For two weeks, they pushed through land that shouldn't have been there; mountains arose where valleys used to be, rivers carved new paths through old fields. It was a mess. Reidar and Lena kept moving despite everything felt so alien, marching hard by day and camping at night.

Then Loden, or what remained of it, appeared on the horizon.

The small city sprawled across a hillside that had been split down the middle by the catastrophic force of the apocalypse. Buildings had been severed, their interiors exposed like dollhouses with the front walls torn away.

Roads ended in drops where new cliffs had formed. Massive boulders, each the size of a house, sat buried in streets and rooftops, crushing whatever lay beneath.

Vines snaked across storefronts and houses, threading through shattered windows and broken walls. Nature had taken the city back with wild, almost angry energy, like a garden gone completely mad.

Reidar hunkered low in the scrubby bushes at Loden's edge. Lena settled beside him. Around them, his Spectral Knights and Bone Militia were on standby. There weren't many of them. They were enough to fight if they had to, but not so many that their presence would be found out.

Through the skeletal remains of buildings, movement caught his eye. Monsters prowled the streets.

The monsters were unlike anything they had seen before. Aside from their size, which was massive, they were rather twisted creatures that seemed to be a perversion of nature even for the monsters' standards, and there were many types of them.

"Level seventy-five," Lena said.

There were hundreds of them on that street alone, and they were powerful compared to what they faced until that point.

Reidar nodded as he had already seen them. The problem was that he knew there were more deeper within the city.

"This isn't good," Reidar said. "With this many high-level monsters, it's unlikely anyone could have survived here. Are you sure you want to stay here?"

"Yes," she said. "We can rest better if we hide well. Going through here or through the forest doesn't make a difference anyway. Actually, it's the opposite; being in the forest makes looking around harder."

She turned to him.

"We need the rest, Reidar. We need a real shelter. A roof. If we keep moving like this, we'll make mistakes. Mistakes lead to death."

He sighed. Staying here or not didn't really make a difference. Besides, they had been sleeping rough for weeks, and Reidar had been doing it even longer, constantly on the watch and never really resting. Fatigue had built up like a poison.

"Okay, we're going in. I'll use my summons to watch our backs. Primal pack for moving around, and a few knights if we run into trouble. Keep a low profile and watch for any signs of life."

Lena nodded.

They entered the city. The remnants of the people who once lived here were everywhere. Broken furniture, discarded clothing, and the occasional skeleton, bleached white by the sun were just some of the many things left by people.

The streets were a mess of bloodstains. Some looked fresh; others were old and faded into the asphalt.

The first were likely made by monsters, the older ones… Reidar didn't want to think about it.

There'd been a fight here, and not long ago. Splatters were everywhere, some in pools, others in long streaks, like someone was trying to run.

The first block was empty. There were storefronts gaping open. Most of its contents long since looted or scattered.

A pharmacy had been torn apart. The shelves had been overturned; there were medication bottles crushed on the ground. Farther into the street, there was a clothing store that showed similar devastation, with mannequins toppled and shredded clothes.

Reidar kept his hand on his wand. Every corner could hide danger.

They passed through an intersection where a boulder had crushed a car flat. Rust covered what remained of the vehicle. Vines had grown through the engine block.

Three blocks deeper into the city's corpse, Lena raised a closed fist, bringing their small party to an abrupt halt. She dropped into a low crouch beside the splintered frame of a shop doorway, her gaze fixed on the ground. Her fingers brushed away a layer of wind-blown grit and dried leaves, revealing the faint but unmistakable impressions in the soft earth.

"Look," Lena said, pointing to a set of tracks leading deeper into the city. "Someone's been here, and recently."

She stood, following the trail with her eyes. It led deeper into the city, toward what had likely been the commercial district.

Reidar followed the tracks with his eyes. "Based on the tracks, it looks like there aren't many people. But we should investigate. They might have a vendor, and we could use the supplies."

Lena nodded. She couldn't argue. If there was even a chance of finding a vendor, of offloading the excess gear and materials they'd been hauling, it was worth the risk. "Agreed. Let's move out."

They climbed onto Reidar's giant wolves, whose padded paws and sharp noses helped them move quietly and avoid monsters.

The wolves sensed danger with uncanny accuracy and great skills, guiding them through the wrecked streets with an awareness that kept them clear of threats, although it wasn't that easy to avoid so many monsters.

The tracks led them past a collapsed apartment building, then through a park where trees had grown to impossible heights, then past a school where the playground equipment sat buried under the vegetation.

The trail turned down a side street. Ahead, a diner sat wedged between two larger buildings. Its sign still hung, though most of the letters had fallen away. What remained read "L's Di r."

The structure had fared better than most. The front windows were boarded up. The door hung askew on half broken hinges. But the roof remained intact, and the walls stood solid.

Vines covered most of the exterior, turning the diner into a green cocoon. But someone had cleared the entrance recently. The boards showed fresh marks.

Reidar dismounted, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. He motioned for Lena to stay alert as he approached the diner.

"The trail leads inside."

Reidar paused at the door, listening. A faint rustle came from inside. Something was moving. He glanced at Lena. She gave a nod and gripped her daggers tighter.

Reidar pushed the door open, the hinges creaking loudly in the silence.

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