nemorosus

Chapter 538: Nuclear Family's Nuclear Child

‘Doctor Raven’ was a shallow imitation of the man that Argrave recalled seeing in Erlebnis’ realm when he had absorbed the knowledge from the book in the Archives. Tall with natural gray hair, pale skin, and an ever-stoic demeanor, he examined Sophia twice a week to track what was occurring within her body magically and physically. He kept track of her health just as much as the magical phenomenon within.

Sophia obediently underwent examination without so much as a peep. When it w...

Chapter 537: Help as Best We Can

“Durran told me you said that these were made to kill gods,” Argrave said, staring down upon a ballista. It was entirely metallic, even the string that fired the bolt. He had seen it fire, and when it did, it let out a deep resonating rumble that might be used for music were it not so intimidating. He turned his head to its maker, Dario. “Was that a bluff?”

Dario sat on a chair, his crutches at his side. His arms were wrapped in bandages—if they weren’t wrapped, they would b...

Chapter 536: Continental Siege

Emperor Ji Meng had not been able to learn much about this land he found himself stranded in. His captors kept him well-guarded on the ship that they had taken from him in his failed invasion. Though surrounded by the silk of his personal quarters, they might have well been steel bars. He had thought this fleet indomitable when it departed from the docks of the south. Over land and sea his army travelled, the winds at their back like some divine blessing the whole way. In a day, fortune turne...

Chapter 535: King and Nepotist

“I won’t tolerate you being ungentle with Sophia.” Argrave crossed his arms as he stood before the Alchemist. “You need to be as kind as you know how before I ever bring her around here.”

Argrave and the Alchemist stood on the mountainside where he’d chosen to set up shop. It was far removed from any prying eyes, and the only people that hung around here were ostensibly the great big snake Vasquer and Onychinusa, the unsociable recluse.

The Alchemist looked down upon A...

Chapter 534: Good-Tinted Glasses

Melanie had said that Dario was ‘mighty ruined.’ Upon visiting him in the mountain prison cells guarded by far too many people, Argrave thought the description apt. They hadn’t treated him too poorly on account of the fact that he had alerted them about Mozzahr, nor had they been overkind. Ultimately, he was behind Castro’s death. That wasn’t something that could soon be forgotten, nor forgiven.

Bloodshot eyes, emaciated skin, an inability to even prop himself upright, cracked...

Chapter 533: Creation

Argrave stood at the barrier of a doorway, peering in at Sophia. His Brumesingers nestled up against her in small balls of white fur, and she held one of them in her arms as she laid beneath the bedsheet. He heard quiet footsteps and turned his head to see Anneliese walking through the parliament hall’s courtyard. She looked tired.

“Hey,” he greeted her in a low whisper, then gestured inside. “Sleeping.”

Anneliese walked as quietly as she could to the door, peered in, th...

Chapter 532: Changed Man

Argrave could barely think above the loud rumbling of pain that swept his body. It felt like cords sewn into his body had been ripped free of the muscle and skin surrounding them. The whole of him felt raw and battered, but he rose much the same as Mozzahr. Both of them were tensed like a wounded animal, ready to bite the hand that came no matter its intent.

Mozzahr didn’t bother healing the wound on his shoulder, nor the huge crater just by his heart caused by Argrave’s [Burst]. In...

Chapter 531: Castellan in the Wrong Castle

Argrave conjured a wave of flames to meet Mozzahr as he crashed down at him with all the speed and strength of a meteor. He didn’t think it would do much damage—rather, he hoped to obscure visibility as he dodged so as not to betray his newfound power of swapping place with his blood echoes. He warped near Sophia as he felt the tremendous impact shake the temple grounds, then scooped her up and watched Mozzahr warily as the Castellan of the Empty rose to face Argrave.

“Hause—ful...

Chapter 530: Potentially Devastating

Argrave stood on the bridge leading to Blackgard, holding Sophia as he stared down the valley where the river rapids clashed against the rocks below. He felt that his mind was moving much quicker than its waters, at present. They weren’t in Sandelabara any longer, where its citizens lived in some sort of strange limbo. This was Blackgard, with people he’d pledged to defend walking the streets with trust in him. They had tremendous defenses here, but somehow Mozzahr had managed to breach t...

Chapter 529: Happiness in Ignorance

“Sometimes, you learn just enough to entice you. Then, you push a little deeper, not knowing what you’ll find. It’s a treacherous journey, the unknown. You either find nothing… or you find misery.” Dario managed to look up at Melanie. “You learn a little too much, and the façade starts to fade away. All your happiness is flavored with bile, because it all feels so small in comparison to the grandeur of what you’ve learned.”

