New World:

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley, but ever since the Singularity, everything seems to have been flipped upside down and reversed. It all began when the deadly Novo Virus caused everyone on Earth to take their technology to the furthest limits it could go in an attempt to slow down the infection rates. Holograms, Floating cars, fully automated services, you name it. Everything seemed great until the first fully immersive AI was created. Within a day all electronic technology became self-aware and connected somehow and then, it all simply vanished. No trails, no clues, no explanation. Just questions and a new world with new rules that nobody truly knew yet. How could we? No one could’ve predicted what happened next when the first of the strange creatures started to appear. Even more so when the old-world leaders tried to capture, study and control them. My name is Korbin and this is the world we live in now, one of mystery, where magic is the new ruler.

“Korbin! Hurry up! I can’t hold it much longer!” The young woman with raven-colored curls called out as sweat dripped down towards her face.

“Hold on! I almost got it!” Korbin yelled out.

“There! Corrine! You can let go now!”

The loud thud shook the ground beneath them.

“These new reinforcements to the shelter should keep us safe from now on, even from the mantis-beasts! Let's just hope that no dragons catch a whiff of us. Where’s Dante?” Korbin said as he wiped sweat and dust off of his face and beard

“He said he was going to check the ruins of the city nearby for supplies with some of the other hunters.” Corrine replied.

“It’s almost sundown, I hope they’re on their way back, the last thing we need is for them to be followed by a mantis-beast again.”

As they stepped out of the stone forest to check if they could see any sign of the hunting party, they both noticed a great fire in the horizon where the ruined city is.

“That can’t be good...” Korbin muttered as Corrine anxiously grabbed her spear. The safety of her son was something Corrine took seriously. As she readied her equipment, Dante’s voice pierced through the tense silence .

“MOM! KORBIN! GUESS WHAT I FOUND!” Dante excitedly yelled, His light brown hair standing out from his surroundings. The hunting party made their way towards the stone forest, with their bags and horses loaded with everything they found that day. Some of it looked like essential equipment that they desperately needed to maintain a semblance of the society that was slowly fading from everyone’s memories.

“Mom! Check out this sweet katana that I found! The blade is sharp and everything!” Dante was still pretty young, at 18 years old he was much more optimistic than the rest of the survivors who took refuge in the stone forest, which was what happened to most trees when the Singularity caused all technology to disappear.

“DANTE! Don’t run with that thing!” Corinne said loudly as she put her equipment back down.

As Dante reached the entrance to their home the rest of the hunting party could be seen looking much less enthused than young Dante. Even though they came back with more than enough supplies to last at least two months, they got separated from two of the older hunters who stayed back when they were swarmed by a family of mantis-beast.

As everyone was preparing for the communal dinner, Korbin was finishing the final touches to the meal. Before the world became what it is now, Korbin was a renowned chef who loved to try different ingredients in his cooking. On the plus side, with all of the changes within the world there were now a plethora of new ingredients for him to experiment with. As the Dire Boar was roasting with the various herbs and vegetables that were gathered from the nearby abandoned farms, Korbin rummaged through the haul to check for anything he could use for the feast that night.

“Ok what do we have... canned beans, diced tomatoes, salmon fricassee in a can? No wonder this wasn’t eaten. Oooh! Condensed milk!? HELL YEAH! I can make dulce de leche with this!”. To the benefit of all the survivors who knew him, Korbin had a notorious sweet tooth, and in light of their loss during that day’s gathering, they needed something, anything to help lift their spirits, even a little.

The mess hall was uncharacteristically quiet tonight, despite the big haul that was brought in that day, the resounding loss of two of the most experienced hunters was having a deep impact on everyone in the stone-tree settlement. Through the cacophony of silverware and silence, Korbin cleared his throat and stood up to say something.

“Everyone! As much as I’d like the food to get rid of this bad taste in our mouth, it can’t. We suffered a big loss today. Eugene and Milos. They sacrificed themselves so that we can see another day, so that we can step further in to this new world. I’d like to have a moment to honor their bravery, their sacrifice and what it means to all of us.”

