I'm running behind on having today's chapter ready (actually, I was feeling ill and let myself sleep in, so I've only been up a few hours). I'm feeling mostly better now and the chapter's coming along well so it should be out in the next few hours.
I'm not currently expecting this to affect Monday's chapter.
Arc 9 Teaser
Pulled from a hopeless (if powerful) future back to the moment of Earth’s integration to try to improve the outcome, Serenity has met unexpected threats and unexpected allies - even friends. Everything is different this time.
It’s been well over a year since the first Tutorial.
The Tutorials are over now; in that time, it’s been one success after another. All of the invasion portals have been closed, removing that threat and allowing Earth...
2023-02-05 00:13:48 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Character List of Corrupted Divinity
This list includes people mentioned in all Arcs to date.
It does not include people with only a single mention or the “people” from the Story Dungeon; they are specifically for that Story. If I missed anyone more important than that (I often do), please let me know in the comments.
Aaron - Abducted from another world; not u...
2023-02-05 00:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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The next two weeks were difficult. The problem wasn’t Baron Celestials’ Rest; indeed, it wasn’t any single thing. It was a whole host of little, annoying issues instead. There was no one in charge until Ceney arrived, which meant no one was coordinating anything. Once she was in place, problems seemed to pop out of the woodwork.
Part of that was probably the fact that in the absence of a proper royalist component to the army, Serenity and the Earthl...
2023-02-04 00:02:50 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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It was half a day’s travel from the rally point back to Celestials’ Rest, but Serenity wasn’t about to let that stop him. They’d arrive in time for a late supper; that was plenty early enough. He left the other “generals” to their planning and headed out to handle the most important part: getting the information to actually use for the plans.
Or, at least, to find the person that was already gathering it. Serenity didn’t understand what had h...
2023-02-02 23:14:46 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Andarit was fine. From what Blaze said when Serenity was finally able to get away from Andarit’s chatter, she might well not have been without healing. Blaze noted that although no permanent damage was done, she was still bleeding internally when he got to her. Blaze wasn’t entirely happy with Serenity for waiting to get information from Entherys before he pulled Andarit out of the dungeon, but even he had to admit that a few minutes probably didn’t hurt th...
2023-02-02 00:08:20 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Their next destination was an abandoned cave. Even if the presence of a weak ley line hadn’t told Serenity where they were, the fact that there was a path leading to nothing would have. They were at the site of the broken dungeon.
Serenity couldn’t even tell there had once been a dungeon there. The ley line wasn’t strong enough to justify a dungeon, even on a Tier Zero world like Earth; on a world like Zon, there was no way there should be one here. F...
2023-02-01 00:07:58 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“...the Iron Mountain Sect’s library.” Entherys whispered the words. There wasn’t much else he could do at this point.
Serenity didn’t feel sorry for him. Compared to what he intended to do with (or, more accurately, to) his “loving wife” Andarit, Entherys hadn’t suffered much. Serenity wasn’t even certain he’d broken any bones. He hadn’t needed to.
It probably wouldn’t have even helped. After all, beating him up wasn’t how S...
2023-01-31 00:22:48 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Andarit opened her eyes again. They were still blurry; she was definitely seeing double with one of them. She couldn’t tell which; maybe both?
If only her blurry vision didn’t show the same thing it did the last time she opened her eyes. Her absolutely out-of-his-mind former betrothed still stood at the entrance to the cave, killing the birds, snakes, and lizards that came at him. He was probably still killing the giant insects, since they probably still...
2023-01-29 23:49:49 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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“You think that Andarit is the other person in the dungeon with Entherys.” That was the only possible reason Verit would have told Serenity about Entherys when he asked about Andarit.
“We found out she was missing the same day that we found out about the mystery pair in the dungeon. I don’t know how he got her to go in with him; did she actually want to marry him?” Verit sounded hopeful, but Serenity didn’t think she actually believed that w...
2023-01-29 00:05:30 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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:Are you OK, Serenity? I was expecting you here by now.: Rissa’s voice surprised Serenity; Verit was already in the middle of her attack and he didn’t quite manage the parry properly, so he stepped back to give himself a little more space.
