akasoindustries

215 - Vs. Semzar Pt. 1 [Cherno]

The shadowy shape of Eisenretter, blackened by the radiance of his own light, passed unimpeded through Tsetse. His passage and radiant blade cleft a vertical split through the monstrous flyman three-quarters of the way up his chest. Miraculously, Tsetse remained standing. Even as gold-silver flame scoured his flesh from the inside, widening the wound, as Cabral's internal organs spilled out, and as both the Abara Morph's and the Host's blood ran freely down Tsetse's legs, pooling at his feet,...

360 - The Weight of Countless Corpses [Sturmblitz]

Making her way into the grove, Zel noticed a wide array of bone statues all around, many placed particularly to let certain herbs climb up them or to support other trees. Outside the shrine’s pillar boundary, two distinctly different pillars poked just barely above the grass, their inner construction intricate to a seemingly unnecessary extent, whereas their surface was plain white. She knew, from speaking with Victor, that it was to be a kind of ritual gate for summoning various s...

214 - Right Hand of Courage [Cherno]

With Silberblut’s focus entirely directed towards Tsetse, he was caught off-guard even by this attack that originated in plain sight — under different circumstances, he could have dodged in advance based on Semzar’s body tells. Moreover, even the Left Hand of Anger didn’t react, despite the fact automatic defense was its core functionality. Tsetse was the only target permitted to Eisenretter’s nascent form.

And so, the dismembered Mamon Knight fell to one knee, holding himself...

213 - Severed Arms [Cherno]

A/N: Small edit, the Right Hand and Left Hand got mixed up. It's the Right Hand of Courage and Left Hand of Anger.

________________________________________________________________________________

Tsetse emitted a grunt of pain and frustration, but he was neither deterred nor thrown off-kilter. The fly-man twisted himself like a humanoid spring in order to deliver a kick from an utterly bewildering angle, sending Silberblut flying into the ceiling. Rather than smash into it, Silber...

359 - Sigmund, the Hidden Elder [Sturmblitz]

Sigmund, as on many occasions before sunrise, was to be found atop the central spire, producing the enthralling appearance of a lighthouse at a distance. Despite emitting great tongues of blue-white fire as he floated a meter off the floor, the air around him was perfectly cool — colder than ambient temperature, if anything. His shirt hung over the railing. The historian’s appearance had changed a fair bit since the Blue Moon War. His skin had lost effectively all natural pigment — it w...

358 - Spectre of Bitter Anguish [Sturmblitz]

The blackwall shook in the night as its mechanisms worked. This was nothing new. The great wall had been set to gradually loosen its net, and it had been doing just that. Indeed, none were the wiser to the fact this shudder was different to the others — not even the ankhezian brothers, for they were not watching so closely as to notice.

Meanwhile, Crovacus Estoras worked in his office, typing away whilst refining his control of the Calamity Flame. He did so by using the flame to sign ...

357 - Elder's Duties [Sturmblitz]

Zelsys would’ve loved to spar with those more her equal, of course — unfortunately, Makhus was utterly consumed in work on the True Dragonheart Bolus, and Jorfr was working with the owners of Scarlet Hill Farm to bolster their security in exchange for the supply of their product to the sect. As for Zefaris, she had been seemingly everywhere all at once since the dragon hunt. Sigmund was able, but not willing, and so, to the baths she went.

After she was done, on her way back to the ...

356 - The Elder's Coaching [Sturmblitz]

A/N: I'm not dead. I just got sick. I'm better now. Not fully okay, but better.

_______________________________________________________________

After giving it a few moments of thought, Zelsys nodded and held out her hand. Fulguris twisted into being from thin air, then transformed into Carnifex once the end of her tail was grasped in the elder’s hand. Zelsys gave form to a False Fang, dismissing the cleaver as she grasped the fang, elongating its shape until it vaguely resemble...

212 - Flesh-thief's Hex/Tsetse Battle [Cherno]

A/N: I'm not dead. I just got sick. I'm better now. Not fully okay, but better.

______________________________________________________________________

“Om, Zavyarana sowaka, behold the heretics and set their stolen flesh against them! Om, Zavyarana sowaka! Sear the mark of their sin upon their souls!” Yazata chanted, pulling her church signet from her neck. She held it up as she hopped back and forth in the desperate attempt to keep all three of them in her line of sight. Her ...

Crow and Raven [Cherno][Artwork]

355 - Scheming [Sturmblitz]

The witch spent an hour detailing the plan, but it was, fundamentally, simple and straightforward. It entailed some deception, but even this was expected to be seen through, and whether or not it was seen through, the desired outcome was equally likely to be achieved. Isidora, of course, had her own intentions, but they weren’t mutually exclusive with the objectives of the Four Sects Alliance.

