Now this is the first time I’ve tried to make a jjk oc AND have a cursed technique but if I’m being honest I really wanted a character with abilities to summon shikigami based on the game Okami and the brush gods in said game
Cursed technique: Celestial Body
The user has the ability to summon 12 shikigami based on the Asian zodiac signs. The user is only able to summon one at a time and each shikigami has its own unique abilities
(Upon “death” the shikigami do not die, however it does take a long time for them to regain enough strength / energy to be summoned, so if one falls during battle it will be unusable the rest of that day)

1. Dragon: (ability: rejuvenation) the user can summon a large dragon. Upon summoning the user gets the ability to heal both themself and others as long as the shikigami is by their side. To heal the user must place a hand into the dragon as the shikigami transfers its energy into the injured. This shikigami takes the most as its both the biggest and in order to actually heal you have to use both your energy and the energy of the shikigami
2. Rat: (ability: slash) can summons one or multiple rats. Due to this shikigamis small size they can be used in stealth missions as they can remain undetected as on their own they give off little cursed energy. While having multiple out the shikigami cannot use its ability but having just one gives the ability slash, the small Rodent of summoning its own divine weapon, a large sword capable of slashing through most everything. The shikigami is only able to use this 3 times in a row, before it runs out of energy needed to wield the sword
3. Boar: (ability: bomb) summons a large boar capable of stampeding through groups of enemies. Its skin is the toughest out of the shikigami and as such can take more hits. The boar is able to spew a flint like substance from its nose that it can then ignite by scraping its hoofs to create sparks this creating explosives
4. Rabbit: (ability: crescent) this shikigami gets more powerful depending on what stage the moon is, full being this shikigamis most powerful. The user is only able to summon one but when summoned the rabbit (which looks like a larger wild hare) is able to thump its foot to get the enemies attention (and locking it into its ability) and based on the moons phase the rabbit will make illusions to trick opponents. That can be a worst fear, a lost love, etc.
5. Snake: (ability: water manipulation) upon summoning the snake the user can either make it large or small depending on what’s needed. The snake has the ability to expel water from its mouth in both fast jets and large bursts and manipulate as needed. The snake does have the ability to breathe underwater as well.
6. Horse: (ability: gale) just like a normal horse this shikigami can be used as a means for transportation. Its ability allows it to create gusts of wind. When running it can create a tornado that it can then send into enemies. On command it can create smaller gusts as needed. If using as transportation every time the horses hoofs hit the ground it can let out a small burst of air causing them to run at increased speeds
7. Roostephoenix/cockatrice: (ability: flame) a medium sized shikigami with the ability to produce flames from its feathers and breathe fire. When flying it can ignite itself at will and burn through its enemy. This shikigami however is weak to water and if its feathers get wet it can no longer ignite itself and loses the ability to fly.
8. Sheep: (ability: fog) when this shikigami is summoned it appears drunk, stumbling around and seemingly can’t keep upright. The sheep has a halter with a side belt holding a large flask, when the sheep drinks from it, it can then spew from its mouth a thick fog that can disorient and confuse enemies. The longer someone is in this fog the more disoriented they become, unfortunately this goes for the user as well
9. Cat: (ability: catwalk) the cat is the size of a normal house cat. This shikigami stands out as theirs nothing particularly special other then its ability which grants it and the user the ability to walk up any surface despite the angle and terrain. The cat has to be touching the user for them to be able to use this ability as well
10. Tiger: (ability: lightning) normal sized tiger with a large bow on its back. Using its tail the shikigami is able to pull the bow back and unleash torrents of lightning. One of the more aggressive shikigami and is always looking for a fight
11. Ox: (ability: freeze) a large ox with the ability over ice. From its two horns it can unleash a beam of straight ice onto foes. And from its nose it can express a thinner frost still capable of freezing anything around.
12. Monkey: (ability: nature) the user is able to summon 1 - 3 monkeys each capable of using an ability to summon vines that can be used for both transport and attacking.

Domain Expansion: Heavenly Mother (Still working on a better name)
The domain upon activation looks like a forest at dusk with an empty clearing full of flowers. In the sky is the constellation of all 12 of the shikigami are visible. In the domain they can all be called down from the sky to attack or they can all be combined into one to form a large wolf capable of all the shikigamis abilities. The wolf’s physical form is stronger than all of the shikigami individually but as separate entities it gives more opportunity’s for getting a hit
I’m not sure if this is to OP or not as I was going to make the OC physically weak and a better long range fighter using weapons like a bow or even a whip idk that part yet lmao

ENTP is a form (body type) that is earthly (Si) as opposed to etheric (Ni). This makes their consciousness egoic (within boundary of their form, distinguishing self from the not-self). Their consciousness is a point of view, from the point of view of form (matter) that is now conscious.
Ni, in contradistinction, is a point of view from a form that is more ether less matter. Ether is rarified matter, matter is condensed ether. Ether includes matter (which makes Ni more expansive in consciousness), matter excludes ether by condensing from it to a particular type of material (which makes the consciousness and point of view of ENTPs more egoic ie. within boundary). ENTP looks at the world as if he is a form (matter) vivified, as opposed to an Ni user who feels like a spirit that is em-bodied.
ENTP is a water form. If matter is distinguished as quantitative matter and qualitative matter, then ENTP is a form of qualitative matter (Ne).
Se form is denser and more compact, it is quantitative earth. Their interaction style correspond to such. Ne is more buoyant and versatile like water, it is more conscious than Se, their interaction style is likewise versatile, able to take any form. It is like a torrent of water, and not a cloud in the sky— things they find interesting even though seem more detached from denser earth, are still part of lighter earth (technology, politics, sciences etc). If dense (Se) is the definition of hands on, then Ne is less so, but still very interactive within earth in a bouyant fashion.
The physical world is on a spectrum of Qualitativeness (Ni), the more it is condensed into the densest matter —it increases in quantitativeness (Si).
If the whole phenomenal (physical) world is seen as Si, then what makes the differences in forms of the world is the Ni (Quality) expressing in it.
In the physicality that is within our perception, the difference in Si quantity/form (by means of Ni expressing in it) gives us Se forms in one end of the spectrum, and Ne forms in the other end. Ne being more qualitative, more etheric, and having more potential than Se.
Accordingly, if that Si is the most quantitative world of forms, our material world, then there is yet another Si (physicality) which is rarer than this world but more qualitative as it is ascending the spectrum of quantitativeness (Si). This more qualitative Si (physicality) is the world of astral phenomena, where emotions impulses, feelings and desires interact. It is super-physical but just as real. It is more spiritual than our plane of existence (Si) which is more physical and material. This rarer world is Te, just as the one we can see is the Se world.
Densest physicality (Se), reduced in quantitativeness (Si), is Te, world of astral phenomena (super-physical).
Te reduced in quantitativeness (Si), is Ti, super-physical world of mental phenomena.
Reduction in quantitativeness is an increase in vibration or quality. Quantity is redundant with increased vibration, quality makes up for it. Lack of quantity takes it out of perception, but the concurrent increase in quality or vibration puts it into a field of definite receptivity, though out from perception. Sounds, feelings, and thoughts are received upon the senses, unlike sight that perceives and does not receive therefore possibly not see things right in front of him. Increase in quality makes form universal, while increase in quantity is an increase in subjectivity. Subjectivity locks consciousness in a point of view, making things outside its grasp seem unreal. The super-physical is just as real as the physical, but according to the consciousness of the observer is his capacity for belief.
Fe form is the qualitative aspect of Te just as Ne is the qualitative aspect of Se form. Te is quantitative even though less material than Se.
Te inclines towards external organisation to achieve— Fe, internal harmony (qualitative).
Fe inclines towards spiritual (emotional or internal) organisation and harmony, even if it has to upset systems, methods and guidelines (quantitative Te). This is how we see Fe users act.
Fi is the qualitative aspect of Ti. Direct knowledge, innate understanding makes rationalisation and argumentation (quantitative) unnecessary. Knowledge (data, information) is required only to sustain and carry the underlying meaning and understanding (the qualitative), the letters are of no special worth. Fi is intuitive grasp, value-based, assessing the quality of something. Ti is logical deduction, systematic, and a means to (Fi)-assessing the worth of something. Just as Te external harmonizing is a means to Fe (internal harmonizing). Ti is quantitative, it must reach the qualitative (Fi) end and not look to get caught in endless philosophizing.
The hands-on work of Se is quantitative (quantitative means quantity, it lives for something else ie. Quality, and expresses it and does not exist for its own sake), it is a means to the work to be done by Ne to reach a desired goal. If manufacturing a computer is Se work, then its purpose is something Ne like developing new softwares.
The underlying principle is this; the physical is materialising (working/existing for) the spiritual. The quantitative is a means for the qualitative. The spiritual is the cause, the physical is the effect. The spiritual is the expressive but it requires a grounding for its unfolding. The physical is the inert, and the ground for spirituality to work itself. The physical only exists as the materialisation of the spiritual. The actual exists as a realisation of a potential, not as a realisation of nothingness. Quantity (physical) needs something behind it to display what it is. These are the properties, attributes, descriptions; it is the Quality (spiritual) that is behind all manifestation. Existence (Si) is not an accident, it is a meaningful depiction. Physical world is the externalization of the spiritual. Physicality is materialisation— of the Spiritual.

Sorry, didn't read that age and genders need to be in the title. Me 34m, her 27f.
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this but I need to talk to someone about these things and I'm not ready to say anything to my family or friends about it yet. About two months ago I met this really cute filipina, lets call her "Jasmine" on asiandating.com. She lives and works in a small suburb outside Manila and unlike the torrent of messages I got from scammers as soon as I uploaded my profile she was really nice and wanted to get to know me and we talked over telegram for hours and days. She never once asked for money or anything like that. And we've talked all day every day since then.
Here's were the red/yellow flags start.

1. She has a really old android phone that has gone through multiple floods so her camera doesn't work. I offered to buy her a new phone so we could video chat and she said she didn't want her class mates at college to see her with a new phone all the sudden or they would be weird about it. Ok.. sure. She graduates at the end of this month so we'll see what happens then. I want to believe her but it's just such a weird excuse. Is it a cultural difference? She is painfully shy.
2. She has no family or friends. She was an only child and her parents died a few years ago, she doesn't like talking about it. She says she's very shy so the only people she hangs out with occasionally are acquaintances from work. This is a yellow flag I guess. Not suspicious in and of itself but she doesn't use social media at all (neither do i tbf except reddit lol) and she never has anyone to hang out with. She's a gorgeous 27 year old college student. It's hard to believe. But again, this might just her being shy or cultural difference.
3. About a week or two in she mentioned an issue with graduating that she was stressed about not being able to graduate because she owed money on her tuition and they wouldn't let her graduate until it was paid. This was the brightest red flag ever, i've literally had someone try to scam me this way multiple times lol. But I liked this girl so I told her if she borrowed a friends phone and took a picture of herself holding a paper with my name written on it I would send her the money. She was annoyed but she did it. The picture looks good and doesn't appear to be photoshopped but I'm not an expert. So she didn't "ask" for the money but I feel like she knew if she presented the problem I would want to solve it for her. After all it's such a small amount of money to me but an insurmountable amount for a part time waitress going to college. Since that time she's mentioned multiple things that were stressing her, the latest was she had a hospital emergency and needed surgery and didn't have the money for it. As I'm typing it it sounds like the biggest scam ever, I know. But I really like this girl and I really hope it's just a terrible coincidence.
4. She doesn't appear to care what I look like. I think I've sent her 1 photo of my face and none of my body since we started talking and she's never asked. Again this might just be her, some people are attracted to things other than looks. I'm not an ugly dude but I am chubby af. It's concerning to me that she doesn't seem to care. It makes me feel like she doesn't take the relationship seriously. But im struggling with this because maybe im just too focused on looks and not everyone is like that. I am confuse.

There's more but this post is already novel level. I do need to include the green flags and reasons why i think this ISNT a scam:

1. We talk all day every day on telegram. When we're both awake it's rare to go more than an hour or two tops without a response to my messages.
2. She loves to sing and sends me audio clips of her singing at home, she's obviously not a professional but i figure it would be challenging to get such a low quality clip of one specific girl singing these pop songs to send me to me randomly.
3. We've talked on the phone a number of times. Well telegram voice call anyway. We have good conversations and seem to genuinely like one another.
4. While she does accept my money for things she gets upset when I send too much. For example she'll need 5000 peso's and I'll send like 8000 or 10000 just to make sure fees are covered and stuff and she gets annoyed saying she doesn't like taking so much from me. idk what that's about but if she's a scammer it seems like she's doing it wrong? Or maybe going for the long con? lol

Anyway. That's just a tidbit. I'd appreciate any advice any of yall have. Even more if anyone here has experienced a FilAm relationship like this and knows what cultural differences to adjust to and, i guess most importantly, if this sounds familiar to anyone else that got scammed and ghosted or catfished.
Thanks for reading my novel.

