noct

337. Blinding Light

White light flashed. Ike saw nothing. Felt nothing but electricity, coursing through his entire body. When the light faded, he stood alone in the darkness, blinking away the black to call his vision back. Did it work?

Once more, he could see. Dust still swirled all around him, but a good chunk of it had vanished, going up in black smoke. The Rank of the dust no longer spiked, but instead flatlined—at high Rank 3, but not Rank 4. He’d stopped it from breaking through to the ...

63. Rare Encounter

The morning came too soon. Rhys stretched and sat up. He hadn’t made much progress in his intent skill, but he had progressed a little, enough that he needed a visit to the trash heap to repair his body. He made a quick detour there and repaired his body, washing off in the stream afterwards. As he climbed out of the water, the raccoon who’d shown him the stream edged up to him. It grabbed his robe and tugged it once, twice, then nodded into the forest.

Rhys smiled. He nodded back. ...

336. Princely Clash

Ike charged, and the rider rushed to meet him. The beast leaped into the air, blocking out the newly-summoned sun. Sharp claws bore down at him.

“You go left,” Ike said, darting right. He and Wisp split. The beast landed between them. On its back, the rider had sheathed his sword and held a javelin instead. Eyes locked on Ike, he threw the javelin directly at him.

Ike snorted. He drew back his sword, preparing to knock it to the ground and obtain a new weapon.

In midair,...

62. Emissary to the Rats

“Can I help you?” Rhys asked warily, reaching for his sword. One of the smugglers…? But no, why would he be worried with me? I’m down in this hole, far away from the stashes…

The figure stood there. The wind blew, catching their robes. Two ribbons danced behind their head, as pure white as the rest of them. They stood stock still, watching Rhys silently.

Rhys grasped the hilt of his sword. He watched the man, waiting for him to move. He still had the element of ...

335. The Rider, Reunited

The ragged puppet stood in the door, body barely holding together, slender limbs draped by the same tattered cloth as ever. Ike could see light through the cracks in its limbs where its body hadn’t perfectly reformed, and realized, at last, that it had been slowly wearing down all this time. It wasn’t so obvious in the light of day, when the sunlight washed its porcelain skin to a blazing white blur, but backlit like this, he could see all the damage it had sustained. It lifted its corrod...

61. Rat King

Rhys squinted. The rat with the quirked tail looked like the one he’d rescued. No—it was the one he’d rescued! He scanned it with his mana to be sure, and when he found no impurities, he was convinced. That rat was the one that had been trapped under the cauldron, which had nodded at him when he’d freed it. The other one was still full of impurities, but it gave him a look with strangely intelligent eyes.

He looked at the first rat, then back to the new one. “You… want me to...

334. In The Heart of the Stone Rose

Ike stepped through the hole they’d punched in the wall and walked into the darkness. His footsteps echoed in the still air. It was as though he walked into an empty cathedral. A vast, dark, open space spread before him, as silent as it was still. Dust softened his footsteps, and the wind he dragged with him as he moved was the only motion in the air. The light that streamed in the hole they’d punched was the only light in the space, and Ike frowned. Was there no route in here? Was this n...

60. Fresh Hot Trash

Mouse quickly led them around the academy, showing them all the facilities and everything they’d need to know to thrive for their next few weeks during the tournament. From the herb fields, to the merchants and auction houses, to the training grounds and the dormitories, she led them through it all. A few times, she glanced around, then whispered that she was about to deviate from the pre-described tour to show them somewhere useful, and every time, led them somewhere highly valuable afterw...

333. Stone Blasting

KA-BAM!

Stone dust flew, clouding on the air. Sparkles from shattered crystals danced on the breeze. Ike coughed, waving his hand. Did it work?

The air cleared. A hole pierced through the shard before them, into the back of the crystals on the other side. Ike grinned and clapped. It was working. This would work.

“What? Only that deep? Get back, pathetic child. Watch a real mage get to work.” Wisp pushed him to the side and stepped forward, cracking her ...

59. Purple Dawn Academy

They flew toward the side of a mountain. A dark stone castle stood atop the peak, piercing up into the sky. The roof was made of a strange purple metal that reflected the sunlight, giving the impression of the sun constantly rising against a purple backdrop. That roof clad steepled temples, tall towers, and outbuildings alike. A crenelated stone wall ringed the outside of the castle, more a marker than a barrier, since mages flew over the wall left, right, and center. The castle was so large ...