The plan hinged on opening a new Black Horse Sect branch in Arkaley’s border...

211 - Evolved Cinder [Cherno]

The mansion was enormous — too large to get from one end to the ballroom in a single Astro Dive. Krahe surfaced intermittently to recover, continuing her advance as she did.

Just from a few tentative tests between dives, it instantly became evident that this was nothing like anathema. More than being transformed, it felt as if every aspect of her natural thaumaturgy had been amplified — the smoke was thicker, the embers burned brighter, the pyroclast came out visibly superh...

354 - Meeting of Elders [Sturmblitz]

The Sanger and Black Horse elders continued their argument even as they brought out a series of artifacts in sequence, some unfolding to form miniature landscape features while others created similarly miniature landscapes on the table, including simulacra of rivers, people, and animals. They spent the next full day moving about tiny soldiers and throwing variously shaped dice. The miniatures were carved of stone, inlaid with metals, detailed to the highest degree, and moved by imbuing one’...

210 - FOURFOLD ASTRAL IMPLOSION FURNACE [Cherno]

Spotlights narrowed down to laser-like pinpoints, and at once began a wild dance, carving an eye-crossingly complex pattern in the span of seconds before ending at their starting point, where they carved out six hexagonal empty spaces.

The Atomica resonated with a soundless tone, and she instantly knew what she needed: Words. The same sort of words she had used to give form to the Daemon Core.

One would suffice to start with, the others could come later. But she would nee...

209 - Taking a Stand [Cherno]

“Do you mean to tell me you cannot handle him? Did I pay you for nothing?!” Semzar hissed, trying to project the mask of an indignant, angered employer. It was a poor mask, all but see-through. His eyes trembled, his tendrils bulged under his skin, and his tone veered into pleading in the second sentence.

Tsetse, calmly, reassured his employer: “I can keep him busy. Any more is beyond me as I am now. Unless you would prefer I go after Blackhand?”

It was clear that...

353 - Violence of the Flame Pt. 2 [Sturmblitz]

Zel came crashing down onto the beast’s back, grasping Carnifex with both hands as she buried its sawtoothed back into a particular spot. Instantly, she was engulfed in fire as the dragon focused the full weight of its aura onto her exclusively, yet she seemed unscathed. With a shift of her posture, she dragged the saw all the way through, almost effortlessly. A great geyser of pulped flesh and nervous tissue sprayed out of the wound, and the Wildfire Kite crumpled to the ground — its leg...

208 - Eisenretter [Cherno][+Artwork]

“Stronger. Not strong enough,” Tsetse remarked, a faint disappointment in his deadpan tone.

“You speak the truth,” Silberblut agreed. “I must thank you, for reminding me that mere imitation of my predecessor would only doom me on my path. That my reason to wear this belt was just as important as my ability to do so.”

He reached for his waist, as if to press the eye of his belt for a coupler charge, only to detransform. To those who knew what to look for, it was obvious...

207 - Flight of the Crow [Cherno][+Artwork]

The small comfort of using a crowd for cover didn’t last long — Krahe’s aura still pushed people away, and they readily scattered from her even without its encouragement. The stillborns were hot on her trail. She just needed to drag the abominations out of here, and until then, she was glad to let Casus and Tsetse take the center stage. She certainly wouldn’t grace that man-fly with his preferred name, even in thought. 

As she made her way to one of the ballroom’s staff e...

352 - Violence of the Flame [Sturmblitz]

A/N: The first 3/5 or so are smut. After that it's right to the dragon hunt.

_______________________________________________________________________
It was at this moment that Zefaris learned just how far her cultivator physique could stretch. That seething, thrumming thing could barely be considered of human proportion, mercilessly bulldozing into her bosom, surging with enough fulgur to knock out any mortal. A long wheeze escaped Zefaris as it skewered her — the last dre...

351 - Rising Tension [Sturmblitz]

A/N: Mild smut at the end

_________________________________________________________________
Despite not saying it aloud, Zelsys felt that she knew the real reason for Strake’s acquiescence to Zero’s newfound chivalric virtue — he was, fundamentally, a virtuous man. He had just decided to play the part of an unrepentant war-dog, and he played it to the point of fooling even himself.

The rest of the ride passed by uneventfully, and they reached the nesting site without inci...

