“You’re certain you’re not missing anything,” said the Ghoul Doctor. He gave Hreinn a flat look. “Hadn’t you mentioned that a local noticed your trap?”
“Noticed, yes,” hummed Hreinn. “A local who thinks he’s much cleverer than he is… yet there’s a heaven-and-earth difference between noticing something and stopping it, I’m afraid. The poor man’s clueless! He hadn’t even noticed me watching his every move, every time he’s tried to tamper. Tried, and faile...
2025-10-07 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry for late chapter folks--just realized I scheduled it for the wrong day!
//
Gaoler’s Observation Chambers
The longtime gaoler of the Superdungeon, the Faceless One, still lay petrified on the floor of his own observation room, stuck through with Corruption needles. Soul trembling with agony.
Each needle was fashioned from million-year Bone of a beast, then corrupted with the bloodline of the Heavenly De...
2025-10-06 02:59:44 +0000 UTC
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“I’m just saying, it might not be helpful to give yourself too hard a time about it,” said Zane. He took another bite of kebab. “If you want to feel better about it, maybe you could put your knowledge to a useful purpose.”
Kain shrugged. “There are those who make their purpose to fix this world… I have no such inclination. I would rather it, and I, pass like ships in the night.”
“I’m not saying you have to be a do-gooder, all of a sudden,” said Zane. “You d...
2025-10-05 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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One day around the 5th season of his time in the Pure Yang Lands, just about 10 years in, Zane was eating kebabs and watching league with Kain.
Kain had fashioned some scrying glasses for them, so they could see the action up-close, which Zane was quite grateful for. With these things they weren’t just spectating flashing lights anymore—he could make out expressions and everything. It made for a far more immersive experience; it was much easier to get invested in your heroes.&...
2025-10-02 01:34:12 +0000 UTC
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“Get a load of this,” said the Barbarian Sage proudly. He swept out an arm, gesturing at a vast swathe of space.
“Presenting: Boot Camp!”
At the very center of the space, there lay a hunk of dark-gray steel the size of a planet. Its only distinguishing feature was the craters peppered all over it. Those craters looked like massive knuckles, as if some giant had punched it many, many times.
Chains suspended it mid-air, anchoring it to several points in space. Th...
2025-10-01 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hey folks! No chapter Monday, 9/29, sorry about that--got fried from traveling and couldn't recover
//
Before Zane knew it, yet another shard season had begun—his third so far. By now, he’d spent nearly five years in the Pure Yang lands in total.
Time seemed to fly when he was deep in a grind.
The valley and the mountain remained quite separate—folks down there didn’t even attempt trespassing anymore. He was pretty sure it had something t...
2025-09-29 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A full two years after Zane first arrived, meteors started filling the skies once more.
Construct wagons and carriages were coming in. And for the first time in what felt like ages, colorful tents showed up in the valley below, to his delight.
A second shard season was upon them.
He had decided that this season would be his ‘season of firepower.’ He was pretty sure he could achieve far more raw strength gains than speed gains when it came to his new Starfire Concept. Fir...
2025-09-28 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Bonus chapter!
The dragons did end up taking down the King Astrolith, by the looks of it, but not without leveling the valley below. It hardly even looked like a valley anymore. New canyons riddled the place, some so wide you could step in and plunge straight into the starfire mantle, thousands of miles below. Destruction Laws sank over the place like a heavy fog.
The Pure Yang continent was also slowly mending itself, stitching back together little by little...
2025-09-26 19:30:22 +0000 UTC
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7-and-a-half hours in, and Zane found himself deep in a shard drought.
The past two hours had yielded nothing. He was stalled at 6 shards and pretty miffed about it.
He wasn’t sure what was up with this meteor shower. He watched shard meteor after shard meteor cascade into the valleys below—witnessed no less than three firefights between those fire-skull-necromancer people and the True Rocs over the same few meteors. But he could only watch forlornly from his perch, getting mo...
2025-09-25 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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He deposited the shards in an interspatial ring and kept moving. Astrolith beams razed the landscape behind him, but with his Great Sage Mind keeping track of things he had no trouble getting out of the way.
That was a coup, all things considered—just a few minutes’ work for two shards. He surveyed his slopes for more shard meteors coming his way, but he had no such luck. A few meteors, two Creation, one Destruction were just descending into the valley below. Making long, slow arcs ...
