Chapter 369: Mythal State

Morning came quietly to Mythal. There were no alarms, no monsters, and no Disasters, only the sound of construction.

Hammers rang against metal as machines rolled through the streets, Hunters carried equipment between buildings, and work crews patched the damaged roads.

Children walked to school, stores opened their doors, and buses were running through the city again. From a distance, Mythal almost looked normal.

Up close, the scars were still there. Empty lots sat where buildings had once stood, temporary barriers still blocked off some of the streets, and scaffolding covered several towers while crews worked on the broken sections of the outer wall. But the city was alive, and that mattered more than the damage.

Above one construction site, a new defensive tower slowly rotated. It looked nothing like the old ones. It was taller and heavier, wrapped in layers of reinforced metal and ancient relic components, with a faint blue glow running through its center.

Elden stood beneath it with a tablet in his hands. "Turn it three degrees east."

One of the engineers looked up. "Three?"

"Yes."

The engineer adjusted the controls, and the tower turned. Elden checked the readings. "Good."

Another engineer jogged over. "The eastern mana relay is connected."

"And the emergency backup?"

"Connected."

"The second backup?"

"Still being installed. About four hours."

Elden frowned. "Make it two."

The engineer blinked. "Two?"

"If the next Disaster is worse than the last one, four hours is too long."

The engineer nodded quickly and hurried off.

Elden looked out over the city as hundreds of readings scrolled across his tablet, covering barrier strength, mana reserves, power distribution, communication relays, and Hunter response times. Since the Mythal Guardian Core came online, every system in the city was connected. Mana flowed wherever it was needed, damaged sections could be sealed off automatically, and Hunters received alerts faster than ever. Every weakness was being recorded, and every weakness was being fixed.

Elden still wasn’t satisfied. The First Disaster had nearly destroyed Mythal, and the Second had almost overwhelmed it. The Third had been something else entirely, a judgment, though Kai had never told them the details. Elden only knew one thing for certain. The next threat wouldn’t be smaller.

He looked up at the tower. "This won’t be enough."

A worker nearby overheard him. "Then what do we do?"

"Build more."

The worker grinned. "That’s what I was hoping you’d say."

Elden turned back to the tower. "Then get back to work."

...

Across the city, Mira was doing something very different.

Dozens of young Hunters stood in rows inside a large training facility. Some looked nervous and others looked excited, while a few were clearly trying to hide how badly their hands were shaking.

Mira walked slowly in front of them. "Do you all know why you’re here?"

Nobody answered.

Mira stopped. "You’re here because Mythal needs Hunters. But don’t misunderstand me. Being a Hunter doesn’t mean you’re supposed to become a hero."

A few of them looked confused.

"It means you’re one part of the city’s defense," Mira continued, pointing to each section of the facility as she spoke. "You learn to fight. You learn emergency response and how to protect injured civilians. And you learn how to communicate."

A young Hunter raised his hand. "What if we’re not strong enough?"

Mira smiled. "Then you train."

"What if we’re still not strong enough?"

"Then you work with someone stronger."

"And if they’re not strong enough either?"

Mira’s smile widened. "Then you work with someone else." She folded her arms as the Hunter blinked at her. "That’s how Mythal survived. You don’t need to be the strongest person in the city. You need to make sure the person beside you doesn’t have to fight alone."

Several of them nodded.

"Again," Mira said.

Training resumed. Weapons clashed and abilities flared, and people fell and got back up again. Mira corrected their mistakes, encouraged them when they improved, and stepped in before any sparring match turned into an injury. Most of these Hunters would never reach Rank One, and they didn’t need to. A city didn’t survive because of one person. It survived because thousands of people did their jobs.

Afterward, Mira went to her office in the next building, where a family was already waiting for her. The father stood as soon as she walked in. "Ms. Mira."

"Please, sit."

Their apartment had been destroyed during the Second Disaster, and they had spent months in temporary housing while their new home was built.

"The construction team said we can move in next week," the father said.

Mira smiled. "That’s right."

His wife let out a relieved breath. "Our children haven’t had their own rooms since the Disaster."

"They’ll have them again."

The woman lowered her head. "Thank you."

Mira shook her head. "Don’t thank me. This is your home." She signed the final approval and handed it across the desk. "Welcome back."

