Kernoel77

Chapter 137: Junior and Senior

A few days later, everything had been set in motion. Zinnic was ready to make their little public display, and we were gathered in front of a gate. All together, the only person we were still waiting for was Chris.

White Tiger, Black Swan and Eagleeye. Those were Zinnic’s absolute top brass - but they had also brought a, heh, fountain of wellspring cultivators. They had a few groups of people at wellspring, both the lower, middle, and a few at the upper end. None as clos...

Chapter 239: Direction

Chapter 239: Direction

Zyl didn’t like being alone at home.

The house wasn’t big. Not at all like his mansion, or the place he’d shared with his parents back when he still lived in the draconic mountains, but it still had the potential to feel just as supremely empty as any other place.

All his life, there’d been people around Zyl. Servants, guards, spies, friends, sometimes multiple or even all of those things at once. So, suffice to say, the loneliness was s...

Chapter 136: Wager

White Tiger. He was one of Zinnic’s best. He was who they sent to take care of business. If I had to describe his fighting style, he was an anti-human specialist. 

One of three cultivators under Zinnic’s wing who’d reached beyond wellspring. He could have been a hero. But as it stood? He was a killer. 

I knew that much, because my master had fought him before. Back when they were both rising stars in Eden, and Zinnic wanted to get Rae under their thumb. It hadn’t...

Chapter 238: Faerie Grove

Chapter 238: Faerie Grove

/These words are proof of the accord struck between Yr’enzel, Star of Hope, Mercury Rainfall Starlight, saviour of the fae realm, and the faerie queen Titania as well as all sixteen courts of the fae. 

These words exist to preserve our world. Our existence, and our future. They exist to honour our culture and preserve it to the best of our abilities, while discarding the bits that are no longer suitable. We, as fae, are eternal. We live long...

Chapter 135: Conference

When Matt came over later that day, Beth cheered for him. He got to only come over when he had the energy to do it, so, of course, he was the fun uncle. Beth loved him, and to be honest, I understood why.

Matt played some video games with her, he drew with her, they played outside a little and the air smelled tolerable with him around. The purity that he could create with his sword-Qi made it easier to breathe and kept the smog aside.

And, additionally, I could trust him. Well, us...

Chapter 237: Carnage. Chaos.

Chapter 237: Carnage. Chaos.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Tor-Tern’s head exploded. The hydra’s body was held together by faerie magic, and Mercury’s silvery ember would not permit any other magic in its presence.

<Grief> dug its claws into the half-dragon. The blood coalesced, cracked, then exploded. Insidious magic snuck into his being, enforcing silence and the crushing weight of mourning. A storm rose in the banquet hall, raindrops drenching t...

Chapter 134: Weekend Babysitting

Living back on Neamhan was strange. 

I really, really wasn’t used to having my family so immediately near me for extended periods of time. By now, I was used to seeing them once every two months at most, usually having longer breaks between meetings. 

Now? It was the third week in a row that mom asked me to watch Beth on the weekend. 

Not that I minded, really. I had the time, after all. There were new gates opening, sure, but they were under control. Neamha...

Chapter 236: Necessity

Chapter 236: Necessity

CW: The second part of this chapter (after the six dashes) contains descriptions of gore. Viewer discretion is advised.

As one might expect, the beds in the cottage were criminally soft. 

By now, Mercury could sleep just fine on almost anything. Dirt, grass, wood, stone, it made very little difference. His skin was tough enough, and <Hydration> would just keep adapting while he slept, until it was harder than the material he la...

Chapter 133: Catch-Up

Coming back to the real world, I was unsurprised to find that it felt really rather strange. Which happened to be because Possession turned half my body into glass. Meaning that since my legs didn’t exactly have muscles to move, Ann had to carry me inside. 

Was I being dramatic? Just a little.

Functionality returned to my limbs within the next couple hours, though I walked a little stiffly the next day, too. Nothing too troublesome, though. 

Another day later, I ...

Chapter 235: Amusingly Eldritch

Chapter 235: Amusingly Eldritch

Slowly, bit by bit, the ruler of Allure settled down. 

Mercury kept his eyes closed, not looking at them. He left the world the same as it was, familiar and safe. He just sat there, and listened for any change.

It was about maintaining safety for Allure. They were so terrified of change, but yet so scared of who they were. He breathed. How troublesome. Keeping a small sigh inside, Mercury simply placed his head on his paws, and wai...

