Smoke: The Limitless Hunt
Episode 3 – The Blood Markets
The city bled into the night like a diseased wound. Neon veins pulsed in every street, signs for drugs, prostitution, and murder glowing brighter than the stars above. Immortality had made pleasure meaningless and pain entertainment. But in the Blood Markets, those cravings became business.
The Broker ran it all.
A godless merchant who turned eternal suffering into profit. His markets traded slaves that couldn't die, drugs that rewrote minds, and weapons stolen from fallen angels. In a world where nobody could stay dead, nothing was sacred.
And my mission was simple.
Kill the Broker.
⸻
Enter the Market
I teleported into the outer rings, smoke hissing around me as my cloak stretched from my skin. My hellhound stalked behind, its three heads snarling in hunger. Crowds scattered when they saw me, whispering the name that already spread like poison.
"Smoke…"
"The one who killed Veyrix."
"Stay away, he'll erase you."
The Blood Markets were an endless sprawl of tents, towers, and pits. Chains rattled in the streets where immortals were bought and sold. Some screamed in cages. Others laughed, broken by centuries of torment. Drugs flowed in rivers of glowing liquid, passed between trembling hands. Prostitutes with hollow eyes wandered, their bodies scarred yet flawless, eternally healing for the next buyer.
The stench of sin thickened with every step.
I didn't care. I wasn't here to save them. I was here to kill.
The Broker's Den
The Broker's palace loomed at the heart of the market. A grotesque cathedral of bone and steel, its gates wide, its guards endless. Demons in suits, angels with broken wings, Hunters gone rogue—they all worked for him.
And they all saw me coming.
One guard, a hulking demon with horns dripping tar, snarled as I passed. "You don't belong here, smoke-boy. Leave, or we carve you apart."
I didn't answer.
Spikes erupted from my body, skewering him through the skull before he finished speaking. His body dissolved into ash, the first permanent death the Blood Markets had seen.
The other guards froze. For centuries, they'd laughed in the face of violence. Now their laughter was gone.
"Shit… it's him—"
"Fall back—"
They tried. My hellhound leapt, chains snapping, tearing two apart in seconds. Their ashes scattered across the bone gates. I walked through the screams, cloak dragging smoke in my wake.
⸻
Inside the Palace
The Broker sat upon a throne of chained angels, their wings clipped, their eyes hollow. He was grotesque—skin sagging, swollen with greed, draped in silks that dripped with stolen jewels. His mouth stretched too wide when he smiled, teeth gold and bloody.
"So… you're the rumor," he purred. "The killer. The one who makes immortality a lie."
His voice slithered like oil. Around him, dozens of bodyguards stood ready—witches, warlocks, vampires, Hunters, demons. A personal army, all immortal.
I said nothing.
The Broker leaned forward, licking his lips. "Do you know how much you're worth? Do you know what the markets would pay for your head, for your essence? You could be the greatest product this city has ever seen."
I stepped closer, smoke spikes rippling along my back. My hellhound growled, drool hissing on the stone floor.
"I'm not for sale."
The Massacre
They attacked all at once.
Spells crackled, blades swung, bullets screamed. The palace became a storm of chaos. I dissolved into smoke, teleporting between them, spikes ripping through bodies, hellhound tearing limbs apart.
Screams filled the air. But these weren't the usual screams of immortals who laughed as they regenerated. These were screams of finality. Their wounds didn't heal. Their bodies turned to ash.
"Impossible—!" a witch shrieked before I crushed her throat in smoke and erased her.
The guards fell one by one, their fear feeding my hunger. My cloak whipped through the air like a blade, my spikes impaling five at once. My hellhound ripped through the rest, each head tearing souls from flesh.
[Level Up: 7]
[Level Up: 8]
My body pulsed, evolving again. The liquid steel darkened, glowing veins running across my chest and mask. My speed multiplied, teleportation sharper, more violent. My hellhound split in two, two beasts now stalking at my side.
The Broker's smile cracked. For the first time in centuries, he looked afraid.
⸻
The Broker's Last Gamble
"Wait," he hissed, raising his swollen hands. "We can bargain. I can give you anything. Power. Slaves. Drugs. Worlds."
I walked forward. My spikes dragged across the bone floor, carving grooves with every step.
"You think I care about your markets?" I asked, my voice hollow.
The Broker trembled. Sweat poured down his sagging skin. "Please—listen. The gods made you, didn't they? But they don't care about you. I do. I can make you rich. I can make you feared—"
I stopped in front of him. My mask tilted. Smoke hissed between us.
"I'm already feared."
I thrust a spike through his chest.
The Broker screamed, clutching the wound as his body convulsed. "No… no, no, no, no… I can't die… I can't—"
But he did. His fat body crumbled into ash, his soul screaming as it dissolved into nothingness.
The throne cracked. The angels chained to it collapsed, their bodies twitching as freedom hit them too late.
The Blood Markets went silent.
The Rise of Fear
[Level Up: 9]
My cloak flared, body evolving once more. My mask fused tighter to my skin, black veins crawling across it like molten scars. My hellhounds roared, tripled in size, now dozens of chains rattling across their bodies.
I turned from the ashes. Outside, the entire market was watching. Thousands of immortals stood frozen, eyes wide with terror.
The Broker had been their god. Untouchable. Eternal.
And I erased him like dust.
Whispers rose.
"He killed the Broker—"
"Smoke… Smoke will kill us all—"
"He's unstoppable."
I ignored them. Their fear was nothing to me. Their lives were nothing. Only the mission mattered. Only the levels mattered.
⸻
The Gods Whisper Again
As I walked into the night, the gods spoke in my skull.
"Good. Another one erased."
"The hunt continues. Countless worlds await."
"Limitless arcs, limitless blood. You are both their fear and their execution."
I clenched my cloak tighter. My hellhounds stalked at my side. My body buzzed with evolution, hungry for the next kill.
And in the distance, I could feel it already. New missions burning into my mind.
New worlds.
New enemies.
New gods to slay.
The hunt was endless.