TurtleMe

[Soul Forged] Chapter 15: Changing

What the hell was that white stuff and what had it done to me?

Something about it was familiar. I flopped onto my back with a heavy sigh, slid the tripwire loop off my wrist, and stared at the hole in the kitchen ceiling as I stretched my mind back. I’d seen a similar wispy substance come out of the ghouls Colter’s team killed in the street. I’d thought it was some sort of final defense mechanism, but that was an entirely different species of parabeast, and the strange fog hadn’...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 14: The Penthouse

It. Made. No. Sense.

I crumpled the MRE pouch, burning my hand, and tossed it from the closet. It burst against the opposite wall of the hallway, splattering gray sludge.

How?!

The question echoed in my head.

How was there nothing? No one?

Just yesterday, this place had gleamed and hummed. Thousands of feet, thousands of voices, sound everywhere you went, people everywhere you looked. Today, the very foundations were crumbling around me. I was alone. In ...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 13: Survival Mode

In the sudden darkness, the ghoul’s pasty, hunched form was burned onto my retinas. 

I clamped my teeth down on a yell and threw a hand over my nose and mouth to stifle my panting breaths as I pressed my spine to the wall like I could meld into it. I could have sworn the parabeast’s illuminated eyes—like two thin spotlight beams—had landed right on me.

No shrieking roar echoed through the dark medical bay, but I inched backward along the wall toward the lobby, wincing...

Notice: Minor Soul Forged Edits

Hello, I just wanted to make a quick update post to let you all know that the previously uploaded Soul Forged chapters have been changed slightly to include new edits. There won't be any major story changes, just a few updated location names and descriptions. And, I'm excited to be bringing back everyone's favorite... Chapter titles! All Patreon Soul Forged chapters now have titles, and will have them going forward.

If you'd like a comprehensive list of chapters that have been changed,...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 12: Cornered

I whirled toward the hair-raising cry, boots crunching in the glass and debris strewn across the lobby, to find myself still alone. More shrieking roars carried through the broken windows, mixing with the sharp cracks of thunder in a hellish chorus. Human voices, muffled but commanding, spiked my pulse worse than the ghouls. Afraid I knew exactly what I’d find, I snuck to the wall beside the window, keeping my stomach pressed to it. I gripped the side of the sill to steady myself at the cre...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 11: Disconnected

Water sprayed everywhere as I took off for the opposite shore, struggling to wade through the waist deep basin. The rippling trail of bubbles followed,  gaining fast. As it looped around to my left, I caught sight of a slimy black back crest breaching the surface for just a second. 

It was going to cut me off.  

I carved a diagonal through the pond, but the creature darted into my path again, a pair of yellow feelers poking out of the water, then a slimy black head ...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 10: Across the City

The crater had erased a huge chunk of Ojai’s skyline. Everyone and everything, gone.

I headed toward the edge in a fog. What the hell had happened? It looked like a tactical nuke had gone off. But that didn’t explain all the vegetation and overgrowth. What was going on? 

Golden flecks glimmered in the air all around me as I crossed one intersecting street, then another, staring in disbelief, forgetting to look down at the treacherous road, never diverting my gaze even whe...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 9: Not Quite Home

The demonic, bull-like parabeast lapped up what was left of Matthew on a long, black tongue. Cold sweat on my brow, I fought the concussive dizziness left from Colter’s strike, trying to get on my feet. The beast shook its horned head, its ember eyes finding Arnold as he turned tail toward the relative safety of the group. Raden spread down his legs to jumpstart him into a superhuman sprint that would lead the beast right to us. The realization powered me onto hands and knees, the world til...

Soul Forged: Chapter 8

The rune’s resin casing scratched a jagged line down my throat as I swallowed.

“No!” Colter squeezed my lower jaw in a vice grip, thumb and middle finger digging into my cheeks to force open my mouth.

The little piece lodged somewhere near my Adam’s apple for one awful second, but I fought the urge to gag, gulping instead as I glared up at Colter. His pupils were dime-sized, his lips parted in open dismay that brought a vicious smile to my face as the obstruction slid free...

Partnership With Aethon Books

As many of you know, TBATE has now concluded as a weekly webnovel. The next step in its journey is transforming the story into fully-fleshed out books. We’re already working with Rocketship to bring premium print editions of the novel to life, and I’m thrilled to announce my partnership with Aethon Books, a Scifi & Fantasy Publisher known for publishing hit series such as He Who Fights with Monsters and The Primal Hunter, to revamp the eBook and brin...

Soul Forged: Chapter 7

Groans sounded off all around me as the blackness receded from my vision and gave way to blooms of red. I lay on my back, pinned beneath a warm weight that began to slowly roll away. I tore open my lids, and a faint light stabbed my eyes.

“Torrin,” came Seth’s croaking voice. “Torrin, are you alright?”

“Ermph,” was all I could muster as I rolled onto my stomach and got two hands braced on either side of me, forehead on the cool soil. I ran my tongue over a puffed lip...

Soul Forged: Chapter 6

Taj’s raden half blinded me, flaring over his body as I clung to his back. He hit awkwardly on hands and knees, his raden buttressing his limbs and scattering soil. The impact sent me somersaulting over his head. A pain shot through my cut left calf as I smacked down on my back beside a short, gnarled tree. 

