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Serenity watched the entire ritual, all at once. He shouldn’t have been able to; each of his four pieces was able to watch something slightly less than a quarter of the ritual, so he should have had to move his attention around. He also hadn’t ever been able to integrate his senses this well before; with even two bodies, they generally interfered.
With the ritual, however, he was able to see how everything fit together.
He hurt physically, b...
2023-01-08 00:15:08 +0000 UTC
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There was far too much mana in the ritual for Serenity to hold it all, even though his mana pool was far larger than normal for his Tier. Lykandeon was a much higher Tier than Serenity; even so, Serenity suspected that Lykandeon was using something to enhance the amount of mana he had available. There was simply so much in the ritual that even a Tier 20 would have had trouble filling it, and Lykandeon was nowhere near Tier 20. It wasn’t really that big a p...
2023-01-07 00:13:18 +0000 UTC
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Serenity was still pouring Death-attuned mana and potential into the ritual when Death Himself appeared and watched. Serenity couldn’t exactly tell when He appeared; in fact, Serenity wasn’t even certain which of his bodies was being watched. It could have been any or all of them.
Death was there and he approved. Serenity simply knew that even though the figure didn’t say anything and didn’t have any visible features. He wouldn’t have been there i...
2023-01-06 00:02:05 +0000 UTC
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Serenity felt his attention dissolve as he tried to manage four bodies at once. It wasn’t easy in his Sovereign form, but it was far easier. He’d practiced over the past few weeks, once he knew this was the best option he had, and for this his hard-won control should be good enough. He didn’t actually have to watch what was going on with four bodies and they didn’t have to move differently; all he had to do was float somewhere in each pool. F...
2023-01-05 00:05:51 +0000 UTC
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When Serenity returned to Aeon, there were six days left until the eclipse. Six days left to prepare or do anything he’d left undone.
There was not really much left to do; they’d been preparing for months and everything was almost ready.
The following day, they escorted Jeff, the man Ekari rescued from the infirmary, to Lyka where Serenity sent him back to San Francisco.
Blaze spent most of the trip muttering about the man’s resilience a...
2023-01-04 00:27:20 +0000 UTC
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While he was looking for Earthlings, he hadn’t expected to find them in charge. They ought to be lower Tier than whoever was in charge of the church, and with as much destruction as he’d seen, Serenity had expected the church to have barely been kept safe by the power of its Priest. Either he was missing something or something strange was going on here.
Not that that was new.
Serenity walked up behind Ekari; while she’d started learning Engl...
2023-01-03 02:23:38 +0000 UTC
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They didn’t get the whole story until the following morning when the false Priest woke up.
Serenity didn’t know what Blaze did to him, or even if he did anything, but the man wanted to talk. His name was Ardeval and he’d been an acolyte, assigned to a Grand Project underground when a new Priest came in and took over.
Priest Alanaeon was, in his opinion, actually insane. She greenlit all sorts of projects that had been repeatedly rejected due ...
2023-01-02 00:11:32 +0000 UTC
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Blaze insisted on checking everyone before he’d confirm whether it was actually greendust or just something with similar effects. His verdict for everyone other than Ita and Serenity was similar: effects similar to an eighth to three-quarters of a dose of greendust. Their bodies wouldn’t easily filter it out, but Blaze could (and did) force the matter. He also did an “initial” heal and would be checking on them that evening to heal any remaining damage...
2023-01-01 00:14:09 +0000 UTC
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“Who dares to-” The first words spoken by the priest were angry, clearly spoken before he got a good look at Ekari, because his next words were surprised. “Priest-Inspector? The last inspection wasn’t very long ago, we weren’t expecting another for months, maybe years.”
Serenity stepped around the door so that he could see the priest. He was a surprisingly large man, clearly once strong but now running to fat; he wasn’t wearing his outer robe,...
2022-12-30 23:46:36 +0000 UTC
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The church in Steadfast Seventy-three was unlike any Serenity had seen before, but not because it was its own large compound. Instead, it was simply plainer than the others. It was clearly a similar design, but there were no architectural niceties. If anything, it seemed somewhat brutalist.
One particularly persistent local had followed them for the last half-mile, deterred from actually approaching by Ekari’s glare but not willing to leave them alone. Wh...
