noct

226. What Lies Beyond the Lake

He reached the place Mickie had stopped and pointed before the snow filled in the footprints they’d left behind. He set off down the hill toward the lake, heading past a snow-laden evergreen and a series of lumps in the snow that hid what, in summer, were leafy bushes, or so his mana senses told him. Down the slope, and around the corner, following a path he sensed beneath the snow. He hovered over the snow, using his fourth-Tier flying ability to keep from disturbing the snow, though he di...

225. Believe It or Not

At last, Mickie sighed aloud. “You don’t seem like you’re lyin’.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

“Crazy thing to claim.”

“Sure would be, if it wasn’t true.”

Mickie crossed his arms and stared at Rhys. Rhys smiled back at him, waiting.

“Fine. I believe ya. Or at least, I believe ya ain’t got ill intent toward those two.” Mickie snapped his fingers, and the bear trap’s blue field dissipated.

“Do others have ill intent?” Rhys...

224. Not Many Visitors

Rhys stared. The man stared at him. They mutually shared a stare for a long moment, in the silent snowy woods, with snow drifting all around.

“What’ve you come out ‘ere for, then?” the man demanded, pointing the axe at Rhys. It wasn’t a very imposing axe, more a woodcutter’s axe than a battleaxe. Rhys paused, examining the man with his mana to see if it was a threat, but there was no mana or intent in the tool. The man was just pointing it at him to be rude.

“I came ...

223. Mickie's Hut

The sun rose late. Rhys emerged from the trash heap before it rose, wearing his new duds. They were a bit patchwork, and the fur cuffs were made of a dozen different kinds of fur each, but it worked well enough, and he fit in with the other mages way better than he would have otherwise. Honestly, it was kind of a good look, and he put all the scraps of leather and fur in the garbage to use; it was a win-win all around. The icy pre-dawn cold, on the other hand, he was less fond of. His breath ...

222. New In Town

“New around here?”

He turned, a smile on his face. “I am! I am. Just rolled into your lovely town today…”

His voice trailed off. His eyes widened, and he looked up, and up, and up.

The tavern had a high ceiling. He hadn’t thought anything of it. It only made sense to have pitched roofs in an area with heavy snow, and a lot of room for the smoke to escape to in the ceiling was pretty typical in cold regions, as well. Sure, it didn’t close in around the edges to ...

221. Into Town

Rhys stepped out of the Black Palace, and immediately, icy winds and heavy snow assaulted his body. He flinched, even though his high Tier meant he barely felt the wind or the cold, then blinked the icy precipitation out of his eyes and squinted around.

White, as far as the eye could see. Ice and snow clad the earth, clinging to the skeletal branches of hibernating trees, piling thick on evergreen boughs. His breath clouded on the air, and ice crystals sparkled high in the atmosphere, f...

220. It's a Trap

Rhys yanked the case off the pedestal. The glass lifted away in one smooth motion, revealing the ring. He held his breath, his senses completely extended, ready for anything to lunge out at him.

Nothing. Silence filled the room.

Daran sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. “What did I tell you? I didn’t trap the things I left for me.”

“It was a reasonable thing to worry about. I stand by that,” Rhys replied. He’d be a fool not to expect a trap in a dungeon, espe...

219. We Aren't Alone

Rhys stepped through the portal and drew to a halt, his jaw dropping. He gaped around the vast room, his eyes wide. “No way. How’d you get this one past the looters?”

“Didn’t you just comment on my portals?”

“Damn, man. This is awesome!”

A massive library spread out before them. In the rest of the castle, the dark marble was imposing and cold, decadent, but hollow, too dark, to the point it absorbed the light and made the spaces oppressive and smaller. Here, ...

218. Delving the Black Palace

Rhys set off deeper into the Demon King’s palace. He wasn’t just looting for pleasure, or to piss off the annoying ghost who couldn’t stop him while he looted said ghost’s own palace, but for good reason. He didn’t have many resources as he was right now. All his gold was in the Empire’s denominations, which might be a bit sketchy to suddenly pull out, far from the Empire’s border; it was the kind of thing that would get noticed and reported, anyways, and that was the last thing...

217. A Quiet Exit

Daran led the way through the void. He followed a particular path, tracing along an invisible guideline. Rhys extended his mana senses, and with his most sensitive senses, felt something, vaguely, then swapped to curse senses. His eyes widened, and he almost jerked back. Daran was following a bright red vein through the void, a rope of curse power oozing bad intentions so strongly that Rhys immediately felt offput the second he sensed it. As long as he kept his curse senses up, he could follo...

216. You've Realized

Rhys turned. Daran stood slightly behind him, his arms crossed, gazing at the dark filth the same as Rhys did. He nodded at Rhys. “I take it you’ve comprehended the technique, if you’ve come here?”

“I think so, yeah. What is it?”

Daran shook his head. “I don’t know. I was the first to find it… in our region. I tried to use it, taking a tiny portion of its immense power and creating curse power from it, spawning cursed techniques and curses alike, culminating in m...

