Shirtaloon

Chapter 395: Appreciation

In Asano Village, a portal arch quietly rose up inside a house. Cheryl Asano, Jason’s mother, froze as if time had stopped. She had seen little of her youngest son since his return from apparent death, except on the news. She hadn’t seen him at all since her eldest son followed him out into an increasingly mad world, only to return as a corpse. She had only seen his famous portal a handful of times in person. Like most people in Australia, she had seen it on the news as thousands of Broke...

Chapter 394: Trying to Be Merciful

In Venezuela, Jason identified and repaired another node. He was starting to get used to the process and had gotten the time required down to under an hour. After leaving the node space, he opened a portal back to the cloud house, currently disguised as a complex of hastily-erected prefab buildings in the mountain town of Galipan.

Close to Caracas, Galipan had long been a tourist staple but was rapidly turning into a refuge for mid-level government and military officials from Caracas an...

Chapter 393: The Edge of Madness

Jason, Farrah and Dawn travelled from place to place, in search of nodes to repair. They used the grid interface in the cloud house to choose their next destinations, refining their accuracy as they learned more from each proto-space and node they explored. After the USA was Canada, Tanzania, Myanmar and more.

They lived an isolated life, along with Jason's family, as people meant nothing but danger. Seeking help from others was exposing vulnerabilities, while those who genuinely willin...

Chapter 392: Inevitability

As Jason and Farrah flew through the air in Shade’s plane form, the sudden manifestation of Dawn’s new silver-rank avatar took them aback, and they shot out of their chairs.

“I have some questions,” Jason said to Dawn. “They can wait until you get some clothes, though.”

“I apologise for the impropriety,” Dawn said as Jason turned around and pulled some of Farrah’s spare clothes from his inventory, handing them backwards.

“No worries,” Jason said. “I k...

Chapter 391: Finish the Job

No one paid attention to one more man in a dark suit and dark glasses. There was no shortage of them as the funeral was conducted under a bright, clear sky, despite the winter. Jason’s use of aura control had progressed to the point that even in a crowd with many essence users he could manipulate their perception to go unnoticed, even standing right amongst them.

It helped that all the essence users were lower rank than Jason. The network leadership would never allow precious silver-r...

Chapter 390: Prepare For the Rematch

The cloud house was in a vacant lot of an abandoned Austrian town. Inside, Farrah, Itsuki and the Asano sisters waited anxiously. The portal had closed right behind them and Jason’s fate was unknown. Farrah had taken out some suppression collar skeleton keys she had made herself after seeing the crude ones Jason had made. She unlocked the collars around the necks of the others, then magically examined them for tracking magic. The cloud house should be more than capable of blocking it but sh...

Chapter 389: Going For Gold

Jason and Farrah both extended their senses when the arch remained empty and the portal failed to open. If they hadn’t been so shocked by their captured and dead companions they might have paid more attention to their surroundings but it was only now that they detected the magical devices set up in a wide circle around them. Farrah was familiar with the magic and knew it would be made up of a series of magic rods hammered into the ground, just out of sight.

“It’s a dimensional con...

Chapter 388: Loaded For Battle

The alien landscape of the node space was an uncanny mix of familiar features washed out in metallic silver light. A close examination of the ground, rocks and plants did not help, being made up of tiny blocks that gave it the feel of a low-resolution image. Jason wandered over to the river, which he found looked like mercury under the monochrome light.

Jason was uncomfortably uncertain about how to identify if he had the right node, figure out how to alter it and finally repair it with...

Audio & ebook release date

G'day, all.

Just to let everyone know, audio/ebook 1 will be available on audible and Kindle Unlimited beginning March 9, 2021. These versions have been professionally copy edited to clear out my embarrassing flubs along the way, making it the polished, definitive version of the story.

Volume I will be split into three books, with book I covering the first 113 chapters. Audio book samples won't be available publicly until the release date but I'm hoping to get a sneak peek here fo...

Chapter 387: Node Space

The Network team from the Potsdam branch reached the aperture on Babelsberg Park and found it already open. The residue of the ritual used to open it was on the ground and in front of it was a Japanese woman with a category three aura, meditating with her eyes closed.

As trucks and helicopters arrived she gave no reaction, remaining cross-legged on the grass until the Operations Commander approached her and she opened her eyes, dexterously rising to her feet by uncrossing her legs.

