🌟 RULE OF LAW 🌟

📖 Updates: Daily 6PM PST (Starting 3/1/26)
✍️ Status: COMPLETE! - in editing (77 chapters + epilogue)

Post-Apocalyptic • Guideverse • Dungeons • Multi POV • Forced Proximity • Possessive Espers

"When it came down to the last jar of peanut butter, rule of law suddenly became a luxury no one could afford."

WARNING:

This story contains mature themes that may not be suitable for all audiences, including: 
violence, sexual content, strong language, morally complex relationship dynamics, and depictions of physical trauma.

Reader discretion is advised.

What is Guideverse?

Guideverse is a subgenre of dungeonverse where humanity has evolved into two complementary types, Espers and Guides, in order to conquer dungeons that have begun to appear.

Espers possess powerful psychic or supernatural abilities (telekinesis, combat enhancement, elemental control, etc.) but their powers come with a cost—mental/emotional instability, psychic backlash, or cognitive overload.

Guides have the ability to stabilize, calm, and "ground" espers through physical contact, emotional connection, or energy transfer. Without a guide, an esper risks losing control of their powers or suffering psychological collapse.

Guiding is the work of cleansing the corruption that espers accumulate from using their powers. Without regular cleansing, corruption builds toward a threshold that causes the esper to rampage--lose control of their power and their rationality, ultimately resulting a devolution into a mindless monster set on destruction no different than the ones they fight in the dungeons.

Dungeons are pocket dimensions that open to Earth through a gate. Each one is a hostile, self-contained world with its own terrain, ecology, and apex predator. Some are small and quickly traversed; others are vast and can take days. 

Gates are the physical rifts between Earth and a dungeon. Gates appear without warning — anywhere from open countryside to the middle of a city block.  A stable gate holds steady on the blue spectrum and stays open until the dungeon is cleared. An unstable gate or a gate that sits too long without being cleared can turn red, threatening to rupture and spill the dungeon's contents into the world. When this happens, it is called a Dungeon Break. 

Match Rate is the measure of compatibility between a specific guide and a specific esper. A wave-fit. Two people can have professional respect, personal chemistry, even love, and still have a poor match rate — and vice versa. Match rates are measured by lab testing, but can be felt inherently between a guide and an esper when guiding.