Chapter 1: Death Is a Dog
The boy’s corpse slammed against the carriage wheel. And in that lifeless body, Johan snapped awake.
A hooded figure loomed six feet away. With a sickening squelch, he wrenched a spear from the remains of a woman.
Inside the carriage, the wails of an infant cut off abruptly, replaced by the wet, meaty sounds of tearing flesh.
Level 0
Heavenly Allocation: Mind, Body, Spirit.
“You’ve awakened your spirit root.” The killer’s head turned, now directly facing Johan.
A fallen torch illuminated his silhouette in the night, casting a long shadow. His grey eyes reflected the orange afterglow, the rest of his face covered by a buffalo skull-shaped bone mask under the hood.
“I see now.” He grasped towards Johan as if beckoning a child, and the clamshell pendant around his neck snapped free. It floated through the air and landed on the man’s outstretched palm. “You’ll make a fine servant to our clan.”
Johan’s knee wobbled, and he collapsed, retching out his dinner. He had been in Taiwan just a minute ago, visiting a secluded shrine up in the mountains, when a green meteor fell from the sky, blasting him—