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Upon the tallest silo of Fleapit's foundries, a duel was about to break out that would determine the fate of the entire Underkingdom.
Marcus often recalled tales of such duels in the books he loved to peruse as a child – fanciful stories of men and women going off to conquer fantastical realms and slaying dragons or witch covens after proclaiming the inherent purity of the human spirit.
Such tales rouse the hearts of young men. They become the same young men who run off to wars thinking that mass combat will afford them the same kind of moral superiority.
For Marcus - a man trapped in an ugly rendition of one such world - such superiority was a luxury he would never have. Heroes are supposed to bandy words with demons. They are supposed to show their valor in righteous battle.
But the battle that unfolded atop Fleapit's highest point was not honorable. It was not righteous.
Instead, one armored rat brought his vicious halberd to bear against two humanoid snake-hybrids, and the strikes they made were to kill, not to entertain their spectator.
First, the youngling threw Marcus aside and leaped directly for Festicus. The ratman anticipated the attack, shifting his weight to his right to sidestep and cleave the snake-woman from belly to breast. The attack was one of pure, raw strength, but it was one burdened by the heaviness of the creature's weapon. In the moment of impact the young Yokun twirled and slashed at the ratman's exposed neck, her blade coming away with his crimson blood gleaming along its edge.
He staggered, dropping to his knees just in time for the Matron to came at him with her mercy strike.
A strike that he met with his bare teeth.
His head jerked up. His mouth opened in a snarl, and Marcus saw his fangs clamp down on the blade as it entered its throat. The Matron's eyes narrowed as she tried to free the blade, watching the ratman's gums fill with gushing blood as the Wakizashi's edge nicked his tongue. Then, in her moment of pure confusion, his halberd swept the Yokun elder's feet.
"Sister!"
Festicus smirked as he felt movement behind him – the youngling spinning in a deadly pirouette that struck for his armored spine. The blessings of He-Who-Festers was with the ratman on this day, for the Yokun's blade merely pierced the outer layer of his armored hide and ripped the metal pieces away, letting them fall in a hail of iron that rained down on the spectators watching the small snippets of the battle they could see below.
The ratman thrust the pole of his weapon back to knock against the ribs of the youngling and push her almost straight off the silo's precarious platform to join the bloody mess that was her sister below.
"MMMHMMM!" Marcus wheezed from his position, still gagged. He couldn't help it. This fight was showing him just how skilled the Marrow rat truly was. And it was telling him that his spirit was still loyal to his Shai-Alud after all.
As Festicus turned to hack away at the thin leathers of young Yeeva's chest, the Matron regained her footing. She sent a flurry of blows angled down at the ratman's armpit joints that struck faster than Marcus's eyes could follow. All he saw, when he blinked, was that Festicus was reeling back, his mouth, elbows, and arms all bleeding profusely, coating the dark metal of the silo in his life fluids.
The Matron brought her youngblood back up to her knees, and both of them angled their blades at the mauled rat before them.
"Sire..Marcus," Festicus groaned, drawing his eyes towards the human huddled at the edge of the bloody platform.
With a single twist of his claws he ripped through Marcus's gag and the human heaved a wail of release.
"Festicus," he said, trying to maintain his commanding tone. "Stand. Down."
"I would listen to your monkey friend," the Matron spat through her smiling lips. "You face two Sisters of the House of Whispers, little cretin. We have slain more of your kind than you can count."
Festicus rose steadily, using his halberd to push up from the floor of the platform as the two Yokun circled, both picking their target that would end the miserable ratman's life.
"Clan Marrow…" he wheezed. "Never…back…down."
He turned to Marcus abruptly after coughing a torrent of dark crimson.
"I will be living…to see…those cannons," he sputtered as he brought his halberd back up, holding it across his chest straight backed and regal, like some Arabian prince's honor guard. "In the name of Clan and King…I will be living…to see…our victory!"
Both women's blades flashed through the air, trailing arcs of brilliant light as they curved to bring death upon the beleaguered ratman.
And the eyes of the rat flew to Marcus's as he swept up his halberd to meet the Matron's strike at his right flank.
The Wakizashi of the youngling flew to cleave through his ribcage to the left, and it would have done so if she had merely followed through.
Instead, Marcus watched as her arm writhed like it had a will of its own. She dropped her weapon and it slid across the platform while she screamed in agony – an animal scream that pierced not only the air, but the ears of her Sister who was taken off balance by the sudden change in her companion's demeanor.
And that opening was all Festicus needed cut right into her waist.
She opened her mouth in a gasp, arms flying to dislodge the blade while the ratman that held it grit his teeth and pushed through her scaled skin with all the force left in his hulking frame.
"SHAAAAAA-HAH!"
Marcus watched awestruck as the Matron's torso was cleaved clean through. Her legs flopped beneath the purple-soaked blade of Festicus's halberd while the rest of her body spun in the air, crumbled, and fell back to the platform in a heap of twitching limbs.
"SISTER!" Yeeva screamed, her arms still gyrating with a life of their own as Festicus collapsed to one knee, seeing the ghostly form of someone familiar appear just over the lip of the platform's north face.
"By…the Unclean…" he wheezed. "Could you not be coming…a little…more early?"
The hooded rat man that had his eyes trained on the twitching Yokun before him twisted his face into a smile.
"A Gloomrava of Glumrot isssss coming exxxxxactly when he issssss needing to."
"Look out!"
The shout came from Marcus as his eyes flew to the still spasming Yokun Matron's body. In a macabre display of pure, uncanny willpower, her fingers wrapped round her blade and sent it spinning towards the tiny legs of the newly arrived priest, drawing a cry of agony from him that sounded more like the shrill wailing of the undead than the pained voice of a rat.
Festicus watched his Brother go down and made to rise again to finish off the last female, but this time the Yokun youngling was faster – spurned on by the death of her senior.
She met Festicus' sweeping strike with such fury that the ratman was sent staggering back, and, holding the blade of her Matron in her hand, got the other around the ratman's throat and held him down, her nails penetrating deep into his neck and drawing tiny trickles of blood that traveled through her scaled veins.
"Miserable, scaleless swine!" she railed, pushing her Wakizashi closer and closer to the ratman's face, watching the life in his eyes and strength in his arms gradually fade away to nothing. "Vlitark take the Matriarch! You all die here and now!"
Festicus's arms began to give way. The power to even bite back at the vengeance-filled face of the snake was going – it was draining away like the rest of his blood. It seemed he would have to be satisfied with slaying one of them. An honor most of his Clan would still respect him for, even if it had to be in death…
But before he closed his eyes he saw the Yokra's go wide. He saw the passionate fires of fury die away on her scaled features and then felt the wet spew of her blood that had just spurted from beneath her chest. Both ratman and Yokun looked down to see where her discarded Wakizashi had just penetrated her lower abdomen and, as the blade was twisted, Yeeva finally fell to the side.
And revealed the human standing above her who had just stabbed her in the back.
Festicus wanted to laugh then more than any other time in his life. But, try as he might, all he could manage was a slight smile.
"You truly…are…having the soul…of a rat," he wheezed.
And as Marcus bent down to check the vitals of the ratman, discovering, too late, that there was nothing more to be done, Festicus of Clan Marrow closed his eyes and left the world of the Underkingdom behind.
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Sega Rally 2 HD Texture Pack R.R

As a kid growing up, I still remember my birthday where I got my Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure, and Speed Devils. This would forever be one of my favorite systems of all time. I have been using emulation for 12+ years....back when in order to play a library of 10 or so DC games, you needed 5 different emulators. Well look where we are now with DC emulation. Flycast has been so kind to provide us with the ability to dump and load custom textures.
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Saddly, There are very, VERY few DC texture packs, and I can understand as the graphics in DC games tend to be brighter colors, less realistic, and more cartoony/arcade type graphics which was its charm. I have decided to change this. I will have a few projects going at once, and every day i will release updated packs for the games I am currently working on. This is my very first pack ever. Everything is set, you simply make a folder called Textures, (only if one dose not exist here \flycast\data\Textures), Extract the folder in my archive in to this Textures folder, I have the original img for every one i remade in the folder. the names are the same except the original file has 'OR" before the name ( NEW: 123abc.png / OLD: BKP123abc.png)
NOTE:Leaving "BKP" files shouldn't effect anything, as they are not the named files that the game is looking to pull, so you can leave them there, or delete them, as they are just for refrence and will bened up in future updates.,.
TIPS TO MAKE SURE THINGS RUN PERFECTLY.

• PIXEL BUFFER SIZE- Setting this higher allows for larger resolution textures (up scaled or from a pack) to load in faster, simply put.
• Dial Back GFX Settings- REMEMBER, You set your settings to run the textures at their native resolutions, so while the more textures I swap out, the more you might see some Performance dips, PICK THE RIGHT PACK FOR YOU. I am now making 3 pakcs for every game, ALL 3 willl ALWAYS be at teh same level of compleation as the others, jsut easier to run with smaller res images.
• GFX API- This is the fix to like 80% of any issues with a game. If you are playing and things seem a bit wierd, just change the API. With my hardware my go to, is VULKAN, and OPENGL. You might get OPENGL and DX11 working best for you. I just use whatever one I am not using if a game acts up, and that helps things most opf the time, Give this a try with ANY issues in games, INCLUDING slowdowns.
• PICK THE RIGHT PACK- If you are like me, Yopu have your Internal Res set to 5X, and are in 4K on a nice big, expensive, 32in monitor. I ALSO game on a Retroid Pocket 4 PRO. It hit me, "We do NOT need the resolution I use on something like my RP4, even on my 17 in laptop screen... and the storage limitations of portable systems are usually more strict. Why don't I make packs geared more for the RP4 type players? THIS WAY, more users can enjoy the packs for their specific setup." So I looked in to how I can do this while NOT giving up to much in the quality end, and I came to this conclusion. Three packs per game, HQ, MQ, and LQ. This way, Even on a RP4 type device, I can enjoy the packs, with out effecting performance, and on the tiny screen, it STILL looks just as good. So, IF your having issues running my packs, try the next step down. I didnt just take every file and compresse it. I did it per Resolution grouping, bringing larger textures down more, and smaller textures very little. This way, The fine details should still be vivid in the smaller packs. I hope this helps more users enjoy my hard work, and now.... I want to thank you for enjoying these packs. Anything I can do better, PLEASE let me know.

UPDATE FOR DIFFERENT REQUIREMENT PACKS....
Low Powered Devices, Low Storage Situations, Or Just Smaller Screens...
UPDATE*. Today I realized, I got my new 32 in 4k g7 neo samsung oddessy monitor, and i needed MORE. More resolution. More pixels, just MORE. So I decided, "not everybodys devices can handle MORE", so I decided to make 3 resource levels of packs for potatos thru Gaming Rigs. I am going to go thru the packs I currently have, and make 3 different packs for every game. They will all be updated in sync, so one "Quality level" will always have the same textures across the board, but this way, users on low end/mobile devices can enjoy the packs as well! You dont need reolutions this high on small screens, and thoes devices might have trouble loading in textures that are bigger then needed on a tiny screen, so I took all the textures, and compressed them depending on their size.. I did this seperate, So its not like I just said "take all textures, and cut them in half." No. Then the smaller, already acceptable textures would lose quality, so Depending on the original sizes, every files was changed independently. Keeping the best image overal, while making it easier to load, and take less space ondeviecs with smaller storages, as some of these packs get very large.. so watch for these updates over the next couple days in all the games. Now, Every pack will have 3 characters you must remove from the packs after uncompression. Just edlt the "_LQ", "_MQ", or the "_HQ" from the end of the packs inorder for flycast to see the pack,This is simply a sorting method for me and users that have multiple versions in case you wanted to test multiple packs this way they can be sorted and organized better.\*
HQ- This will be the standard you have known to come to love from me. Now I might use some slghtly higher res textures then I currently do, but as long as my 2070 mobile can play it, Then That is my goal for the HQ packs. Best image, largest size packs, and most resources needed but tthese are ment for users playing on large 1080/4k devices with a little more horsepower under the hood then the average emulator. Usually, if your device tends to play games at 3-5x resolution, using these packs SHOULDN'T make things to much harder for anydevice already playing on that level, worst case is you maybe bump the Internal Resolution down a step or so, and go from there. JUST REMEMBER, if you have any issues, try one of the other 2 pack versions, MQ or LQ.... I would try things like making sure you have your render buffer size is as large sas you can get, and remember, the new textures are what is taking the most resources to load. some times, relaoding a level or Giving 'er the good ole "Savestate,Loadstate" to reload, I find some levels, Just wait a few moments for everything to not only render NORMALLY, but then get replaced, then enjoy your gaming.
MQ- In these packs, Anybody on a laptop, or similar set up will be more than happy and might not even NOTICE the difference between HQ and MQ packs. This is not to say this wont look good on a 85in screen, all my packs, even MQ and LQ versions, are specially designed to give you the most prestine and sharp image you can get, while at times, just toneing it down becuase many users are not on large 4k displays playing in 4k, so if that is not how you enjoy your gaming, now these packs will help you get the perfect mix of quality, size, and performance based on your specific setup. You do not need anything crazy to run these, and can be used in any set up and will not fail to impress!
LQ- Now do NOT let the tiny size, Lower resolutions, and name "LQ" Fool you. There is NOTHING "Low Quality" about these packs. You still get the upscales you have come to love, and the new, much larger images have been toned down a little bit is all. This is PERFECT if you are on a portable device, or even smaller screen laptops! These are much smaller in both size, and resolution, but STILL looks great on thoes devices, and even on large screens, this is STILL a great looking pack, just now people with less then perfect setups can now enjoy Flycast HD Texture packs.
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\NEW\***,I PAY EXTRA SO ALL MY LATEST RELEASES ARE NOW ALWAYS MAX SPEED,NO WAIT TIMES BEFORE DOWNLOAD, AND NO WAIT TIME FOR GB LIMIT REACHED, EVEN FOR NON PREMIUM USERS ON FILE HOST SITE. I PAY PER GB SO PLEASE, DOWNLOAD SMART TO KEEP MY COSTS DOWN. *NEW\**
LINKS: Sonic Adventure Upscale Pack HQ R.R v .50
Sonic UPSCALE PACK SCREENSHOT COMP ALBUM
\NOTES\**
This is my 3rd and final take on this game. It is just to overwhealming to do it the way I do other packs. There is not a game I have come across with near this many textures, so using my newest AI upscale model, I reupscaled everything, and then start the replacement one level/area at a time.
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Years ago when I first got in to private torrent sites, before I opened my own, I had a small movement called the Rom Revival, where we made perfect and complete rom packs for every console... and made Retro Arch type packs for the older systems... and over the years, I have continued to keep these packs and torrents avaiable on my own tracker to keep allowing the public to be able to access any and every rom they could ever want, without having to go google, digging around the sketchy, very slow sites to be able to download what ever rom one at a time. So I feel this is he best time, to bring back the ROM REVIVAL, and now implement the DREAMCAST HD TEXTURE PACK part of the project. So look out for my R.R tag, and keep up with all my hard work as the texture packs start to roll out.
ONE LAST BIT HERE.... These packs, are done out of my love for the Dreamcast, and all of you guys. There is no other reason to do this.. I see the community is lacking in this content, NO BODY ELSE IS DOING WHAT I AM DOING, and for others that love this system like I do, well, This is for you. NOW, If you would like to buy me a cup of coffee, or a pack of smokes, check out my Donation options here!. There is an option to get YOUR pack pick moved up to the next pack as well as other options, so if you want a pack done fast, or maybe you just want to say THANKS for all my hard work, ncheck it out here please and thanks guys!

There are many different ways Villain Deku is written, so feel free to choose who suits your flavor of choice. I'm going with a Villain Deku who is genuinely evil.
Also, while I assume this goes without saying, the morals of whichever characters you choose would change to align with whatever type of Villain Deku you choose.
With that said, onto my list:
Mina Ashido.
Being able to secrete acid of any strength at will is an insanely OP ability. I honestly think Ashido should be on par with Bakugo and Todoroki, logically speaking.
Setsuna Tokage.
Being able to split off any part of her body makes her a valuable asset for infiltration and spying. She could send a singular eye and ear to spy on her enemies. Quirks get stronger with use, so Tokage could also likely increase the distance, size, and duration of her quirk.
Shoto Todoroki.
This one goes without saying, really. Just an all-around better version of Dabi.
Momo Yaoyorozu.
Again, this goes without saying. Creation is absurd in its capabilities.
Minoru Mineta.
This sounds strange at first, but Mineta's ball are seemingly impossible to break free from in a timely manner. Your only option is to rip off whatever the ball is attached to, which could easily be one's own skin at times.
Imagine a combination move wherein Mineta sticks multiple enemies to the ground, followed by Ashido and Todoroki just engulfing them in a torrent of acid and flames.
EDIT: I forgot that paragraphs don't work on Reddit's list feature, so I added, I believe they are called linebreaks?

Part 1 was here: https://www.reddit.com/d100/comments/1b2cgs2/d100_underwater_dungeon_obstacles_hazards/ Didn't get enough, so I'm posting again.
I couldn't find any good undersea obstacle lists, so let's go! You're exploring an underwater dungeon on the ocean floor at the bottom of the sea (or maybe it's floating in a massive whirlpool, or in the Elemental Plane of Water). What kinds of aquatic obstacles, environmental hazards, traps, or things could block your forward progress? (Preferably non-combat entries, or things that could make combat more tricky.)

1. The thick vegetation here hides several 5 to 20 foot long plant tendrils reaching up from the floor. They will grab and restrain anyone passing over, though they lack the strength to kill any fish larger than your hand. They also shriek loudly when cut.
   
2. Same as above, but this variant is strong enough to strangle people
   
3. A swift current passes through this passage at a rate of 20 feet per round
   
4. A strong current passes through this passage at a rate of 50 feet per round. Being pulled by it will cause damage as you collide with the rough sides of the passage.
   
5. This chamber has a strong whirlpool current around its perimeter, along with lots of pillars and sharp rocks to get smashed into
   
6. A narrow passage is lined with razor-sharp molluscs, they have long proboscises that suck up blood
   
7. This opening is clogged with gelatinous vegetation that secretes acid on contact
   
8. This opening is clogged with gelatinous vegetation that secretes an extremely sticky glue. The plants are barely attached to the wall and come free easily. It takes 1d4 minutes to cut one off without injuring yourself.
   
9. Bright blue runes glow on a pillar. Their light feels cold to your skin. Anything that moves past the pillar faster than 25 feet per round is encased in bouyant ice.
   
10. The turbulent water here is choked with silt, reducing visibility to 10 feet
    
11. Hundreds of blood-sucking parasitic worms lie buried under the silt. They will emerge and swarm anything that disturbs them. The wounds they inflict bleed freely and do not close without medical attention.
    
12. Did you know there is an aquatic variant of shrieker mushrooms?
    
13. Did you know there is an aquatic variant of gas spores? They still look like beholders, weirdly... Still explosive.
    
14. A volcanic vent fills a small area with harmful boiling water
    
15. A section of floor has a strange arcane sigil inscribed on it, and water and silt flow over it in a hexagonal pattern. Any object or creature moving into it is shot out at high speed in a random direction.
    
16. This passage is lined with necrotic arcane runes that glow purple. The water is stagnant, devoid of oxygen, and completely unbreathable.
    
17. This passage is lined with yellow arcane runes that dampen sound. Speech, echolocation, and verbal spellcasting are impossible.
    
18. Seismic activity suddenly knocks loose a torrent of mud and sand that threatens to sweep you away or bury you!
    
19. Seismic activity suddenly opens glowing red cracks in the floor. The water is quickly heating to boiling temperatures!
    
