As soon as the kolnir’s fist shattered his brother’s jaw, Kaius was moving. Dropping a Zone of Discombobulation, he watched the creature shudder — barely enough time for Porkchop to rally his defence.
With the low level of his Glyph of Vyrthane, the spell was too weak to do much more than that. Kaius needed to move faster — assist Porkchop before he could be boxed into a corner.
He cast Expedient Shunt, force exploding behind him to send...
2025-06-05 21:56:27 +0000 UTC
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just adding a few bits and bobs to the chapter to round it out, taking me a little longer than expected.
2025-06-05 21:32:16 +0000 UTC
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A/N 2: I, in fact, did not wake up on time today, lmao. I woulda queued last night, but I was up late dealing with my gpu outputting black screens on boot due to nvidias shitty drivers for the 50 series (at least, I gaddang hope its the drivers)
A/N: minor retcon, Kenva’s charged shot is now called Horison’s Arrow, and her spear-arrow enlargement ability is now called Lance of fury (because lance not being the spear sized arrow was kinda dumb)
2025-06-04 21:58:31 +0000 UTC
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Cronte only remembered he was missing an arm when the ghost of his fingers slid right through the itch just behind his ear. He scowled, letting his stump fall limp as he returned his focus to the light forest around them. Regenerating the damn thing was going to cost him half of his bloody savings — sourcing those potions anonymously was not cheap.
Torin gave him a look, but wisely decided not to press him further.
At the very least they had made it away from the ...
2025-06-03 21:09:27 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! Moderate Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded a Minor Honour: Persistent Survivor IV*
Kaius slammed his heel into the cave floor, stopping himself fast.
“Huh.”
Kenva, frozen equally as solid, slowly turned to face him with her brows furrowed and her eyes unfocused in the distinctive way of someone reading a notification.
“Did you…?”
He nodded, rereading the notification again.
“Yeah...
2025-06-02 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaius descended into the tower, his blade drawn and ready. Dozens of new inscriptions wound over his skin, black marks of arcane potency ready to burn at the slightest sign of trouble.
Other than a still-repairing tear in the shoulder of his scalemail, he was in peak condition — an hour of rest all he needed to recover.
Porkchop took the lead, his jade armour clicking slightly as it butted up against the stone steps.
There was more than enough light to see thanks to ...
2025-06-01 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaius sat on the floor, allowing the frenetic rush of running for his life to leave him. Grumbling uncomfortably as holes his brother had left in his shoulder knitted themselves closed, he took his first good look at the stone bunker that had saved them from the ruinbringers outside.
Easily three times the width of the portal room, it stretched a good forty strides from wall to wall. Small braziers of flame were scattered amongst pillars of tan stone, their flickering shadows maki...
2025-05-31 21:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Every single one of Kaius’s instincts still screamed at him in urgency.
He might have made it to the vaulted stone tower, but the ruinbringers were still right behind him. Even injured by the deluge of storm magic he had pumped into them, the stun that Stormlash left in its wake was not potent or long lasting.
Already he could hear the maddened squeals of the beasts as they shook off their wracking convulsions and rose to their feet.
His feet pounded o...
2025-05-30 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Four ruinbringers, standing fresh and free on the surface of the desert. The closest was twice as far as the pagoda they were aiming for, but that meant little. The creatures were fast, able to flit across the sand at a pace he wouldn’t have been able to match on solid ground.
If they were spotted, Kaius knew that they would be hard pressed to make it into the stone safety of the pagoda — to say little of the fact that that safety was not guaranteed. There was no certainty ...
2025-05-29 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Two more ruinbringers died as they crossed the desert.
They were good fights — tough, and had proven that even with a viable strategy they could not treat the beasts lightly. One had gone as well as the last, their backline removing its tail while he disabled its pincers, resulting in a long beat down where the only injuries they had taken had been a handful of broken bones on his and Porkchop’s part.
Both his and his brother’s new abilities had only aided that.
...
2025-05-28 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: no idea how this ended up late, I edited it last night but I guess I forgot to actually queue it lmao
Wakefulness came slowly, punctuated by the cold splash of a drip hitting the tip of his nose. He was leaning on something hard, a polished wood grain warped by his bleary eyes. Whisper frowned, struggling to fight through the haze that held him tight. Had he fallen asleep at his desk? That wasn’t like him — too much risk in that habit, he much preferred h...