“FOR EUGENE! FOR MILOS!” shouted everyone as their cries rang through this dark night. For this occasion, they felt it appropriate to open the bottles of merlot that they found during another day of foraging.

As everyone was drinking from their glass in honor of the fallen heroes, two dark figures approached from the wilderness, two figures heavy with the stench of blood, even heavier with the weight of the darkness shadowing their faces.

One of the other hunters noticed the two murky figures approaching.

“Look over there!” he shouted as he readied his hatchet.

Another grabbed his bow from behind him and quickly readied his arrow. Korbin grabbed his oversized machete and ran to the front of the group as others quickly fell in line behind him with their own weapons, Corinne stood by his side, all of them ready for whatever may come.

“This isn’t the homecoming we expected after what we just went through to get here...”

“Milos?” could be heard from the crowd

As the two figures approached, they began to take on a more familiar appearance. It soon became clear that the two figures were the pair of hunters, Eugene and Milos, who everyone took for dead.

“Smells good, it looks like Korbin didn’t let a little loss affect his culinary prowess...” said the other voice in a gruff which was evident that it belonged to Eugene.

By now everyone had dropped their weapons and rushed to the two hunters. They were covered in dried blood and were leaning on their spears, hobbling towards the group. Everyone surrounded them with questions as they held them to support them with their last remaining steps towards the settlement.

“What happened!?” said one of the settlers

“How did you make it out!? Did you kill all of the mantis-beasts!?” asked a hunter who was there.

“We thought you two died!” commented another.

As they all made their way to the mess hall, Korbin noticed that they had what looked like a purple thorn stuck into their necks, a thorn that he nor the other settlers or hunters had ever seen before. Despite this, Korbin didn’t want to ruin this occasion with a question that they themselves probably didn’t have the answer to, they would fix them up after the two ate a well-deserved meal.

“...and so, I grabbed one of the ugly things by its mouth parts and split its face apart when it tried to bite my neck off!” Eugene said enthusiastically as they recounted the moments that led up to their survival.

As they savored the dulce de leche that Korbin made with some sweet bread, Korbin finally saw his opening to ask them about the ominous thorn each of them had lodged in their neck. He was worried but they didn’t seem to be bothered by the thorns.

“Eugene. Milos. Have you guys noticed those thorns on the back of your necks?”

They seemed completely unaware of its presence on their body as they each began to reach and feel for it.

“Does it hurt?” Corrinne asked.

Neither replied as they simply kept rubbing the area around it.

“If you guys are full, we should take you to the medic to get you guys patched up and take a look at any other wounds you might have.” said Korbin.

The two survivors remained silent as they slowly began to have a look that went from comforted relief, into a more confused and worried demeanor. It wasn’t long after this that they heard a monstrous howl coming from the direction that the two hunters came from. It didn’t sound like anything anyone heard before, even since the new creatures took over the world. As the howling continued, the thorn in their necks seemed to start glowing.

“That can’t be good...” said Korbin as everyone else murmured anxiously amongst themselves.

As the howling began to sound more like a beckoning, Milos and Eugene began to feel pain and collapsed to the ground writhing in agony.

“AGGHH! Everything burns!” grunted Eugene.

“I CAN’T FEEL MY ARMS!” yelled Milos.

The howling grew to an almost unbearable high pitch scream and then all of a sudden, it stopped. Where Milos and Eugene once were, there now stood two crystal pillars, within them, it could be seen that the two hunters' innards exploded into what became the crystalline obelisks. Before anyone could grasp what was going on, the earth began to tremble as the purple obelisks that were once Eugene and Milos began to glow brightly.

