Hells. Hells! Dorian resisted with all his might, but the pressure still had him in a vise. Sweat matted his brow and his face turned pallid with effort. There were few things in this world which caused him real concern. The attention of a god was one. Gods needed no physical form to strike; even a god’s avatar could lash out and eviscerate a mortal’s soul. While he wouldn’t suffer total destruction, a strong enough strike would easily end this run. Who are you...
2022-01-18 06:23:27 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Hello! I'm not dead! But my computer is, sadly. Had to send it to a shop to get it fixed two days ago, and I've since clackered out this chapter on a very old loaner machine. Which is all to say--sorry about the delay! Onward!
Two hours later, his tinkering finished.
[Level-up!]
[Eyes of Almidas (modified) lv. 1]
Perfect. He teased out a thread of qi, which hung from his fingers like tendrils of liq...
2022-01-15 05:21:29 +0000 UTC
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“I’m done for,” whispered Kaya, biting her lip. She sagged like all the air had been let out of her. Then she snorted, a rueful hint of a smile tinging her face. “To think—it’s not a three-ton spiked wrecking ball that foils me but damned reading comprehension.”
“You’re very much not done for,” said Dorian gravely. He made sure to catch her gaze. “Listen to me. You’re not allowed to give up now, alright?”
She studied him. “Why not?”
“...
2022-01-11 10:51:51 +0000 UTC
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Kono’s face drooped like an old, wilting sunflower. “Please don’t take it as an… assault,” he said softly. “I meant no harm. I meant it merely as a test.”
Dorian’s blood ran cold. “A test,” he repeated. The words were bitter on his tongue. “A test.” His mind spun. He’d thrown out the question as a probe; he’d not actually expected the man to reply honestly. Was it honest? What possible reason could he have for admitting it? Dorian...
2022-01-08 09:19:59 +0000 UTC
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Dorian’s breath caught. There wasn’t a frost fae’s chance in hells this was made by the Azcan Oasis or any of the Oases. Before him were ten pitch-black monoliths which towered above all of them, as though ten etched tablets had been blown up a thousandfold. Dorian could imagine the hands—or claws, or talons—which drew these, each of its digits bigger than the tallest of men. This was almost certainly the work of another race, and a peculiarly advanced one at that. Each of the table...
2022-01-06 00:56:15 +0000 UTC
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2,716 Lira. That was what they made that day, and it sent the rest of the Alchemists into yellow-eyed frenzies. Hu and Dorian, meanwhile, chuckled their way back to Rust Tribe’s base camp. The profits were split 50/50 between he and Hu, a figure he’d gotten after much haggling over the past two weeks; he’d walk home today with over 1350 Lira. In other words—just a few more days of this and he’d have enough to be self-sufficient if he decided to defect. Strike it out on his own.
<...
2022-01-04 11:06:42 +0000 UTC
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Whatever cosmic anomalies Pearl had brought didn’t resurface, nor did any explanation for them, leaving a gaping hole which the Festivalgoers filled with endless speculation. Dorian heard all manner of rumors flying about as he trudged over to the merchants’ quarters, ranging from Pearl’s being a Blessed of the Dweller or the bastard son of an Oasis King. Fiction drowned out what little fact there was to glean. Nobody, it seemed, knew jack about the man or his origins, other than that h...
2022-01-01 22:53:09 +0000 UTC
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Dorian watched the trial with mild interest. Statistically he was safely within qualification territory; it’d take a serious anomaly for half their number to qualify, which was the only way he’d get shoved out of the top 128. The contestants drifted up the artifact-powered elevator to the course, fidgeting and tugging at their smocks.
“Start on my signal,” said Zhang.
The sound cracked out. The contestants were off.
And a statistical anomaly appeared. A very serious ...
2021-12-30 11:39:50 +0000 UTC
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Note: I’ve edited the requirements to pass this Trial a bit, and have updated the last chapter. In short: The Trial of the Body has two parts, one of Speed and of Strength. The top 128 in Speed make it to the Trial of Strength. The top 64 of those make it to the second day & the next Trial. Everyone else is eliminated.
Just well enough to qualify, just poorly enough to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Simple enough. Dorian looked to his left and right at rigid...
2021-12-28 08:36:22 +0000 UTC
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First came registration. Each of the contestants stepped up to one of a line of Azcan representatives, offering their palms. The representative then deposited a crystal ball, an artifact which sent a pulse of qi through the user to check for some basic vitals—things like age and qi response. The brighter the ball’s glow, the higher the talent. Standard stuff. He saw a series of teens go before him, all receiving glows of around a candle’s strength. Every so often, though, the ball would...
