akasoindustries

20 - Drawn Conclusion

And yet, when he put either of the samples through any of the tests he knew, there was no reaction. From simple reaction paper to complete alkahestry breakdown, it all painted the samples as normal.

“Wait… The Pariah’s Exception, of course,” the alchemist mumbled to himself, looking up from his notes and rushing over to his predecessor’s writing table. There was a book that covered this subject on it, he remembered seeing it when he was working on decoding the journal. Yes, th...

19 - Sensory Overload

She buried her face between Zef’s legs, and her hand between her own, snapping electric arcs leaping between her fingers before the two poles were placed at either side of something that posed a path of far less resistance. The blonde responded in the only appropriate manner, locking her legs together behind Zel’s back and squeezing her head with her thighs.

The smell of ozone registered to her nostrils and a spark of concern flashed through her head. When she heard naught but a muf...

18 - Short Circuit

Vision quickly grew clouded with silver-tinted exhalations, but the shining silver of Zel’s eyes cut through the Fog and steam. Zel leaned in, locked her lips to Zef’s. She pressed both her tongue and her fingers between Zef’s lips, albeit at different ends. Just as Zelsys had used a small electric arc to ignite CP-T back in the dungeon, so did she use one now to set Zel’s being ablaze with an overwhelming tsunami of pleasure that utterly drowned the middling pain of electric shock. 2021-05-16 14:28:36 +0000 UTC View Post

17 - Electroinduction

To her regret, Zelsys was certain that the linen which bound her chest would share the same fate. Soaked in blood and sweat, caked in all possible forms of dirt, covered in holes and torn up to the very edge of just falling apart. She would’ve been a liar if she had said that she could go with her breasts bound all day every day. It was certainly a great relief to be free of the pressure, and yet she still intended to continue binding them - she was certain that they would’ve sustained fa...

16 - Voltage

Zef turned to look at the Philosopher’s Heart while Zel explained the shock. Makhus could’ve sworn he noticed her face flush pink for the briefest of moments. A few moments later the syringe was full, and he taped it over with a cotton swab on a piece of medical tape before pulling the needle.

Putting the syringe away on a nearby table and moving onto Zefaris, he saw Zel opening and closing her fist a few times before her attention turned to the severed arm on the table. She looked ...

15 - Caution

“C’mon, stay on…” grumbled Makhus, struggling to get a seal to stick to a flask. The Necrobeast Serum was damn-near free of all animalistic traits, he just needed this one seal to stick to subtly modify a filtering column’s glyph...

A banging on the lab door pulled his attention from the monotonous struggle.

Frustrated, the alchemist looked up and exclaimed, “What is it?!”

The door cracked open. Sigmund peeked through. “They’re back,” he said calmly. Coul...

14 - True Return

“That just means I’ve an even better reason to pay a little extra. An honest apothecary is nearly as rare as an Imperial these days,” the old woman added, placing two more silvers on the counter seemingly out of nowhere before she turned and walked out.

Sig noticed something as she went, something that caused him to forget to even say goodbye. Her hair had shifted a little, just enough to expose the scars on her ears. Scars that Sig, as a historian, recognized. He’d seen depicti...

13 - A Loyal Customer

And yet, as good as it felt, as confident as he was in his ability to control it, he didn’t wish to use it beyond simple exercise. Were he so inclined he could work as a beast-slayer or take part in spectacle combat for money without issue, but he was content to just help Makhus run this store.

Part of it was certainly out of a feeling of debt, for all those months hiding in the Exclusion Zone during which Makhus had taken care of him and sacrificed his own wellbeing to alleviate his ...

12 - Introspect

Up against one of the walls, there was a small shrine that held his old armaments. It had sat there untouched since he’d put it there, yet not a speck of dust had touched the ancient metal. It burst with such Aether that it could be seen by the naked eye.

A squat, long table sat in the center of this ordered mess, a pair of equally long incense stick holders sat atop it. Kanbu took his time picking out the incense sticks, personally drawing the name of someone he wished to pray for on...

11 - Kanbu

A wholly unpleasant grimace spread across Henry’s face as he stared down the barrel of the gun. It was an expression of… Pain. Pain and consideration. He raised the glass to his lips, downed its contents, quietly put it back down on the counter, got up from his seat, and stumbled out without so much as another word. Just that horrible grin gripping his face all along.

