Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 10

The philosophy of Kaira "The Smasher" Vane was elegantly simple: If it is in your way, punch it. If it doesn't break, punch it harder. If it still doesn't break, you clearly weren't using enough explosive decompression.Ren was learning this lesson the hard way.They were moving through the Canal District, a section of Veridia that had once been the jewel of the capital. In the days before the Aether flooded the world, this district was a place of romance. Gondolas drifted down crystal-clear waterways, musicians played lutes on the limestone bridges, and nobles in silk laughed under the soft glow of lantern-light.Now, the canals were choked with debris. The water was a murky, stagnant black, slick with oil and things Ren desperately tried not to identify. The lanterns were shattered. The silence was heavy, broken only by the distant, rhythmic thud-thud-thud of a wyvern beating its wings against the thermal currents high above the cloud layer.Ren walked two steps behind Kaira, clutch

The Rhino was snoring. It sounded like a chainsaw cutting through wet gravel.Ren sat with his back against the stone wall of the Gatekeeper’s guard post, shivering. The fight was over, the adrenaline had drained away, and now the cost of his power was coming due.He was starving.It wasn't a normal hunger. It was a cavernous, clawing emptiness in his gut. His body had burned through days' worth of calories to knit his shattered arms back together in seconds. His hands shook, not from fear, but from hypoglycemia.“Catch.”A dark object sailed through the air. Ren’s reflexes, sharpened by the Wild Soul, snatched it out of the air.It was a tin of military-grade meat rations.Ren looked up. Kaira was sitting on the unconscious Rhino’s chest, rummaging through the beast’s pockets. She looked completely at ease, as if sitting on a two-ton monster was a normal Tuesday afternoon.“Eat,” she said, tossing a canteen of water to him next. “Regeneration burns fuel. If you don’t eat, your body s

The problem with chasing a hippopotamus is that they are surprisingly fast when they want to be, and they absolutely do not care about obstacles.Titus didn't walk through the jungle; he bulldozed it. Vines snapped like sewing thread against his chest. Small trees were trampled into kindling under his massive, flat feet. He moved with the unstoppable momentum of a landslide, munching on his melon, completely ignoring the two teenagers jogging to keep up with him.“Hey! Big Guy!” Kaira yelled, vaulting over a fallen log. “Slow down! We just want to talk!”Titus didn't turn around. “No talking. Talking is noise. Noise scares the fish.”“You’re a hippo!” Kaira argued, jogging alongside him. “You don’t eat fish! You’re a herbivore!”Titus stopped. He turned slowly, the movement displacing the air around him. He looked down at Kaira with eyes that were weary, ancient, and incredibly dangerous.“I eat,” Titus rumbled, his voice like distant thunder, “whatever annoys me. And right now, you l

The border between the swamp and the North Ridge wasn't marked by a fence or a wall. It was marked by silence.Behind them, the Savage Garden was a cacophony of screeching raptors, buzzing insects, and the wet, slithering sounds of the swamp. But as Ren, Kaira, and Titus stepped across a fallen marble column that served as the threshold, the noise vanished.It was replaced by an unnatural, terrified quiet.The landscape changed, too. The chaotic, overgrown vines and ten-foot-tall ferns disappeared. In their place was grass—short, manicured grass. It looked like a royal lawn, kept trim not by gardeners, but by grazing herds that were terrified to eat anything else.The trees here were massive Oaks and Redwoods, but their lower branches had been stripped clean, leaving clear lines of sight. It was a landscape designed for one thing: the hunt.“I hate this place,” Kaira muttered, her voice loud in the stillness. She kicked at a patch of perfect green grass. “It smells like perfume and ki