wardenraime

Chapter 616 - Testing Power

“So, how’s it going in here?” Leon asked as he reached the bottom of the pit where the Thunderbird had inscribed the transformation enchantment within his soul realm.

“Much progress has been made,” she replied as she transformed into her human body and touched down on the stone floor. “I’ve excised numerous redundancies, and managed to remove the biggest hurdle in the entire enchantment: the part that caused your soul realm to grow unsustainably. The power requirements are...

Chapter 615 - Resting and Making Plans

Following Leon’s return to the capital, he spent a week relaxing at home. He didn’t go anywhere and didn’t do anything productive. He just needed to rest as much as he could. He didn’t even train with the Thunderbird or Nestor. He just enjoyed his time at home, reading during his free time and spending nearly every other waking moment with either Elise, Maia, Valeria, or some combination of the three.

What little work he did during that time was mostly relegating to ensuring tha...

Chapter 614 - No More Secrets

“Look at all of this, how did you let it get this bad?” Elise exclaimed as she ran her hands through Leon’s hair. Next to her were a few glasses of water, a few combs, a razor, and a pair of scissors.

They were sitting around at a counter in their kitchen with Maia and Valeria, who were treating the sight before them almost like a play as they watched Elise slowly lose her mind over the state of Leon’s hair.

He didn’t think it was that bad, actually. Sure, he hadn’t go...

Chapter 613 - Three Becomes Four

“You think I’m a deserter?” Leon asked, the corners of his lips turning up in amusement. The King was staring at him with an expression of such seriousness that he almost took Julius’ words at face value and assumed hostility.

The King was silent for a long moment, and he took a few slow, ominous steps toward him.

Then, the older man smiled and exclaimed, “Absolutely not!”

The two chuckled a bit, and the King waved Leon further into the room, both of them taking ...

Chapter 612 - Home, Again

The arrival of Leon’s retinue back in the Bull Kingdom came without any fanfare. They’d hitched a ride on a tribute ship, not with the Legion armada, so those who awaited them at the docks of one of the southern trade cities were not cheering throngs grateful that their task force returned home victorious, but rather a number of low-ranking Legion knights and a handful of dry, boring bureaucrats there to inspect the tribute.

There was no reason for them to stay on the ship while the...

Chapter 611 - New Retainer; New Obligations

The time for Leon’s retinue to leave came soon enough, and not a single member of the Legion came to stop them, not even when they brazenly marched through the docks like they were parade grounds. They took their places on the timber transport ship, and once everyone was on board, the ship departed.

The space they had was cramped and relatively uncomfortable, but Leon could see that the remaining dreadnought from Sigebert’s fleet wasn’t being prepped to move, so any lingering doub...

Chapter 610 - Making a Pitch

There's some discussion of geography in this chapter, so here's the map of Aeterna I made last year for your reference.

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Finding a private space within the occupied town wasn’t easy, but after about fifteen minutes of wandering, Leon and Anshu found a fairly deserted cliffside platform that gave a fantastic view of the sea. It was about as open as such a cramped town could afford, and...

A Quick Update

If you missed the recent announcements, I put the all of the revised chapters of the first half of the Knight Academy up on my website for anyone who wants to be a beta reader!  You can read all of the chapters in one place there, if you want!  If you do check it out, please be sure to let me know what you think, whether that's here in these comment sections, there on my website, or on my Discord.

Just click 2021-06-09 15:05:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 609 - Making His Own Way Home

Basina and Theuderic stared at Leon in disbelief, Leon having just wrapped up an abbreviated report of what had happened after Sigebert’s fleet separated from the other two on the third island.

They were in the Earl’s manor on the fifth island. The town surrounding it had less than five thousand residents, and the manor itself wasn’t huge, so the Legion fleets were having some trouble finding places to dock. Legion engineers were swarming over the cliffs along the shore, building ...

Chapter 608 - Further Evaluations

Cataloguing the items he’d found in the ‘transformation cave’, as Leon had taken to referring to it in his head, was only part of what he needed to do to put his soul realm in order. He also had a gigantic pile of gold that had once been the massive serpent colossus to deal with, as well as the two emeralds that had been set into its eye sockets. The emeralds were set aside for Gaius, but before handing them off, Leon wanted to take some time to study them, for they hummed with magic po...

Chapters 92 & 93 Revised

Damn, this took far longer than it should've.  I've felt pretty guilty about not getting this done sooner, so for that, I apologize.