206 - Ballroom Shootout [Cherno]

A dozen men aimed their guns and thaumaturgies at the black-armored banisher. At least three unique iterations of Mohawk’s “bladed chains” motif sprung up among them. Pandemonium unfolded — but the gulf between Silberblut and his foes was simply too great. None could strike him, let alone harm him.

“What are you waiting for?! Kill them!” Semzar barked as the women swarmed away from him and he raised his barrier. It formed instantly as a flat wall of purple force, letting off...

350 - "This must be an intentional mating display." [Stumblitz]

The trio continued discussing the plan of the hunt, working out the details. The main problem was that the second Wildfire Kite could not be found out in the open, and only exited its cavern nest once every two weeks to check on its counterpart and to feed. The location of the aforementioned nest was not known. For this reason, the only way to readily track down the beast would be to wait at the nesting site and slay the beast as it came upon the nest remnants.

It soon became evident th...

205 - They Were Good Foldovers, Semzar [Cherno]

“Are… Are you alright?” Casus asked.

Krahe gave a nod, raising her right hand. The Atomica floated in her grasp.

“Pre-implantation attunement, can’t use thaumaturgy properly until it’s done. One-third of the way there.”

She glanced the way of the stillborn’s toppled lower half.

“Something tells me those won’t be the last freaks to blindly chase after me in the meanwhile.”

“Of course. You are a walking beacon,” Casus agreed, walking up to...

349 - Full Consolidation Pt. 3 [Sturmblitz]

The slightly viscous fluid with which Zel filled the vial was not human saliva. The alchemist turned it over inside the flask, sniffed it, poured out some onto a flat alchemical spoon, and set it over a burner. It took some time to boil, yet seemingly refused to evaporate. The whole time, he muttered about how it resembled the saliva of various cultivator-beasts and how curious it was that humans could even produce such a thing without specialized mutagens. After handing the sample off to his...

204 - It Scuttled Like That One Scene in The Exorcist [Cherno]

The Atomica was preparing her Soul Furnace for the reshaping it would undergo during actual implantation. She was stuck like this for now. As she wondered how long it would take, a new HUD element manifested, a simple percentage bar. It readily faded out of view, but Krahe remained aware — agonizingly aware — of its wavering rise, slowly going up and down by half-percent increments, totalling out to a gradual rise.

She suppressed a groan — one of frustration, pain, but worst of al...

203 - Return the Flesh You Stole [Cherno]

The sizable man stared down at Casus, grey force coalescing around his fists and continuing further up his arms. The telltale tendrils of a baneworm twitched under his skin, concealed somewhat under a generous layer of fat.

A grey fist came flying at him. Casus shifted to the side and came running after his foe right away, closing the distance.

The man was impressive — his strength rivaled Casus’ own, and despite his size, he was no lumbering brute. It was true that his sheer ...

202 - Black Sun Nova Burster [Cherno]

Smoke, ash and cinders began pouring out of every crevice of the Viridaimon suit, enveloping her in a swirling maelstrom. It resembled a swarm of insects more than anything else. Her casting medium, meanwhile, formed a small bead of sputtering, flame, an ember more than anything else, and yet, its radiance grew. As if being fed with pure oxygen, the Black Sun Coupler roused an ember to the intensity of raging fire. She began walking through the short intermediary room separating this wing fro...

201 - Rendezvous [Cherno]

Indeed, the mansion shook and a wave of discordant magic washed through the floor, blackened lines showing through the carpet as the stench of burning fabric filled the room. Through Barzai’s eyes, Krahe saw similar backlash taking place in the hallway, spreading from one particular window. At its precipice, the walls burst open with the force of rupturing arcane circuitry, the phenomenon she had observed being just the waning aftershocks. In the next moment, an indistinct distortion clawed...

348 - Full Consolidation Pt. 2 [Sturmblitz]

The colour of both her hair and the Thundergod manifestations had also changed; in most cases, the beastly heads of her Thundergods manifested in a pale greyish-blue, blending Fulgur, Metallum, and Predator Aura into a stable form that was simply solid and nothing more. In this state, her hair moved with a relaxed smoothness, but had a tendency to coil around her, occasionally snapping from one spot to the next with great violence and flashes of blue light. In an instant, however, this “rel...

347 - Full Consolidation [Sturmblitz]

With a sound like a sword being unsheathed, the inscribed shells that made up the scripture’s case slid apart. Inside was a scroll of large metal slips and animal bones. Zel partly unraveled the mass of metal and bone, then took a particular slip in hand. Its surface was densely damascened lengthwise, with only a short description of its contents visible in writing. As she poured aura and intent into it, the slip expanded in width several times over, becoming more of a metal slab, revealing...