Poke.
Poke.
Something sharp jabbed my cheek again and again until I finally cracked an eye open, trying to dispel the grogginess. Amelia stood over me, far too chipper for the hour, grinning like the stick in her hand was some kind of certified torture device.
"Good. He lives," she announced as a few people around camp snorted or chuckled. Henry threw his head back with an exaggerated sigh. "Damn. I was this close to claiming his rations."
"Try it, and you'll lose a hand," I muttered, my voice still rough with sleep.
I dragged my hands down my face and sat up as sunlight crept over the trees, warming my skin after the night.
Amelia knelt down and offered me the stick. "Souvenir?"
I blinked at her. Then, despite myself, I laughed. "Thanks, I guess." Taking the stick as I stretched, half-expecting the soreness from the previous day to come crashing in, but… nothing. There was no pain or stiffness, just a pleasantly surprising freshness.
"Huh. That's a first."
"What?" Amelia asked.
"I'm not sore."
"Must be that shiny new stat sheet working overtime."
"Or maybe I'm just evolving into a higher life form," I said with a grin.
Henry snorted. "If you start glowing or floating, I'm out. I'm not dealing with another chosen one arc."
"I make no promises," I replied, brushing off my clothes as I stood.
After a quick breakfast of mostly dried meat and a few berries, we broke down camp and moved with the kind of efficiency that only comes from too many early mornings.
The sun's were already rising higher by the time we set off, shafts of light piercing through the thinning canopy. The forest around us was beginning to change. What had once been soft, mossy ground turned to gravel and dry earth. The trees thinned, standing like distant sentinels, and the underbrush gave way to scattered patches of brittle, sun-bleached brush that crackled beneath our boots.
That's when I saw them.
Towering creatures, like massive centipedes, moving with an almost fluid grace as they poured over the rocks. Their segmented bodies rose and fell in a rolling tide, sunlight glinting off dark gray armor. Each stood nearly three feet tall, yet their full length stretched like living trains, easily the size of a bus. Dozens of legs churned in perfect rhythm, carrying them forward with a slow, deliberate gait, as if unbothered by the steep slope.
I stopped dead and instinctively reached out, grabbing Henry by the arm just before he stepped into the open.
He blinked at me, confused. "What?"
I yanked him back behind a large rock, motioning for the others to get down. They followed without question.
"What's going on?" Henry whispered, trying to see what had me spooked.
I pointed silently.
His eyes followed my gesture, and then widened. "Oh. Nope."
Crouched low, we watched the centipede-creatures crawl across the clearing. The soft click-click-click of their legs echoed faintly off the surrounding rocks.
Behind me, Ella let out a sharp groan.
"Bugs. Why did it have to be bugs?" she muttered, hugging her knees like they might protect her from the very concept of insects. The look on her face was a mix of genuine disgust and impending existential crisis.
I glanced at her, amused. "Out of everything we've faced, this is what gets to you?"
She shot me a glare, but I wasn't done.
"What about the bugs we ate in the desert?" I asked, smirking. "You didn't seem squeamish then."
Ella narrowed her eyes. "That was life or death, okay? Big difference. I had no choice."
"Pretty sure you went back for seconds."
"That's a lie, and you know it," she said, crossing her arms tightly. "Dead bugs are one thing. Alive and crawling like that?" She nodded toward the centipedes, visibly shuddering. "Hard pass."
Trying to lighten the mood, Henry chuckled. "I don't know... I think they're kinda cool."
Before I could offer a snarky reply, Emily's eyes lit up. "Oh, they're more than cool! Did you know centipedes can regenerate legs? And some species have venom that paralyzes their prey. Imagine if these things have that– oh! Have you ever heard of house centipedes? They can run, like, sixteen inches per second! That's–"
Ella groaned louder this time. "Emily, for the love of everything good and not creepy, stop talking about bugs."
Emily blinked, then gave a sheepish shrug. "I just think they're fascinating."