Chapter 132: Breaking Glass

Afterwards, we went out for drinks. Trevor eventually found me in a bar, on my second gin tonic. We were at the silly baseball bar again. Emilia had broken one of the bats by swinging too hard. Then, Marie had quickly repaired it with some magic.

Afterwards, Matt had to whittle it down with a summoned little knife, because the nature magic had made it sprout branches. People had been scared at first, but eventually turned to laughter, when they figured we wanted no trouble.

“I s...

Chapter 234: Quiet, Comfort, Rain

Chapter 234: Quiet, Comfort, Rain

A few hours passed after that. The stunned Titania spoke with eloquent Seifes, and the new ruler of Honesty met Tivo of Happiness, too. For a minute, mercury wondered whether that’s what it was like for one’s children to meet, then shook his head.

Nah. They were rather far from being his kids - viewing them as that was a rather significant overreach into their individuality. Their deeds were their own, and he would not take credit for anyt...

Chapter 131: Wings

I looked at Matt. “You look like an idiot.”

He gave me a big grin. “And you look like your eyes are hurting. Dry, maybe? Worn out from the light?” 

To this, I lacked a retort. After all, I did turn away from the sea of flames Ann was bringing to bear. Somehow, she made it rain fire, and made the ground floor with fire, and made the air light on fire, too. The brightness was horrible, and it felt like the moisture was sucked right out of my eyes.

Which didn’t m...

Chapter 233: Filter the Light

Chapter 233: Filter the Light

Reshaping things was different each time. Putting Sibori back together had been like growing a human shaped tree from a corpse as fertilizer. Reshaping shadow was like pouring water into a glass made of water, too. When he’d changed Heath it was like overlaying two pictures and blending them until they matched.

The broken thrones were a little more spectacular, since there was something fundamentally unstable about them. Fundamentally broken....

Chapter 130: Teamwork

I stood inside another world once more, and took a deep breath. This one was a rocky area, full of enormous boulders. There were sparse trees, but each one was titanic. Hundreds of meters tall. 

The conversation with Mr. Henney still raced through my mind. Zinnic. Fucking Zinnic. They had tried to hurt my family. Tried to hurt my girlfriend. They had caused me nothing but trouble, and were a plague upon this world.

And the only reason I wasn’t killing them, right now, was�...

Chapter 232: Dark Light

Chapter 232: Dark Light

Truth was, in Mercury’s opinion, the hardest of the broken thrones to face. Yearning had been full of murderous desire and power, sure, but it was mundane in its horror. A grafted tree of flesh and bones and all of that. He could deal with it.

Joy, in comparison, had been all bright colours. Its horror lay in the insidiousness of getting you hooked. Forcing violent cycles of Joy with no ebb or flow. The horror of Joy was perpetuity, and the way it ...

Chapter 129: Mr. Henney

It was a few days after that, when I felt the change in the world. It happened in the evening. As things were winding down.

The tension of the day had passed, and no gate opened up. I’d put on my pajamas and was lying awake in bed, reading a little. Right around 11 p.m., on July 22nd, the world cracked open like an egg against a kitchen table.

I could feel it. 

Qi spilled into the air, from my body. Like a seal that had been lifted, as though the vacuum around me disp...

Chapter 231: Buried Hatchet

Chapter 231: Buried Hatchet

Mercury slept deeply, and for a full eight hours, like most humans were recommended to. Not that he was human. Or got the recommended amount. After all, that was eight hours per day, and he had slept for eight hours after about a week of being awake.

Still, he felt rather good after he woke up. His mind was clearer. It had improved again, as was reasonable. Each of his zeyjn had grown more powerful, being able to handle more ystirs. It felt… fr...

Chapter 128: Calligraphy

My hair was still wet when I got home to Ann. She saw me, and smiled. “Fire spell?” she asked.

“Fire spell.”

A moment later, my hair was no longer wet. Instead, I felt thoroughly warm. The heat would have been enough to make an ordinary person’s hair curl and smoke a little - not enough to burn, though. Mine was entirely unimpressed.

The water was gone though, which was lovely. I changed into pajamas, and came down in time to see Matt trudge in. He’d bought some ...

Chapter 230: Healing

Chapter 230: Healing

For the first time, Alice properly got to see the world unravel.

She had been there with Mercury multiple times now. With Sibori, with Ciraski, with Heath. Each time, he had simply stood there as things reassembled themselves, but this time was different.

With each moment, the world quivered. It was frozen, still, cast in ember solitude. Silence hung heavy in the air. And even then, in that still world, it changed, and came undone.

Joy, a ru...

