Joroboros

[KoJ] Chapter 88: The Weak-Strong Dilemma

Ceph and I left Sruthland not long after their communications broke down. Whether it was something she’d intuited from the prisoner, or the entire scenario changed her mind about something, I’m not sure. She said that our plans were changing, and we would be heading east. Towards the broken cities she’d originally wanted to hide from me. Her reasoning was something about wanting me to meet someone.

It sounded rather unconvincing, but I have no complaints about finally seein...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 90: Intruder

“So? You have to tell us.” Ari leaned in from where she sat besides Dan. “What was it like in the Dark Star? Is it as horrifying as they say

“So? You have to tell us.” Ari leaned in from where she sat besides Dan. “What was it like in the Dark Star? Is it as horrifying as they say?”

Nyxil took a moment to appreciate that the question came from the only other young person to survive one of the disasters.

“Wasn’t easy.” It felt strange to say, now that she ...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 89: Dan and Ari

When Nyxil imagined her reunion with the boy before her, she’d never expected him to be mad at her. Sure, he might have been annoyed that she’d gone and taken K’tan’s life without involving him and Ari, but with so much time having passed, they should have gotten over it. At worst, Nyxil had considered that they forgot about her. Or never cared that she disappeared in the first place.

They were kind, but had only really interacted with her for a week, after all.

But here w...

[KoJ] Interlude XI: The Titan Killer

Hirsh crashed through trench after trench engulfed in his rolling wave. The land was a muddy bog even before his water hyle sank into the earth, but now, the enemies defensive burrows flooded mere moments after his passage.

The bright lines of the markings across his thick cage of his antlers was as much a trumpet to his charge as the loud crashing waves and buzzing saws that twisted around his form. The Henosis soldiers ran. They fired their weapons in desperate hopes of stoppin...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 88: Broken Intersect

Nyxil stared down into the crater that was all that remained of her first Dark Star Event. A metal skeleton built in the massive semisphere gave the basic foundation to rebuild the section of Coral back into a similar space as the rest of the safe zone. Or it would have, if the cults hadn’t snapped up slices for themselves.

Between thick girders and towering pillars, she spotted the beginnings of distinct architecture. Fleshy buildings — both moving and not — indicated the presenc...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 87: Aspirations

Nyxil poked at the hard metal band that hugged her bicep. It didn’t bend beneath her chitinous fingers, nor did it jostle under her manipulations. The palm-long cylinder was well and truly attached to her arm, no thanks to the hundred needles that pierced muscle and pricked bone.

The dim blue glow shone in the dark of her capsule. It was that same strange energy that flowed through Ta’Stralanov’r cathedral, yet it was hardly comparable. Such a small amount of the blue plasma flowe...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 86: Ta̽'Ș͑t̕r̊a͑ḷa̾͆n͙͂o̼͗v͐͐̿͝'r̝͇͎͓͜

Nyxil had considered Tarchon unparalleled in his mechanical nature. The man had replaced near every part of his body with machine and technology. More steel than human.

Yet his form pales in comparison to Ta’Stralanov’r’s.

The Technocultist leader’s body is so far separated from humanoid that it is impossible to distinguish between her and the structure supporting her. Like Tarchon’s home, the walls are nothing but a confusing mass of technology. Even to Nyxil’s untrai...

[KoJ] Chapter 87: Stubborn

It is quite an experience to be out in the open and yet not be the focus of all eyes in the area. In our trip so far, the sapients have been unable to stop themselves from regularly glancing my way… even if I wasn’t supposed to be the centre of attention.

Deciding to be small and inconspicuous was absolutely the right decision.

While it’s a little disappointing that I missed out on the opportunity to watch how sapients fought, I understand why Ceph put a stop to them....

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 85: What Happens in a Capsule, Stays in the Capsule

Sitting inside the — admittedly spacious — capsule, Nyxil could do nothing but slide her sense over her name.

Not that she had no desire to see what mutations she had. She did. The idea of new parts, new limbs, and all the doors they opened, was exciting in a way Nyxil never expected. But trapped in a cold metal cylinder was not where she would have liked to be.

Her core name was riddled with tiny, barely perceptible cracks. Well, the loosest applicable definition of a crack. ...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 84: Stumped

Nyxil glared at the severed hand where it lay on the floor. She couldn’t fully articulate why she hated it, but she did. She abhorred the lump of metal. By all means, regaining her hand should have no downsides. She’d be able to grab things again while wielding her blade. There were only benefits. Considering she was about to go into a competition with tens of thousands, how could she afford to remain crippled?

