probablyaturnip

CH737 Demon's Perspective

The future it wanted refused to arrive.

It was a problem the demon hadn’t faced since it had been nothing more than a beast. No matter what it did, no matter how it approached the issue or what branch it tried to zero in on, it couldn’t bring its desires to reality, with them consistently left just beyond any path it could see.

Its target, the resident of the world it had come to claim, had kept avoiding capture no matter what path the demon tried to herd it onto, even splitti...

CH736

Okay, I’m officially significantly less sure they aren’t just trying to kill me.

That was the thought he had while dodging to the side mere milliseconds before the attack was shot as he was forced to wonder just how often he was avoiding bad endings for himself and the others. If they were seriously attacking him and the goal wasn’t to lure him then that meant there was at least one branch of the future where it worked and possibly more. He had to assume that if killing o...

CH735

With the information he’d wanted acquired, Ben took the others and began to move. The fact the demon had killed itself before they’d arrived meant the jig was up, the one controlling it was aware of their presence and would likely be doing what it could to catch them, they just needed time to arrive and with an awakened space mage on their side, he didn’t want to wait around to see how long that would take as he began pulling things from his rings to make what he could.

The first ...

CH734

“Killed itself,” Ben repeated, pinching his brow. “Myriad, how far out from it are we?”

<If you increase your pace then only a few minutes. At the speed you were going then a bit over six.>

That was the main issue. Even though his goal of reading its memories had been lost they weren’t actually out of options but assuming they had no reason to speed up, that meant whatever was pulling the strings could potentially see up to six minutes in the future. That was an ou...

CH733 Demon's Perspective

The connection broken with the touch of a mind, the demon jerked from where it sat in surprise. It had already known it wouldn’t work but it hadn’t realized the feeling that came with it. A feeling of being seen, exposed in a way it had never been before and it looked at all of the paths the act had created while it processed what had happened.

Something had broken its link. It had been ages since such a thing had happened but never in such a way before and thinking about it made it...

CH732

Continuing to run but trying to keep it as quiet as he could, Ben used the time to think about what he knew and what it implied.

There were demons who could take over others and those same demons were time magic users, both of those facts seemed true with the only matter being how many there were who held those skills, especially considering that Helori believed awakened skills were at use in the mix.

Given what he knew of how the invasion took place there shouldn’t have been an...

CH731

Despite what he may have had to say about it, Ben’s mind was no longer human. Existing at a scope great enough to shock the gods who’d seen it and growing only more alien with every living being his soul touched, potential existed within it that rarely needed to be used unless he was trying to solve a particularly complex problem. Certainly not the sort of potential that would normally go towards running away but with the current issue at hand he stopped a few of the background tasks some...

CH730

Too far away for Ben to read any of their minds, it didn't matter as he looked at his girlfriend, floating above them. Even before they'd started dating he'd been told he was unusually good at understanding the subtleties of her expressions and features despite her golden eyes making it a challenge for even her family at times and seeing her there, it was undeniably the woman he loved. Not a construct or illusion, that was Thera in every way but the look on her face, distinctly out of place c...

CH729

It was so brief that Ben wasn’t even sure what he’d felt. In one moment, something had either been touching his thoughts or his soul but the instant he’d turned his attention towards it, trying to peer back, he felt the link break under the weight of his mind, whatever it was completely unprepared for the power it found with only the smallest bit of feeling being read before it was cut.

That was enough though, telling him exactly what had just tried to make contact from the hunger...

CH728 Demon's Perspective

Stepping through the great gate to a new world, the first thing the demon tried to do was assemble itself before almost instantly dying.

That gave it a slight pause. It had gone through to two unclaimed worlds before, one that already had an owner and one that didn’t but neither time in the past had it met its end so quickly. Perhaps that should have been a cause for concern when it hadn’t even seen what had killed it but it paid that fact no real mind, instead trying again, only to...

CH727

Ben wasn’t used to leading but given he had a dozen chimeras with him he didn't need to be. It was still their task after all, with both himself and Azeezol acting more as glorified guards as they went, watching as the group followed the occasional sound in an otherwise silent forest.

He was keeping an eye out for problems of course, more eyes than he actually had as he kept pulling in and taking over the few nearby bugs to give himself a fuller range of vision, but unlike whatever st...

CH726 Thera's Perspective

Continuing their journey, Thera felt stuck on what they’d seen along the way. She knew that an untold number of ghosts had made their way into the world along with the outsider but despite the time she still tried to make for the guild on top of her current hospital work, word about sightings were slim.

Of course, compared to demons, the dead were largely ignorable no matter what power they might have wielded and far easier to deal with too. It was even possible that plenty had passed...

