The air was thin and rife with a weighty Ein that felt like heavy chains pulling him down, his clothes constricting like a second layer of tight skin on his body, and his armor becoming weights on the shackles. Did Aeon Peak desire for him to lay himself bare? To hide nothing from the storms, the winds, and the earth itself? Demon put away his grade-four sword armament into his space pocket to test his theory, and the pressure lessened in response. Erden also jumped out, groaning as his limbs...
2023-12-27 02:10:25 +0000 UTC
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Raising his arms, Demon stepped slowly onward, and the fires burst from his feet, driven by his command to spread along the borders of the Reed district. The rising walls of flame and smoke converged overtop and dyed the sky red, hiding the two suns behind the roaring fire. His powers as a Lower Marshal Exalt had grown, and under the guidance of Ignyres, his collection of mastered spells swelled. Inside the flaming prison, many exclaimed and wailed, pointing at him and Marcus, fear and appreh...
2023-12-26 21:57:45 +0000 UTC
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One of the Lower Marshal Exalts vanished in a bright light, reappearing in the distance, his bow nocked to the fullest as an immense Ein gathered in the twisted radiant arrow, a solar gleam glancing the arrowhead. In the smallest instant after release, it reached Marcus, showering everything it passed along its path in a blinding light, not a shrub or grass to be found in the pure radiance. A draconic roar erupted from Marcus. The curved horn protruding from the side of his forehead flared wi...
2023-12-24 22:27:57 +0000 UTC
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"I can't figure it out!" Auren screamed out, his brown eyes bloodshot and his brown hair untidy as if he had just woken up. He squirmed around in his corner of the room, shaking the wall slightly, which forced him to stop, afraid of toppling the entire house. Papers sprawled all over his side, surrounding him. They depicted many formations, some circular, some squarish, but all quite complicated and draining on his mind. Scratching his head, he plopped onto the pages and groaned, cursing at t...
2023-12-24 18:14:47 +0000 UTC
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For a few minutes, the room was silent as Demon observed Charlotte's icy gaze, which contained a deep hatred and a hint of unwillingness, the kind that reminded him of everyone who had died by his merciless hands. It seemed she had a story to tell; burdens slowly drowned her like a thick, endless swamp, and she thought of him as the ticket out. While uninterested in her personal affairs, he considered the wealth of information from what ailed the owner of the most prominent auction in the cit...
2023-12-23 04:31:24 +0000 UTC
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A foundation was the key to success. Survival required a firm footing to stand on. The only way to ensure his survival and successful revenge on the New Dawn was to have that foundation. Like the roots of the forest beneath him, he needed firm ground to set his roots so he could try for vengeance as many times as he needed. Soaring across the forest, he followed a large river that divided the great land in two, a murky stretch of water that shrouded its inhabitants in darkness. Indeed, like t...
2023-12-21 18:48:47 +0000 UTC
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"Lord Draven!" The young boy spoke fervently.
'Draven….' In honor of Oscar's master, who gave his life to protect him, Demon chose to take up his name, Draven. He wondered if the name might rouse Oscar from the abyss his mind was currently in, a dark place he tried to unravel by connecting to Oscar's thoughts. However, even Demon, cold and unfeeling, was disturbed by the endless pit of darkness, his mind almost lost and swallowed by it. After several attempts, he stopped tryi...
2023-12-20 02:59:37 +0000 UTC
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Deep into the afternoon, overwhelming sunlight beamed and poured out onto the mansion as the two suns, surrounded by a host of clouds, rose unfettered and reached their utmost peak. Only a peaceful venture could complement a beautiful, hot day. Perhaps eating some cold, sweet desserts under the shade while resting on a cool, smooth boulder and listening to the soft breezes whispering in his ears was the best idea. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Auren laughed weakly at the people surrounding ...
2023-12-19 04:19:54 +0000 UTC
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Flanked by two of his guards, Edmund walked, ascending the long flight of stairs that spiraled up the height of his great tower. Nearing the top, he waved his guards to stand by, preferring the quietness of his soothing pastime. While he didn't need the guards since his powers far outstripped theirs, he hated dealing with unnecessary intrusions. The guards bowed and stepped aside as the door opened, not the slightest creak coming from the hinges. It seemed the execution of the previous labore...
2023-12-18 05:29:08 +0000 UTC
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"He's a Lower Marshal Exalt now." Supported by Caires's remaining arm, Remulus stepped closer to the crater where Saul fell after a failed Primaere Baptism. His legs barely responded to his will, but he pushed himself, treading one light step at a time, wobbling as if walking on sticks. Remulus had to oversee this last moment. As Oscar's grandmaster and Saul's false old friend, he had to bear witness to the conclusion of the unfortunate fate between the two. That was his duty.
In the ce...