2021-12-25 09:04:29 +0000 UTC
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He felt like he’d been boiled alive, like all his skin and muscle had been shaved off with a scalding knife, then pasted back on piece by piece, melting together to a perfect whole. He didn’t bother opening his eyes; he knew all he’d see was a storm of rising black-gray smoke. He’d passed the critical point and a shock of pure joy hit him, starting from the heart and spreading to the rest of him. He tingled with it, was one with it. Something vital had changed, a building block of his...
2021-12-23 08:28:38 +0000 UTC
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Pearl nodded to a girl in rags whose hair resembled a pigeon’s nest.
“Ray? You’re up.”
The girl nodded, licking her lips. “I went to see what the Narong’s got,” she said. She was young, barely a teen, yet her voice was so hoarse it could’ve been a grandmother’s. “I got myself a few robes n’ played pretend as a servant. Cleaning. I saw them practicing.”
She stared deep into Pearl’s eyes. “They’re sharp. Real sharp. I saw the young master, the one...
2021-12-21 07:24:02 +0000 UTC
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Kaya was steaming hot. Literally. Dorian knew something was off the moment he saw trails of smoke rising from the tent flaps. He went in, frowning, to the sight of his sister red as a roast crab. Qi leaked out of her like she was a piping kettle.
“Er…” He made to check her vitals, then froze. The closer he got the more volatile her aura felt, like even the slightest touch might set off a chain reaction. She groaned, still mired in deep sleep.
This was the issue with experime...
2021-12-17 19:37:58 +0000 UTC
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The sun straddled the horizon, casting a spectrum of orange on the assembly ringing the Festival grounds. Every year, it was the largest gathering of peoples to grace the western Izod Desert; tribes large and small met in this hotspot of qi. Over the years it’d transformed to a hotspot of glory and wealth too.
This year was different. For one, the gathering had grown in number. The Oasis network, the seven hegemons of the West, had reached out extensively; the people present here numb...
2021-12-06 16:11:18 +0000 UTC
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Dorian flipped through a thick leatherbound, stroking his chin as he scanned the pages. None of these were quite right. All too weak or too slow. To create the kind of potion that’d get Kaya literally back on her feet, he’d need explosion: fast, big, powerful. That needed both potent ingredients and a few sacrifices that orthodox alchemists might raise eyebrows at.
The Multiversal Standard of Alchemy stretched far and wide, but the traditional order had funny ideas about ethics. The...
2021-12-03 07:54:03 +0000 UTC
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The Festival was held in the heart of the West. The closer you got the smaller the dunes, the more they melted into the landscape, flattening out. Here there was only one long plane stretching as far as the eye could see, level as a table. It was here that the Festival was held every year.
They called it the heart not only because it was at the center. There was also a thrumming quality to the sands, as though it were alive, pulsing beneath the feet in a constant rhythm, so subtle and s...
2021-12-01 12:35:41 +0000 UTC
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That night he paid another visit to Kaya, a slab of prime Vordor meat in tow. She greeted him with a sullen look but brightened a bit at the gift. She chewed on it in silence. She didn’t look in the mood to talk. She didn’t look in the mood to exist. She was a human airtight safe.
So naturally he tried prying her open. Largely to no avail. The conversation went something like—
“—so I made a batch of Pepper-up Elixir today…”
“Mhm.”
“—thinks they’...
2021-11-29 16:06:08 +0000 UTC
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They overshot their aims. Hours later, they ended up returning with five Vordors in tow. Dorian played the anchor while letting the others unleash on their victims. It was, all in all, a very effective strategy. Almost too effective.
After being stuffed with three full-grown adult Vordors, Dorian’s Interspatial Ring was just about filled up. He guessed it was a low-grade Ring; to be expected of this Realm and of this Tribe especially. These rings were basic: throw things in, take thin...
2021-11-24 17:54:48 +0000 UTC
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“Our rations are running thin,” said Tuketu. His eyes glinted in the waning light. “We may have restocked on resources, but we’ve only two weeks of meat supplies. Nothing debilitating, mind you—but the Tribe tries to stay at least a month ahead.”
He cleared his throat. “Your first assignment: to hunt down and bring back a Vordor. Adult, preferably. Late Origin Realm. With the rest of our stock, it will suffice for a week’s worth of meals.”
Then he gestured to his...
2021-11-22 09:54:06 +0000 UTC
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The first step to designing a fitting martial art was to understand the nature of his qi. To start he’d need to catalogue his new Bloodline’s properties. His qi was edged black as obsidian. It was steeped in decay. It sank into whatever it touched, rotting skin and flesh and bone alike, burning away even layers of stone. It didn’t poison like acid; it poisoned like time. It was a force of withering.
It was also heavy as all Hells. That was the first thing he’d noticed about it, ...
2021-11-19 06:53:17 +0000 UTC
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Note: Chapter’s a bit late, sorry about that! Will get the next one out soon too.