Onto business, though!  You might notice that this is pretty short for 2 chapters.  That's because this is only 1 chapter - I wound up deleting chapter 92 in its entirety, because I didn't feel like it added anything at all.  So, I wound up only revising chapter 93.

Much as has been the usual MO for the past few chapters, there ar...

Chapter 607 - Cataloguing Loot

Xaphan was back in his soul realm, and his sword was back on his hip. He was with Maia, and his small group of followers were in good health. As far as Leon was concerned, the only thing his life truly lacked right now was Elise; everything else was just as it should be.

However, there was still business to deal with.

[So, demon,] Leon said as he leaned back in his chair, [what in the hells was all that about?] As he asked his question, Leon squeezed Maia’s hand again, giving he...

Chapter 606 - Imperial Envoys

The first thing Leon noticed upon being shown into the room where the envoys were waiting was their auras: the weaker one was, startlingly, of the eighth-tier, while the stronger was powerful enough that Leon couldn’t identify his tier. He momentarily froze in the doorway, stunned by the level of power that had arrived.

The weaker of the two, almost paradoxically, looked like he should’ve been stronger—he was a giant of a man, standing head and shoulders above Leon. He was dark of...

Chapter 605 - Adamant Joy

Leon slept deeply, if briefly. The process of turning back into a human had a great deal of magic power and concentration between him and the Thunderbird, and the process had exacted its toll upon his body. Still, he was an eighth-tier mage, now, and sleep was hardly something he truly needed anymore. After only about two hours of sleep, he was stirring in the bed that Alix and Maia had brought him to.

It was a near-identical copy to the quarters he and his retinue had been assigned on ...

Chapter 604 - Waking Up

He rarely dreamed anymore. For him, sleep was a delightful void of thought and a much-needed relief from boredom.

When he did sleep, it was often for long periods of time—tens or hundreds of years would pass before he would wake. And it was always one of the most entertaining parts of his existence, waking up. Oftentimes, it was like stepping into a completely new world. The Empires around his sea would rarely change, but there would usually be great happenings going on in other parts...

Chapter 603 - Wild Pride

Leon woke from his dream slowly. He was calm; he may not have spoken to Artorias himself, but even exchanging words with his father in a dream had soothed his soul more than he ever would’ve thought. He momentarily thought about Jormun and panicked, thinking the pirate was still out there somewhere, but before he could even sit up off the cool stone he was laying on, he remembered everything that happened during the battle.

It was a lot to take in; he wasn’t exactly conscious during...

Chapter 602 - Comfort in a Dream

The wind was in his feathers, his talons were raking across the hide of his serpentine enemy, and the clouds above bent themselves to his whim, all the energy they contained his to do with as he pleased. The power of the Heavens was at his command, requiring nothing more than a mere wisp of intent to manipulate.

This was joy to him. He’d rarely ever felt anything like it; only those times when he was with his mates would his joy surpass this. It was absolute freedom—freedom...

Chapter 601 - The Serpent Falls

Gaius could only scowl as the dreadnought pushed deeper into the storm, the sounds of battle growing steadily louder as they cut through the waves. He could feel an immense amount of power up ahead, so much that he was feeling quite queasy, but regardless, he stood at the bow of the dreadnought, guiding the ship forward.

Not that the ship needed a guide, for all the islets that had been here only a few hours ago were now gone, having fallen into the sea. However, what everyone on the sh...

Chapter 600 - The Eagle and the Serpent

Xaphan watched as the Black Eagle descended into the maelstrom, each beat of its mighty wings hurling its magic into the air, seizing control of the storm around it. The serpent may have conjured the storm—or, perhaps more accurately, the powers that backed the serpent—but with every wingbeat, the Black Eagle was seizing control.

The demon of flame was a goodly distance from the surface of the ocean, and the Eagle by extension, but even from where he hovered in the sky, he could fee...

Chapter 599 - The Black Eagle

Leon’s soul realm was in turmoil. The normally stagnant air had been whipped up into a furious tempest, and lightning rained from the Mists of Chaos to strike the distant mountain peaks, shattering stone and sending Leon’s stored magic power into swirling chaos.

Nestor watched as much as he could from the ruby, but most of his attention was on Leon himself. The storm in Leon’s soul realm was hardly less interesting than what was happening to Leon’s physical body.

