The Runic Artist Chapter 20: Chapter 338 - My Reality

Read chapter 20 of The Runic Artist by Ellake on NovelPedia.

Chapter 338 - My Reality A note from Ellake BRINEHAVEN Cameron Kessler has always been a problem. Born in the slums of Brinehaven to a demonic contractor, he grew up street-smart and steeped in trouble. But when a job goes wrong, he's caught by Leroy Waters —a licensed arbiter with the power to either bury him or offer something far more dangerous: a second chance. Together, they dive into Brinehaven’s underworld of crime syndicates, companies with vested interests, and monstrous horrors that don’t stay in the dark. Demons, bullets, and blood. Freedom comes with a cost, and every job could be his last, but Cameron isn’t just trying to survive. He wants revenge. BRINEHAVEN is an occult urban fantasy set in the 1990s. Based in a fictional microstate known as the Commonwealth of Brinehaven, it is a place where the occult and dreadful are a facet of everyday life, existing in conjunction with the mundane and the ordinary. - Dual POV: a jaded master & headstrong apprentice dynamic - An urban fantasy setting in a fictional microstate between the US & Canada, circa 1990s - Intrigue, conspiracy--a big emphasis on build up. Slower-burn moments sandwiched between action - Street-level occult/arcane abilities mixed with gunfights, artificed trinkets, and gritty brawls - Occasional interludes - Occasional separate POV chapters - ProgressionLite : Earned, gradual progression (Brinehaven will be very long), but not infinite growth - Brinehaven Rituals : side stories decided upon by the readers via polls/voting--word count varies widely. Nate watched as Vicoli’s hand reached out and vanished into nothingness. Hundreds of metres away, that same hand reappeared and slapped against the rubbery skin of the humanoid-form Khar’a’kan. Nate immediately seized control of the Divine paint and had it begin to paint an image of wounds across the Beast King’s skin. It looked like red and purple lines were crawling across Khar’a’kan as he screamed in fury, rubbing at the paint to try and remove it. Instead, all his actions did was spread the slowly forming images, making the wounds look even more gruesome, though none of them were real. Not yet anyway. “Back inside?” asked Vicoli in a sing-song voice. “Back inside,” agreed Nate. A moment later he was once more fighting alone as Vicoli quietly slipped back into his prison and Nate locked the door behind him. Nate focused, preparing to put an end to this fight, or at least so he hoped. “ Life Imitates Art ,” he whispered and, with an outpouring of Divine Energy, he made Reality bend to his will. Wounds appeared all over Khar’a’kan’s rough skin. Purple blood sprayed in a fountain as his throat opened. Something fell out of his side and into the ocean below as a gaping wound appeared just above what would’ve been a hip on any landbound creature. Blood dripped into the ocean, and Khar’a’kan followed it, diving down. Nate felt the surge of Divine Energy as the Beast King once more restored himself. Surfacing, still in humanoid form, Khar’a’kan stared up at Nate hovering in the sky. In the True Divine’s eyes, all Nate could see was unbridled hate. That was fine with Nate. He didn’t come to this place to make friends. Though he hadn’t intended on facing down one of the six Beast Kings, that didn’t mean he was going to back down. He’d spend every drop of Divine Energy he had to end the threat the normally gigantic shark posed to the Eternal River Sect. After all, that was what he had agreed to do. He’d hoped the painted wounds would be enough, but he wasn’t surprised that they hadn’t been. Khar’a’kan was a True Divine with a completed Divine Vessel. He likely had access to more Divine Energy than Nate did. But he couldn’t produce it at anywhere near the same speed, and, with every act of Creation, every use of Concepts in innovative ways, Reality was giving Nate recognition. Divine Energy continued to drip into his body at a steady enough pace that he could keep up with Khar’a’kan. All the while, the painting of t