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105 - Deal With The Merchant Matriarch

The others followed after her, each of them reacting in an obvious manner at the shock from breaching the barrier. Zef just twitched a little, Makhus audibly gritted his teeth, the woman in red and Sigmund both shuddered. The woman walked a little ways into the courtyard, just behind a wall, beckoning them to follow as she drew a circle in the soil with her sandal.

“Step in, I will put up a sound ward,” she said, and when they did as she asked, she drew in a deep breath of Fog, rapi...

104 - The Sect Compound

Through the city they made their way, finding that yet more Kargarian merchants were openly setting up their cart stalls on the major streets. Besides Zelsys being recognized and called out for her involvement in the preceding day’s unrest a few times on the way to the property, they got there without incident.

It was situated in the north-eastern quarter of the city, about two-thirds of the way down one of the primary roads. This quarter was… Nicer than the others. Dominated by old...

103 - To Plan For The Future

Tanks, both full-scale and ultracompact.

Guns, from sparklock handguns to artillery pieces.

Ammunition, enough enriched gunpowder to blow up a small mountain.

The machines to equip an army and maintain it, an army whose technology would surpass most of what Ikesia had possessed throughout the majority of the war.

Soon enough, Willowdale would become a beacon of prosperity, of technology, the sole city in all of Ikesia with these gifts and no occupiers to staunch them. ...

102 - Pieces Falling Into Place

Pieces fell into place in her head. So that’s why the governor had gone out of his way to ask her not to reject people without good reason. “That bastard… Don’t expect preferential treatment. If anything, I’ll use you for demonstrations, and the moment you try anything shady I’m kicking your ass. Or I might just kill you. Understood?”

Halxian… Nodded. This was not the spoiled, racist brat she had beaten into pulp out on the street. It was plain that he was looking forwar...

101 - Morning News

When Zef gingerly pulled it out of the box, they saw that beneath the so-called fotoapparat sat a thick tome and some other things, like a deck of square cards much similar to those on the table in shape. She pulled one out of the box and slid it into a hitherto unseen slot on the top of the device, clicking a button that made the lightgem emit a slight flash before dimming to near-black before she stepped back and raised it to her eyes.

“Shouldn’t need any more light. Right, now ju...

100 - Foster the Flame

“Aye. Had this weird feeling one night, then heard someone screaming. Slicked my hair back, put on a gas mask, and ran out with a war-knife following the noise. Thought I’d end up cutting down some locust, not a Black Horse disciple. I’ll never forget the face when I took his head off, like even in death the head wanted to compliment my form,” he explained grimly, looking off into the middle distance. She pulled out her tablet, holding it out to him.

“The moment of a technique...

99 - New Ammunition, Blue Meat, and a Swordsman's Struggle

“What if they’re not caught? Do you truly think a crowd of civilians won’t fall for a well-done distraction?” Zef pushed again. It sounded like she well and truly wanted to ensure the deaths of those two with every fibre of her being.

“Oh, they will be. A crowd of angry people without guidance is easy to sway, that is true - which is why I’ve had certain back alleys barricaded off and why I picked out several reliable civilians to inform and guide the flock, so to speak,” ...

98 - Sheng and Zhuo

It was overtly worded in a way that shifted the agency onto the crowd, no doubt to position Estoras as a servant to the people’s will even as he served up the location of those who would see him dead and Willowdale destroyed on a silver platter.

Not much new information was gleaned from the interrogation, brief as it was. Of the whole ordeal, the most interesting part was the fact that Estoras apparently possessed some essentech device that would prevent whoever it was connected to fr...

97 - The Wannabe Sleazebag's Gambit

She had fully expected to need to encourage him at least a little bit, but much to her self-satisfaction and amusement, it was like he just snapped under the pressure of her presence.

“So be it, I... I will be better off a- a prisoner of Snow De- Ikesians, than a disgrag- disgrace to my own,” he said in that awkward Pateirian accent, voice trembling as he audibly struggled to maintain a clear diction. “I can uh… Yes, I can tell you the place we used to stage this-this would-be a...

96 - Hunted

From a brisk walk she broke into a sprint that rendered her a blur for all but Shang and a few of his more perceptive lieutenants, lightning arcing over her legs, its tendrils writhing around them and the muscles writhing under her skin in concert.

Brave man though he was, Shang was not this brave. He was the first to break rank right after he barked retreat order, thus technically protecting him from being considered a deserter.

The Homunculus smashed right into the firing line j...

