All Chapters of APEX AWAKENING : Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
122 chapters
THE DEVIL'S BARGAIN
The Pit was silent. The choice before Draven felt heavier than the Juggernaut ever had.His fist closed around the cold vial. Inside, the suppressant promised temporary safety for everyone but him.Liana’s voice came through the comm, tense and raw. “Ashford. Return to the wall. Now.”He didn’t move. His eyes were on the red X on the map. The Sundered Vale. A death sentence with a head start.The comms buzzed with overlapping scanner reports.“Five signatures, maybe six. Holding at the tree line, ten miles north.”“Energy readings cohesive. Awakener patterns. Not feral.”“They’re not moving. They’re waiting.”Waiting for him.Draven turned and walked back to the Citadel wall. He left the cube behind in the dust and climbed to the command platform. The Captains looked grim. Beast sieges they understood, but this was different. This was war.He handed Liana the note and vial. She read it, knuckles white, and passed it around. A circle of understanding closed silently.“He’s calling you
THE SUNDERED WELCOME
The silence was terrifying.With the Beacon suppressed, the forest felt dead. The usual hum of Aura was gone, replaced by a faint, static haze. His Aura Sight barely reached fifty feet. He couldn’t sense the life in the trees, the small mutants scurrying, or the hidden streams. He was running blind.The Citadel’s heartstone in his pocket was the only anchor, a tiny, warm echo of stability in the void.He moved fast, leaping gullies and crashing through underbrush. The plan was simple: get deep into the Sundered Vale, find defensible ground, and turn the hunter’s killing field into a slog. Seventy-two hours. He just had to last.The forest changed. The trees were stunted and twisted. The ground was rocky, lined with jagged, glass-like Aura crystals, scars of the cataclysm that had sundered this place. The air tasted of ozone and metal.He was close.He slid down a steep slope, landing in a narrow canyon, the only mapped entrance to the Vale. The walls rose hundreds of feet, striated wi
THE STALK
Pain taught Draven in a new way.It pulsed through his left shoulder with every heartbeat. The vibrating blade had cut down to the bone, and the ache felt deep and grinding. The Adrenal Refinement ability numbed the worst of it and sharpened his focus, but it was temporary. He was burning his own strength just to keep moving.The silence made everything worse. The Beacon did not just quiet the world. It stole its texture. He could not feel the energy in the rocks or the life around him. His Aura Sight was useless. He had only his eyes and ears, and they felt slow and dull.He stumbled out of the canyon and finally stood inside the Sundered Vale. The sight stole his breath.“This place looks like someone ripped the world open,” he whispered to himself.The ground was split into sharp stone plates and glowing crystals. Some crystals flickered like they were about to die. Heat rose from cracks and twisted the air. Wild energy drifted around in small invisible storms.Draven stopped and s
FURY OF THE CORNERED
Draven ran deeper into the crystal forest. Behind him, the hunter’s furious scream tore through the dead air. She was no longer calm or controlled. She was angry and hurt, and he was the reason.His body was failing. The Adrenal Refinement inside him flickered like a dying star. Every breath stabbed his cracked ribs. His left arm hung uselessly. His Terrain Comprehension still showed him streams of dangerous energy around him, but his body could not keep up.The hunter’s heavy footsteps grew louder. She was injured, but she was still a B Grade fighter. She had more energy, more training, and more willpower than he could imagine.He spotted a structure ahead. It was not natural. It looked like the fallen entrance to one of the Vale’s ancient bone shaped buildings. A tunnel led downward, half blocked by rubble. It was a dead end but also the only safe cover.He dove inside just as a blast of blue energy hit behind him. The explosion shook the entrance, dropping dust and strange bone chi
THE CLEANUP
Pain was everywhere. But under the pain, a new strength was settling in. Draven’s bones felt heavier, denser. His breathing was deeper. The System’s rewards were stitching him back together from the inside.He looked at the dead hunter’s face. Her one visible eye was empty. She wasn't a monster. She was just… a tool. A very sharp tool sent to do a job, and he’d broken her.The blinking red light on her wrist dragged his mind back.5:48:22… 21… 20…“What is that?” he muttered, pulling himself closer. The device was fused to her armor. A small screen showed the countdown and three words: STERILIZATION PROTOCOL: ACTIVE.Sterilization. They weren't just going to kill him. They were going to burn this whole valley off the map to clean up the failed experiment.Six hours.He had to move.Groaning, he searched her body. No more weapons. No maps. Just the blinking bomb on her wrist and a small, sealed pouch on her belt. He ripped it open. Inside were three dense, nutrient rich ration bars and
