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Now that Liam was himself again, the next step was obvious. It was really two steps, wasn’t it?
Serenity turned to Liam. “I need to see that building. I should also check on Mike and … who else was out there?”
“Team Two,” Liam muttered before he focused on Serenity and spoke up. “We were originally supposed to head back there today but with the collapse that didn’t happen; we’re only looking at clear buildings at the moment. What const...
2023-08-01 21:52:43 +0000 UTC
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“Would one of you please tell me how I got here?” Liam sounded distinctly annoyed that Serenity and Blaze had more or less ignored him.
“I’m getting there,” Blaze answered, “Once I’m sure it’s you I’m talking to. Yes, it’s as bad as that sounds; the short version is that someone tried to infiltrate us using you as a vector. Now will you let me check you over?”
Liam gave a long sigh, glanced at Serenity, and then addressed his app...
2023-07-31 22:10:45 +0000 UTC
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The slow way was very, very slow.
Truthfully, it was more accurate to say that there was a lot of Night Fire tainted mana on Liam. The method Serenity used to remove residue and clean an area for a ritual was painstaking and precise but very, very slow. It wasn’t intended for this; it was intended for an area that was basically already clean or at the most had been used for a well-designed ritual that didn’t leak badly. This was almost as bad as what th...
2023-07-30 23:05:58 +0000 UTC
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Monsters weren’t that scary, were they? Liam left the safety of the camps regularly; there was a risk of combat out there. Monsters weren’t any worse than that, especially not if you were prepared.
It caught Serenity by surprise when Liam suddenly turned and fled from the room. Even so, Serenity wasn’t about to let Liam run away. This didn’t seem like his normal behavior, so it was all too likely that there was something about the Night Fire that...
2023-07-29 21:58:21 +0000 UTC
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Liam led Serenity to one of the four workrooms he and Samantha used when they were looking at the things that had been recovered from A’Atla. This one had changed a lot since they first started using it; three of the walls were covered in white boards, while the fourth held a trio of bookcases that were filled with boxes holding small items.
The center of the room held a table, though the stools were all set against the longest wall with a whiteboard...
2023-07-29 01:15:55 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for the late release today. Family commitments.
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Serenity could only see two real options: either it had lasted through her time in the Vault or she’s picked up the taint since then. The first option seemed more likely; who would she have met in A’Atla’s tunnels?
It made Serenity want to head back to the damaged area and inspect it. He would have if it would have told him anything; unfortunately, it almost certainly wouldn’t. Unlike th...
2023-07-28 02:38:08 +0000 UTC
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“Can you tell me anything useful about the Night Fire? Do you know his real name?” Serenity didn’t hold out too much hope of that. The type of hero story Blaze was talking about was often highly distorted by the storytellers expanding upon it over the years. Some of it probably was true, but figuring out which bits could be difficult. The general trends like deception and evasion were likely to have a basis in reality but beyond that it was hard to say.<...
2023-07-27 00:57:13 +0000 UTC
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The corpse stood, so Serenity decided to start with the basics. “What’s your name?” Anything was better than thinking of him as “the corpse.”
The corpse lifted its eyes from the floor and looked at Serenity. A flicker of thought seemed to pass through its mind; that was a good sign. “Emery Lane,” the summoner answered. “Or sometimes Ralph Lands or Tristan Patterson or-”
“Stop,” Serenity commanded. That was good name retrieval, t...
2023-07-25 22:39:31 +0000 UTC
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Blaze walked up to the creature a bit slower than Serenity did. He had his right hand clutching his left forearm. A slight haze of magic in the area told Serenity that he was probably healing his left arm. “What was that?”
“I don’t know,” Serenity stated. He didn’t like that fact, either; it meant that the strange Affinity had done something unexpected when he lost concentration. The question was whether it was his lost concentration that was...
2023-07-24 23:48:51 +0000 UTC
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The corpse had a hole melted in the back of its head that leaked the same Affinity as the dark fire. That was unexpected; Serenity had killed him with Death Magebolts, so his body should have been withered but outwardly uninjured. A hole in the back of his head wasn’t normal.
Whatever that dark fire was, it was even nastier than he’d assumed. As he cleaned up the corridor, he’d started to feel like he was wasting time, but he no longer felt that...
