Todos los capítulos de When the Anchor Broke: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 8

"You'll treat it as though nothing happened?"Marcus stepped closer as if he'd heard something impossibly absurd. The pressure of an S-class operative descended across the room like solid gravity."What are you, that you dare speak down to me?"Jealousy nearly overflowed from his eyes as he stared at me. "I didn't come here to argue about reserved supplies. Tell me whether Commander Frost is inside."My heart jumped at Serena's name, and I instinctively glanced toward the sealed inner isolation chamber."So she is." Marcus caught the movement, and his expression twisted."During the battle in the North Ruins two days ago, the commander fought three A-plus aberrations alone so the main force could withdraw. Their venom tore through one of her lungs, and her contamination level rose to the edge of irreversible mutation."His voice sharpened until it nearly pierced my ears. "The medical division prepared its highest-grade purification chamber. But she dragged herself here without e

The instant my emotions overflowed, the whole world seemed to stop.The supposedly indestructible walls of the SSS sanctuary began to twist with a scream of tortured metal, as though an invisible hand were kneading the room itself.Gravity collapsed. Broken figure pieces, glass shards, and even sections of flooring beneath Marcus lifted into the air."What's happening?"Marcus finally sensed the danger. Terror spread across his face when he realized the strange field had completely suppressed his prized S-class ability, leaving him unable to summon even a trace of energy.Then Meridian Bastion's highest air-defense alarm rang across the night like a funeral bell."Maximum alert. Reality Anchor disconnected. Dimensional breach collapse in progress.""Repeat. Reality Anchor disconnected. City shield integrity failing."Marcus spun toward the window, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.Above the city, the engineered sky shield split like torn fabric, opening a scarlet chasm dozens

The guards didn't hesitate. Two dark-matter chains glowing blue pierced Marcus's shoulder blades and sealed the S-class power inside him.He screamed, but Director Ward didn't look at him again.The commander who stood above hundreds of thousands of people dropped straight to her knees before me."Mr. Clyde. Gabriel, please look at me."Ignoring the blood beneath her, she reached out a shaking hand but didn't dare touch me. Tears streamed down her face. "Breathe. Please breathe. Think about your favorite game. Think about the figures you collect. Please, get your emotions under control."Outside, the air-defense alarms grew more desperate."Alert. First defensive line breached.""Alert. More than three hundred thousand low-level altered creatures have entered the city. Third Armored Division destroyed."I listened to the reports and looked at Cole and Serena weakening in my arms. I shook my head in despair. "It's useless. They're dying. I did this. I can't save anyone.""We ca

No one felt sympathy for a madman.Not when the blood of fifty thousand of his own people was on his hands."Marcus Rook is stripped of his ability core and sentenced to the maximum penalty under Meridian Bastion's extinction-crime statute."At Director Ward's command, an execution officer approached and drove an extraction device into Marcus's chest.He screamed.The S-class destruction core that had defined his pride was ripped from his body and crushed.The celebrated ace operative was reduced to a broken shell of a man.But death would have been too cheap for him.By the tribunal's order, Marcus was sealed inside a transparent ballistic-glass cage and hung high on the bastion's outermost wall. Day and night he would face the terrible altered out on the wasteland, a living target in the grip of fear, hunger, and cold, until the last drop of blood drained from him.And every soldier heading out to fight would spit at the cage as they passed.That was the price of believing