Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 108: Return to the Citadel

It didn’t take long for them to reach the teleportation device leading toward the citadel. Nothing much had changed at ground level, but the moment they stepped off the teleport, the differences were immediate.

Barricades lined either side of the path, constructed from the timber of partially cleared forest. Sharpened stakes ran along the outer edges and a simple wooden gate stood at the centre, manned by two guards who snapped to attention the moment they arrived.

One of them, a man Damon didn’t recognise, recognised him instantly.

"Mr... Sir Damon."

Damon frowned slightly at the title.

Beside him, Nyla let out a quiet scoff.

’Sir.’ She mouthed the word as she shot him a sideways look that said she was going to enjoy this.

The guards moved aside without another word and let them through.

The outer grounds told the story of the days he’d missed more clearly than any report could.

The forest had been pushed back further than he remembered, the cleared land put to immediate use. Rows of crops stretched across what had been wilderness a week ago, tended by people who moved with the particular focus of those who understood exactly what was at stake if the harvest failed.

Further along, the sound of hammering carried across the grounds as wooden structures went up in various stages of completion, storage, shelter, and something that looked like it might eventually become a house.

"Seems like we accepted some people," Nyla mused beside him.

More than some. The numbers suggested a significant expansion since he’d left, organised, deliberate, not the chaotic overflow of desperate survivors but something closer to a functioning settlement finding its shape.

Someone had been busy, and Damon knew exactly who it was.

Inside the castle grounds, it was even busier.

The long tunnel opened into a courtyard that had been transformed, hundreds of people moving in every direction, voices overlapping, the smell of cooking fires and fresh timber mixing in the air.

Even at its peak, the Central Station had never looked like this.

Nyla said nothing this time. Even she seemed slightly taken aback by the scale of it.

The grand hall was quieter by comparison, the noise of the courtyard muffled by stone walls as they pushed through the heavy doors.

Ivy was already there.

She stood near the far end of the hall, speaking quietly with two people Damon didn’t recognise, a map spread across the table between them.

Her red eyes looked up the moment the doors opened, and for just a fraction of a second, something moved across her face.

Not quite relief or surprise. Something between the two that she composed almost immediately, her expression settling back into its usual careful neutrality before he’d fully crossed the threshold.

"You’re back," she said in a tone that could be mistaken for a question.

"We’re back," Damon confirmed.

Her eyes moved briefly toward Nyla, taking her in, measuring something silent before returning her gaze to him. Whatever conclusion she reached, she kept it behind her neutral expression.

"There’s a lot to catch you up on," she said. "The citadel has grown faster than we anticipated. We had to make some decisions while you were unreachable." A pause, carefully weighted. "I’ll explain everything."

She turned to Nyla with the polished composure of someone who had learned to manage rooms full of people. "We have a room ready for you. You’ll want to rest after whatever you’ve been through" Her tone wasn’t exactly dismissive, it was too smooth and composed for that, but the intention behind her words was clear enough.

Nyla glanced at Damon, who gave her a simple nod.

"Sure," she replied with a smile, "I could use a nap. I didn’t get much sleep."

She followed the attendant Ivy had gestured toward without protest, though Damon caught the look she threw back at him over her shoulder as she left. It said something along the lines of ’I’ll get my hands on you later.’

With Nyla gone, Ivy led Damon through a corridor he hadn’t used before. They ascended the stairs of a southern tower, the place where the castle’s finest residential chambers were.

The stone here was older, the walls hung with faded tapestries that had survived whatever had emptied this place before they arrived.

She stopped only when they reached the very top of the tower. There were only two sets of doors.

After a quick gesture to the door to the right, she pushed it open.

The room beyond was larger than he’d expected, a proper chamber, not a repurposed storage space. A bed, a window with a balcony looking out over the courtyard below. It even had a large desk with an office-like chair.

Someone had clearly put a lot of effort into it.

"Your room," Ivy said. "I thought it made sense to have you somewhere permanent, given everything."

Damon lingered for a moment, his gaze shifted away from the room behind the open door and toward the closed door to the left.

"Yours?" he asked.

Something crossed her face, perhaps a flicker of surprise as his guess caught her off guard. "It made logistical sense," she said. "You’ll need to be reachable quickly when things come up... And things come up constantly now."

Damon nodded.

Although Ivy was the chosen leader of the people, he was the leader of the citadel itself, at least according to the system. And so the two of them were basically co-leaders of the human coalition, if one might call it that.

He stepped inside the room, but the moment he went in—

The door shut behind him.

The sound of a metal bolt sliding home made him turn fast, and when he turned, Ivy was already there, her back against the locked door, an expression on her face he had never seen before.

Every trace of the careful neutrality she’d maintained since the grand hall was gone, replaced by something she had clearly been holding at a considerable distance for a considerable amount of time.

She crossed the distance toward him in two steps, then she took his face in both hands and pressed her lips against his before he could say a single word.