2025-09-24 02:28:43 +0000 UTC
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Zane had given some thought as to how he wanted to conduct this night. He wanted to make it as efficient as he could—only hunting Shard Bosses, stacking as many Destruction shards as possible in that 8-hour window. He didn’t want to get into a situation where he was fighting 30 Empyreans at once. He wouldn’t get anything by wasting time on the dozens of Astrolith grunts making landfall every minute.
So, he did something he very seldom tried in these kinds of boss fights.
He ...
2025-09-23 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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The next morning, after they did their daily clean-up, Kain came up to him with a scroll in hand.
“What’s up?” said Zane.
Kain looked like he was about to say something. Then he paused and considered Zane again.
“That was quite the effort back there.”
Zane had just run through the starfield—a wilder run than he usually did. He ended up punching as much as he slashed, always taking on five or six Astroliths at once. He took more shots, but it felt good to fi...
2025-09-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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“They call it the ‘Vault of the Heavens’ opening,” said Kain. “Once a year, the stars align just so. The pull of the Pure Yang grows strongest, and all those shards return from whence they came. In that one night, the sky will light up with Creation and Destruction. Well over a hundred shards will crash to ground level in a single night.”
“…Really, now.” That definitely got his attention.
“Those shards will be spread across all the Pure Yang lands. But Mount X ...
2025-09-21 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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His third Star-crushing Slash made clearing the morning horde much faster. With that third slash taking out two Empyreans at a time, and Kain’s own thicker pillar of Destruction doing the same, they’d gotten the total grind down to just over 40 minutes. That included the Boss portion.
Since the best Law hours were those crucial first few hours when the crystals shone brightest, shaving off even ten minutes would make quite a big difference in the long run. To say nothing of cutting ...
2025-09-18 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Hopefully not, if he could avoid it. Though it did seem the kind of thing Noughtfire would put him up to. The old guy would get a kick out of it.
Zane kind of expected this Kain to be surprised, or at least more on guard, after he found out about his time-traveler status.
But the man looked relieved, if anything.
“Then you must be here simply for the Starfield.”
“I’ve said that a bunch of times.”
“I should explain that I have a certain rep...
2025-09-17 01:02:36 +0000 UTC
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The next day, they both arrived around sunrise.
Kain gave him a look-over. “You're here again.”
“Yeah.”
“…Very well, then.”
That was that. At least this time, the guy didn’t try to scare him off. Without another word, they just got to work—Zane starting in from the left with great big arcs, Kain clearing from the right with more focused, high-powered shots.
After a few attempts, he'd gotten killing each Astrolith down to a science. He would clea...
2025-09-16 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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He was just about to go to town on them when he heard a raspy—“Wait.”
There was Kain, holding up a hand. He was panting a little.
“If you wake them, we’ll have to fight them all at once. Then you’ll swamp the entire field.”
Zane considered that, frowning.
“It’d be most prudent,” said Kain, drawing himself up to full height, “to leave them for the end. That’s all.”
“Fine,” said Zane.
He waited a bit for Kain to finish up his hal...
2025-09-15 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Zane headed back to find the starfield overrun.
He was baffled to find no less than thirty Empyrean auras crowding that field. But they weren’t like any he’d felt. Their auras felt dampened, somehow, and he saw the explanation for it as soon as he crested the ridge.
Astroliths, one after another, studded the starfield.
Then there were the biggest ones. Four ‘Greater Greater Astroliths’ clustered in the middle. Zane really wasn’t sure who named these things. But the...
2025-09-14 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Zane still got the sense that this Kain fellow was suspicious of him. Every so often, he’d send Zane a frown from across the Valley.
The fellow gave fewer frowns as the day progressed. They ended up mostly doing their own thing after all. That first day passed without much incident.
For his part, Zane really didn’t mind one way or another. At first, he was a bit miffed, but it wasn’t long before he immersed himself in crystal studying again.
It soon grew quite clear ju...
2025-09-11 01:34:40 +0000 UTC
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The draw of the star-crushing slashes was how they were meant to stack.
It’d be like his Red Giant Storm in that way—just much faster and more versatile. That was the theory, anyway. The thing was, he found it pretty hard just getting off the ground with it.
The base Skill looked quite similar to his ‘Red Giant Slash’—just a little slower and maybe about 25% less strong. But he’d expected that. The first blow wasn’t as strong by design. It ramped up very quickly.
...
2025-09-10 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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“Hey there,” Zane said. He wasn’t sure what the proper greeting here was, but he figured you couldn’t go wrong with a friendly wave. “Have either of you fellows heard of Mount X? I’m Jack, by the way.”
