A Night's Longing For The Dawn

The world fell overnight. An Empress descended from the stars and took everything. The men who survived her conquest wished they hadn't. Five years later her army still moves through what remains of civilization, taking what it wants. Aki has been surviving on the edges of that world. No allies. No plan. Just movement. That changes when a chance encounter pulls him back into the open. A friend he thought was dead is alive. His master is captured. And a masked stranger who keeps appearing at the worst possible moments knows far more about Aki than any stranger should. With nothing left to lose Aki moves forward. Through enemy territory. Through a forest designed to break minds. Through losses that cost more than he expected to pay. But the further he walks the more he realizes that nothing in this war is what it first appeared to be. Not the enemy. Not the people beside him. Not even the Empress herself.