The door clicked shut behind him and Kanbu let out a heavy sigh, lowering his gun and putting it back under the coun...

10 - Pierogi

Finally, just as the key turned in the door’s heavy, steel lock and the door swung open, he built up the will to call out to her.

“Uh, miss with the weird hair and the missing arm?” he said nervously, and his nerves only became more visible when Zel’s gaze immediately snapped to meet his, bearing an unspoken question about what he wanted. He cleared his throat and asked, “You uh… You kill the maneater what had a contract posted on its head at Quincy’s?”

“...That ...

9 - Re: Poppies

Zel stood atop the hill at whose top they’d emerged, but just before she could follow in Strol’s and Zef’s stead, she felt a tap on her shoulder followed by the hiss of a gas mask seal breaking.

“I just need you to know that I will uphold my image as Inquisitor when we step into the city,” Alcerys said before Zelsys could question what she wanted. “If you see me in this attire, do not try to speak to me or approach me. Though… I wager that the next time we meet, I will alr...

8 - Re: Willowdale

Even after nine separate purification cycles and two finished batches of Philter, the solution just wouldn’t let go of its foundational Nigredo. He should’ve expected this, but in his eagerness to test his hypothesis he’d neglected this aspect of the process.

For the time being, Makhus filed it away in his mental cabinet and returned to other paths of work. This batch of the Philter was nearly done. Soon he would have time to find out for himself whether the Heart could just purif...

7 - Panzermensch

A/N: Next chapter needs a bit more time to cook, so probably no chapter tomorrow.

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He took a deep breath, a long toke of his cigar.

“I need a full battalion of Second-Model Ultracompact One-Man Tanks,” he said.

A strange disgust contorted the merchant’s face, but the words had already left Crovacus’s mouth.

“Those second-model tin cans aren’t tanks. They’re barely bett...

6 - Dossier

There was of course the aforementioned matter of her having beaten some humility into Crovacus’s own son Halxian, clearly showing that she was far beyond a fledgling martial artist.

All of the above was enough to qualify her as an official beast-slayer, in fact just the fact she was able to use a Captain’s Cleaver qualified her for that. However, it was far from enough to mark her as Prime Slayer material.

No, it was the role she played in exterminating a heavy locust-man infe...

5 - Arnys Krishorn

She kicked her feet up on the edge of his table and retrieved a long, ornamental pipe from her sleeve. She then whistled a brief tune, silvery-orange wisps of Fog issued from her lips, and the pipe sparked to life.

“So I’m told your little aether-spy got his head exploded,” she grinned, taking a drag of her pipe. The smell reminded him of incense.

“The aether skimmer machine imploded and a piece of shrapnel took his head off, yes,” he said But I wouldn’t call you here ...

4 - Cogs in Motion

They stood at the edge of the crater, watching for movement, hoping that the statue would remain a statue. Thankfully it remained stone-still, but two questions burned in Zelsys’ mind.

“...What does the Living Storm target again?” she asked, turning to Strolvath.

“The brightest-burning soul in any given area,” he answered with a grim countenance.

Her second question visibly confused him: “And when was the last full moon?”

“Uh… Right after the start of...

3 - Violence of the Skies

Time passed, they ate and rested, and darkness fell. Soon enough the cabin was illuminated only by the fireplace and the red glow of a few lightgems they had placed around. The silence was broken only by the sounds of them eating and drinking, of the fireplace cracking, and eventually by Strolvath plucking the strings of his instrument. The occasional lightning strike illuminated the night, soon followed by thunder so loud one could mistake it for the roar of a dragon. Their meal finished, th...

2 - Out of Desolation

As she’d done during every lengthy march before, Zelsys zoned out for large stretches of their trek. She was sporadically snapped into awareness by an errant locust’s presence - either the sound of the thing, or her own nagging instinct telling her it was watching.

Each and every time, Zefaris shot the creature where it stood. They’d even encountered Locust Nobles, and Zefaris dealt with both of them in this way too - a bullet to the head, or rather, through the head.

Zel co...

