It had been over two hours since Kieran made his way through the crumbling streets of the ruined city while fighting the crystal beasts that erupted from every dark corner. Without the magnetic trains, crossing the city of Ozryn was long, and the crystal beasts slowed his progression even more.

His mind was entirely locked on his family's safety, whose fate he did not yet know. Each beast's roar and every cry of survivors only fueled his determination to find them as quickly as possible.

The crystal beasts were surging from all directions, attacking Kieran with ferocity. He aggressively dodged their attacks, using his double-bladed sword dexterously to slice through the beasts and fend off their onslaught.

But the endless waves of beasts escaping from the rifts and invading the city gnawed little by little his crystal essence and fatigue began to take hold of him.

His double-bladed sword had dents and nicks testifying to the violence of the clashes he had faced so far. The potions he had gotten from the Thundershields guild when he slaughtered them on the island were nearly depleted.

The wounds piled up on his bruised body, and each blow demanded more and more effort from him to move.

The face of his family with anxious eyes overlaid every crystal beast he faced. He couldn’t help but wonder if they were safe through this chaos. This thought consumed him, fuelling his determination to fight but also creating growing anguish in him.

"Ahh!"

He suddenly heard the screaming of a woman and the cry of a little girl coming from a street near him. He hesitated for a moment but continued on his way. He felt disgusted with himself by this choice, but he didn't want to feel the same remorse he had felt during Holden's death.

'I can't afford to linger. Every moment counts. The longer I delay, the more chance something will happen to them.'

The girl's cries echoed in his mind as he rushed forward, slicing through the beasts blocking his path.

'I must not look back.'

Kieran gritted his teeth but eventually turned around in the direction of the girl's crying.

"Fuck!! Fuck!! Fuck!!!"

He screamed in rage as he dashed forward, forming several earth platforms to quickly move over the buildings, causing him to lose crystal essence in the process. It wasn't long before he caught sight of the figure of a wounded mother dragging her daughter to escape bone-armored tigers.

He created a final platform of earth before jumping down, landing in front of the mother-daughter duo. Raising his double-bladed sword, he runs past them before slicing through all the pursuing tigers.

*sigh*

Heaving a long sigh, he turned towards them, walking in their direction before extending his hand to them, who were kneeling on the ground, to help them up.

As his hand moved closer to them, he saw them shaking in fear. It was only then that he noticed all the blood that had covered his fur, causing him to stop his hand in the air.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly.

An expression of surprise appeared in the eyes of the mother and the daughter when they heard his voice.

"You... Are you a human?" the mother's voice shook as she asked this question. Her eyes were filled with doubt.

"Of course. Can't you see the winged shield above my..."

Kieran stopped talking, realization dawning on his mind.

'The aurora collar no longer works. No one can see the winged shield above my head anymore.'

The mother stood up cautiously, supporting her still trembling daughter. She stared at Kieran with a mixture of gratitude and hope in her eyes.

"Thank you for saving us. If... If you're going somewhere safe, can you take us with you? We have nowhere to go, and I'm afraid we can't survive this chaos alone."

Kieran felt his heart sink at hearing the mother's words. Its crystal sense unfolded, reaching almost 2 kilometers in diameter. A lot of information flooded into his brain, causing him pain. The number of crystal beasts present was too many for him to tell them apart from humans in this flood of information.

'There is no way for me to know if the army has started to gather people and where these gathering zones are.'

He stood there, torn between his desperate desire to find his family and the call for help from the mother and daughter before him. His heart ached with conflicting emotions, and he struggled to make a decision amid the chaos and uncertainty.

Only then did Kieran's eyes meet the girl's, Elora's face overlapping with hers.

"I'll help you... But as soon as we find an army group, I'll leave you with them."

"Thanks! Thanks!"

The mother's eyes widened in hope, and gratitude etched on her face. The little girl, still trembling, firmly squeezed her mother's hand.
Kieran lowered his upper body, wrapping his left arm around the mother and daughter.

"Hold on tight."

He lifted them gently, careful not to hurt them despite the fatigue beginning to weigh on him. The next moment, he leaped into the air, moving quickly while heading toward a direction where he could hear the sound of battles and explosions from afar.

The mother and daughter clung to him, their faces filled with fear as their eyes reflected the ruined city.

As Kieran soared into the air, carrying the mother and daughter with him, steel-winged hawks plunged in from all directions.

Kieran tightened his grip on his double-bladed sword. The steel-winged hawks were charging toward them, their sharp claws and gleaming metallic wings threatening to tear them apart.

He jumped off an earth platform, swinging his double-bladed sword forward. He severed the head of a hawk. Using his body before he was under the effect of gravity, he propelled himself higher to reach the next hawk.

Stepping on his head while blowing it up in the process, he jumped higher, dodging the attack of another hawk.

His body moved freely in the air with fluid movements. He used the hawks' bodies as stepping support to keep his crystal essence consumption to a minimum while unleashing rapid attacks on them, quickly ending their lives and continuing his advance without looking back once.