20. Anemone ferns emit a small electric field around them. Deals lightning damage and can stun. comedianmasta
    
21. Hermit shrooms are large, shelf-like mushrooms that grow in heavy currents (usually on ledges and cliffs). Can be climbed to fight against the heavy currents, but too much weight will make them retract into their shells. comedianmasta
    
22. A typical smasher trap, but it moves slowly in an enclosed space because of water pressure. The pressure causes severe nausea for about 20 seconds before it finally closes shut and crushes the victim. comedianmasta
    
23. A wall of magically high-pressure water that blocks passage through. Can be deactivated by changing the pressure differential in another part of the room/dungeon. comedianmasta
    
24. A dense tangle of weeds blocks a door. comedianmasta
    
25. Dense lumps of calcified coral block a door. comedianmasta
    
26. Grasping weeds that sense body heat to reach out and grab prey. Ice and magical cold keep them docile. comedianmasta
    
27. Mage hand barnacles (a misnomer, they're not telekinetic) create water currents to strongly thrust creatures away from themselves. Often cultivated in conjunction with spike traps or other hazards. comedianmasta
    
28. A spear trap that shoots a heavy harpoon. If you survive it hinders movement and you must be careful when removing it. comedianmasta
    
29. Ghost coral are bleached white growths that reach out with ghostly hands to impale prey on necrotic growths. Holy powers and radiant magic, like undead turning, shatter the growths and banish the spirits within. comedianmasta
    
30. A cloud of blood and viscera has been trapped here by currents, likely something a predator got recently. Swimming through it risks exposure to disease. comedianmasta
    
31. A tangle of net algae is easy to pass through slowly, but likely to snare anyone in a hurry. Removing it could cost you a few crucial seconds needed to escape danger. comedianmasta
    
32. A school of fish is attracted to light sources, creating a severe distraction. comedianmasta
    
33. A school of cute colorful fish that follow predators (and adventurers) so they can feed on the things they kill. They snap up their food at an alarming rate. ProfBumblefingers
    
34. A giant flounder is disturbed by the noise and bursts from the silty floor. It's not hostile, it's just big, in the way, and not sure where to go. ProfBumblefingers
    
35. A magical relic produces a constant stream of bubbles, creating air pockets on the ceiling or in chambers above. It's splitting the seawater into its elemental components. One stream is pure oxygen. The other stream is pure hydrogen. ProfBumblefingers
    
36. A school of snapping shrimp is in the area--you can't hear a thing over all that racket! ProfBumblefingers
    
37. The carcass of a large whale or other creature has fallen to the ocean bottom. It might have scavengable food, oil, or weapons from whatever killed it. It may also attract dangerous scavengers or whatever ate it in the first place. ProfBumblefingers
    
38. A fishing net is being dragged across the seabed by a fishing vessel, ocean currents, or some clever aquatic raiders. ProfBumblefingers
    
39. Methane hydrate deposits on the seafloor. If you use fire or lightning magic, you might get a much bigger bang than you bargained for! (One cubic meter of methane hydrate expands to 160 cubic meters of gas if ignited.) ProfBumblefingers
    
40. Crab migration. Hundreds of thousands of large crabs swarm across the ocean floor. Run? Fight? Hunker down? Will they bite? Will you have crab legs for dinner? ProfBumblefingers
    
41. A large stationary sand sucker has buried itself in sand except for its mouth, which has a 5’ diameter opening. it appears to be a normal sea floor or hollow until someone draws near, at which point the victim will be sucked in and sprayed with acid. oliviajoon
    
42. Hypnotic mollusks are oyster-like creatures with a shiny pearlescent shell worth its weight in gold. They hypnotize anything that comes within 10 feet and then patiently wait for it to starve to death. oliviajoon
    
43. A sunken boat has a cursed mirror inside. Anyone looking into it is given the mental compulsion: "kill all your friends." oliviajoon
    
44. A species of squid sprays a cloud of smelly ink. Touching it stains clothing and leaves a potent stench that lasts for hours and can attract predators. oliviajoon
    
45. Giant barnacles stick to cave walls. If you come too close they will spray you with sticky glue that can suffocate if it gets on your gills or face. oliviajoon
    
46. Cursed seaweed appears to be full of screaming faces. Paying attention to their cries deals psychic damage. oliviajoon
    
47. A shipwreck creaks and groans in the ocean currents. While exploring a mast collapses, crushing and spraying splintered wood everywhere. oliviajoon
    

Memory transcription subject: Captain Kalsim, Krakotl Alliance Command
Date: [REDACTED]
The approach to the Skaven homeworld had been nerve-wracking. None of us had expected the discovery of a new sapient Predator species, let alone one cunning enough to get so close before indulging their hunger.
The Skaven’s cruel deception had been on full display as we passed through Venlil Prime. The surface was a ghost town of ransacked buildings, blood-stained plazas and hastily erected idols devoted to their heathen god. We bombarded the surface thoroughly, even going so far as to eradicate the uninhabitable land beyond the equator to make certain that no predatory taint would survive.
Despite the ease of the cleansing, it only left the fleet tense. The brutality on display there was on par with that of the Arxur, and they had achieved this with only primitive weapons and spacecraft. Speaking of, there were no ships to be found in orbit of the conquered planet, neither Skaven or Venlil, which logically meant that the cornered predators had added the more advanced ships to their army, and were consolidating their forces at their homeworld in a desperate bid to hold us off. Such behavior was not unfamiliar to the experienced exterminators under my command, but it was a worrying one. After all, a Predator is at its most dangerous when it’s protecting its nest.
As we finally arrived at their system, we were nonetheless shocked at the sight of their fleet, as the composition of ships was quite unlike anything we had seen before. The addition of Federation freighters commandeered from Venlil Prime were of course expected, as were their desecration, with numerous primitively drawn symbols tainting their hulls. The Skaven ships however, were barely able to be called as such. As far as our sensors could tell, each was merely composed of a single thruster welded to one of their primitive crystal weapons, with a tiny dome on the top serving as a cockpit. The tiny things had nothing in the way of armor or other defenses, displaying a callous disregard for the lives of the pilots. They were clearly made to be mass produced, and mass produced they were, obscuring the view of the planet behind them like a swarm of tiny insects. The only thing they had that even resembled a Capital Ship was a large vessel at the rear of their formation. It had armor aplenty, pieced together from alloys which were recognizable as fragments from the orbital installations missing at Venlil Prime. Multiple federation defense turrets were installed across the hull, modified with their strange green crystals. The only component which hadn’t been stolen from the federation was by far the strangest, a massive Bell installed above the bridge, displayed for all to see.
I had been briefed on Skaven zealotry, but to install such a large icon on their largest ship when they were clearly short on materials seemed wasteful to the extreme. Though, what else could one expect from creatures whose very survival hinged on reckless destruction? As we approached, the sensors showed some of the tiny pests scrambling below the useless hunk of metal, hanging on the ship's exterior in their primitive spacesuits as they struggled to pull the rope attached to the clapper of the bell. Their efforts were fruitless, as despite the metal component striking the side of the instrument it would never-
GONG
A ripple of confusion spread through the bridge, the crew turning their heads every which way in an attempt to locate the source of the noise. The only one who was looking directly at it was me, though I had a hard time believing it. Somehow, in spite of the laws of physics, the sound of the bell ringing had traveled through space, allowing it to be heard on our bridge and, according to the incoming communications from the rest of the fleet, the bridges of our other ships too. Confused, our formation slowed down, as multiple squad commanders requested orders I wasn’t yet in a state of mind to give.
GONG
My suspicions were confirmed as the second striking of the bell coincided with a second ring sweeping across the bridge. With it came a strange sense of foreboding, as some irrational part of me began to fear that something terrible would happen if the predators were permitted to continue ringing the bell. As illogical as the feeling was, it did allow me to regain my wits and speak into the radio. “All battlegroups continue advance, prepare to open fire. Priority target is the enemy flagship.”
GONG
The Flagship remained at the rear of the enemy formation as the rest of the Skaven ships advanced. The fragile fighters died in droves as they moved into firing range. Most were cut down by our weapons, their weak hulls offering so little protection that even our point defense turrets were able to shoot them down. Some of them exploded in violent flashes of green upon being fired upon, often destroying several other craft near them in a deadly chain reaction. The most bizarre casualties however, were self-inflicted, as a few of the tiny craft opened fire upon one another, seemingly unprovoked. It only served as further proof of the importance of their extermination.
GONG
Another ring heralded the survivors making it close enough to return fire, green lightning lancing through the void at our vessels. Flying straight through our formation, a chaotic firefight ensued.
GONG
The fleet’s discipline was tested by the proximity of the predators, and wasn’t found wanting as the fleet held position and fought. The lethality of our barrages had quickly lessened however, as many firing solutions had to be abandoned due to the risk of hitting friendlies, a consideration the Skaven didn’t seem to share as the branching lines of energy torched several of their own.
GONG
Their predatory callousness had paid off however, as the fleet was beginning to take casualties in return. Their weapons raked across our hulls, struggling to get through armor, but causing devastating explosions when they found a weak spot. In the confusion, it was difficult to tell if we were winning.
GONG
The captured Venlil freighters made it into the thick of battle, largely ignored due to the more immediate threat of the fighters. With no weapons, they simply rushed at the largest ships they could reach, ramming into the side. Hull damage suffered in these attacks was minimal, but the ships quickly began to report predators boarding their ship, drowning the defenders in a tide of bullets and bodies. I ordered the affected crews to hunker down, and prepare to scuttle the ship if the enemy could not be repelled.
GONG
A Skaven fighter broke through the defensive ring around our ship, making a dangerously close attack run to tear a rent through the entire length of our hull. It flew close enough that I could see the predator inside looking straight at us with a vicious grin, before the inattentive pilot crashed directly into one of the vessels behind us, destroying both ships in a bright flash.
GONG
The ringing was getting worse, more intense. This latest one could be felt as well as heard, the bridge shaking from the sheer power of the noise. I groaned in pain, my head aching more and more each time the clamor returned. Enough was enough.
“First squad!” I ordered. “Form up, we’re breaking through and taking down that damn flagship.”
GONG
My orders were followed as we pushed forward, cutting a path through the chaos. The Skaven realized what we were doing and began to focus fire on us, but the casualties we had inflicted could finally be felt, as they were too few to intercept us, and we achieved a clear line of sight to their mothership.
GONG
My first officer Jala clicked her beak in delight as her screen lit up with a picture of the flagship. “We have a firing solution for the railgun! Targeting center mass!”
“No!” I interjected. “The Bell! Destroy that accursed bell!”
GONG
The Skaven managed one last ring before Jala aimed at their foul icon and fired, relief flooding into my heart as I witnessed its imminent destruction. However, as the railgun round struck the side of the bell, I realized my mistake.
GONG
Jala’s shot had shattered the bell, but in doing so, had rang it one final time. This final ring was awful indeed, incapacitating the entire bridge crew for several seconds. As I regained my senses, my sense of foreboding began to evaporate. Whatever that strange thing had been, it was destroyed now. Only the cleansing of their world remained.
I looked past the damaged flagship towards the Predator homeworld and found… that I couldn’t see it. A strange green gash in space was stretching out behind the broken bell, green lightning arcing at the edges. I could only stare in terrified awe as the expanse of green grew wide enough to cover the entire viewport, and begin to show a bizarre warped landscape within.
Then, all hell broke loose.
The lightning emitted from the anomaly suddenly gained direction, targeting and decimating our ships seemingly at random. Chittering laughter could be heard among the static on every radio frequency, as vessels reported more predators on their vessels, appearing out of nowhere. As I stared into the abyss, I could just about make out a tall, furred being with long gnarled horns looking over the battlefield. And as its gaze briefly met my own, I had no doubt in my soul that I had just made eye contact with the Skaven God.
With all the will I could muster, I tore my eye away and yelled Jala. "Jala! That thing is responsible for this! Can you get a firing solution?!”
She turned to me and opened her beak. What emerged wasn’t her usual joyous request to open fire, but a torrent of vermin pouring out onto the bridge. The flood did not stop, continuing far beyond what should have been able to fit in her mouth or even her body, and the bridge crew was quickly drowning under them.
Frozen on my perch, I saw the anomaly begin to close as the fleet suffered, and I caught a final glimpse of the figure’s face, as it stared at our suffering with delighted malice.
First - Previous - Next

The cry that tore through the hospital room was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. After 18 grueling hours of labor, Jenna finally brought our son into this world. As the nurses cleaned off the wriggling newborn and wrapped him snugly in a blanket, I felt an overwhelming surge of emotion unlike anything I'd experienced before in my troubled 29 short years.
I squeezed Jenna's arm as they placed the tiny bundle into her exhausted hands. She beamed down at our child with a radiant smile. "Oh Wyatt, he's perfect," she whispered, her eyes shining with joyful tears.
As I leaned in to get my first real look at the baby, a strange tingling sensation shot through my body. I heard an old and deep voice in my head say thunderously - "Awaken". At first, I thought it was just the adrenaline and lack of sleep from the long delivery. But then the tingling rapidly grew more intense, like a searing heat building beneath my skin.
I gasped and stumbled back from the bed, clutching at my arms in panic as they began to glow with an inner ethereal light. "Wh-what's happening?" I choked out, staring down at my illuminated hands in horror.
The nurses rushed over, eyes wide with shock and fear. "Are you crazy?! You can't use magic in here!" One of them shouted, recoiling from me.
"I can't control it! Please, get help!". I shook my head frantically, spots dancing across my vision. The strange energy source within me was growing hotter and hotter, like a raging fire threatening to burst free from my mortal shell. I could feel the power, old and deep as the dirt of the earth itself, roaring through my veins.
With a thunderous roar that shook the hospital room, dazzling golden flames erupted all over my body. The manifestation of my awakened powers swirled and danced around me in a frenzied vortex of impossible colors and shapes that seemed to defy the laws of physics themselves.
The sound of Jenna's terrified screams and my newborn's crys cut through the maelstrom. My son, I had to protect him! Gritting my teeth, I willed the inferno to recede with every ounce of concentration I could muster.
As quickly as it had appeared, the mystical energy torrent flickered and died. I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, feeling utterly spent yet somehow... enlightened. Like a great truth had been revealed to me in those few cataclysmic moments.
One of the nurses tentatively approached, eyes wide with a mix of fear and awe. "I have seen it before. You are one of the Draconic Vessels," she whispered. "A human imbued with the very same ancient powers as the First Draconian Gods themselves. As you already know, this uncontrolled version of magic is extremely dangerous."
I heard about Draconic Vessels at school at magic history lessons. We were told they are extremely rare (about 1 in 100,000 people can awaken a new bloodline), and have very unique methods of awakaing. Each draconic god has placed a set of rules (or curses) for their chosen people or offsprings to follow. If they do not follow these rules they will no be able to use their deity's powers. These rules were largely kept as familial secrets, never to be shared with an outsider. So that even if the power is stolen to be made into pills, the thief could not use the powers for long. There were even folklore about these vessels and legends that surrounds each of the known bloodlines.
I looked down at my hands, now tattered with strange marking, drained yet still faintly glowing with residual energy, and knew my life would never be the same again. The birth of my son had reawakened a long-dormant magical force slumbering within my blood for untold centuries. I had a sinking suspicion that unlocking the secrets of my new draconic abilities was only the beginning of a much greater destiny.
One thought hasn't escaped my mind - if the nurse is correct, will my son experience the same thing? What draconic god was I connected to? What rules have I followed to make this happen? I need answers - now. I wanted to look at my wife and meet her eyes, to share with her this new burden that has suddenly appeared in our lives. As soon as I tried moving my gaze, a now familiar cry has drawn my attention. My son is here, and nothing else matters more.
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Hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my story of - becoming a father for the first time while discovering you have a unique ability that you can't control.
If there will be anyone who enjoys it and wants to read more I'll continue posting it here as I already plan on continuing writing this for myself :)

I was in the middle of a delivery when I got the urge to use the restroom. No matter, I’m a big boy, I can hold it in until I can get to a restroom. So I continue with my delivery while holding it in. I get to the hotel where I must deliver and the urge comes back a lot stronger, but I’ve dealt with this before I can definitely make it. I go in and greet the lovely receptionist and I get permission to deliver directly to their door. I get in the elevator and strike up a short and sweet conversation with a young man who just came back for the night. As my floor comes up I say farewell and start looking on the wall for where my delivery is located. As I find where to go the urge comes back and it starts to feel like I might not make it. I put those thoughts aside and I hurry down the hallway to the correct door. I double check the room number and I place the delivery as quickly as I can. As I pull up my phone to take the confirmation picture my body trembles. I shake and hop to try and hold on for just a little bit longer. I take the photo but it’s too blurry! I try again and just barely get a passing picture. I finish my delivery and half run back to the elevator. All while my body continues to shake and tremble from holding back this unstoppable urge. I get in the elevator and I can barely press the button to the first floor. The shaking increases as I am now fighting back what feels like a turbulent river inside me. I feel a drop go through, and then more. The release is too much I can’t hold back any longer. I stand there in shock as I see torrents of pee go through my pants and onto the floor. I continue to try and stop the flow but it’s too much I am just along for the ride. I stand there for a second as the realization of what just occurred sinks in. The elevator dings open and I walk out. A wet splat announces my every step. For a moment I consider dashing away, but that would only make things worse for others. I walk sullenly to the same lovely receptionist and tell them of my sins. Their look of confusion and horror increases my embarrassment and it now feels like my head will explode at any moment. They quickly call someone over who then asks me to repeat what happened. I explain while I keep repeating “sorry” every other sentence. They tell me it’s okay and offer their restroom, but I explain that couldn’t stop my flow until it was all out. I continue to stand there just wonder what the hell was wrong with me. Luckily they tell me again that everything is alright and let me know it’s okay if I want to go. I go to leave and say sorry one last time as I leave the establishment. I get in my car and drive home. The moment replays in my head over and over all the way home. Acceptance finally kicks in and I decide to write this post.
TL;DR: thought I could finish a delivery before using the restroom. Now I will be remembered as elevator-pissboi.

