Ad Astra

288. The Chimera

“Find him,” breathed Jez. “And destroy him. Go!”

The Thunderfire Chimera raised an arm in mechanical salute. Then it rumbled into the sky, trailing fire and crackling lightning, and was gone through a tear in spacetime.

Leaving Jez to stand alone atop his parapet, staring silent at the somber skies of Hell. Starless, sunless, fixed in a purple purgatory.

Seven mutants he had sent. Seven, to cover his Infinity.

It would not be enough.

Every few ho...

287. The Goddess of Light (X)

Xalaxia, Pure Jade Realm

Middle Realms

Weeks ago…

When Xinther, messenger of the Jade Emperor, felt the light on his face he thought he’d died and been reclaimed by the Heavens. The trek had been so long—braving three different climes, each perilous in its own nasty way; blasting him with smog, with heat, and, this latest one, a bone-chilling freeze topped off with healthy servings of sleet and chunks of hail the size ...

286. The Goddess of Light (XIII)

Millennium Caverns - Middle Realms

Ancestral Home of the Orcs

Nothing grew in the Millennium Caverns. The soil was dry, void of nutrients, and vomited up deformed husks whenever anyone planted a seed and tried to coax anything green out of it. These seeds were imported from other realms, for there were no plants native to the Millennium Caverns. Above the surface the land was barren, rocky, and so plagued with icestorms that any species foolish en...

285. The Goddess of Light (XII)

Before Dorian left, he cast a Blessing of Asclepius on Junior and the rest of his Empyreans, all of whom were still snoring. He left them a note—“Out for a walk. Be back soon!”

A tug of a Fate Thread later he was spat back into the dragonrealm, or at least what he hoped was the dragonrealm. Hard to tell; cosmic dizziness had made his vision a slurry of color. It took a few breaths for it to resolve to clear, defined shapes. He stood on what appeared to be a hill with a single tree...

284. The Goddess of Light (XI)

The Blessings and Curses of Yeshima were her signature weapons. With them she conquered the Realm of True Light; with them she was ranked among the most powerful Godkings in the Multiverse. At first other Godkings had a habit of underestimating her—she was rumored to have a great qi pool, but little in the way of Martial Techniques. She was also small and pretty as a porcelain doll, and had this disarming way of smiling that meant she seldom had to fight.

It wasn’t until a ...

283. The Goddess of Light (X)

“How’s it going up there?” yelled Dorian. His stalwart troupe of healers couldn’t hear him at first, so he opened a tunnel through the air to shepherd the sound through.

“Can’t—hold—much—longer!” gritted Junior. “Please—finish! Soon!”

Dorian’s best guess was they had about 20% left. The tithes were slowing down too. He weighed the odds in his head, then shrugged.

“If any of you have qi elixirs, now’s the time to start chugging life your life d...

282. The Goddess of Light (IX)

It seemed to have punctured his heart, lungs and liver all at once. And probably a lot more, judging by the way his whole midsection seemed to shut down. There was the pain, of course—great shockwaves of it—but when something ran you through pain was usually a poor indication of the severity. Not all tissues were polite enough to let the mind know when they were shredded.

A better indicator was how fucked your body was. If you told your spine to bend, did it listen? Dorian’s was m...

281. The Goddess of Light (VIII)

“Hello, Fate,” said the head of Nuwa, a whisper trickling out the gaping, toothless maw.

“And goodbye,” croaked the head of Auras.

“We must get you to a healer,” said Fate, his voice tight with desperation. “I’m good friends with the Celestial Physician—perhaps if I put in a word—”

“There is no healing us,” said both heads at once. They smiled with a gentle resignation, the sort a very old man might wear on his deathbed. “There is only one thing w...

280. The Goddess of Light (VII)

It was easy to tell where Jez’s territory began. Just look to the sky—blue melting gradually into gold like some otherworldly sunset.

Dorian’s crew crash-landed into a hill so hard it became a valley. He landed nimbly amid a heap of groaning Enforcers still climbing out of human-shaped holes in the ground.

“Now where is this fortress?” he mused, scanning the landscape.

“Jez’s forces have staked out the Summer Palace, your Holiness!” said Junior. “Please fol...

279. The Goddess of Light (VI)

The thirteen ranked Godqueen in the Multiverse sat crosslegged atop a parapet, admiring her painting. In one hand she held a wooden brush whose tip smoldered with Laws of Necromancy. In the other she held a glass of wine. The sun was high, the air was crisp and cool, and the sky streaked with clouds. Flocks of gulls wheeled overhead, riding the gentle breeze. It was a lovely day, and Lucifer, better known as Lucy to her many, many enemies, was in a lovely mood.

