Vir regarded the burning capital of the Kin’jal with awe. Even in flames, the city was incomprehensibly vast. Many times the size of any demon city, and every inch of it was constructed like a fortress. From district walls larger than most castles to the way one had to venture through a tunnel inside the wall to access the next district, everything about it was overbuilt. It spoke of a paranoia on a grand scale.
Maiya had told him of the city, of course, going on and on in exquisite d...
2025-01-28 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
The blackness gave way to a deep blue that became brighter and brighter as we ascended. To reduce the strain on our beleaguered sub, Aerion had us ascending at about half the max rate, so the journey took a while.
That gave me plenty of time to look over my new gains. I honestly hadn’t expected much, considering the low rank of this Trial, but that Trial Guardian had been a notch or two above the Obsidian Dragon. I doubted we would’ve had any chance of taking the thing down...
2025-01-27 20:00:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
With each painful step, Maiya grew increasingly desperate. Not because she’d been marched out of the cell with Ira, or because their path had been lined with thorns and tiny metal pins, all designed to cut into their bare soles. Or even because of the countless lashings they’d received as they were paraded around the Commons like livestock.
Their rags had been cut to shreds by the whips the Sonamites had brought out, many of which had barbs designed to cut deeper into their s...
2025-01-25 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
“So let’s go over what we know,” I said, once Aerion had maneuvered the sub away from the tentacles, turning it right side up in the process. We were currently floating somewhere inside the whale’s vast belly. Having swallowed us, the whale was no longer thrashing around, and we figured it was safer in here than out there, where the thing would no doubt attack us again.
Rogar was stable, having consumed more miracle water and was currently resting.
“And what
2025-01-24 19:00:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Vir fumed. To think Fate had chosen this moment to stymie his efforts… Worse—communication orbs didn’t function in the Ash. He couldn’t even know how Maiya was doing. Was she hurt? Was she in distress?
Vir’s mind went to dark places, but Ashani’s hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality. To the darkness of the sky-scorched realm that was the Ash.
“We keep trying,” Vir said, though he knew he needn’t have. Neither he nor Ashani required rest, and the wolve...
2025-01-24 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Alone and on the run, trapped within a castle designed by lunatics, and hunted by the strongest Talent wielder in the realm… Maiya had to admit—this was not one of her finest moments.
“Quite the mess you’ve gotten yourself into, eh Mai?” she muttered, trying to keep the jitters down. Panic was not something she was prone to—not for a long while—but now, it took all of her willpower to keep herself from hugging her knees and crying. It was the terror all prey felt ...
2025-01-23 18:28:52 +0000 UTC
View Post
Our sub lacked any external arms we could use to pull Aerion’s sub, and pushing it was out of the question. Philip was right… This was the only way.
I groaned. The subs had something for this exact contingency. Their hatches could be mated, presumably for doing something similar to what we were about to attempt.
The problem? For one, Aerion’s sub wasn’t just caught in a web of tentacles. It was also near the back of the whale’s stomach. I’d wondered why it was...
2025-01-22 19:10:11 +0000 UTC
View Post
Vir’s Gate attack—he’d really have to come up with a better name for that—worked better than he could have hoped. Not only was the main audience chamber ridded of Chitran soldiers… Vir found nothing but corpses in the surrounding halls and two nearest rooms. Luckily, the castle had been cleared of all noncombatants, so the bodies belonged exclusively to kothi Warriors. Warriors who had refused the opportunity to surrender.
The occasional kothi patrol would find their way to Vi...
2025-01-21 18:05:14 +0000 UTC
View Post
Ashani neither activated her white lightning rod, nor did she move to attack any nearby demon.
Instead… She simply created a Gate. One that led to the deepest part of Mahādi that Ashani had ever ventured into. She then immediately followed up with another that led to where the wolves were idling around.
Nothing short of pandemonium ensued. Using the Ash as a means to train soldiers and hide from enemies was well and good, but its very nature was itself a potent weapon. One that...
2025-01-18 18:22:49 +0000 UTC
View Post
Our journey began well at first, like most things did. An uneventful ascent through the inky black, with Aerion’s sub’s interior lights being the only source of illumination. Even that started to disappear, as her sub ascended more quickly than ours. Probably because of our extra weight, being three people as opposed to her two.
I even began to have hope that we’d make it topside without issue, and of course, that was the moment disaster struck.
Disaster came in the form of ...