Verit pushed forward, taking advantage of the fact that Serenity was limiting himself to her speed, and continued the attack.
This time, Serenity wasn’t startled and turned the parry into a disarm that Verit ...
2023-01-27 23:49:05 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Margrave Iron Mountain looked up at Serenity when he entered the room. “You have a message from Duke Lowpeak?”
The Margrave of Iron Mountain wasn’t much like Duke Lowpeak. He appeared at least a decade older than Kalo. Where Kalo was well-muscled and alert almost (but not quite) to the point of seeming nervous, Margrave Iron Mountain was soft and overweight. He looked half-asleep when Serenity walked in, but Serenity soon realized that was simply b...
2023-01-27 00:21:32 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Kalo laughed at Serenity’s joke. That was probably more than it deserved; Serenity didn’t think it was a very good joke. His grin only widened as he continued. “If they can manage a duchy, surely they can manage a city?”
That was actually a serious question, even if Duke Lowpeak asked it like a joke. Serenity decided to answer if he’d asked the question more straightforwardly. “We can help; that’s why we’re here. I don’t want to get too...
2023-01-25 23:40:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity approached the armored humans cautiously. They were probably working for Duke Lowpeak, but he couldn’t be sure; more than that, a single archer shooting at people in the distance was the worst choice no matter who they thought was coming. In fact, Serenity was beginning to think that it was pure happenstance that they’d been shot at. No one even seemed to be watching the direction he was coming from.
When Serenity got closer, he could see tha...
2023-01-24 23:22:08 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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If Serenity had to guess, the demons had added the gate. It weakened the walls and meant that the ward didn’t handle the gate properly; it was probably being treated as a wall breach instead of a gate. Wall breaches were never pleasant to travel through unless you overpowered the City War’s Tier enough that you simply didn’t notice it or the ward simply let you through. It would do that for him without question, now.
Serenity suspected that, rather t...
2023-01-24 01:07:23 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity’s estimate of a week was, unsurprisingly, low. Seventeen days after Lykandeon’s death, Serenity finally reached the portal they were going to use to leave Lyka with everyone who was coming with him. It wasn’t Serenity that was the delay; instead, it was the fact that it took that long for Ekari to assemble a large enough team of trusted people that she didn’t need them to continually put out fires. The piece of Legion that would stay could do a ...
2023-01-23 00:03:08 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity ached. The last two days had stressed his system in ways he wasn’t sure would have been even remotely safe as Vengeance. He was pretty sure they wouldn’t have been. Admittedly, he wouldn’t have even been able to do them back then.
Dealing with the spell during the eclipse two days ago without a proper place to dump the mana other than running it through himself was stupid. Yes, he’d known it would work, but that didn’t mean it wasn’...
2023-01-22 00:06:30 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Shards of shattered reality. That was all there was.
There had once been more. A lot more. There still was, truly, it simply didn’t make sense.
Individual sensations that blurred into a confusing mixed-up whole. A whole that took time to comprehend and learn to deal with.
I do not know how long it took me to begin to learn what was truly going on. I know that some things stand out.
Many of me were gathered together. I did not like this; ...
2023-01-21 00:05:45 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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By the time Serenity checked in on the Underground again, the fight was almost over. There were a few pockets of resistance left; each seemed to be a Tier Five person the soldiers had left until they could concentrate their forces.
Priestess Alanaeon was not one of them; Serenity could see a charred bloody mess that had to be her. The soldiers had left one person to guard her body, just in case. There were several other places where other individuals wa...
2023-01-20 00:10:03 +0000 UTC View PostYes, Wednesdays still suck. But here's the chapter anyway!
Enjoy!
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Priest Arkandaeon grinned. It wasn’t a pleasant grin; instead, it reminded Serenity of a shark’s smile. “So I did. You, soldier, what’s your identifier?”
“Identifier XA-126.” There should have been no emotion in the soldier’s reply, but Serenity thought he heard something. Frustration, perhaps?
Serenity figured he’d better give the soldier some instructions. The soldie...
