justiceVon

please don't read making for myself when i turn 50 also really bad timeline
Decades after Earth was torn apart by nuclear war, humanity’s survivors cling to life aboard a colossal space station known as the Ark. The planet below is a place of nightmares, scarred by the fallout of World War III. But Earth is no longer a lifeless wasteland. Beneath its lush green forests and shadowed valleys lies a world reborn—a place where monstrous storms rage, and the descendants of ancient, godlike beings, known as Titans, roam free.

Elys Cain never expected to see the planet’s surface. Branded as an Exile, he and three hundred others—criminals, rebels, and the forgotten—are sent down from the Ark to test if the Earth is habitable again. Their mission: survive in a world where radiation is the least of their worries. What starts as a desperate bid for freedom turns into something far darker when Elys stumbles upon a mysterious syringe filled with Black Blood—a relic from humanity’s forgotten past.

Chronicles of Fallen

As they stumbled into the camp, a murmur rose among the crowd. Faces turned toward them, expressions shifting from excitement to concern as they took in Kaden's condition and the tense looks on the guards' faces. But Elys didn't have time to reassure them; his eyes were already scanning the perimeter.

He caught a glimpse of movement—something shifting in the trees to his right, a flash of pale skin, the outline of a person crouching low. And then he saw her.

Rena stood at the treeline, facing a group of figures half-hidden in the underbrush. They were tall, lean, with an unfamiliar wariness in their stances, dressed in rough clothing that looked like a blend of animal skins and tattered cloth. There were eight of them, their expressions a mixture of curiosity and caution.

"Who—?" Elys started, but before he could call out, a figure burst out from the left side of the camp.

"Tomou, stop!" Soren shouted, but it was too late.

Tomou, one of the younger guards, charged forward, his rifle raised. The strangers tensed, several of them reaching for weapons of their own—crude, makeshift things, spears and daggers. But one figure in the center stepped forward, raising his hands.

"We're not—" he began, but the shot rang out, a single, deafening crack that echoed through the clearing.

The bullet struck the man square in the chest. For a moment, he stood there, shock and confusion on his face. And then the ground seemed to shake beneath him. Lightning—golden and jagged—erupted from the point of impact, streaking up his body and lancing into the sky. The others fell back, eyes wide, shouting in a language Elys didn't understand.

"What the hell—?" Yasmin whispered, stumbling back.

Elys could only stare as the man convulsed, his form shifting, warping. Muscles bulged, bones twisted, and then—before he could process what he was seeing—the man was gone, replaced by something monstrous.

A massive figure loomed over the clearing, easily three times the height of a man. Its flesh was raw and red, muscles exposed, as if the skin had been peeled back to reveal the sinew and bone beneath. And the face—no eyes, just a smooth, blank expanse, mouth gaping wide in a soundless scream.

The word formed unbidden in Elys's mind, but he shoved it aside, his gaze snapping to the others. Rena had fallen back, eyes wide with shock, but she caught his gaze and shouted something he couldn't hear. He moved instinctively, pushing through the stunned guards and civilians, reaching her side just as the creature—no, the man-thing—collapsed, its form dissolving into steam.

"What—what was that?" he gasped, grabbing Rena's arm.

"They're not enemies," she whispered, voice trembling. "They—they came to talk. They thought we were—"

"Peaceful," a low voice interrupted. One of the strangers stepped forward—a tall woman with a jagged scar running down her cheek. Her gaze was hard as she looked from Rena to Elys, then to Tomou, who was still standing with his rifle raised, eyes wide with horror.

"That was Darian," she said softly, nodding toward the steaming remains of the Titan. "He… he was trying to protect us."

The words sank in slowly, like stones dropped into a deep well. Elys turned, looking back at the camp, at the wide-eyed civilians clustered together, the fear on their faces. They weren't ready for this. None of them were.

"We didn't know," he said quietly. "We thought—"

"We thought the same of you," the woman said. Her gaze shifted to the camp, to the wounded guards and the trembling civilians. "We didn't mean to spy. We just… we needed to see. To understand."

Chapter 11: Monsters