Lire

Arc#4 Interlude: Titans

Transcendence and the nature of power it bestowed to those who achieved it was a mystery to most.

People simply wrote it off as Transcendents obtaining even greater might in the same way mortals did when they became Ascendants. Transcendents were simply "better", and that was why their powers were so tremendous. That wasn't such a strange misconception, considering Sentorale Continent only had six Transcendents, and none of them could be met easily. There wasn't a book detailing what th...

Arc#4 Chapter 72: Eyes in the Dark

Around a month after Mira got kidnapped, the list of Transcendants who would go after the Sage King was finalized.

Just as Aizen had predicted, the Pontifex of the Orthodox Sormon Faith had ultimately refused to participate even after numerous negotiation attempts by Argonia. Additionally, Frey the Saintess wasn't even informed due to the sheer unlikelihood of her agreement. That meant Rolf the Sword Star and Leonel the War God, joined by the Gladiator King—who was apparently named Je...

Arc#4 Interlude: The Damsel's Turmoil

Mira rolled around in bed while hugging a very old stuffed rabbit to her chest, too lazy to get up. She was now two weeks into her involuntary stay in the Aizenian Embassy, and she couldn’t deny it anymore.

She was starting to like it here.

Part of it was likely because she met with her family literally a day after that infuriating bastard promised to retrieve them. They were all safe and well, thank goodness. Actually, the extraction went smoothly because her parents a...

Arc#4 Chapter 71: Dealing with the Damsel in Distress

[Author's Note]

It's another long one today~! I hope you enjoy!

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An entire week of relative mundanity passed by in the blink of an eye.

He’d been a bit concerned with Dame Mordred’s fate given how the trope of someone staying behind to buy time usually ended up. But a few hours after Reivan arrived at the embassy, she had shown up with a grand total of elev...

Arc#4 Chapter 70: Betrayal

Reivan thought that the way he and Valter exited the place was really cool.

What was uncool was how they had to make multiple consecutive portal jumps because Valter couldn't do one giant jump. Which wasn't his guardian knight's fault, because only Transcendents and the Everpresent could teleport that far on their own. The thousand-year-old knight mentioned something about "understanding the ever-changing fabric of space" that honestly went way over Reivan's head. He s...

Arc#4 Chapter 69: Whisked Away

Reivan mused on the things Mordred told him about as he descended the stairs to the first floor.

With how suspicious it would have been for Reivan to just stand in his room like a fool for too long, Mordred didn’t get to talk to him too much after suggesting a plan that he’d already considered. For one thing, the Treaty of Alexander was mentioned and its nature conveyed to him, but she hadn’t mentioned the specifics or what Aizen planned to do once Ascendants were restricted to th...

Arc#4 Chapter 68: Guilt

It had been two weeks since Reivan and his squad arrived in Florris, and things were going well for the most part.

The village elderman made good on his promise and put up the battlemages in a spare house nearby. It was well-furnished and relatively spacious, specifically reserved for battlemages who stopped by. That also meant it wasn't used all the time. And it showed.

But with the combined aid of a few very nice villagers and six young sorcerers, the place looked about...

Arc#4 Bonus Interlude: The Traitorous Mage's Day

When Clover Salwyn awoke at the crack of dawn, it was to the pleasant sight of a ceiling he was steadily growing used to.

The only thing that would have made it better was if his lovely wife was next to him, but she'd probably gotten up early to prepare breakfast for him. She didn't have to, since he was perfectly capable of fixing something up for himself. But she did it anyway and he loved her all the more for it.

'Another wonderful morning. Well, pre-morning.'

Lo...

Royal Interlude: The Crowns Convene

Fort Alexander.

One of three famous forts in Aizen, the fort was named after an apparently legendary conqueror that nobody but the First King of Aizen had ever heard about.

It had a bit of an outdated name, in most people’s opinion, given how it was still referred to as a “fort” despite being far too large to be considered as such. Yes, there was a very large building on Aizen’s side of the Wolf’s Jaw that could roughly be considered a fort. But Fort Alexander wasn’t j...

Arc#4 Chapter 67: The Vladeken

Sometimes, Reivan thanked his lucky stars that reality wasn’t as eventful as fiction. Because their squad splitting up had been the perfect opportunity for fate to spice things up needlessly.

It didn't take much effort on his part to come up with possible developments. He’d be alone with an attractive young woman he was pursuing, so rom-com hijinks ensuing would have been an annoying but appreciated development. They could have also suffered an ambush from the monsters they were sup...

