stop. It passed over the car until its gaze vanished and its titanic shadow dragged away, leaving them once again in the middle of an empty, mist sea.

Sen and Bali shared a look. Both of them were pale, he knew. It had seen them. And it had let them live.

…Because there was bigger prey to hunt.

Sen glanced back towards the way they came—towards the heart of Dubai. Wordlessly, Bali started the engine again, and the car drove forward once more. Into the mist it went, as the fog slowly thinned in the wake of the creature’s passing. Sen swallowed the lump in his throat.

The order of the world’s food chain was changing more and more by the day. During the apocalypse, the list was ever-shifting. And humans?

Humans only continued to fall.