The hot, wet, sticky air of the New Orleans jungle vanished completely.Jayden fell through the swirling purple light of the System Gate. He hit the ground hard. It was not soft red dirt anymore. It was hard, cracked, grey asphalt.He rolled across the rough road. His broken shoulder screamed in pure agony. He stopped rolling and lay on his back, gasping for air. He opened his eyes.The bright, burning jungle sun was gone. The sky above him was a pale, clear blue, turning slightly orange near the horizon. The air was dry. It was incredibly cold and bitingly crisp. There were no giant green leaves or thick vines.Instead, Jayden saw massive, towering rocks made of dry red sandstone. He saw empty, dusty bushes rolling across the road. In the far distance, miles away, he could see the ruined, broken shapes of famous American casinos. The giant, rusted replica of the Eiffel Tower. The broken glass pyramid.They were in the Nevada desert. They were just outside the ruins of Las Vegas, Ame

Jayden was sitting in the exact center of the circle. Maya peeked around the rusted truck. She looked at the giant metal pillars. "What are those?" she gasped.The twelve pillars suddenly hummed to life.WUB... WUB... WUB...A low, vibrating, bone-shaking sound filled the desert. The sound was so deep it made the dust on the ground bounce into the air.Bright red lights began to spin at the top of each metal pillar.The Trap Grid was activating.Between each pillar, a thick wall of shimmering, grey energy ignited. The grey energy walls connected to each other, forming a massive, inescapable dome of anti-magic power over the entire area.It was a Resonance Dampening Field.It was not like the Null-Bomb. The Null-Bomb was an explosion that erased magic completely for a few seconds.This field was a constant, suffocating pressure. It was designed to suppress, choke, and paralyze any System energy inside the cage. It was a digital prison cell.The moment the grey walls connected, Jayden f

The ten soldiers raised their steel batons. They moved with terrifying, emotionless military precision.Jayden forced himself to stand up. His body was already ruined. He had bullets in his shoulder and his leg. He had been fighting for hours. But he set his jaw. He tightened his fists. He would not just lie down and let them break him into pieces. He was the Halo. Even without his magic, he had the heart of a survivor.The first soldier swung his heavy steel baton directly at Jayden’s head.Jayden ducked. The metal stick whistled through the air, missing his ear by an inch.Jayden stepped forward and drove his fist into the soldier’s stomach. It was a good punch, but Jayden had no magic strength. The soldier wore thick, heavy tactical armor. The punch barely made the soldier stumble.The second soldier stepped up behind Jayden.CRACK.The heavy steel baton slammed directly into the back of Jayden’s left knee."AGGGGH!" Jayden screamed.The pain was blinding. It was pure, sharp, whi

The sky over the Nevada desert was torn completely open. A massive, jagged rip of bright purple and pitch-black energy cut through the pale blue clouds. It looked like a giant, bleeding wound in the heavens. The air hummed with a terrible, heavy vibration. The ground shook. Dust and sand blew across the cracked asphalt of Highway 15.Jayden stood in the middle of the empty American highway. Behind him, the twelve black dropships were burning. The flames were bright orange and yellow, sending thick columns of greasy black smoke into the air. The smell of burning metal and melted plastic was incredibly strong.Jayden looked at his own hands. His hands were covered in grey ash. It was the ash of the ten ghost soldiers he had consumed to stay alive. To heal his broken bones, he had sucked their life force directly into his chest. He had eaten their energy.He closed his hands into tight fists. He felt strong. He felt completely healed. There was no pain in his ribs. There was no pain in

Brutus charged. The hydraulic pistons hissed loudly. He swung his massive, electrified war hammer directly at Jayden’s chest. The hammer moved with enough force to smash a car into flat metal.Jayden stood perfectly still. He did not dodge. He did not block. He waited until the heavy metal hammer was exactly two inches away from his face. Then, Jayden raised his right hand.He did not try to stop the hammer with his palm. He did not use magic to push it away.Instead, Jayden struck his fist forward with Prime speed. He punched the thick, solid steel handle of the war hammer.CLAAAAAAANG!The sound of metal hitting metal was deafening.The sheer, impossible physical force of Jayden’s punch snapped the thick steel handle of the hammer completely in half. The heavy, electrified head of the weapon flew off, crashing into a nearby truck and exploding in a shower of blue sparks.Brutus stumbled forward, holding a useless, broken metal stick. "Impossible!" Brutus gasped inside his helmet.J