2023-12-15 19:07:06 +0000 UTC
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"Poison? Is that the finale to your grand strategy, Remulus?" Saul revolved his core and surged Ein into every vein and organ inside him but found nothing poisonous threatening him. His blood was clean, and nothing corrupted his core. He couldn't underestimate Remulus and quickly pulled out a vial of grade-five Devadraite elixir, slightly aggrieved at using a precious antidote. A precious elixir like this one required a decade to create, utilizing hundreds of ingredients, and he had to use it...
2023-12-14 01:05:19 +0000 UTC
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A few minutes earlier….
'It won't be easy. Saul is a peak Tricrown King Exalt near the cusp of entering the Primaere realm. The three of us together won't be a match for him.' His father, Remulus, spoke through the Resonance, sharing their thoughts instantly. Sweeping his spatial domain onto the other two, Draven teleported them to safety, away from Saul's powerful arrows, which spun and bolted toward them again. Remulus waved his hand, Ein distorting their area, and backtrac...
2023-12-12 21:37:18 +0000 UTC
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His arms felt slightly numb from enduring Draven's heavy, destructive blows, the fast and overbearing light of Caires, and the nauseating shiftiness of Remulus's time spells. As a powerful double strike of Caires and his clone drove itself into Saul's side, he felt no pain but was forced to sway, his shock amplifying at a collapsing swirl of spatial void nearing his head and reaching the tip of his nose. Their timing, the use of their Ein in rotation as if they were one being, and the uncanny...
2023-12-12 02:45:12 +0000 UTC
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Floating above the deep, bottomless chasm, Saul lifted his saggy cheeks into a small grin as a crown manifested above his head. The base was made from silver Ein, flowing eternally around itself and resembling a halo. Above it, three silver spikes stuck out, also made from his silver Ein but crystalized into a solid form, the sign of his realm and power, the Tricrown King Exalt. A slight groove rested in each spike, marking the crown incomplete since they waited for gems to be embedded in the...
2023-12-11 01:11:06 +0000 UTC
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When Draven heard his disciple had disappeared, he decided to enter seclusion and advance to the King Exalt realm using the Imperial Jewel gifted to him by Oscar. He hoped to become strong enough to protect Oscar and drag him away from the site of the tragedy. But what was this? He succeeded in rising beyond the Marshal Exalt and knew where Oscar would be, his disciple's thoughts clear to him. The events unfolding were not what he expected.
Staring down the bastard who betrayed his disc...
2023-12-09 01:27:10 +0000 UTC
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"I killed Fred and Emily."
Unable to believe what he heard, Oscar blinked and rubbed his ears before chuckling and waving off the bad joke. "Enough of your bad jokes, Elder Saul. Sometimes they are too distasteful. Please don't make remarks like that." He wanted to keep laughing it off, but the unmoving look from Elder Saul diminished his laughs until they died down. Beads of sweat ran down his back. Elder Saul's eyes fixated on him in eerie silence.
"Oscar! Run!" Erden shouted.
2023-12-08 18:37:11 +0000 UTC
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"Where is Dad?" The young Gloria asked in Declerd's arms. She whipped her head around, lowering her head in disappointment each time. Declerd wanted to soothe her by patting her back, the same way his master, the great hero, did, but the young miss grumbled louder, pounding her small fists onto his shoulders. She screamed out, "Dad! Where, Dad!"
"Where is he?" Renn asked. "He promised!"
"Young master, the Lord is currently outside. I promise he will come back. Let's be patient and...
2023-12-07 04:29:15 +0000 UTC
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Surrounded by piles of paper and stacks of scrolls, Celestina worked tirelessly at her desk, sometimes stamping her seal on a document for approval or writing in a blank section to append to the statements and send it back for review. A faint sigh escaped her lips as she couldn't help but turn to the collapsed window, a section of the wall missing, which provided a larger view of the outside. But the scenery she used to enjoy since her birth was gone, replaced by the ruins of her capital. The...
2023-12-05 01:02:39 +0000 UTC
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"Fred! Emily!" Oscar shouted, his voice hoarse and shrill. "Where are you?!" No one replied. A pile of rubble cluttered down, and he only found more fallen Black Aegis Order members. He paid his respects to each one, taking away their tokens. He sought to find them in this bloody hellscape, but his heart sank, fearing the worst, with no replies and no other sounds to be heard through his dull ears. Each new body only cast him deeper into despair. How could the others have survived with so muc...
2023-12-04 02:39:37 +0000 UTC
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Oscar wasn't in the best state. His arms barely held themselves up, enough to cover his face and have his elbows tucked in by his sides. He could not move forward, his legs trembling to the soles of his feet, slightly shaking the dirt underneath. Checking his core, he grimaced at the dull state of his Exolsia, completely wrung out of Ein, and using Ein Awaken would require a sliver of Ein to recover. He required ample time for his core to return to a state of being able to absorb Ein, but tha...
