SWNOVELXO Chapter 44: The Surface Remains
Location: Human Territories, East of Former Capital Zone Time: July 17th, 10:45 AM
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The surface hadn't changed as much as Kael had feared.
But that didn't mean it had stayed the same.
Beyond the Spiral Ruin where he fought, across miles of broken cities and bone-cracked soil, humanity survived—ragged and stubborn. Civilization hadn't fallen. It had fractured.
The new world wasn't ruled by governments. It was ruled by walls.
And fear.
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10:50 AM – Bastion 7
A wall of concrete, twenty meters high, ringed the settlement. On top of it, solar railguns spun slowly in preset patterns. Scanners blinked. No birds perched on the fences. Not anymore.
Inside, humanity endured:
Merchants bartered with bullets instead of bills.
Children learned monster anatomy in school before reading.
Priests wore armor under their robes.
Life moved forward. But slower. Heavier. Like every breath carried the weight of extinction.
Inside Bastion 7, a boy named Kori sold mimic dust capsules to scavengers. His left arm was mechanical. His eyes always darted upward. Not toward the sun. Toward the birds.
They were growing again.
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11:10 AM – Borderlands
Three bounty hunters dragged a beast across a dirt path—a malformed creature, part rhino, part scaled centipede. Its head had two mouths, neither of which had eyes.
> "Another hybrid," said the leader. "Third this week."
> "Spiral-free zone, my ass."
Further up the road, two caravans passed each other without speaking. Trust was rarer than ammo.
In the farthest reaches, there were whispers:
Of bone forests growing near the coast.
Of red-eyed wolves that walked like men.
Of a tower made from stitched-together skin, humming at dusk.
Everyone had heard of the Spiral. Few had seen what it left behind.
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11:45 AM – Broadcast Room, Zone-3 Hold
Static cleared on the old broadcast terminal. A woman in a stained lab coat sat down, her face tired but composed.
> "This is Doctor Neviah Chen. Safe zone Watch Division. To any survivors within Range of the sound... Be advised: monster activity is resurging near breach sectors."
She glanced at her datapad.
> "More troubling… multiple hunters have gone silent. Entire teams—offline. Including the Redwing cell near Shrine Site-12."
The feed crackled.
> "If anyone still receives this, prioritize locating the hunters or monsters whereabouts,numbers and descriptions. Status: Unknown. The hunters were last seen descending into pre-outbreak architecture."
The message ended.
But the signal did not.
In the background, something moved. Something watching.
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12:00 PM – Cathedral of Echoes (Unknown Location)
Twelve figures in robes stood in a circle. Spiral patterns glowed on the floor. They weren't fanatics. They were survivors.
But what they survived had changed them.
The one in the center spoke. His voice echoed without tech:
> "The spiral monsters grow hungrier. No one has opened the gate."
Another replied:
> "Then it is time to open it. Before others do."
They raised their arms. And the room trembled.
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12:30 PM – Edge of the Wastes
A scavenger named Rika stood atop a ridge with a monocular, eyes wide. She had been tracking sky-signals. But what she saw now wasn't from above.
Twelve creatures marched through the dead forest.
Not dinosaurs. Not mimics.
Something new.
One of them turned toward her.
It didn't have a face. But it recognized her.
> "Impossible," she whispered. "That… that thing what even is that?"
She dropped the scope. Ran.
Behind her, the mimic blinked. Not Kael's soulbound. A copy.
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12:45 PM – Cliffhanger
In a ruin far from any bastion, a hand rose from cracked soil. Pale. Human.
Except it wasn't human anymore.
The spiral burned faintly in its palm.
> TO BE CONTINUED...