Endling

Endling (noun): the last surviving member of a species whose death consequently means the extinction of that species.

Safety is the gospel.

Survival is god.

And nature will enchant you to your end.

For Nico, anything is worth escaping the dangers of the wilderness and its strange keeper, the Wilderman, a figure whispered in legends to claim more than lives. Nico trades everything-his family, his home, and all he has known-for a safe life in Sanctius City. Not even his brother's final message, a collection of folktales, can lure him from his beloved steam-run city.

When the population plummets and the wilderness encroaches on his safe haven, the tales in his brother's scroll begin to look alarmingly familiar. Still loyal to Sanctius City's creed of safety and survival, Nico clings to the world he trusts-until everything he knows collapses in a pile of iron and ash.

Nico is the endling. And the hunter of souls has come for him.

As illusion and reality become indistinguishable and gods and monsters invite him to the table, Nico must decide which path leads to life and which leads to destruction.

A pilgrimage tale for modern readers, in the spirit of The Pilgrim's Progress and C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy.