Hiro flinched as a bullet shattered the back window of the car.
“Is anyone hit?” he asked, ducking down as he turned to check on Jason and Vermillion in the back. Vermillion was rubbing the back of his head, looking disgruntled. In spite of the sudden chaos, Hiro was startled to see a figure draped in shadow where his nephew had been.
“Taika,” Jason’s voice came from the impenetrable darkness of the hood. “Keep driving and I’ll do my best to keep them off you. Hiro, ...
2020-08-14 23:01:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
“So, that’s the long and the short of it,” Jason said. “The EOA buy you out. Generously. I know it’s heavy-handed of me to take control of your affairs like this, but this is the only safe way out. It also means I can avoid killing a bunch of people.”
Jason and Hiro were in HiroÂ’s sprawling apartment. After Jason explained the arrangements he had made, Hiro spent a long time processing it in silence. Jason waited patiently.
“You’ve learned more about the EOA than b...
2020-08-13 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I don’t recognise the auras,” Jason said.
“Engineers of Ascension,” Vermillion said. “Their alchemically-enhanced foot soldiers. This may not go well.”
“I can live with that,” Jason said. “Sooner or later, I’ll have to make an example of someone.”
“It isn’t prison rules, Mr Asano.”
“Maybe not to you,” Jason said. “I’m all alone and surrounded by dangerous people who, as it turns out, are already in gangs.”
Vermillion frowned.
“W...
2020-08-12 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Vermillion and Jason paused their conversation as the waitress brought their food, along with wine.
“Magic has always been a difficult and esoteric thing,” Vermillion explained after the waitress left, while Jason nibbled appreciatively at the food. “Some five centuries ago, a new kind of magic appeared. People with no connection to the old ways could suddenly wield a variety of easy to use mystical powers. At that time, they were a limited threat. They were collected into var...
2020-08-11 23:01:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Days went past as Jason fell into a routine. In the mornings he would do strength training with the equipment in the townhouse, which was barely adequate for his bronze-rank might at maximum weight. Then he would ride to Rushcutters Bay Park to do some running along the waterfront.
He rode Shade in motorcycle form, as he only had one of ShadeÂ’s bodies on hand. Shade still kept bodies on Hiro and Taika, while four were assigned to investigating the nest of local essence-users he ...
2020-08-10 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
I've just added some new tiers, and I want to be clear on one point: there is no extra content gated behind these tiers. Silver rank continues to be the final extra content point; the higher tiers are for people who want to further support the story.
I will, from time to time, be inviting input of future story points. For example, I might make the power set of some upcoming characters open to input from high-tier patrons. This begins today, with a poll going up for Gold+ patrons. Of whi...
2020-08-10 00:00:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jason was standing on the edge of the roof, atop a tall building in the Sydney CBD. Shade was beside him as they looked toward an adjacent building. To normal sight it was unremarkable, but to magic senses the building was lit up like a giant candle. The top floor was a dancing flame of overlapped enchantments.
“I see what you mean,” Jason said. “It does seem like a lot of trouble to go to if it isn’t their headquarters.”
Shade had been watching the people who had inve...
2020-08-07 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hiro returned home to the apartment building he owned. His penthouse floor was only accessible by his private elevator or through the regular elevator by using an access key. He walked straight to the bar and poured himself a stiff drink. It had been a strange night.
The entertainment lounge had one wall made up of windows looking out onto the balcony. Just as he was about to sit, Hiro spotted a silhouette out there, easy to miss on a moonless night. His first thought was to shou...
2020-08-06 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Taika was driving HiroÂ’s large town car, with Hiro and Jason in the back.
“The advantage of being on the legitimate side of the business is that I can be more conspicuous about enjoying the fruits of my labour,” Hiro said. “The man we’re going to see doesn’t live in a penthouse apartment, but don’t think that means he’s not influential and powerful. Especially don’t make the mistake of thinking he isn’t dangerous.”
“I’m familiar with the ramifications of crossi...
2020-08-05 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
“How’d it go?” Taika asked as he drove Jason through the city. They were in one of the cars Hiro kept in a pool for his staff, a luxurious town car Taika had picked for the roomy interior.
“There are some hoops to jump through in legally coming back from the dead,” Jason said. “That lawyer you set me up with seems to know his business.”
