Through the walls Nico sensed the neighbors saluting the Ranker, each one of them, including their three kids and the grandparents. They spoke, but though the concrete walls were thin and withered by the centuries, the words were still muffled.

Idiots. Nico wondered whether they’ll ever realize they’d wasted their lives. Probably not. Their sunk-cost fallacy has been going on for generations.

Nico shook it off and sat on Jarl’s bed. He was sleeping with his upper body resting against the bed’s frame. A blanket covered his legs. He rested his arms on it, where a baby was peacefully snoring within a bundle of fur blankets. It clutched what was left of his long burnt brunette hair tightly as she snugged her face against his stomach. Her warm breath turned into a misty white when it touched the cold air of their cubical.

She didn’t look older than a year, with only a little yellow to her dark gray head. Nico wasn’t sure it was good or bad that she won’t remember who her parents were.

“Ew,” Jarl said, opening one eye. The other was covered with soiled bandages. They extended below his fur coat, wrapping his body like an ancient mummy. He smelled like one too. “That look does not suit you.”

“What look?” Nico said, his voice dry.

“Like I’m at my death bed,” he said, quietly chuckling. In response to the shaking the baby tugged at his hair. He lifted her up and cradled her. “Her name is Lilla. She’s…she was Pon’s daughter.”

“Sorry for your loss,” Nico said.

“Blah, he was an ass,” Jarl said, though he still sounded sad. He leaned in and kissed Lilla on the forehead. “I lost a friend, but I gained a cuter one.” He looked from her to him. “Go ahead, I know you want to.”

“I really do, and I don’t know why,” Nico said, leaning forward. He prodded her fat cheeks with a finger. She giggled and caught his finger with both of her hands. She opened her mouth wide and munched on his finger, humming. Her teeth had barely grown out of their gums yet.

“I think she likes how you taste,” Jarl said, laughing again. “Have you held her yet?”

Nico shook his head. This was the first time he’d met her, or any babies in general. “She looks happy where she is.” Her eyes fluttered open, meeting Nico’s. They had the same brown color, though hers was much brighter. She looked at his buzz- cut head and her eyes widened. She reached for it with both hands.

Nico gladly obliged. He lowered his head. She caught the top of his scalp with wet fingers and rubbed it. She must have been fascinated with how short his hair was, because the next thing she did was slap it with her other hand with a giggle. She rubbed it and kept pulling him closer. Nico wasn’t sure what was happening. He was about to sit up when her even wetter mouth smacked on top of his head. She rubbed her cheeks against it.

“Wow, she really likes how you taste,” Jarl said, laughing. “I can’t believe Lilla held you before you held her.”

“I’m—I’m too scared to move,” Nico said quietly. She sounded far too happy and he didn’t want to ruin it.

Jarl’s bandaged hand patted Nico’s head too. “You do have a cutely shaped head.”

“I’ve been 18 for a while,” Nico said, resting his head on Jarl’s lap. “You can’t call me cute.”

“I’m almost twice your age. That allows me to.”

“Since when was that a thing?”

“Ever since I made it—as the oldest.”

“St—” Lilla climbed on Nico’s face, muffling his words. Her fingers tugged at his eyelashes and his eyebrows. She rubbed her face against the side of his head and went still. After a pause, he patted her on the back. He felt her heartbeat through her clothes. “Did…did she just fall asleep?” he whispered.

“I don’t think she’s ever met with someone with less hair than her,” he said, smiling.

How can something be this cute? She was so soft and warm. Cuddling with her felt like cuddling love, and he didn’t even know what love was.

That being said, Nico wasn’t sure they could raise babies in sub-zero temperatures. She was an immortal baby, sure, but she still felt discomfort. No amount of blankets could stop the cold from burning her lungs.

Their cubical was one of the cheapest available in the Third District, a 3 by 3-meter room large enough for two beds. There was one in the top left and top right corners. They stored their weapons and clothes under them. A dirty iron barred window was in the middle, and opposing it was the metal door leading towards the long empty halls.

