“And that, my friend, is a golden nugget that should be shared with your teammates,” Baelin said to Thundar, giving him an encouraging smile. “Would you mind expanding on that point?”
The minotaur looked uncomfortable. “Well…I know I was talking like I was a twenty foot tall badass or whatever…but not going to lie. Inside? I was scared shitless.” He tapped his skull. “The shit that big demon was saying got inside my head and so did the terror-field. So, it was...
2022-12-28 22:13:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“A spectacle?” Alex asked, settling into a wide, cozy chair with Theresa beside him, arms wrapped around his. She snuggled up while Brutus curled up at their feet.
“Indeed,” the chancellor said. “Unfortunately, that conflict was…taxing, shall we say? Very taxing. You were combatting an entire horde of demons, staving off the terror-field, while watching each others’ flanks. It was a great deal to consider and to deal with.”
“You’re speaking of it as though you ...
2022-12-27 21:53:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You leave them alone!” Hart roared, an uncharacteristic note of fear in his voice. The champion cut down all demons in close proximity to his blade as he pushed ahead, stalking the towering fiend like the reaper. “I’ll split you from crotch to crown!”
He shot forward with a war cry, but a b'alamxiba hit him from the side, throwing off his flight path. Pazuzites piled on, straining against his enormous strength as he raged against them in turn.
But they were also strong...
2022-12-24 20:53:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I’ll be takin’ the last one’s head!” Cedric shouted, flying toward the demon, his spear blazing with Uldar’s divinity.
Alex raised his staff.
But a slight doubt kept nagging at the back of his mind.
They’d come to the hells with a lot of power and they’d hit the trio in ways the demons hadn’t expected. It should have been easy…but something still bothered him. As he watched Cedric streak toward the last son, he knew they’d made sound tactical ...
2022-12-23 23:10:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” Osshar grumbled, his fangs grinding as the chamber’s main doors boomed on their hinges. “All this banging’s driving me mad! Why aren’t we attacking?”
He scrutinised his brothers—lip curling in distaste at minor imperfections marring the otherwise perfect form that all three shared—they squatted on elaborate thrones, observing the chamber’s side entrances.
“Patience!” Azzad snapped, revealing chipped, yellowed teeth. The fool never did ta...
2022-12-23 00:30:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
The slaughter was just that: an undeniable rout; quick, brutal and one-sided.
Minus their wizard, the demons fell into chaos, trampling each other, fighting to get claws and fangs into prey bold enough to attack their necromancer. More frenzied tiashivas seemed to lose all reason, slashing the backs of their own allies standing between them and the mortals breaching their lair.
Those who made it to the front quickly learned who was prey, and who were the actual predators.
Ha...
2022-12-21 23:49:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Dammit,” Alex swore to himself, replaying what had just happened in his head.
The image of that hellhound clamped onto Theresa’s arm was seared in his mind, along with the thought of what could have happened if she wasn’t wearing magical chainmail. Considering he blamed himself, it was all too real and sobering.
“That was so stupid,” he muttered, anger colouring his thoughts as they reached the bottom of what felt like an unending staircase. ‘You told the hellhounds...
2022-12-20 23:49:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
During the time Alex and company were considering the best way to infiltrate Cawarthin and accomplish the mission Baelin had assigned to them, they’d agreed that a silent intrusion into the demon domain would be their best chance. The plan was to slip into the realm like ghosts, enter the Hold, move through it undetected, then catch Ikarrash’s three sons unawares, and eliminate them before other demons were any wiser.
If they got swarmed?
No problem: their spell-marks would wh...
2022-12-17 23:23:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
The massive hinges groaned, screeching like blue annis hags as Grimloch and Claygon pushed the door shut.
“Shit,” Alex swore, looking down the abandoned hallway for guards poised to sound the alarm.
Around him, the party tensed…but no guards appeared and no alarm was raised.
For the moment, they could breathe with relief.
“This looks to be a servant’s entrance.” The prince looked around the hallway, inclining his chin toward a number of large wheelbarrows o...
2022-12-17 00:36:54 +0000 UTC
View Post
The hellish jungle reeked. A harsh stench like ammonia, mixed with rot, rankness, and a miasma of composting floral scents assaulted Alex’s nostrils like a weapon. Grimacing, the young wizard exited the portal, quickly wrapping his cloak tail around his nostrils; ahead, he could hear Brutus whining and sneezing.
Humidity was thick, like they’d been submerged in a vat of hot muck designed to both stifle and swelter them. There was also a bitterness permeating the atmosphere that he c...
