All Chapters of The Tattooed Emperor: Reborn Before the Apocalypse: Chapter 11
- Chapter 20
47 chapters
Chapter 11: The Prince Arrives at Kingsley Prep!
Roughly nineteen hours left until the end of the world.Dozens of luxury cars rolled up in formation outside the gates of Kingsley Prep, one after another, engines idling in perfect unison."Holy hell is that the richest man in Texas paying Kingsley a visit?""That is way too much firepower for a school drop-off.""Whoever's in that lead car is either loaded, powerful, or both. Senator's kid, maybe?"The chatter kept building as a man in a suit finally stepped forward and opened the rear door of the lead stretch Lincoln.A single leg swung out first.The crowd went dead silent, dozens of pairs of eyes locking onto the car door, hungry to see exactly who was worth this much production for a simple campus visit.The mystery guest finally stepped into view.Young almost too young for the weight he carried. His face still held traces of boyish softness.And yet somehow, even from a distance, everyone present could feel it a gravity radiating off him that had nothing to do with his age.Be
Chapter 12: Emerging From the Inferno Unscathed
So this is how it ends. Good doesn't win. Not always.That was the thought running through the crowd's mind that Preston Whitlock, in broad daylight, in front of half the school, had just openly tried to kill someone.And Damon Sterling the one guy who usually walked away from every clash with Preston on top had apparently lost his mind completely, walking straight into an obvious trap like he'd forgotten how to think.Well. Guess Kingsley Prep officially belongs to Preston Whitlock now.Nobody wanted to see it end this way. But with the fire already roaring and the outcome seemingly written, most of the students standing around could only shake their heads and quietly hope whoever inherited this mess after Preston took over would have it easier than they would.Then, out of nowhere, a woman came sprinting through the crowd with a bucket of water sloshing in her hands."Somebody help me put this out! Please, help me!"Her voice shook as she ran back and forth along the edge of the bla
Chapter 13: Torturing a Useless Heir
Gulp.The sound of someone swallowing hard cut through the dead silence of the courtyard as every eye locked onto the fresh cracks splitting the pavement."Please tell me... this is some kind of stunt. Special effects. Something."A college student turned to his friend, who'd just offered up that painfully thin explanation, and stared at him like he'd lost his mind."Since when do stunt actors crack pavement like that and clear three stories in one jump?""Don't look at me, man, I don't have an explanation! All I know is I just watched Superman in real life!""No burns. Three stories. And apparently Superman's real and he goes to *our* school."The murmuring rippled outward through the crowd."Close your eyes, stupid."Damon's voice cut through the noise a beat later flat, almost gentle.THUD. THUD. THUD.More than a dozen bodies dropped from the third floor and slammed into the courtyard below. Some hit headfirst, skulls giving way on impact. Others landed wrong, bones tearing straig
Chapter 14: Grace Sullivan's Tattoo! The Lazy Beast
"Oh my God they just killed a sheriff!""What are these people even trying to prove? Have they completely lost their minds?""Girl, why are you still standing there calling for help? Run! You're going to get yourself killed for nothing!""Let's go, let's go this isn't the kind of drama worth sticking around for.""Damon Sterling's a dead man walking after this. We are not getting caught up in it."The crowd scattered in a chaotic wave, voices tangled together in panic."Get every brother on this moving clear every student and faculty member off Kingsley Prep grounds. I want this campus empty inside three hours."Damon scanned the fleeing, screaming crowd with an unreadable expression before adding, flat and final:"As for the deputies who stood by and let this happen kill them.""Anyone too ashamed to be associated with what happened here, anyone who tries to isolate or bury the truth throw them off this campus. Permanently. No exceptions."Marcus tilted his head, working through the
Chapter 15: Private Army Marches on the Gate
A few hours later.Inside the sealed room, flames still roaring around him, Damon's phone buzzed with an incoming call.Marcus's voice came through, tight with urgency."Boss, everything's done exactly like you asked.""Victor Whitlock lost it the second he heard what happened to his kid. Didn't just call in law enforcement from the surrounding cities he activated his own private army. The ones stationed closest to him.""Official backup's still two hours out, minimum. But the Whitlock family's private soldiers? They'll be at the Kingsley Prep gates in three minutes.""We're talking over a hundred men, boss. Combat trained, and this time they're not just carrying knives real firearms. You sure you don't want backup out there with you?"The second Marcus finished talking, a pair of sharp eyes snapped open somewhere deep in the wall of flame."Stick to the plan. Exactly as I laid it out."Outside the gates of Kingsley Prep, Victor Whitlock's private army had already rolled up in full ta