It should have costed them 40 Energy a week, but because the heating pipes didn’t work because of some gang war, they got it for 30.

“Regret?”

Nico gently flipped his face to the other side. Lilla’s slipped off into the bundle of blankets. Her warmth was quickly missed. She woke up and reached for him, her eyes on the verge of tears.

It made Nico’s heart ache. He gave her his hand to play with. She brought it in closer, pressing it against her entire face, then began licking and inspecting each finger with so much curiosity and awe it made him blush. He found himself smiling, feeling his happiest in months for some reason.

He brought his sight back to Jarl’s wounds. It made the guilt eat that much harder at him.

The 4th Fall didn’t end with the destruction of one city. It changed the ecosystem of their entire world. Almost every single monster in the world, including the Deep, were lured by the earth-shattering noise that resounded from that city. Worst yet, it happened during the day, when people hunted. Many people, including Nico’s parents, died in the swarm. Now, Rank III monsters like the Wyverns were now sometimes found wandering the 1st Zone.

But Nico wasn’t sure which part of the story that was reported was more ridiculous, the Wyvern randomly wandering into Jarl, or Jarl running away from it. Besides, what were the chances of Jarl wandering into a fire-breathing monster, and surviving? It felt like a message to Nico from the Iron House. “I don’t know,” he said. “Should I?”

“All of this could have been avoided if you hadn’t lost your temper,” Jarl said, looking around at their broken-down home. Inevitably, his sight fell on Nico’s missing left arm. “You sacrificed everything to win one match. I bet you would have been Rank III by now, and we would be living the high life—eating all the fruits and vegetables our stomachs can fit.”

“…but?”

“There is no buts,” Jarl said, smiling too widely. “I’m more of a tit guy. Probably would have done better than you.”

“Probably,” Nico echoed. Kids weren’t the only ones that liked his brother. The world was that little bit better with him in it.

“I was talking more about the monster hunting, but I guess they’re similar enough!”

Nico dropped to the blankets, groaning. He cuddled his face against Lilla. “Sorry girl, most of your brothers are dumb dumbs.” He should have seen that one coming.

“Though if this were you in my boots you would have leaped right back up, shook the Wyvern’s claws, and thanked her for the free shower.”

Probably not. Nico would not have appreciated having his clothes ruined, those things weren’t cheap, but the point was made.

Nico was like his mother, both in wit and body. He had a sharp tongue and thin limbs that were more suitable for thieving than monster hunting. He wasn’t growing taller than five foot two in his lifetime, which was good, because a Hunter’s body size and weight mattered quite a bit when monster hunting. With his complete lack of facial hair save for light eyebrows and his recently regrown eye-lashes, Nico barely looked as old as he was.

Jarl on the other hand was like their father, both in his character that somehow tolerated the finest idiocy their city could offer, including their mother, and in his dastardly good looks—wide shoulders, long flowing hair, and a stupidly handsome smile.

“So? Do you?” Jarl said, raising his brows.

“I don’t think I do,” Nico answered.

“Good,” he said, sighing. “Your life belongs to you before any of us.”

“And yours?”

“I chose to be part of your fight, Nico,” he said, tapping Lilla’s nose. He reached under the blanket. On the other side of the bed Dan’s bowl haircut poked out. Jarl patted it, his bandaged fingers going through the kid’s smooth black hair like silk. Even for a boy that hadn’t hit puberty yet, Dan was small. He might grow to be even smaller than Nico. Nico suspected that was the reason why Jarl adopted him. “I’m so proud of you, and myself for raising you if you don’t mind me taking some credit, that I’m going to breakdance my way into Paradise.”

Jarl met Nico’s eyes. The meaning behind it made Nico want to run away, but he held on. If he doesn’t say it now, he might never. He swallowed, hoping tears wouldn’t start slipping out. “Mom and dad would have been proud of you too.”

“Would?” he said, sighing again. “Are.”

