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Chapter 36 - All or Nothing

Chapter 36

All or Nothing

"Again!" Tara yelled, standing up from the ground and ignoring the profusely bleeding hole that had just been opened in her upper right thigh. A faint, barely visible sheen of light coated her as she rushed forward at Ethan who stepped to the side where Ronald's fist was waiting for him. Absorbing the blow gently with his side, he trapped the boy's hand by pressing down with his arm and locking it in-between, while kicking out at Tara an...

Chapter 35 - The Illness of Mankind

Chapter 35

The Illness of Mankind

“Don’t patronise me, Rui!!” a man bellowed and howled, his voice booming against the walls of the conference room. All sixteen people in the room carried tired expressions, yet beneath them a zeal of something more. “The bastard took my son. My son! Why? Because of your snot-filled bastards!”

“Blaming children, Max? Really?” another man scoffed. “Shout all you want, it’s not going to be y...

Chapter 34 - Dullness of a Soul

Chapter 34

Dullness of a Soul

Tara snapped awake.

Her entire body shuddered immediately, her eyes unable to adjust to the falling darkness. It took a moment for the edges of the objects to sharpen enough for her to be able to discern where she was–she was still there, in hell, in the furnace of agony and anguish. Her eyes fearfully wandered to the side and, soon, there she saw him. He sat with his back facing her, back taller than the sky, yet blacker tha...

Blood Mania

Chapter 33 - Within Heart, Without Mind

Chapter 33

Within Heart, Without Mind

“Don’t!!” a young voice cried out abruptly as Ethan crouched above Ronald, a blade formed wholly of blood pointed at the young man’s throat, seeming as though he was about to stab through it. Ignoring the voice, he pressed forward, the blade inches from the throat, when he suddenly felt a strange force repel him. It was not strong enough to actually stop him and if he wanted to he could have easily pushed through, but...

Chapter 32 - Humans and Monsters

Chapter 32

Humans and Monsters

Ethan stared emptily at the expanding field of twilight-purple, its mist a devourer of the living. It was the nature of the Tunnels of this type–the mist would expand up to a mile in diameter, its colour diluting from deep, twilight-purple to a faded shade of azure which would be when the Tunnel's spacetime membrane weakens, and monsters come flooding out. They were still at least ten days away from it, but he was no less calm bec...

Chapter 31 - Humanity's Awakening

Chapter 31

Humanity’s Awakening

Ethan crouched and stuffed his hand inside a dead zowolf’s abdomen, digging out the tiny pearl. The pearl represented a minimal form of the ‘interdimensional currency’, money that could be used to trade inside the Tunnels. While just having a few pebbles would quickly be akin to having a few cents, for the initial wave of trading, they were more than enough.

However, there was still quite some time until then. As it's...

Chapter 30 - Hubris Bespoken

Chapter 30

Hubris Bespoken

“Where’s the guy?” Ysolde asked as soon as Tara walked up to her.

“Got cold feet,” Tara replied casually. “Don’t worry about him. So, where’s Jenine?”

“... sorry, girl,” Ysolde looked at her apologetically for a moment before turning around and starting to walk away. “Gotta earn our keep.” The four men behind the corner were the first to walk out, while two from the nearby crevices slithered to the ...

Chapter 29 - Inferno is the Man

Chapter 29

Inferno is the Man

It stalked.

The sobering reality was one of death, the finality of the inevitable. It cradled the three lost in the darkness and it swallowed them whole. There was no sound, no scream, no wail of pain and agony, a hail of pleas, there was nothing but the burning silence that tore deep into the night. Its hunger satiated, its body began bending and tearing unnaturally, and it hung to the side like a flat panel, blending into the...

Chapter 28 - Of Young and of Woes

Chapter 28

Of Young and of Woes

While the kids busied themselves with the issue of getting supplies, Ethan stayed back at the lodge with Layla and Elijah. The former's routine didn't change much with the new boy's arrival–she still spent a good chunk of her day with Tian, running about the forest. They'd also found a rather friendly rabbit that they'd been feeding secretly and playing with, which consumed even more of their day. She'd only come back for meals a...

Chapter 27 - Of Past, Through Present, to Future

Chapter 27

Of Past, Through Present, to Future

Ronald didn’t stand out in the crowd of people that began to stream from the apartment blocks into the several commercial plazas of the city. While the security of the city was fairly tight, it wasn’t 1984 quite yet, it appeared. Though he still wore a hat and made sure to angle his face away from all obvious security cameras, having spent the entire morning bustling about, no military uniform approached him or e...

Chapter 26 - Ebb and Flow of Things

Chapter 26

Ebb and Flow of Things

Tara's nerves were stretched. The closer she drew to the city, the shakier her confidence became. Even though Ronald and she had gone over the plan for five days straight, and even though she knew it inside and out, from A-Z, front and back, it didn't help. Even reciting the steps in her head as she descended the mountain and crawled in stealth toward the city didn't dismantle the shaky confidence that overtook her. Thus far, eve...