2022-12-16 01:27:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello everybody!
I can finally announce that MARK OFTHE FOOL IS GETTING A COMIC! I'm so excited. A lot of my web novel reading came as a segue from manga and so this is truly, truly exciting for me. :)
https://aethonbooks.com/2022/12/15/aethon-partners-with-moonquill-for-three-webcomics/
Chapter's coming right after this!
2022-12-16 01:27:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“What do you mean?” Alex asked, concern plain in his tone.
Baelin turned back to his class with a grim look. “In short, my spell-marks cannot transfer you across planes.”
A heavy silence filled the air as Drestra raised her hand. “What are these spell-marks?”
“I shall show you. Do I have permission from each of you to cast spells upon you?” Baelin looked over the class, nodding when he found no dissent. With a wave of his hand and a word of power, the ancient...
2022-12-14 21:09:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Oh that sounds bloody charmin’,” Cedric growled. “The hell’s a terror-field?”
“Yes, it most assuredly is since it does carry an aura of terror that hangs over the entire domain,” Isolde said. “This aura is concentrated within the hold of Ikarrash himself. It attacks the mind of all creatures foreign to the plane and stokes feelings of fight or flight within them that leaves them constantly on edge.”
“That sounds awful,” Drestra said. “Is there a way to o...
2022-12-13 20:40:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Hello to you all and welcome to a new semester and our first session of the Art of the Wizard in Combat. It promises to be a rather special session indeed,” Baelin addressed the class as his students collected themselves. “As you know, within the hour we will be venturing into the hells on our first demon hunt.”
He nodded to the Heroes, watching Drestra as she passed Alex’s staff back to him and scrambled to take a seat. “I am most pleased and proud to welcome some guests t...
2022-12-10 21:29:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
Carey felt like she was going to be sick. Frayed nerves and anxiety ran through her like carpenter ants gnawing through rotten wood, consuming her peace, cold sweat beaded on her skin since she’d awoken that morning.
She’d felt lightheaded during Watcher Hill’s briefing, and positively faint when her group had crossed paths with Cedric, Drestra, and Hart on the fae roads.
But now?
Now, standing in the Heroes’ camp, she found it was all she could do to keep her meagre...
2022-12-09 23:16:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
A wealth of lessons followed Merzhin through a life spent in the church—his home and sanctuary. And though he did not quote them to each and everyone around him—as they had been uttered by the mouths of mortals and not the holy word of Uldar—that did not mean that he had not called on them often in his own private moments.
Scores of little anecdotes and phrases shared by the priests that raised him, the children he grew up alongside, and even the layfolk who kept his church home c...
2022-12-08 23:39:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Curious students paused their combat practice, watching as Alex used his staff for the first time. Calling on the Mark, he guided his mana through the fibres of powerful crystal and mana-infused wood, finding each control faster and with more precision.
He conjured elementals, devil-vipers, hell boars and flicker dogs in small packs. Elemental beetle swarms appeared in such great numbers that their buzzing droned throughout the stadium. In mere heartbeats, with staff fi...
2022-12-07 23:55:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alex brought his thoughts back to present, eager to finish up and get home to his staff.
‘What was Toraka just saying?’ He wondered. ‘Oh yeah, she was talking about students and how limited knowledge was a bad thing.’
He picked up a block of iron with a sturdy pair of tongs, and holding them securely, carefully deposited it within an enormous machine that resembled a hulking tarantula. Pressing a glyph, Alex activated it, sending mana flowing through its eight pipes, liqui...
2022-12-07 01:30:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Mr. Roth, I was hoping I’d find you here,” a quiet voice came over Alex’s shoulder, startling the young wizard.
“Professor Jules.” Alex wheeled around in his chair, half-rising as his alchemy professor plopped down in a seat beside him.
At the other end of the table—and across the third floor of the library—several students looked at her with a mix of surprise, spite and naked fear. A small smirk played at the edges of the professor’s lips.
“Oh dear, the...
2022-12-03 16:04:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
“And then! And then!” Thundar slammed his fist on the table. “She said that drinking water is bad for you! Can you believe that shit?”
Alex froze, looking up from the spell-guide for greater force armour. “Are…are you serious?”
“As death!” Thundar moaned, reaching for another glass of rum with a shaking hand. “She said it blocks the sun’s effects on your aura or somethin—Khalik, this isn’t that funny!”
The prince had fal...
