For the next few days, life in the villa fell into a tense yet orderly rhythm.
Vespera's appetite became astonishingly large, several times what it used to be. Every day, Amily creatively cooked delicious meals for her, using their existing ingredients to supplement the nutrients her rapidly growing body needed. And with ample nutrition and energy, Vespera's body visibly filled out. She was no longer pathologically thin but gradually began to show the healthy, vibrant physique of a young girl.
Besides the physical changes, her control over her powers also matured daily. She could even, without directly controlling the undead, use their senses to create a real-time "undead distribution map" of the area around the villa, providing a significant boost to their security.
Zephyr, naturally, took on the role of a ready-made training instructor for everyone.
He tailored a rigorous physical training plan for each person, covering everything from basic running and push-ups to high-intensity weighted cross-country runs. He also systematically taught everyone how to properly use firearms, including disassembly, maintenance, and shooting techniques. He even personally sparred with them in basic close-quarters combat, showing no mercy.
Under his "demonic training," the villa echoed with everyone's groans and cries daily. Alan, in particular, looked like he was half-dead after every physical training session.
Although Elara had two lifetimes of combat experience, her techniques were mostly self-taught and lacked systemization. Under Zephyr's guidance, many of her movements were corrected and optimized, becoming more efficient and lethal. She was happy to use this opportunity to continuously hone her abilities.
Just like that, four days flew by in a blur of sweat and exhaustion.
That afternoon, the group was undergoing their daily training in the courtyard. Elara was sitting cross-legged on the ground, concentrating on using invisible, minute spatial blades to precisely dice a block of frozen meat into uniformly sized cubes, practicing fine control over her powers.
Suddenly, inside the villa, the military communication equipment, which had been silent all this time, crackled to life without warning, emitting a series of intermittent signals laced with heavy static!
"...crackle... 101... hiss... road... blocked... repeat... Sector 101... road blocked... crackle... 5... injured... request... hiss... support..."
The voice was broken and full of interference, but a few key words came through clearly!
Elara, who had been engrossed in practicing her powers, abruptly looked up, a sharp glint flashing in her honey-colored eyes! Her reaction speed was astonishing; she had already made a judgment the instant she heard those keywords.
"Sector 101!" she said, standing up and looking at Zephyr and Cassian, who had also heard the signal and whose expressions had turned serious. Her tone was decisive. "Are we leaving now?"
Elsewhere, Alan, who was struggling miserably on the pull-up bar, his arms as thin as chicken wings and trembling at a high frequency, his face beet red, heard Elara's words as if he'd been granted a pardon. He immediately let go, dropped from the equipment with a thud, and landed on his butt on the ground. He gasped for breath but eagerly asked, "Wh-when are we leaving?"
Though the training was agonizing, the thought of going out on a "mission," at least to temporarily escape Zephyr's "demonic training," filled him with excitement.
Zephyr's perpetually icy face now held a trace of gravity and… an almost imperceptible urgency. He wasted no words, simply uttering two, clipped and decisive:
"Right now."
The SUV, like a black bolt of lightning, sped along the snow-covered, empty main city road.
With Vespera as their powerful "human radar," they could preemptively avoid almost all areas with dense concentrations of undead. The occasional stray undead attracted by the engine noise was mentally redirected by Vespera before it could even get close, wandering off aimlessly.
The journey was, to say the least, unprecedentedly smooth and… safe.
This also gave Elara a long-lost moment of leisure. She leaned against the window, quietly watching the rapidly receding scenery. The entire S-City was blanketed by a heavy snow that showed no signs of stopping. The once-familiar streets and buildings, full of life and human warmth, were now draped in a thick, white coat, reflecting a blinding light under the sun.
The scene was so pure it felt unreal, as if it could wash away all the sins and filth of the world.
What a pity… there was no going back.
An indescribable sense of wistful loss welled up in Elara's heart. She reached out and rolled down the window a crack. The freezing wind, mixed with snowflakes, immediately rushed in, brushing against her cheeks and short hair. She extended her hand out the window, letting the cold snowflakes land on her palm, then melt into icy water droplets from the warmth of her skin.
She suddenly realized that she hadn't… thought about Leon in a very long time.
The man who had once occupied her entire youth, whom she had loved and hated, and who had ultimately pushed her into the abyss with his own hands, seemed to be slowly fading from her memory with the passage of time and the beginning of a new life.
For this trip, they hadn't brought the researchers, leaving them behind in the relative safety of the villa. Only Alan had shown obvious disappointment upon learning he couldn't come along to "join the fun."
Cassian, sitting beside Elara, keenly noticed the fleeting look of dejection and wistfulness on her face. A flicker of understanding crossed his deep blue eyes; he remembered what had happened to her.
But he didn't point it out. Instead, as usual, he asked in a gentle tone, soft enough to melt ice, "What's wrong? What are you thinking about?"
"I was just thinking…" Elara pulled her hand back in and closed the window, shutting out the cold sense of loss. She turned her head and looked into Cassian's eyes, which seemed to see right through her, and gave a self-deprecating smile. "...that people are really good at deceiving themselves."
In truth, looking back now, there were signs for so many things. Leon's perfunctory attitude towards her, his overly intimate interactions with Ashley, the abnormal financial flows in the company… It was just that back then, she was blinded by so-called love, making excuses for him time and time again, unwilling to believe the cruel truths that were right in front of her.
"If everyone thought like you, I'm afraid no sinner in this world would ever have to pay for their crimes," Cassian's tone was still gentle, as if stating a simple, common truth.
He paused, and a cold, chilling sharpness flashed in his deep blue eyes. "The victim's failure to notice in time is not the root cause. The sinner's deliberate, calculated concealment and meticulously woven lies are. That culpability can never be lightly forgiven."
His voice was so gentle, yet when he spoke those last few words, they were laced with an unshakeable coldness and resolve that seemed to make the temperature inside the vehicle drop a few degrees.
However, these words, which sounded somewhat cold and ruthless, fell on Elara's ears and, for some reason… brought a touch of warmth to her heart, which had grown cold and stung by memories.
In Cassian's words, she heard a sense of… being understood and defended. He didn't, like others might, advise her to "let go" or "look forward." Instead, he pointed directly to the core of the issue—the fault never lay with the deceived victim, but with the perpetrator who inflicted the harm.
Elara looked at Cassian, and a genuine, relaxed smile finally bloomed on her lips again.
"Thank you, Cassian," she said softly.