DISTORTED
Author: Karven ash
last update2025-11-12 08:13:47

CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE :

The Arctic station loomed ahead like a frostbitten fortress, jagged steel and ice fused into a structure that refused warmth or mercy. Billy’s breath misted the inside of his mask, each exhale hanging like a ghost. The team moved cautiously through the snow, boots crunching in rhythm with the wind, but even as he focused on the station, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the environment itself was alive.

“Thermal readings are all over the place,” Owen muttered, scanning his tablet. The numbers jumped, sank, and leapt again, as if something—or someone—was interfering. “It’s like the station is… breathing.”

Tyla’s gloves clenched the data scrolls. “No, it’s not just interference. Electromagnetic distortions. Sensors, communications… all of it’s dead or lying to us.” Her sharp eyes swept the frozen horizon. “We can’t even see what’s coming at us until it’s too late.”

Billy nodded, his gut twisting. He hated that sinking dread, hated it for himself, but even more fo
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  • WHEN THE RELIC HUNTS BACK

    CHAPTER 126 :The ambush hit hard and fast.Dust exploded upward as the convoy skidded sideways on the rocky trail. Gunfire cracked through the air, echoing across the ravine like shattering glass. Tyla dove behind a rusted boulder, Billy staggered, and Owen—always the cop first—reacted before anyone could blink.His palms were already raised, scanning the high ridges, calculating trajectory, assessing threat clusters.“Three groups,” he muttered under his breath. “Not random. They knew our route.”“No shit!” Tyla snapped, ducking as a projectile whistled over her head. “Any more brilliant observations?”Owen ignored her tone. He was listening—because trained officers didn’t react to noise, they reacted to patterns. The attackers weren’t firing to kill. The spacing was intentional, staggered like a herding formation.“They’re trying to push us out of position,” Owen concluded. “They want Billy.”Billy felt the relic vibrate beneath his skin, humming like an angry swarm. His heartbeat

  • THE AMBUSH IN THE ASHLANDS

    CHAPTER 125 :The convoy looked tougher than it actually was.Two armored crawlers, one utility truck, a trailer full of equipment Owen definitely “borrowed,” and three people pretending everything wasn’t about to fall apart. They were halfway across the Ashlands when the sky shifted — not darker, not lighter, just… wrong. Like the air itself sucked in a breath.Tyla noticed first.“Billy,” she called from the front seat. “Your relic’s doing that thing again.”Billy, hunched in the back, pressed a trembling hand to his chest. “I know. It’s reacting to something.”“Something like what?” Owen asked from the driver’s seat.Billy didn’t answer — because the answer hit them before he could speak.A blast ripped through the sand ahead, flipping the lead crawler like a toy. Tyla slammed into the dashboard, Owen yanked the controls, and Billy grabbed the rail overhead as the whole truck fishtailed violently.“AMBUSH!” Owen shouted.No kidding.Figures rose from the dunes — masked, armed, movi

  • THE VOLCANO THAT SHOULDN'T EXIST

    CHAPTER 124 :Tyla was the first one awake.Not because she slept lightly — she actually slept like someone who hadn’t had a real bed in three months — but because the rising hum from the relic buried in Billy’s chest crackled through the camp like static. The moment she opened her eyes, she knew something was wrong. The air tasted metallic. The kind of cold-before-a-storm energy that made her skin prickle.Billy was sitting alone on a rock a few meters away, hood over his head, elbows on his knees, breathing like he was trying to convince himself he still had lungs.“Morning,” she said, voice dry, cautious.“Is it?” he muttered without turning.Great. That tone. Tyla rolled her eyes but walked over anyway, arms folded, keeping a bit of emotional distance because Billy’s moods lately were like handling a thunderstorm with bare hands. “You’re… humming.”He finally looked up. “I’m not humming.”“Not you. The thing stuck to your soul.”He didn’t laugh. Not even a small smile. Billy’s fac

  • THE WEIGHT IN HIS BONES

    CHAPTER 123 :The path along the eastern ridge narrowed into a cracked spine of rock, flanked by drops on both sides. Heat shimmered off the valley below, rising in waves that made the world bend and breathe like something alive. Billy moved quickly, almost too quickly, boots scraping against unstable ground. Tyla kept pace beside him, but she didn’t miss the way his shoulders were tightening, or the way his hands curled into fists every few minutes as if he were fighting something only he could feel.For the first twenty minutes, they walked in uneasy silence.Then Billy broke.“I don’t need space,” he muttered. “I need stability. I need control. Splitting up doesn’t give me that.”Tyla didn’t look at him. “It gives Owen a chance not to die.”Billy flinched like she’d jabbed him with steel. “I’m not going to kill him.”“You don’t know that,” she said softly. “And that’s the problem.”He stopped walking. Just stopped. Like his legs refused to take another step until she understood som

  • A BREAK IN THE SEAM

    CHAPTER 122 :Dawn crawled over the mountains like it was afraid to touch the world.Thin, gray light spilled into the stone ridge where the three of them had made camp, casting long shadows across the broken terrain. The wind carried dust, heat, and the distant groan of shifting earth — the volcano wasn’t close yet, but Tyla could already feel the tension humming beneath them like something alive.Billy stood at the edge of the ridge, facing the horizon. The relic pulses along his collarbone were dimmer this morning, but they were still there — faint glimmers like molten veins under the skin. He seemed calmer, but Tyla didn’t trust the quiet. Quiet usually meant the relic was waiting, watching, coiling itself for whatever came next.She joined him without a word. She didn’t have to ask if he’d slept — she already knew the answer. He’d spent the night pacing, breathing through waves of pain, and pretending it wasn’t as bad as it looked.Behind them, Owen scuffed around their equipment

  • THE FEAR SHE DIDN'T WANT TO NAME

    CHAPTER 121 :Tyla had seen Billy bruised, exhausted, reckless, stubborn enough to chew fire if it meant protecting someone he cared about — but she had never seen him like this.Soft evening light spilled into the cavern, flickering against the metallic veins now crawling along Billy’s neck. He sat hunched forward, elbows on his knees, breathing in slow, controlled drags like he was afraid exhaling too hard might crack something inside him.The relic wasn’t just bonded to him anymore.It was inside him — a second pulse, an echo beneath his heartbeat, whispering like a distant hummingbird behind his ribs.Tyla watched him from across the cramped cavern, pretending she wasn’t studying every twitch of his fingers, every drag of his breath, every tiny moment he blinked a second too slow. She kept her voice quiet when she finally spoke.“Does it still hurt?”Billy didn’t look up at first. His jaw tightened — that tiny clench he always did when the answer was “yes” but he wanted to pretend

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