Limitless: New Dawn

The morning after Arthur returned, Selene did not let him rest for long. The moment the sun climbed above the horizon, she dragged Arthur at the doorway of the beach house with an expression that was equal parts excitement and pride.

“You need to see what happened while you were gone,” she said, already reaching for his hand before he could ask what she meant.

Arthur allowed himself to be pulled along, and a moment later the ocean breeze vanished as they teleported out of the beach. They reappeared high above one of the Sanctuaries near what had once been New York. From above, the circular wall gleamed faintly under the sunlight, its sheer scale was imposing. Within its boundary, however, the landscape had transformed in many ways.

Clusters of homes spread across the interior, mostly mud-brick structures reinforced with stone, with some wood-framed houses scattered here and there, and smoke curling lazily from makeshift chimneys. Fields of green stretched across the leveled terrain he had prepared months earlier. Crops swayed in orderly rows, irrigation channels were cut at the sides of the fields, and people were tending to those crops.

Arthur narrowed his eyes slightly, observing in silence.

Selene watched him from the side. “A lot happened while you were gone.”

They descended slowly until they hovered above a watchtower constructed near the inner wall. People below carried baskets of harvested grain. Others transported bundles of firewood. Children ran across open patches of land, their laughter surprisingly normal against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world.

“After the first month,” Selene began to tell Arthur what happened in the past months. “Several large scale fights broke out among the inhabitants of most of the Sanctuaries, and the main cause for that was to decide who would lead the respective Sanctuaries.”

Arthur wasn’t surprised. Each Sanctuary housed approximately 700,000 to a million humans, and after the end of the second month most Sanctuaries were divided by multiple groups each led by a strong leader.

Now that the government had fallen and there were no hot weapons, people had to rely on their physical strength and the group they made. So, it was inevitable for conflicts to arise as there were multiple people with ambition.

“With nearly a million people in each Sanctuary, conflicts were inevitable,” he said quietly.

Selene nodded. “Some Sanctuaries stayed peaceful. But most split into factions, with groups forming around the strongest individuals. They fought among themselves to decide who would get to lead.”

Arthur watched two men sparring in an open area below, the difference was noticeable they had become much stronger.

After the two months there were a few Sanctuaries who chose a leader through peaceful means, but most Sanctuaries were in conflict.

Some of those leaders leading the Sanctuaries were good people but there were also ones who were rotten to the core. This was when Selene finally intervened, she spared those who were not that corrupt, but directly killed those who were excessively cruel or violent towards the peoples of their respective Sanctuaries.

The ones she killed were those leaders who were forcing the people into labor and using their strength to exploit the weak. And were treating the Sanctuaries like their personal kingdoms.

Arthur studied her face carefully, there was no hesitation there or guilt on her expression.

After repeating that for a few times and with the help of the Central AI Selene informed the people that there was a greater power who controlled the Sanctuaries. She felt this was the only way to curb the conflict at that time.

The AI informed the people that it was okay to form leaderships to lead the people, and even a certain amount of conflicts were spared inside the Sanctuaries. But anyone who tried to exploit the people of the Sanctuaries would be killed without mercy.

Arthur sighed slowly. “Fear is efficient.”

“It was necessary,” Selene replied. “After that, things stabilized. At least enough for people to think of other things instead of just fighting amongst themselves.”

They teleported again, appearing above another Sanctuary, this one in what used to be Europe. The atmosphere here felt organized. A central plaza had been built with stone paving, and a wooden platform stood in the center where a man was speaking to a gathered crowd.

At the start of the third month all the Sanctuaries entered a time of peace. There were minor conflicts to decide the leadership but the AI intervened and suggested they create a system everyone needed to follow to decide the leadership positions.

And many Sanctuaries came up with multiple ways to do so, some accepted duels to decide their leaders, some created a type of rating game where opposing teams participate in various games to decide who gets to be the leader.

But most Sanctuaries accepted the old method of voting to choose their leader. People submitted their vote to the Central AI and whoever got the most amount of votes were chosen as the leader. And each leader had a term of five years to serve and the process was to repeat again.

Arthur gave a faint nod. “It's stable enough to function for now.”

Selene added with a slight smile, “People like having a say, even after the world ended.”