As she took a sip from th...

278. The Goddess of Light (V)

“Junior, you dare?!”

There was no qi nor Law in the air, but the hall was still choked with tension. You could see it on Junior’s face, which spasmed and twitched and trembled. It was as though he were wearing his brave face as a mask and cracks were splitting it down its length. You could see it in Junior’s body, the dragging hunch of his shoulders, the gasping of his throat as he opened his mouth and tried to find words, and the courage to speak them.

This was the moment...

277. The Goddess of Light (IV)

“Halt!” cried the Enforcers as he ascended the staircase up to the Grand Basilica. It was so wide an army could’ve marched up it. Right now it was just him sauntering up the steps. Even so, the Enforcers brandished their scepters and ropes at him like he was an army unto himself.

“What is this nonsense?” said Dorian with a theatrical sigh. “Can a man not even enter his own house?”

He shook his head. “What has this realm come to?”

“Stop there!” cried the...

276. The Goddess of Light (III)

A/N: edited this into last chapter

[“So… why are you here?” said Rin.

“Ehh. It’s a long story. Let’s just say I left some things on this Realm. I’m here to retrieve them.”

“What?”

“A while ago I founded this organization called the Church of True Light. It’s grown to be pretty strong! Now I have use of a strong fighting force, so I figure I’ll reclaim it. There’s also a body of mine lying about here somewhe...

275. The Goddess of Light (II)

When the sun rose over Mystic Phoenix Village, the folk were already awake. Today began exactly like yesterday, and the day before that. Wake at dawn. Burn incense to Yeshima, Praise Be Her Name. Pray. Then gather in the village square to hear out Priest Xu’s sermon. Today’s was on the importance of piousness, even when times were tough. Xu had a voice made for droning; they’d just woken but a few folk were lulled back to sleep. Xu, who also doubled as the village elder, had a special t...

274. The Goddess of Light (I)

With one last punch the Infinity Heart ruptured. A gale of gold qi buffeted him, howling out the room, up the winding staircase, desperate to escape. Then there was silence.

One down! One of dozens, perhaps but Dorian savored it anyways. In his experience the first of anything was usually the hardest. He had a feeling the Infinity Hearts might just be an exception, but a God can hope, can’t he?

When he went outside once more the sky was blue, not gold. The world itself ...

273. The Power of the Godking (III)

For so long Jez had seen the virtue of keeping a certain childlike innocence. A sense of wonder. A boundless kindness toward every living being.

He saw now why children grew up. It was a way of living out of step with the world. The world as it was now, at least.

Kindness was so tiring. Not physically, nor mentally, but emotionally. For a time Jez had made it a point to live among the tribes he was about to conquer so that he could feel the weight of what he was about to ...

272. The Power of the Godhunter (II)

When Dorian emerged from the Chamber he felt about the same, and looked about the same too. His aura was still that of his Black Hole. If he summoned qi, by default Eclipse qi of Eclipse Laws would answer.

Only now he could summon new powers too. And when he seemed a different man. His aura went from heavy and oppressive to light and sharp—though he felt no less deadly. Cool light-blue qi wafted from his body like early morning mist. It was like like he’d stepped into an old coat, a...

271. The Power of the Godhunter (I)

Gerard retrieved the core. In the end it was not with a hacksaw but with a surgeon’s scalpel, some softening acids, and enough gauze and ointment to stock a hospital. He insisted on spraying the core with a mysterious yellow liquid, then wiping it down, before letting Dorian take hold of it.

Dorian could barely hold it, even with both hands. It was a huge thing, all uneven and spiky, like a hunk of ice chipped off a glacier, and it was scorching to the touch. Not with heat, but qi and...

270. Mt. Tai (V)

Gerard was the first to his feet. He rushed over, shoving aside cringing, stunned soldiers, all propriety for once forgotten. He knelt by the charred husk on the ground, rolled it—him—over until Dorian was right-side-up. He felt for a pulse at the wrist.

Nothing.

No breathing. The organs were roasted. The heart was stopped.

Gerard did not accept this for an answer.

He checked the neck. No. The chest. No. He stuck an acupuncture needle in the chest and prob...

269. Mt. Tai (IV)

There was a cannon built at the peak of Mt. Tai. It had been here long before the fortress was built, long before the dragons came to the dragonrealm. It was made by an ancient Godking of a foreign race. History had long brushed them away, scattering their traces to the wind. This was all that remained. It’d stood here, proud and solemn, since the dawn of recorded time, looking exactly as it always had.

It was the model from which all cannons were built. It was simple, unlike those je...

