THUD! SPLASH!Je and Vina didn't land on a hard floor, but inside a giant holding tank filled with thick pink liquid. The fluid was warm, smelling of iron and disinfectant."Cough! Cough!" Vina choked, trying to reach the slippery edge of the tank. "What is this liquid... it tastes sweet...""Don't swallow it," Je grabbed Vina's dress collar, lifting her out of the tank with one hand. Je shook the slime off his hair. "It's Slurry. Liquefied human paste."They stood on the edge of a rusty metal walkway. Above them, the hole they fell through had closed again by an emergency mechanism. The sound of Heavy Metal music from the nightclub above sounded faint, like the buzzing of a mosquito.But down here, the sound was different.The sound here was the industrial rhythm of death.THUMP... HISS... CRUNCH...Je looked around. The view before his eyes was the definition of modern hell.The room was as big as a football stadium. The ceiling was full of hanging rails carrying thousands of human

The wind in the east smelled of tetanus.Je and his group limped away from the border of the Citadel slums. The glow of the massive fire behind them was now only an orange hue in the polluted night sky.In front of them stretched The Rust Sea.It wasn't an ocean of water. It was a vast desert consisting of reddish-brown iron oxide powder. The rust dust moved like waves, blown by strong winds, creating sharp and toxic dunes."Wear this," Vina tore the bottom of her dress, distributing the cloth to the others. "Cover your nose and mouth. If this rust dust gets into your lungs... in a week you'll be coughing up iron blood.""So beautiful," Rara held out her hand, letting the red dust pile up on her pale palm. "Like walking on dried blood.""You have weird taste in art, Ra," Guntur commented, tying the cloth around his face. His voice was muffled. "Je, are we going to walk through this? My feet are already badly blistered."Je stopped. He stabbed his Karambit into the ground—the soil was

"QUIET, YOU DAMN STONE! OR I'LL BREAK YOUR WINGS BEFORE WE EVEN FLY!"Je slammed his fist into the giant Gargoyle's head. THUD! The sound of bone hitting stone rang out loud. The monster roared, a mix between a lion's sound and tectonic plates grinding. The chain binding its neck went taut, pulling the iron stake embedded in the helipad concrete.The creature was wild. Its eyes glowed emerald green, full of hatred from being enslaved for centuries by the Owners."He won't submit, Je!" Rara yelled, hanging onto the monster's back, her claws trying to find gaps between stone scales for grip. "His skin is too hard! I can't inject dominance!""Then we use the hard way!"Je jumped onto the Gargoyle's head. He drew his Karambit. With one precise motion, Je stabbed the monster's right eye.CRASH!The emerald crystal shattered. Green magma fluid sprayed out."LISTEN TO ME!" Je brought his face close to the screaming monster's ear. His King of Rot aura exploded out, compressing the beast's sou

Climbing Mount Merapi during the apocalypse wasn't a nature walk. It was a pilgrimage of death.Je walked amidst the strangest army ever assembled in history. To his left and right, thousands of Pocong with charred shrouds hopped with military coordination. Behind them, a troop of Genderuwo—jet-black hairy giants—sharpened their claws on volcanic rocks, their growls making the ground tremble.And in the sky, Banaspati (flying fireballs) circled like organic drones, guarding the perimeter against Owners aerial attacks."I never thought I'd fight on the side of demons," Guntur whispered, gripping his shotgun tight. He tried not to look into the eyes of a Kuntilanak twisting her steel-wire-sharp hair on a dry tree branch."They aren't demons, Gun," Sinta said, her eyes glued to her cracked tablet detecting massive energy spikes. "They are manifestations of earth energy. The planet's immune system. And right now, they have a high fever."Je didn't care about definitions. He only cared abo

"COUGH! GAG!"That sound was the most humiliating sound ever heard in the universe. It was the sound of God choking on his own spit.In the middle of the churning sea of flesh inside The Cathedral, the figure of the Prime Owner—The Original Curator—crawled. His pristine white suit was now soaked in red slime, torn here and there revealing newly grown human skin. The skin was pink, sensitive, and blistered.He touched his own face. His flat mask was gone. Now he had a nose, a mouth, and a pair of watery eyes."What... what is this? Why are my lungs burning?" He inhaled frantically. "Why is my heart so noisy?!"The sea of flesh around him slowly receded, solidifying and forming two figures towering over him.Je and Rara.They had returned to their humanoid forms, but in a Transcended state. Je with his marble skin and heterochromia eyes, holding the Karambit now glowing pitch black. Rara with a dress made of hardened blood, her nails as long as kitchen knives."That's called Panic, Pal,