Ella shot her and Henry a look, her discomfort plain as day. "Of course, you two would think they're cool. Just keep them, and your bug trivia, away from me."
Henry grinned like a kid who'd just found his new favorite toy. "So… I can name them?"
"No," Ella said flatly.
He ignored her completely. "Chitinous Titans," he announced, gesturing proudly toward the massive centipedes. "That's what we'll call them."
Ella stared at him. "Chitinous Titans? Are you serious?"
He nodded, clearly pleased with himself. "Yep. It sounds badass and gross. Which is exactly what they are."
Ella rolled her eyes and muttered something about horrible taste in names, but I could see the tiniest flicker of a smile tug at the corner of her mouth.
"They don't seem to have noticed us," Amelia whispered, her voice steady, though her hand rested a little too naturally on her gun. "Best we leave them alone."
Henry glanced back at me, his eyebrows raised. "You think we should just go around?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Let's avoid a fight if we can."
Amelia, clearly more than ready to skip the fight, gave a small sigh of relief. "Good call. They haven't seen us, and we're not exactly in the mood for a brawl."
"Speak for yourself," Henry muttered, a playful grin sneaking onto his face before quickly fading when Ella shot him a look. "Kidding… kidding. Let's get out of here."
We started backing away slowly, our steps deliberate, barely making a sound as we moved. Ella, still visibly disgusted, kept her gaze fixed on the Chitinous Titans, but stayed composed. We thought we were in the clear, moving just out of their sight, when suddenly, a sharp screech pierced the air.
Turning toward the sound, I spotted two mole-like creatures wrestling over something. Their high-pitched cries echoed through the air, drawing unwanted attention. I glanced back, my gut tightening as I saw the Chitinous Titans' heads swivel in our direction, their segmented bodies rippling with unnerving speed.
Henry cursed under his breath, eyes wide as the Titans barreled toward us.
Amelia was already in motion, summoning a large stone hammer. I followed suit, void gauntlets forming over my arms as I activated my lightning enhancement.
The first Titan lunged, its mandibles snapping dangerously close to my face. I dodged to the side, striking it hard in the flank. The carapace cracked under the blow with a sharp, satisfying crunch. Ha. I can break its armor.
But before I could celebrate any further, another Titan came at me from behind, barely giving me the time to react before I summoned a bolt of lightning and launched it straight into its face, causing the creature to seize up, its body jerking as it crumpled to the ground, momentarily paralyzed.
Okay…lighting is more effective than I thought. Reaching for one of its legs, I wanted to shock it to death, but the Titan recovered faster than expected. With terrifying speed, its massive body coiled around me, dozens of legs digging painfully into my skin. Then it began to tighten its grip. The pressure mounted, crushing my chest, forcing the air from my lungs with every second.
Too tight, I wheezed, as desperation guided my next course of action, unleashing a surge of electricity through my body that caused the Titan to spasm, its grip loosening before it fell to the ground.
However, it recovered far quicker than I would have thought, as I barely had time to breathe before it twisted, driving its armored head into my chest. The blow sent me flying across the ground before tumbling through dirt and stone before skidding to a stop.
I barely had time to recover before the titan was on me, a living avalanche of legs like spears. I rolled frantically, side to side, staying just ahead of its stabbing limbs until I slipped beneath its massive body. My gauntlets reshaped into a blade, and I slashed upward, only to find that my knife only scraped across its segmented plates, cutting little more than a shallow line.
Gritting my teeth, I spotted the slight gap between two segments.
I stabbed again, this time driving the blade deep into the exposed flesh. The creature convulsed above me as I planted my feet and tore downward, ripping a long, wet gash through its underbelly. A gush of hot blood poured out in a crimson wave, forcing me to roll clear as its insides spilled and the titan collapsed behind me with a shuddering crash.
Between the armor. That's the weak point.
Panting, I caught sight of Henry, who was still locked in combat, dodging another Titan. His poison slowly affecting the creature, but not fast enough as it was gaining on him.
