2025-10-27 21:57:32
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~Omniscient POVThe inside of the void was alive. Not in any sense one could name or touch, yet it throbbed, an endless pulse of colour and shadow, a place where gravity bent like wet cloth and time smirked behind its hand. Islands of stone floated in impossible arcs, some large enough to harbour forests of twisted, glowing trees, others mere shards of rock spinning lazily in mid-air. Wisps of light twisted like smoke along the edges, dissolving, reforming, bleeding into the ever-shifting black around them.Vyrath tore through the nearest fragment of rock with a howl, claws scraping against the impossible geometry. Shards floated upward, circling him in a chaotic dance before being swallowed into the void. He thrashed again, a tempest in miniature, each movement leaving trails of fractured colour in the air, sparks of his wrath illuminating the swirling darkness.“You’ll tire yourself before you even begin to understand it,” a voice called, clipped, sharp. Calista hovered nearby, leg
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~LaurentThe portal blinked open like a slit in reality, a shadowed corridor stretching beyond comprehension. I stepped through, and the world around me folded and twisted, colours bleeding into impossible angles, sounds bending into echoes I couldn’t place. Beta walked beside me, silent, each step deliberate, like it knew how fragile I was in this realm.I swallowed hard. “Where exactly are we going?” I asked, though I already knew the answer: the void. The place no sane person should ever tread.“Patience,” Beta replied, voice low and even, almost bored. “The path itself will teach you. Focus, watch, don’t interfere.”And so I watched. The dimension stretched infinitely, yet I could measure it only by the flow of my own heartbeat, the rhythm of my breath. The ground—if it could be called that—shifted beneath us, sometimes solid stone, sometimes mist, sometimes the hint of nothing at all. Colours leapt in the air, spiralling, folding into themselves like ribbons caught in a storm.
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~LaurentThe alley smelled of smoke and rain. Damp bricks pressed close on either side, narrow and twisting. Sunlight barely touched the cobblestones, leaving everything else in shadow. I paused, a hand brushing against the wet wall, listening.Movement. A subtle shift in the darkness. Not much, but enough.I didn’t panic. Not yet. I had learned to trust instincts sharper than fear itself.“You can come out,” I said quietly. “You’re terrible at hiding.”The shadows moved, slow, deliberate. A laugh echoed—soft, amused, familiar.“Seriously?” the voice asked. “I thought I got better at this.”I tensed. “What do you want?”“I heard you were looking for someone.”“Who told you that?” I asked, frowning.“Just a hunch,” it replied.“That’s a very specific hunch. Is that your power? Super perception?”“A bit,” the voice said. And then the figure stepped forward.Light caught the edges of its form, revealing a monster. Not grotesque, not terrifying at first glance—but definitely not human. It
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~LaurentThe restaurant smelled of roasted meats and fresh bread. Sunlight spilled through the windows, cutting across the wooden tables in lazy rectangles. I sat back, watching my friends laugh. I didn’t even want to be here but they made me come insisting that it was only right we shared a meal after all what we’d been through together.There was a lot I should’ve been doing but somewhere deep inside of me, I was glad I came because for the first time in a long time, life felt… simple.Kendrix leaned back in his chair, a wide grin splitting his face.“Remember that one chimera in the eastern woods? The one that kept popping out of nowhere?” he said.Ivelle chuckled. “I don’t think I ever wanted to see a creature again so badly in my life. You nearly got yourself turned into stew.”“I was injured and I didn’t even see you doing anything to help,” Kendrix folded his arms. “Kind of reminded me of the time we went up against Calen,” Denzel started, turning to Laurent. “Just you and I,
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~LaurentThe city was waking, but not with the usual murmur of ordinary mornings. Elarion exhaled in the soft crackle of rebuilding. I took it upon myself to bring Elarion back to how it was before the whole chaos that Vyrath brought with his emergence. I supervised the walls being repaired, towers being reconstructed, the faint hiss of arcane energy sealing fissures where monsters had torn through. I walked through the streets with a slow, deliberate pace, boots echoing against stone that had once been charred black. Each step carried a weight I had grown accustomed to—the quiet knowledge that the monsters, though not gone, now lived only if I permitted them to.The air smelled of wet stone and iron, the scent of the recent past that clung stubbornly to the bones of the city. I paused, letting my eyes drift across a courtyard where the first of the E-rank students were training under the watchful eyes of instructors I had appointed myself. My system had been patient, my own powe
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~LaurentFor a moment, I stayed where I was.Arms locked around Ivelle. Fingers clenched in her hair. Breathing her in like proof.She was warm. Solid. Real.That mattered more than anything else.Then footsteps rushed closer, hurried and uneven, and suddenly there were too many hands on me—gripping my shoulders, my arms, my back. Voices overlapped, loud and disbelieving, saying my name like they needed to hear it out loud to be sure it was true.Kendrix laughed, sharp and breathless, the sound cracking halfway through. Denzel swore, then pulled me into a rough embrace that nearly cracked my ribs. Ciela pressed her forehead to my arm, eyes shining, lips moving soundlessly like she was counting me back into existence.I let it happen.I let them crowd me. Let them touch me like I might vanish if they didn’t. Let the noise wash over me until the ringing in my ears finally eased.For a few seconds—maybe longer—I almost believed it was over.That whatever nightmare I’d fallen through had
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