1 - Victory Lap

The storyteller had begun audibly struggling to speak near the end of his tale, even though he’d cut it down for length already. He coughed up a clump of bloody mucus and spit it into the fire, flushing the pain with a long sip of greenish vitality elixir. The bottle’s stabilization seals rustled in his grip.

“Do you think there are kernels of truth in there?” asked the one-armed amazon between taking bites of fire-seared meat right off the iron skewer. The red glow of lightgems...

0 - Prologue

A/N: As with Volume 1, I will do everything in my power to publish new chapters regularly, but I'll give chapters extra time to cook if they need it.

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“It is said that a great many gods once ruled an ancient, infinite world, and they were capricious and cruel. They were said to sail the Sea of Light on their world-ships of living gold, and only those chosen by them were permitted to drink of the co...

WIP Artwork (possibly very light spoiler)

It's a training arc pinup. 

ARC FINALE - It Has to Be This Way

A/N: It took way longer to finish this than it should've. I hope it's a satisfactory final chapter for this arc. Now it's time for me to take a break, see you in a couple weeks.

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It would be a lie to say that emerging into the outside world greeted them with a breath of fresh air. The air was still thick with the stench of locust-kind, the dungeon entrance surrounded by a ghastly scene. On the upside...

251 - Re: Departure

A/N: You might've missed this if you didn't look at the cover art sneak peek, so here's a repeat of a previous note:

I'm currently in the process of writing the final part of this arc, which I plan to publish as a single extended chapter. It might be near the usual length or much longer, I don't know.

Once it's out I'll take a break for a couple of weeks to rest, plan the continuation, and hopefully build up a larger backlog in preparation to begin publishing the continuation.

Book 2 Cover Art Sneak Peek

I'm currently in the process of writing the final part of this arc, which I plan to publish as a single extended chapter.

Once it's out, I'll take a break for 1-2 weeks to rest, plan the continuation, and hopefully build up a larger backlog in preparation for Retribution Engine's publication.

250 - Call on the Senate

A thin beam of violet shot out from his middle finger. The image grew distorted, the machine’s nozzles sprayed Fog in violent sputtering bursts, and it emitted a horrendous chorus of mechanical grinding and the ringing of its bell. Zel felt a subtle instinctual gnawing telling her to get back and she abided, just in time for the machine’s casing to spill Fog from its seams before it buckled inward and imploded into a heap of crumpled metal.

Just one question dwelt on her mind.

249 - To Call a God Subhuman

“Really? You don’t hate those you fight against? Or is that what you tell yourself once the heads have rolled and the corpses stopped twitching?”

Disgust filled her and bile rose into her throat. Even as he put on that exaggerated tone and tried to tug at the strings of remorse, the Emperor’s eyes stayed dead and empty. The only emotion he broadcast was this unsettling sense of amusement. Zel spat off to the side, noticing that the others had gathered near the hoard-chamber’s ...

248 - God of Living Wax

“I don’t know what it is, but I’ve sure got some ideas. Considerin’ the Fog nozzles, the general size of it, and the keyboard… I wager this is probably the comms array that transmitted and received the aether wave comms we intercepted.”

Clack.

Brrrring. Brrrring. Brrrring.

A tiny bell rang inside the machine, and seemingly without further input it came alive. Its spouts began continuously spraying Fog until a generous screen of the substance had coalesced at the ...

247 - The God-Machine is Tired

After observing Strol’s fidgeting with the machine and its seemingly arbitrary responses in click-clacky, occasionally Fog-spraying responses, Zel did as the old soldier suggested. She walked right through the hoard-chamber, her eyes stiffly fixed on the corridor beyond. There was no door, no shining core, just matte-black stone floor and the bottom of a staircase.

Zelsys stepped into the corridor and made her way towards the staircase with Zefaris in tow, finding it curious that the ...

246 - Inner Hive

Alcerys hadn’t just seen the Queen’s skull get blown wide open, she had very clearly heard Zelsys invoking a three-line incantation while she tried to aim her third shot. By the time the so-called “Dance of the Fireflies” first struck, she’d given up on finishing the mother-bug off and moved onto trying to carve her way into the rest of the mega-hive.

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A few minutes passed.

Strolvath,...