Yet some deep, instinctual part of her refused that logic. It viewed her...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 83: Mechanical Prosthetics Are Always a Good Idea

It seemed that Nyxil’s assumption that her Talent would be the only new name she could rely on was wrong. Or, at least, not as unusable as she thought.

Her body was as gaunt as ever, but now when she kicked off the ground, she leapt further. When she swung her arm, it moved quicker. The effect was significant. While she hadn’t noticed the subtle benefit of some additives until it they slapped her right in the face, this was a noticeable change from only a day ago.

With a power...

[KoJ] Interlude X: Ants and a Child

Ceph strapped the last of the glowing binds around the albanic’s body. An arc of electricity sparked out from the cables, striking at the tip of her tentacle the moment she let go. She flicked her limb to shake off the sting, but she could handle this much if it kept her prisoner trapped.

Áinfean inscriptions — like the one wrapping the cable — were… crude. She was by no means a mage, but even she knew hyle escaping its inscription was less than ideal. Apparently, in anc...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 82: Some Can't Sit Still

Nyxil ran a tentacle along her spines. The spikes were calm and settled, but still poked through the back of her robe, visible to anyone that looked her way. Anyone meaning Tarchon, who still worked away at the mechanics within the metal arm.

She sat across from him, on one of the cleanest benches in the workshop. Which she’d still needed to brush aside a dozen little contraptions to make space for herself. Fidgeting with a small, finger-sized flask, Nyxil accidentally triggered a sco...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 81: A New Start

Nyxil had lost four limbs.

She glanced down at herself, running a finger over the stumps that now replaced them. Skin already sealed the wounds.

I’ve still got six. Nyxil thought. By all counts, that still leaves me better off than most.

Rising to her foot with the support of tentacles, Nyxil couldn’t ignore just how inhuman she’d become. Hair of long mould strands. A hard, chitinous hand that hid vicious claws. Her wing and tentacles and third eye. N...

[KoJ] Chapter 86: Butting Heads

Ceph’s head is really soft. It’s surprisingly comfortable. Like sitting on a bubble of water that my body doesn’t slip within and isn’t wet.

Ceph’s head is really soft.

It’s surprisingly comfortable. Like sitting on a bubble of water that my body doesn’t slip within and isn’t wet. If I wasn’t so interested in the upcoming interaction between two factions I’d previously believed were part of the same, I might have just dozed off.

Through my time on the sur...

[Re:Cursed] Epilogue

In the smouldering remnants of the Dark Star, Solan seethed.

She’d had to call in many favours, and now it was for nothing. Despite her preparations, it had been impossible to unravel her grand Fleshforge from the corruptive tendrils of the core. It had taken ten thousand lives and the better part of a century for her to create that hammer; mere weeks, and it was gone.

And now, as her chains ripped through the lingering labyrinth of steel, Solan discovered there weren’t any su...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 80: Future Eradication

Frozen. She couldn’t move. Nyxil could do nothing but stare into those seething glass orbs.

Tarchon stood over her, looming in the archway. A low buzz echoed out from his chest, like the growl of a vicious beast. It had been years since she’d last seen the technocultist, but he didn’t look the slightest different. Metal links rising from the skin of his jaw revealed the entire bone to be a replacement. Though it was difficult to tell whether he had completely replaced his skull wi...

[KoJ] Chapter 85: Sruthland

When I was told that there was a sapient species that could steal the bodies of other creatures, I’d expected them to adapt a vast quantity of unique species. Maybe some fire bound beasts to fend off cold nights, or one of the earthen aspect creatures to help construct those buildings many sapients loved. With such an obvious advantage of choice, it should be second nature that they have bodies specific for each role. From hunters to cooks.

But the truth is disappointing.

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 79: Evolutions

Hey guys, I've added a pdf version for this chap because patreon strips nearly all formatting. So if you want to read as intended, it's there.

------

Nyx grasped the evolution option, and the void read her intent. In an instant, her base name shattered into components, and combined with her soup of additives, while electing kryl — the fleshsmith name — as a sacrifice. It was wholly unnecessary but she didn’t want anything to do with the additive, and it was a beneficial way ...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 78: Options

Kryl was a staple of the Fleshsmith’s path. It was the point where acolytes became smiths of their own right. An additive that many young cultists would kill for, as it would solidify their future within the cult. There were plenty who would take it enthusiastically.

Not Nyx.

The name was poison. Worse than the corruption of a Dark Star. She would take cursed names a thousand times before she willingly accepted this as part of her soul.

