Matt opted out of gloves, instead rolling warm flames around his fingers. "I choose the latter. The scale wouldn't bring us here if there wasn't Essence to pick up."

"Unless it's a trap," said Hugo.

Helena lifted her head a little. Without proper winter gear to fit her frame, she was forced to curl up near the campfire to stay warm. "Hugo, you don't have to be so...suspish..." Her eyes fluttered until a sharp finger snap from Matt jolted her back to alertness. "I'm up, I'm up."

"Helena should camp inside the car," Hugo said. "It's too cold out here and I don't need her lethargic in case we have to run."

"Agreed," Alasea said. "I'll try and alter her winter gear later. Shouldn't be too hard now that I have my power back."

Ileyna rubbed at her eyes a bit, growing a bit tired. "What are we gonna do tomorrow, though?" she asked when her vision cleared up a bit.

"I'm not sure," Alasea replied. "We should probably try and look around the area to see if there's anything out of the ordinary here, or anything we can use. R.D.... he mentioned that the Scale tends to drop us around what we need, and not near the Essence."

Hugo glanced back at the ruined skyscrapers, broken pieces only held together by gravity and luck. "I don't know if we'll find anything...but I don't know what else we can do if we can't pick up the Essence." He turned back towards Ileyna. "You should get some sleep."

"I'll get the Firebird ready and take first watch," Matt said. With a grunt, he pushed up off his knees and rose to his feet.

"Ileyna, you go get some sleep in the car too," Alasea urged gently. "You don't need to be out in this cold either."

"Okay," the girl acquiesced easily enough. She stood and dusted off her skirt before following after Matt.

Helena dragged herself off the ground and followed Ileyna. Matt unfolded the Firebird with a heavy thud, and the weredragon crawled into the back seat, pushing her wings against the seats.

"I'm not sure if this has a heater," Matt said, waving his hand over the control panel. "And I'm afraid to press something in case something blows up."

"It's warmer in here," Helena said. "We'll be fine."

"All right." Matt looked at Ileyna. "Well, if you want the front, take the passenger seat, I need to keep the driver seat empty."

The girl simply climbed into the backseat with Helena, feeling more comfortable there. Soon the two of them were falling asleep.

Alasea leaned against the wall of the traincar, looking at her gloved hands and manifesting a small flame above them to try and keep them warm. The black clouds above were almost indistinguishable from the night, but the silver clouds alongside them left a disconcerting atmosphere over the camp.

"I guess now's the best time to look for the silver lining in those clouds," Matt remarked, trudging up to Alasea with hands buried in pockets. "Seriously, why silver? That's a weird color choice for ominous clouds."

"I don't understand it either," Alasea said quietly, looking up at the sky. She already missed seeing the stars; they were blanketed by the clouds. It was as if they'd been cut off from the rest of the universe. "Something tells me that NightShade isn't the one doing this... this seems more like Ziatoch's work. But I can't be sure."

A breeze blew by, causing the campfire to flicker. Alasea snapped a hand at it, causing a nearby log from the pile they'd gathered to lift up and drop onto the flames. "Every time you guys leave, everything seems to go to hell here," she continued. "And now... well, look over there, Matt."

She pointed off to their right, past the car and past the fenced tunnel, towards the forested area and the destroyed bridge.

Matt peered in that direction. "What? What am I looking for?"

It was a few more moments before it became obvious--something was approaching through the forest, towards the camp. One by one, they appeared--ghostly hounds that bound on four legs and waved unusually long, reptilian tails. The wards Alasea had set up failed to detect their presence and were silent. Their transparent bodies made an eerie green glow as they moved about, and a number of them lowered heads with vaguely canine features, sniffing the ground, as if searching for something. All of them had blazing red eyes that burned through the darkness, and their movements were utterly soundless.

As they drifted into the clearing, Alasea lifted up a hand to hold Matt off. One of the creatures hopped up onto the Firebird--the car didn't even seem to move or make a sound, like it was weightless. "They're something that appear after portal storms, Aisha said," Alasea explained in a whisper. "Creatures from another dimension, but not entirely in this once. They look frightening... but they're not a danger to us. We can't do anything to them, and they can't do anything to us."

Many of the ghostly hounds spotted them, and kept their eyes on them, but they stayed away. They kept their distance from the fire, as if preferring the dark. And within moments, the pack moved on, bounding around the campsite and down the cliff, disappearing from sight. Once more, the night became still.

Moments dragged past. "Okay," Matt finally said. "That was really fucking creepy."

"Mmn," Alasea nodded. "Just one of many things that can appear after a portal storm. There shouldn't be any dangerous creatures appearing so soon after the one we experienced, at least."

"Got any other mindfucks you wanna warn me about?"

"Not at the moment, no," Alasea said, pushing up from the wall of the traincar. She patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Matt, if I learn anything else, you'll be the first to know."

She spared a glance at the fire. "I'm gonna try and get some sleep now," she said. "Try to keep warm. It's only going to get colder tonight."