2025-01-17 19:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Several options were available to Vir—a luxury most others in his position would have lacked. The frontal approach was the most obvious recourse, yet the one likely to cause the most casualties. The ballistae designed to destroy his airships now had their sights set on the ground, their devastating projectiles easily enough to rip apart any demon unlucky enough to take a hit. His soldiers’ Ash training would not help them here.
The more appealing option was for Vir to leverage D...
2025-01-16 19:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
The whale killing process was as gruesome as it was tedious, taking another several hours. Like last time, they took a while to show up once we turned the beacon on, swimming through the tube from the ocean outside into the giant pool area. Seeing the contraption the second time around, I had to conclude that this room was some giant game, set up so the owners of the castle could entertain themselves by pulping gigantic sea creatures for fun… There really was no other reason I could think o...
2025-01-15 19:44:45 +0000 UTC
View Post
It was perhaps a good thing that the Bairan Ultimate Art was so difficult to master. Or that the Bairans restricted its bestowal so heavily. For weight was a mighty thing, and while the Chitran Demonic Overlord may grant its user supreme power over others in a military formation, all beings were beholden to their own weight.
And when two beings boasting the power happened to be in the same area—an almost unheard of occurrence—and when these beings were on the same side...
2025-01-14 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
The lethality of the original Siege Bolts hadn’t faded one bit from my mind, and given that these had the same explosives, just packaged in a slightly different form factor, I was backpedaling the moment it left my hand. I hunkered down behind a cog cart, and Aerion joined me a split-second later.
Then we waited… and waited, but all I heard was the screeching and child-like gibberish of the goblins.
Peeking around the cart, I saw the goblins holding the bolt core, arguing with...
2025-01-13 20:18:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sneaking down hallways, avoiding patrols… This was what made Maiya’s heart pump. How long had it been since she’d been alone, unsupported, in the thick of things? These days, she was the Blessed Chosen. She was Ira’s right hand. Both positions came with a stifling amount of restrictions on her actions. Worse, they came with bodyguards and an entourage. People who followed her everywhere.
While Maiya didn’t mind Yamal, Bheem, Hema, or her handmaidens, sh...
2025-01-11 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Getting back ended up being a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would. Despite doing my best to look back and memorize our origin cell on our way out, we had a hell of a time locating it again. All the cells kinda blurred into a mosaic from here, and when we thought we found it, we’d find a half-dozen others that looked the same.
All we had was the general region of the honeycomb we’d started out in, and the fact that the biome was a forest one… Which, incidentally, ...
2025-01-10 19:54:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Maiya found the prince on the rooftop of a tall building. The flat roofs of Hiranyan architecture were a nostalgic sight. One that Maiya had always missed in the other countries. It amazed her how people were happy to give up such a useful space, even in climes that allowed for flat roofing. How many nights had she spent on theirs, staring up at the stars with Vir for hours on end?
Maiya caught the prince staring anxiously at the high wall that separated the Commons from the Di...
2025-01-09 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Princess Ira Kin’jal sipped her tea, looking as disinterested as she could. Her eyes wandered around the royal garden’s immaculately manicured shrubs and its exquisite arbors before landing on a pretty pink flower at the edge of the stonework area she sat at.
As always, a small army of maids and attendants surrounded her—both her personal handmaidens and the castle’s regular staff. They were joined by Kyren and Nayra’s bodyguards, who followed them around like hawks. They’d ...
2025-01-09 04:02:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
I blurred into motion and drew Light of the Fearless in one smooth move, ready to lay the pain on the sorry monster that dared fuck with us. I’d just about had it with sudden appearances of overpowered enemies. I was gonna unleash everything I had in my vast arsenal on this fucker…
Unfortunately, not every problem could be solved with a hack or a slash.
The earthquake under our feet and the geysers that belched sulfur into the air seemed to be a natural phenomenon. Th...
2025-01-08 19:53:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone, hope you all had a restful and enjoyable end to 2024. With the new year, we've got some new updates!
First off, as several of you may already know, I am an avid mountaineer, and for the past 15 years, I have been chasing a dream of mine - to climb the tallest mountain on every continent in the world. Barring the one in Australia (which is a gimme), I've now accomplished that goal... save one - the one in Asia.
This year, I'll be climbing Mt. Everest, which will be 60 ...
2025-01-06 19:01:48 +0000 UTC
View Post
NOTE: Welcome back, everyone! See my announcement post in a few minutes for an important update!
