The previous night had been a unique form of torture. John had learned that there were few things more stressful than being forced to relax. Doug's suggestion to play board games had been, on the surface, a good one. A chance to decompress, to pretend for a few hours that they were just normal people and not traumatised survivors scrabbling for purchase in a world gone mad. But for John, it had been a high-wire act over a pit of social anxiety and systemic judgment.

The Aura system, he'd discovered, had very specific opinions on board games. Losing was, predictably, uncool. But trying too hard was even worse. To gain Aura, he couldn't just win; he had to win effortlessly. He had to project an air of casual indifference, of innate superiority, as if victory was simply the natural outcome of his existence and not the result of careful, calculated strategy. It was exhausting.

During their game of 'Scythe', every move he made was a performance. He had to calculate the optimal play while simultaneously affecting a posture of mild boredom. He'd lean back, feign a yawn, and then place his piece on the exact space that would box Lily in or cut off Doug's resource production, all while pretending he'd barely been paying attention. The mental gymnastics required to maintain this charade were more draining than any physical fight he'd been in. He won, of course. He had to. But the +1000 Aura he received felt like scant compensation for the sheer stress of it all.

It only occurred to him later that he could have dismissed the games with a declaration that they were too childish, or too easy, or something like that. He wanted to bash his head against the nearest wall, but held back.

He was almost giddy with relief when the last game was packed away and the conversation shifted back to the grim reality of their situation. Talking about portals and monsters and strategy was, paradoxically, far more relaxing. It was a problem he could solve with overwhelming force, not delicate social manoeuvring. When he'd suggested they hit the Sainsbury's portal to blow off some steam, it had been a genuine expression of his own need for a simpler, more violent form of release. They had all agreed, the decision settling over the group with a sense of grim purpose.

Thus, he felt an odd kind of solace when the inky blackness of the singularity far in the distance above central London finally faded like it had been washed away. The thin, shadowy veil it cast upon the burning sky thinned and then vanished entirely, allowing the angry, perpetual daylight to bleed back into the world in all its glory, sharpening edges and casting long, distorted shadows from the skeletal remains of suburban homes. It was morning, or what passed for it now.

They moved out minutes later, slipping from the relative sanctuary of the ruined community centre like ghosts into a graveyard. The air was still and heavy, carrying the familiar scents of dust, rot, and the faint, metallic tang of old blood that seemed to have permanently stained the world at this point.

They walked in a loose diamond formation, a practice they'd adopted without discussion. Doug was at the point, his bare feet still making an unnervingly small amount of noise on the cracked pavement. Lily and Chester flanked him, Jade a step behind, while John, by his own preference, took up the rear. It gave him a clear view of everyone, a vantage point from which to observe and assess.

Up in the air, soaring high above the town, the destruction had been an abstract concept, a map of ruin. Down here, on the ground, it was a suffocating, visceral reality. Every house was a unique tragedy.

Here, a child's bicycle lay crushed under the collapsed roof of a garage. There, a front door hung ajar, revealing a hallway where family photos still hung crookedly on a wall spattered with something dark and dry. It was the human element that was the most unsettling. While the monsters were undoubtedly responsible for the lion's share of the carnage, their work was chaotic, animalistic.

But John saw other signs, too. Barricades made of hastily piled furniture, shattered windows that looked like they'd been forced from the inside, and the occasional spray of graffiti, desperate messages or crude symbols of defiance. Humans had fought here. Fought each other, probably, as much as they'd fought the invaders.

He watched his comrades for a while, trying to read their postures like a text in a language he'd only just started to learn.

Doug was a rock. The old man moved with a steady, unhurried pace, his head on a slow swivel, his expression grim but resolute. He was the anchor, projecting a confidence that John had to assume was at least partly a performance, but it was a convincing one. It made the rest of them feel steadier just by proximity.

Lily was a coiled spring. She held her crossbow in a low-ready position, her movements economical and precise. Her eyes, however, were in constant motion, flitting from darkened alleyways to shattered second-story windows, cataloguing every potential threat. She was their early warning system, a study in hyper-vigilance. John could almost feel the tension radiating from her, a low hum of readiness that was both reassuring and exhausting to witness.