CH725

“-Still, no matter how good things seem, you’ve gotta remember that this is a dangerous world, even beyond the whole invasion thing,” Pato warned as their talk went on. “I’ve seen and been through some crazy stuff since getting here.”

“Yeah? You’re not alone there but that’s actually kind of nice to hear. People who live on this planet seem to think it would be pretty sunshine and rainbows if not for the invasion but I’m pretty sure I’ve had to deal with a couple a...

CH724

“Hello there, hope you’ve all enjoyed the food,” He said brightly as he made his way to the group of five, taking a seat on the ground with them before they could answer, with one speaking up after he’d joined them.

“It was delicious, thank you. I didn’t think adventurers would eat so well.”

“Only when they’re with me, it’s the benefit of bringing along a guy who can cook,” He laughed, trying to create a good atmosphere to get them to open up a bit and largel...

CH723

Looking around, Fone taking stock of how things had ended up as well as the damage the chimeric group had taken, their leader asked one question before making any firm choices.

“Can any of you detect any other demons in the vicinity?”

He looked at the chimeras and all of them gave a negative before turning to the rest of the adventurers, getting the same and leaving their leader to nod.

“Alright, given how that turned out we’ll be taking a break for a couple hours so...

CH722

It was a few short jumps to their next location, the second group they were supposed to be going after close enough to the first now that they were all so far out and everyone filtered through to the new stretch of woods, with Fone already looking to the chimeras.

“Found anything yet?”

“Further west,” One said, with enough of the others in agreement that they started walking, keeping on guard the entire time for anything that might come and their voices low, with Ben takin...

CH721

Ben didn’t know how far they were going with each jump, only seeing the change in scenery each time a portal was opened while the full group filtered through. What he did notice was that Pato wasn’t taking as many breaks as he’d expect from Steph, initially impressing him with his mana pool until he noticed the band on his arm.

One of the mana bracelets he’d made had clearly been supplied, either because the man held an awakened magic or because he was acting as the form of tran...

CH720

Vividus led them over to the final group to join them, Thera elbowing him the moment she saw one of the party with Ben immediately understanding why. Having both blue skin and silver eyes, it was another one of Yuzu’s race, meaning he wasn’t going to be the only summoned on that expedition.

Ben felt that man’s eyes on him in return, noticing that same fact although he tried to ignore it. They’d be working together for a bit it seemed but he had no reason to try and get close, ev...

CH719

As they walked over, Thera’s eyes were locked on her aunt while Ben couldn’t help but take in the crowd around her, all of them appearing at first glance to be from the same species or at least hybrids that shared a similar paternal heritage, with that assumption only falling through as he looked at their souls as well, the skills they held telling a different story for the group they were no doubt sent to observe.

He had questions to ask from it all but they were put briefly on hol...

NEW SEPTEMBER POLL! IF YOU THINK YOU ALREADY VOTED IN IT, CHECK AGAIN TO BE SURE

OKAY I MESSED UP AND PUT A WRONG OPTION IN THERE AND PANICED BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE VOTING FOR IT BEFORE I COULD EVEN GET AN EDIT DOWN I'M SORRY OH GOD OH LORD. I accidently posted an option for a Falk chapter instead of the Yuzu chapter I meant to give and I panic deleted that old one. Wow, sure how that never happens again. Just going to copy and paste my original note with the right options and I'm sorry for any inconvenience

We'll now proceed with the original note

Good golly my ...

Side Story: Falk at work

Having his mind split was still an unnatural experience no matter how many weeks went by but it was an advantage Falk could use for more than just controlling the homunculi his niece and student had left him with, letting him put to practice those other aspects that very day as he finished working on another band for one of the many who’d made their way to his factory.

He was valuable as the world's soulsmith for so much now that he’d reached that level of power, from the tools and ...

CH718

“Well, don’t you look happy?” Ben teased, even as Thera strongly denied it.

“Of course I’m not,” She told him, trying to control her face. “Do you really think I’d be happy just because I have an official excuse to avoid helping out at the hospital for a while? No matter how constantly draining and exhausting it is, it’s important work.”

“...I was actually assuming it was because you finally get to do a rank one quest. Something you want to get off your chest...

CH717

Back at the shop, Ben looked at both what he had and what he’d need, with the answer to the latter being largely vague when the only thing he’d really been told about his coming quest was that it was centered around watching as another group fought.

Still, there was one obvious standout, more apparent than anything else. His jacket, his strongest line of defense that he’d filled with tens of thousands of souls to take advantage of that he was going to have to leave behind for exac...