2022-12-29 23:59:40 +0000 UTC
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When Serenity came back to himself, his hands were actually on Evan’s new wings. They stretched far to the sides of his body, somehow larger than Serenity had expected even though he knew they were exactly the right size, exactly what Evan’s essence code said he should have.
Everything glowed with essence until Serenity released his Aspect. It was far more comfortable now, which clearly meant he’d pushed it farther in its growth. Serenity pulled up hi...
2022-12-29 00:14:38 +0000 UTC
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The 2316 Nobel Prize for Magic was awarded to Dr. Carol Ellerby for her work documenting the rise of the Dungeon Lord. The award was controversial as her work did not specify how someone managed to become one of the few demigods known by his portfolio rather than his identity. Most awards for Magic have been awarded for the understanding of new principles or techniques.
Despite her work proving that independent belief transmission chains origi...
2022-12-28 00:31:40 +0000 UTC
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Message from Stojan Tasi to Serenity
I fear I must apologize, my Lord; I am not accustomed to reporting to a higher authority and have failed to keep you informed as is my duty.
The Shining Caverns have mostly recovered from the attack, though the Healer’s Hall in particular is still damaged. Guildmaster Hollis is working hard to attract new Healers, but he has had to pull many who would prefer other tasks to aid at the Hall....
2022-12-27 00:10:29 +0000 UTC
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Blaze’s first priority was Evan.
Serenity left him to his task of healing the former priest. He could answer Evan’s questions just as well as Serenity could, maybe better. Blaze knew the plan, or at least he knew it before the surprises of Steadfast Seventeen.
Serenity considered what he could do that no one else could right now, and the only answer he could come up with was that he needed to send a message to Rissa then get some sleep. Everyth...
2022-12-26 00:10:30 +0000 UTC
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If you didn’t know Evan was nonhuman, it would take careful examination to tell from the front; he had additional muscles that ran from his chest to his back, but they were weak from long disuse and difficult to see. The more prominent sternum was easy to miss, especially with muscles connected to it. Serenity could tell they were there, since he had the same muscles in his chimera form and knew what to look for, but even if they were better developed, most pe...
2022-12-25 00:28:57 +0000 UTC
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Serenity wasn’t sure where to start, so he planned to let Ekari lead while he tried to pay attention. She was right that he probably needed to learn more, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
The church either didn’t really have “a more comfortable place to talk” or Priest Evan wasn’t interested in taking them there. Instead, he led the group of people to a simple room that held only a long table and a bunch of wooden chairs. They weren’t eve...
2022-12-24 00:12:14 +0000 UTC
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Serenity felt a smile rising, despite his irritation at Rourke. Perhaps coming as an investigation team was worth more than they’d expected, and they’d expected a lot. “Why can’t you leave Lyka?”
“The portals don’t open for us,” Denise interjected. “There’s only a small list of merchants they do open for; only two of them visit Steadfast Seventeen, and even then it’s not here, we have to go to the portal. One of them’s willing to s...
2022-12-23 00:09:00 +0000 UTC
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The conversation on the other side of the door had continued while Serenity was listening to Ita, but it came to a sudden stop at Serenity’s knock.
After a moment, there was a quick pair of knocks on the other side of the door, followed by the man’s voice. “Why did you knock?”
Serenity chuckled as he opened the door towards himself, then stepped around it. “She was answering my question, of course.”
The room on the other side of the ...
2022-12-22 00:42:49 +0000 UTC
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As Investigators, they were empowered to go anywhere. A priest could ask them to leave an area, but that would only last until Priest-Investigator Ekari reinforced their right to investigate an area. All Investigators were assumed to be at least Acolytes; many were actually priests, even though they didn’t hold the title Priest-Investigator. This meant that even areas that were off-limits to laypeople couldn’t simply be prohibited to Investigators.
Te...
2022-12-20 23:53:47 +0000 UTC
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Ekari walked up to the front doors of the church building. They were made of bronze and had held up to the fighting fairly well; there were only a few marks on the doors themselves. The doorframes, however, had seen better days. It was clear the doors had been dismounted at some point recently, probably by something slamming into them repeatedly, but they were back in place. The repairs weren’t perfect, but they were good enough to make it obvious someone had ...