Chester was a different kind of alert. He was jumpy, a bundle of nervous energy wrapped in a mountain of muscle. Every scrape of debris underfoot made his shoulders hunch, every distant groan of stressed metal made his head whip around. He was trying his best to emulate Lily's watchfulness, but where she was a predator, he was prey, constantly on the verge of bolting. Still, John didn't doubt his resolve. When the fighting started, Chester's fear wouldn't manifest with flight. It hadn't so far.

It was Jade who worried him.

She walked just ahead of him, her armour a stark silver silhouette against the ruined suburban backdrop. But the armour was the only thing projecting strength. Even within the solid metal, it was easy to see her shoulders were slumped, her head bowed. She held her machete, but her grip was loose, the weapon hanging at her side like an afterthought. Her gaze was fixed on the ground a few feet in front of her, her eyes seeming unfocused and vacant whenever he happened to catch a glimpse of them.

She looked completely out of it, a sleepwalker drifting through a nightmare. More than that, she looked scared. Jade's gaze had mostly been flinty and hard in the time John had known her, but there was a haunted vibe to the way she looked at everything, now, as if another scene was being overlaid upon reality.

John found he could relate.

It was a deeply unsettling sight, though, like seeing a statue move, or something. The silent, shared moment of understanding they'd had before she and Chester joined in on the board games felt like a lifetime ago. He still recalled the helpless fury he'd felt when he'd realised he'd gained two new opponents he was going to have to hide how much he was trying to win from.

Whatever comfort she might have drawn from knowing she wasn't alone in her trauma had evidently evaporated, leaving only the raw, gnawing horror. He wanted to say something, to offer some kind of reassurance, but the words wouldn't form. What could he possibly say? 'Don't worry, you get used to the killing?' That was a lie. He wasn't used to it. And even if he were, it wouldn't be a comfort. To her, it would be a damnation.

They walked for what felt like hours, the silence broken only by the crunch of their boots on glass-strewn pavement and the distant, mournful whistle of the wind through hollowed-out buildings. Finally, they reached the edge of a large, open space, and Doug raised a hand, bringing them to a halt.

It was a Sainsbury's. Or, it had been. The massive, boxy structure stood at the far end of a sprawling car park, an island of eerie preservation in a sea of residential decay. While the surrounding houses were gutted shells, the supermarket itself was relatively intact. The large plate-glass windows were largely unbroken, and the orange and white branding was still bright and unblemished. But there was something subtly wrong with it. The colours seemed muted, drained, as if a layer of grey cellophane had been stretched over the entire scene. The familiar, mundane sight of the supermarket, a place of weekly chores and aisles lit by fluorescent tubes, was now imbued with a profound sense of menace. It looked like a set from a horror film, a place where ordinary reality had been subtly, dreadfully corrupted.

The impression wasn't helped by the shimmering, translucent green curtain that covered the entire entrance. It warped the view of the automatic doors behind it, making them ripple and sway as if submerged in deep water. It was a portal, just as Doug had said. And as they watched from the cover of a wrecked delivery van, a monster emerged from it.

It was huge, as they typically were, easily the size of a motorcycle, a nightmare of chitin and spindly legs. An insectoid creature, vaguely mantis-like, with a segmented, iridescent carapace and a pair of wickedly barbed forelimbs. It paused for a fraction of a second, its multifaceted eyes swivelling, before it scuttled out into the car park with a dry, chittering sound that scraped at the nerves. It didn't linger. It raced across the tarmac on six impossibly fast legs and disappeared down a side street. Seconds later, another emerged, identical to the first. Then another. A steady stream of monstrous foot soldiers, spawning into the world and immediately racing off to join the larger war.

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Soul Vision told him they were greens, as expected.