First / Previous
The hairs on Leon’s neck rose as the snap of power brushed against him. Before he can focus anymore on the sensation, however, he catches Erik’s sword in a bind before it lands a clean blow against him. There is a twitch in the Shade’s eyebrow that told Leon that Erik sensed the same thing, but their eyes focus almost immediately. Neither one could afford to lose concentration in a confrontation like this.
The dance continued.
Leon flicked his wrist, sending a surge of Ether into his sword. The burst of energy knocked Erik’s sword astray, but as the Black Cloak tries to exploit the created opening with a Fang in his opposite hand, it is caught by the Shade’s forearm. The attack only leaves a scratch on the surface of Erik’s skin, and before Leon can react his legs are kicked from under him from a sweep of Erik’s leg, his opponent then follows the blow with a flick of his cragged blade at the Black Cloak’s head. Leon twisted his hand, catching the blow with his sword, but the lack of leverage from his imbalanced stance becomes apparent as the attack knocks him off of his feet. His back slammed against the tree behind him, and he could do nothing as he slid against it and onto the ground. However, Erik does not pursue
The Shade instead jumped back to avoid multiple bolts of Aether launched from Ren. The projectiles struck where Erik’s feet were, and when their opponent made his temporary retreat the Cleric stepped in front of Leon. The Black Cloak stood to his feet and joined his companion at his side.
“You felt it too, right?” Ren muttered towards him.
Leon nodded.
“It wasn’t Aria as far as I could tell, but we can’t allow whatever is happening to her to continue,” Ren said.
Leon eyed Erik in the distance. The Shade’s eyes studied them as he paced back and forth, but he did not press the attack. A tension was building in the air, ready to burst at any moment.
“I’ll handle him,” the Black Cloak said.
Ren cut him an uncertain look, “Are you certain?”
“No,” Leon admitted, “but we are scarce on options,” he let his Fang dissipate and switched his stance, keeping one hand free while he held his sword in a neutral guard, “when I give the signal, unleash as much as you can then run.”
The Cleric nodded, but said nothing.
Leon leaned in, closing his mind to all else but his opponent. He would not best the Shade with power alone, that much was clear. He hoped technique would make up the difference.
Erik struck first.
The Shade kicked off the ground, the Ether running through him granting him a speed that Leon could barely follow with his eyes. Ren was quicker to react, unleashing a large wave of golden light as he thrust his staff in front of him. Leon followed the surge of power close behind.
“Go!” he yelled, hoping that his companion was already on his way towards the others.
Erik crossed his arms as the wave of energy struck him, but the force behind it knocked the Shade off of his feet. Leon focused his Ether at his legs, feeling his heart drum against his chest as he let the energy burst when he kicked the ground. The earth cracked beneath his feet, and the Black Cloak leapt to Erik’s side. The Shade was unable to get his feet under him before Leon struck, but intercepted the attack with his arm. The Black Cloak’s blade bit into his arm, leaving only a shallow cut before Leon leaned into the attack, slamming Erik into the ground. Before the Shade could recover, a Fang of golden light appeared above Leon’s head and flung itself towards Erik like an arrow.
He twisted his body to avoid a direct hit, but hissed as the Fang left a glancing blow at his side. Leon pressed the assault, his sword swinging down in a relentless tide of steel that Erik could only manage to barely deflect with his cragged blade. Between each attack, a Fang slipped through Erik’s defenses just enough to leave another cut across his skin. Blood trickled down from each wound, spotting the Shade’s clothes in a deep red, and Leon could now see Erik’s eyes starting to widen; he searched for an opening to the onslaught.
One Leon never intended to give.
Finding his rhythm, the Black Cloak produced another Fang in his free hand and sped the assault. The Core at his center grew hotter with each new Fang that Leon produced, a fire that was spreading slowly across the entirety of his body. He grit his teeth and pressed the attack, raining his blows against Erik’s blade as the Shade kept avoiding any debilitating blows. Growling, Leon forced Ether into his sword and hit the Shade’s stone blade at its side. It landed with a burst of golden light, knocking the cragged sword to the side. Leon thrusted with the Fang in his opposite hand, aiming towards the Shade’s chest, but before the attack landed Erik slammed his foot against the Black Cloak’s chest.
A burst of energy escaped from Erik’s foot as his heel dug into Leon’s breastplate, giving nothing away aside from the air bursting around the blow itself. The Black Cloak was kicked into the air, but before he was knocked away he drove the Fang into Erik’s thigh. The Shade roared in pain as the sword of gilded energy pierced through the leg and out the otherside, but still managed to kick Leon back enough to be able to get to his feet. The Fang faded from Erik’s thigh, but he moved with a clear limp as he tried to create more distance between him and Leon. His cuts already started to heal, but there was a sluggishness to his movements now.
Leon leapt back into the fray, feeling as if pins were stabbing him all over as he drew upon his Core once more. He pushed the feeling to the back of his mind as Erik caught his blade in a bind with his own. The Black Cloak pushed the exchange down and cleaved into the Shade’s exposed arm with a Fang from his opposite hand. Erik roared as it cut deep into his skin, forcing the locked weapons back up. As he felt his blade rise, Leon maintained the bind until the swords reached the level of his chest, allowing the Shade to generate the momentum of the movement. Before Erik could take advantage of this, however, Leon shifted his arm and manipulated the bind upwards, exposing the Shade’s chest. The Black Cloak’s Fang struck again, giving Erik a gash across his chest. His opponent tried to break the engagement, but his movements were still hindered by the still healing wound on his thigh, and Leon fell into another rhythm as he pressed the assault.
His sword served as his guard, catching Erik’s swings before they could reach their apex and creating openings that he could strike at with his Fang. While the Shade was able to block most strikes with his arm, it was becoming increasingly clear that his Ether was starting to run thin. Leon’s attacks would cut deeper with each strike, forcing Erik to eventually switch to avoiding them entirely, which pressed him on the back foot. The fire that seared through Leon was dulled by the rush of battle, but even then he could tell that his limits had been reached and long surpassed. Still, he pressed on.
The Black Cloak pressued Erik back into a tree, keeping his strikes constant to force the Shade to keep his guard up. Any attempts to slow down Leon were met with failure as he started to once again slip Fangs between each strike. The Fang he grasped felt like lead, and his sword even heavier with that, but each new cut across Erik’s body only spurred him to carry on. The Shade attempted to kick Leon away, but the Black Cloak countered by slamming his elbow into his opponent’s shin, knocking the leg back down. The battle high kept darkness from encroaching upon his vision, but he could feel the Fang in his hand start to grow unstable.
His Ether was nearly spent.
Erik moved to resume his guard, the cracks across his cragged sword clear to see. Gritting his teeth, Leon brought the Fang back and forced the last of his Ether into it, setting its flickering form ablaze with golden light. He struck the rocky sword and let the blade of the Fang burst, shattering Leon’s weapon. It's shrapnel bounced off of the Black Cloak’s armor, but scratched across Erik’s skin as he tried to cover himself with his arms. Leon slipped a fist between his opponent’s defenses, striking him in the jaw and sending him stumbling to the side. In his battle driven rush the Black Cloak felt the impulse to drive the sword into Erik’s side, but he stopped himself. Instead, he dropped the blade and grasped the sealing cuffs attached to his waist.
Before the Shade could recover, Leon grabbed his wrist and clasped one of the cuffs around it. The effect is felt instantly as Erik falls to one knee, the Ether that sustained him withered to embers. The Shade swung his fist at Leon in a desperate attempt to repel him, but his hand was instead caught by the Black Cloak as he clasped the second cuff around his wrist. His abilities fully sealed, Erik fell to the ground.
Leon loomed over his defeated opponent, chest heaving as he took breaths that refused to fill his lungs. Though the Shade was mired in countless cuts, the constant rush of Ether that Erik maintained throughout the fight reduced their damage to surface level only. Such use of power most likely contributed to Leon’s opponent burning through it so quickly. Had the Shade been properly equipped, the outcome of the battle would have been far different.
Erik looked up at him, eyes still resolute even in defeat, “Mercy? From a hound?”
“We have questions,” Leon responded, “And you’re going to give us answers.”
He struck the Shade across his jaw, and Erik fell limp against the forest floor. Leon knelt down next to his opponent and pulled a small length of rope from his waist before binding Erik’s legs with it. The moment that he tightened the knot, his fatigue struck all at once.
The Black Cloak fell back, feeling the trembles that started from his fingers and toes, trailing up his limbs until the entirety of his body started to shake. He tried to move in such a state, but his legs refused to obey. The twitch in his fingers told him that he retained some measure of mobility, but it took all of his will to lift them and pull back his hood. As his helmet faded, the cold air stabbed at his exposed, sweat covered skin like daggers. He grew confused as the chill felt more like a steady burn, but could only attribute that to the stress that he’d subjected his body to during the battle. He’d held so many advantages in that exchange, and still he was reduced to his. He was weak.
Just as he’d always been.
A memory of Astraeus flashes into his mind. His brother stood strong, stance immaculate as he readied himself against an unknown opponent. Rather than push the image away, Leon embraced it and closed his eyes. He calmed his breathing, and after a few moments could feel some feeling in his legs start to return. All of him still shook, but he regained just enough strength to push himself to his feet. With a final deep breath, he pulled his hood back over his head.
The fight was not over.
___
Leaf could only watch as the storm unfolded in front of him. Jahora stood firm, the light the newly formed Aetheric ring around her head flaring with a brilliant white light as the Mage forms a glyph of red energy in her hands. Cora, who still maintained a hold on his restraints, raised the arm of hers that was not clasped by a sealing cuff, forming a barrier of rock and energy in front of her. It proved to be a futile gesture, for as Jahora’s fireball struck the shield it shattered, the force of the explosion knocking Cora back into a tree.
The rocks that dug into Leaf’s skin fell as the Shade hit the ground. With his restraints gone, the archer caught himself on his feet and picked up his shortsword. He moved to aid Jahora, but as he took a step a wave of fatigue struck him, forcing him to his knee. His Ether was already nearly spent by the time the others arrived, and it was only through sheer stubbornness that he’d been able to force anymore out of his Core during the fight and in trying to break the crushing hold of Cora’s restraints. Now though, he could feel knives stabbing at him across his body, a backlash of pushing himself too far.
Yet he knew it wasn’t far enough.
Jahora readied another spell, the glyph in her hands a pale blue as Aether surged around her. Cora pushed herself to her feet, the manic look in her eyes only growing as she glared at the Mage.
“You will not take her from me…” the Shade muttered. Even with her abilities partially sealed, the ground at her heels started to crack as yellow Aether hummed around her feet.
Jahora said nothing and gathered more power into her spell.
“You will not take her!”
Cora slammed her heel into the forest floor, sending a wave of earthen spikes towards Jahora. The Mage remained steady as she unleashed her spell, countering the tide of earth with a surge of ice. The spells collide, kicking up a cloud of frost and dirt as they shattered against each other. Jahora pulled her hand back as the ice faded, her fingers blazing with red Aether as she pulled the little heat that was in the air into her fingers, molding it into a glyph at the back of her palm. Another symbol formed in her free hand at the same time, this one made of a deeper blue energy.
Before the dust settled, a series of yellow flashes burst through. Jahora lifted the blue glyph in front of her, projecting a barrier that deflected the rocks that crashed against her. The form of Cora started to become more visible, but she’d long revealed her position from the wild screams she let out with every new spell. There was a desperation to the Shade’s voice, one that Leaf could not understand.
One that Jahora did not care to listen to.
The Mage pressed forward, maintaining her barrier as she twisted its position with small flicks of her wrist. Between each projectile blocked, she swept the hand holding the red glyph forward, generating small bolts of fire that struck the bits of earth that Cora raised in a desperate defense, slowly reducing it to dust as the Shade was too manic to move. Jahora continued her steady advance, but Leaf could see the tremble that took hold over her hands. Though the boons of the Third Circle appeared to have granted her spells increased control and power, it did nothing to resolve the fact that the Mage had spent all her strength and more in the battle prior.
Leaf grit his teeth and pushed himself to his feet. Each step he took felt as if he were carrying a mountain as his back, but he continued to press on. He looked towards the side, seeing that Elly had started to stir, but was in no shape to assist. His eyes fell to Helbram, not knowing if it was instinct or consciousness that made the man dig his fingers into the ground, clawing himself slowly towards Cora. Finally, his gaze drifted to Aria, who remained suspended in the air, the woman of ice’s fingers digging deeper into the seal at her back. Ren was now at the girl’s side, the Cleric shimmering with golden energy as he fed the light into the seal. There was a newfound sheen trailing down Aria’s cheeks.
Tears that had frozen against her skin.
Leaf growled and slammed his fist into his leg. The dull rush of pain pulsed through them, but they did not become any easier to move. Jahora continued to advance upon Cora, but though the Shade was steadily losing ground the Mage’s own steps had started to slow. The archer struck his legs repeatedly, practically throwing his feet in front of him as he forced himself into a charge. Pain filled every one of his senses as a rush overtook him, and everything turned into a blur as he continued to run towards the battling spellcasters.
Cora flung another stone at Jahora, who deflected it and countered with a bolt of fire. The spell struck the Shade in her chest, slamming her back into the tree, but as she fell Cora drove her hand into the cracked earth. A pulse of yellow Aether surged through the fractured ground, trailing towards Jahora. The Mage dropped her spells and started to gather yellow Aether of her own into her hands, but before a spell could form the energy sputtered and she fell to a knee. Cora’s spell condensed at Jahora’s feet.
And Leaf rammed into the Mage in desperation.
His companion is knocked to the side as they collide, the archer taking her place in her stead. As Cora’s spell completed, the ground under him exploded, knocking him into the air as he felt the weight of a sledgehammer strike into his side. His strength left him as he struck the ground, barely able to keep a hold on his consciousness. He saw Jahora looking towards him, but before the Mage could show any concern he summoned all he had to yell.
“Go!”
Jahora nodded and pushed herself to her feet, a glyph of green Aether forming at her back. Before Cora could ready another spell, the Mage finished the cast of her own, unleashing a burst of wind that threw her forward. Jahora crossed her arms as she struck Cora in the stomach, doubling the Shade over. Before she had to recover, the Mage took hold of the loose end of the sealing cuffs and clasped it over Cora's once free wrist.
The Shade fell to her knees right after, putting her at eye level with Jahora. She bored a hateful look into the Mage as Jahora gathered green energy into the small glyph at her hand.
“Monsters, all of you,” the Shade spat, “trying to take a daughter away from her mother.”
Jahora opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. Any anger that burned in the Mage’s eyes faded to pity as she looked upon Cora.
“Do not give me that look!” the Shade screamed, “I saw the hate in your eyes just moments before. I know what you truly wish to do.”
Jahora raised her spell towards Cora, “You are not wrong. A large part of me wishes to do nothing more than snuff out your life, but I won’t.”
She casted her spell, triggering a blast of air that knocked the Shade’s head back into the tree. Cora goes still and falls to the ground, unconscious.
“There is a child present.”
___
Leon emerged from the trees, dragging an unconscious Erik behind him. As he entered the clearing he left the Shade on the ground and continued to walk forward. Every part of him wished for him to stop, but he couldn’t, not until he knew that everything was dealt with. The distant part of the clearing was a broken mess of shattered earth and ice, and amongst the rubble he could see Helbram and his companions littered throughout.
Elly had started to push herself up, blood trailing down her face as her eyes blinked away her once unconscious state. Helbram himself appeared to still be moving, though just barely as he scraped himself along the ground. Leaf lay further amongst the rubble, leaned against a jagged piece of rock as he clutched his side. Jahora stood not too far off from him.
An unconscious Cora at her side.
Relief started to flood through him, but stopped as his gaze drifted towards Aria, towards the remaining Shade.
The frost coated every part of the girl’s exposed skin, which had grown even paler since he first saw her. Her hair was also a more stark white, and a faint, wispy blue glow bleeding from her eyes. Though she displayed no emotion on her vacant face, tears trailed down and froze against her cheeks.
Just like Astraeus had looked all those years ago.
Leon shook his head, looking towards the icy woman that hovered behind Aria. Beyond her physical beauty, there was little else that he could tell about the frozen figure, all except the fingers that pressed against the seal at Aria’s back. A crack had spread across all symbols of the gods that lined the glyph, all except for the Eye of Velendel, which was due to Ren’s current efforts.
The Cleric forced a torrent of Aether into the seal, but it showed no signs of repairing itself. It was all that his companion could do to prevent it from breaking further, and Leon knew that striking at the figure formed behind Aria would result in nothing.
It hadn’t with Astraeus.
He looked at the girl, saw the sadness that was frozen across her face, saw the same as he did all those years ago when he gazed into his brother’s eyes.
And drew his sword.
First / Previous
Author's note: Just gonna keep the commentary to a minimum until things are concluded. I was going to try and finish everything with this chapter, but there are way too many threads I want to make sure have the time they deserve, so I expanded on events here instead. More is still to come! We're not off this ride yet folks.
The arc is now officially finished on my Patreon, and I’m going to be taking a break next week to cool down. I’ll be back soon enough, till next time everyone!
If you wish to read ahead and gain access to the audiobook version of this story, consider supporting me on Patreon (https://patreon.com/criticalscribe). If you want to leave a donation, here is my Ko-fi (https://ko-fi.com/criticalscribe).

