Beers and Beards - Chapter 4: A glass half full

Bracelet of Immortality, the mysterious sealed item that needed 26 fragments to completely unseal. Every unsealing giving an incredible power to the user.

First Fragment, the power of Time. Second Fragment, the Power of healing. Third Fragment, the power of...

What happens when Ryder Flynn finds the item inside the first Fully Immersive VRMMO. Why did the item follow him to the real world? Why is the Virtual World so real?

A strange accident occurred in Heavenly Spire City, triggering the odd awakening of certain individuals.There was an Higher Being behind it, causing some victims to awaken.While most people barely saw it.Cohen spoke with it.Before vanishing, the being gave him the large remainder of its power.As a result, Cohen awakened a Mythic Class, [Priest of Primordial], along with an SSS Talent, [Baptism].His power allows him to transform creatures into Primordial Beings, beasts that have affinity with different cosmic elements, evolving them into terrifying new forms that follow him with absolute loyalty.[Elax the Frost Dragon has been converted into a Mythic Gray Lunar Dragon.][Slime has been converted into a Mythic Living Dimension Slime.][Dire Hawk has been converted into a Unique Star-Cutting Hawk.]Creatures under his command already wield abilities like [Blink], [Gate Opening], [Gravity Manipulation], [Stellar Blasts] and [Entropy Fangs].But the world is still collapsing.The guilds have grown interest and fear for his abilities. Gates are appearing faster, bringing stronger monsters. And something connected to that mysterious being is beginning to move again.As chaos spreads, Cohen calmly builds his primordial army.The question people ask is no longer whether Cohen will survive the apocalypse.It is whether the world can survive him.

Elara’s first life crashed hard. Cruel tricks ruined her name, broke her dreams, and turned the whole entertainment world against her. Friends betrayed her. Lovers sold her out. Everyone she trusted stabbed her in the back. The pain piled up until she felt trapped with no way out. One night, she couldn’t take it anymore. She walked to the river and ended it all in the cold, quiet water.Later, proof came out. Messages. Recordings. Everything showed she had been framed. People posted apologies online. But it was too late. She was already gone.The universe, though, clearly has a twisted sense of humor.Because somehow, Elara came back. She woke up in her own past, every awful memory still sharp in her head. Right then she made a promise she would never break: protect her gentle grandfather no matter what, and never let anyone push her to that dark place again.This time she steps into the entertainment world with her head high. She trains harder, sings better, fights smarter. The same people who once crushed her? Now they get to feel the pressure.Love? Not happening. Her heart is locked tight. But why is it that as she rises and shines brighter, handsome, powerful men start circling her—guys who never even glanced at her in her previous life were now hovering around her.The actor smiled at her during a press interview, leaned closer, and said softly, “We should have dinner sometime.”The footballer sent flowers so big they blocked her room door.The surgeon she met at a charity event checked her pulse and then forgot to let go of her wrist.The singer she collaborated with kept calling her name during rehearsals, as if the mic could not hear him well enough.Elara stared at the ceiling that night and sighed.She only wanted to sing. Why did everyone look like they wanted to adopt her, date her, or both?But the worst one came after the concert.The lights had just gone off. Her ears were still ringing. Sweat clung to her neck. She had barely stepped backstage when a shadow blocked her path.She looked up.The CEO of the greatest company in Aurelia stood there. The same man who once said her voice was “not worth investing in.” The same man who did not even know her name before rebirth.Now he held her wrist lightly, but firmly.“Let’s talk,” he said.Elara blinked. “About… sponsorship?”“No,” he replied calmly. “About marriage.”Her brain froze.“…What?”“I will give you everything,” he continued, as if asking for a glass of water. “Resources. Protection. Freedom to sing. Become my wife.”Elara stared at him, her mouth open, her thoughts running in circles.This was not how it was supposed to be.Why was the world now skipping steps?NB:This story takes place in a fictional world. Aurelia is a country. Solmere, Veston, and Starfall City are the three capital cities of Aurelia. Other cities, such as Lorien and Crelou, are smaller cities.

#DarkRomance #ModernRoyalty #PossessiveAlpha #DominantOmega#AlphaDominant #RoyalCourt #ForcedEngagement #SlowBurn #ABO #PowerImbalance #ChosenMate #PoliticalMarriageDean Fitzgeralt has spent his life protected by power, choice, and the careful distance his family built around him. As a dominant omega born into one of the Empire’s most influential houses, he knows what the world expects of him and how carefully those expectations must be managed.When political pressure closes in, Dean makes a choice meant to end a growing diplomatic standoff: he accepts an engagement to Crown Prince Arion of Alamina without truly knowing the man behind the proposal.Arion is a dominant alpha whose power comes with a brutal truth: without a mate, he is dangerously close to madness.If he goes berserk, entire regions could pay the price.Dean is the only solution.Now bound by his choice, Dean must leave everything familiar behind and step into Alamina’s court, where patience is lethal, possession is quiet but absolute, and Arion’s restraint rests on him alone.He chose this willingly.What he didn’t know was how dangerous being chosen back would be.