95 - Paint it Red

They had been told that it was tall, but-

“It’s her! She stinks of alchemy and my dead brethren!” chittered the Transformed, breaking Shang’s train of thought. He recklessly charged ahead, fury flashing in his eyes and his mandibles gnashing. The woman spat a tiny orb of light at him. There was a flash of light, a miniature thunderclap, and he doubled over forward, smashing his skull on the stone floor. He got up and charged her again pulling out his sword, but this time she jus...

94 - Slayer's Mercy

Wild-eyed he stared at her, looking side to side as if trying to convey a shake of the head with his eyes.

Part confused, part terrified, the boy once more spoke to her, “I-I’ve seen that before, it’s a-a ge… Ge… Geeaz?

“A geas?” she asked.

“Yes, geaas. Th-they said those who took one to prove their loyalty would get extra rations… That it would make traitors end themselves...” he muttered.

Zel sighed and invoked the third phrase, reaching a finger ...

93 - Innocence and Wretchedness

There was a geyser of steam and blood, a brief gurgle, and the man was dead, his spine, esophagus, and carotid arteries all cleanly severed. Just to make sure he wasn’t awake in his own dying head, she brought his club down on it and crumpled it like an empty can before finally turning her attention to the open front door and the scene unfolding just outside.

Walking out of that door, right hand drenched in blood, her attention was focused squarely on the two soldiers. The jaundiced m...

92 - A Hallway of Dead Men

Zelsys chopped, cut, and kicked her way into the first floor’s main hallway, willfully burning a tenth of her lung capacity on every breath for Fulgur to be expelled. Not as an attack, but as a lightshow. A display of snapping, flashing lightning that crackled from her skin without direction, lightly scorching and searing anything she came near. Yet another tenth of her lung capacity was spent counteracting it, ensuring the wild current wouldn’t make a muscle spasm at an inopportune momen...

91 - Stars of Calamity

A sword swung at her chest by a man from the left, no feint, completely telegraphed, but the attacker had the fortune that the Butcher was currently busy being used reverse-grip to cut a swathe of burned meat through the lineup of four soldiers to her right.

Zel pushed through, entering into a full spin and using her right leg as a counterweight, sweeping the sword-swinger’s leg whilst beheading a man in front of her. Using the momentum she jumped off the slumping headless corpse, spi...

90 - Mangy Dogs and Stone Soldiers

Turning the sound ward generator off he proceeded to stride over to one of his shelves, grabbing an ornamental saber off its stand, proclaiming, “I might be out of practice, but I’m an out of practice Gold-rank Hunter. Don’t worry about me, just focus on them. Make a show of it. Drag it into the streets if you can. If they’re coming through one of the old escape tunnels, you should be able to trace their path back to the staging point.”

While the governor did this, Zelsys and ...

89 - The Pot Boiling Over

He looked at her with a flash of blue fire in his eyes, this time continuing to spin the dial back and forth with pure muscle memory. Click. Click. Click. Click.

“Executing them for treason would be both political and actual suicide, I’d be throwing open the gates to Pateirian invasion in earnest, and they would be far worse than locust-men. Mu and Zemin have to die, but they have to die at the hands of the people.

The third dial clicked into position, and he just kept talking...

88 - Oblique Maneuvering

Looking into the binder revealed a single, thick sheet of parchment - no, that wasn’t right. This was all too thick to be called parchment, this was more like preserved skin, tattooed with meticulous writing and glyphwork. The writing was ancient and meaningless to her eyes, yet it shifted in place, swimming through the piece of skin to reform into words and letters that made sense, revealing...

…A deed of ownership detailing the extent of the property and its contents. The most int...

87 - The Payment for a City Saved

Just one guard.

And it was him. That mercenary.

“Is this where sailing once more has led you?” she prodded as she approached. He gave her a steely-eyed look and the subtlest of smiles, the slightest of nods. Crossed arms, outwardly relaxed stance, but beneath the surface ready for immediate combat. She knocked on the door. Estoras proclaimed from beyond it, “Come in!”

The door opened and closed with nary a sound. The room was as smoky and filled with lacquered wood a...

86 - Impending Unknown

“Did you just replicate what I did back in the E.Z. using the citronade?” she questioned.

Zel just nodded, answering that, “Using the second gut feels less like exhaling and more like burping it out, just strange. I’ll get used to it.”

“Think you can use it for a better version of your defensive techniques?”

“What, just breathe out a wall of Fog that sends bullets bouncing right back at full force? Yeah, that’d be useful. I’ll have to find out if I can ju...