THE SABOTEUR WITHIN
Draven did not run toward the main gates. He slipped through the burnt forest like a ghost, hiding in the deepest shadows. The System texts kept repeating in his mind: Return to the Citadel. The Custodian is waiting. He reached the outer ruins around the Citadel walls. The usual scavengers were gone. The air felt too still.He spotted a figure on a collapsed fire escape. Grey armor, a long rifle, perfect posture. Not a Citadel Warden. A scout.Draven hid behind a rusted dumpster. With his Aura suppressed, he had to rely only on his eyes.The scout stared east toward the main gate. They expected him to return like a hero, loud and obvious.Wrong.Draven moved west at a low run. He knew a small crack in the foundation near the old drainage culvert. He and Silas had used it before. It was filthy and tight, but almost unknown.He slipped into the Citadel quietly, entering the lower storage levels. The familiar smells of oil, damp concrete, and too many people filled the air.He needed to
THE HUNTER’S GIFT
The unconscious soldier on the floor breathed calmly, like he was only asleep. The data slate in Draven’s hand showed one message glowing on the screen. “He is coming.”Marcus spat beside the soldier. “So he sent a messenger. He is mocking us.”Corbin nudged the man with his boot. “He is also telling us he can put one of his own soldiers on our wall without triggering a single alarm. He is already inside our heads.”Draven kept staring at the message. The rush from stopping the core meltdown was fading and all that was left was a cold, empty feeling in his stomach. He had saved the Citadel, but it felt like he had only cleared one level of a game. And now the next level was waiting with a broken controller.“He is not just coming,” Draven said quietly. “He is already here. In the systems. In the people. Elara”Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Liana appeared, furious and scared. Two medics followed her, holding up a crying, confused Elara. The real Elara.“She does not remember anythin
THE FIRST CHOICE
The Citadel no longer felt like home. It felt like a giant cage where anything could explode. The silence was the worst part. No one spoke above a whisper. Parents held their children close. People looked at Draven with one desperate message in their eyes. Do not get us killed.He stood with the Captains in the strategy room. It was small, quiet and deep inside the command tower. Everyone looked tense.Marcus paced back and forth. “We need to find those drones. We search everywhere.”Liana rubbed her temples. “If we do that, everyone will panic. A stampede could trigger the bombs. That is exactly what he wants. We have to stay calm. We follow his game.” She sounded disgusted.Draven stared at a blank screen. “It is not a game. He is studying how we think when we are afraid.”Elara looked pale but steady. “He gave us his files. The weakness analysis. It is real. He knows our food stores are low. He knows which walls were damaged by the Juggernaut. He knows Warden Kael panics about his
THE SECOND CHOICE
Draven had six hours. He spent them in the command spire, trying to sleep in a chair. His body ached, but his mind wouldn't shut off. Not so structural. The words looped in his head. What did that leave? Personal. Psychological.He was drinking bitter, lukewarm coffee when the alert came. Not on the main screen this time. A single comms device on the table - one taken from the unconscious messenger - beeped twice.Draven picked it up. A text message glowed on the small screen.Custodian: Look east.He walked to the window. The first gray light of dawn was bleeding over the ruined city. At the very edge of the scanner's range, where the containment perimeter held, a single vehicle was moving. A large, six-wheeled transport. It stopped. Figures unloaded something long and heavy, setting it up on a tripod.A tech at a console called out, her voice thin. "I'm getting a energy profile... It's a long-range kinetic projector. A railgun. Military-grade. They're powering it up."Liana was at h
THE END OF THE TEST
The Citadel held its breath. Six hours ticked down. Draven stood alone in the command center, staring at the message on the small, grey comms device.Custodian: Foundry Pit. Now. No drones, no tricks. Just you and me. The final data point. Five minutes.No threats. Just a summons. Somehow, that was worse.Draven walked out without saying goodbye. Liana caught his arm at the door.“It’s a trap,”she said, her voice low.“Probably,”Draven replied. “But it’s the last one. I’m ending this.”He stepped into the Foundry Pit. The air was still and cold. The glassy ground from the Juggernaut’s death crunched under his boots.The Custodian was already there. No soldiers. No weapons. Just him, dressed in his simple grey clothes, his hands empty.“Subject Ashford,” he said. His voice was calm, almost friendly. “Thank you for coming.”“Cut the act,”Draven said, stopping a few paces away. “What’s the final test?”“A fight,”the Custodian said, spreading his hands. “You and me. No interruptions. I wa