Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday

Silence settled over the apartment as everyone absorbed the weight of their situation.

The military’s actions in Mapleton weren’t just about gathering survivors - they were selectively taking people based on their strength, abilities, powers, and potential usefulness.

This was a hunt.

And if they were searching for people with power, it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention toward Sunspire City.

Rune crossed his arms. "Then we need to move soon."

Grace nodded. "We’ll rest here for a few hours, wait for nightfall. Then, we head for the restricted zone."

She exhaled sharply, rubbing her temples. They couldn’t waste any more time.

"We leave at night," she repeated. "We’ll be less noticeable, and with the military distracted by their search operations, it should be easier to slip through the city."

Kevin frowned. "Are we sure about this? We already got too much unwanted attention. What if the restricted zone is even worse?"

She met his gaze, unwavering. "It might be. But we don’t have a choice. Something’s happening there, and I don’t want to wait until it reaches Greenstone."

Her words left no room for argument. And Kevin didn’t question her decision. He trusted her judgment.

Silas leaned against the wall and crossed his arms across his chest. "We will need to be careful. If the military is tracking individuals with strong superpowers, they will have ways of detecting energy fluctuations. We can’t afford to stand out."

"I can handle that," Rune said. "I’ll suppress our energy signatures before we move." Continue your adventure at NovelBin.Côm

Davian nodded approvingly. "Then let’s rest while we can. We’ll need full strength for whatever’s ahead."

With that, they settled in for a few hours of rest.

Grace remained by the window, watching the city. The military had left the immediate area, but she knew they weren’t far. Helicopters still passed overhead every now and then, their searchlights scanning the ruins.

They weren’t giving up.

And that made her all the more certain that they needed to get to the restricted zone as soon as possible.

* * *

The moment darkness fell over the outside world, Grace and her team prepared to move.

Rune immediately wrapped them in a thin veil of suppressed energy. This made their presence undetectable - not just to the infected but to any scanning devices the military might be using.

Davian tested his magic, sending out a faint pulse. The energy barely rippled, blending into the environment. "It’s working."

"Good," Grace said. "Let’s go."

They slipped out of the apartment and into the cold night.

The city was eerily quiet. The infected were still present, lurking in alleyways and abandoned streets, but they were slow and inactive in the frigid temperatures.

For once, these creatures weren’t the real threat... the military was.

They moved carefully, keeping to the shadows as they navigated the ruins. Every so often, a helicopter would pass overhead, forcing them to duck into cover until it moved on.

Because of the military’s presence, they were unable to use vehicles. Hence they could only walk to the restricted zone. But every now and then, Grace used teleportation to cover long distances.

An hour passed, and they finally reached the city’s outskirts, where the landscape shifted from ruined buildings to desolate roads leading toward the restricted zone.

"We are clear," Nina whispered.

Grace nodded but didn’t relax. They had only completed one part of the journey. The real challenge was still ahead.

"We keep moving," she said. "No stops until we reach the restricted zone."

The team pushed forward into the darkness, heading toward the unknown.

---

By the time they neared the restricted zone, the temperature had dropped further, making the air thick with frost.

The land here was different.

There was no sign of snow. The roads were cracked with deep fissures, steam rising from underground vents. Strange, mutated plant life twisted through the ruins, their leaves glowing faintly in the darkness.

The energy here was wrong.

Grace felt it the moment they stepped past the threshold marking the restricted area. A heavy, pulsing force settled over her body, as if the air itself was alive.

"Do you feel that?" Maven asked, his voice tense.

"Yeah," Silas muttered. "It’s like the land is breathing."

Grace connected to 2025. "Analysis."

The little creature responded instantly.

"Energy levels abnormal. Unstable elemental activity detected. Potential cause: Unidentified source of Spirit Stone radiation."

Kevin narrowed his eyes. "Spirit Stone radiation?"

"Something here is changing," Grace murmured. "This wasn’t happening before."

From what she learned from 2025, this place was a normal place up until rain disaster, and only after a few months of the flooding did the military barricaded it and put on a restricted board.

And they needed to find out why.

The deeper they traveled into the area, the stranger everything became.

The roads were no longer just cracked - they were torn apart as if something massive had ripped through them. Jagged fissures lined the earth, steaming with residual heat. Trees were twisted and mutated beyond recognition, standing like grotesque sentinels, their leaves glowing faintly under the night sky.

The air itself was heavy.

Each step forward felt like walking through unseen resistance, the energy pressing down on them from all directions. It wasn’t suffocating, but it was wrong.

Grace clenched her fists as she felt the pulsing energy vibrating through the ground.

"We are getting close to something," she muttered.

Rune exhaled sharply, his icy-blue eyes scanning the surroundings. "Yeah, I can feel it too. The magic here is... unstable."

Davian adjusted the grip on his weapon. "Not just unstable. It’s concentrated. Whatever’s causing this is big."

"Any updates, 2025?" Grace asked.

"Energy readings are off the charts. Analyzing source…"

The little creature took a few moments before displaying a three-dimensional map in front of them. A large red pulse glowed from a location just ahead.

[Detected: Unidentified high-level Spirit Stone energy. Estimated location - one kilometer northeast.]

Kevin let out a low whistle. "That’s gotta be the strongest Spirit Stone we have ever seen."

Aleena shifted uneasily. "And if something that powerful is just sitting there, why hasn’t it been claimed yet?"