“What the hell is going on!?” yelled Korbin

The band of settlers barely was able to regroup as more crystalline objects came from the ground. As more started to come up and as they began to reveal their forms, they looked like little dragons, drakes. There were at least three dozen of them, more than enough to overwhelm the settlement. The creatures remained still as everyone gathered their weapons in hopes of standing a chance. Shortly after erupting from the ground, the drakes all let out a deafening shriek as they began to charge towards the settlers. The settlers were disorganized, some ran for their lives, others made their final stand but none were spared from the savage claws and teeth of these creatures. Their blades and spears simply bounced off of their crystal hides, the only thing that had any effect were clubs and blunt objects but not enough of the defenders realized this or had enough time to grab something before they were struck down.

“Corrine! Dante! Where are you!?” Korbin yelled as he searched for his family who got scattered in the chaos.

Korbin ran towards their shelter as he witnessed the seemingly newborn drakes began to crystallize people with a noxious purple breath that no one had witnessed before.

When he arrived, he could hear the sounds of a skirmish from within, Korbin felt a fear that he hadn’t felt since the singularity first happened over ten years prior. As Korbin ran to the door, he could feel a deeply sickening and burning sensation from within his body.

“Corrine!”

He saw that she was fighting back two drakes with what looked like legs from a table, one in each hand, she was defending Dante who had gotten injured while returning to gather his equipment. One of the drakes was on the verge of letting out its crystal breath which Korbin had come to recognize after seeing other settlers come to their demise. The sickening sensation within Korbin grew further into an intense burning that he felt scorching his insides.

“LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!!!” Korbin yelled at the top of his lungs as fire spewed from his mouth and hands towards the drakes. Corrine and Dante stood in awe as they watched the smoldering spectacle. Under the intense flames of Korbin's rage to defend his loved ones, the crystal drakes shattered from the vigorous heat before completing their final assault, halting any harm they were about to cause.

Corrine and Dante were dumbstruck, not knowing what to say or do. They looked towards the door and saw the remaining swarm of drakes, having felled the other villagers at this point, the creatures were coming to finish them off. Korbin’s rage couldn’t be contained as he saw the creatures converge on their home, he let out another mighty roar towards the flock of fledgling drakes. Everything became a blinding cinder before him as one last grand explosive shattering sound was released upon the flaming demise of the creatures.

Korbin stood there a moment completely out of breath before collapsing to the ground. Corrine, having gotten past the shock of what happened, dashed to his side.

“Korbin!” she yelled as she dropped her makeshift bludgeons.

Dante was picking himself up to make his way towards them, he noticed ice crystals forming on his fingertips but was too caught up in everything after what he just witnessed to notice, also not regarding the frost that he left behind from the position he was in.

“Is he ok? Is he breathing?” Dante questioned his mother as she placed her hands on his face.

As tears began to drop down her cheeks, Corrine gasped as her eyes turned completely white.

“What is this? Where am I?” her voice echoed in what looked like a reflective chamber with water and fog on the floor she walked upon.

She saw Korbin's lifeless body in the reflective shallows and ran towards him. As she got closer, her hands began to glow with a purple light, but she was too worried to notice. As she approached him, she held him close to her chest where they were cocooned in a gentle yellow light. She closed her eyes as she thought of everything that just transpired. With another flash of light, they were both back inside of their half incinerated, half smashed home. The remnants of the battle were highlighted as the sun came up and shined upon the shattered carcasses of drakes and settlers.

Korbin’s eyes opened as he slowly looked at his surroundings; The place they once knew as their home, now the scene of a massacre. They had no words as the trio slowly and cautiously made their way around the settlement.

“Hello!? Is anyone out there!?” shouted Dante as he looked around the remains of the slaughtering that had occurred.

Corrine looked towards where the obelisks once stood and now only saw a half erect pile of rubble from which thorns were now protruding.

“These look like the same exact thorns that Eugene and Milos had embedded into their necks before everything happened...” she thought to herself.

As she gazed at the crystallized wreckage, she gasped deeply again.

