Fudge Esq

V2 Chapter 22: Daughter of Lunari

So far, my trip into the residential area of Sealrite had gotten off to rocky start and had most certainly not gone according to plan. In fact, it had gone the exact opposite of what I'd intended.

“You… you killed him,” Alice said, her bottom lip trembling. She seemed torn between fleeing in terror and shrieking in shock.

In an attempt to avoid further arguments or a fight, I reached out with my Soul Weaver energy, trying to gather the remains of the eviscerated body and per...

V2 Chapter 21: Accidentally Eviscerated

“We found a few stragglers,” Daenara informed me through the House Coin's connection. “The rest of the Holy Kingdom’s people escaped through the Portal of Exchange before we could get to them. The scene is… grotesque.” Her voice was filled with disgust, and I doubted most of her entourage had managed to keep their stomach contents. The few times I’d seen the law of equivalent exchange applied to large-scale magic had resulted in the most horrifying scenes ...

V2 Chapter 20: The Plan

The Marquess visibly swallowed but continued under the weight of my impatient glare. “The Church of Light is making a play for the Holy Kingdom’s High Seat,” he said, pausing to look at me with pleading eyes. I narrowed my gaze, urging him to continue. “They… they’re backed by the Pandorian Empire.”

I stretched my legs and motioned toward Nida to heal Juniper. “Don’t let her die.” Then I turned back to the Marquess. “Where do you come in? Sealrite? The Cardinal and...

V2 Chapter 19: The Father, Daughter, and Holy Kingdom

The woman looked at me, confusion written clearly across her face until the meaning of my words came to her. She flinched as if I’d slapped her, and color rushed back to her cheeks in impotent rage. I watched in contemplative silence while she ground her teeth. I could nearly see the gears whirring around her mind in some foolish attempt to flee the situation.

We stared at each other for a minute or two before the woman burst out with a cry of anger. “You do not need to do this. Jus...

V2 Chapter 18: An Eye for an Eye

Tracking the fleeing Caelians was a piece of cake. A large percentage of their airborne knights had been eviscerated when I cut the summoning circle apart. Without my warning to run to the ground, they had been paralyzed with fear as the energy crushed their existence.

With few exits from the city and limited mobility, my new army collapsed on the remnants with swift and relative ease. As I predicted, most of them were heading toward the city’s southern entrance. I gathered Nida, Nasq...

V2 Chapter 17: Plan of Action

The next couple of hours were a frantic, rushed mess of actions and assignments that I struggled to set in order. Though I had obtained the House Alistar Coin, it did little to mollify the crack in the hierarchy. I might have been the second most powerful, but I hadn’t earned their respect. Most didn’t even know who I was.

When I landed back at the former duke’s central compound, or what remained of it after the explosion, I immediately took control of the situation. That sparked ...

V2 Chapter 16: Similar, Yet Different

My trajectory was off by a hair. Instead of slamming full force into the Dash’Ora, I sailed past it with only a hand brushing against the smooth red scales. I circulated some heart energy and blasted it to my side, hoping to redirect my momentum back toward the creature.

It helped, but only slightly. My energy redirected me enough to grab the Dash’Ora’s tail as I blew past it. I scrambled for purchase on the tail’s scales, and the creature jerked back from the effort of halting ...

V2 Chapter 15: Dash'Ora

While Duke Alistar struggled to save his comrade, I struggled to keep down the smirk threatening to spread my lips wide. The duke’s soldiers had acted exactly as I’d commanded them, to accidentally strike against the duke in moments of chaos. It had worked out perfectly, resulting in me appearing something of a hero to those I now flew by.

“Can you heal him?” Duke Alistar asked, shouting over the wind. I cast a quick glance back to see the initially frantic noble in control of h...

V2 Chapter 14: First Interlude of Duke Collin Alistar

"What in the Goddess’s blessed name is that?” Collin shouted, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and shock.

The aged general by his side, Roderick, simply shook his head. Despite being the only one among the golden knights close to achieving a gold core, he was just as lost as Collin. “I do not know, my liege. Nothing good for us.”

The mana surging out of Marquess Sharma was like nothing Collin had ever experienced. It was as if the spell was forcibly pulling every last parti...