Melanie shook her head. “That doesn’t answ...

Volume 2 edits out on Kindle/Audible

Volume 2 is out on Kindle and Audible. After deleting some chapters, rearranging others, and adding new ones, the edited version is around 126k words, 1k more than the original. Luke Daniels continues to narrate through book 2.

You can find the eBook on Amazon, here.

You can find the Audiobook now on Audible.

2023-12-20 12:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 528: Burst Dam

Traugott watched Argrave and his companions walk over the broken husk of this realm from a distance. He had to admit—he wasn’t expecting such a display of potency from Castro. As it turned out, a cornered rat was much as likely to fight twice as hard as it was to make a mistake. He’d spread a net of spirits outside this strange pocket realm to block their flight, but it was all turning to naught.

He lamented that he’d not had the time to study this realm in greater detail, after...

Chapter 527: Arete

Tower Master Castro of the Order of the Gray Owl had not been wrong when he told Argrave that he was not famous. He endeavored a great deal to ensure that was not the case, because he much preferred a calm life beneath the shade than one where he was cooked by the scrutiny of the sun. His A-rank ascension was not known even among the upper echelons of the Order. Castro had never needed to—and never dared to—call upon it against his foes. He had considered offering to use it for Mozzahr, b...

Chapter 526: Shepherd

It wasn’t too much trouble to find Anneliese and all with her after taking care of Good King Norman. Despite the barriers in their way, Argrave was again connected to Elenore. That enabled their speedy communication and reunition. They were holed up in a grove far outside of town, likely because it was far away from the army of golems blocking the exit to Sandelabara.

As Orion and Argrave travelled, a haunting call echoed throughout the city. It was soon followed by the screams of cro...

Chapter 525: Hammer, Meet Anvil

“While you were gone, a development arose,” the Alchemist explained to Argrave as he stared up at King Norman, watching for any movement. “Your enemy took some inspiration from you. They’ve created a network of spirits around the exit of Sandelabara. We won’t be able to teleport outside without first dismantling it… or more simply moving past it.”

“I made that defensive network—not Argrave,” Onychinusa spoke up, annoyed. “But he’s right. If we teleport b...

Chapter 524: Child Protective Services

Argrave walked into the personal office of Good King Norman. It was strange to look upon the man that he’d just killed, sitting behind his desk in that pristine black velvet. Less than an hour ago, he’d been ribbons. Now, the black energy within him once again raged like an ocean, and the king’s red eyes fixed him with an uncomfortably salacious stare.

“You’re the one? Garbed in black, a breastplate bearing the sun, and the faintest echo that smells of blood…” he narrated ...

Chapter 523: Good King Norman

Argrave changed nothing about this new battle with Norman. The battlefield was the same, the time, the odds—the only thing that’d truly changed was himself, this time. He felt sharp, composed, and reinvigorated on this new day. And like all attempts before this one, Argrave felt fear. Good King Norman walked as boldly as ever, wearing his black velvet proudly as his cold red eyes wandered the training hall before settling on Argrave. He was undefeated, unchallenged, and had the bearing to...

Chapter 522: Insurmountable Wall of a Man

Things weren’t like the movies. Rocky had people helping with his training, but the best Argrave could muster was a psychopath who wanted to do unspeakable things to him.

Argrave learned within ten seconds that someone trying to kill him was not inclined to help teach him, and Argrave certainly wasn’t a natural combat genius. King Norman rushed, Argrave defended feebly with a ward, and then he got hit when King Norman used two hands instead of one. With that, panic erupted and Argra...

Chapter 521: Father of Education

Argrave felt that he had learned all he could about the time loop itself. The things that he had seen with [Minor Truesight], while lesser than what Anneliese might’ve picked out, still confirmed to him without a shadow of a doubt the truth of this endless repetition. And even more than that, he finally found a path to confirming some hidden things. If Sophia was the cause of the loop, and the Heralds were harnessing her power to kill all those that spoke of the prince, then she, herself, w...

Chapter 520: Little Wound Up

When Argrave looked upon the so-called silver-tongued priestess with the [Minor Truesight] lent by the Alchemist’s lens, pieces fit together in an instant. They were mysteries both within this small distortion, and those without it. The vague, incomprehensible experience that he had falling down into Sandelabara with the voice, the insistence of Dario and the figure behind him… and the Heralds.