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Memory transcription subject: Jakiv, arxur scientist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
I woke up on the couch swaddled in a soft blanket. The light filtering through the windows illuminated and highlighted the red in Nuri’s fur. She was sleeping soundly on a pillow on the carpet. We were up late last night watching more movies and just talking about anything and everything.
For once I wasn’t feeling held down by sleep as I stood up from the couch. The yotul barely stirred. I went to the kitchen to make some coffee and eat breakfast. She’d ordered some food last night that I finished quickly because the time was 10 am and I was late for work.
I hastily swept up the folder with my report in it and headed for the door, my claws loudly clicking on the floor.
As I gripped the door handle, I heard Nuri call out, “Jaki?”
I turned around to see the yotul, draped in her blanket and smiling warmly. She approached and hugged me, “Have a good day at work,” she patted my back.
“Thank you, Nuri. I’ll see you later, okay?”
She nodded and waved as I stepped out into the warm sunlight. Today was going to be a good day.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Jakiv should’ve been in by now. I figured it didn’t matter too much, today we were going to be testing the vaccine and seeing how it interacted with the venlil body. He’d have loved to take notes, but a man like him would have a reason to call out of work, so I didn’t bother dwelling on it.
I stayed by Silvon’s side as we worked. I knew she still wasn’t feeling great after the email, and I was pretty on edge at the thought of Humanity First tracking us down. I promised her nonstop last night that I’d keep her safe.
“Danny?” she spoke softly.
“What’s up?”
“Can you pass me that sample there?” I handed her a vial of spliced cells and watched her drip them onto a slide with a myriad of other venlil cells. Various tissue cells, brain cells, and a couple of miscellaneous things like bone marrow and a tuft of fur. “Thanks, hon,” she smiled.
I felt giddy watching the cells harmlessly coexist. Then, she dripped a sample of the rhinovirus. Immediately the spliced cells got to work destroying the virus and protecting the other samples in the dish. “That’s looking really promising,” I observed.
She nodded, “I think it’s ready for the real test.”
“Got it. I’ll run these to the infirmary then. Be back in a sec, hon,” I promised, blowing a kiss since I was still suited in PPE.
I went through the decontamination cycle feeling like I was on cloud nine. Today was going to be a good day! As I started for the infirmary, sounds right out of my worst nightmares echoed down the corridor. Gunshots and screaming.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Aaron Clemont, Humanity First rallier
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Today was going to be a good day. Jatsen Labs was almost completely unguarded. The UN only sent two armed guards to stand outside the door, which were dispatched so easily, that they might as well have sent nobody at all.
While the peacekeepers were staining the sidewalk outside, I entered the building flanked by Landen and Vernon. We were immediately met with a pencil pushing yotul manning the front desk. Before she could even look up, a bullet blasted through her skull from my rifle. Landen and Vernon only had handguns, unfortunately. The local HF branch was rather poor. But they made do by squeezing off rounds into the panicked scientists who desperately ran down the halls to escape us.
Sprays of green soaked the walls and floors. I reloaded my rifle after eviscerating a Xeno and motioned forward. There was a map of the building on the wall that I scanned. We were pretty close to the virus lab, just a few short turns and Stat was at our mercy.
As I finished registering the info, the lights overhead dimmed and flashed red. “Good mood lighting,” I mused. As a trio we moved down the hall, leaving no survivors in our wake. We got to the door labeled ‘virus lab’ and used a keycard ripped from a corpse to unlock it.
“Let’s fucking do this,” I growled.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
The gunshots were growing louder outside as the decontamination cycle came to an end. I threw myself inside the lab. Silvon looked panicked and was pressed against the far wall. Those plexiglass windows wouldn’t survive a bullet, and my love wasn’t making herself less of a target.
“Silvvy,” I spat hastily, “C’mere!” she hustled toward me as I threw open a cabinet beneath the lab and moved aside enough equipment for her to squeeze inside. “Get in here. Don’t even think of coming out. Whatever you hear, whatever you see, keep quiet,” I breathed.
“Danny-?”
“Now!” I roared.
“I love you,” she said. I could see her goggles fogging.
“I love you too,” I said, closing the cabinet door. I ducked beneath the wall under the plexiglass. The other yotul seemed to have run out. I was thankful Tinasi wasn’t at work today. I heard the sound of the decontamination cycle going on and steeled myself for the worst.
The door swished open slowly. The barrel of a rifle extended through the doorway first, followed by 3 humans. The one with the rifle scanned the room, finding me immediately. “Dr. Stat,” he smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person.” I stood, ready to fight for me and Silvon’s life. Then, for whatever reason, the man set down his rifle. “Where’s your Xeno, Danny?” he growled.
“Her name is Silvon,” I spat, “And she’s far, far away from her.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Y’know Doc, you’re pretty infamous among Humanity First. Killing one of our own, undermining all our efforts at every turn, fucking the locals, it’s awful,” his voice was suave and matter-of-fact, but filled with the kind of vitriol only a terrorist could muster.
“Is that so?” He asked, then chuckled. “Guess she won’t know she’s a widow for a while.”
I raised my fists, and one of the other humans chimed in, “Aaron, what are you doing?”
“Quiet!” he barked, reaching into his pocket and procuring a switchblade. “I’m doing good on Stephan’s name.”
He clicked the blade and lunged toward me. I quickly grabbed his wrist and tried to wrestle the blade from his hand. He slammed his fist into my face and I lost my grip on him. He fell to his knees on my chest, putting his full weight on my ribcage, and tried to slam the knife down on me. I took both his wrists in my hands, desperately pushing him back as the blade got nearer and nearer to my throat.
I simultaneously released on hand and moved my head aside, the knife clattered next to my ear as I punched him in the stomach and pushed him off of me.
“Do you need help?” The other human called.
“No!” He barked as I crushed his nose with my fist. “Watch the fuckin’ doors!”
He grabbed the knife and slammed it into my arm. I howled in pain as blood spurted from the wound. He laughed maniacally, his crushed nose seeping crimson. He ripped the knife from my arm and swung again, cutting me up further. I got a grasp on his wrist again, continuing to pummel him. We rolled over, he was once again on top, each punch made me see stars.
“It’s the end of the fucking line, Stat,” he coughed. Aaron punched full force into my throat, and I struggled to breathe. He got up, towering over me with a sadistic grin.
“DANNY!” a shrill voice screeched. There was a flash of auburn fur and a scream as Silvon jammed a partially shattered test tube deep into Aaron’s back. He whipped around, catching the venlil across the snout. Under the PPE I could see blood.
“Silvon,” I gasped, “What- are… you- doing?”
Aaron stamped down on my hand as I reached for her, the bones snapped beneath his heavy footfall and I cried out.
“I knew she wouldn’t be far,” the human growled.
“No-” I wheezed as he ripped the mask off Silvon’s face. We locked eyes. “I’m sorry, Danny,” she whispered.
“Boys,” Aaron chuckled heartily. “Grab me one of the samples.”
One of the humans by the door reached into a handheld cooler, withdrawing a small orange vial I knew all too well. “NO!” I screamed as Aaron knelt by Silvon. I tried to stand. One of the humans by the door swiftly raised his handgun and fired into my leg. The hot lead seared my flesh and my pantleg grew warm and wet.
“Sweet dreams, Xeno,” he laughed, forcing open her mouth and forcing the sample’s contents down her throat. He threw her aside while she tried fruitlessly to cough out the blood, then returned to me.
“There’s no way out for any of us now, Stat,” the knife gleamed, covered in my blood. He held it to my throat, I could feel the blade cutting in, then-
“HOLY SHIT!” The other Humanity First members screamed in unison. The plexiglass shattered, there was a blurry gray mass that landed with a heavy thud. The human who shot me turned his gun on the imposing figure of the arxur and popped off several shots.
Jakiv staggered, clutching his chest, but no blood pooled around the holes in his hoodie. “Stupid human,” he growled, slashing his throat in one smooth motion. He turned to the other terrorist, shakily holding his handgun out. He fired, striking Jakiv on the arm, but the arxur literally shrugged it off, clawing the human’s face.
Aaron was pale and stood, knife in hand, to face the arxur. “B-back off, gray!” he spat. He dove for his rifle, but Jakiv was faster, grabbing the gun and chucking it through the broken window. He stomped Aaron’s hand, his claws impaling the appendage. The terrorist groaned in pain as the arxur slowly bent over and slammed his jaws shut around Aaron’s windpipe. The human’s movements halted with the sickening crunch of bone.
I caught my breath, and leaned against the wall, pain shooting through every limb. “Silvon,” I reached my non-broken hand toward the venlil, who ran over to me.
“Danny, oh stars,” she examined the wounds on my leg and arm.
“Are you two okay?” Jakiv asked, catching his breath and wiping the blood from his lips. He approached slowly, I could tell he was worried about scaring Silvon, but she ran to him and threw her arms around him.
“Thank you,” she sobbed, “Thank you, Jakiv.”
He awkwardly patted her back, “You’re welcome?”
She broke away, getting back to me, “Help me lift him, we need to get out of here.”
“On the count of 3,” the arxur said. “1, 2, 3!”
“Aaaugh! God!” I cried out as they helped me up.
“We’re getting you out of here, Danny. You’re gonna be just fine,” the venlil said half pleading. The edges of my vision began to blur and distort as my legs threatened to give out. Jakiv steadied me with his tail as we began walking toward the decontamination hall.
“Silvon,” I groaned, suddenly remembering the sample. “Silvon,” I tugged her arm.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“You’re sick,” I wheezed, stumbling slightly. “You need the- the-” I pointed frantically toward the container full of the vaccine I was supposed to run to the infirmary.
Silvon left my side only long enough to secure the case. “We need to leave now, Danny,” she told me.
I pressed myself against the wall as the decontamination cycle completed, then Jakiv helped me down the main hall. My legs were getting weaker with each step, and I could no longer feel my injuries. I felt lightheaded, and put more and more of my weight on the arxur, who eventually just threw me over his shoulders.
I heard voices up ahead, but the world around faded to black before I could see their sources. My last conscious thoughts were Silvon.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Jakiv, arxur scientist
Date [Standardized human time]: August 31st, 2148
[Day 24]
Dr. Silvon was great at keeping pace as we raced down the bloody corridors. At the entrance, there were several yotul police officers and zurulian doctors filing in.
“HELP!” I screamed at them, rushing toward one of the stretchers.
“Stand down, gray!” An officer barked, pointing his gun at me.
“Help me, please, get these two to safety. The venlil is infected with the flu, the human is critically injured. Please,” I urged.
The yotul eyed me suspiciously, I figured it was 50/50 whether or not he’d pull the trigger. “Listen to him officer,” Silvon begged, “He saved our lives.”
Two zurulians rushed over, I carefully lowered Dr. Stat into a stretcher. My claws and hoodie were soaked in blood, hardly any of it mine. “Please help him,” I begged. The zurulians exchanged nervous glances before hurriedly hauling the human off.
“You say you were… saved by this arxur?” The officer asked Silvon as another pair of medics rushed to her aid.
She coughed a bit, “Yes sir. He’s a hero…” she trailed off, noticeably growing weaker. “Where’s… my husband?” she groaned, falling into the stretcher and knocking out cold. Poor venlil overexerted herself running. Before they could wheel her off, I stopped one of the zurulians.
“Please, take this,” I said, handing the doctor the case we recovered. “It’s for the flu,” I explained as the zurulian took the vaccines and escorted Stat and Silvon through the lab doors. I registered my burning lungs at last, and leaned up against a wall for support, suddenly feeling weak in the legs.
I sighed heavily and let myself slip down to the floor where I could more easily catch my breath. The six shots to my chest stung badly, but a quick glance over told me they didn’t break the skin. Suddenly, the door swung open, and someone far off shouted “You can’t be here!”
In a flash of red fur, Nuri was at my side. “Jaki?!” she cried, her voice wrought with concern.
“Hey, Nuri,” I waved a claw, “What’re you doing-?” She wordlessly began running her paws along my chest, unzipping my hoodie and feeling the dents in my scales. “Nuri?” she looked up at me, there was fear in her eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked frantically.
“Yeah, I’m just fine,” I answered. She threw her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug that almost hurt. I didn’t know how to react besides returning the gesture, leaning into the marsupial.
“I thought-” Nuri’s voice broke, “I thought I-”
“Hey, hey,” I cooed, “Everything’s fine, I’m okay, Nuri,” I reassured the yotul. She sniffled, but said nothing, just pulled me tighter. We stayed like that for a while before she finally broke away. She sat down next to me and leaned her head against my arm.
“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” she confessed.
“Oh please, have some faith,” I smiled. “I’m a big strong arxur, I can handle a little tussle.”
The marsupial perked up slightly at my words. “You know you’re a hero now, right?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I dismissed.
“You saved a bunch of people today,” Nuri said. “What about that isn’t heroic?”
“I guess that’s true. Fuck,” I chuckled, “I need a drink.”
Nuri stood and extended a paw to help me up. “Let’s get outta here, Jaki,” she smiled.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: September 1st, 2148
[Day 25]
My head spun as I came to. I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to all those wires, with a cast on my shattered hand and nose. Directly across from me was Silvon, typing away on her holopad. The second she saw I was awake, a smile crossed her features.
“Good morning, Danny,” she greeted.
“Hey,” I groaned. Speaking hurt. I rubbed my eyes, and yawned, then instantly snapped up, “Holy shit, Silvon,” I cried, “Aaron he- you’re sick!”
Silvon seemed unbothered, I couldn’t keep the confusion off my face. “I was,” she smiled.
“What?”
“I was sick, Danny. But they administered the vaccine, and it worked,” she explained.
“It did?!” I laughed in disbelief, clutching my sides as the pain hit, but smiled regardless. “Oh thank god,” I cried. “I was so scared,” I breathed.
“You’re not losing me that easily,” Silvon giggled.
“Good,” I sighed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed. “Good,” I muttered. A tear rolled down my cheek that I hastily wiped away.
“Danny?” My breathing hastened, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. “Danny, are you okay?”
Silvon’s words echoed, drowned out by the beeping heart monitor. I failed to hide the torrent of sobs that escaped me as I buried my face in my hands. “I thought it was over for us-” I choked out, “I don’t want to lose you.”
A paw found its way around my neck. I ran my fingers through Silvon’s soft fur. “You won’t,” she promised.
“I’ve been having so many nightmares,” I sobbed, “I’m so afraid,” I confessed. She sat on the edge of the bed next to me and wiped the tears from my eyes.
“Nothing can tear us apart,” she said, “Nothing.”
“I-” I gesticulated, every emotion possible swirled in my chest.
“Shhh,” she cooed, “You don’t have to speak.” Silvon hugged me, and planted a kiss on my cheek.

