Chapter 288: Evacuation Point

"Gideon!" Jade shouted the moment Gideon’s body was swallowed by the hive mind.

She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, calming herself down.

Gideon is strong, he should be able to come out the illusion the way she did. She was sure of it and he promised he would defeat the hive mind.

So she opened her eyes again and noticed something. The Hive Mind did not attack her immediately after swallowing Gideon.

Jade stood frozen for a moment, staring at the enormous mass of white tissue that continued moving through the ruins of Climber Rift. Its surface rippled and contracted, sending countless strands across the broken structures. Some reached for the remaining platforms while others dragged pieces of buildings into its expanding body.

They were smart enough to attack her and Killian before just to make Gideon draw back.

"So you already get what you wanted, huh?" she murmured.

Jade tightened her grip around the teleportation scroll Gideon had given her. She could still remember his expression when he told her to leave. That annoying man had looked perfectly calm, as though asking someone to abandon a battlefield while he walked straight into the monster was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

She clenched her jaw. "You’d better survive, Gideon or I will follow you to the afterlife and kill you."

The scroll rested in her palm, its markings glowing faintly. Gideon had told her it would take her to the evacuation point, but he hadn’t exactly provided a detailed instruction manual. She turned it over, examining the symbols along its edges.

"How am I supposed to use this thing?"

There was no button, no obvious mechanism, and certainly no helpful voice explaining what to do. She tried pressing her thumb against one of the markings, but nothing happened.

Jade frowned. "Seriously?"

She remembered Kilian being able to use that by opening the scroll and maybe remembering the destination?. Was that all? She wasn’t sure. But she hoped she wasn’t wrong either. She needs to alert the civilians that were able to evacuate.

Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the evacuation point. The open area beyond the settlement gate, the temporary shelters, the people who had been gathered there while the others fought to keep Climber Rift from being swallowed.

She focused on that place and opened the scroll. The markings on the scroll suddenly brightened. A familiar sensation of energy gathered around her body, followed by a sharp pull that made the world tilt. Jade barely had time to steady herself before the ruins disappeared.

The next moment, her boots touched solid ground.

Voices erupted around her.

"Jade?!"

"Pathmadre!"

"She’s back!"

Several people turned at once. For a brief moment, nobody seemed certain whether they were seeing her or another trick created by the Hive Mind. Then one of the surviving Freebound members rushed forward, his expression changing from disbelief to unmistakable relief.

"You’re alive!"

Jade blinked before looking around.

The evacuation point was crowded. Civilians stood close together beneath the temporary shelters, while the surviving Freebound and Pathfinder members were scattered among them. Some were sitting on the ground, others were tending to the injured, and a few had gathered near the entrance to watch for anyone returning from the settlement.

There were far more people here than she had expected to see after everything that had happened.

"Of course I’m alive," she replied, trying to sound more composed than she felt. "Did you think I would let that thing eat me?"

A few people laughed. It was brief and nervous, but the sound eased something in her chest.

One of the older residents approached her, his face still pale with exhaustion. "We thought you were gone."

Jade looked at him and recognized him as one of the residents who had helped maintain the western platforms. His clothes were dusty, and there was a bandage wrapped around his forearm.

"Well, I’m not that easy to get rid of." She glanced at his arm. "Are you hurt?"

"It’s nothing serious."

"Then let someone check it anyway. I don’t want you collapsing halfway through the next evacuation."

The man nodded, though his expression remained troubled.

"The next evacuation? Do we need to move?" one of her men asked.

She took a slow breath and answered, "I won’t lie to you. Climber Rift has suffered extensive damage, and I don’t know how much of it can be recovered. We may not be able to return anytime soon."

A few people lowered their heads.

"But that doesn’t mean we’re finished." Her voice grew firmer. "We still have each other, and as long as we’re alive, we can rebuild. It won’t be easy, and I’m not going to promise that everything will return to the way it was. But we’ll find somewhere safe and figure out what comes next."

