Landon Hale did not punch the monster. He did not raise a magic shield. He stood in the massive, ruined underground cavern in Chicago. He reached his glowing white hands out into the empty air. He grabbed the invisible, twisted fabric of the dark magic itself. General Kade Rauth floated high above him. The evil general was fused with the dead god's heart. He was spinning a massive, purple tornado of toxic magic. He was trying to erase the entire city of Chicago from reality. Landon held the magical air tightly in his bare hands. "RRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Landon roared at the top of his lungs. Landon pulled his hands apart. He ripped the fabric of the magic violently in half. The sound was absolutely unbelievable. It sounded like the entire sky was shattering into a billion pieces of broken glass. The bright white Kinetic Echo magic exploded outward from Landon's hands. The white light slammed brutally into the swirling purple tornado. The two magics did not just push against each oth

"Mom! Dad!" Landon coughed, looking around wildly. He saw them. His parents were trapped under a heavy, burning wooden beam on the other side of the room. They were reaching their hands out to him. They were screaming his name. "Landon, please! Save us!" his mother wept. Landon ran forward to lift the heavy beam. But he could not move. He looked down at his own body. He was not a grown man anymore. He was a tiny, weak, helpless six-year-old boy. His small hands were trembling. He had no giant muscles. He had no Kinetic Echo magic. He was completely powerless. "You are nothing," his father yelled angrily from the flames. "You are a failure!" Landon felt a crushing, overwhelming wave of pure despair and guilt crash over his soul. This was his deepest, most painful core struggle. He always felt like he was never strong enough to save everyone. He fell to his knees in the burning illusion, crying hot tears. He felt like a scared little boy again. “Give up,” the ancient runes whisp

The giant, dark hole in the stone floor looked like a gateway to a terrible nightmare. Claire Arden stood perfectly still at the very edge of the deep, spiraling staircase. She looked down into the absolute, pitch-black darkness. Landon Hale had just walked down those dark stairs alone. He had gone deep into the earth to fight General Kade Rauth. Claire’s heart ached with a heavy, painful sadness. She wanted to run down the stairs. She wanted to chase after the man she loved. She wanted to stand by his side and fight the monsters together. But she could not move. Landon had given her a direct order. He had told her to stay behind. He trusted her to protect the team and hold the line. If she failed, the Iron Order soldiers would sneak down the stairs and attack Landon from behind. She had to be strong. Claire closed her dark eyes. She tried to reach into her mind. She tried to find the warm, beautiful, glowing white web of the War Resonance magic. But the magical web was completel