"The Frozen Academy," Colt said.
The rest of the group around the table fell quiet. They had made their way to the top of the White House office, though, like the rest of the White House, this was being stripped apart. The pieces were being taken and moved elsewhere, though Nate still used ...
2025-03-27 01:42:20 +0000 UTC View PostTheir arrival back to the city was marked with little fanfare. Colt and his team minimized their time moving through Nashville's dark, foggy night. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a peaceful trip.
Colt was well aware that just because they had slain some of the phantoms didn't mean that the town ...
2025-03-26 00:46:56 +0000 UTC View Post“Don’t worry we’ve got this!” Julia yelled, reassuring Leon even as a group of phantoms rushed them. A group of phantoms that would have torn Julia and Colt apart a month ago in seconds.
With Julia's confident words hanging in the air, Colt focused on the approaching phantoms. The m...
2025-03-24 21:54:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe mist curled around Julia, its edicts swirling within the lingering mana like a signature of its origin. With Colt guarding her back, she could focus entirely on her task of analyzing the mist as they moved.
Nashville had never been her favorite place. Before the apocalypse, she'd spent ...
2025-03-24 18:39:35 +0000 UTC View PostColt flicked black blood off his blade as he looked at the three massive corpses of the Mimics; they were a strange thing. The interiors could be seen… Barren rooms with fake furniture that were only flesh deep… Beneath it and within thick walls were organs, flesh, and blood. Somehow, these t...
2025-03-23 18:32:07 +0000 UTC View PostColt moved in towards the house-shaped monster, keeping himself low and concealed within the mists as he went; now that he got closer, with the mist receding and giving way to the truth hidden beneath its twisting and forbidden interior, more wrongness stood out. The wooden paneling on the side o...
2025-03-22 20:37:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe next couple of days passed with ease to the atmosphere that Colt sorely needed. No more big monster invasions at the gate—though, it had resulted in the guards withdrawing and simply watching the entrances. Some of their friends who had helped them free this place from Denny have inst...
2025-03-22 17:31:05 +0000 UTC View PostAfter the meeting with Nick ended, Colt made an excuse and left. Though he had been the one to give him a chance to pay back the debt he owed to the city, it didn’t mean he felt like talking to the guy any more than necessary. Nate seemed fine to take responsibility for that particular action, ...
2025-03-21 03:22:02 +0000 UTC View PostColt kept his hands in his pockets as he walked; Sarah was with him, a scowl stretched on his face as they went down into the depths of the ‘maze’ that lay under the city. People still weren’t sure what to make of this place and what exactly to do with it now that Denny was no longer here. ...
2025-03-20 03:31:54 +0000 UTC View PostSteam was the first thing that Colt saw when his senses returned; that and the feeling of heat soaking deep into his skin, carried through by the soft sensation of running water. The last thing he remembered was the cold mist and those twisted phantom scholars—then blackness as his overtaxed so...
2025-03-14 22:20:41 +0000 UTC View PostColt froze as he watched the half-figures of floating ghosts swarm the guards at the gate. The long-tendril-like fabric came off their bodies as if they were wearing half robes, though they lacked a bottom half and simply floated.
As Colt sat, absorbing what was happening, he witnessed one ...
2025-03-11 00:28:08 +0000 UTC View PostCThe mist of New Nashville had never been this thick before. Colt could barely see two feet ahead as he trudged through the fog-choked streets, hands buried deep in his pockets.
Each breath drew the vapor into his lungs—a strange weight settling on his chest. He could feel it coating his ...
2025-03-09 03:19:40 +0000 UTC View PostColt sat in the highest seat available on the side of the stadium; it was a tad overkill, and actually, the height of this seat was larger than he ever remembered it being before the apocalypse. Without a doubt, this place had grown larger, maybe even a little larger than when he’d first arrive...
2025-03-06 02:32:28 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been a grand total of five hours since they conquered Denny and then marched to the city of New Nashville and declared the former dictator dead.
The reaction was mixed. Even now, Colt was still reeling from the change and surprised by just how fast the remainder of the guard had capi...
2025-03-05 02:50:24 +0000 UTC View PostNate snapped his fist into the last of the soldiers’ faces—after the glow had left them minutes ago, the fight seemed to go out of them, too. At first, despite having superior numbers, his side had struggled to maintain the fight. Retreating, relying on traps, transforming the chaos of the ba...