2022-12-19 23:39:55 +0000 UTC
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Serenity wasn’t the only one covered in blood, but Kerr and Sillon were both also otherwise unhurt beyond some strained muscles that Blaze took care of; he didn’t want them to be hurting if something else was attracted by the commotion and smell of blood.
The spear disappeared moments after Kerr took her hands off it. She frowned, but didn’t say anything. Serenity assumed that meant there was some sort of downside to the Skill, but he was too poli...
2022-12-19 00:08:56 +0000 UTC
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Before midnight!
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Serenity couldn’t help but chuckle as he and his party made their way through the rubble-choked streets of Lyka. Everywhere he looked, there was destruction; it was far worse than most of the areas he’d seen so far on Lyka. This was an area that still had a Church presence, and those were always harder hit, but this was kind of impressive.
Buildings were burnt or knocked down; even the few green spaces tended to be as much black fr...
2022-12-18 04:58:20 +0000 UTC
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The chapter for Dec 17 will be late. I have Holiday Family Stuff to take care of tomorrow, it's not done yet, and I want to get some sleep tonight.
I expect to be able to get it up while it's still Saturday but the Chimera chapter will be several hours late.
Sunday's chapter may also be late; it depends on whether or not I get dragged into more family stuff.
Monday's chapter should not be late.
2022-12-17 08:08:34 +0000 UTC
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Serenity had to admit that Aide had a point; maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to eat some greenstone from a direct power perspective. It was still eating the body of another sapient, however, and Serenity wasn’t willing to cross that line. He could understand why Aide didn’t see it that way; Aide had never eaten anything.
It left him with the question of what to do next, but really the answer was obvious. He needed to get some greenstone and repeat his expe...
2022-12-17 00:06:29 +0000 UTC
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Serenity pulled on his essence pool. It didn’t get used nearly as often as his mana pool, but that didn’t make it more difficult to use; what made it difficult was his lack of practice. He hoped he’d be able to find a Path with an essence manipulation Skill soon; it would help.
It was actually a little odd that a mana manipulation Skill hadn’t already popped up. Sure, they were rare at this Tier, but he had the necessary experience. Perhaps the Voice...
2022-12-16 00:19:00 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the delay; Wednesdays suck.
Specifically, I have an additional *hour commute home* on Wednesdays. We won't even talk about the lack of sleep from having to get up earlier ...
....so chapters may be late on Wednesdays for the foreseeable future. (But probably not the rest of December due to use-or-lose)
I'm debating shifting to a six-day-a-week schedule to make Wed less sucky but I haven't made the call yet.
Anyway. Enjoy the chapter! This one di...
2022-12-15 01:02:47 +0000 UTC
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Serenity hated it when people built large ritual spells based on geometric sequences. Or maybe he simply hated having to figure them out; they were annoyingly complex. More importantly, they were almost always overcomplicated, with material present more to preserve the symmetry than because there was any real reason to have them.
There were 341 pools in the Water Garden. The central pool was fairly large, but very simple; it was simply the axis that the ...
2022-12-13 23:59:03 +0000 UTC
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The door Ekari was hiding behind opened just long enough for a set of stained sheets to sail into the alley; it looked like they were all bundled in the bottom sheet, which was tied to make a makeshift bag. Ekari caught the open door and slowly let it almost close; this was lucky, since it meant she didn’t have to deal with any possible “door opening” noise that could give her away.
“Really? And you want me? You know I’m supposed to - you know what...
2022-12-13 00:04:27 +0000 UTC
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It was a good thing that the door into the box wasn’t accessible from the floor where the patrons watched. Blaze was certain that he would have been mobbed by the crowd if they saw him exit or knew who he was. As it was, the crowd noise only diminished enough to think once the door to the back area from the box was closed.
Hopefully they hadn’t gotten too good a look at him through the box’s walls.
Blaze could see that Raul waited for him, bu...
2022-12-12 00:01:57 +0000 UTC
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The initial spurt of flame was enough to trigger Blaze’s Flamebound Gear Skill; visually, it would look like it turned to flame as well, though Blaze knew that wasn’t exactly what actually happened. It was a Skill that Blaze had wanted for years before he managed to get it; he’d gone through many different outfits while he was learning to control the flame of his bloodline.
“Phoenix.” Rockfist’s glower shifted into something more eager and less ...
2022-12-11 00:04:56 +0000 UTC
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