332. Within the Shards

Leaving the shattered puppet behind, they strode into the crystal shards. Shadow fell over them, leaving them in darkness. The crystals glimmered in the shade, gently twinkling like oversized stars. Refracted sunlight twisted through the crystals and played over the ground before them, distorted into strange geometric lines and shapes of gold. A quietude fell over them as they stepped into the shards, as the shards protected them from the relentless wind that whipped over the vast open expans...

331. Crystal Shards

The run over the barren lands was largely uneventful. The wind blew, dust stirred, and the three of them raced over the hard earth. Nothing attacked them, nor did anything threaten them. It was them, the earth, and the wind.

The crystal shards loomed. They were larger than they looked at first, dwarfed by the enormous mountains, but without the enormous mountains, they were easily taller than the tallest city Ike had ever seen. They rivaled a foothill in height, an absolute pinnacle in ...

Book 2 Start: 58. Heading to the Tournament

Rhys sat on a bench, a book in his hands and a cat purring on his lap. The cat rolled over, exposing its belly to the sun pouring in the window. Across from him, a short-haired woman rested her head on her hand, watching the scenery pass by. She glanced at Rhys, and Rhys quickly averted his eyes, pretending not to notice.

The last four months had been hell. Every second had been full of beatings, battle, then more beatings. The second Ev had learned he’d climbed up a Tier, she hadn’...

57. Please Explain

Griffin, as it turned out, fit none of Rhys’ expectations. As a proud graduate of Purple Dawn, he wasn’t disloyal to his academy, nor did he bear a personal grudge against Ernesto. He had a strong sense of righteousness, but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that he was aggressively, excessively, to far too extreme an extent—straightforward and by-the-book.

“Why didn’t you come faster?” Ernesto snarled, annoyed.

Griffin put his hands on his hips and gave...

330. Pursuit

They reached the bottom of the mountain by the end of the day. The barrens stretched before them. Barely any plants grew among the cracked, dry earth, just scrubby bushes and some sparse grasses. No longer did dense grass rule the plains. Now, it was the lesser plants, the smaller, yet hardier strains that survived. Very little animal life filled the plains. Even when Ike extended his aether, all he sensed were bugs, small lizards, and a few birds. This place was barren in every sense of the ...

56. Surface Battle

Rhys bent, extending one leg, then the other, stretching out his limbs. He bounced in place, shaking himself out. When he was good and warmed up, he knelt, then leaped off the ground. From left wall to right, bouncing across the relatively narrow well, Rhys climbed up one jump at a time back to the surface.

The sounds of battle echoed down the well, growing louder as he climbed. He kicked off the wall horizontally and spent one jump just to be sure he’d pop out on the far side from ba...

329. Escape

The stone closed in. The gap closed. Ike kicked again, with all his force this time, and drew his Hungry Sword at the same time. The gap ahead narrowed down to a pinprick, no wider than Wisp’s thread. They hurtled toward solid stone.

Ike hammered the Hungry Sword into the mountain. To his surprise, it came to life like it never had before. Its teeth blurred, they churned so fast. It chewed into the mountain with voracity, like a beast starved. Stone dust flew, and rock shattered. The ...

55. Trash vs. Trash

Rhys charged toward the mounted demon as the mounted demon charged him. The demon struck down at him with all its might. Rhys activated Trash Intent as he slashed up at it. Their blades clashed.

The demon’s black cleaver pulsed with curse power. The dark energy emanated from it, seeking to taint Rhys.

Rhys sucked the taint in, building it into the next star in his core. His Trash Intent-empowered blade cut a notch into the ominous black sword, then jerked to a halt as the metal ...

328. Rush

Ike ran.

Behind him, a strange shout rang out. He whipped around, staring back. Puppets rushed the gap. For a second, he squinted, lost, and then his eyes widened. That’s right! All the puppets outside. There’d been hundreds of puppets arrayed just outside the mountain, waiting for something.

I think I’ve figured out what that something is, Ike thought to himself.

The grinding of the walls changed in timbre, growing louder from behind him. Th...

54. Becoming Trash

Activating Trash Manipulation, Rhys pulled the trash toward himself. Rather than staving it off, trying to push the trash away and reject it like any sane person would do when beset by deadly toxic garbage, he dragged it forcibly into himself. This was his last breath of life, the last spark of mana. The trash, the goo, actively extinguished his life with every passing moment, and rather than pushing it away, he pulled it in. It was the ultimate in counterintuitive. He was staking his life on...