V2 Chapter 13: First Interlude of Marquess Benedict Sharma

Marquess Benedict Sharma glared down from astride his wyvern at what remained of the city. His city. The city he’d poured his heart and soul into. His pride.

Ruined.

All because of that cursed ducal family and their golden knights.

For too long, he’d allowed Collin, the irritating Duke of the Alistar Duchy, to meddle in Cael without facing the full strength of its military force. For too long, he’d been bound by duty to his King and relied on small-scale proxy battles....

V2 Chapter 12: Stalemate

The streets around the decimated towers were a frantic bustle of movement and sound, nearly a hundred mortals and a handful of healers rushing to the scene and aiding the nearby wounded. A few heads turned my way in surprise, though no one said anything.

Filled to the brim with surging heart energy that sparked around me like bolts of lightning, I walked up to the nearest healer like a raging storm. My body screamed to join the fight, to taste the thrill and adrenaline of a death battle...

V2 Chapter 11: It's a trap!

I remembered reading a section about a Holy Treaty in The History of Lysoria.

“It’s a double-edged sword. The Holy Kingdom agreed to never intervene in secular issues so long as wars were not initiated for heretical reasons,” I answered absently as Boyl pointed out our destination—a series of black towers that loomed ominously, casting shadows over adjacent buildings that added to the menacing aura under the stars’ dim light.

Unlike the other estates I’d come ...

V2 Chapter 10: Discrimination

True to his word, the city center estate was much farther than the duke’s original manse. At a steady pace, I was able to travel the distance between the tent city and the original manse in only an hour or so. At a slower, walking pace, the sun had fully set before the city’s center even came into sight.

When it eventually did, the sight was less than impressive. Just more ruins.

At my frown, Daryl grinned. “Just wait, my lady. You are in for a surprise.” When glanced at N...

V2 Chapter 9: Holy Kingdom

If what Nasq said was true, it meant Paragons grew solely through the Desire System’s [levels], whatever those were. I switched topics, not wanting to delve too much into the Desire System among those not bound to me by a blood oath.

“Does magic span the same variation types as heart energy?” I asked.

Nasq nodded energetically. “Yes, more so. Because magic pulls power, called mana, into the user from the space around them, it can take the shape of almost anything natural t...

V2 Chapter 8: Magic and Energy

As the soldiers in training took their seats, I put the Cardinal out of my mind and called Nasq over to me. He walked over proudly, chin held high, to stand just behind me on my right. Nida moved to mirror Nasq, but I frowned at her and shook my head. The tigerkin woman shot me a look of deep dissatisfaction. She took a seat in the front line, glaring daggers at Nasq, causing my frown to deepen. I’d have to handle whatever fanatic urge was growing in her soon. I wanted loyal soldiers, not a...

V1 Chapter 45: The Duke's Forces

Dralos had done his job well. The city was a chaotic mess of fire and screams where violence reigned supreme.

Though we had only just crossed the Colosseum area into the city proper, I could already hear and smell the beckonings of death. Monstrous shrieks rang out from all directions, spread throughout Sealrite. Even the protective walls embedded in the city stone gates flickered weakly, their enchantments strained to the breaking point. It was a scene of utter devastation, at least in...

V1 Chapter 44: Banquet [Part 2]

After a few minutes a large, heavyset man with a black swirling mustache was pushed down the flight of stairs, his irate voice barking threats at the two women dragging him. Both were clothed heavily in black uniforms, covering everything but their eyes. Less surprised than with the Pandorian, I was nonetheless still shocked when my Core thrummed with recognition at the Cores in each of two Pandorian's hearts. Behind the Baron was a much slimmer man with a full head of silver hair and a very ...

V1 Chapter 43: Banquet [Part 1]

Upon entering, my boots tapped audaciously against the floor of polished obsidian. The opulent crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling swayed slightly to the tempo of the raging powers outside, their flickering flames mirrored in a horrifically twisted manner in the shining obsidian. It was as if the flames were erupting from the floor in corrupt, black tendrils that curled and flicked with a sort of hungry randomness.

The chandeliers reminded me of my castle back in Aedronir, mast...