---
I didn’t wait for the bear to make the first move. All my mobility meant squat when I was stuck in the ground. Using every ounce of strength I had, I surged up, throwing a punch at the bear’s stomach.
The bear clearly didn’t expect me to attack, because it just froze up for a second, buying me enough time to whip around to its back and yell at Rogar, who’d just poked his...
2025-01-06 18:53:20 +0000 UTC
View Post
Scouting the Panav healers’ locations within Samar Patag was simple enough when one had a dozen Iksana elites at their disposal. Extracting them, however, was another matter entirely.
Thankfully, the Chitran saw fit to keep most of the collared healers in cages, and thanks to Nayan’s airship bombardment, the Chitran had other, more pressing priorities than guarding their prisoners.
So utterly foolish, Vir thought as he slit the throat of the lone Chitran guard le...
2024-12-21 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
NOTE: Last chapter of the year! I'll see everyone back on January 6th. Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing New Year, and a Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it!
As always, my holiday schedule can be found here: https://www.patreon.com/c/vowronprime/about
---
“Well, on the good side… the whole castle, if you can call it that—is visible,” I said, addressing ou...
2024-12-20 19:35:30 +0000 UTC
View Post
Nayan was at his wits’ end fighting the blaze. Blazing the forest was something the Akh Nara and Cirayus had expected the Chits to do, so the action had not come as sa surpise. Rather, Nayan wondered what had taken them so long.
Anticipating this, they’d amassed a stockpile of water on the side of the Gate, which was now being brought through by every available hand.
It was, however, nowhere near enough, nor had they expected it to be. The number of demons bearing Aspect o...
2024-12-19 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Rogar and Aerion did, in fact, ‘make it happen’. Quite easily, too. Using nothing more than the portable furnace, my molten lava as starting heat and coals for fuel, and a little help from the bellows worked by my arms, we had a roaring hot forge in no time. The steel plating the bolts was thin, proving no trouble at all for the master blacksmith.
While Rogar and I cranked out the new, compact housings one after another, Aerion worked on disassembling the siege bolts with Philip’s...
2024-12-18 19:01:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
Maiya might have allowed the royal family to escape, but that didn’t mean her work was done here. Not by a longshot.
The best that Sai had were dug in at the castle—the most defensible position in the entire city. Among their ranks were Talent wielders and capable mejai, and while Maiya doubted they’d see anyone else on the same level as the two Altani she fought, the Saians would make up for that with quantity.
Not to mention King Dilber Sai himself, said to boast a B...
2024-12-17 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
Fighting our way to the sub pen was about as anticlimactic as Aerion and I expected. Even the hobgoblins—monsters that had nearly ended us the first time around—barely slowed us down, with Richard taking only a second longer to pulverize their hearts.
I had to admit, as great as it was having this many powerhouses on the team, and as economical as it was to conserve my ammo… I wanted to flex my new abilities, goddammit!
I had to keep reminding myself that it w...
2024-12-16 19:00:15 +0000 UTC
View Post
Vir watched Raoul from the shadows. The demon paced around his tent—the Garga Lavani were still camped in the tents they’d brought along, at Raoul’s insistence. Perhaps he felt a need to segregate them from the broader army to maintain some semblance of control, but it hadn’t bothered Vir. In fact, he’d initially encouraged the separation, when skepticism of their ability and district over the cult’s motives ran high. Now, they were as integrated into the rest of the forc...
2024-12-14 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Being there for Aerion ended up meaning sitting beside her for a long while. I don’t think she even noticed my presence at first, but she did eventually. Maybe I just imagined it, but it felt like she crept a little closer to me bit by bit after that.
“I thought I’d made peace with Emma,” Aerion muttered at last. “Thought I’d… moved on. I suppose I never truly did.”
“I didn’t know her long, but she was a noble soul. That much, anyone could tell. I can’t even ...
2024-12-13 19:40:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
NOTE: Last Ashborn chapter before my 3 month break. As a reminder, patreon will pause until mid-june or so. I'll have an exact date once I'm done with my climb and back home.
--
Maiya still couldn’t believe her team emerged relatively unscathed. Aside from some minor burns, they’d made it out unscathed—mostly thanks to Maiya’s order telling everyone to retreat to a safe distance. Never was Maiya more appreciative of past Maiya than in that moment. That, and the gods. She...
2024-12-12 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
