The four suns above the Bright City and the cracked desert beyond illuminated a stunning sight. Dwarves and Phoexians were floating in the air, untethered from natural gravity. It wasn’t only these Denizens, either. Everything not bolted down gently made its way up. The pebbles and rocks along the desert floor. The chairs, boxes, and stone stacks around the battlements. A myriad of items from within the city, leaves and fruit and vegetables that had fallen from the plants among the...
2025-06-10 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The pattern glowed with an intensity the previous patterns hadn’t possessed. If Xavier’s vision had been weaker, he would have needed to shield his eyes from the sight. The glow was brighter than the four blaring suns above the world he stood upon.
The glow had reached the far corners of the pattern, lighting up every single one of the thousands of painstakingly drawn runes within it.
Xavier felt something, then. The pulling that was still happening. Except it was different no...
2025-06-09 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Xavier gazed upon the massive pattern of runes he’d drawn over the battlements of the Bright City of Aethisa. The pattern was contained within his time dilation field, the dwarves along the wall as frozen as the Phoexian flights above.
The pattern contained thousands of different runes. From where he stood, it was difficult to take it all in. There was a beauty in the way the runes were put together. The way they slotted in, side by side. Not as mundane as a jigsaw puzzle, nor as engi...
2025-06-05 19:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Are you sure that will work? The Lost Bone of a Dead God sounded dubious about Xavier’s idea.
The hot stone beneath him continued to bake the young dragonkin as he sat cross-legged on Aethisa’s battlements. The four suns blared down, but they did not add their heat. The rays of sunlight were stopped short at the edge of his time dilation field.
The female dwarven mage he’d stolen the Untethered spell stood frozen outside the field, her staff raised high, a l...
2025-06-04 19:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Hovering above the Bright City of Aethisa, Xavier gazed upward into the sky, shaking his head, in awe at what he’d just done.
Using the Untethered gravity spell he’d learnt with Recursive Analysis, he had sent a large section of the Bright City’s battlements into orbit, killing every one of the dwarves that had been standing on it.
He looked down at himself. At the staff in his hand. Yes, he could have killed those people just as effectively in a different way.
<...
2025-06-03 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Hovering above the Bright City of Aethisa, wings flapping lazily, Xavier watched the ballistae bolt as it shot toward him. Phoexians scattered after the force field powered by the massive subterranean crystal had pushed them high into the air.
The bolt moved slow enough for him to perceive its arc in the air. He shifted the Lost Bone of a Dead God into a shield and lazily held it in front of him. The ballistae bolt—which crackled with lightning—slammed into the shield and splintered...
2025-06-02 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Xavier hovered in the air on the hundred-and-twenty-first floor of the Tower of Champions. Below him lay a cracked desert. Behind lay the Bright City of Aethisa, its walls burning as it was being attacked by the Phoenix Empire. And above, four suns blazed in the sky.
He was inside a time dilation field expanded large enough to encapsulate thirty D Grade Phoexians—humanoid Denizens with wings of flame and sharp talons and fangs.
Having cast Recursive Analysis for the first time, ...
2025-05-29 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Xavier appeared on the hundred-and-twenty-first floor of the Tower of Champions.
The sun blared down at him. He shaded his eyes, blinking. No, four suns blared down at him. The air was wavy with heat. The ground beneath him felt brittle and hot.
He lowered his hand, narrowed his eyes, and gazed up at those four suns. His eyes were more than strong enough to handle the level of brightness, he’d simply been surprised, taking a moment to adjust.
The sky was empty of ...
2025-05-28 19:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Xavier widened his eyes slightly, staring at the hologram that hovered above the stone in the middle of the table.
He hadn’t seen a hologram for some time. Not since he’d first entered the tower during their introductory session where he’d met Howard, Justin, and Siobhan.
He leant forward a little in his seat. The hologram was of a woman who had the same white hair and pale skin as Adranial, though she wore dark blue, full-plate armour.
The image was frozen.
“A...
2025-05-27 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The tavern was silent.
The fire didn’t crackle in the hearth. The other Champions didn’t chatter, laugh, or clink mugs. The barkeep stood, frozen, midway through cleaning a mug. Five Denizens sat around a table, inside a time dilation field, the only ones moving.
Dominical frowned. “The evacuation? Not an interesting floor.”