“Yeah, heÂ’s good,” Taika said. “WeÂ’ve got some time before you meet your uncle for dinner. Is there anything you wanted to do?Â...
2020-08-04 23:05:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
Annabeth Tilden was woken by her phone.
“Damn it, Anna.”
So was her wife. Annabeth snatched the phone off the night stand and stumbled into bathroom, closing the door before turning on the light and answering.
“What?” she answered grumpily.
“Boss, I was going over the grid feed for the night and I found something. The monitoring agent passed it off as a glitch, which is why I’m only seeing it now, but I took a closer look and I think it warrants investigation.”<...
2020-08-04 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jason let Shade drive through the dark and the rain. The dark did not obscure his vision, but he trusted Shade more than himself to drive safely in the wet. He also didnÂ’t want to drive distracted; his visit home had left him contemplative and sober.
“We should do this trip again when the weather’s better,” he said. “And during the day. The Pacific Coast Drive is one of the greats.”
As JasonÂ’s soul had grown stronger, the connection to his familiars had grown stronge...
2020-08-03 23:05:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
In the otherworldly floating gazebo, Jason was reunited with his familiars. While he was pleased to see them, the revelation that Shade had known the nature of the World-Phoenix token was startling.
“How long have you known what token could do?” Jason asked.
“Several thousand years,” Shade said.
“Millennia,” Jason said. “It never occurred to you that I might want to know it could bring me back to life?”
“Of course,” Shade said. “I chose quite specific...
2020-08-03 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jason went back to the chair he had left by the broken window and sat down. The cool, clean air coming in as the rain continued to hammer down was a stark improvement over what had been sealed away in the old hospital. Before he made a move, he needed to go through the system messages that he had been ignoring. He pulled up the first one.
-------
- You have entered a region of magical desolation. The levels of magical density and magical saturat...
2020-07-31 23:06:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Jason regained consciousness surrounded by a fiery, transcendent energy, which immediately vanished and dropped him to the floor. The feel of cold tile on his body told him that he was naked, which he quickly confirmed by pushing himself into a sitting position and doing a quick visual inspection.
There were a bunch of system windows but he minimised them for the moment as he looked himself over. There was no light in the windowless room but his perception power let him see perfe...
2020-07-31 23:01:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
I decided that I've done everything I wanted to do with the interval chapters, so there won't be one this week. I did intend to do a chapter focused on the Bertinelli brothers, but I never came up with an idea that I really loved, and if I can't get any hot Bert action, then I'd rather have no Bert action at all.
Since this means the interval chapters have concluded, here is the full volume I PDF with the interval chapters included.
Since a chapter was promised this week, I've mad...
2020-07-31 22:56:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Dawn was a celestine. She had a startling beauty of a diamond-ranker, with alabaster skin and ruby hair, perfectly matched with her eyes. Her flowing robes were off-white, accented with muted yellow and orange. She was at the top of a tower in the pocket city-universe of Interstice, in the city region of Fuero. She looked out over the city as she waited for someone to arrive.
Fueros was a region dominated by the cult of the World-Phoenix, which was completely reflected in the app...
2020-07-24 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
When Isabella Pantero heard the bell on the door to her bakery jingle, she came from out back to behind the glass counter.
“Mr Asano!” she exclaimed. “I was told that you died!”
He looked quite unlike his usual self, the confident grin replaced with a furtive expression dominated by a bushy moustache. She knew he had gone away on some kind of adventurer business, hearing just recently that he failed to return alive.
“Coming back from the dead is kind of my thing,...
2020-07-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Adventure Society and the Magic Society had both sent people flooding into the astral space. For the Adventure Society, it was a precious chance to rapidly advance some of their more promising members. It was currently ideal for skilled bronze-rankers and even freshly ranked-up silvers to advance their abilities. For the Magic Society, it was a chance to get a handle on the advanced astral magic the BuilderÂ’s cult had been wielding. For both, it was a chance to prepare for the bat...
2020-07-10 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
DS Adam Cosgrove was thirty one years old and looked like a detective from a TV show. He wasnÂ’t good looking enough for it to be an American show, but he had a dishevelled intelligence that was compelling enough for a middlingly successful British or Australian crime drama.
