Chapter 171: The City Changes

The Ashcroft Family entered Marvello expecting to find a city in chaos. They had prepared themselves for burning buildings, frightened civilians, and Awakeners fighting wherever panic had taken hold. After everything they had learned about the Black Moon, none of that surprised them.

What Reinhard hadn’t expected was how quickly the people themselves would become part of the disaster.

A family rushed past them carrying bags and a crying child. Farther ahead, a woman dragged an injured man away from a burning vehicle while several people argued around her.

Lily looked at the fleeing civilians. "They’re escaping! We should help them!"

Reinhard’s Enhanced Danger Intuition warned him that something was wrong just before his Advanced Mana Perception detected an approaching man.

"Wait," he said.

A bloodied man stumbled between two buildings and sprinted toward them, glancing over his shoulder. "HELP ME! THEY’RE TRYING TO KILL ME!"

A crowd came rushing after him, shouting accusations. Some claimed he had stabbed a man, while he insisted he had merely picked up the knife after finding the victim injured. Their voices collided across the street until nobody could hear anything clearly.

Emily looked between the man and his pursuers. "What’s happening?"

Reinhard didn’t answer immediately. His perception had already spread through the surrounding area, and what he discovered was more disturbing than an ordinary riot.

The crowd was genuinely afraid. The man was genuinely afraid, too. Neither side was pretending, yet both believed the other was trying to kill them.

The Black Moon was twisting everything. Fear became paranoia, suspicion became certainty, and anger turned into violence. Someone trying to protect their family could become convinced that everyone approaching them was an enemy, while someone fleeing danger could look guilty simply because they were terrified.

Reinhard’s gaze hardened. "This isn’t a normal riot."

Emily stepped forward. "I’ll stop them."

He gently caught her wrist. "Don’t attack yet. If you suddenly use Aeon against them, they might think you’re another attacker."

Emily studied the civilians again and understood. Reinhard released her wrist before stepping forward with both hands visible. "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to—"

Someone in the crowd recognized Emily.

"The Ruler!"

Several people turned toward her. "Emily Ashcroft! She came to help us!"

For a moment, the crowd stopped advancing. Then someone pointed at the fleeing man.

"She’s protecting him!"

Another person shouted, "She’s with him!"

The crowd surged again, and Reinhard sighed. "Of course they are."

A gunshot rang through the street. His Enhanced Danger Intuition warned him a fraction of a second before his Mana Perception registered the bullet’s trajectory, allowing him to shift his head as the shot passed his temple and struck the wall behind him.

Emily distorted the space around a second bullet, bending its trajectory away from the crowd until it struck the pavement harmlessly. At the same time, Maki pressed a prepared seal against the ground, creating a translucent Mana barrier that separated the advancing crowd from the civilians behind them. It wasn’t meant to trap anyone, only to give both sides a moment to reconsider their next move.

Yuna stepped forward, her Blazing Dawn Gnosis responding to the sudden surge of movement. "Everyone stay back! We’re trying to help you!"

A man swung a metal pipe at her. Yuna caught his arm, increased gravity around his wrist, and forced him to release the weapon. When he lunged again, she redirected his momentum, turning his charge into a stumble.

The man stared at her in terror. "Stay away from my family!"

Yuna released him and stepped back. "We aren’t here to hurt them."

He grabbed another piece of debris, but Yuna reduced the friction beneath his feet. When he slipped, she caught his shoulder and guided him to the ground without striking him, then moved away before he could mistake her assistance for another attack.

Meanwhile, Lily approached a family hiding beside an overturned vehicle. "Come on! There’s a building over there. Get inside!"

A woman clutched her child tighter. "Are you going to take him?"

Lily froze. "What? No!"

"You’re lying!"

"I’m literally trying to save you!"

The woman backed away, and Lily realized that arguing would only make things worse. She slowly lowered her hands, keeping her spectral swords close to her body instead of pointing them toward the civilians. "Okay. Look at me. I’m not going to touch you. Just follow me when you’re ready."