2023-07-23 23:17:27 +0000 UTC
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“That’s to be expected.” Blaze looked up at the table, then back down at Serenity where he sat on the floor. “Let’s move a little ways down the hall, then I’ll check you over. I think you got all of it but with something like that you want to be really certain.”
Serenity grabbed his shed top and robe before they moved out; the created items would dissipate on their own within the next day or so. “So what is it? I think you got a good look a...
2023-07-22 22:45:42 +0000 UTC
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“Go ahead and lie down,” Blaze told Serenity. “I’ll need to reach you and that will be easier for both of us.”
Lying down was only slightly more difficult than normal; chest injuries weren’t as bad as back injuries, but they were never fun. At least Blaze’s pain “separation” continued to work.
Blaze pushed the block Serenity created to serve as a chair next to Serenity’s table and sat down with his hand on Serenity’s shoulder. ...
2023-07-22 02:17:00 +0000 UTC
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Death Magebolts were, in fact, the key. They allowed Serenity to stay at a distance and slowly overcome the summoner with the power of Death. It was not even close to the most efficient way to kill, even with Death magic, but it worked and that was what Serenity cared about in the end.
Serenity stepped back and checked himself over. There were no unexplained injuries, but the burns from the summoner’s black fire hurt like hell. They weren’t healing prope...
2023-07-21 00:15:09 +0000 UTC
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The summoner’s eyes narrowed and he pulled something that looked like a baton off his belt. It was solid, which was a good idea if he was going to hit higher-Tier people with it, but Serenity suspected it was simply because people on Earth weren’t yet skilled at making wands and larger was probably easier. “Why do you say I’m a summoner?”
The demon’s illusion seemed to have covered more than just the visual effect. Whoever created it must have ti...
2023-07-19 23:28:23 +0000 UTC
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Serenity triggered the mini-wand, then dropped it back into a pocket. He’d fish it out later and spend the time to re-infuse the spell. For now, he hurried forward, triggered his footwraps, and slid around the corner quickly. A snake lunged at him as he turned but didn’t expect him to be able to curve while he was in the air; it caught a live manablade to the face instead of his shoulder.
Two more snakes came from the opposite direction, but Seren...
2023-07-18 22:18:39 +0000 UTC
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:Serenity! There’s an entire group of people attacking the upper camp!: Serenity paused for a moment at Ita’s message. What was she doing at the upper camp? She normally spent her time in the tunnels!
She was probably spending time with Blaze. Serenity might not wholly understand their friendship, which seemed to consist more of spending time together while Blaze was healing than anything else, but he knew it existed. He was happy they’d become friend...
2023-07-17 23:09:47 +0000 UTC
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Serenity didn’t know what to say either. He probably shouldn’t have been quite so obvious with his experimentation, but he had learned what he wanted to learn. It wasn’t the best possible news; he still didn’t have a way to send it to Gaia and heal her without clearing out the sinkhole in A’Atla. On the other hand, it was by far the easiest way to make runes he’d ever had. He had to know exactly what he was doing, but that wasn’t new.
Come t...
2023-07-16 23:10:39 +0000 UTC
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Apollyon could feel the change in the World when the Lost became Found.
He was right after all. His hordes were hidden away instead of being destroyed. That was foolish of them, but for fools they had done well. Thousands of years had passed and this was the first time he knew for certain that his tools still existed.
He no longer needed them, but they would be helpful. They were also a risk; they had to be on that unfortunately insufficientl...
2023-07-15 22:42:59 +0000 UTC
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“I don’t claim peoples’ lives,” Serenity protested. “And that’s not my name.” How was he supposed to deal with this?
Amani sneaked a peek at his face through her lashes. She clearly thought she was being stealthy, but she wasn’t. “You woke the Weapon of Dis,” Amani whispered.
Serenity glanced in the direction she indicated. As he’d expected, it was the direction of the annoying pitchfork. It was glowing a little, now that s...
2023-07-14 23:28:30 +0000 UTC
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A lot was probably an understatement. Serenity wondered if she even knew how much time was compressed in the Vault. “How long did it seem that you were in there?”
Amani shrugged. “Hours. I don’t know. What’s a Lord Wizard of A’Atla?”
Serenity was pretty sure the title was simply Wizard of A’Atla? Unless… maybe that was another artifact of the translation? It wasn’t that unusual for languages to have specific indications of what a ran...
