I let go of Aisha and turned toward the tunnel ahead. Tapping James gently on the back, I gestured toward the Tommy gun in his hands.
"Hey, James, hand that back," I said.
"Here you go. Thanks, Eirene," James replied, passing the heavy weapon over to me.
I nodded, activating my inventory ring. The ring flared with a faint light, sucking the firearm smoothly into dimensional storage. Next, I glanced toward Aisha and held out my left hand for the other Tommy gun.
"Can... can I keep it?" Aisha pleaded softly, clutching the warm metal frame. "Just in case?"
"No," I refused flatly, pulling the weapon from her grasp and storing it inside the inventory ring as well. "I need my reserves managed."
As I adjusted my canvas cloak, a delicate hand patted my back. I turned to see Catherine leaning weakly against Patricia's side.
"Hey, Eirene... thank you for saving me," Catherine whispered, her pale face showing genuine gratitude.
"Don't thank me yet," I replied coldly. "Save your breath until we're outside."
Patricia gave me a solemn bow of her head, her blue eyes filled with quiet respect.
"Regardless, you've led us through the dark when we were hopelessly lost. You have my thanks as well, Eirene."
"Just keep moving," I said, turning away before she could say anything more.
Following the sequence… left, left, right, right, left… we waded through the final stretch of the main drainage stream. Up ahead, the damp tunnel ended at a massive iron culvert. The thick security bars that once blocked the exit were completely gone, sheared and bent open from when I destroyed them during my prison escape a year ago.
We stepped out into the crisp air at the edge of the outer ravine. Looking up through the opening, the scorching mid-day sun had finally set. Twilight had faded, plunging the world into the dark safety of night.
I looked back at the exhausted group of survivors behind me.
"Guys," I said, stepping out into the open air. "Let's go."
We emerged from the ravine and stepped into the sprawling, open grasslands. The cool night wind rustled through the tall grass, a stark and welcoming contrast to the suffocating stench of the sewers. Looking back, the silhouetted skyline of Lulu City was framed by rising plumes of smoke, and I knew for a fact that the plague had breached the walls, leaking out toward the rest of the continent.
Aisha let her fire spell fizzle out into sparks, the darkness swallows us as we navigated the dirt crossroads toward Caria City. We were all holding onto the faint hope of running into a military rescue unit or a fortified border patrol.
Chris paused, turning his head to look back at the distant, ruined city.
"It's completely gone... everything we knew."
Catherine shifted slightly, leaning a bit of her weight off Patricia to pat my back.
"Hey, Eirene... can't you just unroll those crystallized wings of yours and fly us to safety instead of searching on foot?"
"I can fly," I said, shaking my head, "but doing what you're asking is nearly impossible."
I explained the brutal reality to her. Even though my physical stats and magical reserves far surpassed everyone here combined, raw stats couldn't completely bypass the laws of physics. Carrying nine people through the air was out of the question. Even trying to haul a ground vehicle like a wagon would create massive aerodynamic drag… the boxy frame and wheels would catch the wind like a giant parachute. A heavy, dangling weight shifting violently beneath me in mid-air would completely ruin my flight balance and stability. The energy demands to overcome that continuous drag would drain even my massive stamina in minutes.
"At best, I can carry one person on my back for a long distance, so staying on foot and finding an actual transport or rescue team is our best option." I added.
Before Catherine could respond, a terrified screech echoed down the crossroads from around a bend in the tree line.
"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!"
A heavy wooden merchant wagon came rattling into view, its panicked horses galloping wildly down the dirt road. Perched on the driver's bench was a frantic merchant, desperately whipping the reins. Snapping at the wooden wheels and sprinting right alongside the horses was a relentless horde of a dozen calcified thralls, their bone blades scraping against the wagon's iron rims.
I didn't hesitate. I unclasped my canvas cloak, unhooked the *Death Chant* shotgun from my chest, and racked the heavy slide back with a sharp, lethal CLACK.
BOOM!
The Death Chant shotgun thundered in my grip, sending a spray of magical lead straight through the chest of the lead thrall. It crumpled instantly into the dirt, its calcified remains crushed beneath the wagon's heavy rear wheel.
The reason I had reclaimed the enchanted Tommy guns from James and Aisha earlier was simple: both of them were practically running on empty, their mana pools drained from fighting through the city and the sewers. Handing high-yield spell-firearms back to mages with exhausted reserves was a liability… if they ran out of mana mid-fight, the weapons would become dead weight. It was safer for me to handle the heavy offense while my mana was high.
BOOM!
I fired again, obliterating a second thrall as it tried to leap for the horses' reins.
The driver hauled back on the ropes, bringing the wagon to a screeching, dust-swirling halt right in front of our group.
"Everyone, get inside! Now!" I barked to Patricia, Chris, and the rest.
The terrified merchant waved his hands frantically from the driver's bench. "Hey! What are you doing?! You can't just climb into my cart! It's already overloaded!"
I stepped up, slinging my shotgun over my shoulder and grabbing the wooden railing to haul myself onto the back platform. My eyes locked onto him with absolute authority.
"Drive us to Caria City and don't you dare stop, I will handle defending this wagon. Getting us out of this nightmare is your only reliable choice if you want to see tomorrow. Do you hear me?!" I commanded cold-bloodedly.
The merchant swallowed hard, terrified by my tone, and gave a frantic nod.
"A-agreed! Just keep those things off my horses!"
He cracked his whip over the horses' backs, and the wagon surged forward down the moonlit dirt road. Patricia, Keith, Chris carrying Lukreia, Aisha, James, Keane, and the frail Catherine all scrambled over the wooden tailboards, collapsing onto the hay bales inside.
As the cart picked up speed, two remaining thralls sprinted out from the treeline, clawing at the wooden sideboards.
BOOM!
BOOM!
I fired two point-blank shots into their skulls, dropping their lifeless bodies onto the dusty road behind us.
The sound of shrieking monsters faded into the night air as the wagon thundered further along the crossroads, leaving the ruined, infected skyline of Lulu City far behind. For the first time since the outbreak began, we were safe, hurtling toward the high walls of Caria City.