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 th...
2023-08-27 17:52:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 bast...
2023-08-26 18:51:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 sti...
2023-08-26 18:50:50 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 presse...
2023-08-25 19:00:25 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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-p...
2023-08-25 18:59:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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. Whil...
2023-08-24 20:06:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 ...
2023-08-23 22:18:06 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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, th...
2023-08-22 21:28:13 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 wit...
2023-08-22 21:27:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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,...
2023-08-21 22:07:05 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 a...
2023-08-21 22:06:42 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 relaye...
2023-08-20 19:38:02 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 incomplet...
2023-08-20 19:37:37 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 th...
2023-08-18 22:21:58 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 bec...
2023-08-18 22:19:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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...
2023-08-17 19:49:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 f...
2023-08-17 19:48:40 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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
<... 2023-08-16 18:21:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 L...
2023-08-16 18:21:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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,...
2023-08-14 13:39:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 a...
2023-08-14 13:38:49 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 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 everyt...
2023-08-14 13:38:22 +0000 UTC View PostTo 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 ...
2023-08-13 16:32:32 +0000 UTC View Post