"Henry, watch out!" I shouted, hurling a bolt of lightning at the Titan. The strike hit, sending it into a violent spasm, and without wasting a second, I rushed in, driving my blade between the gaps in its armor. There was a satisfying give as the blade slid through flesh.
The Titan lurched, trying to twist and retaliate, but its own movement only caused the cut to widen. Flesh tore, plates ground together, and something cracked near its spine. And the creature went still. I don't know what I just hit… but it worked.
"I had it," Henry muttered, though his words were drowned out by the sounds of the fight.
Amelia was finishing off the last of the creatures. With a powerful swing, she raised her hammer, and just as it reached its peak, rocks from the surrounding area gathered around it, building mass. The hammer grew heavier until she brought it crashing down onto the Titan's head in a sickening splat, its body twitching for a brief moment before lying still.
"Wow," Henry grimaced as he looked at the slattered mess.
Nodding in grim satisfaction, I moved toward Amelia, but before I could take another step, pain flared up my leg. Instinctively, I tried to pull away, but my foot was stuck. Looking down, I saw the Titan I had gutted still alive as it managed to bite down on my leg.
Without thinking, I summoned a gauntlet and slammed my fist down on its head, crushing it.
In this type of situation, I had to admit how unprepared I was when fighting a monster. The force I hit it with caused its mandibles to sink into my skin and tear downwards, shredding my skin as the creature finally crumpled to the ground with a sickening crack.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I carefully pried my leg free.
Hissing from the pain, I managed to look away.
The rest of the group was doing fine. And when everything was still. Benjamin moved, pulling out his medical supplies, ready to patch us up. Then my attention shifted to Ella, who was crouched beside one of the fallen Titans, dissecting it. I blinked, confused.
Didn't she just say she hates bugs? Why on earth was she now getting up close and personal with one? My mind couldn't quite reconcile it. One moment she was shuddering at the sight of them, and now here she was, completely absorbed in cutting one open, fascinated by its insides.
I frowned, trying to make sense of it. I guess it really is different once they're dead. Or maybe this was just Ella, full of contradictions. Still, it didn't quite sit right with me.
Benjamin knelt next to me, eyeing my leg wound. "You're lucky it didn't break a bone," he said matter-of-factly as he began to treat it. "Next time, try to avoid letting them bite you."
"I'll keep that in mind," I muttered, wincing slightly as Benjamin tightened the bandage around my leg.
Once he was done, I leaned back and brought up my stat screen. Another level-up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amelia doing the same, brows furrowed as she analyzed her options. Henry, too, though he looked less focused on the numbers and more lost in thought, eyes fixed somewhere far past the screen in front of him.
I turned back to my own. After a moment of consideration, I dumped all my points into Intelligence. It wouldn't hurt to have my lightning hit harder, and the added control could make the difference in a real fight.
But after a moment of compilation, I didn't feel any smarter. There was no rush of mental clarity. But when I summoned a flicker of current into my palm, it responded faster, more obedient to subtle direction. I could feel the difference in the way it moved, like the air around it had grown thinner, more conductive.
I looked back at Henry. He hadn't moved in a while, still staring at his screen, jaw tight.
"You good?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual.
He didn't answer right away. Just closed the screen with a slow breath and nodded once.
"Yeah," he said. "Just... thinking."
I didn't push. But the way he moved was clear that something was bothering him. Maybe doubt or frustration.
"Alright," I said, letting it go. "Just let me know if you need anything."
He gave a small nod but didn't look at me.
And over the next few hours, we trudged forward, strength returning in cautious increments. The jagged wilderness slowly softened beneath our feet. What had been wild, uneven rock began to give way to strangely uniform ground almost too consistent to be natural.
Ella knelt and ran her fingers across the surface. "Might just be erosion patterns," she said, though her voice lacked conviction.
But doubt vanished the moment we saw it.
A wall or what was left of one rose from the earth, its broken edge casting a crooked shadow in the late sunlight.
Before any of us could hesitate or take in the sight, Ella threw caution to the wind and bolted twords the ruins.
