CHAPTER 25: THE ROAD THAT BURNED ITSELF [1]

The forest ended in a line of black glass.

At dawn, the team reached the edge of the Ashroad. What stretched ahead of them was not a highway anymore but a scar carved into the land, wide as a river and fused into an endless sheet of vitrified stone that was already glass.

It shimmered ahead under the rising sun, reflecting broken colors as if a molten heart still beat beneath it. Heat bent the horizon until the world seemed to ripple, alive and watching.

The group stood in silence for a moment, the weight of the place pressing into them as they took it in.

"This used to be a highway?" Travis asked. His voice cracked. "Pretty sure highways don’t hiss at you."

"They bombed it," Holt said grimly. "The first wave was to try and slow the spread. Fire strong enough to melt concrete, fuse metal. But now, it’s something else entirely". He shook his head.

Reid adjusted the strap of his pack and spoke with iron certainty. "Rope line. We hold formation, the Ashroad likes to twist directions."

He pulled out a length of cord, and one by one they clipped on: Reid first, Jonas and Holt right behind him, Holt due to his special ability. Kara and Jonas next, Ethan in the center, with Travis close to him, and Mira last. The rope was their lifeline.

Ethan tightened his grip, staring down the long stretch of shimmering black. The Wheel pulsed faintly in his vision. The road didn’t want them here.

But still, they took the first step.

The moment their boots touched the glass, sound betrayed them.

Their footsteps echoed a heartbeat late, as though the world needed extra time to decide it had been struck. Shadows lagged behind, flickering before snapping back into place.

"F*ck!" Kara muttered a curse when her own silhouette waved at her, it’s wave a moment out of sync.

"Keep your eyes front," Reid said sharply. "Mirages are bait."

They walked in tense silence. The heat pushed against their skin, smothering, and the rope between them twitched with every ripple of the horizon.

Then Holt stopped suddenly, crouching low.

"Tracks," he murmured. His hand hovered over faint claw marks etched into the glass, shallow grooves, too precise to be human.

As Ethan peered closer, the system shimmered in his vision.

DING!

~----~

[Hostile Presence Registered!]

[Glass Jackal – F Rank Predator]

~----~

Ethan’s pulse jumped. The others froze as similar panels blinked across their vision, their faces turning grave.

"It’s just like Reid said, it’s not just the Conductor, monsters have ranks too," Jonas muttered, then he flexed his arms, his eyes hardening. "And this one’s equal to us."

Reid’s jaw tightened. "Get ready. If the scavengers here are F Rank, we’ll see worse deeper in."

They continued.

The heat shimmer thickened ahead, bending upward into tall, wavering pillars. For a moment Ethan thought they were ruins of skyscrapers, resurrected by the road. Then the pillars moved.

Shapes slid free of the distortion, revealing lean, low-bodied creatures with crystalline frames. Their ribs jutted like knives, and their eyes were shards of black glass. When they opened their jaws, the sound was wind over bottles.

Three. No, four.

The rope line tightened as the group instinctively closed ranks.

"Jonas, front. Kara, left. Holt, cover." Reid’s orders were sharp and quick as his blade came free with a hiss. "Ethan, wheel."

The jackals lunged, and Jonas met the first head-on.

BOOM!

The ground boomed under his charge, his hammer smashing into the jackal’s side. Shards flew, scattering across the glass road, but the creature twisted unnaturally, claws screeching sparks as it raked across Jonas’s shoulder.

He grunted, blood running down his arm, but he didn’t falter.

Kara darted left, spear flashing like a silver streak. Rift Energy flared through her arms, driving the point into another jackal’s throat.

It shrieked, its crystalline body vibrating, but even impaled it slashed wildly, forcing her back.

Reid parried the third with brutal precision, his blade ringing against glass-like teeth. Sparks showered as he twisted, slicing along its ribs.

The fourth circled wide, targeting Mira and Travis at the rear. Holt’s rifle barked, a shot cracking its shoulder and staggering it, but it kept coming. Travis shouted, stumbling back, knife raised in shaking hands.

Ethan’s Wheel spun furiously.

DING!

~----~

[Improvised Gear: Heat-Sink Spike – F Rank]

Magnetized stake that drains thermal distortion in a 4m radius for 30 seconds, collapsing mirages and forcing F Rank predators into stable form. Single-use.

~----~

He slammed the glowing spike into the glass underfoot. Frost hissed outward in a widening ring.

And then, the air steadied instantly. The shimmering distortions around the jackals flickered and collapsed, their bodies snapping into full solidity. No more blurring, no more heat-phase tricks. They were now real.

"Now!" Ethan shouted.

Jonas roared, hammer swinging in a brutal arc that shattered the first jackal’s skull into glass shards.

Kara went next, twisting her spear free with a forceful drag before driving it clean through the second’s chest. Reid’s blade took the third across the jaw, cleaving it apart in a spray of shards.

The fourth skidded toward Travis, jaws wide, only for Ethan to tackle him aside at the last second. The jackal hit the frosted zone and faltered, legs splaying. Holt’s second shot blew through its ribcage, scattering it across the glass.

Silence fell, leaving only the hissing on the road.

The group stood heaving, sweat slick under their gear. Shards of the jackals’ bodies steamed faintly before melting into the black road.

The system chimed faintly across their vision:

~----~

[Threat Neutralized!]

[Survival Credit: Minimal. No IP Awarded.]

~----~

Jonas spat blood and grinned. "So this is what Rank F feels like."

Kara wiped her blade clean. "Equal footing. Which means..." She trailed off, glancing toward the endless stretch of shimmering glass ahead. "Which means we’re not equal to what comes next."

Mira’s face was pale, but her voice steady. "These were just the scavengers."

Ethan’s hand still throbbed where he’d driven the Heat-Sink Spike into the ground. The Wheel hummed in his skull, faint but insistent. It wanted him to know, this was only the beginning.

The group pressed onward, rope line taut, boots crunching faintly against glass. The horizon rippled with new mirage-pillars, taller, denser, bending together like bars of a cage.

Reid scanned the road with cold eyes. "Stay sharp, the Ashroad’s waking up."

As if on cue, the glass under their feet trembled, just once, like something vast had shifted far beneath the surface.

The sound of the tremor echoed down the scar, swallowed by the heat.

Travis broke the silence with a strained laugh. "Tell me that was my imagination. Please?"

No one answered.

Silently, they marched on, the Ashroad waiting to show them what F Rank truly meant.