Chapter 386: First Priority

In Switzerland, the resort town of Interlaken and the lakeshore villages around Lake Brienz had been evacuated during the monster waves. Determined an insufficiently populous area to warrant its own safe zone, the locals had been sent to the closest established safe zone, in the city of Thun.

A month after the last monster wave, people were cleared to return to their homes. Buses started shipping residents back to their villages, where they would be left to assess the damages. There was...

Chapter 385: The Decision Has Been Made

At Jason’s request, Kaito didn’t conjure a new helicopter on entering the proto-space. Farrah carried a device that she and Jason had built together to find the optimal spot within the proto-space for Jason to conduct his ritual and they would inevitably encounter monsters along the way. They viewed it as a chance to put the bronze-rankers on the team through their paces.

The extradimensional realm diverged heavily from the physical reality outside, the Austrian city replaced with a...

Chapter 384: You Shouldn't Lie to Your Wife

With the monster waves gone, recovery efforts were underway. The death toll continued to grow as the full depth of the monster wave catastrophe was assessed, blowing past early estimates to cross the two million mark as abandoned rural areas were once more made accessible.

Stalled distribution lines for food and other necessities were opening up again, complicated by a global economy more ravaged than the global populace. Calls for unprecedented social welfare programs were being enacte...

Chapter 383: A Chance to Control the Narrative

Amy and Kaito had taken over the main residence of Asano Village when Erika's family was stashed away, cementing Amy's position as de facto mayor. Jason had claimed the bushland house previously occupied by his grandmother, where he delved into the study of astral magic. He wanted to be closer than where he had kept the cloud house underwater, so he could respond to threats rapidly without using his portal. He missed the cloud bed but had hung a hammock as a makeshift replacement

Jason ...

Chapter 382: I Intend to Do Damage

Annabeth Tilden and three silver-rankers were standing outside the main gate of Asano Village, facing Jason and Farrah.

“We didn’t betray you, Mr Asano,” Anna said.

“No?” Jason asked. “Then I guess the GDN spokesperson on the news stating that our association had been ended due to my increasingly dangerous and radicalised behaviour was a terrible mix up. I’m surprised Terrance made that kind of slip.”

“You set off car bombs in traffic,” Anna said.

�...

Chapter 381: Collateral Damage

Dawn, Erika, Yumi and Asya were on the sandy beach of the lagoon, waiting for the other to emerge from the sea cave. Jason and the others emerged on black jet skis that dissolved into darkness as they beached themselves on the sand. Erika snatched her daughter into a worried hug and Farrah slapped Jason on the arm.

“Got it done?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jason said.

Dawn had been staring at Jason even before they left the cave, her gaze unerringly locked onto his aura thro...

Chapter 380: Parade of Delights

In an otherworldly realm washed in amber monochrome, Jason was face to face with Mr North, the head of the Engineers of Ascension.

“Saving the world the right way requires your guidance, does it?” Jason asked. “You’ll forgive me for not taking you at your word.”

“Repairing the link between worlds is just the beginning,” Mr North said. “If you make a mistake now, we’ll all pay for it later.”

“Oh, so you’re an altruist.”

“It’s not inconsiste...

Chapter 379: An Unexpected Direction

Jason walked over the surface of the water with his niece, his cloak wrapped around them both to keep her body light. The Tiwari patriarch also walked over the water, while Itsuki and his father rode in an inflatable dinghy. Motes of light emerged from Jason’s cloak, spreading out to illuminate the cave in soft starlight.

“It’s pretty,” Emi said.

“I’ve always thought so,” Jason said. “So much of what I do is ugly, so I quite like this.”

Some distance into t...

Chapter 378: A Very Bad Mistake

Itsuki left Jason with the three elders, the Tiwari clan patriarch and his two younger brothers. The patriarch was Denji, the middle brother Souta and the youngest, Itsuki’s father, was Koya. The office of the patriarch was a large room with a desk over to one side and a lounge area off on the other, with armchairs in a semi-circle around a coffee table, looking out through the window wall.

Denji invited Jason to sit and they all took lounge chairs as a security guard in an expensive ...

Chapter 377: Fanboy

The Arima Grand Resort was a palace hidden in a forest, the most opulent of the many accommodations in Arima Onsen Town. With magic now out in the open, Jason didn’t have to go to the bother of hiding it as he approached the resort, Shade transforming from car to a cloud of shadow right outside the lobby, from which Jason strode as the dark miasma was sucked into his shadow.

Ignoring the resulting stares, Jason made his way across an atrium larger than most homes, spotting someone hur...