2023-12-04 00:47:41 +0000 UTC
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Scarletgold rods sparked from Oscar's feet, and he escaped from Orden's extending arm that whipped out and overturned the slate dirt. The gravity field made it quite hard to escape faster. Having no option, he decided to hear out the Ancient of Fire but was still skeptical. 'I do not possess Volten blood. Isn't the point for a perfect Reis user of Volten blood to be capable of holding in the power of the Ancients?'
'In normal circumstances, yes. But you are a perfect Reis u...
2023-12-03 22:36:14 +0000 UTC
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Orden had abandoned it all. He threw away his honor, something Oscar once respected. He sided with the New Dawn and became a tool, a puppet of their deranged experiments. But above all, he cast aside his humanity. Inside the deep chasm, the light illuminating a circle in the dark underground, Oscar stared at the former man standing under his shadow, the haunting monster that remained as Orden departed, presumably dead.
'Farewell, Oscar.' He finally understood what Orden meant. ...
2023-12-03 21:02:32 +0000 UTC
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Arranged on the tall walls and fortified towers of the Imperial Palace, hundreds of cannons rotated and pointed outward in all directions, the three sections of its shaft rotating as a humming ramped up. Within the gun's muzzle, a fiery glow intensified, akin to the flames stoking in a furnace, and rounds of powerful blasts fired. Several flew at the encroaching enemy, and most shot at the location of the opening created by the Ercanal-fives. Bright beams of light from the Garantulems, the fl...
2023-12-03 19:25:09 +0000 UTC
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Countless explosions swept their fiery bursts on Dragonheart City, the sounds of cannons ceaselessly boomed earshocking noises, the kind Oscar had never heard before. He had never been in the center of this many ships firing at once. Distortions rippled on the transparent barrier, the light refracting into multiple colors carried in expanding waves. The attacks were blocked, but the heat from the savage fires traveled through, grass drying and dying, stone cracking and crumbling, and the moat...
2023-12-02 05:11:51 +0000 UTC
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After the high-pitched bell ended its slow, drawn-out tolls, a ceaseless and constant ringing of a second one, rapid and loud like the clattering of a wheel on a stony road, signaled all forces to report to their stations. Oscar took deep breaths to calm himself and pounded his chest to slow his quickening heartbeat. Erden jumped from his corner, transformed into his true form mid-air, and landed before him, lowering the antler wings to give space for him to mount. He joined the last hurrah w...
2023-12-02 01:29:36 +0000 UTC
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His heart rested in peace as he basked in the bright light spilling from the open windows, their reach increasing as the two suns ascended toward high noon. Oscar was leisurely reading a book in the quiet library of his estate, his fingers gently flipping the smooth pages. Surrounded by shelves of books, he exhaled deeply and was engrossed in the words, engraving each penned letter to memory. He couldn't have asked for more.
A grandfather clock audibly showed the passing of time, matchi...
2023-12-01 16:21:04 +0000 UTC
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The imperial court froze, the rows of eyes widening in his direction, particularly in Celestina's. Before the well-dressed nobles could react, their mouths either flatly shut or gaped with their lower lip hung down, Celestina flashed and leaped across, the light illuminating her footsteps. Her rapier pierced into one of the ministers, blood spewing heavily from his throat and drenching the blue uniform red. Gracefully like a butterfly, she weaved around several others, and brutally, she carve...
2023-11-30 06:05:31 +0000 UTC
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Garantulem soared across the sky, its loud rumbling mimicking the thunder. The journey had been halted for a few days since the incident near Catege City, but now it roared its way through the last region, the final haven within Wyrmir. Watching from atop the fortress on the Excrusier, Oscar fiddled with the ring on his left finger. As he peered over the ledge, he frowned deeply at the mass exodus of people, so many as the blades of grass in the fields. Faint were their cries of woes and wail...
2023-11-29 05:20:55 +0000 UTC
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Aiden wasted no time. His strides measured and exact down the polished white floor, the tiles so clean they reflected his handsome figure. Well-polished crystal lamps illuminated the path, and he followed its course, a groan escaping his usually tight lips. As Aiden approached the entrance to another room, he slowed his steps, hesitant to enter. He suspected a smug smile welcoming him inside, and the thought of it halted his feet.
Clutching his swords by his sides, Aiden decided it woul...
2023-11-28 03:43:27 +0000 UTC
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Ignyres went silent. The eerie sound of his flames crackling in an unsettling tone dulled his ears. The longer this silence continued, the more uncomfortable Oscar felt. The dimming three orbs in the flaming head compounded that discomfort. He couldn't know for sure, but it was as if Ignyres was reliving the past, a blank stare he recognized in many who recollected their past, looking at memories unseen to others. Curious…that an Ancient could express such a human emotion. But Ignyres had p...
2023-11-26 19:05:31 +0000 UTC
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