It's not even like he's breaking dishes or beating me up, although he used to spank the hell out of me when I was kid - like 40-60 hard hits any time I did something he figured was bad - and he stopped doing that as soon as was too big to physically control. That stuff I can live with, I barely think about it, and it only came up now because I'm writing about him.
In our latest interaction, he asked me to clean some of the outdoor furniture at his house. I'm staying here while I visit but I'm also working remotely and work on some complicated problems for my job. Most of the time, I generally do what he and my mother ask for help with because they're old and I have no issues getting things they can't do for themselves worked out - part of why I visit them is so I can help out with things around the house while I'm here. I never argue about what they need help with, I just help, I get the thing done, then I go on with my day. But this time I needed to focus on work, and you could've sworn I'd called him something heinous from the way he responded to my request that I'd handle it in half an hour since I was busy with work.
That interaction has reminded me of how almost every interaction with him is filled with this rage that he directs towards me as soon as he doesn't get his way. As an adult I've learned to just block it out, but being here the past couple of days has reminded me of how emotionally exhausting being with him for any extended period of time can be. He only speaks in accusations. When he asks for help with anything, the energy he brings to the interaction is that you somehow owe him all your time and attention, anything he has to say on the matter is the only thing that's correct, and that you have to do things exactly the way he's demanded or else he launches into a torrent of abuse and insults. I look at him sometimes when he's in these rage spirals and I think "How the hell are you living with yourself and all this anger?", it looks so miserable and depressing watching him work up the rage and filter it through the words and physicality he uses to express himself. I just dissociate from the anger he spews and don't involve myself as an active participant in it, most times I just walk away, but sometimes, like the thing that just happened now, the pain I feel lingers for hours and I feel like a useless, ungrateful, piece of shit - the same way I used to feel when I was a kid living in their house. It feels like there's poison in my body and I have to work to purge it from my heart. I've also realized that I'm not really ignoring him the other times he does this, I'm just spending emotional and mental energy to block the bullshit and also remind myself that I'm not any of the things he calls me, it's actually tiring like I come out of these interactions feeling like I've come back from a long hike.
Anyway, this is just a vent session for me, I'm not looking for solutions. I've already tried talking to him about his anger multiple times over the years and the only thing that's come out of it each time is even more anger, and I'm not going to go no contact with my parents, as doing that would make me really feel like a POS, I especially don't want to lose my mom due to all this, so I'm willing to bear with it whenever I visit.

Recently I have seen some people thinking that Mary, Jesus mom, does represent the woman present in Revelation 12, but that’s not the case, it does depict Israel. Is easy to get fooled if you don't know exactly was being told in Revelation 12, but still that’s not the case. Let me tell you why. First, in order to understand the Bible and make an association between one part of it and something else we need the relation bible-bible that is going to help to us to contrast our verses.
In this case Revelation 12 says:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.

1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head

In this section we can see that this woman is clothed with the sun, the moon and 12 stars, just as Mary is depicted in most pictures, figures, paintings, etc. Which can fool anyone, but don't be deceived by Satan, because he is playing with these paintings to fool the people, why? Well, as i told you before in order to understand the Bible we need the Bible itself, in this case, where is another reference to the sun, the moon and 12 stars in the Bible? In Genesis 37:5-11 we see:
Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth
As seen here, there is a sun, his father Israel, the moon, his mother, and 11 stars, which represent all his brothers, while he, Joseph, is the star #12, just like his brothers. So all this Sun, Moon and 12 stars represent Israel. But I know you can still see Mary here, because the bible is talking about a woman that is pregnant and is about to give birth and is easy to think about Mary once again, but slow down a little bit more. If you read (Isaiah 54:1-6, Jeremiah 3:20, Ezequiel 16:8-14, y Hosea 2:19-20) you'll see that Israel is represented as a woman. Then why is Israel and not Mary crying out in pain? How can this be Israel? Well, Revelation talks about the ending times, in this case this crying in pain represents the great tribulation that is going to be present at the ending times. And Israel (the woman) coming from Heaven is going to give birth to Jesus (his second coming) See a little bit further the 144000

Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.

Now, here comes the fun and the trickiest part that can eat you alive if you don't pay attention. Revelation 12:3-4 lets us know that this moment is also tied with the birth of Jesus, as seen in the gospels. It is describing all the demons that were present when Jesus started his ministry in this world (as seen in Matthew 8:28-34 and Mark 5:1-17), but weren't present anywhere else in the bible, as just when Jesus came to this world demons manisfested in this way (aside from Genesis 6:1-8). If we continue with the gospels then we can say that this dragon was Herod (who represented the Roman Empire) who tried to kill Jesus as soon as he was born by killing every single kid who was two years and under in Israel, as seen in Matthew 2:13-16; and this part also explains the first part of verse 4 “Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”
So, who is this dragon? Well this dragon is Satan himself, some say that he is going to lead the Roman Empire of this era (The European Union) The 7 heads are 7 hills or countries/territories and also 7 kings, 5 have fallen, one is and the other one has not yet come, the 7 horns are 7 kings that haven’t received a kingdom yet, but they will, as seen in Revelation 17:7-12. But why is this Satan? Easy, the verse 9 let us know that: 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Now who are these 1/3 of the stars. Once again, easy, the verse 7 let us know that, these are Satan’s angels, the ones who rebelled against God. Regarding this, remember Satan being called the Morning Star in Isaiah 14:12.

The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born

What does this mean? As we know, people from Israel killed Jesus back in the day and even today they do not believe that he is the son of God, and therefore his King. So, in this same vein this son being born is not Jesus being born once again as a Baby, is the 2nd coming of Jesus. Is Jesus being recognized as the son of God, as their King and savoir. Israel (144000) is the one “giving birth” to him. Where we can see this? In Revelation 14:1: Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:4-5 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. And also in Matthew 24:30-35.
30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 32 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 33 Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Here, before Jesus mentioned this part, he pointed out all the signals of the end times and then you can see his sign appearing in heaven, the same mentioned in Revelation 12; but also you can see the final part "this generation will certainly not pass until all this things have happened" Which is this generation? People from Israel who do not believe him and not recognize Jesus as their King. Regarding this, you can see in the Old Testament in the book of 1 Kings (chapters 14 from 1 Kings until 2 Kings 23) a lot of "generations"; a "generation" that followed God and right after another "generation" that worshipped false gods, another "generation" following God and another one worshipping statues, until they lose the war against Babylon in 2 Kings 24. The current “generation” that “is not going to past until the end times” is the people from Israel that we have in this present day (and since Jesus came and will be until the end times) that does not believe in Jesus as the son of God.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
As we can see in this part this child is Jesus, who is going to “rule all the nations with an iron scepter” as seen in Psalms 2:7-9: I will proclaim the LORD’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. 8 Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery and also in Revelation 19:15: 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. He is taken by God and the woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God.

Now, the most polemic part of this, why this 144.000 do represent Israel giving birth to Jesus?

6 “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. 7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Let’s see Revelation 7:4-8
Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, 6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, 7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, 8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000
Revelation 14
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless
As seen here, once Jesus comes back he is going to do so with 144000 virgins of Israel (just like Mary). Satan or the Dragon is trying to kill him right after he comes back with a third of the stars of the sky (1/3 of the angels in Heaven, in this case, the fallen ones who followed Satan is his rebellion against God). And the woman (144000) goes to a selected place in which God is going to guard his people for 3.5 years (42 months or 1260 days). The Angel Michael and the remaining 2/3 stars in Heaven (God’s Angels) fight and defeat Satan and his angels, who are send to earth and the final part of the end times starts.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 12 Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.*
Let’s separate this a little bit, in verses 10-12 the loud voice is celebrating that Satan has no more business with heaven, as he can’t keep accusing people before our God – Regarding this you can see Zechariah 3:1-2 - (1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”), but warns the people on earth as he is filled with fury, because he knows his time is short. Verses 13 and 14 are a continuation of verse 6: “The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days”. In verse 14 the woman is given two wings of a great eagle (this is not United States btw) which represents God’s protection, a similar part is mentioned in Exodus 19:4: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. After he liberate Israel from Egypt. He keep them in the wilderness for 1 time=1 year, times=2 years and half a time=0.5 years (1+2+0.5=3.5 years, 42 months or 1260 days). In verse 15, Satan, now on earth, spewed water like a river, what does this river represents? Thanks to Revelation 17:15 we can see that the water represents a lot of people: 15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.” But this people couldn’t reach this 144000 because (now in verse 16) God is going to send an earthquake that is going to kill that people, as seen in Revelation 11:13 after Elijah and Moses, the two witnesses, died: 13 At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. This is the earth opening his mouth and swallowing the water. And finally, we can see in verse 17 that Satan leave Israel alone and goes after the rest of the world in order to start the great tribulation, by setting himself as God and putting the abomination of desolation in place that people is going to be forced to worship or Satan is going to kill them, in this same period is he going to put the mark of the beast on the people or they are not going to able to buy things as seen in Revelation 13:14-18: “Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Finally, why the witnesses are Moses and Elijah?
In Revelation 11:6 we can see that ”6 They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying (just like Elijah did in 1 Kings 17:1); and they have power to turn the waters into blood (just like Moses did in Exodus 14:25) and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want (just like Moses did in Exodus chapters 7-11). They were the only ones who could divide the waters, Moses in Exodus 14:23-31 and Elijah in 2 Kings 2:8 (Elisha did the same in 2 Kings 2:14, but it was because he “inherit a double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, also, the waters of the Jordan River were separated before the ark of the Lord in Joshua 3:1-17) Also, both, Moses (Exodus 34:28) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) were the only ones who fasted for 40 days, just like Jesus did in Matthew 4:2-4. They also appeared with Jesus in Matthew 17:1-8 when Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, John and the brother of James. And most importantly Jesus announced that Elijah will come once again and will restore all the things in Matthew 17:10-11 and we also know that Michael fought against the devil in order to retrieve Moses body in Jude 1:9.
As seen here, Elijah and Moses are going to come back to this world, as seen in Revelation 11, just before the second coming of Christ, as they are going to be the 2 witnesses necessaries to put to death Satan and his followers, as seen in Deuteronomy 17:6-7
6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
Also, if you remember, in Genesis 19, which contains the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 2 angels were sent to see what was happening in the cities, as they were the 2 witnesses that were needed to put the city and its people to death. In this story, Abraham asked to God for mercy for the cities and asked him what he would do if he found 10 righteous people in there and God (Jesus) said that for the sake of ten he would not destroy it, as seen in Genesis 18:20-33
20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”
“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”
29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”
32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?”
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
When the 2 angels went to the city they only found 4 righteous people: Lot, his wife and his 2 daughters, and once the angels help them to get out of the city (Lot’s wife was converted in a statue of salt for turning back and seeing what happened to the city, for not abandoning its sinful ways), fire came from heaven and the 2 cities, Sodom and Gomorrah and its people were "put to death". A similar situation can be found in Revelation 19:4-8 with the destruction of Babylon the great (USA, the Catholic Church and the deity of Mary -not the person who gave birth to Jesus, but the deity that was created after her, without her consent-). In the ending times, this city who was used for everyone to become rich, the city who killed many prophets and the great prostitute after who all the kings of the earth committed adultery is going to be destroyed by fire coming from heaven, but first, all the righteous were called to get out of the city, just like Lot, (his wife) and his daughters did in Genesis 19.
Revelation 19:4-8
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; 5 for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. 6 Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Pour her a double portion from her own cup. 7 Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’ 8 Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
Related to all this, Jesus said in the New Testament, in John 8:54-59
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
This day, which is a day that happened and is going to happen again (as seen in Revelation 18-19) can be seen in Genesis 19:27-29, just after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
As seen here, the one who talked with Abraham in Genesis 18 is Jesus (God) and he showed him his day, the day that happened and is going to happen again, because if you pay attention and you take Genesis from the end to the beginning (chapters 50 to 1) and Revelation from the beginning to the end (chapters 1 to 22) they match perfectly.
In Genesis the world starts with God creating the earth and heaven and the man free of sin, humans become wicked and God destroyed the whole world with the flood (Genesis 7 and 8), the city of Babel (after which comes, Babylon –which conquered Israel in the times of the prophet Daniel- and Babylon the great, which is a city, a religious system –the catholic church- and a deity, in this case Mary) was created, in this days the world only talked one language and they were building a "tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and the world" and the world suffered famines, earthquakes, (as the world was divided after the flood, as seen in 1 Chronicles 1:19 which ties Genesis 11:16, which happened after the flood and the confusion of languages in Babel) and wars and in the book of Revelation the world is going to suffer famines, earthquakes and wars (Matthew 24:7), there is going to be a nation that is going to make the whole world rich, that is going to be the mother of all abominations (Revelation 17:5), just like USA (biggest producer of porn, drugs are legal now, abortions are legal now, guns are everywhere, all TV shows feature as many blasphemies as possible, allow procedures that "change" the sex of kids, the whole country is build around money and we cannot follow God and money at the same time, as we are going to value one more than the other -Matthew 6:24-) that is going to kill many saints (just like the catholic church has been doing –and will do- across the story) that sits over 7 mountains (Revelation 17:9) just like Rome, city in which is located the Vatican, she "was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries" (Revelation 17:4) just like the deity of Mary is portrayed in many paintings and statues about her, she is also described as a great prostitute, just like the deity of Mary, because when Israel was following other gods, they were, according to God, prostituting themselves with these gods (an example of this can been in Judges 2:16-19.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Something similar can be seen in the book of Hosea, when God said to Hosea to go and marry a promiscuous woman and to have kids with her and to even love her when she commit adultery against Hosea, just like God was going to do with Israel even after they turn to other gods, as seen in Hosea 3:1-3) and is a city that is going to rule over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18), just like USA does now and how Babylon did when they conquered Israel when the Israelites forgot about God and the Israelites were sent to exile. This kingdom of Babylon was this big that when Daniel interpreted a dream of his king Nebuchadnezzar he said in Daniel 2:37-38
37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory; 38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
USA is the country of the skyscrapers (just like the tower of Babel, which was trying to reach the heavens) they have a language that is the universal language, English, and once that every one talk it, they are going to follow the steps of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Babylon the Great is going to die, as fire coming from heaven is going to destroy it, as seen in Revelation 18:8 (just like it happened in Genesis 19 in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah).
Later, Jesus is going to come back and is going to execute judgment over the world and all the wicked ones are going to die, as seen in Revelation 19:11-21 (just like it happened in Genesis 7 and 8 during the flood) and finally, the world is going to be reunited with God, all the saints, free of sin, after accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our LORD are going to take possession of the world, and all of us, the saved, are going to be reunited with the LORD once again for 1000 years, as seen in Revelation 20:1-6 and in Genesis 2:7-25 when God rested in the 7 day:
2 Peter 3:8
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
After that, Satan is going to be freed from his prison and is going to fool the nations, as seen in Revelation 20:7-10 when Satan was freed and in Genesis 3 when Satan tempted Eve to sin against God and finally, the whole heaven and earth are going to disappear, as seen in Revelation 20:11, and a new heaven and earth are going to be created, as seen in Revelation 21:1 and in Genesis 1:1 when God created the heavens and earth.
What do you think?