Xavier eyed the fully armoured tank. “Oh, you would be surprised.”
“You are full of surprises,” Adranial muttered. “I thought yo...
2025-05-26 19:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Xavier cleared floor after floor of the tower, once more becoming an efficient powerhouse. He froze time and killed thousands-strong armies in a fraction of a second. He battled dragons over ancient forests, protecting a race of elves from utter annihilation. He soared over a city larger than anything he’d ever seen before, tasked with the assassination of a single individual—a tyrant king.
He was summoned as a Champion over and over again and gained the record title for every floor...
2025-05-22 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Xavier stood at the foot of the massive mountain that stretched high into the heavens of this cold, cold world. A tower loomed at one of the tallest peaks. He couldn’t help but wonder what might be up there.
He was on the Thirty-First Descent of the Hell Moon Thazamar, having been sent to an entirely different world to face these strange demonic foes.
Across from him, twenty feet away, stood a C Grade demon. A Level 370 Amalgamon with six legs, over a dozen tentacle-mouths that ...
2025-05-21 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Xavier’s fingers curled into fists as the unfolding ended.
The Spirit of Time stared at him curiously. You are angry. Why?
I failed.
The Spirit of Time had a confused look about her.
This isn’t even your universe—how could you think you failed?
Xavier forced his fists to unclench. He took two deep breaths, letting each out slowly, before the tension began to leave his body.
He wasn’t used to losing...
2025-05-21 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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A grin flitted onto Xavier’s face as he soared above the snowy terrain, ascending the sides of the massive mountain toward the high peaks where he’d spotted the tower.
He vividly remembered the last time he flew above a snowy mountain—it was back on the hundredth floor, when he’d been facing the Skeletal Dragon and the Elemental Dragon.
I wonder what it would be like fighting those beasts now. Would it still be such a close match?
Part of him wished he could...
2025-05-20 19:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Perspective: Xavier, Version 1.1—Alternate Timeline Above Earth, Eightieth Floor of the Tower of Champions.
To use his Portal spell effectively, Xavier had to be able to have an “intimate” knowledge of the place he wished his portal to appear.
Usually, that meant he would need to either see the place or have been in the place in the past.
Xavier had never been where he wished this portal to connect to, but in a way… He had intimate knowledge...
2025-05-20 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Six months had passed since the last time he’d summoned the Spirit of Time.
Well, technically, for him, it had been much, much longer.
The world was bled of colour as time stopped—though there wasn’t much colour to bleed up here, in the vacuum of space. The other version of himself was frozen across from him.
The Spirit of Time appeared in a flash of light. Xavier’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. There was a part of him that had forgotten h...
2025-05-19 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Thousands of Monstrosities lay dead around him and Yarien’s party. Their bodies were covered in black blood. The entire Thirtieth Descent looked like the set of some nightmarish horror movie.
Xavier didn’t intend to remain with the group for all the 1,000 clears of the Thirtieth Descent—he’d already gained that title. It was time for him to move on.
But he stayed for the first clear. He wanted to test his abilities against the demons after gaining another twenty-nine 1,000...
2025-05-19 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Xavier blinked at their question.
Yarien had asked him whether his Time Alteration spell could be used through a portal. Xavier had opened his mouth, then closed it abruptly, for he realised he… Didn’t know.
“I’ve never tried that. I’ve opened portals inside of a time dilation field, but I’ve never pushed a time dilation field through a portal before…”
His thoughts whirled and he wondered at the utility of being able to do something like that. He had...
2025-05-15 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Other Xavier: [I’m still alive.]
The other version of him looked like absolute crap, and that was putting it lightly. But the wounds the Soul Amalgamation had inflicted on him were finally starting to heal.
Xavier: [You sound surprised.]
Other Xavier: [Honestly, I am. Though I’m more surprised by you.] The man looked around, gaining his bearings. He pulled a health potion from his Storage Ring and somehow poured the liquid out of it. It floated...
2025-05-15 19:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Xavier was beginning to grow fond of the party he’d encountered.
They moved through the different descents of the Hell Moon Thazamar with an efficiency he’d never experienced before.
At first, Xavier had been humbled by their power—admittedly, he still was humbled by the power. They were his betters. Stronger than him in every way, and it was something he needed to never let himself forget.
