It was a lovely morning for Patricia. Everything was quiet and without any incidents for her. Patricia was able to relax herself and pop her muscles and relax.
The bed beside her was empty. Lea was nowhere to be seen, and Patricia knew that Lea had not been able to sleep. She was likely roaming outside, and Patricia decided to give her time to gather her thoughts.
Patricia was about to head out to bath when her door was slammed open, and Emily rushed in with a pale face. Emily looked ready to faint, and her eyes shook simultaneously.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost. Do you want me to get you some water?"
Patricia asked, but she had already grabbed a jar of water and poured some for Emily.
The panic in Emily's eyes did not subside when she heard Patricia's caring words. If anything, it increased, but Emily ultimately pulled herself together.
"I…Lea says that it is an emergency and you need to evacuate everyone. W-We are being attacked by the rift…"
Emily tried to keep her words as clear as she could. She had run a lot, and now it was catching up to her. Emily was panicking at the thought of what to do next.
"Hey, calm down and take a deep breath. Excellent, you are doing great. You cannot allow yourself to collapse now, so be calm for now. I heard you loud and clear. Looks like the rift has finally decided to act up. We need to move places again."
Patricia seemed experienced in dealing with this situation. She had faced the rift before. But the children Lea had dragged behind her were different, and they needed all the care and attention they could get.
This was their first time facing the rift closely, and Patricia felt sorry for them.
"Sara, you are awake, right? Do not do anything stupid, and listen to me. I need you and Emily to evacuate everyone back to the other base. I will make a report in detail because your mission is running late. But I need you to be careful."
Patricia explained before she blew a whistle.
Neither Emily nor Sara heard anything when the whistle was blown out. But a loud howl echoed in the air, followed by more. It was so loud that it would make sleeping impossible.
"Come, we need to head out into the clearing as well. Hopefully, we will all make it out safely."
Patricia explained before she dragged the other two females out. A small crowd had gathered in the middle of the settlement, and everyone looked half-asleep.
"Everyone, I know I woke you up in the middle of the night, but this is an emergency. The rift is coming to attack us, and we need to evacuate. These two ladies will help you get away and settle into a new place."
"Meanwhile, I will try to buy you as much time as needed. But I want you to select a new leader once you reach the new settlement. Do not keep waiting for me to return. Do you all understand?"
Patricia's words were clear-cut. It reminded Sara of what Patricia had spoken about last night. It seemed like she had no intention of coming out of this battle alive.
"Patricia, don't speak such ominous words. You will be coming back and taking charge of us all soon, right? We will just wait for you."
"That's right. It will be a huge blow for the new leader if they are selected and then replaced by you as soon as you return."
"Patricia, you have been our leader for so long. Don't you think you are being too cruel to your successor?"
The people kept on gossiping about Patricia and her cruel ways. But Patricia coughed to get all their attention.
"Now is not the time for such talks. I want to come to you all as well, but we don't know if I will be able to. The rift is not an easy opponent, and our earlier attempts were not without casualties."
"I will try my best to return, but my age is also catching up. It will be better if new blood is mixed into the leadership, and we can have a new perspective on how to lead the situation."
Patricia explained, and everyone went quiet. They wanted to stop Patricia from throwing away her life. But no one wanted to offer to go in her stead as well. People were selfish like that, but this was an expected outcome.
"It has been decided now. Nothing you say will change the outcome of this decision. So, you all should start heading out now."
Many people cried as soon as they heard Patricia's words. They wanted Patricia to come back with them and to abandon her position. They even wanted these outsides to take care of the monsters instead.
But these were all selfish wishes that would not come true. Patricia was too duty-bound to let that.
"Anyway, I will be heading out now. You have twenty minutes to gather what you want and leave this place. You will not be able to return here again, so take what is necessary."
Patricia explained, and everyone knew what they needed to do.
Shifting around this happened quite often because of the abyss and the rift. Everyone knew what to expect at this point.
"Excuse me, but what do you want us to do here?"
Sara asked Patricia. She had an idea about what she was being asked to do. But she wanted to know for sure.
"Ah, it is simple. You just need to accompany these people to the new location of our camp. I am sorry to ask this of you, but you are the only ones with enough combat experience to lead these kids."
It was a selfish request, and there was no need for either Emily or Sara to heed it. But they still decided to do as they were being asked. It was the polite thing to do and gave them enough time to think.
"What about Lea? We cannot leave her out there all alone? Also, the two of you would not be enough to go against the rift. You need more help…"
Emily started to question, but Sara pulled her back by her arm. This decision had already been made for them. All they needed to do was follow now.
Sometimes, it was tough to be the subordinate of someone else. But you must know how far you could push things in these situations.
And this time, there was nothing either Sara or Emily could do.
"You want our help evacuating these people? Understood. We will take them to the new location prepared to receive them."
There was little Emily wanted to ask Sara. She tried to ask her why she agreed to this order and why they needed to help these outsiders.
But Emily had to bury her words under her will. She could not afford to show weakness here.
Emily, let's go. There is so much we need to prepare before we can head out. We must remove as many samples as possible since they will become useless soon."
Emily followed Sara, but not before she tried to ask Patricia to change her decision one last time. Patricia did not bulge, and that was the end of that confrontation.
......
Lea looked at the rift in front of her. She could feel the inhuman eyes of the rift looking back at her. But the face that looked back at her was human.
"I see. It is rather cruel of you to use that face to fight us this time. This fight will be tough for Patricia since she will face this person."
The rift-eyes monster on the other side of the cliff wore the face of Patricia's elder brother. Her elder brother had been a sentinel and one whom the rift had consumed.
Once the rift gained ownership of a body, it could use it to do anything—currently, Patricia's brother, Peter, was nothing more than a shell of his former self.
The body had not even aged since the day he fell. And that was why this fight would be a tough one for Patricia.
[We will come, and we will consume. But we shall also wait to see. Yes, this world should know of our pain and sacrifice as well. We shall make sure of it.]
The rift was loud this time. It was also joyful at the current situation. It was as if the rift could understand human emotions but did not feel them.
"How cruel. But I guess this is a type of trail as well. I shall get started on killing these rift monsters."
Lea pulled her staff out. She was a long-range fighter for the most part and used her magic to fight.
"Now, let's see how long I can endure the temptation of giving in to my power; hopefully, this situation will be resolved before I use too much power."