“Would.”

“Okay but can you at least budge this time?”

“No,” Nico said, reaching over. Death was a simple concept. He hugged Jarl as gently as he could. Jarl didn’t. He squeezed as if he wasn’t covered in third-degree burns.

“All you need to do is try your best,” he said, patting Nico’s back.

But you gave more than that. Jarl had given everything for them. He’d done everything, from raising them, to hunting monsters for them. He rarely went out and he never got married. And his reward for going beyond what was required of him was getting burned to a crisp.

Nico clutched his teeth.

Like everyone else left alive in the world, Jarl was an Immortal. He would eventually heal in a month or two. But even then, Jarl might not be who he used to be. Their immortality elixir their ancestors took centuries ago fixed the flaws of their body, it took away disease, the need to eat food and to sleep for eight freaking hours a day, and their skin pigments that caused so many ridiculous atrocities among humanity, but it didn’t do anything to fix their fragile minds. The body might heal, but the mind kept the score.

“Just don’t be self-centered enough to think all the responsibility falls on you, okay?” he said, patting Nico an extra time. “Took me a while to get over that. Lost quite a good amount of sleep—you still do sleep, right? 2 hours every day? You know it increases fighting performance, improves mood, all that good stuff. You always harp about it.”

“O-Okay, yeah,” Nico said, feeling his bones rattle from Jarl’s touch. “That sounds like good advice I’ll wind up ignoring.”

“That’s my brother!” Jarl said.

“Fuck you,” a groggy Yen said, poking her head from beneath thick blankets on the other end of the room. She had curly brown hair that fell in thick tendrils to her hips. She was only slightly larger than Nico.

“Fuck you times two,” Uhan said, popping his head from besides her. Nico frowned. The brat shaved his head. There were only a couple reasons why a kid would do that, and most of them weren’t good.

“Pretend I don’t exist, would you?” Yen said, pushing the heavy blankets off. They all wore and slept in the same clothes, fur coats and fur pants, all dark, so it would double as camouflage during the night. She paused, then turned towards Uhan, who turned the other way and hid beneath his blankets. “And I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you say that.”

“See?” Jarl said, laughing.

Yeah, no. Uhan wasn’t allowed to hunt outside the walls for 2 more years until he’s eighteen years old, though not like that mattered. They were immortal, not invincible. Neither Jarl nor Nico had the time to teach him how to hunt. He’d been fighting in local youth tournaments, but duels and group battles were a different game.

Yen was a year older than Nico at 19, but the only fighting experience she had was whacking two burglars that climbed in through the windows. When their parents died from the 4th Fall three years ago, Jarl became a hunter to pay the bills, while Yen took over raising Uhan, Dan, and to some degree Nico, though he was rarely home himself. With Jarl out, she became the face of the family.

But now with Jarl out of work, they didn’t make enough Energy to pay rent. They’ll get tossed outside the walls if they don’t find a way to make up for it. Nico’s current salary at the bookstore was barely enough.

We’re fucked. There was a knock. From every direction. Nico walked up to the door, and froze with his hands on the knob. Everyone was awake. Dan sat up, and he could hear Lilla sucking on her thumb, but even she wasn’t oblivious to the sudden change of mood. Her quiet gaze on his back was the heaviest of all five.

“Open it,” Jarl said. “No point in delaying.”

“It won’t turn,” Nico said, still facing the door. Dan walked towards him. He unhooked the bolt and turned the lock, then pulled on his sleeve, nodding.

Don’t you nod at me you pipsqueak. As an eleven-year-old, Dan’s responsibility should have been to run around with snot running down his cheeks pulling horrible pranks on horrible people. He was too young to be more mature than Nico.

“Try again,” Jarl said, exasperated. Even without turning Nico could tell Jarl and Yen rolled their eyes simultaneously.

Nico pulled the door open, hoping that the world would fall away. The chain yanked on the wall, keeping it just wide enough for him to see the monster waiting outside.