He interned Kaya with the healers alongside a slew of other injured. In Rust Tribe many wore multiple hats; the bulk of them were gatherers moonlighting as healers. The injured were carried aloft on cots, two to a person. He left them and went to marching alongside the rest of the Tribe.
Some distance separated him from his supposed compatriots. As he walked about he seemed to repe...
2021-11-17 07:26:19 +0000 UTC
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Dorian was patient. You had to be, at his age. He could stomach silence. It was good in moderate doses, but too much grew tiresome fast. As he stepped through the skies, scouting out a wide perimeter and taking a winding route toward the constellation, Kaya faded in and out of consciousness on his back, groaning and shuddering. She was still in that sleep-most-of-the-day phase of recovery. He groaned with her, the sounds fusing to one discordant note. For the hundredth time he lamented that i...
2021-11-13 19:23:25 +0000 UTC
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A/N: I've been a day late these last two uploads--sorry about that. I've been swamped in midterms, to my chagrin... it's been a very hectic week. But things should be back to normal now!
In the Outskirts of the Western Desert, it never rained. The only source of water came from the Sinkholes, and they were spaced too far apart. The land stretched on for miles, all sheer black dunes and sheer white bones, nary a cactus in sight. It was for this same reason that most ever...
2021-11-12 06:18:09 +0000 UTC
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Tongues of Flame shot out like chains from his palms. They latched onto the Vordor’s limbs in a flash, wrapping around its wings, biting into its tail. It screeched and bucked, trying to throw them off; it beat its wings with fervor, sending up clouds of sand. Its head whipped around, confusion stark in its eyes. Why wasn’t it lifting off?
The chains anchored it to the ground. They were so heavy that they made each flap of a wing a serious effort. Dorian raised an eyebrow as he kept...
2021-11-09 17:11:25 +0000 UTC
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1 hour earlier…
The chaos of the night had given way to a spent, weary calm. Blood had been shed. Corpses riddled the sands. Flocks of Vordors flitted to and fro, picking at the remains of the Beasts—the [Profound] Realm beast had a whole herd of them plucking at the eyeballs, swallowing tendons whole. Soon this place would be nothing more than yet another patch of graveyard in a graveyard desert. Today’s skirmish would be lost to the sands, then to the sands of t...
2021-11-06 15:53:37 +0000 UTC
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Note: Saw some good feedback about the plot-armory nature of her survival on the last chap. Edited it for realism so Kaya takes only one quick slap by the Profound Beast, not an extended beating (which should probably kill her, bloodline or not). I should make clear that I’m not the type of author to pull punches on major character deaths; they do factor hugely into my overarching conception of the plot. In the last scene I didn’t feel it was a necessity, but the way I co...
2021-11-04 16:18:00 +0000 UTC
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It was a sensation he’d never get used to—in part because he’d gone so long without it. That feeling of smallness, nearly stifling, hit like a shock of cold water to the face. Then it settled in on him, cloaking him like a straightjacket. Making stone of his limbs.
A lesser human might’ve fainted on the spot. As it was he had to scream at his limbs to move; his body’s instincts had all gone haywire. The great beast—some kind of Flood Dragon, by the looks of its phosphorescen...
2021-11-03 06:51:41 +0000 UTC
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Kaya went in first. Dorian could decipher a few general things about the black miasma before him—he sensed auras all around; a few strikes marked places where fighting was fiercest—but the haze still swept over all. He could barely see his fingers and so he let her brave the minefield first. Tracking her aura, he followed.
The sounds were deafening and total. To stay in here, blinded, nose under an assault of acrid scents, ears ringing, guided only by qi intuition was a unique exper...
2021-10-31 19:50:56 +0000 UTC
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Rust’s whispers to Tuketu grew more urgent. Tuketu’s frown grew more lined. After a pregnant pause he gave a slow nod, and Rust whirled back to face the crowd.
“Gatherers, come!” He yelled out. Three dozen, garbed in dark smocks, pressed forward with their bags and kits at the ready.
“Deploy,” he said, gesturing to the Sinkhole. The Head Gatherer nodded in affirmation and wordlessly they shuffled forth, seeking out the pockets of qi. The farther you went the more valua...
2021-10-29 05:59:04 +0000 UTC
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Tuketu barked a command. Instantly the Hunters leapt into formation at the front, arranging themselves into a human spearhead. Each cycled as they did, alert, tensed for action. Nobody threw a strike. The air was charged with qi, pent-up and begging for release.
The sandwolves washed over the dunes like a surging tide of shadow. Their feet were nearly soundless on the ground. The only sounds which marked their arrivals were gravel growls and gnashing teeth.
The Hunters settled int...
2021-10-27 04:52:48 +0000 UTC
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