Arc#4 Chapter 66: Splitting Up

Upon Mira's urging, Reivan and the others were ready to embark on their journey to the troubled village of Florris the day after. It was apparently because she was worried about the people in the settlement.

Which made sense. Because every hour their squad spent away from Florris exposed it to danger. Nobody really had anything to say against that because it was the naked truth. And so, despite possible complications caused by a lack of proper preparation, they all agreed to leave the v...

Arc#4 Chapter 65: Setting Out Once Again

A few weeks passed after the mildly successful first step in the siege—of Mira's favor, that is.

As previously agreed upon, they went to the store secretly owned by his people and he helped Mira negotiate for more of the books that were supposed to just serve as an aesthetic display. The store unfortunately couldn't sell her as many as she wanted because there might be complications with Arkhan's tax laws. They weren't a bookstore, after all, but a carriage rental and touring service....

Arc#4 Chapter 64: The Art of Wooing

Just as he'd expected, Mira did not look very pleased with the notion of pausing her reading session. It was a good thing she wasn't selfish enough to do much about it. They were on a date, after all. A date she'd agreed to go on.

After some time, the carriage lurched to a stop and the driver opened the hatch at the front by just a crack so his voice would carry inside. "We're here, valued customers."

"Thank you," Reivan called out in an even voice. He waited for the door...

Arc#4 Chapter 63: D-Day

Reivan woke up at the crack of dawn as usual and went down to the training hall for a quick workout even though he technically had a date coming up in a few hours.

The militant discipline ingrained in him made him uncomfortable if he skipped a day for such a relatively insignificant reason. It wasn't a valid excuse because his life wasn't on the line and he didn't have an energy-intensive task lined up today. Now, if he was meeting up with Elsa or Helen after months of being apart, he w...

Knightly Interlude: The Insidious

After parting with Prince Reivan, Mordred did not return to the safe house.

Instead, she returned to the area right at the edge of what was predicted to be Aguru's perception range. It was a nifty thing, how she figured it out. An Ascendant's perception wasn't like a veil or a net cast across a wide area—it was like an enormous ghostly hand covering part of the world. Other ghostly hands could cover the same thing, but each hand would inevitably feel the others.

The fact that Mo...

Arc#4 Chapter 62: Assault

Reivan and Mordred had some difficulties having him replace the thing that had taken his place while he gallivanted around.

While Dame Mordred could play around with someone's perception as she pleased, if someone—such as a battlemage with scrying powers that was specifically tasked to keep an eye on him—was looking hard enough, they would notice something weird afoot. That's why they had to wait for the battlemage to either fall asleep or for their attention to wane.

Arc#4 Chapter 61: Three Oaths

While Reivan would have loved to return to the Tower immediately, he had other matters to handle.

Namely, upholding his end of the bargain with Aguru, the wise simian hermit hiding in some out-of-the-way forest. Reivan had initially wanted the pearls of wisdom that could take the knowledge of someone and distribute copies of it to an infinite number of people. Now, however, his main purpose was Aguru himself. While the instructions stated that he was to go ahead with the terms they had ...

Arc#4 Chapter 60: Back into the Fray

Reivan, wearing one of the many faces he'd used while he was experimenting with the Favor stat in the republic, sighed as he rested all his weight on the back of his armchair. He and a few others were using one of Ouroboros' many safehouses for their impromptu meeting, though in this case, a safehouse meant a relatively posh apartment in the middle of Vellasinna, a fancy Arkhanian city they had decided to meet in randomly.

Mordred was there with him, idly snacking on peanuts with her le...

Royal Interlude: Two Kings

In the current era, the Aizen Kingdom was undoubtedly outmatched when it came to relaying information across great distances. Mainly because they had access to resources that could only be found beyond the portal, in a world that nobody should ever visit if they could avoid it. Really, that place was horrible.

Roland, at least, wished he could torch the entire thing and be done with it. But they were slowly starting to discover signs that there were intelligent beings somewhere out ther...

Arc#4 Chapter 59: Swap

Everything after Mira showed him Fawks was a bit of a blur for Reivan, but it all more or less ended with them arriving at the Tower.

Apparently, the others were safe and only Senior Crag died. Nobody else had gotten attacked, so all the seniors and his squadmates were safely back at the hotel by the time Reivan and Mira returned. Despite that, the seniors were all quite unhappy about Crag's death — and by unhappy, he meant absolutely livid. Understandably so. Not un...

