Chapter 59
The Bravado of Man
A voice cried out only for a moment before being silenced.
A’stul watched emptily as a listless body of a human fell, eyeless, before him, a stirring of shadows soon shaping into a rank of Spryaes. They stared at him expectantly, awaiting praise. But his lips remained mum. He but glazed over their looming figures before leaning...
2023-09-18 19:46:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 58
Changes
Ethan cringed at the sight.
A splayed entrance of a tunnel that was doused in thick layers of fog and miasma stared at him from the screen, taunting. It had happened again–an anomaly.
Ronald had informed him in panic as soon as he’d returned, shoving the news into his face before Ethan could even take a shower. Some thirty miles n...
2023-09-16 19:56:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 57
Hymns of Death
Ethan pulled back the crimson blade, revealing a soft, old face that paled almost immediately, drained of blood. Colonel Quincy Jeeves lay dead in his bed next to a woman–likely his wife–who was wholly unaware of what had just transpired. Pulling back, he left the bedroom through the window, dismissing the notification that informed hi...
2023-09-15 20:23:59 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 56
Dreaded Dark
It stalked.
The dark alleyways were its home, the damp, rancid holes between the buildings filled with trash and things unwanted. It, too, was unwanted. But it could become wanted. It could become anything. And anything it was–inscrutable, ephemeral.
“Hey, Julie!” its voice was perfect–a lullaby, a song, the grandly craft...
2023-09-14 19:15:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 55
Crimson Lullaby
Michael and James stared flabbergasted at the man standing some twenty feet from them. He was being serious–he was effectively inviting them to kill him just so he could prove some hollow point. Neither came with that intent, not truly–they simply wanted to establish a power dynamic in which they were the drivers, at least to some deg...
2023-09-13 20:15:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 54
The Tidings
Michael put down the phone and, with a deep sigh, leaned back into the chair, his expression sombre and thoughtful.
“Any luck?” a voice spoke out from the slightly darkened side where a man in a black suit was standing, his expression equally thoughtful to Michael’s.
“Some,” Michael replied. “I threw him a bait, he thr...
2023-09-12 19:16:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 53
Deal With the Devil
The phone rang.
Ethan groaned himself out of sleep and reached toward the nightstand, grabbing it. The first thing he noticed was that it was 3 A.M., and the second was the caller–Elijah. Quickly muting the sound, he shuffled out of bed carefully so as to not wake Layla up and quickly left the lodge. Despite the fact that the ...
2023-09-12 19:16:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 52
Necessities
Ethan withdrew a blood sword from the guts of a dying zowolf, digging into the creature’s corpse for a moment and taking out a small crystal, putting it into his inventory. Tian had informed him of the roamer that he’d spotted when taking Layla on one of their many excursions into the woods. It didn’t mean much–not really. It coul...
2023-09-11 20:07:53 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 51
The Games Played
“Y-yeah, it’s me,” Elijah spoke softly into the phone that Michael handed him. It was a secured one–though he could have had his men track the number on the other end, for the time being, he elected to play along. “No, they didn’t. Ah-uh. Y-yeah. Okay.” After a few more words, Elijah handed over the phone to Michael.
...
2023-09-10 19:32:56 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 50
In Blight and Blindness
An array of golden light flew forward at blinding speeds, illuminating the dark-thatched forest around it. The barks of the trees shimmered in a faint sheen of aurelian, exposing the worm-like veins pulsating just beneath their obsidian barks. It was a forest full of life, the abandoned, unwanted, unholy kind.
However, just ...
2023-09-09 17:53:48 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 49
Truth Beckons
The heart of mankind ultimately beat good–that was what Elijah always believed. Ever since he was a young little boy and his mom used to take him to work with her, where she drove ‘round town helping random stray animals and answering calls from people in need of a rescuer, he’d decided that people were good. His mom was good, all her...
2023-09-08 19:30:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 48
The Spinning of Wheels
Everything was normal–least so far Ethan could tell after skimping over the internet for a while. While there was bombastic news galore, it wasn’t anything he hadn’t already expected to happen. A group of people in Germany, dubbed ‘The First Ones’, regaled their tales of going into the Tunnel and how they came ou...