John narrowed his eyes, activating Eagle Eye. His vision zoomed in, piercing the gloom of the supermarket's interior beyond the shimmering portal. The inside was a wreck. Aisles were overturned, shelves stripped bare, the floor littered with smashed jars and trampled goods. It was the same story as everywhere else. But he knew that the state of the building had no bearing on what lay on the other side of that green curtain. Portal worlds operated on their own logic.

He shifted his focus, letting Mana Sense wash over the area. He tracked the newly spawned monsters, their mana signatures like angry, buzzing sparks. They were converging with larger waves, great rivers of monstrous energy that were methodically sweeping through the streets. For now, their path wasn't intersecting with the group's. They were a small, insignificant node of life in a grid of death, and for the moment, they were being ignored.

Because we're already doing what the fuckers behind all this want, is it? John thought, fighting off a frown. It must come back to the narrative, surely. Anyone watching the portal would be likely to conclude that the portals were the source of the monsters, and thus gain a motivation to attack them.

The bastards behind this whole thing wanted people to go and fight the portals, that much was obvious. The question of why was still up in the air.

"Well," Doug said, his voice a low rumble. The group had been quiet for a while, and so his voice gave John a little shock he hoped no one noticed. "There it is. Ugly, ain't it?"

"They just keep coming," Lily murmured, her knuckles white on the stock of her crossbow. "We never saw them coming out of the portals like this before…"

"Maybe they'll stop if we get closer," Chester said, his voice tight. "We've never watched a portal from this far away, right?"

Doug nodded. "You're not wrong, lad. We already guessed that the portals are where they come from. This is confirmation."

Chester let out a long sigh. "Why's this place so big, anyway? Who needs a shop longer than a damn street?"

"I've seen bigger Walmarts," Lily said with a shrug. Then she pursed her lips. "Do y'all think the portal world will be huge, too?"

Doug hummed in thought. "The portal worlds have generally reflected their location, so far. Seems likely to me that we're going to find ourselves in a horror parody supermarket staffed by monsters."

"Probably," John agreed slowly, tentatively. It hadn't been that long since he'd been separated from the group, but he still felt awkward.

"I wonder if there'll be actually useful products on the shelves in there to loot, or if it'll all be junk," Lily mused.

"Daniel said greens drop loot in portals, right?" Chester pointed out.

"Good point." Doug nodded, crossing his arms. "So Lily's prediction could actually come true, in there. We might be relying a lot on that Inventory of yours if there's good shit on the shelves, John."

"I wouldn't call it a prediction," Lily muttered.

The last thing John wanted to do right now was think about his Inventory. "Doesn't matter," he said, his voice flat. He kept his gaze locked on the portal. "Only thing we need to worry about is our strategy."

"So, what's the plan?" Doug asked, looking at him. "If this little merry band has any leader, it's going to be you, after all. Only common sense that the team should revolve around it's strongest member."

John almost flinched at the title. He didn't feel like a leader. He felt like a fraud who was barely holding himself together. But he couldn't show that. He had to be cool. Decisive.

"Plan's simple," he said, forcing a confidence he didn't feel into his tone. "We basically do what we were doing before. I go in first. Draw aggro, see what we're dealing with. You lot follow a few seconds behind. Lily, you hang back, pick off anything that gets past me. Doug, Chester, you're on crowd control. Keep the smaller ones off my back while I deal with whatever the biggest threat is. Jade…" He looked at her. She was still staring at the supermarket, her eyes wide and hollow. She didn't seem to have heard a word he'd said. "Jade, you stick with Doug and Chester. Provide support."

It was the best he could do. Trying to get more elaborate was pointless. Plans never survived contact with the enemy. This was about setting a basic strategy and trusting everyone to adapt.

Jade finally blinked, her gaze slowly moving from the portal to him. She gave a jerky, barely perceptible nod. She didn't speak.

"Alright," Doug said, clapping a hand on Chester's shoulder, making the big man jump. "Simple is good. Simple works."

John took a deep breath, the dusty air scraping his lungs. He did a final mental check of his own abilities, his gear. He was as ready as he was ever going to be.

"Everyone good?" he asked, his gaze sweeping over each of them.