I couldent blame her, I wanted to do the same. After all this time, actually seeing remnants of whatever used to live here made my heart quicken in excitement.
The wall bore the marks of deliberate craftsmanship with faint carvings worn smooth by centuries, stone fitted with careful hands and measuring tools. Reaching out to the stone, I let my fingers brush against the surface, feeling the coolness beneath my fingers and the age of the stone…and for the briefest moment, I heard it.
A child's laugh.
Soft and distant, but full of life, like it had been carried on the wind from someplace long gone. An echo, barely there, fading almost as soon as it reached me.
Then the sound of footsteps.
Light. Quick. The patter of small feet skipping across stone.
I turned sharply, scanning the ruins behind me.
Nothing. Just Ella, marveling aloud at the architecture, completely unaware.
Her voice rang with excitement, and I shook my head, letting out a quiet breath. Must've been her.
"Look at this!" Ella called out, standing at the edge of a collapsed section, her voice filled with awe. She was peering into what had once been the interior of a building. The roof was long gone, but fragments of the second story still clung to the crumbling walls, like stubborn memories refusing to let go.
She turned to us, eyes wide, almost shining. "If this exists… There was a civilization here. We're not the first."
No one spoke.
We just stood there, the silence stretching as the wind wound through the broken stone, whispering through places that hadn't felt footsteps in ages.
Even Ella grew quiet, brushing dust from a weathered corner of stone. "I can't even guess how old this is," she murmured. "Thousands of years, maybe more."
And somehow, the discovery didn't bring fear.
It brought hope.
I felt it settle in my chest.
With the signal… and now this…
"You know," Henry said, stepping beside me, "this is concrete…"
He paused, giving me a sideways glance.
"…evidence that we're not alone."
I stared at him.
He grinned. "Get it? Concrete?"
I groaned. "Please tell me that was the last one for the day."
"No promises," he said, then added with a smirk, "I'm just laying the foundation."
I gave him a deadpan look. "Stop."
He chuckled, clearly proud of himself.
As twilight deepened, we made camp inside the ruins. The stone walls somehow offered more comfort than they had any right to.
As we prepared for the night, Amelia used her abilities to shape skewers from the stone under us. She crouched near the fire, roasting strips of Chitinous Titan meat Ella had scavenged earlier.
The scent of seared spice and smoke filled the air, blending with the dry scent of old stone and moss.
The twin suns dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in shifting purples and gold. Shadows stretched across the ruins like fingers reaching through time.
In the fading light, Amelia carved out crude chairs from broken slabs, and we settled in, the weight of the day giving way to quiet.
Benjamin had taken to a nearby flat stone, hunched with pencil in hand, sketching in silence.
I wandered over and glanced down at his work. A sweeping landscape, jagged ruins, and a hint of stars peeking above.
"That's seriously good," I said, my voice low with genuine admiration.
"Thanks," Benjamin replied with a casual shrug, but a faint smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. "Nothing special. However, I am almost out of graphite. Not easy rationing pencils when Ella's chewing through my stash like a starved artist."
From her spot nearby, Ella scoffed and sat up straighter. "The journals are important, thank you very much."
"I never said they weren't," Benjamin replied, raising an eyebrow without looking up. "But maybe ease up on the pressure. Every pencil you touch ends up looking like it lost a fight with a wood chipper."
Ella narrowed her eyes. "Whatever, old man."
I grinned. "Old man? Seriously, Ben, you're just going to let that slide?"
Benjamin finally looked up from his sketchpad, a familiar mischievous glint in his eyes. "Oh, I don't mind the nickname," he said, setting the pad aside. "But since we're talking about Ella's artistic prowess…"
He reached into his bag, casually rummaging until he pulled out a worn, folded piece of paper. "I've got something from her early collection."
Ella immediately choked on her water. "Benjamin, no!" she gasped, half-coughing, half-laughing. "You can't show them that!"
"Now I have to see it," I said, eyes wide with interest.
