Hunting with a partner was so much more comfortable than alone. It added a wonderful margin of safety, allowing me to focus on magically striking the Shattered while Silva was guarding me at my side, warning me of Shattered that were hiding out of sight and barrelling them over when they tried to come for me.

With each Shattered we came across, our coordination grew and I noticed that Silva was getting more accustomed to fighting them, a growth that made me consider the intelligence of my furry partner. By now, I was completely convinced that she could understand me, not just listen to the tone of my voice but comprehend the words I used and that she could actually think tactically, about how to best take down the Shattered. Even if I assumed she had some hunting instincts from the wolves that had been domesticated long ago, those instincts would focus on hunting in a pack, or alone in a pinch. Not on working together with a spellcaster and yet she managed to adapt to my actions without trouble.

It was, amusingly, both a great comfort and a small worry. Comforting, because an intelligent partner could be incredibly useful, especially given that a stupid partner could be a worse hindrance than any enemy but worrying because it made me wonder just how smart she was. Would she eventually betray me? She had the intelligence to bide her time until she could guarantee the success of such a betrayal, but was she scheming that much? I just didn’t know.

Either way, having her with me was a great boon. We could easily kill Shattered and in the first few hours of the night, I managed to gain another two levels by methodically and steadily killing them off. The Attribute Points I gained went into Intelligence, bringing it to nineteen, while my Ice Rune Mastery was raised to seven, my Ice Magic to five and my Darkness Rune Mastery to four, thanks to all the killing and sneaking. I hadn’t Observed Silva again, unwilling to subject her to the uncomfortable sensation that entailed, but from the changes I had felt in her, I thought she had reached level four when I was about half-way to five.

But it wasn’t all killing and sneaking, I also took the time to explain the system and the various attributes, skills and traits to Silva. I wasn’t certain if she had access to her sheet, or if hers would even work the same as mine, but I wanted her to have the information, in case it was useful to her. I had tried to have her show me her sheet, but other than a goofy look on her face, I didn’t get any response.

Maybe four hours after night had fallen, I felt a wave of Astral Power wash over us, coming from somewhere to the south. For a few seconds, my senses were overloaded with the scent of dusty earth and dense rock, somewhat reminiscent of the scents I had smelled during the time we had been under the White Mountains, concentrated Earth Astral Power, the essence of earth and stone.

Just as the scent started to fade, the ground beneath me started to shift and move, forcing me to focus on keeping my balance. Luckily, Silva and I had been in the middle of a street, with nothing above us to fall on our heads, but others were not as lucky. I could hear the sounds of falling objects and even saw a building crumble in the distance, adding to the desolate ambience. A few buildings had burned down during the last night, leaving behind hollow husks and now, some of those and some others simply crumbled thanks to the shaking earth. The shaking didn’t last long, just a few seconds, but it was incredibly worrying.

The city I was in didn’t suffer earthquakes. It just didn’t happen, the worst movement in that regard was normally caused by heavy construction equipment driving by and would, at most, cause a badly hung painting to fall. That, along with the magical wave before the quake, made me confident that it wasn’t a natural quake, or at least not natural in a way that it would have happened before the change. But natural in the sense that it wasn’t caused by an intentional agent, of that I was confident, too. Just from the wave of magic prior, I could vaguely estimate how much power was involved, though the unknown distance made it more difficult. If the original spell had been cast within a kilometre of me, someone with the power Morgana had wielded at the end would have been enough, without the use of the Nexus. If the distance was greater, which I thought it was, the power of the Nexus would be necessary and even then, it was difficult to estimate. I simply didn’t believe that anyone had the magical abilities to cast such spells, especially because I didn’t think the Astral River had settled enough to actually form Nexus anywhere.

Next to me, Silva let out an uneasy whine, pressing her head against me as if she was looking for safety or shelter. I couldn’t do much more than pet her head, tell her everything would be alright and keep watch, trying to make sure nothing was sneaking up on us.

About a minute later, it felt as if things had settled, everything that was shaken loose by the quake had fallen and an eerie quiet spread through the world. Maybe the quiet was even worse than the previous commotion, it showed just how desolate the world was now. There were no sirens and I couldn’t hear shouts for help or even screams of fear. It was as if Silva and I were all alone in the world, with nothing but Shattered to keep us company.

Shaking my head, I pushed past the sensation. I didn’t need anyone to reach my goal, I only needed power. Power to get Sigmir back, to draw her into this world. Everything else was secondary, all other humans could perish for all I cared.

But even as I tried to focus my mind, a more sensible voice in my head reminded me that even if I got Sigmir back, we’d need some people around. If only because neither of us was a farmer and I doubted Sigmir would want to become one, I certainly didn’t. If we wanted to be able to delegate some of the more annoying, menial tasks, we needed some people to delegate to.

A distasteful idea, but one I would have to keep in mind.

Before I could dwell on it, Silva let out a warning growl, her head swinging towards one of the nearby houses and I followed her gaze. There, hidden in the shadows, I could vaguely see a shape, smaller than Silva but four-legged as well, trying to sneak up on us. My immediate reaction was to rapidly draw a runic formation, conjuring a hailstone to lob at the thing. I didn’t manage to finish the spell before the feline came pouncing from its hideout, eyes suddenly ablaze with blue fire. Shattered, but capable of hiding that, or at least hide the tell-tale flames.

Silva met the pouncing beast, I couldn’t call it a cat, in the air, her greater mass overcoming its momentum and sending them both crashing down a few metres away from me. The beast, roughly three-quarters of Silva’s size and about half her mass, let out an angry yowl, clawing at Silva who had bounced back faster than it to dodge. She had done her part, giving me enough time to finish my spell and as she dodged back, the hailstone struck the feline who hadn’t paid attention to me, sending it sprawling once more.

Controlling the hailstone, I tried to strike the feline again, only for it to dodge out of the way. Silva had retreated a little, guarding me behind her back, and moved forward once again, right as the feline tried to pounce. The beast managed to scratch Silva but it didn’t look too deep, while Silva managed to get her maw on the beast’s back and, with a rapid shake of her head, broke its spine and stepped back, leaving the beast for me to finish off from a safe distance.

It only took one strike with the hailstone, and I thought even that was overkill, but it was what I had.

Once it was dead, I quickly made my way over to Silva who was already licking her wound. When I approached, she let out a quiet whine, not really happy that I pushed her head away from the wound but I needed to touch it to heal.

The initial Blood Runes weren’t all that powerful, but they were enough to staunch the bleeding and turn the deep, bleeding scratch into a scabbed wound. It wasn’t perfect and might leave a scar, but it was far better than it had been before. Silva didn’t seem to agree and kept licking at the wound for a bit until she realised I was, after a brief look at the Shattered Cat, continuing on my way.

There were more Shattered to kill and now, that didn’t mean just the potentially thousands of people, it also included the pets and, maybe far more worrying, the pests. I really didn’t want to imagine Shattered Cockroaches. But knowing those things, they wouldn’t Shatter, they would just keep going. Maybe I should add Raid to my looting list.