2022-12-02 19:47:51 +0000 UTC
View Post
In a panic, Thundar scrambled to get ready for his date.
“Shit, shit, why the hell didn’t I listen to Alex?” The minotaur cursed, running a stiff comb through his fur. He checked his teeth in the mirror, making sure they were sparkling white, and didn’t have any bits of food between them. “Who the hell was the idiot who said ‘date planning, date schmanning’? By my ancestors I’d like to punch that guy in his big, stupid snout. I really do got the brains of a damn...
2022-12-01 20:28:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I do not understand why you three have banned me from a cabal meeting!” Isolde shouted through Khalik’s door, knocking insistently. “Theresa said that Roth mumbled something about a…war council? If we are going to war, then I see no reason to exclude me in such an arbitrary fashion!”
“Alex…” Thundar glared at the young Thameish wizard without mercy. “Why did you say anything?”
“I was half-awake!” Alex hissed, eyeing the door as though a demon were about ...
2022-11-30 23:39:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
When Alex Roth had so confidently declared that he would have a staff all ready for their next battle, he didn't know conflict was just over the horizon.
Though, it would prove to be far from typical.
It had all begun one pleasant morning at the Generasi dockside.
The day hadn’t started off ominously, all things considered.
He was up at the crack of dawn and—as usual—concentrated on material in the spell-guide for greater force armour, speed-read materials from t...
2022-11-30 00:16:18 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Now that we’ve got our mana core liquified, we have to apply it to the false roots,” Alex explained to his golem.
‘Father…I have a question,’ Claygon said.
“I love it when you have questions.” Alex put the processor down so he could check the temperature of his mixture. “It shows that you’ve got a curious mind, Claygon, and having some healthy curiosity takes you much farther in life than being a dullard. So, what would you like to know?”
‘<...
2022-11-26 23:15:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
The one incident topping the list of things that truly convinced Alex of how key having the power of Elder Blodeuwedd’s mana ejection potion at hand would be, was the invisible Ravener-spawn attack against him, his friends and the other expedition members in the Research Castle courtyard. He’d saved lives thanks to the Elder witch’s potion, but only by a whisker, and as crucial as it was to have, using it in his staff posed certain problems he’d had to overcome.
First off,...
2022-11-26 00:13:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
As Alex had learned over many, many long days and nights of careful research, there were a host of methods an alchemist could use to craft a staff.
In the most ancient days of magic, wizards’ staffs were forged by way of blood sacrifice to a powerful demon, devil, or other spirit, one who would bind only the strongest souls into a chosen tree branch to fuel the staff’s powers. These magical items were cruel and monstrously powerful, channelling vicious magics that echoed the sufferi...
2022-11-25 00:29:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Well, Claygon, it seems like we’ll be here for the next twenty hours or so. And, ugh—if I could slap that Govert in his stupid, unsanitary face, I would.” Alex grimaced as he finished scrubbing years of grease, stains, and hardened batter from the kitchen’s central island and flung another dirty rag onto the growing pile. “I swear, that man never used a sliver of soap and water on this place. Not one sliver!”
‘We make…good progress.’ Claygon gently dipped h...
2022-11-23 23:22:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I mean…” Alex stammered. “But…I don’t have a bank account.”
“Really?” Toraka Shale frowned. “You’ve been in the city for how long and you never opened a bank account?”
“Um…” His mind refused to cooperate, unable to string even two coherent thoughts together. “I mean…um I…”
“You’ve been here long enough to have a bank account. Where have you been keeping your money?” She asked him.
“In…in my apartment,” Alex murmured, t...
2022-11-23 00:11:28 +0000 UTC
View Post
“I do have a question for you, Alex,” Toraka Shale tented her fingers before her. “This…substance, the one you indicated in your schematics. I’ve heard rumblings about something coming from that expedition of Vernia’s. I take it this has something to do with that? She’s been quite excited about something you people discovered out there.”
“Well, if she hasn’t given any specifics, then I won’t either, at least for now. What I can say is tha...
2022-11-19 21:49:47 +0000 UTC
View Post
“First of all,” Khalik began, flipping to the beginning of Alex’s proposal. “Understand that these things I am about to tell come from lords beseeching their king, not a subordinate beseeching their boss. The situations are similar, but not equivalent. For example—” He ran his finger down the margin beside the second page. “—your tone in this would not be suitable for a subject addressing their monarch. You are missing the customary toadying, bowing, scraping and sickening com...
2022-11-18 23:39:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