2023-07-14 01:15:02 +0000 UTC
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Yes.
Nothing happened. There wasn’t a Yes/No, either, just the question.
“Yes, open the door.” Serenity felt a little silly saying the words out loud when you could always interact with the Voice by thought, but it was worth a try.
The door shifted a little towards Serenity and there was a clear click. That was odd; Serenity had expected it to slide out of the way. He took a step back to get a better look at the door and saw th...
2023-07-12 22:38:58 +0000 UTC
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“That’s enough.” Serenity projected his voice ahead of him; that was one of the very few spells he was allowing both “Tom Cooper” and Serenity to use. It was necessary. “You know you’re not allowed to fight on A’Atla’s surface.”
This was an unusual place for a fight; most people stayed away from the broken ground of the damaged area, but clearly that wasn’t going to last. Unlike most of A’Atla, it was still dirt and dried mud; the sh...
2023-07-11 22:41:52 +0000 UTC
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Technically, this chapter happens during the timeskip at the end of 787 … but that would mean delaying showing how Serenity decided to deal with the fighting on A’Atla. This seemed like a better place to put it and it’s only a one-chapter delay so I think it still works. It probably works better for people reading the story in chunks.
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“Why are you here?” The guard sounded bored; this was a question he asked all the time and he probably expected...
2023-07-10 22:59:35 +0000 UTC
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The first thing he could do was through A’Atla’s interface: the ship had a large network of mana sensors. They could detect any large-scale use of spellcasting. There were similar sensors for high-speed projectiles; guns definitely counted.
There were ways to limit or block both, but they weren’t available to Serenity. There wasn’t anywhere near enough mana available, even if he tried to limit the suppression to a small area. The feature simply ...
2023-07-09 23:13:31 +0000 UTC
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The best part about being stuck, unable to figure out how to move forward, was that he could watch the facilities improve as more people came and there was time to build better places to live. The old tents gave way to larger tents, then buildings; most recently, the interior “public” camp had been clearing out small rooms and moving everyone as if they actually intended to use A’Atla’s facilities instead of shipping everything in.
No, it was getti...
2023-07-08 23:07:51 +0000 UTC
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Armand was not having a good week. Realistically, it hadn’t been a good month. Or month and a half; however long it had been since the Instrument of the Heathen Devils rose from the sea. The Voice of God even warned of its coming!
[A’Atla has Risen!]
[Lost to the Sea in Ages Past, the Floating Island floats once more. Many mysteries are hidden on A’Atla]
[World Quest: The Ruins of the Past]
2023-07-07 22:27:53 +0000 UTC
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I could eat that. It would be a very interesting magitech upgrade, Aide offered. I think I could even leverage it to create displays near any of your bodies.
That wasn’t going to work, even if it was pretty tempting. We can’t take this one. If we happen to find one that no one else knows about, we can talk about it then.
I never get to have any fun.
Was that a joke? It had to be a jo...
2023-07-06 23:23:33 +0000 UTC
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“You were warped by magic?” The woman playing on her phone wasn’t looking at it anymore; instead, she stared directly at Serenity. “That explains a lot. Did you know that you glow a little?”
“Glow?” Serenity glanced down; he was pretty sure he wasn’t actually glowing. “Oh, you mean with magic.”
Serenity wasn’t certain if she meant the bloodline he pretended to have, which did seem to leak some magic, or simply the more-than-n...
2023-07-05 23:20:58 +0000 UTC
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It took Serenity a few tries to hit the area between ‘pale human with horns’ and ‘insubstantial mana elemental.’ What he finally ended up looking like was an extremely pale man with platinum blond hair and opalescent pupil-less eyes. His hair and skin shimmered like his eyes if the light caught it correctly, which should make it even harder to make out his features. It was the best he could do.
The symbol on his chest was still there, but that ...
2023-07-04 22:16:33 +0000 UTC
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Serenity double checked the filters and made certain they were all turned off; no warnings appeared. That was not good; it meant he shouldn’t trust the warnings as much as he had been. This was probably a special case, but it showed that the system wasn’t perfect.
It took some digging for Serenity to find anything other than the warning and map screens he already knew about, but he eventually located a visual display of all of the controls. It had to e...
2023-07-04 00:02:22 +0000 UTC
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