When the family left, Mira leaned back in her chair. There were hundreds of families just like them, maybe thousands, all rebuilding their homes, replacing lost documents, finding new jobs, and getting their children back into school. There were injured Hunters who needed help, volunteers who needed organizing, and people who still hadn’t come home. The city needed all of it.

She looked at the next stack of paperwork and sighed. "Okay." She picked up the top file. "One disaster at a time."

...

On the other side of Mythal, an explosion shook a training field.

BOOM!

Several Hunters flew backward. One landed face-first in the dirt, another rolled across the ground, and a third just sat there staring up at the sky.

Raze stood in the center of the field without a scratch on him. "Again."

The Hunters groaned, and one of them lifted his head. "Sir... we just got destroyed."

Raze nodded. "Correct."

"Can we rest?"

"No." Raze pointed at the field. "Again."

The Hunters slowly climbed to their feet, exchanged a few looks, and attacked.

Raze wasn’t just beating them anymore. He was teaching them how to fight together, how to cover each other’s weaknesses, how to rotate and retreat, and how to protect the injured while facing monsters stronger than they were. Most importantly, he was teaching them not to panic.

One Hunter rushed too far ahead, and Raze knocked him flat. "Too far." Another moved too slowly. "Too slow." A third broke formation entirely, and Raze stopped in front of him. "Dead."

The Hunter froze.

Raze looked at the whole team. "You won’t always have someone stronger coming to save you." His eyes drifted toward the city. "You need to survive long enough for help to arrive. Again."

This time, they moved better, and Raze smiled. "Better."

He turned toward the city wall, where the new defensive towers stood humming quietly, modern engineering fused with ancient relic technology. Raze crossed his arms. "Next time, we’re ready."

"You said that last time," a voice said behind him.

Raze turned to find Mira standing there. He hadn’t even heard her walk up.

He smiled. "And look how well that went."

Mira stared at him. "The city was destroyed."

"And we’re still here."

Mira opened her mouth to argue, then closed it, because he was right. The city had been damaged, entire sections had collapsed, and people had died, but Mythal was still standing, and it was stronger than it had been before.

She looked at the towers. "They’re getting better."

"Elden is paranoid," Raze said.

"He’s supposed to be."

"He built six backup systems for one system."

"Five."

Raze looked at her. "Six."

Mira sighed. "Fine."

Raze smiled. "He’s learning."

Mira glanced back at the training field. "So are they."

They stood quietly for a moment before Mira spoke again. "Do you think Kai will be gone long?"

Raze looked toward the horizon. "No idea. He didn’t say."

"He usually doesn’t." Mira smiled faintly. "Do you think he’ll find what he’s looking for?"

Raze thought about it. "Yes."

"That confident?"

Raze shrugged. "It’s Kai."

Mira laughed. "That’s your entire reasoning?"

"Pretty much."

She shook her head. "You’d make a terrible teacher."

"I’m teaching right now."

"That’s my point."

Raze looked toward the horizon again. "He’ll find something. Whether it’s what he wanted is another question."

...

High above Mythal, one of the new communication relays came online, and reports began moving through the network.

Elden watched his screen update.

RELIC NETWORK STABLE.

GUARDIAN CORE OPERATIONAL.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE TIME IMPROVED.

He nodded.

Across the city, Mira’s report arrived on her desk.

RETURNING FAMILIES: 84%.

TEMPORARY HOUSING: 61% DECOMMISSIONED.

NEW HUNTER REGISTRATION: INCREASING.

She smiled.

On the training field, Raze watched another team complete its formation without breaking, and he nodded. "Better."

Mythal wasn’t waiting, and it wasn’t depending on Kai. It was moving, which was exactly what he had wanted. Before he left, he had told them not to wait for him, and none of them had. Elden was building, Mira was organizing, and Raze was training, while the people of Mythal rebuilt their homes and the Hunters grew stronger every day.

None of them knew about Aegis, the ancient warning, or what Kai had seen beneath the ruins. But they understood that the next threat would come, and when it did, Mythal would still be standing.

Raze looked toward the horizon one last time. "Come back soon, Kai."

Then he turned back to the field. "Again."

The Hunters groaned, and Raze smiled. "Disasters aren’t going to wait for you to get stronger."

The Hunters raised their weapons, and Mythal kept moving.