Chapter 53: The Cost of Absence

Julian didn't answer right away. Michael's question hung in the stale air of the break room, sharper than anything the monsters outside had thrown at them so far. “What do you mean, the others?” still echoed between them, unresolved, before Michael narrowed it down. “When did you actually separate from the others?”

Julian exhaled, lowering himself onto an overturned chair, his spear propped against his knee. His summon settled into the corner of the room, folding its unstable, half-formed limbs beneath it like a dog obeying an unspoken command. “We rescued a group of students and lecturers,” Julian began, his eyes fixed on some point past Michael's shoulder, as if replaying the memory behind them. “During that, I hit Level 3. I split off from the group afterward, because I figured I'd move faster alone.” He rubbed at the dried blood crusted along his forearm. “I spent a while after that searching for survivors by myself. Once I'd gathered fifteen of them, I sent them back to the others at the Audimax.” He paused, and something shifted behind his eyes — not quite pride, not quite regret. “And then... I was already Level 5. I had my class, I had my skill. That's when I felt confident enough to go out here alone.”

Michael's gaze didn't waver. He had already run the timeline forward in his head three times before Julian finished speaking, and each version arrived at the same conclusion. “You never went back to the Audimax.” It wasn't a question. “Which means you don't know what happened there.” He tilted his head slightly. “But why are you out here at all? Did you get news — from outside?”

Julian's jaw tightened. For a moment the exhaustion on his face gave way to something rawer. “...Yeah. My parents. And my little sister.” He swallowed. “My sister's in the Juridicum, the law faculty. She barricaded herself in the shelter there with some others.” His hand curled tighter around the spear's haft. “I have to get to her. I have to get her out. After that, I need to find my parents — I haven't heard anything from them at all.” He shook his head, as if trying to physically dislodge the thought, and looked back up at Michael. “Wait — what did you mean, I don't know what happened there? What happened? Is everyone okay?”

Michael held the pause a second longer than necessary, the way he always did when he was deciding how much weight a piece of information could bear before delivering it. “Oh. So you really don't know,” he said, more to himself than to Julian. “Here's what happened. The portals became active again after a while. That lecture hall we cleared out — the one our group was holding — got overrun again.” His voice stayed level, but his eyes didn't leave Julian's face. “Some people died. But in the end, they held it and we cleared it again.” He shifted his weight against the desk behind him. “After that, once the survivors started getting real information about the situation outside, things got ugly. A serious argument broke out. In the end, most of them just ran — trying to reach their own families.” He gestured vaguely toward the shattered windows, toward the city beyond them. “So they should still be out here somewhere, most likely scattered. That's probably also why there haven't been as many monsters on the streets as you'd expect.”

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Julian's face drained of what little color it had left. “Oh my god... that can't be true.” His voice cracked. “They won't survive out there. Not like this, not alone.”

“Whether they survived or not, I couldn't tell you,” Michael said, and for once there was something almost careful in how he said it. “But I kept hearing screaming, on and off, from different directions. And I saw monsters break off and run toward wherever the screaming was coming from. There were also some monster corpses here and there.” He let that sit for a moment. “It's entirely possible that was them. If it was — that's probably the only reason we're still alive. Every monster chasing a scream somewhere else is one less monster looking for us.”

Julian pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes for a moment before dropping it. “Which direction were they headed?” His voice had steadied, but only barely, forced into something more practical, more useful than panic. “If any of them went toward the Juridicum, we could catch up to them. Fold them in with us. That would take a massive weight off what we're carrying alone.”

Michael shook his head slowly. “I have no idea. From what I saw, they weren't moving as one group — it looked like everyone wanted to go a different direction.” He crossed his arms. “My guess is they splintered. Small clusters, maybe pairs, all heading toward wherever each of their families are.”

Julian nodded slowly, something settling into place behind his expression — not certainty, but a decision. “Okay. Then I'm heading toward the Juridicum. I'll keep an eye out along the way — if I spot any of them, I'll pull them in, and we stick together until we reach the building.” He tightened his grip on the spear. “Once I've got my sister, I keep moving toward my parents' place.” He glanced up. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

Michael was drawing a map in his mind and traced the route before answering. “As I remember, the Juridicum's roughly on the way for me too. I can come with you that far. But I need to move fast — I can't afford to fight my way across all of Vienna on foot.” His eyes met Julian's. “I'll stay with you until I find a way to get a vehicle. After that, I'm not slowing down any longer.”

“Okay, then let's head out together and find a car first,” Julian said, some of the tension easing out of his shoulders now that there was a shape to the plan. “After that we head for the Juridicum, and keep watching for the others on the way.” He managed something close to a smile. “Now that there's two of us — three, counting my summon — we should be able to cover a much longer stretch by car than either of us could manage alone.”

Michael considered it for a moment, running through the variables one more time, then gave a short nod. “Okay.” He pulled up his status window out of habit, more a reflex at this point than a necessity, and something in the readout caught his attention. His mana pool had filled back up to its cap during the rest. A faint, humorless smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Perfect timing. I'm back to full strength.” He rolled his shoulder, testing the reset tension in the muscle. “We can move out.”

“Alright then,” Julian said, pushing himself up off the chair, retrieving his spear, his summon rising silently behind him. “Let's go.”

Thirty minutes. That was all the rest the city had allowed them. Thirty minutes of stale air, quiet voices, and a status window ticking back up to full. It would have to be enough. Michael was already moving toward the shattered doors before the thought had fully finished forming, Julian and the flickering shape of his summon falling into step behind him, and together the three of them stepped back out into whatever was left of the fight.