2023-01-19 00:33:56 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Ekari led the way back into the building; despite her earlier delay, she now seemed eager to talk to either her mother or Blaze, Serenity wasn’t certain which. Either way, she hurried and left Serenity behind when he chose to walk more slowly.
Serenity knew he wanted to get his people out, but as far as he could tell the only ones who were left were the ones that had been converted into Legion Soldiers. There was no sign of anything like a novices’ hall...
2023-01-18 00:20:20 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity was startled out of his concentration on directing the Legion Soldiers to explore the blank parts of Aide’s map when the door to the suite opened. He’d been waiting a while, long enough that he’d checked in on Jenna repeatedly, but Blaze seemed happy watching the child. Serenity wasn’t really sure what to do with a month-old baby other than keep her clean, warm, and fed; he was pretty sure she was supposed to have more toys than they had ava...
2023-01-16 23:59:13 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity watched the rest of the interaction, but he didn’t get much out of it. He was too busy wondering about why it felt so different from the other visions he’d gotten from Aeon’s core. He was still wondering what was going on when the vision ended.
Serenity reached out for the same viewpoint, in case that would tell him anything, and found the man sleeping in a bed. He woke a moment after Serenity touched him, but it was clear that he couldn’t...
2023-01-16 00:11:18 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Aeon’s magic washed through Serenity. It was a constant distraction.
Blaze talked Serenity into a quick meal, but Serenity couldn’t eat much. He already felt stuffed from the mana flowing through the nexus. Serenity leaned back and closed his eyes. His awareness of Blaze’s presence didn’t go away, but it became easier to concentrate on the next thing he had to do.
He needed to stop glowing.
Or did he? The glow was simply because he ...
2023-01-15 00:03:49 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity stared at Aeon’s core; his hand still rested on it, but he hadn’t seen anything from it other than the Voice’s messages when he “conquered” it. This wasn’t a safe place for the core, but he didn’t think he could move it, either. He’d never heard of a World Core being moved. Of course, he’d also never heard of a World Core being broken in two to make a too-close moon or a World Core on the surface of its world.
Serenity frowned. ...
2023-01-14 00:01:39 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity started with his duplicating knives. They would do exactly nothing to Lykandeon, but in a way that was part of the point. They would do nothing but they also cost nothing and they would keep Lykandeon’s attention off the fact that Serenity had swapped from magic to weapons while Serenity kept accepting mana from Aeon.
One knife, then another, then a third, then Lykandeon threw a bolt that Serenity had to dodge but either moving away from the core...
2023-01-13 00:51:25 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity didn’t reply. Lykandeon didn’t need to know why he was being attacked; if there were any other approach possible, Serenity would have considered it, but there wasn’t. Not when Lykandeon ruled the planet and didn’t have a method set up for a peaceful change in power.
Not when his first recourse was mind control and he used it against the people he should have worked with because it was easier than convincing them any other way. Not when ...
2023-01-12 00:16:01 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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By the time the six of them reached the Palace, everything was ready. Serenity’s shield spell was active and everyone was up to speed on the plan. Serenity’s partial advance to Tier Eight changed the plan only a little; they’d already been counting on his over-Tier strength and sturdiness.
Lykandeon was still asleep on the couch. Serenity had checked every minute or so; he noticed that his checks became more common as they got closer and closer to ...
2023-01-10 23:40:03 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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It took time to get back to where everyone else waited, but Serenity spent the time well. He didn’t have a Skill for it, but he still knew how to make a shield. He definitely had the mana to support one, even one that was always on, and if he was going to fight Lykandeon he didn’t want to go in without a shield.
He probably could have built one before with his unusually large mana pool for a Tier Four, but he wouldn’t have been able to maintain i...
2023-01-10 00:12:55 +0000 UTC View PostEnjoy!
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Serenity didn’t answer the Voice. He didn’t really know what he’d done; he just knew that he’d felt like he was being pulled apart and made to be not himself and he hated it, so he’d fought back.
Now, he felt better. Of course, in this case, “better” meant that he felt like he was still a little drunk and the hangover hadn’t fully hit yet. The feeling of being a little drunk increased whenever he tried to move. There were echoes an...
2023-01-09 00:20:58 +0000 UTC View Post