2025-05-27 21:50:15 +0000 UTC
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**Ding! Latent Glyph of Eirnith Class Skill Available, would you like to proceed? This choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**
Accepting the skill, Kaius felt the cold burn of the System's touch as a new glyph was woven into the flesh and bone of his temples — intrinsically linked to his mana and soul.
Flashed past through his mind, memories filling his mind of the curves of sacred geometry and runes he would need to reinscribe the glyph. No...
2025-05-26 21:30:05 +0000 UTC
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*Ding! level 245 Ruinbringer - Waiting Death slain - Experience Gained! Bonus Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!*
…
*Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached level 120 > 124!*
*+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!*
…
*Ding! Class skill available for selection!<...
2025-05-25 21:30:42 +0000 UTC
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Kaius decided that knowing an indistinguishable patch of sand concealed a beast capable of tearing him limb from limb was an experience he didn’t enjoy.
As soon as Kenva had called out the presence of a soul-signature under the sand, he’d gone dead still. Following her outstretched finger, he bored a hole into the sand with her eyes, desperately searching for any mundane sign of what lay in wait beneath it.
There was nothing — it was as featureless as any other patc...
2025-05-24 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Returning to their trek across the sand-buried city, Kaius passed over empty dunes with a new degree of focus — now aware that lethal threats may lay hidden under the sands at any point.
The suns slowly moved over the horizon, only further confirming in Kaius’s mind that it was no mere illusion that had recreated the open sky under the ground. Step by step they drew closer to the far off building. With Truesight, he could now see the building in a decent amount of det...
2025-05-23 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Still lost in the joy of victory, Kaius fell back into the hot sand below. His wounds ached—a dozen half-healed holes slowly weeping his thickened blood into the desert—and his armour was hung off him in limp strips.
None of it mattered, not even the soul-deep ache he felt from his utter battering at the hands of the ruinbringer.
They had won, and he felt alive.
It had been an age since he had felt so good, a visceral joy that he had almost forgotten—of ...
2025-05-22 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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The ruinbringer’s tails spasmed, dragging furrows through the sand in spite of being separated from its body. Feeling the grievous wound they had inflicted—depriving it of its most dangerous weapons—the scorpion screamed, throwing itself at Porkchop in a furious rage.
Kaius laughed, a dark sound full of anger that seemed to actively claw its way out of his throat. They’d done it, removed the sole threat that remained to their backline. Now he could attack, and bring rage and rui...
2025-05-21 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaius flew through the air, his heart desperately hammering in his chest as he stared at the ropey organs visible through the hole in Ianmus’s stomach.
The mage clutched the open wound with quickly paling hands, a twisted grimace on his face as he desperately tried and failed to hold his blood inside. The sight of it tore at Kaius from the inside, twisting at old fear and grief.
He couldn’t lose another — not Ianmus.
Then Ianmus’s eyes grew hard and focus...
2025-05-20 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Twin suns tore at his skin, drawing every scrap of moisture they could from him with their burning heat.
Kaius had long since abandoned wearing his helmet. Without the temperature and weather regulating enchantments of his gambeson and trousers to protect him, the metal of the armour had grown scorching hot. Not enough to truly injure him—not with his Constitution—but more than enough for it to feel like he’d shoved his head in an oven. Even with his pain res...
2025-05-19 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Desperation had a stench, and it reeked of pisswater, stale sweat, and charleaf smoke.
Ro leaned back on the tavern wall, half expecting the poorly maintained wood to splinter under her weight. Arms crossed over her chest, she watched jittery lowlives swing their eyes across the pub — looking for their next mark, a good lay, or both.
No one saw her — she could have slapped them in the face and they’d still not pierce her concealment. Not here, and not people this...
2025-05-18 21:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Metal chimed as Kaius slid his cuirass over his head, buckling it down with his belt—now missing his clunky potion pouch considering the ease with which he could use them from his new spatial rings.
Looking around, he saw his team were suited up for war.