They continued visiting Sanctuary after Sanctuary. Now after more than seven months most Sanctuaries were peaceful, at least on the surface. In some, tensions still lingered among the people. In others, leaders had clearly earned loyalty through competence rather than intimidation.

But the threat of the zombies were never reduced in these seven months, in fact with time the zombies only got stronger.

And those people who continued to hunt zombies even after the Sanctuaries were built and they got a safe place to live their lives were among the strongest now.

They watched a group returning from outside the gates with bags of zombie cores. By now they had cleared the nearby areas of the wall of zombies.

Arthur observed Arnold among one such returning group in the Sanctuary near Chicago. His strikes were a lot more powerful. The difference between survival and discipline was visible in his stance.

“They at least understand that safety isn’t permanent,” Arthur murmured.

And following their footsteps many others were also pursuing to become stronger as they witnessed what a full powered punch from the stronger humans could do.

Food had become another test. After the second month, the packaged food reserves he had stored in the Sanctuaries were exhausted. But the AI had distributed seeds early stored beforehand by Arthur for situations like these, and many were smart enough to hear the Central AI's suggestion and plant various kinds of vegetables and grains.

So, when the packaged food was exhausted people had to rely on food they had grown and hunt animals either within the Sanctuary forests or outside, as to feed such a huge amount of people only animals from within the Sanctuaries were not enough.

But slowly people focused on agriculture to meet food demands, and after seven months most Sanctuaries weren't facing the issue of food. With fields now covering vast portions of enclosed land.

Many Sanctuaries even created their own currency system, but they mostly relied on various qualities of zombie cores.

Arthur chuckled faintly. “Humanity never wastes time reinventing economics.”

Arthur stood quietly atop one of the Sanctuary’s walls, surveying the transformation. There had been bloodshed, power struggles and mistakes, but people were progressing towards a better future.

And now that he had spent nearly ten months in this world he felt they should return to Thyrandel as nearly ten days must have passed there. But before that he decided to complete another task that had waited for a long time.

“We should return soon,” he said.

Selene nodded, but Arthur’s expression became serious.

“There’s one more thing I need to do first.”

…

They appeared in space moments later, the massive form of the Spear of Heaven emerging as Arthur summoned it from his dimensional storage. The colossal structure floated like a silent titan against the stars.

Arthur thought he should store the SOH in the white space or what he simply calls Sea of Consciousness from now on. Now he had more access to it and could store physical objects inside it after his soul went through metamorphosis, though storing something alive was still out of his capability, but he felt it should be possible in the future as he strengthens his soul.

He looked at the SOH, he could finally cure the humans who were experimented on by the Chimerians. Now that he had finally stepped in the same realm as Typhon and had the ability to manipulate energy better he felt it was possible now.

So, he and Selene entered it. Once inside he reached the chamber where the humans were hibernating. Behind reinforced glass receptacles lay millions of human bodies preserved, and stabilized.

Arthur stopped before the first row.

Selene held his hand tightly, seeing him nervous, "You can do it." He looked at Selene and kissed on her forehead and walked towards the glass receptacles.

With his newly evolved perception, he could now see them clearly, not just bodies, but their souls. Each one flickered faintly within its vessel, bound by residual traces of Typhon’s corruptive energy.

Their bodies had been strengthened a lot and all their disfigured parts were fixed, now he just needed to purge Typhon's energy from their system and he felt he could do it.

But there was a tiny bit of doubt in his mind as he didn't know these people personally, he couldn't tell what they would do once they returned to their world as they possessed a lot of strength, much more than the ECHO's or even the ones who are able to use Chi now.

Their bodies had been enhanced by so much that they now possessed strength comparable to a Grandmaster rank martial artist. And no one in their world could stop them unless the UFE bombarded them with Anti-matter bombs.

If awakened as they were, they would return to a world that was unable to contain them.

Unless… Something clicked on his mind. He could offer them a choice to stay in Thyrandel or even in the cultivation world, as most of these people do not have a family anymore for them to return to.

It could be a new beginning for them in places where their strength would not destabilize fragile societies.

So, he took a deep breath and extended his awareness towards the people, spreading it across the entire chamber. His Animakinesis responded instinctively, brushing against millions of dormant souls.

He began isolating Typhon’s residual energy coiled around their soul like parasitic roots.

***

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