[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

"You have to survive, Adam. You have to win."

This is not a story starring Mary, because Mary is already dead. She bled out on her front doorstep following a sudden three-day absence.

Seven years have passed, with her little brother—Adam—now standing at eighteen years of age. Following his sister's death, he lived the life of a delinquent, wandering the grimy streets of the city of Steeldale. All it amounted to was years of street fighting experience, no proper home and an uncertain future at a second-rate university.

Unbeknowst to him, the day before university, he will be thrust from Steeldale into a brand new world.

It is a world where a cherry red sky gazes down upon a fragmented continent, on which civilisations from other worlds have been dumped like refuse. The souls of man leak from their fingertips, coalescencing into superhuman powers and horrible fleshy monstrosities. Tribes of refugees clash against each other, attempting to carve out a place in this unrefined space.

With no choice, Adam must traverse this dangerous new world, with Mary's shadow following him every step of the way.

This is my entry to the April 2021 Writathon. Chapters will be posted as I write them.