V1 Chapter 42: Glory of Freedom and the Enticement of Cowardice

According to Dralos, the banquet would take place in a large manse adjacent to the Colosseum, where all VIPs and nobles could attend each night. Arriving there for the main battle area, where the path we had just liberated let out, wouldn't be difficult or time-consuming.

When I finally exited the dungeons, I was met with cool, fresh night air for the first time in weeks. It was a stark, incredibly pleasant contrast to the stifling heat of the latest accommodations I had grown accustome...

V1 Chapter 41: Reformation and Core Advancement

The Pandorian’s lifeless body crumpled to the ground, his face a frozen mask of confusion and terror. I stood over him, panting heavily, the previously dull ache in my side now intensifying. It felt almost anticlimactic despite being near death myself, blood escaping my wound in heavy streams.

I stared in wonderment at the Soul as it hovered almost playfully over the male’s corpse.

Looking back, I wasn’t sure how I knew how to do what I had done. In Ordite, it was well known...

V1 Chapter 40: Blood Will Run [Part 2]

Whatever conversation was beginning between us was swiftly shut down by the wild roar of a blood-crazy Berserker. Out of the corner of my eye, without taking my concentration off the Pandorian, I saw Ethan rampaging against the building army of golems encircling him. His roar was so tremendous it shook the walls of the dungeon, causing even more loose rubble to tumble to the floor.

The Pandorian glanced toward Ethan for less than a second, but for that split moment, he was distracted, a...

V1 Chapter 39: Blood Will Run [Part 1]

I didn’t call Nasq or Dralos immediately after the skirmish started. For the plan to succeed, all of the Colosseum’s forces, or at least most of them, needed to be in the foyer connecting the stairway and all three sections. Unlike the pathways, the foyer itself was a large circular space, able to fit what I estimated to be no more than forty people at a time. Over half of the armed guards had yet to finish descending. A good, technical strategy here would have been to retreat, allowing f...

V1 Chapter 38: Path to a Breathrough

By the time we were within earshot of the stairway, Dralos was already out of sight, and I could hear the heavy steps of armored guards clamoring down the steps. Judging by the number of discordant footsteps approaching us and the many different sources of heart energy, I figured Nida had perhaps underestimated their numbers.

There were around 150 ex-slaves and 60 Paragons in total, yet I felt at least 200 energy sources barreling down the stairs. Although I did not sense a Core among t...

V1 Chapter 37: Slaves No More

Just like the section of the dungeon that held me during my tenure as a slave, this second section was similarly dilapidated and smelled of shit and blood. White balls of energy illuminated the old and rotting furniture placed haphazardly around the admittedly much larger room. When the steel door first creaked open under the Chella clone's touch, I was surprised by the sheer amount of slaves in this section of the slave dungeon. The space itself was also larger. Much wider and at least doubl...

V1 Chapter 36: The Beginning of an Army

Absorbing Narissa’s heart energy left a rotting taste on my tongue. It was absolutely disgusting. Yet, the emptiness of my Core and the dire need to act now left me with no choice but to absorb the energy, repulsive as it was.

Some stared at me with awe. Most just looked shocked. A few were terrified. That terror was familiar; it was a basic lesson among Queen and King candidates that fear was a necessary tool for leading a country to an age of prosperity. Those who could not tolerate...

V1 Chapter 35: Metamorphosis

I wasn’t sure what Ethan chose, but I knew he had chosen something. The older man reached out in front of him and gingerly touched some invisible option. Ethan suddenly sucked in air like he’d been punched in the gut by a club, his face scrunching in pain.

He collapsed to the floor, kneeling at my feet with his eyes affixed to the ground. For a moment, I saw something like hesitation in his eyes, but it quickly shifted into resolve. Still keeping his eyes on my feet, Ethan spoke. Hi...

V1 Chapter 34: Deal with the Devil

“Get out?” The first woman snorted, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulders and glaring at me. “You may be able to walk out Lady Lilliana, oh great Saintess, but we’ll get killed. Guaranteed.”

I shrugged dismissively. “I just killed the scientist guy. If you stay, you’re likely dead anyway.”

Her eyes bugged and her mouth fell open as my words pitched the silent dungeon into furtive whispers and the occasional muttered curse. I ignored it all and focused on my c...