She saw visions of what transpired the night before from eyes that weren’t hers, she witnessed the events that led to the two hunters and the implanting of the thorns that caused everything. She could see a shadowy figure with deep violet eyes through the murky visions and she could feel the malice in the utterings that she was unable to interpret.

Just as quickly as she was taken to those sights, her consciousness then returned to the present moment. By now Korbin and Dante were beside her with worried looks on their faces.

“Mom are you ok? You weren’t saying anything to us” Dante uttered.

“And your eyes were completely white. Can you see us?” Korbin said afterwards

“Yeah... I think I know what caused this, or at least I think I saw visions of it. It was foggy but I could tell apart Milos and Eugene when they were fighting and when they had those thorns stuck in them. I think I saw everything that happened in the settlement from their eyes too. I can’t explain it but I feel that I have some kind of understanding of all of this madness.”

Dante and Korbin looked even more perplexed than when she was having this vision. Dante wanted to understand more of everything that had transpired.

“Korbin, do you remember what happened last night?” questioned Dante.

“I just remember seeing those things about to kill you guys and then I blacked out. I remember being in a strange place with water and fog. Then Corrine came and held me. After that I only remember waking up next to you guys” he said.

“You shot fire out of your hands and mouth. If you wouldn’t have done that we might not even be here right now.” said Dante.

“Korbin, whatever happened last night, I think it’s all related. The thorns, the creatures, your fire, my visions. Something tells me it’s all connected in some way.” Corrine suddenly stopped as her eyes became white once more

She saw a crystal cave, she saw an army, she saw their leader. The shadowy violet eyed figure towering above a grand horde, and she saw the three of them dead in the remains of the settlement. This vision only lasted a brief moment but that was all she needed.

“We need to leave... now.” she said sternly.

“What did you see?” they both asked at the same time.

“We don’t have time to explain, we can talk about it once we’re gone, but we need to leave now.” she urged.

“Ok, we’ll just gather some things we’ll need to survive out there.” said Korbin.

They looked around the settlement for anything that could prove useful to them on this forced trek into the unknown. Half way hoping that they might find another survivor, they checked every home, but deep down they knew they were the only ones who survived the night.

Having gathered everything they could carry on their backs without too much encumbrance, they set off on the only road leading from the settlement, towards what used to be Apopka. The cities were no place for the relatively peaceful settlers.

Since all of technology vanished, they had become wretched hives of scum and villainy. Plagued with people who used the lack of technology and safety to their advantage. They had become no better than bandits. What made these cities even worse was that the areas that were the most technologically advanced, were the most impacted when it all disappeared. Buildings were left intact, but anything electric or technologic was no more. These areas also came to have the highest density of the mysterious and deadly creatures that now beset humanity.

They walked as far as they could despite the fact that none of them had any rest, considering everything that happened the night before. There was silence amongst the three of them. The settlement was the closest thing to a normal life that they’ve had since everything changed a decade before and now, it was gone, utterly destroyed. None of them knew what to say that first day, they just focused on getting as far as they could before the night started to set in.

“The sun is starting to go down; we should find a safe place to set up camp for the night.” said Korbin, breaking the silence they had maintained throughout the entire day.

They noticed that the road they were on was near an abandoned church. There was nothing around it but a field filled with what they came to know as flying pigs, which looked like a mix between a chicken and a pig. These creatures, unlike most of the other strange things they’ve come across, were docile. They finally reached the church and had the chance they so desperately needed to rest.

“Let’s take a look around before we get comfortable.” said Korbin.

The church was relatively small and it was covered in the overgrowth which gave them a level of protection during the night. They walked around the small building with only two other rooms and a basement that was locked.

“We should look in the basement. Churches like these almost always had a storage for food donations. I think it would be a good way to save our supplies.” Said Corrine

Dante and Korbin both agreed with this and the trio started towards the basement.

“It has a padlock on it.” said Korbin.

For better and for worse, rudimentary technologies like this weren’t a part of what disappeared during the Singularity.

“Can’t you just melt the lock, Korbin?” said Dante.

