The giant bone monster did not wait. It raised its massive spike of a fist, ready to smash my chest into flat meat. I could not move. My crushed knees felt like they were full of broken glass and hot needles.But the glowing text boxes stayed right in front of my eyes, floating in the dark cave.[Class Selection Available: Underworld Sovereign][Do you accept the terms of the Dead?]"Accept!" I choked out, coughing up thick fluid onto the stone floor. "I accept!"The voice inside my skull laughed. It was a deep, sharp sound that made my teeth ache. [Smart choice, kid. Let us rewrite your bad luck.]A sudden rush of freezing energy shot up from the stone floor. It entered my hands and flooded straight into my legs.Snap. Pop.My kneecaps moved on their own. The broken pieces of bone slid back into place under my skin. I did not feel pain anymore. I felt an icy numbness that made my skin crawl. I pushed myself off the floor and stood up. My legs were perfectly straight, but my old sneak

The shadow gorilla jumped from the hotel dock, hitting the water with a dull splash. It did not sink. Its black mist wrapped around my waist, keeping me steady on its broad back as it surged across the dark lagoon toward the Mainland. Behind us, the bright lights of Victoria Island grew small.I looked at my phone screen again. The timer was down to six minutes."Faster," I told the beast.The gorilla moved with long, heavy strides, cutting through the water like a speed boat. In less than three minutes, we hit the muddy banks of the Mainland. The change was instant. There were no bright glass buildings here, only rusty metal roofs and dark streets without working lights.[The system is tracking thirty energy signatures inside that hospital yard, Tobe,] Grim spoke directly inside my brain. His voice lost its usual playful tone. [Low-grade sand lizards. But they are hungry, and your sister is a very attractive meal right now.]"What do you mean by an attractive meal?" I asked, gripping

The plastic radio dropped from my fingers and hit the wet concrete floor with a dull clack. Chiamaka’s voice stopped, cut off by another massive explosion that shook the entire third floor. The green walls groaned, and chunks of old white plaster rained down around us, covering Amarachi’s hospital bed in white dust."Tobe, my chest feels like it is on fire," Amarachi said. Her voice still had that double sound, a deep, heavy vibration layered right underneath her normal tone.The purple glow in her eyes grew wider, eating up her pupils until her gaze looked entirely alien. She gripped her own chest, her fingers tearing at her thin cotton hospital shirt. The oily fluid on the floor tiles was no longer just pooling around her boots; it was moving up her shins like black ink, sinking directly into her skin.I grabbed her under her arms, hauling her small body off the mattress. She felt much lighter than before, almost hollow, like a dry stick. "Hold onto my neck, Amara. We have to move n

The heavy wind from the helicopter blades whipped against my face, carrying the strong smell of burning oil and hot metal. My shadow gorilla stood tall behind me, its red eyes glowing through the gray dust. With over five hundred mana points coursing through my body, I could have ordered the beast to crush the two guards by the cabin door in one single second.But Fanny held the small silver knife tightly against Samuel’s neck. The little boy did not move. His hands were shaking inside his oversized clothes, and the thick white bandages over his eyes were stained with gray dirt from the hospital rooms below."You think you are a big man now, Tobe?" Fanny called out, her voice loud enough to cut through the noise of the spinning rotors. Her red suit coat flapped wildly in the wind. "You got a fancy system. You got some dark ghosts. But you are still just a Mainland boy who cares too much about poor people. Drop the mana stones and step away from the girl."Beside me, Amarachi did not l

The blue lightning blast did not just make a loud noise; it threw my body across the hard roof. I hit the side of the white Vanguard helicopter with a heavy thud, my lower back taking the whole force. For a few seconds, my ears did not work. There was only a loud ringing inside my head, and my eyes could not see clearly.I shook my head, coughing up thick gray dust from the broken concrete. The entire roof was covered in a heavy cloud of blue and black smoke that tasted like burnt plastic and old copper wires."Amara!" I called out. My voice sounded small and distant to my own ears. "Amara! Where are you?"I tried to stand up, but my knees gave out immediately. I looked at the corner of my vision to check the numbers.[Current Mana: 307/100][Health: 45/100][Status: Internal injuries. Movement speed reduced by thirty percent.]I did not care about the system warning. I crawled through the broken tiles, my hands scraping against sharp pieces of stone. The concrete pads where the ammun