“Warning!” the female voice flatly intoned, “Critical systems failure! Activating safety pod.” Link to 1st chapter here: 1st chapter on
A set of hard panels shot up out of the floor and enclosed Rene from all sides, fitting seamlessly into airtight coffin and leaving only a round porthole of thick glass for him to peer out of. The interior of the tight space was furnished with gelatinous cushions supporting his spine, head and neck. Flexible straps extended from hidden slots above his shoulders and either side of his waist, wrapping him in so tight he could barely breathe.
“What’s going on?” he demanded of the Engine.
“Shutdown procedure in progress. Have a very safe day.”
“Oy! I asked you a question.”
“Warning! Ejection sequence imminent. Warning! Brace for takeoff. Brace for takeoff. Brace—”
Rene did not have time to scream— though he couldn’t have done so even if he’d wanted to. All the breath was driven out of his body as the iron sarcophagus shot straight upwards with explosive force. In instant he was ripped away from the dome and shunted out through a tube, lobbed like a stone from the arm of a catapult. He saw flashes of sunlight flickering past, the stony ground reeling away from him as he sped towards the heavens at hundreds of feet a second. Wisps of low-hanging cumulous clouds caressed the porthole, leaving streaks of dewy precipitation.
The craft’s velocity eventually bled off under the influence of gravity, and suddenly everything went perfectly still, a surreal and oddly peaceful moment where his arms gently floated up to the ceiling. His guts, which had been compressed under enormous acceleration, now relaxed. Feeling immensely grateful, Rene took a welcome gulp of air—only for it to be hammered right out of him again as his innards decided to reverse course, crunching upwards along the meagre contents of his stomach which now spewed out of his mouth in an uncontrollable torrent of vomit and spittle, coating the inside of the porthole. Through levitating gobs of half-digested food Rene saw that the craft was now in total free fall. Gone was the mad chessboard of the karst canyons and towers, replaced by a verdant rainforest that stretched well beyond the horizon, a shining brown river snaking through the impenetrable green.
“Initiating aerobraking maneuvers,” said a bodiless male voice, harsher and more metallic than that of the Engine, “Please remain calm.”
“Hnggng,” Rene groaned, giving it a thumbs up. His optimism evaporated when something ruptured in the bulkhead above him with a loud bang.
Wonderful, Rene thought with a sardonic grin. Damn thing’s going to fall apart before I even hit the ground. He heard the flapping of canvas and glanced up to see the flapping edge of what looked like a great big tent spreading open above him. The tent was attached to the coffin via taut black cables which were thrumming from a great deal of tension. One of them snapped apart under the immense forces at work, the split end slicing right past his porthole. The tent began to spin uncontrollably, jostling the coffin like it was a tin can being kicked down the road. Throughout all this, Rene was treated to the dubious pleasure of having the vomit on the porthole peel off and reapply itself all over his face.
This is how I die, Rene thought glumly. Covered in my own filth, squealing like a pig and trapped in an iron coffin built sometime in the previous millennia.
“Aerobraking unsuccessful. Please remain calm.”
“I’m…trying…” he replied through gritted teeth.
“Compensating. Compensating.”
There was a second bang and the cables were all severed, the big tent floating away into the clouds.
“Unable to compensate. Initiating lithobraking maneuvers. Brace for impact.”
There was a third and final eruption, this time from somewhere under his feet. He peeked down and saw four massive bladders rapidly inflating at the base of the coffin. A forest clearing was rushing up to meet him, and from the look of things, it was packing a nasty knuckle sandwich. Commending his soul to the Eternal Flight, Rene silently offered up a prayer to the ancestor-gods:
“Hello there. I’m not entirely sure how to do this, so I’ll keep it brief. I have only one thing to ask of you: I left certain…illustrations…under my bunk at home. Illustrations depicting young ladies in rather indecent postures. Whatever happens to me, don’t let my mother find them—”
Boing!
The coffin struck the ground at full force and bounced right off. A stand of trees reached out to catch it. Wood splintered and branches scratched against the side of the craft. A hefty bough smacked into the porthole and produced a worrying crack in the glass that grew larger and larger with every bump and snag.
At last, with a final whallop to the side of the coffin that set Rene’s teeth rattling in his gums, the craft rolled to a halt. Rene opened his eyes and found to his disbelief that he was still alive.
“Still alive?” he wondered aloud, wiping his lips and breathing shakily. When the buzz of adrenaline ebbed and he finally processed what had just occurred, Rene burst out in a mad cackle:
“Aha! Ah-ha hah! I’m still alive, you bastards!”
Who exactly he was referring to, Rene wasn’t sure. But it felt good to say those words all the same.
“Lithobraking maneuver successful,” the safety pod belatedly informed him, “Thank you for choosing Exodus Industries. Your future, built today!”
“If that’s your idea of success, I’d hate to see what you’d call a failure,” Rene joked, still giddy from the experience, “As for my future, do you have any ideas on how I could prolong it?”
“Safety pod hull integrity is compromised. Foreign contaminants have entered the compartment. Recommend immediate antifungal dosage.”
A groove on the wall of the coffin slid open to offer him the contents of a tiny drawer. In it was a strange object nestled in an indented mold. It was shaped like a pistol with trigger and all, but in the place of the barrel was a syringe filled with a dubious orange liquid in a transparent capsule. Next to the pistol were two identical capsules likewise holding the same substance.
“Hm,” Rene grunted, “Did you say antifungal?”
“Affirmative. Once injected, it will counteract the effects of native spores for up to 48 hours, standard Terran.”
Rene could hardly believe it. A remedy against infection from airborne spores was the holy grail of modern science. It was the second great hurdle that the Fleet faced in its struggle to reclaim the surface world, right after the deadly atmosphere.
“Terran?” he repeated, “That’s where the gods were born, correct?”
The safety pod did not reply. Sighing, Rene tried to work free of the restraints binding him to the seat but found the task harder than expected. Then her remembered that he had a tiny clasp knife in his trouser pocket and used it to cut himself free of the upholstery.
“Do you have anything else that’s of use to me, pod?” he asked, turning his attention to the syringe and examining it thoughtfully?
“A full survival kit is available in the foot locker.”
Another, even larger drawer opened up between his feet, containing a compact white chest held shut with airtight seals.
“Right. Thanks,” he said awkwardly.
Rene stooped to open it and felt something wet and heavy inside the seat of his trousers. Sniffing at it inquisitively, he gagged and added: “I don’t suppose you could conjure up a bucket of water and some soap? I’m afraid I’ve made a bit of a mess.”

Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road

I might be uninformed, but I'm just trying to make sense of this.
Ranni was behind the night of the black knives, with her goal being to kill her body without her soul, at the expense of killing godwyn's soul but not his body. This much makes sense. However, what I don't understand is why no one seems to be upset with her role in the later events in the story.
Godwyn's death lead to Marika breaking the Elden Ring and started THAT started the Shattering. Ranni is obviously known to still be around by at least Morgott, and there is no evidence to suggest anyone actually thinks she isn't around.
Moreover, when she found we could summon torrent, the way she spoke about miquella kind of implies that there is no bad blood. Or at least, she has no beef with him. Miquella definitely is broken up over Godwyn's death, and as far as Rahdan was concerned he seemed more interested in trying to stop whatever it was that was happening with the stars and her rather then bother her himself.
I am under the impression that it isn't widely known that Ranni was involved, but I can't really believe that either. Her body died first then the shattering happened, and I don't really believe she managed to stay uninvolved throughout the entire situation and the Black Knives were never tracked back to her. None of her followers are at all subtle about her still existing either, few though they are.
So what am I missing here? I know the idea was that she did all this to separate herself from her bloodline and forge her own destiny, this is why Rahdan putting the kibash on the starts moving was an issue and why we had to kill him to make him stop. I just can't see how there aren't more people taking issue with her personally.

The storm slithered across the countryside, consuming all in its path. Hurricanes are nasty, especially in southern Florida. This one was a category four, with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. Most people evacuate in such a storm, but not my grandpa. The man is as stubborn as a boulder with less emotion to boot.
He’s hard, difficult to love, but not entirely without his charm. He is faithful, slow and steady and always does what he says. Grandpa is cut from a different cloth, old school through-and-through. His face is as severe as the storm and his demeanor equally so. No one would consider him a pleasant man, not even his wife. For this reason, he lives alone in Hendry County on a plantation.
I found myself stuck in the crosshairs of this ungodly devastation for his sake. I was worried for him. I'm his eldest grandchild, so I felt responsible to care for him. To this day I regret my decision. It left me scarred. Sleep eludes me. I lay in my bed unable to keep my eyes closed. In the stillness of the early morning, I hear his desperate cries. I told myself there was nothing I could do. This is probably true, but fear stole my breath away. I was powerless to stop them.
Storms are the worst. The panic attacks begin. The memories come back in a flood of emotions. I remember all the details. I hear the screams; the noises no human mouth can produce. My therapist says they are fantasies my mind conjured to distract me from my loss. I want nothing more than to believe this, yet I know it is not so.
I saw the eye.
The crotchety old bastard shouted, “Jeb move your ass, the storm is approaching and we still need to gather all the cattle into the barn.”
Thoroughly regretting my decision to help the old man, I responded, “I'm going as fast as I can. Yelling at me isn't going to make it better.”
At this point, the wind was whipping through the trees. The rain was pelting us in the face, feeling like pin pricks on our exposed skin. This was so stupid, the old man had insurance on the farm and all damages would be recompensed.
Love makes you do dumb things.
The old man was the only family I had left. My mom died in childbirth and my dad drank himself to death. Suicide one sip at a time. Death by bottle. I was left alone, with no family members who cared for me. No legal guardian at the age of fourteen; confused, lost, bouncing from couch to couch. Consumed by anger at my mother for abandoning me, disgust for the weakness of my father, and jealousy of my friends who had loved ones. This is how Terrance “Terry” Clearwater found me. He took me in without a second thought. His level-headedness grounded me. The old man was the only consistent thing in my life. He genuinely saved me. Guilt and shame shatter my heart when I remember this. A debt to my grandpa will forever be unpaid. When he needed me most, I froze.
The storm roared. It surprised me how loud hurricanes can be. A war was being fought outside, an onslaught of winds and rain against the longevity of the trees and stones. Judging from the noise, it seemed as if the storm was winning.
We made our way in doors, stacking the heaviest beds and dressers against the windows. We weren’t keen on having a branch tossed through the window to impale anyone. I began to fill the bathtubs and sinks with water, knowing that at any time the power could go out. After we felt confident enough in our fortifications, the two of us gathered in the living room. To distract ourselves from the tempest huffing and puffing and trying to blow our house down, I dealt out cards.
It was in the second game of poker when the lights began to flicker. Before we could even finish our hand, the lights were out altogether. For a second, we sat in the dark, listening to the wind and rain. It was oddly peaceful. That was the last peaceful moment I had with my grandpa.
Sometimes I wake up tears staining my pillowcase, yearning for that moment again. I don’t think I would light the candles. I would just let that moment linger, stretching it out for as long as possible. I miss his gruff voice and rough hands. The sturdy pat on my shoulder, his signature way of showing me that he cared for me. He never outright said he loved me, but it was clear by his actions. Words are cheap, but actions are invaluable.
He was invaluable to me.
I ignited the flashlight and lit a sufficient number of candles. My nose was assaulted by warring scents. Each tried to compete with its counterpart. The room smelt of pomegranates and maple, cinnamon and ocean breeze, any smell imaginable was present. The smells made me queasy, at least that is what I thought then. Looking back at it now, I am convinced somewhere in my subconscious I was aware of what was about to happen.
My grandpa grabbed his portable battery-operated radio, the one he used to listen to the ball games and switched it to the local weather channel. In a crackling, staticky tone, the weather host predicted that the eye of the storm should be passing Hendry County in the next few minutes. The charming woman’s voice promised that the worst had passed and there shouldn't be much more to worry about. She advised us to stay hunkered down and wait the remainder of the storm out.
The woman could not have been more wrong.
The storm, in one final torrent of ungodly furry, blew with all its combined strength. An awful ripping noise, a crack, and an explosion; the 100-year oak in our front yard smashed through the kitchen window. I remember staring up through the gaping hole in the ceiling seeing the pitch black of night, darkened by the suffocating clouds and whipping winds. I felt as if I was staring into the depths of the abyss itself.
The storm at that moment ceased. No more wind, no rain, the clouds parted so that the moon was visible. It was full, the eye of God peering down on us. I stared perplexed at the moon. It was the color of blood congealed on a corpse. The visage was malevolent by nature. It was not the celestial body I was used to. It was foreign, uncomfortably large. The moon seemed to open wide and swallow the night sky.
This false moon had one dark spot in the center, a pupil in the center of an eye. The longer I looked at it, the more it peeked into the depths of my soul. It was alive. More than that it meant harm. I was certain of this. I can’t tell you how I knew it, but there was no doubt.
The night sky, other than the crimson glow radiating from that celestial eye, was darker. It wasn't merely darkness; it was inky blackness. Void of any light. It was a sky bathed in pitch. No light refracted. No light illuminated. My flashlight’s beam seemed to be choked in the night. An anorexic illumination emitting from the spotlight. Where my LED light would’ve ignited the sky like an offspring of the sun itself, it barely allowed me to see the far wall of the room.
It was as if the cruelty of the storm split the fabric of our reality only to have the hole filled by this monstrosity. Perhaps that is exactly what occurred. I’m not sure. I can’t explain what I saw. I just know that my grandpa was there and then after the storm he wasn’t.
Regardless, I found my adolescent-self staring at the night. I can’t rightly tell you how long me and my grandpa stood, looking at the eye in the sky. We didn’t speak. What was there to say? We were glued to our spot neck contorted; eyes locked on the celestial body. I am not even sure I blinked the entire time. My eyes refused to break the soul gaze for one moment. Soul gaze it was. I understood vileness at that moment. I met true darkness. Fear did more than fill my heart. It consumed me, a shadowy beast tearing into my sanity. I felt myself wandering, my consciousness being lost forever.
It was the blood curdling cries in that inky blackness that broke my mind’s wandering. It was off in the distance, but I could not locate the origins. The darkness did more than distort light, the sound was odd. It was as if the night had substance to it, causing the soundwaves to bounce off of it. Echo location was impossible. One moment the sound would come from behind me. The next would be just outside of my field of vision. I could not tell if the creatures were leagues away, or if they lurked right outside of sight.
A different type of fear seized me. This kind was animalistic and natural, whereas the previous type was philosophical and soul retching. There was a predator on the loose, my mind could comprehend. Before, that eye in the sky induced a fear that ripped at my understanding entirely. It was something superseding my insignificant intellect.
Still, my body became erect. My senses fired on all cylinders, attempting to detect and protect. The carnal portion of my mind took over. Self-preservation kicked in, and I unconsciously shuffled towards my grandpa.
My instincts remembered how it was like in those earlier days. Those days when we weren’t the top of the food chain. Humans are herd creatures by nature. We build sprawling metropolises so we don’t have to remember those days when creatures stalked us in the night. We try so hard to banish the darkness with our artificial light, yet still we wake screaming in the middle of the night from those phantom memories from our ancestors. Those memories of monsters, and creatures so evil we try to forget. We haven’t forgotten, and neither have they.
We huddled there, me and grandfather, under my dinner table, unwilling to make a sound. Hoping. Praying that the howls would fall off in the distance. No such thing happened. Fear muddled our minds and we could hardly even breath.
Eventually, my grandfather whispered in a voice barely audible, “We need to get to the attic. We are exposed here. We would stand a better chance of hiding, also my guns are in the lockbox there.”
Mostly because I lacked a better plan myself and I was petrified to be left alone, I followed him as we crept from under the table to the corner of the room. On all fours we crawled from one side of the room to the other, careful not to make a sound.
The cries were getting desperate; hollering, slobbering noises produced in the back of the throat. They made my blood run cold. In the dim light of my flashlight, I saw my grandfather trembling. His hands shook and his face grew sweaty.
The bestial calls were terrifying, but I had never seen my grandpa scared. This absolutely paralyzed me with fear. My grandpa survived the Korean War, Vietnam War, and helped train people in Desert Storm. If he was worried, then I knew we were in dire straits. We were not moving fast enough. I was deadly afraid that those creatures stalking us would catch up to us.
As we barreled forward, scuttling as fast as we dared, we turned the hall to run face-to-face with one of the creatures. It resembled a dog; I mean this in the loosest way possible. It was made of shadow. I don’t mean it was shadowy, I mean the body was formed by the swirling darkness. Its paws were too large for the sleek frame, extended even longer by cruel claws protruding from its tips. The beast had twisted spines piercing its bent back. Its’ skin was flaky, like it was afflicted with a serious case of mange. Thank God I was unable to see the creature's face. Its’ ears were notched and stood erect. They shortened and lengthened in a mesmerizing pattern that was oddly pleasing to the eye.
We backed away slowly, making sure we didn’t lose sight of the demon dog. In reverse, we made our way to the living room, hoping to make it to the staircase. As we scooted along, we heard a scratching sound coming from the kitchen. My head twisted with break-neck speed to get a glimpse of a second creature climbing through the hole created by the fallen tree. We were exposed to it. The creature only had to look up from its incessant scratching to see us.
Forgetting all pretenses, we climbed to our feet scrambling across the hardwood hallway for the living room. I wasn’t even trying to hide my footfalls, I fled with all my might. My grandpa was right behind me. The creatures heard our ragged breathing and our heavy footfalls. In seconds they were in hot pursuit. Snarls, and slobbering yawls echoed down the hallway after us. Panic seized me, and I ran faster than I ever thought possible.
When I made it to the stairway, I turned to look back. My grandpa was a few strides behind me. The creatures were barreling towards him. He wasn’t going to make it. Our eyes locked. I saw that he saw he wasn’t going to make it. His lips formed, “I love you son.” It was the first time; I had ever heard him say it. Tears filled my eyes. I knew I ought to help him, yet my feet remained locked firmly to the spot. I watched as he changed course and began to run towards the front door.
The creatures were drawn further away from me.
Still, I was unable to move. I stood there stunned, struck dumb in the presence of my grandpa's final heroic act. Time was put on rewind, and for a second, I saw the man my bent grandfather used to be. A glorious man, young and full of life. He stood tall, accepting his death with stoic grace. My grandpa turned to me and we locked eyes. A moment passed, then he bellowed, “Go, get out of here. Grab the gun and hide.” As if it was magic, the ice in my veins melted.
I moved with the grace of an Olympic athlete. I flung myself up the stairs three steps at a time. I barreled through the spare bedroom, slamming the closet door against the plaster wall. I pulled the draw string for the attic door up above my head. I shot up the pull-down ladder and found myself in pitch darkness. If I could only get to my grandpa’s shotgun, maybe I could help him. I cursed my squeamish nature that caused my grandpa to place the guns up there in the first place. It couldn’t be too late. I can't lose him too. He is all that I left.
As if to make a liar of me, immediately I heard a familiar voice echoing from downstairs. It was my grandpa screaming. Tears filled my eyes and my vision began to sway.
Those screams.
Those god awful pleas for help. They tore great swaths out of my still beating heart. I was consumed by those creatures, if not bodily, then emotionally. My grandpa. My strong, stubborn, and independent grandpa. I was left alone, again, in the dark with on one to guide me. I collapsed to my knees in that scorching attic. I looked to the heavens hoping to see God. All I saw through a leaking crack in the roof was that damned eye.
The blood moon seemed to wink at me, pleased with the activities of this night. I heard the unearthly screeches of those dogs' taper off. It was just me and the celestial body. We stared at each other for a moment, then two. The eye in the sky didn't want flesh, it wanted this. It wanted to gorge itself on my pain. The kind that remains. The kind no doctor can heal with clever medicines. The insatiable pain of loss with no hope of recovery. A broken heart, unable to be mended. Guilt for actions not taken, and prices not paid.
I used to think I was brave, a strong man. Now I know the truth. Me and that eye both saw. I am a coward through-and-through; willing to let those I love pay the price, while I stay cowering in safety. That night I protected my own worthless skin, but I lost my soul in the doing.
With one final glance, I looked and saw that eye and it saw me. I knew it, and it knew me. Then the winds picked up, and the clouds obscured that eye from my sight. I would like to say I have never seen it since, but every time I close my eyes, I still see it.
You see, I live my life underneath the watchful gaze of that celestial eye.