How could she have even received thi...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 77: Left in Limbo

Nyx did not awake when she became aware of the void. No, it simply seeped into existence. Or maybe it was her consciousness that was slow to realise where she was.

If she was fully cognisant, Nyx might have been frightened of the starless space that surrounded her. Especially after her encounter with the Eidolon God. But instead, she found herself in a calm fugue.

She was dreaming. That seemed like the right answer… but also didn’t. It was more than a simple figment of her slu...

[KoJ] Chapter 84: Henosis Agents

Dragging the two opposing faction warrior castes back to the site of the ambush was only slightly annoying. They squirmed and screamed initially, but as they realised there was no escape, they resorted to pleading and negotiating.

“Aren’t you tired of being treated as a second class citizen?” the man asks. “They may have helped you get that body for now, but do you really think they’ll remain nice and amicable once the war is over?”

I cast a curious eye back at ...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 76: The End of Anonymity

Nyx cast one last dismayed glance back at the headless corpse before she turned and surviving the collapse of the Dark Star.

It would have been so nice to take either K’Caies or K’Thorn and sacrifice them for her own benefit, but she didn’t have the time, nor could she risk lugging around a heavy corpse while a sphere of fractured metal spikes tried to close in on her.

The mountains that had risen from the crushing force now splintered further. She was surrounded by a forest...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 75: When a Plan Collapses

K’Caies ground her teeth and fidgeted with her blood-stained staff. She spun, twisting her head every which way as if the sacrifice could pop out from any shadow.

With each clang of the Forge hammer, it was very possible.

The thump crashed through her chest, and before she could reorient herself, a clink of metal sounded behind her. K’Caies leapt out of the way. When nothing pierced her body, she turned, and readied herself to fight off the twisted girl. But there was nothing ...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 74: Compression

The world flashed before Nyx’s eyes. A volcano shifted with each breath, from in front of her, to her side, to right beneath her. The ground against her cheek was at one moment hard and smooth; rough, jagged and cutting through skin the next; and sometimes gone completely.

When she fell, the only thing she could feel was the boot in her neck, and the staff suddenly wrapping around her front.

The Dark Star was collapsing, and Nyx knew this was her only chance to escape K’Caies ...

[KoJ] Chapter 83: Ceph's Intent

Ceph, as experienced as she is with my presence, snaps out of her frozen state first. Not long after the natural laws do so themselves. Her two opponents eyes flicker to her, then to me, but they can manage nothing but a few brief twitches.

The dohrni, without any hesitance besides a glance my way, extracts herself from the now muddied gravel road, and leaps for the two incapacitated enemies. A knife in each tentacle, racing towards their throats.

I didn’t command them to...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 73: Soul Trap

Nyx stared at K’Thorn’s corpse.

Her claws were still wide, ready to clamp down, but now frozen in shock.

Of all the outcomes she’d seen as possibilities of an attempted attack, the man being stabbed in the back by his own student wasn’t one. The man had survived until Nyx’s death last time round. The only way she’d considered his death possible, was if the Dark Star claimed him, or Nyx herself did. If K’Caies was going to betray him, then why didn’t she in the last...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 72: Disaster, But For Who?

Nyx’s mind was lost in a spiral.

Since when had he found her? K’Thorn mentioned having had enough time to set up that trap of his, so had he been following her since she was below the chain tower? Then why hadn’t he attacked during her ritual, while she was vulnerable?

She’d been downed before she could even put up a fight. Maybe it was arrogance, but with the strongest cultists gone to attack the core of the Dark Star, Nyx had assumed that with her speed and third eye, sh...

[Re:Cursed] Chapter 71: Thoomp

“Can you kill all the Fleshsmiths?”

This Euphoria was obviously far beyond the happy critters Nyx had been intending to summon. His imprecise, mind warping presence alone screamed danger. He was a god. Or at least something close enough that the difference was negligible.

Considering a being like that actually considered her sacrifice worth upholding the loose binds of this summoning ritual, she was all too ready to ask for him to wipe out the cult.

Unfortunately, his re...

[KoJ] Chapter 82: Bleeding Through

My time in Shorpel passed quickly. Before I knew it, we were waving — another curious physical motion that I mimicked with my tail — goodbye to Pallen and heading on to the next place Ceph wanted to show me.

Pallen herself was an interesting person. She was incredible at reading my intent — better than any other sapient I’ve met — and often answered my questions before I asked them. Ceph, by comparison, seemed to constantly hold herself hesitantly; as if she worried tha...