Coiling Dragon - Book 1 – The Ring - Chapter 18 – The Coiling Dragon Spirit (part 1)

Long ago a great calamity struck the earth, destroying much of it and merging what remained with pieces of other worlds.

With these worlds came Aether, a new form of energy that can allow one to transcend the bounds of normal mortality and human limitations.

In a world where humans absorb the essence of aether beasts to gain power, Aiden Hawke joins the class of humans known as arcanists, people who defeat aether beasts and absorb their essence into cores they forge within themselves, and who infuse themselves with the aether that permeates the world around them to increase the power of their body and mind.

However, unlike most, Aiden will find that he holds a unique gift and that his journey as an arcanist will not be so simple.

“Breaking News! A 28-year-old IT worker beats three university kids to death with a spiked bat over a dog!”Abandoned at birth, and named John Wicked, he suffered a life of solitude and harshness. His only companion was a dog named Alfred who was with him since he was 8 years old.Alas, on his 28th birthday when he was returning home from the company with a gift for Alfred, what awaited him was three university students beating his dog senseless--the reason being that Alfred barked at them.They escaped after beating him, too, but John Wicked lost his only family there as the sky broke into tears as if weeping alongside John, holding his dear companion's lifeless body.After getting revenge and being put on death row, John Wicked felt no regret for his actions, and the public also didn't support him.If the world didn't understand him, he didn't need to understand the world. He took his own life because he didn't want to die by the so-called justice of this world.But that wasn't the end. That was the beginning of John's new life after making a deal with an Eldritch God.Join John and Alfred's journey in the fantasy world where humans tame monsters and live an intricately connected life.

In order to be loved, she changed her whole personality, but all she got in return was a cold husband and her unrequited feelings.Now that she lost her memories and went back to her old self, she's determined to never love again. She wouldn't let anyone trample on her anymore.But then, why is her husband coming back around again - turning over a new leaf and wanting to take her back so desperately?“You should know well by now, my beloved wife. Didn't you change yourself for love...?” he muttered vehemently, voice low and smoky.His unwavering eyes are blazing with passion and a deep sense of endearment that she'd never seen before. This isn't her husband at all - instead of cold, his gaze appears to be on fire.“The same goes for me... So, love me, love me not - you're going to take responsibility.”---Impassive, strait-laced, stiff and very compliant - that's how everyone sees Cassidy Eleanor. She's an underdog wife who's desperate to gain her husband's affection and would even sacrifice her own freedom. Coming from an unknown background, she was neglected by her spouse, persecuted by his family, and misjudged in her workplace.That's all until it came to a point when she already had enough. In an effort to flee from the clutches of a loveless marriage and all the obligations that were forced on her, she got herself a ticket and boarded a plane.Little did she know that a bombing incident would ultimately ruin her plan to start anew.Then, before she knew it, she woke up to find herself with a type of amnesia that caused her to forget everything that happened to her when she's past the age of eighteen-years-old.To be exact, Cassidy had gone back to her old self - right before she met her husband, Adrian Millicent.---Cold, distant, steely and iron-willed - that's how everyone sees the owner of the country's richest conglomerate. Adrian is known to be a prodigious figure in a variety of fields and commerce, a prestigious individual with billions of assets, and a man of outstanding achievements overall.He used to be the most-sought-after bachelor of the country, but only to get in an arranged marriage by his grandparent - with a woman of unknown origin, to boot. He really couldn't care less, though. After all, he never needed love to begin with.That's all until Adrian found this reserved and amenable wife of his acting like a wild and boisterous teenage girl one day.

The nuclear holocaust which caused the collapse of the Old Times on Earth should have wiped out all human life on the planet. Yes, the gods set up their beautiful Elysiums to provide sanctuaries for their chosen, but by all rights everyone outside the elysian lands should’ve perished long ago. Yet somehow, human life still managed to persist, even in the deadly, mutant-infested wastelands.

Cloudhawk was a young scavenger who dreamed of being as free as the hawks in the skies, yet seemed destined to live out his life scrounging for scraps in the wasteland ruins. Fate, however, is ever-fickle. A chance meeting with a ragtag group of mercenaries changed the trajectory of his life, bringing him into a world with mutants and metahumans, demonhunters and godslayers, and even gods and demons. Cloudhawk would find his own place in a world that was far greater than he had imagined, find his own path between the zealous light of Sumeru and the whispering darkness of the Abyss… and one day, he would find that even gods may fall.