-Epilogue-
Far to South, in the flooded wetlands and swamps of what used to be Florida, a man of immense scale and with four arms, walks through waist high waters as he lovingly and carefully carries his pregnant wife in his lower pair of arms. In his upper pair, he carries a spear in one hand and drags the corpse of a giant mutated alligator behind him with the other; pulling it through the water, reeds, and muddy ground as if it hadn’t weighed anything at all.
He looks down at his wife, so small and delicate, so beautiful with her curly brown locks and her hazelnut eyes. Her hands lay upon her slightly bulging stomach, gently feeling for the movements of their growing child within. She notices him watching and returns a smile as she reaches up a hand, so small compared to his, and lovingly strokes his cheek. Not perturbed in the slightest by his dark green skin or the small tusks that grow upward from and peek out from his lips. There is only love as she gazes into his eyes. He leans forward and give her a kiss, which leaves her giggling and blushing, before returning to walking.
They are heading North. To finally escape these hellish wetlands that stretch on for miles on end and where the ocean meets the land. A place of monsters, wholly uninhabitable for the delicate human resting in his arms. They are heading North to find a home. To build a family.
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Hidden within the mountains of Japan, a girl kneels before a shrine, her hands held before her in prayer. The girl is old enough that she should still be in high school, dressed in the reds and whites of a shrine maidens' garments. She sends her prayers to the gods, her faith never leaving her, not even at the end of the world. After all, the Gods have given her the strength necessary for her to save not just herself, but also others. As she prays, her large ears adorning the top of her head twitch occasionally as she catches the sounds of children playing outside in the courtyard.
Finishing her prayers, she bows to the shrine and turns to leave, carefully shutting the sliding doors shut behind her as she exits. She smiles as she sees the children playing and as a small girl runs up and jumps onto her large fluffy fox tail, hugging it tightly with a laugh. She pets the girls head, fingers brushing though snow white hair and playfully poking at the long white rabbit ears spouting from the top of her head. The little girl laughs and giggles as she is carried along, riding on the shine maidens fox tail until they find a nice spot to sit and rest on the shine's patio.
Holding the little girl on her lap and wrapping the both of them up in the fluff of her tail -much to the little girl's delight- she sits and watches the children play; running around and even some, climbing about on their shrine guardians massive back and legs as it lazes in the sunlight of the open courtyard, vigilantly watching for dangers. Each one of the children shares the traits of an animal, with new ears, tails, claws, eyes and even horns adorning their bodies. Each one of them is an orphan, having lost their families to the end of the world. And each one of them is her precious child. A gift from the Gods, and her responsibility.
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Her family, bonded and changed by the gift bestowed upon her body and blood by the grace of the Gods.
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Deep in the Alps, living within the abandoned mines and tunnels left behind by forgotten mining operations, many villages have come together in an attempt to flee from the rising hordes of monsters. With time they dug deeper into the mountains, building homes outsides the mines and digging out new homes within, as they hide themselves away from the lurking predators.
It would be on an especially cold November night that a baby would be born, deep within the mines as an exhausted mother tries to shy away from the cold next to a fire.
The baby was born, strong and stout of build, with hands unlike any that had ever been seen on an infant and a grip like iron. Most surprising of all, however, was that the child, a boy so young that his age can still be counted in minutes, already had the start of a majestic beard sprouting from his chin.
Everyone was rightfully confused by the sight of this child, but his mother loved him regardless. Her husband had always wanted a son and they had been trying for years. If only he could have been here with her, to hold their son in his arms.
Now, if only she could get her infant son to stop trying to dig holes and take people’s alcohol...
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In Australia, almost two years after the start of the apocalypse, the last human on the continent succumbs to his injuries and dies cursing his fate. The entirety of the continent has become inhospitable to human life, a hellhole of monsters and mutated creatures fighting and living by the law of ‘Survival of the Fittest.’
For next few thousand years, this place shall be written into and removed from the annals of history, as a place of death and the source of some of the world most deadliest horrors.
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Resting together at the base of the //World Tree’s trunk, a pair of twins, a brother and sister with long pointed ears and white-green hair, hold hands as they watch the sunset over the ocean. The islands of Hawaii have been destroyed, and in their place, new land was pulled upward from the ocean floor, held together by titanic roots that spread outward in every direction.
Many, many people on the islands died when the //World Tree arrived. Most, simple crushed beneath it roots as it took hold into the islands, others died in the subsequent destruction as the very earth shifted and moved beneath their feet. Only those who chose to flee onto the body of its roots found safety from the destruction. Among the one point five million people that used to call these islands home, only a little over a thousand remain.
But they live peacefully under the //World Tree’s canopy now, their bodies changed to no longer require meat, instead living off the plentitude of fruits and vegetables that grow bountifully in the tropical forests that fill the land around its titanic roots. There are no monsters here, and they live peacefully with the creatures that have been changed by the //World Tree’s presence.
The twins, the first to be changed, the first to be chosen by this world's new god, lean lazily against its trunk and whisper into its bark. Sometimes holding their ears against its surface as they listen to the whispers that are returned to them ever so slowly. Words that only those chosen can hear. The contents of the words matter little, the speed at which they are said, even less. They do not care; they have all the time in the world to talk and listen. To bask under the sun and feast on the fruits of paradise.
-End of Book II-
The Siege on Louisville