News of what had happened in Glimmer District did not remain there for long. The moment surviving police officers, soldiers began reporting what they’d witnessed.
The information spread throughout Suncrest City, reaching the powerful families who had been watching the crisis from behind closed doors.
Thoren had returned, that alone drew attention.
But now reports of his undead effortlessly killing the creatures that had made the entire city tremble were spreading alongside his name.
For many families, the news was hard to believe; some assumed it was exaggeration from frightened survivors, others thought soldiers had misjudged what they saw in the chaos.
Yet as reports kept arriving from different parts of the district, the story stayed consistent:
Thoren’s undead had destroyed the creatures with frightening ease.
Inside the Governor’s office, the middle-aged woman sat behind her desk while her assistant struggled to organize what she’d just learned.
"The creatures in Glimmer District were taken down by Thoren’s undead," the assistant reported, disbelief still in her voice.
"The creatures were nearly impossible to kill with conventional weapons, but his undead destroyed them almost effortlessly."
The Governor’s eyes widened.
She said nothing, only stared.
Even her assistant hadn’t fully recovered from the shock.
She’d gone through the reports several times, hoping for some misunderstanding, but they all told the same story.
Creatures that had sent trained officers fleeing had been slaughtered by undead.
Everyone knew undead were weak.
That understanding had held for as long as awakeners had known the Necromancer class existed, slow, hard to control, no match for trained warriors or other awakened classes in direct combat.
What had happened in Glimmer District shattered that assumption entirely.
If the undead’s strength against the beasts outside the city had already been shocking, this was beyond common sense.
The Governor leaned back. "Are you certain?"
"Yes." Her assistant nodded.
"Multiple officers and civilians reported the same thing. The undead killed the creatures before they could regenerate or spread infection, and identified people who’d already been parasitized before they transformed."
Her expression turned grave.
She’d heard Thoren had returned from the Abyss’s second floor far earlier than expected and his undead had taken down the beast tide with ease. He even provided the army with a portion to treat the injured soldiers.
This was different.
The creatures had already forced the Federation to deploy every available resource, and none of it had worked.
Then Thoren appeared, and the problem simply ended.
The more she considered it, the deeper her shock ran.
She’d assumed Thoren was just another powerful awakener with valuable loot and slightly stronger undead servants under his control.
But now, she knew she was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
Now she knew she’d badly underestimated him. Her gut told her, Thoren might be hiding more than he actually revealed to the public.
’I need to meet him again.’
If his undead could handle those creatures so easily, his true strength likely exceeded the Federation’s estimates by a wide margin.
This was no longer about maintaining goodwill with a powerful citizen.
She needed answers, and she needed to report his strength upward. The Federation couldn’t afford to misjudge him.
"Governor?" Her assistant’s voice pulled her back.
"Continue monitoring the reports from Glimmer District. And contact the Federation command center. I want every available report on Thoren’s movements."
Her assistant hesitated, then nodded. "Understood."
The Governor turned to the window. Suncrest City stretched below, no longer the prosperous, peaceful skyline she knew.
Smoke rose from several districts; emergency lights flashed; military vehicles crawled through the streets.
The crisis was far from over.
But for the first time since the beast tide began, something had shifted.
There was now hope.
A hope named Thoren Starfall.
...
Elsewhere in the city, several awakener families who’d pledged support to the mysterious faction began to waver.
Their choice had made sense when the city was collapsing, the beast tide overwhelming its defenses, people vanishing, the Federation powerless, and the Governor silent.
Backing another faction had seemed like the safest bet.
But Thoren was proving otherwise.
Families who’d assumed Suncrest City was doomed now reconsidered. If Thoren could keep this up, the situation wasn’t as hopeless as they’d believed.
Switching sides was risky.
Staying was risky too.
For the first time, several family heads found themselves trapped between two bad options, and that uncertainty spread fast.
But more were inclined to the Federation side. Although the Starfall family might not belong to any faction among the Federation, Thoren action was enough.
As long as he kept the city safe, what else could they asked for in this trouble time.
..
At the top of a skyscraper, two middle-aged men sat across from each other in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
Currently, neither admired the view as their expressions were ugly, the silence between them heavy as they processed the latest reports.
Finally, one slammed his hand on the table.
"We need to do something."
The other’s expression stayed grave. "Of course we are. We can’t let this continue."
The first man’s jaw tightened, eyes fixed on the city below.
"This is our first real chance to prove our faction is right. We can’t afford to lose it."
Years of waiting and planning and now, a chance to prove their beliefs weren’t empty. That their chosen path was correct.
And now Thoren’s return threatened to destroy everything.
How could they accept that?
The second man said nothing for a moment.
"Then what do we do?" The first man continued. "We can’t stop him alone."
The second man’s expression darkened as he knew that was the truth.
They could manipulate people, exploit the crisis, pull strings behind the scenes but Thoren was different.
His undead had already exceeded their expectations, and they still didn’t know what else he’d brought back from the Abyss.
Conventional weapons were useless against his undead. Worse, they might draw his attention to them which they did not want.
Taking a deep breath, the second man leaned back. "Then we reach out to them."
When the first man heard this, he narrowed his eyes.
"You mean..."
The second man looked past the glass, toward the darkened city.
There was no hesitation left in his voice.
"Only them can stop him."
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