Novel & Cerita City In Ruins

ALIYA My head felt like it was smashed by a truck. I groaned in pain, trying to pry my eyes open but the pain that followed was like a death sentence. I groaned once more, regretting my choices of going clubbing with Maya last night as I slowly turned on my side, my hand pressed to my temple to try to ease myself of the throbbing ache, my eyes still shut. I hummed at the softness of the mattress beneath me, relishing in the oud and leather like scent that filled my nostrils.

Many punishments have been reversed in time past, either through the pleading of parents or the principal preferring bags of cement to expulsion. Furthermore, the news of the crash between the cultists became more rampant as more lives were taken to hospitals after the crash was reported dead. The incident brought more unpleasant reports about the school, the most shocking being that no student lost his life in the fight. Governmental agencies and radio stations came around to interview the principal but the principal couldn’t reply much to them to protect the school's image.

The once tranquil city now lay in ruins, its streets marred by the scars of destruction. The air was heavy with unease, a sharp contrast to the peace that had once defined this place. The heroes walked cautiously through the wreckage, their steps echoing in the desolate landscape. Smoke lingered in the air, a reminder of the chaos that had unfolded.

The dawn broke like a pale promise, casting weak light over the shattered landscape that stretched before them. The Ruins of Eldara, a sprawling city once the heart of an ancient kingdom, lay hidden beneath layers of ash and forgotten memories. Its towering spires and crumbled walls, swallowed by time and neglect, rose like ghostly sentinels, watching over the land like silent witnesses.

“But a vow made in ruin? That endures.” Together they began the walk back through the sleeping city. The night smelled of stone dust and the faint sweetness of newly sprouting weeds, life daring to reclaim broken ground. Zara glanced back once at the moonlit dais. For the first time since the war, the ruins looked less like scars and more like a beginning. Maxim followed her gaze, his expression thoughtful. “This place will rise again,” he said. “It already has,” she replied. “In us.” They moved on, their joined shadows stretching long across the fractured street, two figures carrying the quiet power of a promise that no crown could grant and no beast could break.

“Welcome, players, to the City of Ruins.” The cold mechanical voice echoed over the square. “Here, you will face the most terrifying monsters and the most thrilling storylines.” “Please follow the rules of the City of Ruins. Any violation will result in immediate execution.” The voice cut off. A dark fog covered the square, and hundreds of people stood there with pale, terrified faces. “I want to go home!” Someone in the crowd panicked and started screaming, trying to run.

Her father had broken her with a single sentence, tossed off in a moment of panic, no forethought in it at all. Luca had broken her methodically, deliberately, exactly the way he did everything else, and there was something almost unbearable about the difference between those two kinds of ruin, one careless, one intentional, without either of them offering her anything resembling comfort in return. She fell asleep eventually, still searching anyway, and found nothing there to comfort her at all.

The echoes are still there, waiting, and they’ll be louder than ever when we return. 🖤 Echoes of Ruin resumes January 1st.

The Weight of What Remains There are moments that split your life in two — the before and the after. You don’t always see them coming. Sometimes they’re quiet, slipping in on an ordinary night. Sometimes they arrive with the sound of a door being kicked in and a gun going off. Either way, when the dust settles, you realize the person you were before no longer exists. I’ve lived through more of those moments than I care to count.

And why did every part of me still ache for the way his mouth had moved over mine in the vault? We reached the top. Julian pressed his shoulder into a rusted door, forcing it open with a screech of protest. Cold night air rushed over us like a slap. We were in the ruins. Concrete and metal bones of a world that used to be something more, before the Dominion turned cities into experiments and the sky into a surveillance dome. Julian motioned for silence, crouching low behind the remnants of a collapsed transport hub. The distant whine of engines sliced through the silence.