Chapter 376: They Get to See What I'm Like

The Tiwari clan seat was located in Arima Onsen Town, nestled in beauteous nature amongst thickly forested hills. The car taking Jason to meet the clan made its way north toward Kobe’s Kita-ku ward also contained the Asano clan patriarch, Shiro, and his two daughters. The elder, Akari, was sitting next to her father, unsettled at the discussion between Shiro and Jason. The younger sister, Mei, was driving the town car, with Shiro and Akari facing Jason in the back.

“So, what exactly...

Chapter 375: Honour

“Where are our guests now?” Noriko asked. She was the strongest member of the Asano clan and the patriarch’s mother. Noriko and Shiro were in a room with the rest of the clan leadership, eight elders kneeling around a low table.

“Lunch is being prepared, hosted by my daughters,” Shiro said. “Jason is taking a call from the Network.”

“We’re monitoring it?” Noriko asked.

“We are,” Shiro said, “although that does not make me comfortable. We are hosts.�...

Chapter 374: Not in a Position to Criticise

In a quiet dojo, Akari and her father faced off, each wearing a gi, a suppression collar and holding a wooden sword. The swords and the room were both parts of an integrated magical system where the swords would not deal damage but inflict numbing pain that would briefly paralyse, in accordance with both the location struck and the force of the strike.

At the side of the room, Jason was in a relaxed kneel, also wearing a gi and suppression collar. Kneeling to one side of him was his gra...

Chapter 373: Giving Face

“Are we landing at Kansai International Airport?” Emi asked as she emerged from the cockpit. “It’s on an artificial island.”

Jason looked up from the book of astral magic theory he was reading.

“Sorry, moppet,” Jason told her. “I’d love to do some exploring with you but we’ve already had too many delays. Dropping right out of the sky should be fun, though, right?”

“What do you mean, right out the sky?” Erika asked.

“We’re going to fly righ...

Chapter 372: End Run

As Shade, in his plane form, continued winging towards Japan, Jason was laying on the bed in a small sleeping cabin. Fresh from the land of the dead that Makassar had become, his mind was troubled. He looked at the door; there was no knock but he felt Asya’s presence on the other side.

“Come in,” he said.

She entered hesitantly, unconsciously touching a hand to the aura-suppression bracelet that kept her from broadcasting her emotions. She had aura control training but Jason...

Chapter 371: Old Affairs

The Four Cardinals of the EOA were sitting at the desk in their meeting chamber. On the wall, a news report was on the large screen.

“…Asano is believed to be responsible for what people are calling ‘the Butterflies of Makassar,’ which look so beautiful when filmed from high in the air, but once the colourful wave passed, only black-stained bones are left in their wake. Recently, in the wake of another humanitarian disaster, Asano was recorded warning the League of Heroes that h...

Bonus Chapter: Silver

Jason was on the roof of the main residence in Asano Village. There was a helicopter pad and, as would soon become important, the facilities to clean a helicopter. He didn’t use the cloud house to meditate because the supply of diluted crystal wash that was the fuel for its cleaning functions was a limited resource. Once he crossed the line to silver, there would be quite a mess.

Jason had fed everything from purgation quintessence to high-grade cleaning chemicals into the cloud flask...

Chapter 370: Enough Power

As Jason drained the life force from the dead monsters around him, the drone came down to hover in front of him.

“Jason,” Farrah’s voice came through it. “I can direct you back to the defence line.”

“Shade has brought me up to speed,” Jason said. “A lot of civilians were abandoned on this side of the line and a lot of them are still here, in hiding. Only the intelligent dinosaur-people have aura senses a worth damn, so there are a lot of survivors.”

“You ...

Chapter 369: Dying of Thirst in the Desert

Outside of the collapsing second proto-space, the sky grew dark over the real city of Makassar. A beautiful sunset contrasted the horror below, with large portions left looking like the bombed-out capital of a failed state. When the sun had risen it had been a thriving city, one of Indonesia’s most secure safe zones – at least, publicly. The consequences of the Network and the Cabal waging war in the shadows had scarred the city with fire, destruction and death.

The Network and thei...

Chapter 368: Gamble

King stood on a rooftop, clutching Shade’s head in his hand.

“You can hear me through this vessel, can’t you?” King asked.

“Yes,” Jason’s voice came from Shade.

“I am going to find you and kill you.”

“Probably, yes,” Jason said.

“You do not fear death?”

“Strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

“You are a fool,” King snarled.

“Yes,” Jason admitted. “I’m sorry for th...