083 Verde Village

The World Order stood apart from the other two great organizations of our time. While the Hunter’s Association operated under the President and the Ten Directors, and the Government was overseen by the Council of the People, the World Order was different. It did not rely on democracy or a network of leaders. Instead, it functioned under a single authority—the Heavenly Pillar, also known as the World Pillar.

A singular, shadowed ruler. No oversight. No bureaucracy. Just absolute command.

And that was the problem.

Unlike the President of the Hunter’s Association or the Council of the People, the identity of the Heavenly Pillar remained a mystery. Few even knew whether it was a single person or a title passed down in secret. What was certain, however, was that the World Order’s leader was the reason the organization remained as powerful as the other two combined.

And now, I was going to force this hidden figure to talk.

Our vehicle came to a slow stop at the edge of an abandoned village. The place was desolate and bare, swallowed by time and nature. Crumbling buildings stood like empty husks, stripped of their former life. What had once been a small settlement was now nothing more than a whisper of history.

I stepped out, taking in the eerie silence. “Welcome to the lost village of Verde.”

Leora stretched, cracking her neck before shutting the buggy’s door behind her. “It took us weeks to find this place, and it only worked because you knew the right people.”

I smirked. “Yeah, I know. I’m great like that.”

She rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.

I walked to the back of the buggy, grabbing an assault rifle from our gear while Leora strapped on her katana and slung a shotgun over her shoulder. The weight of the rifle was familiar in my hands, a tool rather than a crutch. I wasn’t a marksman, but Selena had taught me enough to make my shots count.

This place was a gamble, but it was the best lead we had. If the World Order’s mobile headquarters was anywhere near, it wouldn’t take long before we got some company.

World Artifacts.

Anything that bore the World prefix carried immense significance. These were the foundation upon which humanity had stabilized after the great fragmentation. They weren’t just powerful—they were necessary.

The Hunter’s Association had World Path and World Tower. The Government controlled World Wall and World Veil. Meanwhile, the World Order possessed World Pillar, World Hand, and World Dogma.

These artifacts were created during the final days before the world shattered. Back when the discovery of aura had reached its breaking point, when nations and super nations had crumbled, and when the very concept of stability had become nothing more than a myth. They were meant to be lifelines—anchors to ensure humanity’s survival even in a world fractured beyond recognition.

And I was after one of them.

Leora glanced around the ruins of the lost village, her grip firm on the shotgun slung over her shoulder. “So, what are we doing here again?”

I adjusted the assault rifle in my hands. “There’s an artifact here. A remnant from the pre-fragmented world. We’ll need it to track the World Pillar and possibly convince it to leave us alone.”

She gave me a skeptical look. “I believe you… just that I find it weird there are still civilizations out here in the Forbidden Region.”

That made sense. Like Selena, Leora had spent most of her life fighting other people in the Claimed Lands. Her battles were against criminals, rogue hunters, and rival factions. Her world was one of human-on-human conflict.

But me? My knowledge of this place came from research and something deeper—meta-knowledge. As the author of Hunterworks, I had designed this world, its laws, and its hidden pieces. And now, I was walking through one of them.

“We’re not the first ones here,” I said, scanning the surroundings. The wind howled through broken structures, carrying with it the whispers of old ghosts. “If we don’t move fast, we won’t be the last either.”

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The village of Verde was nothing more than a husk of what it once was. Cracked roads lined with overgrown weeds stretched between dilapidated houses. The windows were shattered, their jagged remains catching the dim light filtering through the ever-present haze of the Forbidden Region. Faded signs hung from rusting poles, their words long since worn away by time and neglect.

Leora and I moved cautiously, weapons ready. This place had been abandoned for years—at least, that’s what the records said. But I had long since learned that records couldn’t always be trusted.

We checked the first building: an old general store. Empty shelves, broken glass, and remnants of dried-up food containers filled the space. No signs of life.

The second building was a residential house, its door hanging off its hinges. Inside, dust coated everything in thick layers. A broken picture frame lay on the floor, its photo faded beyond recognition.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Leora huffed, kicking at a fallen chair. “What are we looking for again? This place is just abandoned, isn’t it?”

I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I moved toward an old dresser, opening each drawer. Useless. Just rotting wood and dead insects. I turned back to Leora, meeting her gaze.

“Let’s continue looking,” I said.

She sighed but didn’t argue. We had come too far to leave empty-handed.

We pushed forward, checking every building, overturning furniture, searching through cabinets. The air was thick with dust, and every step stirred up the past. The people who once lived here had left in a hurry—if they had even left at all.

Somewhere in this forgotten village was something that had no place in the present. A relic from the past. A World Artifact. And we were going to find it.

Originally, there had only been seven World Artifacts. Their existence was foundational to what remained of civilization, each playing a role in keeping the world from completely fracturing. But then, I wrote the side stories… and added another three.

Each World Artifact had the ability to locate others and communicate between them. They were meant to be used together, like pieces of a larger puzzle, ensuring humanity’s survival. If I was going to track the World Pillar and force a conversation, I needed a World Artifact of my own.

The problem? They were bound to their owners.

We searched through another abandoned house, the wooden floors creaking under our steps. I pulled open cabinets, finding nothing but dust and broken ceramics. Leora leaned against a table, shotgun slung over her back.