He received a series of grim nods. Lily nocked a bolt. Chester cracked his knuckles. Doug spat on the ground. Only Jade remained still, a statue of medieval armour and silent dread.

"Right then," John said, stepping out from behind the van. "Let's go shopping."

They moved across the car park in a tight formation, their footsteps echoing in the vast, empty space, mixing with the chittering of the insects spawning from the portal. The green light of the portal pulsed, casting a sickly, alien glow across the tiled entrance. With every step, the mundane familiarity of the supermarket faded, replaced by the otherworldly promise of the violence that lay beyond the shimmering curtain. John's heart pounded a heavy, steady rhythm in his chest, a war drum counting down to the moment of impact. He fixed his eyes on the rippling green light.

Despite his sudden move, he didn't rush. He was well-versed in being cautious while looking like he was treating everything with casual indifference, so he was easily able to mask his alert approach by sticking his hands in his pockets and ambling along like the idea of delving into a green portal was nothing to him. He even got his sunglasses out of his inventory so no one could see his eyes darting all over the place.

+400 Aura

John had been expecting the others to form up behind him in their usual formation after his declaration that he'd take the lead, so he was taken quite off guard when Lily appeared at his side, leaning forward to look at his face.

"So, how are you gonna play this?" she asked him, green eyes shining. "I bet you've got a ton of new powers to show off."

John glanced over his shoulder. Chester, Jade, and Doug were following behind them, all in a line. When Doug noticed John looking at him, he gave a wide grin.

"I've unlocked a few," John said slowly, turning his attention back to Lily. Much as he dreaded social interaction even without the system in play, he had no idea how to gracefully exit the conversation she clearly wanted to start. Could he just keep his replies succinct until she gave up? Fall back into the aloof and mysterious archetype? Point out something behind her as a diversion then teleport away?

"Heh, well, I've got some new stuff too. Hate them all, obviously, but they pack a punch, and I can admit it does make me look pretty badass, if I look at this all objectively."

John stared at her for a moment. He really didn't understand what she wanted from him, here. "Oh?"

She smirked. "Well, I don't want to spoil the surprise. You'll have to see my new moves for yourself!"

What the hell is happening? Why's she trying to engage me like this all of a sudden? Is she looking for me to praise her, or something? Does she want affirmation from me because I'm the strongest here?

"I'll look forward to it?" John's reply came out halfway between a statement and a question, which seemed awfully lame to him, but somehow didn't merit a punishment. He found himself hyperaware of her presence, walking so close to him, hands behind her back, her gaze refusing to stray from his face. He felt transfixed and baffled in equal measure.

"Dang right you will." She winked at him. Winked! "You've spent so much time wowing the rest of us, now it's your turn to be impressed."

John had gone so far beyond confused at this point that his mind had reset itself into a strange sense of calm. Whatever was happening in this conversation, whatever she wanted, he at least knew that he couldn't let a comment like that go unchallenged. The system demanded it.

Turning his gaze back to the supermarket, he declared, "You haven't seen anything yet."

+400 Aura

Lily giggled softly. "I bet."

Mercifully, she let the matter drop as they got closer to the portal.

The monsters exiting the portal had paid no attention to their group as they approached. When they got within twenty metres or so, the steady trickle of giant insects abruptly cut off, and those that were still in view rushed away at far greater speed than they'd been moving before, making not even the slightest attempt to move towards the humans.

A sense of anticipation started building in John as he got closer and closer. By the time he was in touching distance of the portal, he was practically vibrating with the need to bring out one of his Spells and tear a deserving enemy apart. Only a vague sense of decorum kept him from charging ahead.

Instead, he checked over his shoulder to make sure everyone was ready. No words were exchanged. Again, they weren't needed. Doug gave him a resolute nod. Jade stared into his eyes with that haunted gaze of hers, and he somehow knew she was as ready as she'd ever be. Lily gave him a thumbs up and a wide smile he didn't know how to interpret. Chester was last to give his approval, of course, but he eventually gave a shaky nod of his own.

John wasted no more time, striding straight in.

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