Tilting her head, his mother's face became hard as stone. Any trace of tears on her face dried up at that moment. He'd fallen into the trap. His window of opportunity was long gone. He should've just come clean from the beginning with his lie. He put both hands on the first washing machine and lowered his head. He could hear his mother's anger pump through her veins. “Dysentery!?“ she shouted, like she'd been accused of murder. “¡Serás mi muerte, Mars! You want me to join your father!?“ His face shot up, eyes locking with his mother. “Mamá…” Why?… Why would she say that? “Where'd you go!?“ she asked, hands tossing up in anger. Marcus looked at her confused and angry. “What do you mean?“ “After you told the whole class that I—your mamá—gave you dysentery, where did you run off to!? Because your teacher sent Redrick looking for you in the boy's bathroom, only for me to hear that my son, had skipped school, and no-one knew where he'd gone!“ she said, eyes ready to grab him by the j

June 30th, 1919.That day was etched into the minds of every human on earth. Its addition to the textbooks of every student worldwide was once considered the most controversial thing world leaders agreed to.In one day, all at once all over the globe, sinkholes that ranged from town-sized to state-sized appeared without warning.Entire towns, cities, states, small countries, were swallowed. Bigger sinkholes appearing in the ocean prevented tsunamis. The initial sinking claimed a quarter of all life on planet Earth and damage done was once thought to be irreparable.But that was just the beginning.Hospitals and morgues flooded with the injured and dead; world governments all over the globe lost major ports, power plants, and supply chains.Food became something only the privileged were able to get their hands on.People died of starvation, dust clouds killed many, diseases spread like wildfire, and mass panic and hysteria led humans to commit inhuman acts of violence, cannibalism, and

For the rest of class, and the rest of the school day, she refused to bat an eye in his direction. He hung out with Redrick like usual, and he wasn't exactly trying to talk to her every chance he got, but trying to pull her aside was impossible.Being the new girl and everything, she was surrounded pretty much the whole day, and was shockingly liked somehow. It didn't make sense to him how anyone could find her anything but annoying. But what did he know? Not like his opinion mattered either way.The crowd always surrounding her meant “the invisible man,” couldn't get anywhere close.But the moment the school bell rang and the school day was over, she wasted no time in grabbing the invisible man and pulling him aside.“Ow, careful.“ Marcus rubbed his arm. “You ignore me all day then try to rip my arm off?“ He let his annoyance show.“We've got things to do, and I hate waiting.“A group of classmates leaving school stopped in front of them, inviting her to hang out with them, but she d

“Stop!“ Her voice carried the same panic it had before the soul stone had exploded. His thoughts scattered; the energy fell back to his gut. “Listen very closely, kid, or else you just might lose your arm.“Marcus opened his eyes. “But you said—”“I said channel 'some' of it, not 'all' of it. And I said to channel it into your arm, not your fist. Soul essence increases the abilities of the parts of your body it's most concentrated in, and nothing else.“As you are now, a bullet to the gut probably wouldn't penetrate, but it would tear through any other part of you like butter.““So then if I—”“If you channelled all of that soul essence into your fist and threw a punch, you could demolish a house, but every part of your body other than the fist you threw would explode.“His heart tripped. “What!?““Newton's laws still apply. The force you output has an equal and opposite force going back into you. You could die as easily from recoil as you could from an OC,” said River.Marcus took a

He pulled the thread down his gut, through his hips, into his lap, then his knee, then his shins, then his ankles, feet, toes, and finally his toenails. Once again, he almost instinctively stretched it wide across his foot, dissolving it into every muscle, every bone, and even his skin. He concentrated more than he did before, making sure to stretch his soul essence to fill every gap and space he could find. The last thing he wanted was to do it unevenly or not thoroughly enough and end up damaging his leg. Just to be safe, he spread some around his hips, which was a lot harder than he thought it'd be. The closer he got, the more he concentrated. He wanted to kick its head clean off in one strike, and a move like that could pull out his hips or his back. His back… He pulled another thread and dissolved it along his back. It was getting harder to maintain, but there wasn't such a thing as being too cautious when it came to goblins. The goblin clawed more frantically, like the grim