The silver-tongued priestess kneeled before a triangular altar that was unadorned. It was...

Chapter 519: Third Time's a Charm

“Mr. Knight is…” Sophia looked at the doll. He saw some tears welling up in those red eyes of hers—and for the first time, Argrave thought it might not be out of simple fear of punishment. “He’s not mine.”

Argrave nodded understandingly. “Then… your brother’s?”

Sophia looked at him in utter fear. “I don’t have a…” she trailed off, her words failing her. Afterward, she became despondent.

“I’ve heard some things that go against that. It’s ok...

Chapter 518: Darling

Though Argrave felt greatly emboldened (and somewhat psychotic) after learning that he was indeed looping through time, he wasn’t quite ready to toss his mortality to the wind quite yet in reckless pursuit of answers. On his second run through things, he checked to be sure some things were really restored. The old woman’s life, for instance—and indeed, when Argrave checked, she was alive again. Argrave could see her soul, still persisting anchored in her body.

Argrave attempted to...

Chapter 517: Sophia Normansdottir

“Who are you?”

These were the first words to greet Argrave when he passed through the boundary between the looping Sandelabara and the one within the distortion. When he turned his head to the voice, which he realized belatedly was small and young, he laid eyes upon the small girl that’d been sitting in the hall with King Norman.

The girl wore the same red velvet dress he’d seen earlier, but she sat on the floor while clutching a doll close to her chest. The doll was that ...

Chapter 516: Long Conman's Longest Con

“Every time the girl moves, I can see the fractures in this perfect recreation.” Anneliese looked around the room carefully, even as the people within reacted to her presence. “All of this, everything around us, is something that responds wholly to her actions and movements. This is built to keep her in check.”

“Recreation? So this isn’t real?” Melanie questioned.

“It’s… difficult for me to even judge.” Anneliese clutched her forehead, looking at things that ...

Chapter 515: Fringe of Existence

As they neared the distant city which Argrave was content calling Sandelabara, the looping effect became all the clearer. The whole world around them seemed to be a malfunctioning tape, lasting for no more than the five seconds it had been allotted. They were constantly frightening people with their sudden appearance, yet it never really mattered enough for anything to happen.

Argrave heard the beginning to the same sentence half a thousand times, or the distant call of a rooster greeti...

Chapter 514: Rewind Time

At an unspecified time, Argrave found himself in an unspecified place. Considering he’d jumped into a pit, that was the intended outcome. But this was a little different than falling, he could tell—rather, it was like he fell out of the world they’d been standing atop rather than falling into it. He’d found a tiny crack in the firmament and slipped through like water.

“Parasite.”

Argrave couldn’t look around, not really. But he heard a voice. It came from somewhere i...

Volume 1 edited

Volume 1 of Jackal Among Snakes was around 103k words. After going through critique from Royal Road and Patreon, the edition on Amazon ended up being 110k words. It's a greatly improved version of the original. Now, it's live as paperback/eBook/Audiobook on Amazon, here! If you were waiting for the audio to come to Audible, here it is on...

Chapter 513: Seeking the Peeking Eye

Argrave and Anneliese stood together flanked by many Veidimen guards. At Argrave’s feet was the broken god of storms, while Ji Meng waited cross-legged in the snowy coast with his hands bound behind his back. Despite the frigid air, he didn’t shiver a bit. And ahead of them, gods walked Vasquer as allies, for perhaps the first time in its history.

“Who are these people?” Ji Meng looked back and up at Argrave.

Argrave stayed silent for a moment as he looked at all who came,...

Chapter 512: Pump It

The dwarves gathered in an enlarged room. Large amounts of the strange dwarven metal lined the wall, containing elaborate pipes and nozzles meant to regulate something or other. They stood around the large circular hole in the center of this place. Once, it had been the house of worship of the tribes of Vysenn. Now, however, much of the more sacrificial elements had been dug away to make way for the pump. And in one corner, a complex machine waited idle and cool.

The dwarves dealt cards...

Chapter 511: Legacy of Bodies

After Argrave had done a dressing-down on the imprisoned emperor, a fair bit passed before either party again spoke. The emperor had been kneeling at the low-lying table politely, but he stretched his legs out and sat more comfortably. His indignance at being called a feeble-minded warrior had faded from his face so subtly Argrave wondered if he’d imagined it.

“Legacy… is a fickle thing,” Ji Meng said. His gaze wandered to the ceiling. “The last of the Zhu dynasty… as a baby...