Chapter 308: Remaining Nine Days

Kai stood inside the Candidate’s blue world with Sera, Lily, Mira, Elden, Raze, and Gabriel. The Candidate waited opposite them.

"We have nine days," Kai said.

"Correct."

He looked at the others. "Then let’s use every one of them."

The Candidate raised his hand, and the blue world dissolved into Mythal, perfect down to the last brick, but not real. The buildings, streets, relay towers, hunters, all of it simulated.

"This simulation will record every casualty," the Candidate said. The group quieted. "Every destroyed structure. Every defensive failure."

"And we can restart?" Kai asked.

"Yes."

Raze grinned. "Then let’s see how badly we mess this one up."

"That’s not exactly encouraging," Sera said.

"I’m being realistic."

Kai laughed. "Let’s begin."

The first Calamity struck, and they ran their existing plan straight through it. The network activated, barriers rose, hunters moved to position. The first passed, causing significant damage. The second came before the city had fully recovered. The third collapsed several districts outright. By the fourth, hunters were abandoning entire sections. The fifth broke communication systems. The sixth finished what remained.

Silence held over the wreckage.

Raze looked around. "...That went badly."

"How many?" Mira asked quietly.

The Candidate raised his hand.

[City Survival: 18%.]

[Hunter Survival: 52%.]

Lily’s expression tightened. "Eighteen percent."

"And almost half the hunters were lost," Elden added.

"That is still better than some historical civilizations," Gabriel said quietly.

Kai looked at the destroyed city. "It isn’t good enough." He pointed at the numbers. "We’re getting those higher."

Lily zoomed in on the northern district. "We’re putting too many hunters here."

"Because that’s where the destruction is worst," Raze said.

"Exactly. We’re throwing hunters into the place already collapsing."

"If we don’t, the people there die."

"Then we shouldn’t wait until the disaster reaches them," Mira said. Everyone turned. "Move them earlier."

"And let the network decide when," Elden added.

"That would keep hunters from making that call while already under pressure," Sera said.

"So we’re retreating before the fight even starts?" Raze asked.

"We’re repositioning," Kai corrected. "There’s a difference."

The next attempt built in early relocation, automatic priority routing, and immediate emergency extraction rather than letting hunters push their luck. The first Calamity hit, and the difference showed immediately, more hunters surviving, less of the city destroyed.

The second landed, and emergency teleportation activated on schedule.

WHOOSH!

A group vanished moments before a building came down on top of them.

"That worked," Mira said, smiling.

The third Calamity trapped a group inside a dead zone the network couldn’t reach.

[City Survival: 24%.]

[Hunter Survival: 59%.]

"Six percent better," Raze said.

"The city improved by six," Elden corrected.

"I was trying to celebrate."

"Celebrate when we hit forty," Kai said.

Lily rewound the footage, studying it closely. "The first impacts aren’t our biggest problem."

"Then what is?" Kai asked.

She pointed at a destroyed road, a collapsed relay, hunters stranded unable to reach another district. "The aftermath."

"The city survives the first disaster," Elden said. "Then its infrastructure fails."

"That creates a chain reaction," Gabriel said. A road destroyed cut communication. Communication loss delayed rescue. Delayed rescue killed hunters. Dead hunters left districts undefended for the next Calamity.

"So we aren’t just preparing for the Calamities," Kai said. "We’re preparing for what each one leaves behind."

"Now we’re thinking correctly," Elden said, smiling.

Gabriel pulled up Nexus’s old designs for temporary mana corridors, routes formed through pure mana rather than physical road. Elden’s eyes brightened. "Then we can connect isolated districts even after the roads are gone."

The next attempt tested it. A road collapsed, and the network immediately opened a glowing mana pathway, hunters crossing safely. Another district isolated, a second corridor formed instantly.

[City Survival: 28%.]

[Hunter Survival: 63%.]

"We’re getting close," Mira said.

"Not yet," Kai said.

Elden found the next weakness, several dead zones the network simply couldn’t reach at all.

"Then put another relay there," Raze suggested.

"The problem isn’t the relay," Elden said, pointing at a destroyed conduit. "The connection itself is gone."

"Can we replace the connection?" Kai asked.

"Mobile relays," Gabriel said. Old civilizations had used portable mana cores carried by trained hunters, extending the network wherever needed.

"That could solve the dead zones," Lily said, eyes lighting up.

"Then give me one," Raze said.

"You’re probably the worst person to carry delicate equipment," Elden said.

Raze’s grin disappeared. "...Why?"

Kai laughed.

Mobile relay cores went into the plan next, hunters carrying them straight into danger zones, reconnecting the network piece by piece as towers fell.

[City Survival: 31%.]

[Hunter Survival: 66%.]

Raze pumped his fist. "Four more!"

"Four more for hunters," Mira said.

"...Right."

"And nine for the city," Kai added.

Raze sighed. "You really don’t let us celebrate."

"Not yet."

Lily proposed something harder next, deliberately weaker defenses for select districts.

Raze objected immediately. "You’re saying we should let them get destroyed?"

"I’m saying we decide where the destruction happens," Lily said, marking several empty sections on the map. "If we reinforce every district equally, the whole network stretches too thin."

"But if we create lower-priority zones on purpose," Elden said—

"The Calamities destroy those instead," Mira finished.