Arc#4 Chapter 58: Fawks

"Clover," Mira whispered from across the table, looking up from the menu. "I think this place is more expensive than I thought."

Reivan nodded, glowering at his own copy. "I think so too. I wouldn't have guessed from the outside."

"Must have been the broken windows."

"It was the broken plates and wrecked fruit stand nearby that did it for me. Gave the place that whole run-down look."

"Ah, yeah. That too."

"Should we leave?"

"I mean..." Mira scratched her ch...

Arc#4 Chapter 57: Suspicions

Reivan glared into the distance, trying to see if he'd be fortunate enough to see something — anything — that would shed a bit more light on what the ominous storm clouds were.

Unfortunately, his luck was proving to be quite turbulent today, so he couldn't see shit. Just clouds. Very, very dark clouds. Oh, and giant bolts of lightning accompanied by deafening thunderclaps that assaulted his ears every so often. One thing he was sure of was how loudly his instincts screamed ...

Knightly Interlude: The Everpresent

There were many small islands dotting the fringes of mainland Aizen.

Some actually had the privilege of being included in simple maps shown to children when they were taught about the kingdom's basic geography. Most didn't, of course. But normally speaking, ordinary citizens weren't allowed to go to them — not that they had any reason to. The islands were uninhabited and undeveloped. There was quite literally nothing there.

Of course, for some, having nothing there provided a ce...

Arc#4 Chapter 56: Into the Sewers

Reivan had a lot of expectations about how the day would end but he definitely didn't expect how it started. Watching a senior battlemage get shot in the forehead with a special bullet designed to take out mages was definitely not anywhere on his list of possibilities. But here it was, happening anyway.

"Clover!"

Just as he was about to summon his shield, Reivan heard Mira call his name. And when he looked over to her, a flash of light was followed by a pulse of force that launche...

Arc#4 Chapter 55: Alley

There was a pregnant pause in the room after the senior battlemage's question.

"Huh...?" Mira was understandably flummoxed at suddenly being asked to room with a boy. It was certainly a strange sight, given how she seemed easygoing and relaxed most of the time. A rosy blush colored the pearly skin of her face as she tried to salvage what remained of her composure. "Wh-why me?"

Crag raised a brow at her. "Should your juniors do it then?"

Mira groaned as she sent a glance to I...

Arc#4 Chapter 54: Room Assignments

Monster attacks on trains like the one Reivan experienced on his way to Vel Ayala were rare occurrences that only happened to the incredibly unfortunate.

Not rare enough that people scoffed at the possibility, but rare enough that nobody considered walking a viable alternative. Or those crazy death wagons they called magitech carriages. Riding in those for such long distances would make anyone want to just end it. Besides, not many monsters had the balls to challenge a...

Arc#4 Chapter 53: Mission

A bit of chaos was loosed when Mira pulled out wine bottles — mostly caused by her and Aldimir — but the following drinking session wasn't as bad as Reivan thought it would be.

Mira poured everyone a glass before downing her own in one go. She then graced them with an impromptu concert that was, honestly, the best thing Reivan had ever heard in both lifetimes. His ears were blessed and he felt as if he now understood why some people teared up when listening to music. Of course, he d...

Challenge Complete: Transcendent tier is OPEN!

Welp, does everyone still remember the bet I made with myself at the start of June?

Heh.

To no one's surprise, I, Lire, have triumphantly succeeded.

The Transcendent tier is open for anyone interested. Right now, there are 10 advanced chapters, but I'll slowly get that up to 15 or something.

Maybe by next month? I'm not starting another challenge btw. WAY too much pressure.

It's pretty expensive, so I'm not actually expecting a whole lot of people t...

Arc#4 Chapter 52: Squad One's Captain

Reivan fell asleep in the infirmary-like chamber but when he woke up, he was in his room with a brand new pair of glasses on the bedside counter. They were significantly better than what Clover wore, so he was quite happy about the arrangement. Maybe he would break his wand or rip up some of his clothes next time. That way, the Tower would reimburse him with something better.

He just had to avoid getting caught. Which, due to all the Ascendants running around, was highly unlikely.

Arc#4 Chapter 51: Dawn

The Spirit Tower had many floors, each serving a specific purpose.

A few of them contained vast spaces that housed cryptid horrors for trainees to face in tests — collectively known as proving grounds. There was also a floor dedicated to observing and controlling certain aspects of the proving grounds, adjusting the difficulty to better suit the skill level of the squad undergoing assessment. Ascendants could innately peek into the majority of the floors in the ...