He was in the middle of an apartment building, standing next to a uniformed officer. An older woman, she had the air of having seen it all. Being a police officer, all in her case meant all the horrible thing...
2020-07-03 15:21:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Arabelle and Emir were talking as they made their way through the cloud palace.
“Are you sure about this?” Emir asked. “I like Sophie, but she’s a damaged girl, in more ways than one. I’m not sure that she’s in a state right now where I want to entrust my granddaughter to her.”
“This is a good match,” Arabelle said. “Sophie lived a life where she couldn’t trust anyone but Belinda. A complete stranger came along and transformed her life, only to be snatched away a...
2020-06-26 23:01:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Both the seal and the rank-restriction on the astral space aperture had been removed by JasonÂ’s team. Clive had turned the world engineers that were meant to invade their world into magical batteries that opened a passageway back to it. This not only allowed the team to escape, but opened the astral space up to thorough exploration.
The first step was securing a foothold in a zone still steeped in danger by the rapid-spawning monsters, so Emir and his people moved in to secure what ha...
2020-06-19 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Asano was dead but that did not have to be the end. The astral space had no god of death to guide the soul into the astral; it would have to slowly drift into the ReaperÂ’s grasp on its own. That gave the Builder a window to act.
As it considered this, AsanoÂ’s combat robe vanished. A glow lit up from within his body, which started radiating heat. The Builder felt the surge of a familiar power and was filled with a fury that no mortal, even one as frustrating as Asano, could engender.<...
2020-06-12 23:00:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Clive led the way through the portal, followed by Neil and then the familiars. Belinda and Sophie were atop Onslow, Sophie still unconscious and Belinda not much better off. Humphrey had insisted on bringing up the rear, despite remaining on his feet only with the assistance of Stash, who had replicated HumphreyÂ’s own form to provide a supporting shoulder.
They emerged in the ruins of the ancient village under the lake, the water held off by the magical dome maintained by EmirÂ’...
2020-06-05 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Here was have the final post for volume 1. The first intermission chapter will go up on Friday (USA time).
2020-05-30 22:18:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
As of June 1, some patrons (that don't already) will have an amount of sales tax on donations. Here is roughly what Patreon have told creators: Basically, laws have been passed that, varying by area, declare some kinds of Patreon (or other donation-based financial support system) rewards as products, therefore subject to sales tax. It will depend on where you are and how taxes are calculated on different patron rewards in different areas. This had already been in effect in Europe for a number...
2020-05-29 02:41:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Volume 2 will begin on August 3 (USA time) for silver-rank and above patrons. Leading up to volume 2 will be weekly interval chapters, including epilogue content for volume 1 and lead-in content for volume 2.
New gold and diamond tiers will be added to coincide with volume 2, but these will NOT get advanced content beyond that of existing tiers. Silver will continue to be the highest tier to offer advanced chapters. Gold and diamond tier will be for those generous enough to give a littl...
2020-05-27 23:05:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sophie was dashing through the camp like a spectre, swift, ghostly and untouchable. She ended up running along the inside of the wall and onto the top, sprinting along it to reach her maximum speed. With a double-enhanced HeroÂ’s Moment empowered every speed ability she had, even she felt like her breakneck speed was wild and precarious. She did not relent on the pace, whatever she felt, as speed was the only objective.
-------
Ability: [Avatar of S...
2020-05-27 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
Once again, the teamÂ’s pinpoint timing salvaged a very poor situation from what would otherwise have been a total disaster. Sophie used the last of her strength to throw out a bloody fist, barely able to lift an arm from which half the muscle had been shredded. As she did, NeilÂ’s Bolster ability landed, enhancing the power the punch carried.
-------
Ability: [Deny the Reaper] (Balance)
- Special Attack (counter-execute, ...
2020-05-26 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
The walls of the encampment had become a prison to the monsters driven to panic by the BuilderÂ’s aura. They were stampeding with nowhere to stampede to, a wild crush that was catching up the cultists and the construct and converted that served them. It was somewhere between a juice press and a meat grinder.
The air was filled with the sounds of combat and terror. The monsters let out a menagerie of shrieks, cries and roars. Cultists were yelling, trying to direct the constructs ...
2020-05-25 23:01:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