Silence.

Kai studied the map. They were choosing what parts of the city they were willing to lose.

"If sacrificing one empty district saves thousands of hunters," he said finally, "then we make that sacrifice."

"I don’t like it," Mira said quietly.

"Neither do I," Kai said.

The next attempt implemented it. The designated zones took catastrophic damage, buildings collapsing, streets cracking wide open, but the primary survival zones stayed protected.

[City Survival: 35%.]

[Hunter Survival: 68%.]

"Two percent," Raze said.

"For hunters," Lily added.

"Five for the city," Kai said, allowing a small smile.

They dug into the remaining hunter deaths next. Elden replayed the casualties, and most weren’t caused by direct attacks at all. They were caused by hunters refusing to retreat.

"They try to rescue everyone," Sera said.

"And die doing it," Kai said.

"Can we really force them to retreat?" Mira asked, uncomfortable.

"The network can," Lily said.

They modified emergency teleportation to trigger automatically the moment a hunter hit critical condition, no permission, no hesitation.

"Some hunters aren’t going to like that," Raze said.

"They’ll like being alive more," Kai said.

Raze considered it, then nodded. "Fair."

The next test confirmed it. A hunter’s health dropped.

WHOOSH!

Gone, reappearing in a safe zone before the wound could finish them. Another. Extracted. Another. Extracted.

[City Survival: 36%.]

[Hunter Survival: 71%.]

Mira smiled. "Seventy-one."

Sera exhaled. "We passed the hunter target."

"Finally," Raze said, grinning.

"Now four more percent on the city," Kai said.

They spent the next stretch analyzing infrastructure alone, layering everything they’d learned together, overlapping barriers, mana redistribution, teleportation, mobile relays, mana corridors, sacrificial zones, sensors, automated healing, terrain manipulation, artillery support.

The next simulation held better than any before it. The first Calamity landed and the city held. The second hit and the network adapted cleanly. The third took the outer sections, but the inner districts survived intact. The fourth caused widespread damage. The fifth nearly overwhelmed the whole network.

The sixth hit, and the entire city shook.

[City Survival: 39%.]

[Hunter Survival: 72%.]

"...One percent," Raze said slowly.

"One percent," Kai agreed.

Everyone started arguing over the last gap. Raze wanted the central district reinforced further. Lily rejected it outright, arguing it would weaken the surrounding zones. Elden suggested redistributing mana differently. Mira suggested pulling more hunters outside the center. Sera countered that too many hunters spread thin would make rescue impossible.

Gabriel finally spoke. "There might be another option."

Everyone turned.

She pointed downward. "Underground."

Elden’s eyes widened.

She explained that several ancient civilizations had buried secondary defensive networks beneath their cities entirely. "The surface could be destroyed. The city could keep functioning underneath."

"A second network," Lily said.

"A backup nervous system," Elden added.

Kai smiled. "Then we build one."

The final simulation added it all in. Red Storm hit, and the sacrificial zones absorbed the worst of it while the core districts held. Black Flood erased the surface routes entirely, and the underground network took over seamlessly, mana corridors opening beneath the ruins. Burning Earth turned the terrain hostile, and environmental stabilization kept the city functional. White Frost froze the outer systems, and the underground network kept running, extraction pulling hunters clear before the cold could reach them. Black Swarm pushed the hunters back district by district, but the mobile relay carriers kept the network connected the whole time. Falling Sky arrived last, the sky itself seeming to come apart, every barrier in Mythal activating at once, the underground system absorbing the overflow.

For several seconds it genuinely looked like the whole city might collapse anyway.

Then the simulation ended.

Silence.

[City Survival: 43%.]

[Hunter Survival: 74%.]

Nobody reacted at first.

Then Raze laughed. "Forty-three!"

"Seventy-four," Mira said, smiling.

Sera let out a long breath. Lily closed her eyes. Elden adjusted his glasses. Gabriel smiled, visibly relieved.

Kai looked at the numbers. Their first attempt had been eighteen percent city, fifty-two percent hunters.

Now it was forty-three and seventy-four.

They hadn’t just gotten stronger. They’d solved problems, one argument at a time.

"You have improved considerably," the Candidate said.

Kai nodded. "But this isn’t enough to guarantee victory."

"Correct." He displayed the numbers again. "These are significantly better than your first attempt." A pause. "But the real Six Calamities may not behave exactly as they did here."

"That’s the problem with relying on historical records," Gabriel said.

"We prepare for what we know," Kai said, looking around at everyone. "And adapt to whatever changes."

The Candidate smiled faintly. "That is the correct answer."

Kai looked at his friends. Everyone was tired. Nobody looked defeated.

Nine simulated days of watching Mythal die over and over, and every failure had handed them something usable. Every death had revealed a weakness. Every argument had produced a solution.

"We’re done for today," Kai said.

"Then use the remaining six days wisely," the Candidate said.

Kai looked at everyone. "Let’s go home."

They left the blue world behind, and the final image was Mythal itself, golden relay lines pulsing beneath the streets, new towers standing tall, hunters training, engineers working, and somewhere beneath it all, the second defensive network waiting in silence.

"So it’s tomorrow," Kai said quietly, looking out over the city.

"And then you will see the real thing," Tiamat said.

Kai smiled faintly. "I’m looking forward to it."