She paused, looking at the familiar faces.

"For now, we’re moving to Cinder of Dusk military containment camp. They have medical facilities, personnel who can examine the injured, and proper security. We need to get everyone there before the situation gets any worse."

One of the Freebound members raised his hand. "What about the people who are still missing?"

Jade’s expression tightened slightly. "We’ll find out what happened to them once everyone is safe. I won’t abandon anyone we still have a chance of bringing back."

She deliberately avoided looking toward the ruined settlement and glad the hive mind movement was slower than she thought it would be.

"Start organizing everyone," Jade instructed. "Keep the injured together, and make sure the children stay with their families. Nobody wanders off alone. We’ll move now."

She had barely finished speaking when a deep vibration travelled through the ground.

Jade turned toward the settlement gate and thankfully the evacuation point was a bit far from it. At first, she thought it was another collapse. Then she saw the white mass moving beyond the distant structures.

The Hive Mind was approaching, slowly.

Its countless strands dragged across the broken platforms, pulling its enormous body forward. The structures in its path trembled before being swallowed beneath the spreading tissue. It was moving toward the gate, and judging by its speed, the barrier wouldn’t hold for long.

"Everyone, stay calm!" Jade shouted.

A heavy impact shook the evacuation point. The gate bent inward.

Several people screamed, and the Freebound members immediately reached for their weapons. Jade stepped forward, her eyes fixed on the approaching mass. She could feel the abnormal concentration of energy beneath its surface, though the sheer size of the creature made it difficult to distinguish anything clearly.

"Damn it. It really tries to get out and reach us."

The second impact was stronger. Metal groaned. The gate’s supporting structure cracked, and white strands began forcing their way through the gaps.

Jade turned toward the survivors. "Listen to me! We are leaving now. Don’t waste time collecting your belongings. Take the injured first, keep the children close, and follow the freebound members. If someone falls behind, help them up, but don’t stop moving!"

The people began to stir. Fear threatened to turn the crowd into a panic, but the surviving Freebound and Pathfinder members moved quickly to help organize them.

Jade was about to give another order when she heard engines. Several vehicles appeared in the distance, approaching along the route leading away from the evacuation point. Military trucks came first, followed by the distinctive vehicles used by Freebound personnel.

For a moment, Jade simply stared. Then she recognized the man standing near the lead vehicle.

"Kilian! Thank God!"

He spotted her almost immediately.

"Jade!"

Kilian jumped down as the vehicles slowed, followed by several reinforcements. He looked exhausted, and there was dust covering his clothes, but he was moving without any obvious difficulty.

Jade hurried toward him. "Where the hell have you been? I thought Gideon told you to take care of the civilians that are able to evacuate!’

Kilian gave her a brief look. "Nice to see you too. But right now, we need to move fast."

His expression quickly became serious as he looked beyond her. The white mass was already forcing its way through the damaged gate, and its strands were spreading across the ground.

"How many people?"

"Approximately fifteen hundred. We need to move all of them." one of the freebound members behind Jade answered.

His eyes widened slightly. "That’s more than I expected."

"Then stop standing there and help me."

Kilian immediately turned toward his men and began issuing orders. The reinforcements spread out, guiding civilians toward the waiting trucks while the surviving Freebound and Pathfinder members helped load the injured and secure the transport arrangements.

Jade joined them, directing people toward the vehicles and checking that nobody had been left behind. She stopped whenever she recognized someone who needed help, occasionally grabbing a bag from an elderly resident or telling a frightened child that everything would be fine.

She couldn’t promise that, of course.But she could at least make sure they didn’t have to face the next few minutes alone.

The gate finally gave way.

A deafening crash echoed through the evacuation point as the remaining structure collapsed. The Hive Mind surged through the opening, spreading across the ground like a living flood. People shouted and hurried toward the vehicles.

"Move! Keep moving!" Jade called.