The Amits had taken their time. They knew that victory was assured, and so had set about feasting. But eventually they had worked up enough of an appetite to make the final push.
Once more they rushed through a storm of bullets. They disintegrated as the twelve-pounder discharged a cluster of grapeshot, faltered, then charged again. Claws ripped at the broken stone, reaching and grasping. A man was seized by his locks of hair and pulled through the gap; his screams cut short as his body toppled backwards, missing its head. Bayonets jostled and found their mark in pale flesh as pistols rang out in the tight confines and set Rene’s ears ringing.
“Get back!” shouted the engineers, “You’ve done your best! We’ll take it from here!”
The wall of detritus had begun to buckle beneath the weight of the enemy. The engineers brought out the red plunger and ran the wire to the final batch of charges. These were strapped to every major column and support in the room. They were to be buried alive, to deny the enemy their final victory.
The first Amit clawed its head through. It was impaled on half a dozen blades and hurled back. Then the second burst in and bathed a man head to toe in its corrosive juices, melting him down to bare red musculature in seconds. The monsters scrambled into the breach with reckless abandon, and the slaughter began.
The engineer was killed, brained by an axe before he could blow the charges. Crawling across the floor, battered and bruised by the trampling feet of the melee, Rene found the box and pried it from his dead hands. With a final whimper he closed his eyes and depressed the plunger.
Sometime later Rene awoke with a throbbing head. Absently he wondered if the afterlife was supposed to hurt this much, but then he felt a cold film of cave water touch the side of his face, and reluctantly accepted the fact that he was alive.
The chamber was gone. All about him were strewn great slabs of ceiling, under which various limbs protruded. Beside him, Prota had been buried beneath wreckage, her pendant flung clear. Absently he reached over and pocketed it.
His pants were wet; water was streaming through from somewhere. Through a gap in the huge slump of debris at the entrance he made out shadows moving against the torchlight, and heard sounds of them doing unspeakable things.
He dragged himself upright and cried out a second time in misery and pain. Immediately he regretted that action, as a milky white eye came up to the gap and looked about hungrily. It spotted him and tapped its feet against the stone in excitement. A horde of scuttling figures flitted into view. There was a scuffling sound as they began to dig at the obstruction. He groaned, and looked about him for a weapon, anything with which to end his life quickly and in relatively less anguish. Then he saw it.
The chamber had collapsed, and in doing so a broken pillar several tons heavy had knocked against the impenetrable eastern wall, the one that Admiral Prota’s workmen had been chipping carefully at for a year. It had smashed through the obstruction, and now its great bulk held up the fragile archway. More importantly, an opening had appeared. One that looked just the right size for a child to crawl through. Cave water streamed from the rent, lapping at the bodies of the slain. Behind him the Amit shuddered with delight, spitting torrents of acid against the stone in order to get through to him faster.
He went into the crawlspace and found it was a tight fit. He tried flattening his belly. When that didn’t work, he removed the tattered remnants of his sealant suit, and barely managed to squeeze inside.
He emerged into a cool tunnel. Motes of dust millennia old swirled placidly in the still air, lit by glowing phosphorescent mushrooms that lined the damp walls. Water wet his toes as he stumbled painfully along.
The floor was even and polished to a mirror sheen. Across the chamber was an odd doorway, ovoid in shape. He went over to it, searched in vain for a doorknob, then chuckled and gave up. He felt an absence of fear and knew that his lifting spirits had something to do with this place being exposed to the outside atmosphere. He had at best a few hours left to live. He shrugged and peered about him in the murk.
These tunnels sloped down below the open eastern section. If he could reach a ventilation shaft, there was a chance he could live. Assuming of course that he found a mask sometime soon. He had lost his at some point in the brawl. Thankfully he still had the compass. He took it out but watched in disbelief as the needle began to spin like a top. Cleary whatever magnetic anomaly that had plagued the expedition had returned with a vengeance. Shaking his head, uncertain now of everything, Rene wandered aimlessly, a pale and bloodied specter haunting the alien hallways.
Graceful alcoves surrounded him, with effigies sheltered beneath them and primitive paintings upon their curved surfaces. He looked at the closest one. Though the style was surreal and the language foreign, he understood the symbols well enough.
For they were those of ancient scripture.
The war in heaven. Two great armadas clashed in the depths of the void, lances of searing red heat and spheres of anti-matter dancing between their silver prows. The battle raged the length of an entire wall, a lurid display of mythical carnage. He saw a thousand worlds set alight by the conflagration, whole systems burning like tinder, fuel to the madness and the pain.
In its wake, emptiness. The next alcove showed a galaxy bereft of life, the charred husks of planets circling their dying suns, drained of energy in the apocalyptic conflict.
He saw the Fleet emerge, three small ships, together containing all that remained from the great dying: the ancestor--gods of the primordial dawn. They searched long and hard, travelling from one blasted hellscape to the next in search of lasting refuge.
And so at long last they found Arachnea, a virgin planet untouched by strife. They came to sow life in its bleak hollows, to make a home for their children, a peaceful place far from the ravages of a war so ancient they themselves had forgotten its cause. Then they set their Divine Engines to work. The Amit had carved effigies of these machines out of lumps of azure marble. Rene touched their smooth flanks, admiring at the workmanship. They were shaped like squat little men, with massive hands and domelike heads. Where they had walked, the earth had moved aside for them. They carved the channels with their feet, flattened the hills with blows from their fists. They dredged up fountains of molten lava and shaped them into a thousand bejeweled islands. They wove giant webs of glass as strong as the pillars of the earth and stretched them out across the sky to shield the world from the jealous eyes of the twin suns, Raelu and Sardec.
It was in the course of their work the Divine Engines shattered a mountain and unearthed the Amit, the first true inhabitants of Arachnea. They had arrived centuries before the ancestor—gods. The painting showed the Amit stumbling out of a rent in their tunnels, hands held up against the sunlight that no longer scorched their pale, waxen skin. The first thing they saw in their brave new world was a towering behemoth of burnished metal, wreathed in fire and smoke. In terror they had fallen to their knees before it, begging for their lives.
Rene nodded. All of this was familiar. He walked over to the next depiction, expecting to see the ancestor--gods recoiling in disgust, then swiftly recovering and obliterating the insectoid creatures with deadly rays of light, driving them scuttling back into their foul hollows beneath the earth. For it was written that the Amits were the offspring of vague, unholy sorceries, and could only know evil. Indeed, the war in heaven had been fought over similar themes. They could not be suffered to live. But what he saw instead shook him to his very core.
The ancestors came down from their mighty steeds, lifted the Amit to their feet, and embraced them. Quickly Rene ran through the rest of the alcoves, mind raging against the truths he now saw before him. From then on, the work deviated from scripture so much so that he could only piece together their meaning with difficulty.
The ancestor--gods debated among themselves as to what to do with the Amits. This was not the first time they had come across life other than their own, and it was clear that this time they were cautious in their approach. Some advocated for bringing the race to total extinction, but most agreed that best way forward was a peaceful coexistence, reasoning that they had much to learn from the Amits, who had survived the conditions of Arachnea for millennia without the need for terraforming. The ancestor--gods felt guilt over stealing Arachnea from its original inhabitants and wished to make amends. And so a bargain was struck between the races.
The Amits would allow the ancestor--gods to make changes to the world. To correct the tilt of its wayward axis, to vent huge plumes of inert gases from the hot womb of the earth and to seed life forms from long-dead Terra. In return, Man would change the Amit as well. They would grant them strength and cunning, broods beyond number, and bodies hardened against pain and suffering so they too could be as the gods were.
The plan proceeded towards fruition. Both sides were content as the final pieces of the great work fell into place. But unknown to Man and Amit alike, the specter of war had never really left the Fleet. It had hidden away in dark holds within the hearts of men, and there it had whispered of want and of desire, of the beauty of the virgin world and the lust to claim it.
Some of the ancestor--gods resented their share in the great work. They chafed at the fact that they, the superior beings, had to deal with their vassal Amits like equals, exchanging their powers for the mere right to live on the planet that they had rightfully settled.
And so they began to snuff out the Amit in their millions, burning them out of their homes with heat rays that swept clean entire colonies.
Soon two sides were at each other’s throats. The honorable ancestors who had kept to their word fought a bitter war against their prideful kin amidst the ruin of their unfinished works. In the skies at night, the Amit watched as the madness unfolded, as stars appeared and vanished overnight, and great balls of flame came bursting down through the void to crash into the broken earth. At last, as their weapons lay spent and broken, they then turned the Divine Engines against one another. Once the instruments of peace and creation, they soon tore the landscape apart with the fury of their duels, trading blows that sent impacts shuddering deep into the scorched earth.
The Amit were afraid, and betook themselves to the deep places, where the wrath of the gods could not find them. But this was to be their doom. Eventually the changes wrought in the bodies of the Amit made them strong and durable enough the endure the apocalyptic conditions of the surface. But as the ancestor--gods fought and died on the surface in cataclysmic struggle, their magic died with them. The Amit themselves became trapped, betrayed by their own changing flesh. They became unable to revert to their previous forms, and so were forevermore consigned to lives of darkness in their lairs beneath the earth.
Now, Arachnea was unsuitable for both man and Amit alike. The ancestor--gods had become madmen, so overtaken by their hatred for each other that they had cast themselves back into a dark age from which there would be no return.
The Amits emerged into the gloomy wreckage of their planet and starved. Until, that is, they came upon the remnants of a battleground. Huge forces of men had clashed and died, leaving their bodies to rot upon the cold ground. In their desperate hunger, the Amits began to eat.
And they found the meat of the gods to be good. That war, a holy act most strange and terrible, had filled their bellies with meat, this they understood. That gods themselves judged war to be a just course of action was evident. And since all that remained of the gods were a race of thieves and murderers, it was judged that to make war upon them was both just and good.
Rene came to the last alcove. It depicted the final resting place of the Divine Engines, whom the Amit had buried beneath the mountains out of fear, sealing them away from the surface so that they would never again walk the earth.
A great square plaque of shining steel and copper was laid into the stone. To the Amit it was only a mark of some kind, a symbol whose meaning was long forgotten, but Rene felt an odd connection to it. He traced its edges with a blood-stained hand, and realized it was not a square, but a rectangle, and one whose dimensions he faintly recognized.
He took out Prota’s pendant and pressed it into the crevice.
There was a hiss of pneumatics as the great square door to his side gave way. Light fixtures hummed into life through powers unknown. He stepped gingerly into the soft glow.
“Greetings Ensign,” came a disembodied female voice, “Welcome to the Topographical Oversight and Reconstruction Unit (T.O.R.U.). What are your commands?”
A Divine Engine. The Amit had found it and built an entire civilization around it. This behemoth, this secret mountain of metal was what his compass had been steering towards all this time. A giddy sensation flowed through him. In his stupor he passed his hands in front of his face, examining the lines of his palms and the action of his fingers.
A nimbus of light played over him, reading his gestures.
“Command noted. Activating neural pairing.”
The door closed shut with a creak behind him. Steel pinions reached out and wire nodules grasped him, ran painlessly through his eye sockets and into his brain. All at once he could feel the machine coming to life after its long dormancy, reactors coils thrumming with an ancient power that would not be denied.
He straightened his back.
The outpost fell away from him in a cloud of dust and rubble. He strode forward, kilometers tall, a shining colossus of star-metal. He glanced down, saw the multitudes of the Amit streaming about the shattered mound. He watched them for a moment, saw them waving their arms in speechless terror at the sudden apparition.
For the first time, he pitied them. They were unaware of their own savagery, of their own hideousness, even. They did not know the doom that awaited them, of the lengths the Fleet was prepared to go in order to secure its final victory.
But there was nothing that could be done. Mankind could no more change themselves than could the Amit. Rene felt the weight of history bearing down upon his shoulders. Though a different world and a separate time, the same inexorable force drove them towards the same tired conclusion.
But perhaps the sooner it was over, the better. He lifted his foot and brought it down. Once, twice, three times until nothing was left moving below. Then he swung away, the ground quaking beneath him.
So, it was through humanity that the Amits had come to know of war? Well then, today he would show them that they had much left to learn. He turned northward, a god astride the earth, and lumbered towards Mound Euler.
Link to 1st chapter here: 1st chapter on HFY
Link for all the chapters available here: Engines of Arachnea on Royal Road