THE APEX PREDATORSThe world of New Eden did not ask for permission to thrive; it simply erupted into existence. The rebirth of the Earth, fueled by the volatile fusion of absolute creation and absolute decay, had bypassed millions of years of natural evolution. The jungles that now blanketed the ruined islands of the Indonesian archipelago were a breathtaking, terrifying paradox. The canopy above was not merely green; the leaves of the towering, skyscraper-sized ancient Banyan trees possessed a crystalline structure, refracting the warm, golden sunlight into blinding prisms of violet, emerald, and azure. The rivers that cut through the deep, loamy valleys did not flow with muddy water, but with a glowing, bioluminescent cyan fluid—a diluted, safe remnant of the cosmic nectar that had once powered the cloning vats of the Owners. It was a paradise. But it was a paradise designed by two psychotic, battle-hardened gods. Therefore, the beauty was inherently lethal. The flowers that blo

It was a slow, heavy, rhythmic vibration. Thud. Thud. Thud. The crystalline leaves of the canopy rattled, raining tiny, colorful prisms down upon them. The birds and mutant insects in the immediate vicinity went completely, terrifyingly silent.  "Direction?" Je asked, calmly unwrapping Rara's legs from his neck and letting her drop gracefully to the ground beside him.  "Twelve o'clock. Four hundred yards. Coming fast," Rara smiled, her fangs sliding out from her gums, glistening with saliva. With a sickeningly wet slice, her black bone scythes extended a full meter from her knuckles.  The dense brush of the jungle violently parted. Trees the size of buildings were snapped in half and tossed aside like dry twigs.  Bursting into the clearing was a monstrosity born from the absolute chaos of the world's rebirth. It was an Apex Boar, but mutated beyond logic. It stood twenty feet tall

A WHISPER IN THE DARK Fifty miles away, in the heart of the crystalline jungle, the tranquility of the afternoon had vanished entirely.  The vibrant, humming life of the forest was utterly silent. The mutant animals had fled, their survival instincts driving them miles away from the epicenter of the anomaly. The golden sunlight filtering through the crystal canopy had turned a sickening, bruised purple.  Je and Rara stood at the edge of a massive, perfectly circular crater.  This crater was not made by an explosion. The earth had simply ceased to exist, scooped out by a localized deletion of physical space. In the center of the crater, hovering ten feet off the ground, was a tear in reality. It looked like a jagged, bleeding wound in the air, leaking thick, heavy black fog that smelled of burning ozone and absolute, freezing zero.  "Someone fo