Benjamin unfolded the page with the exaggerated care of someone unveiling an ancient relic. When he held it up, I nearly lost it.
On the page was a crude, cartoonish creature, its body shaped like a lumpy potato with wildly disproportionate limbs and awkwardly scribbled fingers. It was proudly labeled in bold letters at the top: QuadraSimian.
I burst out laughing as I doubled over. "Wait, that's supposed to be a QuadraSimian?!"
Ella's face turned a brilliant shade of red as she groaned and covered her eyes with one hand. "I drew that at night! In the dark! With a broken pencil!"
Henry sidled up beside me, arms crossed as he studied the drawing with mock gravity. "Hey now, don't sell yourself short. It's got... character."
"Yeah," I said between laughs, "character like a melted beanbag with arms."
Ella glared at me, but there was no real heat behind it. "You're all terrible."
I grinned. "Lesson learned: don't call Benjamin 'old man' unless you want your masterpieces going public."
Amelia, who had been watching the chaos unfold with her usual faint smirk, shook her head in amusement. Even Emily wandered over, her curiosity piqued.
Peering over Benjamin's shoulder, she tilted her head slightly. "At least you captured its essence," she said with a teasing smile. "Sort of."
Ella let out a defeated sigh and buried her face in her hands. "I'm never drawing again."
"You say that every time," Benjamin said, folding the drawing carefully and tucking it away. "And yet, the masterpieces keep coming…"
Some days later, we found ourselves trudging up a gravel trail where every step slid just a little, forcing us to fight for balance as we climbed. The path wound upward in loose, uneven coils, the ground shaped as if something massive had once carved its way through the hillside and years of weather had worn that old scar even thinner, leaving only a faint suggestion of a route beneath the shifting stones. Dust rose around our ankles with each step, clinging to our boots and making the already steep slope feel even heavier as it pulled at our legs.
"Ughhh, why are we doing this?" Emily groaned behind me, dragging her feet loud enough to announce her misery with every uneven step. "This is like hiking uphill through a quarry."
"Because Amelia said so," Ella muttered, not hiding her own fatigue. "And you know how she gets when she's in 'mission mode.'"
"I heard that," Amelia called from farther up the line.
She stopped a few steps ahead and turned toward us, arms crossed casually, like the incline wasn't bothering her at all. "We're doing this," she said, "because elevation gives us perspective. And once we've got that perspective, then we will beagle to see if anything is out there, like buildings or signs of life that the radio indicated."
As she spoke, I lifted my eyes toward the climb ahead. The slope we were on wasn't even close to the worst of it. Above us, the mountain kept rising, jagged and pale against the sky, with a thin dusting of snow clinging to the upper ridges, catching the light in a faint shimmer, and the higher the peak stretched, the colder the air felt, each breath cutting a little sharper in my lungs.
Just then, a gust of wind swept down the trail, carrying grit that whispered across my makeshift jacket and stung the edges of my sleeves.
I shifted the weight of my pack, braced myself against the chill, and kept moving.
Amelia turned and resumed the climb, her footsteps steady, almost rhythmic against the shifting gravel.
None of us said anything more for a while. We just followed.
One crunching step at a time.
Eventually, the incline began to level out, and we reached a wide ledge framed by a jutting outcrop of stone. The air here was colder, and the wind sharper, tugging at our sleeves and hair as we stepped into the open.
"Uhhg…Guys." Henry muttered, squinting ahead. "Look, there."
He raised a hand and pointed into the distance as we all turned to look.
At first, I didn't see it. Just fog and haze rolling in long bands across the valley below. Then my eyes adjusted, catching shapes through the drifting gray. Faint shapes, etched into the distant sky, like ghostly silhouettes
Something was out there, half-lost in mist and distance. Towering structures stretched toward the sky, impossibly tall and still. A skyline fractured by time.
And between us and whatever it was lay a vast forest.
It stretched like a shadow between worlds, swallowing the land whole. You couldn't see where it began or ended. Just trees. Miles of them.
Silence settled around us.
"That's gotta be a city," Emily said quietly. "Right?"
