Riley's reservoir didn't just refill when the sun died. It exploded.The surge hit him mid-step on Honor Oak Road, a static warmth that climbed through his fingertips and detonated behind his ribs. For three seconds he couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Could only feel the moon rising somewhere beyond the skyline, pulling at every cell in his body like a tide that had finally found its shore."Riley?" Miko's voice came from very far away. "Your eyes—""I know." He flexed his hand and moonlight condensed across his knuckles without thought, brighter and faster than it had been last night. The glow lanced outward and carved a smoking line through the brick wall of a shuttered newsagent fifteen metres away."Riley!" Miko grabbed his wrist and forced his hand down. "Control it.""I'm trying." But the reservoir was still surging, still pulling, and he could feel it wanting more. The passive from Moonlight Reservoir hummed beneath his awareness—twenty percent more capacity already making a d

Riley lowered his spear two inches. Not a surrender. A gesture. He kept the moonlight humming through the shaft so every one of those five torchlit faces could see exactly what he was holding."Nobody needs to die tonight," he said. His voice came out steadier than he felt. "We earned these supplies. You want food and water, there's a Tesco Extra on Old Kent Road. Dungeon inside's been cleared. Shelves are still half stocked."The man with the ragged voice didn't lower his rifle. His torch beam jittered across Riley's chest. Behind him, the other four shifted weight between their feet, barrels drifting between targets. Riley used Inspect on the speaker. Level 3. HP: 140/140. MP: 60/60. He swept the others. All Level 3. All armed with rifles that hadn't come from any civilian home. Probably looted from a police station or a dead officer's vehicle."I don't care about a bloody Tesco," the man said. "We've been walking since yesterday with nothing. Put the bags down and walk away. That's

The gate closed behind them with a sound like a coffin lid shutting, and Riley stood in Caterham's main street trying to reconcile what his eyes were telling him with what his brain knew to be possible.Twenty-four hours. That was all the time that had passed since the sky fractured. Twenty-four hours since pigeons split apart on the pavement and trees swallowed people whole. And in that sliver of time, someone had built an entire town.Not rebuilt. Built. The walls they'd passed through weren't scavenged from rubble or garden fences lashed together with cable ties. They were engineered. Twelve-foot high slabs of stone fused with crystalline veining that hummed faintly when Riley pressed his palm to the surface. The guard towers had sightlines that covered every approach, positioned with military precision along a perimeter that enclosed what used to be Caterham's town centre. Inside, the original buildings remained, but the gaps between them had been filled with timber-framed structu

Riley woke to running water and the smell of something that might have been food.He lay still for three full breaths, testing the feeling. No pain in his ribs. The bite on his forearm had closed to a pink seam overnight. His reservoir sat full behind his sternum, lunar energy coiled tight, waiting for the moon that wouldn't rise for hours. The regeneration was real. Ten hours in a System-registered residence and he felt nothing like the hollowed-out thing that had stumbled through Caterham's gate at dawn.He found the others in the kitchen mid-argument."—not our responsibility," Miko was saying, her voice tight with frustration. "We barely made it here ourselves.""There are children in that hall." Arianna stood with her arms crossed, Biscuit pressed against her leg. "We told Craig we'd come back if we found something better.""And we did find something better. Here. Walls. A safe zone. That doesn't mean we can save everyone." Miko turned as Riley entered. "Tell her we can't just wa

The alarm came at eleven in the morning, when Riley was weakest.His phone screamed before the Fenrathi horns did. A pulsing red overlay consumed his System panel: DUNGEON OVERFLOW DETECTED — D-RANK QUARRY INSTANCE. ENTITY SATURATION EXCEEDED. SURGE IMMINENT. ALL COMBATANTS REPORT TO PERIMETER. He grabbed the crossbow frame he'd been shaping all morning from stored moonlight, a skeletal thing of pale silver that flickered under the sun.The walls were already crowded when Riley climbed the northwest battlement. Fenrathi soldiers lined the parapet in disciplined pairs, amber eyes fixed on the treeline. Between them stood humans clutching System-granted weapons with white knuckles. Garrett stood near the gate tower with his fire axe ready. Sophie's hands had already shifted to chitin. Amber took position ten metres to Riley's left, palms glowing."How many?" she asked.Riley looked at the treeline. The forest moved. Not wind. The whole canopy shifted with the weight of what pushed throu