"All right," Matt said. "I got first watch anyway."

Night passed, but no other enigmatic creatures visited the camp in the night, and the ghostly hounds weren't seen again after their passing. Morning came, but the sun had difficulty piercing through the black and silver clouds, which still gathered over the skies. Morning was still somewhat dark.

After the group had dressed and fed, they set out to search around the area. The fence in the tunnel was moved aside, and they ventured through, finding the old generator and activating it to turn on the lights strung across the ceiling. They passed overturned mining carts and wrecked shelves, and came out to find a derelict mining station that had been abandoned many years ago. A communication relay was ahead of them, but weather and time had ensured that it and the equipment they found inside was entirely inoperable. Past that was the main facility, and they scoured it for supplies.

As noon approached, Alasea wiped her hands off on her pants as she and the others gathered together. "I was afraid of this," she said. "I'm seeing signs that there's been antlions in this area."

"I don't even know what those are and I'm not liking the sound of them," Matt said.

"You wouldn't, no," Alasea said, shaking her head. "Lemme explain. Antlions are another creature from a different dimension, but they came here from portal storms many years in the past. They're... nasty things."

She waved a hand and formed an image of an insectile creature the size of a large dog. They lacked eyes and had large wings, and their forelimbs and teeth looked sharp. "Blasted things live in underground hives, and are very sensitive to seismic movements--footsteps on sand can set them off, but I think that's only during their mating cycle. Luckily for us small tremors tend to scare them off, and they're fragile. Easy to kill. But... well, if I'm seeing signs of them, there's probably a hive nearby, probably near the mining tunnels here."

"What do we do about them?" Ileyna asked, looking worried.

"I've already set up some wards to keep them away," Alasea reassured her. "But unless we find out there's Omega Essence in their hive or something, I say we just stay away from them. There's worse forms of them in the hives, but its rare to see one on the surface."

"Well, if they're afraid of tremors, I'll just stomp everywhere with seismic power and they'll back off," Matt said.

"But won't you run out eventually?" Helena asked.

"Well, that's why we don't dilly-dally. We go in, get what we need, and get out."

"Let's just try to avoid any antlion hives we come across for now," Alasea said. "So, did we find anything useful in this dump?"

"I can't use any of this junk," Hugo said. "It's all worn out."

"I couldn't find anything, and I'm still not detecting any Essence," Ileyna said, her shoulders slumping.

"I was afraid of this," Alasea muttered, rubbing her temples. "Other than bad signs, most of the things here looked useless. If only we knew--"

A noise sounded off in the distance, something alien and unfamiliar. Alasea tensed up immediately. "What the hell was that?" she asked, looking around while her hand went for her blade.

Hugo shrugged his pickaxe and the chamber clicked. "Let's find out."

"That wasn't an antlion, was it?" Ileyna asked, looking about alertly.

"No, I've never heard anything like that," Alasea said. "Be careful. Hugo, see if you can detect anything."

Elsewhere, at the far end of the facility, something scurried off a rooftop and out of sight.

Hugo's pickaxe shot out and pointed ahead of them. "Something just moved out of my scan range in that direction."

Matt socked his fist. "All right. Let's find out what it is and beat it up. This is a fantastic plan."

Helena sighed. "Sure, Matt."

They quickly headed off, weaving through the train cars and the buildings, but found no creature--only odd tracks left behind something falling from a roof. They followed what they could, but still found nothing.

"I don't like this," Alasea said. "I think we better get back to the camp. There's no room to maneuver he--"

Something crashed inside the building nearby. The door to the building was jammed shut, but there was a hole in the roof.

"Matt, go check it out," Alasea said quietly after a moment. She readied up a barrier and placed it on Matt, causing his clothing to glow slightly, strengthening into something akin to armor.

"This place better not have zombies," Matt muttered. "Fucking scared to death of zombies." He pointed at Helena. "Nuke anything that isn't me, even if I fall from the hole and I'm wrestling with it. Okay?"

"Just be careful," Helena said.

That was definitely the plan. Matt bent a little before bursting up through the hole with a super jump.

Something hulking, larger than Matt waited behind the tables and equipment. The beast was covered completely in shadow, but held a vague humanoid shape, with only hints and promises at what lay beneath its unnatural darkness. The only thing definite about it was the blazing white eyes contained within its head.

It snarled at Matt as he dropped down, and lunged, arms swinging.

"SHIT!" Matt shouted very loudly as his body was smothered in the tackle. There wasn't any time to see what Matt was trying to hit. All there was time for was to flail with thundering fists charged with electricity, wailing on any hint of hide he could find as he rolled with the beast's attack.

"Matt!" Helena shouted from below. "Hang on!"

The berserk creature seemed to pay no mind as the blows smashed into its darkened body, and returned with equal fervor. Soon they'd both be covered in bruises, but the creature broke off with the tackle, rolling past Matt and onto its feet. It whipped around, snarling and brandishing what might have been claws.