But he felt something else as he watched them fight.
Eagerness.<...
2025-05-14 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Xavier blinked.
The Soul Amalgamation had just spoken in his mind. That was not something he’d expected. It spoke to him in the same way spirits he summoned from the Otherworld spoke to him.
He supposed that made some sense, considering what this thing was—a soul-construct. Something built from spirits.
The absolute glee in which the Soul Amalgamation seemed to be experiencing at the prospect of killing them twice unnerved Xavier.
Speakin...
2025-05-14 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Sometime ago…
The entity was fiercely intelligent, yet scarcely aware of itself. Emotions had not been relevant to its evolution, and so it had never had any need for them.
It had knowledge of emotions. It knew what they were, even if it had little way of understanding them. It had knowledge of a great many things, for the entity consumed everything it came into contact with.
Everything.
As it consumed, it adapted. It grew abilities based upon the th...
2025-05-13 19:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Xavier wasn’t sure if what he wanted to do would even work—he wasn’t even sure if it was a good idea to try.
But he had to do something drastic if coming up here was going to be worth it. If it was going to mean something.
Xavier: [I’m about to try something. I don’t know if it will work.]
The other version of him raised an eyebrow. [We need to talk. Come up with a strategy together. If you’re going to remain here, we should combine our skil...
2025-05-13 19:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Xavier was glad a fight didn’t end up happening with the party he’d encountered at the entrance to the Hell Moon Thazamar, and not only because their sponsor, Jhanku, was one of the most powerful Denizens in the entire universe.
These people were insanely powerful.
“Your turn, Yarien.” Maricus grinned.
They were on the Tenth Descent and moving through them incredibly fast. They’d already gained the 1,000 clear title for the first Nine Descents, and every time Xavie...
2025-05-12 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Floating beside another version of himself in the vacuum of space above Earth, the blue and green planet looming large behind him, Xavier looked at the pointy-eared, horned man outside the time dilation field.
Other Xavier: [That is the entity. In a sense. It is a Soul Amalgamation, a spell the World Destroyer cast.]
Xavier: [The World Destroyer?]
Xavier stared anew at the man. The Soul Amalgamation. He had the ability to create soul apparitions or...
2025-05-12 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Xavier intended to maintain an illusion of being a swordsman, just one that could control time. He didn’t bother hiding his wings. He wouldn’t be the only dragonkin in the universe capable of time manipulation, he was sure of that.
And who would be looking for him out here? Pretending to only wield a sword would be enough. Though he wondered if he should simply reveal his mastery of other weapons, too. It wasn’t as though that was in any information packet, considering he’d only...
2025-05-08 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Xavier floated in the middle of space, inside his time dilation field. Not far from him, another version of himself was slowly turning around after realising where he was.
Outside of the time dilation field were two entities. One looked to be a powerful Denizen—the Denizen the other version of himself had been fighting—while the other was the sector-destroying entity itself, who looked like nothing more than an asteroid.
Xavier wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but thi...
2025-05-08 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Xavier blinked, staring back at Empress Larona. “What do you mean, what am I?”
The woman had just experienced a premonition. She had looked into the future and seen something that frightened her. Something he’d done. The heavy breathing she’d been doing came to an end as she composed herself from one second to the next, straightening her back in her seat.
“Maybe you do have a chance.” Empress Larona’s voice sounded different to before, as though all the emot...
2025-05-07 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The Old One stood on the observation deck of his starship as it slowly moved through the different sectors of the Greater Universe.
The Old One didn’t marvel at what he’d seen, for he had seen much in the time that he’d been alive. Still, he couldn’t help but stare out of the clear window at the sights before him.
In all his tiame being alive, he hadn’t ventured this far from his sector before. Once, there was a time that he had gone to the very edges of space, where the...
2025-05-07 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Xavier couldn’t answer all the questions that were swirling in his head after discovering those runes in the stairwell and casting Otherworldly Communion.
So he returned to the Thirtieth Descent, carving his time dilation field down the stairwell.
Still, the questions had stayed with him.
What was most worrying to him was the fact that the spirit he’d conjured through Otherworldly Communion—the demonic goat-thing—hadn’t known anything more about the woman than that...
2025-05-06 19:00:06 +0000 UTC
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