He was hoping this try would go better. The last one had gotten a bit rowdy—he’d had to dust off an old ‘Jack’ technique.
They looked a bit stunned, which made sense. They must’ve seen him whack the young master back there.
“That was self-defense. I...
2025-09-09 01:26:39 +0000 UTC
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He fit the gear into the altar. It groaned into motion, cranking into a spin.
After a few seconds it seemed to reach some stable rate. Some fundamental machinery of the Galaxy had whirred to life.
A portal popped open above him.
Starlight flooded through, the colors of suns and moons. The image was pretty hazy.
It was like he’d opened the door to a snowy day—but rather than snowflakes, these golden embers drifted through, sizzling with flecks of Destruction.<...
2025-09-08 01:30:56 +0000 UTC
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“I only mean to say that things have changed,” said the Ghoul Doctor. “That last duel should raise alarms, Master. It should make for a marked shift in our understanding of Zane.”
Did you think I did not know that man had Aiwe’s store? This changes nothing.
“My point, Master,” said the Ghoul Doctor, strained, “is merely that it’d be a danger to underestimate him.”
Hreinn gave a whining laugh, and that wa...
2025-09-07 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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“The disguise amulet. The one you used for ‘Jack’—might I see it?”
Zane pulled it out. “You’re quite keen on this thing.”
“It’s a fine disguise,” said Noughtfire, shrugging innocently. “Put it on, if you will.”
Zane did. Noughtfire inspected him.
“Needs refinement,” he said at last. “If you would.”
Zane handed it over, and Noughtfire took out a steel rod etched with runes. He tapped the crystal once, which hummed.
When Zane...
2025-09-05 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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The man in the straw hat stopped. “You must be Zane.”
He had pale Destruction scars running down his cheeks, clawing down his throat. You got the sense that far greater scars ran beneath his robes. A scar stretched down one side of his mouth, giving him a slightly amused look.
“Hey there,” said Zane with a wave.
Patches of black blood stained the hems of the man’s robes.
They’d long since dried, but they were suffused with the life force of an Empyrean. And...
2025-09-03 01:45:34 +0000 UTC
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There were no other clues than that.
He had no issues with his Red Moon Pagoda. The Spirit was a bit cranky, but he didn’t mind. It had held up to all of his soul defense needs so far and then some.
Most of the time, it worked quietly in the background. Whenever an attack had a soul component, that Aegis of Infinity tanked everything—to the point where most of the time, he barely even felt it.
It was pretty extraordinary in that respect, pretty much nullifying an entire ...
2025-09-01 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Reina had also gotten news about Haxorax. The prince was seeking out soul experts in the various Factions.
“He’s doing a stint at the Constellation Order,” she told Zane. “They do have some of the best soul magics this galaxy has to offer…”
She hesitated. “The World Tree does too. Especially some of our Grand Alchemists. I’m pretty close to a few. They’re proud, but... they could work something out for him if I asked. He’s sent a letter here too, asking to plea...
2025-08-30 22:30:01 +0000 UTC
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“A reckoning!” Lyxandor had to laugh.
Then he turned on Sverrex. “That’s what you’re here for, is it?”
The little wyrm wouldn’t meet his eyes.
He went back to the Phoenixes. He’d deal with them one at a time.
“I got your letter. I told you I’d deal with you tomorrow, didn’t I? I’ve been rather busy, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Enough is enough, Lyxandor,” said the King Phoenix quietly.
“So, what, then?” said Lyxandor,...
2025-08-28 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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A/N:
Sry for the lateness folks! On a plane and couldn’t get the WiFi working, plane is descending and just got 5g so it’s up now!
//
The moment he saw his son submit, the Patriarch felt a sudden coldness. He couldn’t even look at the boy.
That had been an excruciating watch. Like having his whole body freeze up mid-fight for no reason he could fathom. Standing there watching, trembling, as Haxorax flailed like vermin as that man laid into him…
The Patria...
2025-08-27 03:11:36 +0000 UTC
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A wall of gold came at him.
It was like watching sunrise over the face of the star core, and as it passed, it drove a furrow a mile deep. The blast could’ve spanned a continent. It was a blow to end the world.
It should’ve been overkill against a Minor God. But it felt like Haxorax was unleashing everything in that moment; all his rage, all his agony. All that made the dragon prince. It felt like an expression of his soul, shattered as it was…
It was a blow Zane ...
2025-08-26 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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