Chapter 127: Everyday

I gave my… friendly acquaintance a long look. She stared at me, arms crossed and leaning against a wall. “So?” she asked. “You gonna say anything?”

Slowly, I walked up to her, then tapped my index finger against her forehead. Just for fun. I smiled. “Been a while.”

“It has, things have been a little… tight.”

“Right, I’m sure they have,” I said. With some of my Qi, I summoned a tiny platform in the air and sat down on it, crossing my legs. “Anythin...

Chapter 229: Silently Spilled Secrets

Chapter 229: Silently Spilled Secrets

[Level Up!]

The notification hit towards the tail end of his stay in Rust, when he explored all of it. Apparently, his enjoyment or desire to see it all had qualified him for a level increase. This put him at level 31 of his current species. There was an evolution on the horizon, then.

Briefly, Mercury wondered if his evolution would be at all influenced by his closeness to fae and dragons, then placed the thought aside. It wouldn...

Chapter 126: New Normal

The whole word had, collective, kind of settled into the new normal. Sure, there were gates now. Sure, they often opened around people, as if attracted to them. Sure, there were dozens that didn't, and the oceans were crawling with horrible abominations who were growing unchecked.

But what else was new? The oceans were full of toxic chemicals a while ago. People didn’t just “go to the beach” anymore. So, the crawling horrors emerging from beaches all around the world really was qu...

Chapter 228: Company

Chapter 228: Company

Mercury slept in a red room, under a red ocean. He dreamt of an open field under a patchwork sky and silver sun. He was so, so very tired. 

Rain fell softly on the grass, pitter-pattering onto the long stalks of green, then sliding down. Bigger drops gathered at the bent tips, eventually dripping onto the soil beneath. Mercury got soaked, but he didn’t mind.

The sound of rain swallowed up all the noise. Not that it was loud, either way. Within...

Chapter 125: Apocalypse Levity

I woke up on a day that began like any other. I brushed my hair, which I kept around chin length, and threw on some generally street ready clothes. Just a pair of jeans and a shirt, nothing fancy.

Drinking a cup of coffee, I had breakfast. While doing so, I took the time to cycle increasing amounts of Qi through myself, breaking apart the last vestiges of sleepiness. The window shutters were down, though faint, greyish sunlight filtered through them.

Ann dragged herself down to th...

Chapter 227: Reforging

Chapter 227: Reforging

Mercury looked at Tor-Tern. The ruler of Blood floated in the air, masses of crimson dripping off their enormous form. All three heads were twisted into furious snarls, each one’s eyes sweeping through the room.

For a moment, Mercury considered stepping forward. He considered, well and truly, to burn blood to the ground. The court already had issues. It was one of the most obviously cruel ones, and it bothered him to no end.

Blood was a necessary...

Interlude: Chris

Chris stood in front of the empty gateway hall.

It was strange. Triz-adu were well used to goodbye’s. Everytime Chris discarded an old shell and inhabited or crafted a new one, it was a piece of them that they said goodbye to, forever.

Farewells were brief in their culture. A simple wave would usually do. A handful of words. And if you never saw someone again, that was just that. Life was ephemeral, and people changed. In some ways, even a simple wave was a permanent goodbye, si...

Chapter 226: Shackles Unshackled

Chapter 226: Shackles Unshackled

“You will not touch my friend.”

Mercury stared at Oberon, entirely uncaring. He faced the storm calmly, staring at the faerie King.

He smelled of Ozone. Of thunder in the air. Of wrath, ready to crash down - or already doing so.

The faerie king snarled at Mercury. Behind his calm mask, he was bared teeth and bestial fury. “You’ve gone too far. This ends, now.”

Slowly, Mercury tilted his head. “It does?”

...

Chapter 124: “Eclipse” - Epilogue

My mother was safe, too. 

Three days had passed since that event. Mom was slowly adjusting. She had been unconscious when I saved her, being a lot less hardy than Ann, so she simply woke up in my arms. 

I had those memories now, too. The memories of that other “me”, of my manifestation. She - I? - had done exactly as expected. We crushed Zinnic.

Those were the only words I had for it. Within five total minutes, we took out over two hundred trained operatives. F...

Chapter 225: Shower

Chapter 225: Shower

Another day passed with Mercury in the court of Rust. He saw more of it, and the strange ways it worked.

The biters were, in essence, the tiniest pieces of rust. Both the beginning and the end in this place. They swarmed any construct, causing it to decay, building sheets of living, deathly red on top of rotten metal. They coated the water and the air and the ground.

But they were also born and died. Thick, red fruits of metal grew on Nether. The a...