327. Smashing Faces

Wisp jumped off the mountain’s shoulder, clutching Ike in her foreclaws. Ike barely bit back his scream, only managing to hold it in at the last second when he imagined Wisp’s smug expression. A spider thread shot ahead of them. They swung on it and landed on the mountain’s opposite shoulder, closer to its mask.

Ike escaped Wisp’s grasp and stepped closer. He drew out the Hungry Sword. The mountain turned toward him. White porcelain scraped by, a spot of pale white on her gray g...

53. From the Pit

The pit glowed brightly, bathing the forest in its sickly glow. The light pulsed like a bad headache, and the pit burbled and spat as if it boiled, but emitted a fierce cold instead.  

Caught under the influence of the cursed nail, Rhys could do nothing but watch as Ernesto continued to pour mana into the pit. He narrowed his eyes, reaching out toward the nail with his mana. It had to ‘touch’ him somehow, right? Somehow, this nail was exerting influence on him. If he could find...

326. Take Down a Mountain

The hand rushed down at them. Mag swept around it and flew upward, angling his claws toward the mountain’s towering eye. The further he flew, the smaller he looked against the mountain. At first, Ike would’ve said that he could’ve gotten both eyes with his claws, but up close against the mountain’s face? Mag looked like a wren, a tiny songbird. He couldn’t stretch his legs far enough to reach both eyes.

Wisp darted out from under the hand. Ike stared up at it, his mind made up...

52. Skullduggery

The light faded away from the robes Rhys had sewn from the piercing-resistant fabric. Once more, it had melded together, but this time, it looked far more handsome. He’d bothered to pick fabrics with complimentary patterns, colors, and textures this time to craft a garment that actually looked passable, since this would be his external clothing, and he quickly put it on. He’d mostly used dark colors—navy, forest green, brown, and black—since there were plenty of dark colors in the pil...

325. The Mountain Bleeds

Ike rushed into the deepest part of the darkness. The closer he got, the more tense Shawn became, so though he couldn’t see far himself, he could use Shawn’s body posture to guess the right direction to rush. The throbbing got louder and louder, beating off the walls. Ike’s body thrummed with it, the sound rattling him to his bones. His heart beat in sync. His breathing moved to the rhythm of the pressure. There was no evading it, no fighting it. He was nothing but a minnow in a mighty ...

51. Forging Robes

Rhys scurried back up the mountain to the upper peak. He stopped by the trash ravine and started the process of burning the high-tier trash to make ash. He needed a new potion after he’d downed the old one, and besides, after he’d used the previous potion to empower his body, he was curious just how far he could push his limits now.

As that processed, he drew out the fabric scraps from his storage ring and laid them all out, ordering them from strongest to weakest. He had the least ...

324. Ragged Puppet

The puppet plunged a blade toward Ike’s heart. Ike swept the Hungry Sword from his prone position. There was no strength in the blow—there couldn’t be, from the angle he was at—but it didn’t matter. The Hungry Sword struck the puppet’s blade and devoured it.

Ike raised his brows. He’d expected the two to clash, the Hungry Sword to maybe take a bite of the blade, but instead, the blade had just disintegrated. A second later, rust flakes rained down on his face, and he reali...

50. Plucking a Diamond

The tsunami of burning impurities rushed through Rhys and into Walter. They coursed through his core, surrounding the black mark of the skeleton. Rhys’ impurities scoured at the skeleton, lifting it off Water’s core, ripping every black mark and trace of impurity out of the other boy’s core. The mass of impurity worked like superpowered sandpaper, and on top of that, it was superheated. When it came to lifting the curse off Walter’s core, it was like scrubbing with a scouring pad and ...

323. Gap

The gap widened as they drew closer—or at least, it appeared to, as the enormity of the mountains faded away into one big lump, and they no longer had a scale to compare it to. There was something strange about it. Ike stared at it, trying to figure it out, before it finally struck him. It wasn’t a natural gap. There was nothing organic about it. It was a perfect line cut directly through the mountain, so utterly straight and clean that he could see the horizon on the other side of it. He...

49. The Final Duel

Walter stepped onto the field. Instantly, Rhys knew he was serious. The aura rippling off of him left no doubt of that. If there had been any true friendship to this ‘friendly duel,’ it was gone now.

Rhys stepped back. He smiled. Good. If he could do nothing else, at least let him draw out the truth to this visit in front of all his other students. If they didn’t know it from his duel with Mae, let them see it from his duel with Walter. There was no intention on the Purpl...