The journey back from the edge of the Sealed Valley was exhausting.
We didn't take the main roads. Carrying Malva in my arms while running through a war zone was hell on my shoulders, but stopping wasn't an option. The sky above was a bruised, rotting purple, and every few hundred yards, the pressure in the air spiked hard enough to rattle my teeth.
Roan set the pace ahead of us, picking the route through the outer streets. He knew the layout of the commercial areas better than anyone, cutting through alleys, behind broken shops, and past smashed street lamps to avoid the main monster paths.
Elisabeth stayed on my left side, her violet eyes scanning the fog. Her blood power pulsed quietly around her hands whenever a stray beast moved in the shadows. We ran into several Grade 3 and Grade 4 beasts along the way, and even two massive Grade 5 armored beasts that burst out of a cafe wall.