The young...

Chapter 598 - Placing Trust in the Dead

Leon twisted and turned through another teleportation tunnel until he landed on solid ground so suddenly that he immediately lost his balance and fell on his ass.

With a grunt of surprise, he quickly oriented himself with the dark place he now found himself in and pushed himself to his feet.

Once again, he found himself alone in a dark cave, but unlike after being pushed into the pit by Jormun, this cave was much, much larger. It was just as empty, though—or so it first...

Chapter 597 - Searching for the Exit

The Thunderbird was urging Leon to get up, but he ignored her for a moment. By his estimation, both his magic body and his physical body were fine, though his soul realm had been severely damaged at the edges—he’d have to repair that damage before continuing to gain any power. However, for all that he was physically all right, he felt like he had a foot in the grave. He knew that he had to get up to continue dealing with the current situation, but he needed a moment to compose himself. 2021-05-12 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 596 - Divine Intervention

The centaur-figure exited the white portal and hovered there in the air as the portal dissipated into countless motes of white light, which then winked out of existence. Only then did it begin to descend, and as it did, its aura grew even more intense as its body twisted and bent out shape. Its hind legs snapped and shrank as the metallic sheen of its angular body dulled and its harder corners smoothed.

Leon was forced into a kneeling position as its aura settled around his shoulders, h...

Chapter 595 - Divinity Manifested

[All right, Nestor… Let’s figure this shit out.]

The dead man’s reply came after a long, pregnant pause. [I’ll be honest here, Leon… You’ve really kicked a hornet’s nest…] Nestor spoke calmly and carefully, but his voice was unmistakably tinged with a deep undercurrent of anxiety.

Leon glanced back at the obliterated staircase, and then at the angel that now mindlessly paced around the plaza, making those same, odd gurgling sounds as it walked between great rows of...

Chapter 594 - Linking Back Up

The angel rapidly advanced, taking relatively small and slow steps, yet its sheer size still allowing it to cover a great deal of ground. From what little he could sense of its aura, Leon did not want to fight it, especially without his family’s sword in hand.

So instead of fighting it, he channeled his magic power into the ring of invisibility on his finger and hoped that it would be enough to hide him from the winged creature.

Light bent around him, the emerald on the...

Chapter 593 - The Growing Storm

Leon froze at the top of the immense stairs, staring at the beam of light connecting the two great pyramids, a bright white halo around it almost making it seem like a small star that had been stolen from the sky and hidden down here. Something was in there, and it was staring at him with great expectation, and Leon couldn’t help but assume that it was the thing that had been speaking to him this entire time.

He didn’t move. The voice had compelled him to move through the undergroun...

Chapter 592 - Below the Isles

Gentleness.

Calmness.

He was wrapped in something soft and light, in a place that was absent judgment. A place of rest, where he didn’t have to worry about anything else. A place where he didn’t have to face the world, where he didn’t have to own up to his mistakes, where he didn’t have to face the consequences of his own weakness, or to feel shame for his failures. It was a place where he didn’t even have to open his eyes.

He could just lay there, unmoving, doing ...

Chapter 591 - The Bull and the Serpent

Maia silently roared in frustration as this gargantuan horned serpent shrugged off everything she could throw at it. Every water dragon was torn apart by the serpent’s own water magic, one even having been completely stolen from her as it was invaded by the serpent’s magic power, then frozen in place in an insulting testament to her loss.

After less than a minute, it had become clear enough to Maia that even with the assistance of the fire demon, battling this creature on the ground...

Chapter 590 - Serpent Ascendant

The pit was impossibly deep. Down and down it went, for miles and miles, so far that it seemed like that if they dropped any further, then Leon and Jormun would fall right out of the underside of the plane and into the Void.

For Jormun, this was one of the most exhilarating and terrifying moments of his life. The culmination of everything he’d worked for over the past fifty years… to finally achieve the power he’d so coveted, and to face a future without that obligation to the Ser...

Chapter 589 - The Last Sacrifice

Blood pounded in his head like a hammer against an anvil, and the darkness that enveloped his mind was the oppressive sort; Leon had no idea where he was or what he was doing. He could barely even remember what it was he’d been doing last. All he could see or feel was the darkness, and the blood madly pumping in his veins.

Despite this, he felt rather calm. Whatever had been going on before he’d come to this place had left him mentally and physically exhausted, and the darkness, how...