Layla -- artwork #2

Chapter 25 - Neither a Heart nor a Soul

Chapter 25

Neither a Heart nor a Soul

“I’ll go,” Tara’s simple proclamation stopped both Ethan and Ronald from putting the slices of apple that they’d picked up into their mouths. Instead, they stared at her with parted lips, confused. Ethan had just relayed a part of Elijah’s identity and shared that they’d need to go on a supply run that Ethan couldn’t go to, and she volunteered without a second word.

“... you’re fucking with me, right...

Chapter 24 - When Fate and Plans Meet

Chapter 24

When Fate and Plans Meet

Ethan had an odd expression on his face as he ran through the woods carrying 200 pounds of a teenager over his shoulder. How everything played out… made no sense. Not to him, at least. His plan, though rather rushed and incomplete, was still extremely detailed and long-lasting. He'd stay a day and observe and carefully plan out other inconsistencies–the guards' rotation, the boy's habits, the exit route to avoid the eyes fa...

Chapter 23 - The First Kindling

Chapter 23

The First Kindling

Elijah wanted to cry but he knew that if he did, his life would get even worse. And yet, he felt that if he didn't cry… his innards would consume him whole. He hung his head low and waited for it to pass, for the mockery to end, for the laughter to pass, for the pain to subside. But it never did–it was a relenting onslaught, one that only got worse as time passed. He tried to ignore them, to set them aside in his mind and stay st...

Chapter 22- The Song of Greed

Chapter 22

The Song of Greed

Elijah’s first appearance as an Awakened wouldn’t happen for some four months still. As far as Ethan knew, he would remain holed up in the city’s military camp for the initial duration as was the case with most people. His story became popular due to the fact that he saved quite a few people after a Kaynul breach of the military camp, showing no restraint in the process.

Ethan, however, had no intention of waiting for four...

Ethan's lodge -- artwork

Chapter 21 - The Beginnings

Chapter 21

The Beginnings

General Michael Vyorn stood still in a slightly chilled room, draped in a full-body hazmat suit, exposed to the sight that left him utterly speechless: a creature unlike any other on the planet lay strewn on the cold, steel table, exposed to the array of figures that stood near and about him. He, among others, was bearing witness to the autopsy of the creature, dissection of its every part, by one of the leading experts in the field, Dr....

Chapter 20 - Skybound

Chapter 20

Skybound

Just as the monster's head flew off its body, Ethan’s entire vision was drowned in notification screens, chief of which informed him that he slayed a Wocan and cleared the Tunnel. He frowned for a moment, noting how the battle lasted less than five minutes. Though he managed to inflict some serious damage with his initial lash before the creature dug itself into the ground, he didn’t think he’d shaved off the creature’s defences enough...

Layla artwork -- animated #1

Chapter 19 - Baptism of Blood

Chapter 19

Baptism of Blood

Name: Ethan Flynn

Age: 32

Race: Human

Level: 3

Variant: N/A

Titles: N/A

Items: [Tar-Tipped Waeul’s Dagger]

Relics: N/A

Class: Blood Inheritor [Prime]

_________________________

Vitality: 26

Strength: 9

Intellect: 11

Agility: 16

...

Chapter 18 - Entombed in Blood

Chapter 18

Entombed in Blood

Ethan fiddled with a strange-looking item, a palm-sized dagger with a needlepoint tip coated in faint, dark green, and a chiselled handle bound in leather. It was the reward for clearing the camp–past enough experience points to reach Level 2 and unlock Inventory–and though it was quite basic, it did surprise him somewhat. The general rule of thumb when it came to items from the so-called 'First Generation Tunnels' was th...

Tara -- artwork #1

Chapter 17 - Reaper's Dance

Chapter 17

Reaper's Dance

Travelling through the vortex was a strange sensation–Tara felt hairs on her body stand up immediately, chills rush down her spine, and her adrenaline kick in. It was as though her body saw a predator or a situation dangerous for her life, and raised all the alarms the human body had.

The world around her bled into nothing, darkness surging throughout. All noise disappeared, all colours, shapes, definitions of all she’s ever kn...

Chapter 16 - Elegant in the Pursuit of Greatness

Chapter 16

Elegant in the Pursuit of Greatness

Tara drank coffee on the couch and in silence, watching a newsreel on her phone that covered a shocking piece of potential news: there were monsters in the world. She knew there were monsters in the world and had known for a whole week now, but apparently, their zombie wolf wasn't alone in invading the Earth. And, so, others slowly began being aware of them, too.

Ronald had gone for a morning jog ...

Chapter 15 - Demons of Death

Chapter 15

Demons of Death

Silence permeated the thick walls of the lodge as the dawn began to creep from between the thick branches of the surrounding trees. Both Ronald and Tara shuffled and thrashed in their sleep but never woke. Ethan observed them through everything, sitting in the kitchen, having not slept a minute. It wasn't strange, though—he was used to not sleeping, occasionally even going a full week without an hour's rest. When life hung at the thin...

A Post of Division, if you will

To immediately decipher this extremely complex title: all posts published BEFORE this one are for my already finished work, Master of the Loop, while all posts published AFTER this one are for my currently-in-the-process-of-being-written work, Bloodbound Regression. I genuinely don't know if this is the best way to go about it, but hey, I'm a moron so we work with what we got.

Anyway, a quick update on the Bloodbound Regression: I have already updated the Tier...

Asha artwork collection

Stag artwork collection