Chapter 16: The Apocalypse Has Arrived
Under the weight of every stunned gaze around him, Damon tilted his head back and stared straight up into the sky, eyes sharp enough to cut through the heavens themselves."Because... the apocalypse has officially arrived."Eight words. That was all it took.And in the space of a single breath, everything changed.The sun bright, steady, hanging exactly where it always did simply vanished. No warning, no fading twilight. Warmth and light were ripped away in an instant, and the entire world dropped into something closer to a void than nightfall.A vast black curtain swallowed the sky whole, and the earth beneath it full of life just seconds earlier plunged into absolute darkness.Skyscrapers lost their edges entirely, reduced to hulking black silhouettes crouched against the void, like sleeping giants nobody wanted to wake.Cars sat frozen at odd angles across the streets, headlights guttering weakly before drowning completely in the dark, leaving nothing behind but dull metal shells c
Chapter 17: Fire Fist Burns the Undead! Victor Whitlock's Gambit
"Fire Fist!!"Damon's roar tore through the courtyard as his eyes went cold and sharp, aura surging outward like a physical shockwave. Muscles coiled tight, he launched forward faster than anything human had a right to move.His clenched fist blazed with a hellish red glow, promise of something world-ending compressed into a single strike.The punch hit the air like a detonation wind screaming, the atmosphere itself cracking under the pressure wave.A torrent of flame exploded outward from his fist, blinding and gold-hot, temperatures climbing past anything that should exist outside a furnace.BOOM!!!The wave rolled forward with the force of a collapsing dam, or a tornado dragged straight down out of the heavens the air itself screaming and warping around the sheer heat of it, space folding at the edges like it might simply tear apart.The horde bearing down on him fangs bared, mouths open in that same guttural roar, hollow eyes locked on nothing but hunger never had a chance to slow
Chapter 18: The Second Reborn Soul!
Washington, D.C.A city carrying centuries of history in its bones and for just as long, the place where real power in this country had always pooled and settled.In a quiet, tucked-away courtyard belonging to one of the city's oldest and most influential families, an elderly man with white hair and an unnervingly alert gait set his phone down and walked out into the open air.This was Augustus Whitlock. Preston's grandfather. Father to Victor Whitlock, the Lieutenant Governor currently trying to hold Texas together by force.A man wielding that kind of generational power should have carried himself like still water unshakable, untouched by anything as crude as excitement.Instead, the old man's sharp, hawkish face was lit up with something close to euphoria.He stared up at the bleeding crimson moon overhead, eyes bright with an ambition that looked almost feverish, chest heaving with barely-contained emotion."Reborn. I've actually been given a second life. And it lands on the exact
Chapter 19: You Came Here You're Not Leaving!
Whoosh! Whoosh!Hundreds of powerful auras detonated outward in front of Kingsley Prep's gates all at once.The sheer weight of it froze the advancing beasts mid-charge, every predatory instinct suddenly overridden by something far more primal.Fear of death. Even monsters weren't immune to it.A handful of the smarter, stronger beasts read the situation instantly and bolted.The rest dumber, hungrier, driven by something closer to blind instinct than reason hesitated for exactly one beat before charging forward anyway.Damon ignored the mindless ones entirely. His focus locked onto the dozen or so that had turned tail and run.He knew exactly why they'd fled. Beasts smart enough to sense real danger were also, without exception, the ones carrying crystal cores worth having."You made it all the way here. You're not leaving."The words had barely left his mouth before he and Marcus vanished from where they stood.Uncle Frank hadn't kept pace with either of them, but he didn't need to
Chapter 20: Lazy's Mutation! Two Tattoos at Tier Two!
While Damon sat deep in the crystal core absorption, something stirred in the metal-lined room just down the hall.A small red panda let out a roar that had absolutely no business coming out of something that size."ROOOAR!!"A dim, dark-red light rippled outward around him the instant the sound faded, and his small body began expanding fast, visible, unmistakable.Short, soft limbs thickened into something dense with muscle. Claws split out from his paw pads, curved and gleaming, sharp enough to open steel. His stubby tail stretched out into something closer to a whip, cracking through the air with an audible snap.His head reshaped itself just as violently ears sharpening into twin points like blades, jaw stretching open to reveal a full set of vicious fangs. Every trace of "cute" burned away, replaced by something ancient and predatory.This wasn't a red panda anymore. This was something old a creature straight out of forgotten legend.The Ironjaw.The dark-red glow faded, and the