“So why not just borrow one from the Hunter’s Association?” she asked. “Atropos is your sister, Bob’s basically your ally. They’d help you out.”

I shook my head. “It’s impossible. Unless I kill Bob.”

Leora raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“The World Artifacts are coded to their owners,” I explained. “They can lend out a percentage of their authority, sure, but for me to actually negotiate with the World Pillar on equal footing, I need full control over a World Artifact. And that only happens if I inherit one completely… which means the original owner has to die.”

She clicked her tongue, clearly unimpressed. “That’s some bullshit.”

“Yeah. It is.”

I moved to the next building, brushing aside old newspapers. This wasn’t just about finding some lost relic. It was about control. The World Order operated under a singular leadership, and the World Pillar—whoever they were—wouldn’t take me seriously unless I had something that put me on their level.

I needed a World Artifact. And according to the Hunterworks I wrote, one was buried here.

The door creaked as I stepped out of yet another empty, dust-ridden house. Still no sign of the artifact. Just more broken furniture and faded memories of a village long since lost to time.

Then, without warning, Leora rolled forward, shotgun raised.

BOOM!

Something in front of me exploded into misty red. Warm blood splattered across my face. I instinctively wiped it off, my fingers smearing the liquid across my cheek.

I squinted at the barely visible figure collapsing to the ground, its form shimmering, distorting, before fading like heat haze. Camouflaged? No… something more than that.

Leora wasted no time. She pivoted, aimed, and fired again.

BOOM!

Another figure fell, this time closer. I exhaled sharply, stepping toward her, keeping my back close to hers.

I equipped Connection, Homing, and Weakness. Three attributes. A strain, but manageable. My non-tactile threads spread outward, feeling for disturbances in the air, in heat, in movement. And sure enough…

There were more.

A lot more.

Leora’s grip on her shotgun tightened. “I can feel their bioelectricity and gravity wells. They’re not visible in any light spectrum. We are surrounded.”

I clicked my tongue. “They’re called Invisible Men.”

Leora snorted. “That’s a dumb name.”

“Yeah, well, so is Bigfoot, but people still call it that.” I shifted slightly, making sure my aura threads covered every possible angle. “And yes, they’re all male. And yes, they’re all perverts.”

Leora cocked her head, unimpressed. “Excuse me?”

“They’ll do their best not to kill you.”

A pause.

Then her expression twisted in utter disgust.

“Oh, fuck no.”

It was different for me, though.

These bastards would kill me.

We cut our way through the invisible cryptids, their shimmering forms barely registering in the dim light of the abandoned village. Leora moved like a force of nature, her katana slicing through the air in blinding arcs while her shotgun barked at anything that got too close.

I gestured toward the tallest building in sight. “There! We take the high ground!”

Leora wasted no time.

She vanished from my side in a blur, the force of her movement kicking up dust as she crashed through the window of the building, showering the room inside with glass shards. The guttural screams of the cryptids barely lasted before she silenced them with brutal efficiency—her shotgun roaring, her katana singing.

I thwipped a solidified aura thread onto the edge of the window frame and reeled myself in, twisting mid-air to fire at the creatures swarming behind me. The bullets connected, forcing them back, but they didn’t go down. Resilient bastards.

Leora barely let me land before she grabbed my collar and ran.

She moved so fast the air pressure nearly knocked the wind out of me. I gripped my rifle tightly, pointing it back toward the window we had just escaped through and fired blindly. The splat of blood told me I hit something, but I wasn’t in a position to check if it was fatal.

I could feel them now. A swarm of invisible bodies closing in from all angles.

“Up,” Leora said. And before I could react, she threw me with every ounce of her Fighter Aura.

I shot through the air like a missile, twisting just in time to land against the side of the building. With a quick burst of Seeker Aura, my boots stuck to the wall. Without hesitation, I sprinted along the surface, using the momentum to reach the roof where Leora was already waiting—her katana flashing as she tore through the horde.

The creatures were more resilient than I expected. They weren’t going down easily, and they were far more numerous than Leora could handle alone.

I took position at the stairwell, rifle raised, and fired.

Pop! Blood splattered across the roof. The air stank of iron and gunpowder.

Leora, breathing hard, didn’t stop cutting.

“They just keep on coming!” she growled.

“I’d rather kill them now than retreat!” I ejected a spent magazine, reloaded, and fired again, this time more accurately.

Leora let go of her shotgun and fully committed to melee. She slashed, twisted, and sliced with such fluidity that it was mesmerizing to watch. But even with her speed, the cryptids weren’t staying down.

I narrowed my eyes, straining my Connection attribute through my aura threads. The cryptids’ forms became slightly clearer to me. Their movements, their weaknesses—

Leora swung, her katana flaring with light, and beheaded two in a single stroke.

I saw it then. The difference.

“They’ve got a healing factor,” I muttered.

Leora kicked a corpse off her blade. “No shit.”

“No, I mean—” I squinted, letting my aura threads dig deeper into the creatures. “Beheading works!”

Leora grinned. “Finally, some good news.”

Then she vanished again—diving straight into the swarm with nothing but her blade and a thirst for blood.