“What the hell, Torrin?” Taj snarled, the remnants of the raden he’d used to survive the fall just beginning to fade. He rubbed a welt on his head, probably from cracki...

Soul Forged: Chapter 5 

The tremor that rumbled through the skybridge sent vibrations up my legs as I pressed my forehead to the quivering window glass. All I could see of the rift from this angle was the distant glow behind the mechanics of the containment ring. It spun so fast it was a silver streak across my retinas, working overtime to process and contain the raden issuing from the rift.

The rolling thunder faded to a low hum, and I straightened, looking to Seth at the window beside me. “Come on,” he o...

Soul Forged: Chapter 4 

As I entered Tower Two, I deposited my Tower One guest sticker in a bin and let a private smile ease onto my face. The research staff’s surprise and excitement had reinvigorated something inside me that had been badly strained over the last couple of days. I owed Hanna a thank you for dragging me along.

I wove through clusters of the lower-level employees that congregated in the skybridge lobby, unable to follow their famous ardent superiors across the bridge, which gave Lightbridge T...

Soul Forged: Chapter 3 

I woke in the family car, houses a blur through the windows. A pulsing white-yellow light fogged the night sky and cast a silvery sheen over Mom’s dark hair. Her fingers gripped the center console as she shot a frightened look at Dad in the driver’s seat. We were going too fast. A siren wailed—a frightening bellow very different from the fun wee-woo of a fire truck. Squealing tires and blaring horns hurt my ears. I tried to cover them, but my car seat was too tight, and I start...

[Soul Forged] Chapter 2: Waste of Talent

My eyes stayed glued to Seth’s combat boots as I tried to follow in his footsteps. Strangely clean, they crunched against the rough, cold stone of the tunnel floor. Blood had soaked all the way through the synthetic leather of my sneakers. Sweat and grime cemented my socks to my feet. Still, even that felt more comfortable than the stiff silence that lingered between me and my brother.  

Seth set an effortlessly urgent pace that forced me into a huffing half-jog. 

Ling...

Soul Forged: Chapter 1

I slid my fingers slowly along the indent of the blade’s fuller, testing the balance. As a ray of golden light fell on the weapon, my eyes narrowed. The blade's ivory hue told me it was made with compressed parabeast bone, and its hefty weight indicated that the forger had used a steel base. The brittle bone was unmarred by combat, not from disuse but because its wielder had reinforced it with their raden.

I tilted the hybrid sword and, adjusting the magnification on my goggle lenses,...

Chapter 529: The Beginning After the End

ARTHUR LEYWIN

The constant drone of the train’s rapid progress through its underground tunnel dulled my senses and blocked the outside world. In the dark of the tunnel, there was only the steady but dim light of our cabin lighting artifact and the occasional flash of a lit service platform through the carriage window. Tessia slept beside me, having drowsed off with her head on my shoulder.

Six months…

It seemed both forever and no time at all. T...

Patreon Plans & New Series

With TBATE's novel coming to an official end on Patreon on 8/22 for Asuras and Lances, I wanted to share what’s next for this space.

The Patreon will turn into a broader TurtleMe space dedicated to future original works. Patreon will remain a place for early access and behind-the-scenes content for select series.

While TBATE has been an incredible, life-changing chapter of my life, it’s not the end of my storytelling journey. I’ve been quietly working on new stories alongsid...

Chapter 528: A Wisp of Aether

INTERLUDE

Pressure. Constraint. Control.

Building and building and building…

And then…release. Not sudden and explosive, no violent eruption, but…an easing of the unnatural force. Slow and soothing. A gentle step toward the discordance of natural order. Comforting movement forward, back into and through time. Decay. Entropy. Expansion.

The pressure eases, then builds, then eases again. The hole is so small, and as it approaches, the pres...

Chapter 527: Celebrations and Revelations

ARTHUR LEYWIN

Turning the stone over in my hand, I stared down at the cracks that ran deep into its multifaceted surface. A single sharp pulse of power, and it had been shattered. But it had been necessary. A small sacrifice, all things considered. After all, with its purpose fulfilled, what use was there for it anymore?

I considered reaching for Aroa’s Requiem. By pushing aether through it with the aevum art, I could turn back the wear of time and restore the r...

Kickstarter Now Live

The TBATE Vol. 1-3 Novel Print Kickstarter is now live! Here’s a first look at Vol. 1 of the special illustrated hardcover edition. Design not final.

Over the past decade since I first started writing The Beginning After the End, one of the most frequent requests I've received from fans has been for a novel print. I held off because I wanted to make sure it would be special, something true to my vision that fans could proudly showcase on their bookshelves when the time came.

...

Chapter 526: Unprecedented Times

CAERA DENOIR

I stared up at the incomprehensible edifice already being called the Relictombs Spire. When Arthur had told us all to flee, what remained of our small army had been carried away on platforms of stone and ice, only to watch the Spire rise up out of the mountains from a distance. But the actual, true size of it was utterly beyond reason.

A shiver raced down my spine as I stood in the shade and considered what Arthur had become. I doubt even the asur...