It’s been a few hours since we left Ostempal and I couldn’t stop worrying about Lisa. She was going to be traveling all by herself in a world that’s in chaos. The only solace was that Josh, James, and Tarin are escorting her right now.

“We’re almost to Hope City. Once we’re there, you guys can finally get some rest.”

William pointed out of the window and in the distance, we could all see a gray wall that was erected. It was just like the walls surrounding Ostempal but a little smaller and more sturdy. It was quite a bizarre scene seeing such a tall wall built in the modern era, it feels like we’ve gone back to the medieval era.

The city we were approaching is called Hope city and from William’s description, is one of FUUI main base of operation. It’s always been in this area but now they’ve opened it up to the public because of the situation. Many cities were being destroyed and people were losing their homes so FUUI decided to shelter these refugees.

It didn’t take long for us to reach the entrance of the city. Looking up close, the metallic walls were emitting a blue hue to them. I could feel slight traces of mana covering the wall.

“Fifi, are these walls being reinforced with magic?”

“Yeah and from the looks of it, it’s quite a decent amount. Looking at the size and the amount of mana, I’m sure that someone has been preparing a long time in case monsters started appearing.”

“Does this mean that we’ll be safe within these walls?”

Jill was the one who asked the question but all of us were wondering the same thing. Fifi was the most knowledgable about magic so we all sought her opinion.

“Against zombies and the special ones, this wall can easily hold them off. Even if it was the tower of zombies attacking the walls, it would take quite a while to fall…”

Everyone’s face lit up for a bit before realizing that Fifi wasn’t done speaking yet.

“But against that angel or demon, it would only take a few hours to fall. If it were some of the stronger monsters in my era then the walls wouldn’t matter at all.”

“I see.”

Everyone becomes silent as the car reaches the entrance. There were heavily armed guards inspecting each car coming through the gate. In front of us were a few cars that were all thoroughly investigated but when it came to us, all William had to do was flash his badge and we were in.

Looking around the city, all the buildings seemed pristine and sturdy. Unlike some of the cities we passed by, this place didn’t seem to be affected by the monsters at all and seemed like a paradise in this chaotic world.

“It’s a nice place, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, completely different from Ostempal.”

By the entrance, there were soldiers giving out food and clothing to anyone coming within the city. There were tents where people were assigned temporary residences. The faces of the refugees were dead and emotionless. Each of them must have a story of their own before coming here. Maybe they lost their homes or even lost their loved ones.

The closer we got to the center of the city, the faces of the people seemed to be more cheerful. There were already people operating their own stores and beginning to live a somewhat regular life. It was a contrast to those who just entered the city. This city seemed to give its residence hope for the future.

Passing by the residential zone, we entered an area that was heavily guarded. We passed by many inspections and fences before Gareth parked in front of a building. Considering the amount of security that we had to pass through, this must be an important place. William and Gareth guide us through the building as employees look at us in shock, more specifically, at William and Gareth.

“Hahaha, glad to see that you’re still alive, William. Glad to see that Gareth hasn’t been dragging you down.”

“Long time no see, Madam Justice. No disciple of yours would ever be a burden.”

Both William and Gareth bowed their heads towards Madam Justice. She had red hair that was graying due to age and a scar that goes from her forehead all the way down to the chin. The most eye-catching thing about her was her eyes, there was a fierceness behind them that was similar to Tigurka.

“Oh, so these are the gifted you found this time around. Not too bad.”

“Yes, this is Jude, Mako, Jill, and Gorou. The other person is just a regular civilian.”

“Haah, maybe I should go out into the field again. Just the other day, Unit L also came back with two gifted children. Back in my day, finding a gifted child was as hard as finding a needle in a haystack.”

“Haha, I’m sure no one would reject the famous teacher of unit ZYU, going back and teaching more disciples. What about you train my kids sometimes?”

“Heh, you’re just trying to get some free lessons. Welp, I got to go know. Let’s go drinking next time you’re free.”

“Sure thing, it’ll be your treat though.”

Madam Justice left and I could finally breathe again. The entire time, her aura was suppressing me and I couldn’t even resist. It felt like she could see through me.

“Jude, be wary of that woman. It might just be my imagination but I felt like she could see through my invisibility.”

“O-ok.”

We were guided to a room before William and Gareth left us. We were told to wait until they came back so we lounged in the room. The main thing we talked about was Madam Justice. Just like me, they all had the same feeling of suffocation by just being in her presence. Besides that, we all secretly trained in wind magic. We didn’t know if anyone was watching us so we decided that we would all train wind magic since it was invisible to the naked eye. Gorou, on the other hand, was pinching his own skin and using healing magic to train. It was then that the TV began blaring out an announcement. The one on TV was the president of the United States of Urica, President Talos.

“Dear citizens of the United States of Urica, I’m regretful to inform all of you that I will be declaring a state of emergency all throughout the country. I’m sure all of you have noticed that strange occurrences have been appearing all over the world and within our country. I believed that it is our duty as the government to do whatever it is to protect our citizens but the situation has become too dire for us to handle alone. We all must work together to overcome these days of hardships that will befall us.”

To summarize the President’s words, he was advising citizens in danger zones to evacuate to safer cities. Multiple cities like Hope city were being built all over the country or already existing cities were being upgraded to deal with monsters. Now the public knows that monsters are real.

“Hey, look at this. It seems like other countries are deciding to go public with the monster situation.”

Looking at Jill’s phone, there were live streams all over the world covering the topic of leaders of each nation announcing the situation with monsters. The comments were being bombarded with people being in a panic, people announcing how they already knew about the monsters, or people trying to denounce the president’s announcement as a hoax. Overall everything was in chaos.

“Hey, did you guys see the announcement?”

“Yeah, we just saw it.”

Before any of us realized it, William and Gareth had already come back.

“Considering the situation, our jobs as members of FUUI are going to become a lot harder so its time for you guys to meet your other teammates.”

“Other teammates?”

“Oh, I forgot to mention it but besides me and Gareth there are three other members. I’ll introduce them when we get back to our base.”

Once again we follow William and Gareth but this time we didn’t exit the building. Instead, we took an elevator that went underground. Once the doors opened we were all in for a surprise, there was a huge underground facility. It was twice the size of the city above ground and seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie.

“Welcome to the real Hope City.”