“No, I don’t really know how I did that and honestly, I don’t even remember when I shot out those flames.” responded Korbin.

“Let's just do this the old-fashioned way!” said Corrine as she grabbed the hammer from Korbin’s pack.

With one well aimed smack, she got the lock open almost effortlessly. Corinne had a knack for knowing how to get where she needed to be despite any obstacle, this was a quality that Korbin greatly admired about her. The door was quite dusty as they opened up to reveal the trove of preserved foods. Mostly cans and boxes of dried food, there were some once frozen meats that had plenty of time to decompose when things like refrigerators disappeared. Despite the dusty smell, most of what was inside was still very much edible. The basement was surprisingly large and each of them looked around for things that caught their attention.

“Dante, are you almost done?” Corrine asked her son.

“Almost, I just want to see if they have any cereal somewhere in here.” Dante replied.

Cereal was something that Dante still had fond memories of but it had become a bit of a luxury to find.

“Korbin and I are going to get dinner started, we’ll see you upstairs.”

“Ok mom.” He replied as he continued looking though the various shelves.

After going toward the back of the basement he saw it, his absolute favorite cereal, hopefully it was still edible. As he got closer, he heard a rustling coming from some of the boxes near the spoiled meat mushroom spore but didn’t pay it any thought due to his excitement. He could almost taste those Fruity Pebbles. It was almost within his reach when all of a sudden something squeaked out of the boxes.

“Whoa! What the hell!?” Dante exclaimed as what looked like a rat king who was engulfed by mushroom spores darted towards him.

As the grotesque creature raced towards his first fresh meal of meat in a very long time, Dante felt a freezing sensation along his whole body, his fingers even more so felt ice cold. As the twisted beast jumped towards Dante’s face, he instinctively raised his hands in defense, but to his surprise, it turned in to a frigid blue color and fell to the ground where it shattered. Dante had frozen the creature solid, his hands covered in ice crystals was all the proof he needed to know that he too had unlocked something within himself. Dante stood there fixated by his frost covered hands, almost in disbelief. He grabbed his prize and ran up the basement stairs only to be met by Corrine and Korbin who heard the commotion.

“What happened!? Are you ok?” asked his mother

“Why are your hands blue? And what are those things on the ground?” asked Korbin

“You guys, I don’t think you were the only ones to have a magic power!” Dante said excitedly.

As they went to where they were preparing their food, Dante described the events that led up to his newly discovered ability, his hands now looking normal again. After talking they each realized that their powers became untapped when each of them was afraid for either their own life or the life of someone they loved.

“Ok all of this sounds great, but what we need to do is learn how to harness and control these abilities” Korbin said as he reached for another slice of fire roasted Spam.

“Korbin, did you make this fire from your hands?” asked Dante.

“No, unfortunately we made this fire the same way that cavemen did.” He replied.

“We need to learn how to use these powers before one of us dies” Korbin continued as he examined his palm.

Corrine and Dante simply nodded as they scarfed down the rest of their food.

As they finished their meal, they set up their bedding with some cushions they grabbed from the benches around the parish to finally get much-needed rest. Dante rigged some string and cans at the entrance that would alert them of any unexpected guests, a trick he learned from his time with the hunters.

Corrine and Korbin were finally able to hold each other after what felt like an eternity. As Corrine fell asleep with him, Korbin couldn’t help but think of what the next day held, of what they might see and what will come against them. He didn’t know what answers they would find or at what cost, all he knew was that their path, for now, only had one direction. He stared at the starry night sky as he began to doze off, before his eyes closed for the night, he saw a sudden bright light against the deep night sky. It was gone just as quickly as it appeared.

He looked at Dante and Corrine to see if they noticed but they were fast asleep. Exhausted and fed, unless something broke down the door, they were safe for the night; and Korbin was soon to follow.

“I wonder what made that flash...” he thought as he looked at Corrine sleeping peacefully.

“Goodnight, My Love.” he muttered as he rested his eyes for the night.