85 - Lighting the Inner Crucible

“One last thing, before you leave. What do you intend to call yourself? Renegade, or something else?” she questioned, not entirely sure of the reason herself. Somehow she just felt that there was a different name. The response which Alcerys gave suggested that it was perhaps because she had intended to tell her either way.

The Renegade turned, permitting a small smile to creep onto her face before she said:

“I am the Charred Judge. A title fitting the path I’ve chosen to w...

84 - Speak of the Blue Moon

“I’ve not mentioned it before, but the fact that your Tablet uses the four-attribute format was more telling of its make than the fact it’s a stone slab. I’m nearly certain that my Force is simply too specialized towards swordsmanship and lack of physical strength in other areas drives the overall rating down.”

“C’mon we all know why your one-handed swing is really as good as it is!” Zef heckled from behind with a laugh. Makhus looked like he really wanted to be mad at t...

83 - To Set Loose the Violent Will

Makhus looked at the stick in his hand, spun it around in his grasp a few times to get a feel for its center of mass, and let out a resigned sigh. He looked at Zel again, and though his words spoke reluctance, his eyes couldn’t have conceivably been more eager.

“I- Yeah, alright. Don’t expect much,” he said, slipping it behind his belt in place of a war-knife and taking up a similarly low, albeit far more rigid swordsman’s stance. Left foot forward, right foot back, both knees...

82 - A Promise Upheld

A/N: There might not be a chapter tomorrow. Can't really say for certain as of the posting of this chapter.

For a few seconds it hung limp connected by a near-black layer of blood-stuff, but soon enough Zelsys was able to move the fingers and even bend her elbow, painful though it was due to the severed bone. Of course, the arm’s strength was barely a third of the right, seeing as neither the muscle nor the bone had been fully reconnected yet.

It didn’t matter. A grin crept in...

81 - Left Arm of the Engine Beast

It was even visible, a hair-thin silver conduit on her arm taking on a barely-visible glow. Being so shallow, the cut resealed almost seamlessly when she let go, leaving behind just a lingering pain and a black seam.

“The trait listing says it consumes either Aether or Vitae, though I can’t quite remember what the second one is…” she said as they all watched. “What is Vitae?”

“It’s a semi-transparent pinkish essentia composed of uh…” Makhus squinted, drinking s...

80 - A Casual Breakfast Before Limb Reattachment

“Yeah, we ran out of eggs so I made lokshe instead,” he confirmed, returning to the stove to continue. “The filling’s apples, cinnamon, and ground poppyseed.”

She had a mind to ask him what Vitae was, but before she could, a bleary-eyed, just-about-dressed Zefaris stumbled into the kitchen holding a hand to the left side of her head.

“That fucker should’ve told me a hangover would make this thing feel like a hot coal in my head…” she grumbled. She then went on to...

79 - Eternal Beast

Her tongue sat in her mouth like a curled-up dead snake, dry and slimy from dehydration, numb and aching like an overexerted muscle, so fresh the turgid sensation it brought to mind a just-ended colossal cramp. A familiar taste still lingered in her mouth, but she did not remember drinking anything with Viriditas in it the previous evening… Ah, yes. It all came back to her readily now, when she deigned to open her eyes in earnest and her train of thought stirred into motion.

The previ...

78 - The Charred Judge

Most averted their eyes.

A few stared her down with a grim coldness behind their glares, a wordless agreement tainted by defeatism.

Three men emerged from the crowd, each burly, each wielding a blade - a large dagger, a war-knife, a butcher’s cleaver. Each of them wore mass-produced clothing, though the one with the war-knife had obviously bespoke workman’s boots, as well as a half arrogant, half furious grimace over his face.

“I’ll give y’the courtesy o’ tellin�...

77 - Judgment Justice

“You had other names in ages past.”

“Yes, yes I did... And I regret each of them, most of all the one immediately preceding Omniudex. The Cruel Miracle, the people of that kalpa called me. I have yet to atone for the sins I perpetrated upon them.”

The Judge grew silent.

The Confessor smiled to herself and walked out from the side alley, vanishing into a crowd. It was a curious thing, speaking directly to a god and receiving answers ...

76 - Ancient Truths

Yet, with a saintly patience, Jorfr continued explaining: “The paths carved in the ice by new meteors are the same as those we see left behind by the old ones. Our land has been generously bestowed with the metal of the gods ever since we drove away the western dogs a second time.”

Facetiousness was replaced by actual surprise when Berga turned to face the norseman in earnest, questioning, “...Hol’up, y’resisted Pateirian invasion twice?”

A shake of his head and a prou...