2023-09-06 20:07:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 47
Mourner’s Voice
Ethan, Elijah, and Ronald stood in line just in front of their temporary base when the spacetime in front of them shuddered and, a moment later, a spiraling vortex not unlike the one they walked through appeared. A pillar of white light shot to the sky as Ethan took a step forward and walked through it, followed right after by Elijah an...
2023-09-05 15:11:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 46
Songs of Silence
The bounty for clearing the Tunnel was massive. Even Ethan was taken aback when he had the opportunity to glance through the stream of notifications that had flooded his peripheral. The boss dropping 3 items was already on the better end of things, but that wasn’t even the half of it. He’d quickly shot all the way up to Level 16, gai...
2023-09-04 23:05:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 45
Memento Mori
Ronald didn’t see when it happened–he was too deep in shock, staring with parted lips at the sight that defied reason. He didn’t even notice until she was standing in the growing shadow, her back turned toward him, short hair fluttering just for a moment before she vanished. He felt something inside of him crack at that moment, at that...
2023-09-03 21:55:29 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 44
Hollow Heart Forsaken
A roar erupted into the seamless void of fire–the beast's obsidian fur kindled, sparks of fire like starlight beginning to dance around it. Ethan approached it head-on, a whip of blood sprawling into its full extension and squarely landing against the beast's snout. The latter pulled back and winced, roaring once more as it stompe...
2023-09-02 16:10:30 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 43
Aurion, the Last King
Of all three types of foes, antelopes, strangely, proved to be the most challenging even for Ethan. It wasn't because they posed any particular danger but because they engaged in fleeing as soon as their Health hit 50%, and they ran really fast. So fast, in fact, that even Ethan was unable to keep up with them. As such, he ...
2023-09-02 16:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 42
Song of the Crimson Death
Ethan escorted Elijah with a strange gaze as the boy sped out of the tent and down the tunnel. In some ways, he was being somewhat impatient with the kids. A few words of reassurance would cost him nothing, but he still held back from committing to them. In part, it was because of Elijah, because he'd already d...
2023-09-01 21:24:18 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 41
Thus Unbecoming
Tara stumbled and fell, her legs giving out, lungs surrendering. She couldn’t move any longer, slinking herself sideways and onto her back, sprawled on the scorching surface beneath. And yet, even the scalding pain of the burning skin couldn’t jostle her. It was impossible–beyond impossible to keep up with him. For every on...
2023-08-31 18:48:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 40
Hell Thus Began
Some six hours into their second hunt, the group, for the first time, ran into a different monster from the lions–it was a six-foot-long constrictor snake, coiled unto itself, seeping strange-looking liquid over its skin. Its hue shifted from blindingly white to cool azure, its body uncoiling as soon as they got within a hundred feet of...
2023-08-30 19:36:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 39
Matter Over Mind
The night—or, at the very least, the Scorching Savanna’s version of the night—descended upon the flat plains. As it did, the four crawled out of the hole in the ground, less than well-rested after having laid down uncomfortably for hours. With the exception of Ethan who slept decently well.
The largest advantage of the 'night...
2023-08-29 20:33:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 38
Boiling Alive
Ronald grunted as he heaved himself out of a waist-deep hole, sitting on the edge and quickly taking out a bottle of water. His entire body was aching, his lungs were on fire, but even more importantly, he felt strangely alive. He and Ethan had been digging out a tunnel for almost six hours straight, and have made some amazing prog...
2023-08-28 20:54:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 37
Scorching Savanna
Ethan, Tara, Ronald, and Elijah stood about twenty feet from the surging vortex that had evolved over the last ten days. Rather than it being just a spinning swirl that distorted space around it, it was a bulging, vertical tunnel with expanding accretion-like disks projecting from its top mouth. It danced between bright, twilight colour...
2023-08-27 17:53:19 +0000 UTC View Post
