As the nuclear ash settled over the desert, Nic had already departed.

The explosion had torn several islands out of the sky and reduced a huge amount of the river to steam. Now that mist was forming into clouds, and merging with the whirling torrents of wild stormwinds kicked up by the blast, creating the first rain the parched land had seen in centuries.

Something terrible had been unleashed- but it had changed the dull, miserable stalemate that held the desert in its grip.

Rain fell and life blossomed.

---

The jungle was deep and dark and full of primordial mist that lingered amidst the moss-wet tree trunks. The gleam of luminous flowers lit the gloom beneath the canopy like a thousand strange lanterns, their glowing vines pulsing with a flickering, unsteady rhythm.

It was good to be home.

He found his way through the ruins of the human camp and wandered aimlessly for a time, before finding his way to a massive skull. It was half-covered in crawling weeds and lichens, a green-blue fur of plant life covering half of the ivory bones. Huge tusks extended from the toothy jaw. Some kind of mammoth boar maybe…

It didn’t matter.

He climbed up into one of the eyes, which was a huge hollow space that could’ve easily held his entire apartment from City Layer d23. Better yet, the mosses made a deep carpet of soft fur that felt blissful on his sun-scorched skin. Little bright-feathered birds chirped angrily as he invaded their nesting ground, but Nic just waved a lazy hand. “We can share…”

As he curled up to sleep, exhausted, he paused to check the prize in his hand.

He had been given a quest to kill Sula, leader of the elven mission to Earth. He had done that, although he felt a dull sense of loss, as if in another world they could’ve been friends and companions. Now, he held the reward like a good luck charm.

It was a Spatial Pillar Token. The key to starting his own settlement.

“Sofia?”

“Yes, Nicolas?”

“Do you figure-” He wanted to ask if he’d done the right thing. But the truth was, it didn’t matter now. He’d done what he’d done. “What do you think we do next?”

“I think you’ve done well so far. Better than anyone could have asked, Nicolas.” She said, answering his real question. “With that token you can start a Settlement. Fighting for yourself teaches you how to be strong, how to survive, but it won’t let you create anything. If you choose the path of a leader, Nic, you can choose what your fight means.”

She was such an optimist.

But it did make Nic feel better, hearing such lofty ideas.

He turned over, and slept on a bed of moss.

---

His dreams were simple, bright, and wonderful. City Layer d23 had turned into a paradise. Every apartment block was crumbling, abandoned to centuries of rot. Enormous roots pushed through the open doorways and branches reached out the windows in verdant trails of interlocking green. Vast trees emerged where the sides of skyscrapers fell away, pushing up into the light. Chains of flowering vines hung between their branches, filling the air with the sweet and candied scent of pollen.

A bed of grass covered the streets. Here and there were remnants of smaller houses, or street signs, but they were half-submerged and crooked like capsizing ships.

He stood at the base of it all, in the heart of the city where statues gathered. They were worn and covered by warts of green rust, their faces gone, the fine details of their construction worn to nothing by age.

Nic looked up and saw the sun.

It glowed down through the branches, a mirage of golden light. It illuminated the bare, pale bones of the leviathan who had died to give the city its shape.

And Nic felt a pulse.

It cascaded through the earth, racing underfoot.

By the logic of the dream, he knew what it was.

The heartbeat of the city. It was hope for the concrete hell that had swallowed his childhood. It was a world coming back to life.

A city’s heartbeat shuddered through the earth, and Nic felt the call in his own heart, his own bones. He had to do this.

It would make things right.

---

Nic awoke the next morning having seen the face of the Dao.

He felt refreshed, full of energy, and clear-headed. It was as if he’d been born anew overnight, and as he clambered out of the eye socket of the great skull and beheld the forest, all he could see was the beginning of a new kingdom. Birds perched along the skull’s tusks in great arrays of bright feathers and chirping songs, and he could see other small animals scuttling about in its shadows.

Beyond, the treetops of the forest made a rustling ocean of green leaves, and the sun was rising behind the shadow of Nylea’s great oak.

He stood above it all and breathed in deep.

Then he got to work.

The first order of business was to claim three Dominus nodes, and with two pillars of light to the north and south indicating Settlements from the natives and the Invaders, he had to work fast. They’d be advancing as quickly as they could, trying to claim territory while it was still free and uncontested. Nic planned to contest both.

He still had control of the Dominus Node under the lake.

Nylea held the one high above in the great tree.

Those were two points of the triangle, but the Settlement would require him to take a third, and find someone to hold it for him. Three powerful warriors were the least requirement to form a healthy civilization.

Nic might have trusted Mattias, but if he was lucky, Mattias had journeyed with the elves back to their homeworld. Better that than dying in the desert.

As for who else he could rely on…

It took Nic a second to recognize the obvious. Inkspur. Inkspur could easily occupy a Dominus Node for him. And at that thought, the little wyvern emerged from the tattoo on his back to crawl onto his shoulder, sharp talons pricking Nic’s skin.

“Hey lil’ guy. Up for helping me build a civilization?” He asked, rubbing Inkspur under the chin.

“A GLORIOUS DAWN FOR AN EMPIRE OF BONE AND BLOOD!” The wyvern roared, frightening several birds up into the sky. “We shall lay the foundation of an IRON RULE under which these natives will SERVE or PERISH.

“Yeah, sure. Sounds about right…” He chuckled as his fingers found just the right spot behind the wyvern’s horns, and the proud, boasting little drake collapsed into purring, stretching its wings out and yawning in the cutest way.

Together they set off into the dawn.