215. Taking On the Alliance

One thing was immediately obvious to Rhys: Virgil was not, or rather, could not be, the one in control. He seemed to be in control, but whether he’d exploited a bad situation or been set up as a puppet by someone else, he hadn’t been the one to take control of the Sword Saint or to mark Bast. He’d nearly been overwhelmed by Rhys’s rats. Someone who panicked at a spell of that magnitude wasn’t going to be able to overwhelm the Sword Saint without help. Someone else had intervened the...

214. One More Second

Rhys cracked his brains. Come on, come on, something…! Fighting was a losing game. Talking wasn’t working. He needed to stall for just another second before he escaped. What did he have left?

His eyes widened. That’s it! He threw out his hand, summoning the rat swarm—not on the Sword Saint, but on Virgil. Rats swarmed up from the earth and rushed Virgil, their eyes glittering in the bright white room. Virgil shrieked and threw up his hand. A blast of purple ene...

213. Home

The wall broke down. The doors flew open. Rhys stumbled again, almost falling, and would’ve fallen if Laurent wasn’t there to hold him up. Mirai tumbled over the floor, but Grave chased after her and caught her with ease. Out of the dust and the rubble, a gold sword glowed. A figure stepped forward, white robes flowing around his legs, eyes fierce, face impassive. The Sword Saint.

Rhys laughed, half-coughing. “It’s over. It’s too late. The deed has already been done. There’s...

212. Plunging the Vault

Rhys chased after Grave and Mirai. Gold light lashed against the walls, battering the building. Cracks appeared in the wall and burst through the floor as they ran, and the energy of the sword blasts buffeted the barrier, lighting up the outer walls of the palace in shimmering rainbows. Laurent ran ahead of them, fishing something out from his robes. He looked over his shoulder at Mirai and Grave. “Do you have your keys?”

Both of them held up simple silver keys. Rhys searched throug...

211. Wipe Out

The Tier 3 reached him first. Rhys struck fiercely, knocking him off-balance. Before he could punish the man, a dozen lower-Tier soldiers reached him. No emotion passed over Rhys’s face. He spun, slicing from low to high. The flexible blade swirled around him, slicing the attackers to ribbons. The Tier 3 lunged, trying to exploit the moment he turned his back, but Rhys was prepared. He summoned a scrap of trash to his free hand and materialized it behind his back, and the Tier 3’s sword b...

210. Aftermath

The man in purple hovered into the center of the battlefield. He stretched out his hands, demanding the attention of the soldiers on both sides. “Your Empress is dead. Surrender, and we will treat you with all due respect. Continue to fight, and die where you stand.”

Rhys turned away. This was the part he didn’t care about. He’d already done everything he could, up to and including exterminating the Empress, politically-motivated kill-stealing aside. His battle was over, but his...

209. The Final Blow

He raced toward the Empress, and she raced toward him. Her eyes glowed bright, and dozens of cores materialized around her, circulating wildly. She drew on all of them, supplementing her power higher and higher, pushing it to its absolute limit and beyond.

Rhys pulled once more. Everything discarded in battle, every piece of dirt and filth, every item used and tossed away—all of it rushed toward him. He pulled it in, but held it outside his body, spinning it around him from the outsid...

208. She Means Me?

Rhys fled. Internally, he screamed, Why? Why me? What did I do? I’m just a lowly Tier 3 mage who just disrupted the entire flow of the battle and turned a battle favorable to the Empire into one they’re now losing! Why would she target little old me?

…Okay, maybe she’s justified in attacking me.

The Empress caught up with him in a step. Her hand wrapped around his shoulder.

Rhys spun. He instantly lashed out with his blade.

He didn’t see her...

207. Black Ships

The Empire fought, but the Alliance gave its all. They steadily pushed deeper into the Empire, while the Empire retreated in equal measure. The Empire hadn’t brough as many ships as Rhys had expected to see, especially since he recalled them having at least as many, if not more ships than the Alliance, but that might’ve been exactly why the Alliance attacked—if the Empire, and particularly the Empress, was busy somewhere else, then it was the exact same condition as when the Empire had ...

206. Counterattack

Dawn rose on a new day, and as it broke, fire lit at the borders of the Empire. The Alliance’s mages poured over the Empire’s borders, overwhelming the Empire’s guards before they could send the alarm. They sprinted inward, pushing toward the Empire’s outermost cities.

Rhys watched it quietly from the edge of a camp he hadn’t detonated his garbage can teleportation on; one of the ones he’d surveyed, but not attacked. Not all the Empire’s camps were full of political prison...

205. Last Minute Prep

The next three days were chaos. Everything had to be moved into place. Everyone had to be adjusted. Some people wanted to leave, and those, Rhys got as close to the border as he could, so they could sprint for it when things broke out. Most of them were in it to win it, or ex-criminals who didn’t know what was going on, anyways. Those he kept on the stores.

The stores stayed open. The stores were vital.

Rhys spent his first day teleporting around and slurping Impure Wells, and h...

204. Boys Will Be Boys

He took a quick trash can teleport to his old trash pile base. Korii was wandering around, looking for something. Rhys waved, and she walked over.

“Something I can help you with?” she asked.

Rhys nodded. “I’m looking to be alone for a bit. Can I help you find whatever you’re looking for, so I can have some alone time?”

Korii waved her hand. “It’s not that important. I was just looking for another vat. If you’re in urgent need of this space, I can vacate, no...