"Could be ruins," Amelia replied. "But it's definitely built."
Henry took a step forward. "So... we're going, right?"
Ella folded her arms, frowning. "One second." Grabbing her radio, she turned it on to verify. " Seems like it."
"Well, this is going to take a while," he said simply.
Benjamin knelt, studying the terrain, eyes flicking between forest, valley, and those distant shapes. "It'll take days," he muttered. "Maybe more."
"We'll need a route," Amelia said. "Water, food, landmarks. But yes. That's where we go next."
The others kept talking, but their words started to blur together.
I stepped back and found a flat stone just off the trail's edge. It was cool beneath me as I sank down, finally letting myself rest.
And to my surprise... I wasn't winded. Not even close.
Back before the core, I would've been gasping for air, my muscles cramping from the exertion. But now?
My breathing was steady, like I had taken a little stroll and not climbed a mountain.
I stared down at my hands expecting to see some difference, but no. There were the same calluses, same old scars. In the end, the core really didn't change much about me; I was still the same person I was back on Earth.
Wind rustled through my hair, and I leaned back, letting it wash over me.
"You good?"
I didn't need to look to know it was Henry.
He dropped onto the rock beside me with a tired grunt, boots crunching against the gravel edge as he exhaled hard. His hair was wind-mussed, and his face flushed, but he looked more annoyed than exhausted.
"I swear," he muttered, "if the next path is uphill too, I'm mutinying."
I gave a soft laugh and kept my eyes on the misty skyline. The towers still loomed in the distance, silent and jagged through the haze.
Henry followed my gaze, squinting. "So... those are real, right? Like, actually there?"
"Yeah," I said quietly. "They're real."
He sat back on his palms, breathing, finally starting to settle. "Crazy."
Silence stretched between us for a beat. Then he glanced at me sideways.
"You've been weirdly quiet. Not that I'm complaining. just figured you'd be pacing dramatically by now."
"I'm just... thinking."
"About?"
I flexed my hands again, still marveling at how steady they felt. My heartbeat was calm, my breathing smooth. Even after all that climbing, my body felt like it could keep going another hour. Maybe two.
"I'm not even out of breath," I said.
Henry raised a brow. "Seriously?"
I nodded. "Not even a bit."
Henry let out a dry laugh and shook his head. "Man... I knew I should've dumped more points into Strength and Endurance."
I glanced over at him. "You've got a core too. You're not exactly falling apart."
He shrugged, resting his elbows on his knees. "Yeah, it helps, don't get me wrong. I focused on boosting my abilities, not my legs. So anything involving cliffs, long hikes, or gravity? Kinda kicking my ass."
I smirked. "So basically everything we've done for the last week."
"Exactly!" he said, throwing his hands up. "I was thinking monsters, not mountain trails and hauling supplies."
I leaned back on my hands, letting the cool stone press against my palms. Below us, the forest stretched for miles, shifting like a restless sea beneath the wind. The morning mist was finally pulling back, revealing more than just tree tops.
Far beyond the forest, those distant towers rose into the sky like bones from some ancient world. Still far and unreachable.
But real.
Henry followed my gaze. "I still cant believe we actually found something."
There was a flicker of disbelief in his voice, like he hadn't expected anything to be out there at all.
"I mean… that's kinda crazy, right?"
"I don't know," I said, eyeing the skyline. "But it feels like a destination."
"Yeah..." He exhaled, slower this time.
As he spoke, I felt it, faint at first, like a low pressure in my chest.
Barely there, but steady.
I didn't understand it, couldn't explain why or how. Like something in me was tuned to that place, like a compass needle aligning with a magnetic field I hadn't known existed until now.
Henry kept talking, but his voice grew quieter in the background as the sensation took up more space in my mind.
It was the weirdest thing…
Henry nudged my arm with his elbow. "Still glad you've got the energy for this. I'm probably going to collapse halfway through that forest."
"Guess I'll carry you."
"Ha. You say that like I won't hold you to it."