As they left their small home, they would see the topmost part of the buildings slowly turning to dust.
This would be closely followed by the walls, to the point that they wouldn't have to think about climbing it anymore, they'd just have to jump over.
He looked around, seeing the same sight: tragedy, blood, death.
From the top of his lungs, he yelled. "Evacuate!" he and his family—along with others—ran towards the other gate, swiping what they could, rescuing as many as he could.
They focused on running after that, having no choice but to ignore the massacre happening behind them.
People… simply didn't have the energy to fight against monsters anymore. Only the guards could have a semblance of a fight left, but even they couldn't do so much anymore and had long run away even before Shinho did.
Other than him, several guards joined him. Several groups of refugees pulled their families up, while some could barely move now.
He and his family had a bit of energy because he braved through the heat and mobs to get them some bits of food; Others were not so lucky.
The panicked crowd went through the other gate with desperation and fear.
There were still monsters in this direction but they were much sparser. With the number of them, they could escape while the monsters captured other people.
Their group exited with most of their numbers because the monsters were too busy with the thousands of people still inside.
They could hear the desperate screams and yells behind them, but they just fled, tuning them out. Their heartbeats were too loud as if they were ringing in their ears, anyway.
When they confirmed there were no monsters following closely, with the few that were dealt with by their fighters, some couldn't help but turn back to see their territory slowly disintegrate after their lord's death.
They could only imagine the terror of those inside. They thought they could still hide in their homes, only to have it disappear right in front of their eyes.
They would've sobbed if there was still enough moisture in their eyes to make tears.
Their home… it was gone now.
There was no time to pause, however. It was night and they could travel a bit, and it was cooler outside the territories due to the lack of stones that'd absorb the heat. However, they still had a gorge of battles they must go through to even have a dream of peace.
They ran and ran, as far away from their territory—which was where most of the nearby mobs were heading toward—as possible.
For the next hour or so, they'd fight against some mobs they encountered and there they lost a lot of torches. Let alone fighting with monsters, many were lost due to the panic and darkness that loomed over them.
"Where do we go?" They asked, and the atmosphere was heavy as they trekked along the drying forests.
Shinho didn't speak for a while and just continued on his way, until he heard trickles of water. "WATER!" he yelled, and they headed in the direction.
They all kneeled down to see the shallow river of water, all just jumping down and not wanting to get out anymore.
They cried as they consumed as much as they could. The little boy—Mamu—was also smart enough to immediately get a rough cup made of dried wood in his space, gathering some of it for storage.
The space could not hold water in its liquid form—it simply would not store—and it had to have a container of sorts. It could be buckets, pails, or the like.
While most did not have this, some people did—for example, Shinho and his lover. After all, they didn't have much to store anyway, so there was a possibility of finding water sources when they went out.
As they drank, it was as if the water saturated his brain again, making it work again. The light of inspiration hit him as he looked in the direction of the water. "Follow the river!" he said.
He was thinking about whether to follow the downstream or the upstream. Logically, upstream was better. However—
The mobs seemed to have either noticed them there or arrived to look for water sources as well. They were coming from the upstream direction, and they had no choice but to go the other way instead.
Shinho and the others were worried they'd find it dried up eventually with no territory in sight, but for now they could only do so.
At this time, they had no idea:
This would be their luckiest decision so far.
Somewhere farther north.
Even the Aborigines—who were born and lived in this continent—were having an especially bad time now, what more for the Terrans?
The first wave that morning already killed a couple of people. They were shocked when they felt their skins burn as long as they stayed in the sun. These people happened to be outside the territory when it happened, and they were not able to find decent shade in time. They eventually faded as they headed back, not to return again.
Most managed to run into their homes, but the sweltering atmosphere was painful, and for lower leveled people it was even hard to breathe.
Some were lucky they hired aborigines who told them what was happening when it did, and they did their best to adjust. There was also the fact that their physiques had been improved. If they were still in their Terran bodies at Level 0, they had no doubt hundreds more had perished during the first day alone.
There were also a few territories that still hadn't managed to hire an aborigine. They were lucky and survived this long because of their locations, but that fortune had been used up with this disaster.
In such cases, the heat wave completely caught them off guard and confused them the entire time. They scurried to find cover, trying to adjust, though it hadn't been easy.
Even inside their homes, they felt like they were being boiled.
When night came, they could finally breathe—but that only lasted a couple of hours until mobs found their location.
Just when they could finally rest from tiredness, they would be attacked, and that would begin a restless night that would be characterized by blood and violence.
Then they'd realize their resources were dwindling and now they had to deal not only with debilitating heat, rabid monsters, but also the lack of food and water.
Some had also thought about getting monsters inside at the expense of some areas, and some territories were smart enough to convert certain places into a corral of sorts. They would build a low level wall within the territory, in aims of trapping the monsters there.
As good as it was, it couldn't last long because people had grown weak through the days, and the walls would get destroyed. With the lesser resources, these walls could no longer be repaired as well.
Days passed by and their population, energy, and resources chipped away in front of their naked eyes.
They had thought they managed to adjust in this new world, but it decided to throw them to hell yet again.
Without exemption, everyone would ask in their hearts: Would things ever get any better?
Or were they just destined to suffer until they finally died?