WHAT IS APIS?

In a world where the Syndicate of the Magpies harvests human dreams to fuel an empire of impossible technology, Katherine Ichor awakens from a pod with no memory of her past and discovers the Nonagon, a nine-sided artifact capable of rewriting reality through language. Hunted by Operatives, Steppers, and Talons, Katherine is drawn into a world of cosmic horrors, broken gods, ancient wars, and a girl called Butter whose kindness becomes the first genuine connection she has ever known. The Syndicate extracts dreams from human pods and refines them into Apis, a metaphysical fuel powering weapons, suits, experiments, and technologies that defy physics. Its fortress, the Nest, functions as city, prison, factory, and laboratory, while failed experiments become Abominations lurking within its depths. Katherine’s awakening begins a chain of disasters, that lead to her losing pieces of herself to the artifact. Eventually, Katherine abandons her identity and becomes Sylvia. Sylvia believes she has finally understood suffering and intends to eliminate everything capable of causing it, even if humanity itself must be destroyed. At its heart, this is a story about love becoming indistinguishable from possession, salvation becoming indistinguishable from destruction, and power becoming monstrous when its wielder believes only they understand what is right. It explores justice, vengeance, found family, humanity, monstrosity, and the cost of absolute power through cosmic horror, dark fantasy, romance, brutal action, philosophical conflict, and moments of warmth and absurdity. The world is ending, and Sylvia believes she has finally achieved the perfect love she always wanted. She has yet to discover that even an eternal paradise cannot erase the truth of what it was built upon. — What to Expect: Weak to Strong. Love That Destroys. A Magic System Built on Music, Chess, Poison, Mathematics, and Words. Action That Spans Galaxies. Fights that begin in a corridor can escalate into planetary destruction. The scale is cosmic. Horror That Lingers. Death is rarely clean or quick. It is slow, brutal, and often senseless. Characters Who Are Broken and Still Fighting. They are not heroes. They are survivors. And they will not stop until the world is saved - or they are dead. Battles Where No One Is Safe. A World That Cannot Be Saved by One Person. Found family is not just a theme - it is survival. Scars That Never Heal. Victory is not about walking away untouched. It is about learning to keep going after everything has been taken from you. A Story That Asks Hard Questions. What is the price of a soul? Can love justify genocide? Is humanity worth saving? There are no easy answers. Only the chaos of characters who refuse to stop searching for them. It is not a story about saving the world. It is a story about what happens when the people trying to save the world are just as broken as the ones trying to destroy it. — Content Warning: Torture, vivisection, body horror, graphic violence, death, mass casualty events, psychological trauma, and tragedy. This is a dark story built around suffering, loss, existential horror, and characters being pushed far beyond what their bodies and minds were meant to endure. Its world does not guarantee safety simply because someone is important to the story. Characters can be permanently injured, mutilated, traumatized, or killed, and victories may come at devastating costs. Choices have consequences, sacrifices can be irreversible, and sometimes doing the right thing still means losing everything. Expect battles that leave lasting scars, characters forced through horrific circumstances, enemies that cannot simply be defeated by becoming stronger, and moments where survival itself comes at a terrible price. — Cover art by me. This is a rewrite and readaptation of the original version of the story. Some of you may have already read the previous version before I took it down. I decided to start over so I could add new scenes, expand certain parts of the story, and rewrite areas that I felt could be handled much better. If you’re new here, welcome! I hope you enjoy the story. And to my old readers, welcome back! If you’ve read the previous version, you’re more than welcome to re-review the story from the beginning. I’d genuinely appreciate it, if you’re willing to go through it again. Thank you for reading, whether you’re discovering the story for the first time or returning to it. Much love.