They waited by the door, already fully dressed with their armour buckled, their limbs dripping with accessories, and their weapons in hand. Porkchop stood out to him in particular, with the memory of the subtle glow of his...
2025-05-17 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Stretching out his lethargy, Kaius spotted Kenva sprawled out on a thick fur in a corner of the tent. She’d been there since they pitched the thing—quiet and silent as she enjoyed the simple material comforts that had been denied to her for so long.
An understandable feeling, considering he and Porkchop had been doing much the same.
Sensing his gaze, the ranger looked up and gave him a questioning look.
“Just checking on Ianmus.”
She grunted, head floppin...
2025-05-16 21:30:04 +0000 UTC
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A/N: *Ding! Cliff Mastery has reached level 100*, but seriously my b, adhd brain got me and I forgot to queue last night (and then slept through my alarm by 3 hours lmao)
*Ding! Corporus Aspect Founded - The Struggler’s Madness*
Still overwhelmed by the process of igniting a fundamental Truth of his inner self, Kaius fled from his soulspace to return to the world outside.
Greeted by the curious faces of his friends, and flic...
2025-05-16 00:33:50 +0000 UTC
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Returning to the barren stone of the Depths entrance room, Kaius was met with an infectious mood.
Unburdened by the complexities of his own spells, his companions had not been subject to a full blown skill vision. Each looked happy—the experiences they had been subjected to in the last few weeks forgotten.
An easy enough thing to understand, considering his own smouldering satisfaction at having taken another step on the path to supremacy. Each skill, each spell was a tang...
2025-05-14 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: judging by the fact I accidentally posted 2 chapters on RR and reposted the same one here, editing b1 is doing more damage to my brain cells than I thought....
Under the curious eyes of his companions, Kaius finally delved into the offerings of his latest skill.
Sigil of Vesryn’s Pact—a skill so different from the spellcasting glyphs he already possessed. As soon as he saw it, he knew he had to have it. Even if it provided him no personal benefit...
2025-05-13 22:29:29 +0000 UTC
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A/N: duplicate post, leaving up because the comments are funny. Real chapter for today is now up
Kaius woke from his skill-vision to the sound of his team chatting. Opening his eyes quietly, he smiled as he watched the conversation continue.
“So your people do not wander? Explore the forest?” Kenva asked, her head propped up by one hand as she focused on Porkchop curiously.
Porkchop shook his head—an affectation that Kaius knew was for the benefit ...
2025-05-13 21:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Kaius woke from his skill-vision to the sound of his team chatting. Opening his eyes quietly, he smiled as he watched the conversation continue.
“So your people do not wander? Explore the forest?” Kenva asked, her head propped up by one hand as she focused on Porkchop curiously.
Porkchop shook his head—an affectation that Kaius knew was for the benefit of those who struggled with the subtleties of his more natural body language.
“No, we do, but only irregularly. ...
2025-05-12 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Chewing through his last bite of food, Kaius eyed his team’s latest member.
As they had eaten, their topic of conversation had shifted to Kenva’s story—and what she could do.
Like he had expected, she was a capable combatant—she had to be, having earned her own honours, and blazed a path through the Frontier alone. Unsurprisingly, she was an Unusual class holder—a Horizon Breaching Ranger, with both a martial and nature affinity.
Her upbring...
2025-05-11 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Telling someone you had a hand in the end of the world was never easy.
Kaius watched Kenva process his involvement in the changing of phases. She moved from stiff and frozen, to her jaw flapping silently, to running her hands through her still-damp auburn hair.
Finally, after what felt like millenia, she spoke.
“I do not blame you for your secrecy—it is a heavy burden that has been foisted upon your shoulders. Many would falter and stall, where the three of you hav...
2025-05-10 21:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: this chapter, and the next, are effectively an in-world ‘the story so far’, similar to what I did with the Threefields elders. I plan on doing one at the start of each book. (until and unless it starts getting super contrived to do so)
If there was one good thing about retelling his story, it was the consistently stupefied expression he got when he shared he had a complete legacy.
He knew it was a shocking reveal, but he suspected that a big chunk ...
2025-05-09 21:30:32 +0000 UTC
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