268. Mt. Tai (III)

The invader did not manage to bat all of the cannonballs out of the sky.

He knocked down the first with a wing. Whacked the second away. Then the third caught him in the face and sent him flat on his ass. A fourth hit struck him, throwing him head-over-heels in the air. Then the mountains’ massive gravity yanked him into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust. A fifth, sixth, seventh cannonball slammed where he’d fallen. A sizable crater was forming on the narrow mountain pass.

267. Mt. Tai (II)

The battle had barely ended and they were already spinning up songs for Sun. Her soldiers bounced her between them as they flew a victory lap, cheering and hooting and spewing celebratory peals of fire. She cackled all the while. Beneath, Squashednose and the rest of the recruiters had scurried into Lockjaw Fortress. They set about dragging out cannons, gauntlets, spears, bows, and other such deadly knickknacks.

“Remarkable,” muttered Dorian. “She has them on a string. I wonder ho...

266. Mt Tai (I)

A/N:

Sorry for the late chap!

//

Mt. Tai’s courtyard garden was the envy of the dragonrealm. The soil was fine and loamy and so soft your feet sank into it, as into a wool carpet. But you could scarcely see it under all that greenery. It wasn’t all green, of course—there were sky blues, molten reds, sunny yellows, deep-cave blacks, great herbs of all shapes spanning the visible spectrum. If you took a stroll through here, then peered out at the rest of...

265. Black Hole (VI)

An hour later in real-time, Dorian was fully healed and so was Gerard. Before they set off Gerard insisted on burying Pliny. Even crowned him with a gravestone—something neat and poetic about returning a centaur whose life work was fossils to the earth, an apt resting place.

Dorian and Gerard Jr. stood by, incredulous. Dorian didn’t feel the centaur deserved shit. Gerard Jr. thought so too, by his increasingly irritated croaking. Dorian was pretty sure that little monster was even m...

264. Black Hole (V)

For a few breaths, Pliny merely frowned at the axe-shaped hole in the mountain. His expression was blank. Then he let out a sigh that started from his belly, flowed up his chest, and where it passed he sagged with resignation.

“Quite a throw,” he said. “Quite a throw indeed.”

“Why, thank you,” said Dorian. “Though axe-throwing isn’t my strong suit. I much prefer fisticuffs, actually.”

His hands lit up with qi. “Let’s end things, shall we?”

“Ve...

263. Black Hole (IV)

Dorian emerged to a slaughter. At first he couldn’t comprehend what he was looking at.

There was Gerard, in Midnight Roc form. Breathing heavy. Collapsed on the floor, glasses crushed at his feet. Bones jutted through his feathered skin. A tear exposed his crushed ribcage. Others carved up his arms. He was so bloody Dorian could scarcely tell it was him.

One of his wings had been sliced off. The other hung on by a few ineffectual scraps of tendon. Limp. His legs had been sliced ...

262. Black Hole (III)

There was another reason Dorian found it hard to gauge his strength. For the first time his cultivation had gone from percentages to absolute numbers. It reflected his feeling of the Black Hole—like staring into the darkness an abyss. It gave an impression of fathomless depth. Which lent him an aura of mystique, but also meant even he didn’t know how much qi was in there.

Maybe the scale in the System was calibrated to a universal constant. The amount of qi it took to fill ...

261. Black Hole (II)

The Frost Realm

Jez stood atop an icy bluff overlooking a slaughter. His eyes were closed, his hands clasped behind his back. He hummed to the tune of the battle, to the throaty cries of Salieris’ ice giants as his Frost Drakes gored through them, to the dying throes of Salieris’ golems as his own crushed their insides to shards.

Salieris had chosen to make his last stand in this realm in the fortress of the Frost Emperor.

It was strategically sound. The...

260. Black Hole (I)

At first Dorian thought he’d been shunted into yet another cavern. Albeit a strange, misshapen one—one that’d suffered a few cave-ins and whose walls were this sparkling, translucent color. Cold as ice.

But then he saw a fish trapped in the wall. A hefty one riddled with fins, frozen with staring blank eyes, its mouth mid-gulp. And realized it was cold as ice, and looked like ice, because it was ice.

Everywhere he looked he saw fish trapped. Fish of all shapes and s...

259. The Godhunters (IX)

Dorian’s plan came to him as a vision.

He was like a gull flying amid a great storm. And thus far he’d been battered about. But if he could just find the eye and ride it for all he was worth…

There was a path! Or at least, he dearly hoped there was.

He leapt like he was about to rush in, but stopped just short of making Salas draw his knives. Then he began an awkward dance. He bounced left and right, [Sunshine Stepping] in random zigzags, forcing the automaton to pivot...