After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World

They only found out about the lord’s untimely death when the buildings began to disintegrate.

Faye had woken up just a couple of minutes ago from the yells and screams all around her. Cree and Valma arrived shortly after with pale faces.

Their voices were weak, unsure of how to tell her. ”The Lord—”

”Grandpa?” she voiced out, confused and disoriented. But as she heard more of the screams—vaguely hearing about the buildings disintegrating—she immediately bolted out of her bed to go to her grandfather’s room.

When she saw him just laying there, without a hint of movement, it felt like she was thrown off a cliff.

She gasped as she dragged herself closer to him, heartwrenching sobs escaping from her mouth. ”GRANDPA—”

Cree and Valma could only watch on, looking heartbroken as well. However, they also knew this was no time to mourn.

It was morning and the heat would only get worse; they needed to find cover as soon as possible.

Cree moved forward, stopping a meter behind the woman. ”Please, Miss Faye,” he said. ”The Lord wouldn’t want you to perish now.”

Faye let herself cry out for a few more moments before forcing her tears back. She leaned down hug her grandfather one more time, all while feeling the increasing heat as the roof disintegrated above them.

The sounds of the screams outside were the only thing that kept her from just staying there.

”I’ll live grandpa,” she said, wiping the last traces of tears on her face. ”I’ll live for both of us.”

…

”Let’s go find cover while there is still sun!” She yelled to whoever could hear her. They had no time to alert everyone or find them all; they’d just have to take whoever was there.

Her beautiful ebony hair was cut short now. She should’ve done this ages ago, but her family had always complimented it and she couldn’t bear cut it off before.

But now, the last of her family was gone, so there was no need to keep it—at least not in this heat.

She did feel a bit of melancholy. After all, she had been told to cut her hair many times when she was on duty, but she just refused to do so.

Faye Alexa—or just Foxii according to her family and close friends—was also a soldier, which was how she managed to compartmentalize despite the debilitating pain of losing her final blood relative.

She followed her family’s footsteps of entering the military of her home country: the perenially snowy country of Colfrig. It was why despite their strategies and strength, the heat wave had a higher impact on them than others. Their bodies were too conditioned to the Winter.

When the tragedy happened, she was on leave to see her grandfather at the ancestral home. Only the two of them, as well as her dad and uncle, survived the initial transformations. Her father died shortly after the transfer, protecting people.

There were too many civilians, and they were soldiers, and their instincts kicked in. He ended up dying while protecting them until they found a decent place to set up territory.

She couldn’t help but remember her grandfather’s regrets of rashly doing so. More than their distance from the river, he said that if he had known the token would be integrated permanently—unless some conditions were met—he wouldn’t have been the one to activate the token at all.

Her uncle died after the Protection Period ended, when the monsters had suddenly spiked in strength, leaving just her and her grandfather to lead thousands and thousands of people against various tribulations that came their way.

They did very well, considering everything, but sadly they couldn’t hold on in the end.

She was 29 years old now, unmarried, and had just awakened the water element just before all this went down.

Because her ability was so necessary during the extreme heat, she was forced to train it beyond her limits.

Combined with her natural talent, she became proficient at the element in good time. Other than this, she had also awakened the Sheildsman… er, shieldswoman, occupation early on in the Migration.

Water and Shield was an odd combination for certain, but it was what she got.

”Let’s go!” She said, looking for the stream and its marks. Although it had mostly dried now—leaving only sticky mud—they could still follow it to a river, which hopefully still had some water.

”Yes!” Cree said, and many others followed. Cree and Valma, in fact, could easily just leave now. Their contract was with the territory, and since it was no more they had no standing obligations left for Faye

However, they had seen how she had handled herself and her people. They had nowhere to go anyway, and sticking with Faye would still give them better chances than going through this alone.

Similarly, there were also a lot of people willingly following her despite the lack of the lord token and territory. There were easily a few hundred of them still there.

”We will follow you anywhere, Miss Faye!” One said. It was Tot, a huge bulky man with bald head. He was a territory guard who had a relatively higher level and, therefore, higher constitution than others.

He was one of the hired guards and he, along with his team, had long started gathering the survivors and prepared them to leave.

The others nodded in agreement, though with little energy despite meaning otherwise.

If they still had the energy to talk so much, they’d have cheered for her. Sadly, most of their throats had dried and their vision had begun to feel a bit blurry to do anything else but nod weakly.

At this point, everyone was parched and starving. Most of all, they felt like their skins were burning and their bodies overheating.

However, even when they were mostly skin and bones, and maybe a bit despondent, they still held on to some hope because they had always managed to go through trials with Foxii’s and the former lord’s leadership.

They needed to hold on to her, otherwise they’d lose reason to even move anymore.

She nodded, eyes a bit teary from their trust.

It was already morning and the heat was suffocating. They had been hiding in the remaining shadows of the slowly-disintigrating buildings, but soon they’d be in the sun’s direct path.

Where could they go? More importantly, how could they move with barely any cover from the hot sun?

She looked at the stream that was just made of mud in thought.

Tot followed her eyes and nodded. ”We should head to the river,” he said. They hadn’t managed to venture so far as to actually find it, but they knew where the stream was heading, so that was a start.

His comrade, Crump, looked at the drying forests that were so vast it went past the horizon. Without a territory, it was like getting exposed to an open wasteland, and it made their stomachs drop.

Not that it had enough moisture to actually do so, of course.

They had lived here for months, but because of the dangers they had stayed relatively nearby. No one knew how far the river was.

Eh, more accurately, they didn’t know which direction to go—upstream or downstream? Generally, streams head toward rivers, but it wasn’t a guaranteed rule. Also, what if the river was hundreds of kilometers away while the springs were actually just nearby?

And, even if they found the river or a spring, then what? What if there wasn’t a territory there?

It was all quite a gamble—one that hundreds of lives were dependent upon.

Fortunately, Faye was a seasoned soldier so she didn’t buckle under this pressure. Instead, she took note of all their concerns, deep in ponder, until she finally gained inspiration.

Soil could be used for insulation, and even dried trees—assuming they didn’t turn to powdery dust after some force—could be used for cover. While there were a lot of risks and a lot of challenges, they didn’t have a lot of other resources to deal with.

However, they had advantages that few other territories had: They still had mud and their trees, because of the proximity to a water source, had some moisture that they didn’t break upon a slight impact.

She looked at Crump. ”Haven’t you awakened as an earth elementalist?” she asked, shifting to stare at Tot. ”And you’re a wood elementalist, are you not?”

She also named a couple of others to confirm their elements, forming a strategy in her mind.

They nodded, looking at her, not knowing what to expect.

Faye covered her face that had now been hit by the ray of the sun. It was painful—like she was touching a heated pan with her face—but the fact that they had a next step was enough to raise her momentum.

She… actually smiled a little.

”Let’s build ourselves a portable roof.”