The child’s crying gradually softened. After several seconds, the woman finally followed.

Nearby, Emily reached the bloodied man. "You’re safe."

"They’re insane!" he exclaimed, looking toward the crowd.

"They’re frightened."

"They’re trying to kill me!"

"I know."

His breathing slowed slightly, but then his eyes locked onto someone behind Emily. "He was with them!"

A young man several meters away froze. "What? I was trying to stop you!"

"You’re lying!"

"I saw you attack that man!"

"I didn’t!"

Reinhard closed his eyes briefly. They had just stopped one fight, and another had already begun.

"This city is going to give me a headache."

Emily glanced at him. "You’re still joking?"

"If I stop joking, I might start complaining."

Despite everything, the corner of her lips lifted.

Then another explosion shook the street, and the family moved deeper into Marvello.

The situation worsened with every block. Ordinary firearms couldn’t seriously threaten Awakeners like Reinhard, Emily, or Yuna, but bullets remained deadly to civilians, and frightened people were firing them without understanding where they were going.

One shot shattered a window, another struck a fleeing civilian in the shoulder, and a third came from a rooftop.

"Roof," Reinhard warned.

Maki activated a seal on the side of a nearby building. A defensive barrier caught the next bullet before it could reach the civilians.

"Left building," Reinhard called.

Emily distorted the space around a man’s firearm, twisting it out of his hands and sending it several meters away. When a damaged storefront released a metal sign toward a group of civilians, Yuna seized control of its momentum and redirected it into an empty section of the road.

"Lily, move!"

Lily jumped aside as a burning vehicle crashed into the street. She rose quickly and sent three spectral swords into its path, striking the damaged frame to divert its remaining momentum away from a family fleeing across the road.

She glanced at Reinhard. "You’re getting really useful."

Reinhard smiled. "I’ve always been useful."

"That’s not what I meant."

"I choose to take it as a compliment."

Their progress depended on Reinhard’s Advanced Mana Perception. He could detect people preparing attacks behind walls, Awakeners gathering Mana, unstable structures, approaching crowds, and hostile abilities before they were released.

"Three people inside the store," he warned.

Maki placed a seal across the entrance, stabilizing the damaged structure while guiding civilians around it.

"Two on the roof."

Emily moved to intercept the attackers before they could fire again.

"Mana gathering ahead."

Yuna changed direction and used electromagnetic manipulation to pull a loose metal railing away from a collapsing walkway, clearing a path for trapped civilians.

"Lily, right."

Lily moved just before a wall collapsed into the street, using her spectral swords to catch several falling pieces long enough for the people beneath them to escape.

For several minutes, the strategy worked.

The Ashcrofts moved through Marvello like a coordinated machine. Reinhard warned them, they reacted, and together they rescued people, prevented unnecessary deaths, and stopped fights before they became massacres.

But Reinhard’s perception continued expanding.

Thirty hostile signatures became seventy.

Seventy became one hundred and fifty, then two hundred. A man prepared to fire from a window while an Awakener charged an ability inside a building. A crowd approached an intersection, a vehicle lost control, and someone screamed for help beneath a pile of debris.

Then more Mana signatures appeared. Dozens at a time.

Reinhard’s expression slowly changed. His ability wasn’t failing. It was showing him too much.

Marvello was becoming one enormous network of danger. He could detect almost everything, but he couldn’t respond to everything.

"Reinhard?" Emily asked.

He remained silent for a moment before answering. "I can’t cover the entire city."

Emily looked at him. It was the first time since becoming S-Rank that she had heard him admit something like that.

Then Reinhard turned toward his family. "But I don’t need to."

He raised his voice. "Yuna, take the eastern street. Maki, keep the intersections open. Lily, get the civilians away from the fighting."

"Got it!" Yuna replied.

