Book 1 - Chapter 19: "The Price of Time" [PREVIEW]

~~ Three Months later ~~ (Author note: Hohohohoh).

Jonah crouched in front of the small worm leg cage and poked the writing, twisted mass of flesh with a piece of rebar. It twiched, swinging its malformed limbs in an attempt to strike him.

'Tsk, another failure.'

Jonah let out a sigh and stood up. Not that he was expecting much else. Only three spawn points had survived his attempt to put the Titan back to sleep, and those that had seemed... damaged, some how. Without the Titan to control them, the rate of spawning had drasticly decreased, amounting to no more than once or twice per day. And those creatures that DID spawn, were often malformed (more so than normal) and extremely weak, with even the strongest not breaking level 3.

As soon as he'd recovered enough, Jonah had built cages around the spawn points, ensuring whatever did spawn, didn't eat his leg while he slept, or something. In their weakend state, the Titanspawn had no chance of breaking free from even his shoddy cage crafted from lvl 42 monster parts.

Still, he didn't want to take many chances with these things. Jonah took out [Leviathan's Reach] and loaded a half fist sized Worm plate ball into it's ammo sleeve.

Normally rounds like this would be to heavy and create to much drag to be used with a slingshot. But with his new toy? Well....

Jonah pulled the draw back and released. There was a sharp whistle as the round cut through the air, and the wiriting mass of flesh became a large smear across the cage wall.

"Failed Titanspawn lvl 1" slain.

No experience gain.

He gave another sigh and collected the round before moving towards the next cage. The next cage contained one of the large dog-lizard things that had spawned during their escape attempt. Its scales were grey and cracked, while its body leaked blood and pus, but it was still in much better shape than most of the things that came out of the spawn points.

More aggressive to. It mindlessly attacked the walls of its cage, heedless to the damage it was causing to its already weakened body. Jonah's brow furrowed at the thought of what came next, but he steeled his nerves and focused his [Mana Sight] on the revolting creature.

As the mana of its being came into focus, Jonah spotted it; a tiny, pulsing point of light in the middle of its head. He didn't know what this thing was, exsactly, but only the more... complete, Titanspawns even had one. Was it a 'Core' like in the Novels? Maybe their soul (if these things even had souls)? Or maybe just a representation of the Mind?

Whatever they were, Jonah hated the next part.

Focusing on that tiny point of light, Jonah's mana flaired outward, as thin tendrils of invisible power pushed towards the creature. Like worms digging into dead flesh, the tendrils of mana wormed their way into the Titanspawn's head and attacked the pinpoint of light.

Slowly, Jonah dug deeper into it, as waves of something less than emotion washed over him. Rage, hatred, confusion, maddness and pain. Always the pain. A constant and unending pain caused by the very act of exisiting.

He almost felt sorry for these things, if he was honest. They didn't ask to be born what they were. But in the end, it didn't change anything other than make his hatred for the Titan (and this sick "Game") grow that much stronger.

As the tendrils of mana wormed their way deeper into the point of light, Jonah's heart began to beat faster, and the waves of "not quite emotions" increased, as he felt some kind of connection grow stronger. He'd never gotten this far, even after dozens of attempts.

As if to mock the thought however, the next moment Jonah felt something snap. Dozens of cracks began to spiderweb across the pinpoint of light, and then with a flair of mana, it popped.

In the same instant, the Titanspawn's head popped like a balloon, splattering Jonah with blood, and it fell to the floor of the cage, deader than dead.

"Malformed Titanspawn lvl 3" slain.

No experience gain.

Jonah grumbled in frustration and wiped the foul blood from his face.

He almost had it that time. Just a little more. He was so close he could almost taste it (or maybe that was the TItanspawn blood, he couldn't tell).

Just a little more and he could put his plan into action......