2025-03-02 02:57:25 +0000 UTC View PostDenny spat on the ground and ran his hand over his mouth. His eyes were narrowed, his muscles tense. And that golden glow still surrounded him, a pure Edict of Subjugation that, even as they were now, wanted to press down on Colt and make him fold beneath the man who declared himself a King. Colt...
2025-03-01 21:22:53 +0000 UTC View PostOf course, the second Denny stormed in, marched up to Nate, and cocked his fist back for a punch, several things happened at once, several things which would decide the course of fate for an entire city of thousands. One which Colt had the premiere seat to witness, given his position on the secon...
2025-02-27 23:34:18 +0000 UTC View PostDenny stared at the soldier who had brought him the note; it sat in his shaking hands. The anger roiled around deep, the same anger he felt whenever someone had dropped a particularly nasty law-suit-worthy problem in his lap at the last minute. A bad government manager who had a record of harassi...
2025-02-26 22:57:17 +0000 UTC View PostColt still felt amazed when that golden light of his Edict came through, warping the very air itself with a heaviness. Even now, with his knife just at his side, as he interrupted Finn’s capture, he felt the way the air chose to avoid his weapon. Afraid that even it, too, would be cut, as if it...
2025-02-26 01:24:07 +0000 UTC View PostColt handed over the black cloak to another man; it felt odd to give it to another after all they’d went through to earn it. But if he rocked up to New Nashville to deliver the news that they’d taken the Minotaur, the letter wouldn’t even have been read.
Gone would be their opportunit...
2025-02-25 21:45:05 +0000 UTC View PostColt sat outside the warehouse, which was a good way away from New Nashville, tucked in one of the reworked city's more ‘industrial’ patches. A big oak tree sat outside of it, a nice piece of nature compared to what had been some kind of paper packing place. But as with all of Nashville, natu...
2025-02-25 03:43:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe next hour was dominated by the logistics of how best to effectively pull a pissed-off Minotaur torso and head through the dark streets of New Nashville—when they tried to tie ropes around the chest to drag it, it would try to gore your hands and bit the ropes until they broke.
With al...
2025-02-23 21:09:15 +0000 UTC View PostColt stood on the edge of the rooftop, his hair billowing as a gust of air took to it; down below, in the darkness, he saw the barest movement of the Minotaur, a mass of shifting black fur and rage as its Edict expanded and rolled outward. The air already had the stench of blood, and as he braced...
2025-02-22 17:19:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe next couple of days after returning from their destruction of the former restaurant, their days were filled with a buzz of activity. Diplomatic missions every day—most of their effort was spent weaving the groups who felt sympathetic about their plan tighter and tighter. Their web of allian...
2025-02-21 18:25:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe next couple of days fell into a steady rhythm. The morning would start with Colt and the rest sharing a breakfast—which typically was eaten only in the evening—from the food scavenged from nearby buildings. Even with the large percentage of people simply missing, there was less&n...
2025-02-21 00:07:56 +0000 UTC View PostColt sat in a pancake booth with three cops, a girl with bright blue hair, and a steaming mug of coffee, which Julia refused to touch. Buttery maple syrup wafted through the air, which made Colt’s stomach rumble. He settled back in the dinner chair; the three cops looked over his map and added ...
2025-02-19 21:07:45 +0000 UTC View PostJulia euthanized about twenty more stone men over the next four hours. There was no other word for it. After Colt stripped them of their mobility and capacity to do much else save for blinking, she had to end their lives.
The work hadn’t been simple. With the map given to them by Harry, t...
2025-02-19 21:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostHarry's group was a small squad of eight—the father, the son, and some other strangers who banded together in fear of New Nashville and did their damnedest to stay far away from the city. Colt sat on the boulder remains of a monster next to Harry, while their group listened from above. But as H...
2025-02-18 19:37:56 +0000 UTC View PostColt snuck toward the apartment he’d seen the face in, using a burst of Movement to close the distance from his open position on the street to being near the towering eyesore in only a second. Julia still stood in the middle of the road, shuffling through the rubb...
2025-02-17 19:29:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day—was one of business. After Colt finally got up from his rest, he found that only Julia was left in the house with him. The girl was busy drinking a small cup of water in the kitchen and raised an eyebrow as he crawled out of his room. Colt felt like death itself as he moved, muscle...
2025-02-17 01:11:12 +0000 UTC View Post