"Already moving," Maki confirmed.

Lily nodded. "On it!"

Reinhard turned to Emily. "Stay with me."

She smiled faintly. "I wasn’t planning on leaving you."

The family separated, each taking responsibility for a different part of the rescue.

Yuna moved into the eastern street, where two groups of civilians were approaching each other while shouting accusations. Several people had already raised weapons, and the confrontation threatened to turn violent.

She planted her feet and extended her hand, increasing gravity around the weapons until their owners were forced to lower their arms. She then reduced the momentum of those rushing forward, slowing them without crushing or injuring them.

"Stop moving!" she shouted. "Look around you! You’re not fighting monsters. You’re fighting people who are just as frightened as you are!"

A man ignored her and charged with a raised pipe. Yuna shifted his momentum sideways, making him stumble past her, then caught him before he hit the ground. When another person threw a metal object at her, she pulled it away with electromagnetic force and sent it skidding down an empty alley.

She continued separating the most aggressive people, giving the others room to retreat without feeling cornered.

Maki reached an intersection where a damaged building threatened to collapse across an evacuation route. She placed reinforcement seals on its supporting pillars, stabilizing the structure long enough for civilians to pass. She then secured the road barriers with restriction seals so the fleeing crowd couldn’t accidentally push them into the street.

Lily gathered frightened civilians and guided them toward an intact building. Her spectral swords intercepted loose debris and deflected attacks from nearby Awakeners, but she kept them away from anyone who wasn’t actively threatening the group.

Emily remained beside Reinhard, carefully using Aeon whenever an attack threatened civilians. When several Awakeners blocked their path, she distorted the space around their weapons, making their strikes miss, while Reinhard used Spatial Pull to separate the most dangerous attackers from the crowd.

For the first time, Reinhard wasn’t personally solving every problem. He was trusting the people around him to handle them, and they did.

Eventually, the family reached a district that was still relatively intact. A large group of civilians had gathered inside a reinforced shopping complex, and the Ashcrofts immediately began securing the area. Reinhard checked the surrounding buildings with his perception while Maki sealed several entrances, Yuna cleared dangerous debris from the approach, and Lily helped move injured people inside.

Emily knelt beside a little girl whose arm had been scraped by broken glass. "Does it hurt?"

The girl nodded.

Emily gently cleaned the wound. "Then you’re going to have to be brave for a few seconds."

The girl looked up at her. "Are you really the Ruler?"

Emily smiled. "Yes."

"Are you going to save us?"

Emily glanced toward the burning city before looking back at the girl. "We’re going to try."

The girl smiled.

For a moment, the Ashcrofts could breathe. Hundreds of civilians were inside, families were reunited, and injured people were receiving help. Lily dropped onto a bench with a tired sigh.

"We actually did it."

Maki checked the seals protecting the entrances. "This district is secure for now."

Yuna lowered her hand. "The immediate threats have been pushed away. We have a little breathing room."

Emily stood and looked through the broken windows at the people they had rescued. "We saved them."

Reinhard looked at her. "Yes."

Then an explosion erupted several streets away.

Everyone turned as a tower of flames rose above the buildings. Another explosion followed, then another. Reinhard’s expression hardened while his perception expanded toward the new disturbances.

One district was safe, but another had erupted into violence. A building collapsed, another caught fire, and powerful Mana signatures appeared around a distant battle.

Lily slowly stood. "But... we just stabilized this area."

Reinhard looked across Marvello. The Black Moon had grown larger, its darkness covering more of the sky than before, while another section of the city erupted into screams.

They had saved one district, but the disaster was consuming another, then another.

For the first time since entering Marvello, Reinhard stopped looking only at the people immediately in front of him and examined the entire city.

He finally understood the problem.

They weren’t making progress. They were only keeping up.

Reinhard’s expression became serious as he watched the fires spreading through the streets.

"We’re losing ground."

Above them, the Black Moon continued to grow.