Vitaly S Alexius

100. Meddling with Time

I unlocked an old, rusty gate. The gate groaned, rust flaking off it as I pushed it aside.

Alessi’s smile greeted me. She was wearing a beanie hat that I had designed for her, her silver-tinted skin framed by a white wig and cloth flowers. An earring made out of her crystal gemstone hair was glittering in the darkness. Her beetle-carapace armor looked well-polished a...

Ch 99. You're Fired

“She seems… mad,” Voltara whispered, staring at the distraught Amber.

“Yeah,” I replied, “She’s mad alright. How fast can you move?”

“Very fast if I focus on it and burn through my Vitality,” the maid replied.

“If she tries to attack us, utters even a single word that doesn’t make sense - rip that locket from her neck,” I whispered.

“Got it,” Voltara replied. Her muscles tensed up. Her pose changed, became that of a coiled spring ready to ...

Ch 98. The Pact of Order

“Soooo?” I smiled at Amber as she finished the pastry.

“So, what?” She asked disdainfully. “Do you think I’m going to be your friend because you gave me a tart?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I do believe that’s how this works.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Amber crossed her arms. “You literally announced your plan to make friends via the use of snacks ten minutes ago!”

“My policy is openness,” I shrugged.

Baroness Snippy exhaled.

�...

Ch 97. The Un-poisoned Apple

“You good?” Agatha said. “Licor is calling me. He probably wants to…”

“We good sis,” Emerald replied. “Go have fun with your fiance.”

I nodded.

Agatha nodded back at us and departed.

I pulled my favorite satin, red sheet out of Saccy and threw it over the bed of my choice. Then, I plopped down onto the bed and stretched.

Amber pretended not to pay attention to me. I sent her a dashing smile as Captain jumped onto my knees.

2022-11-14 20:13:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Ch 96. Roomies

After a long, heart-pounding moment, Nemendias reached out with her own hand and clasped mine.

Her hand forged from magic felt real, warm, like she was a human, like she was alive on the same level as me.

“Thank you, Yulia,” she said softly. “Your offer was... unexpected. I did not think that a human would offer me their place, but then again you don’t seem to want to be my student.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” I shook my head. “I do want to be your student. I wa...

Ch 95. An offer of friendship

With smol, purple-eyed Captain on my shoulder and my two besties behind me, I attempted to navigate the gothic, black-marble halls of Nemendias to find and exterminate the girl with the pocket watch. 

The ghost-chasing quest had turned to be a lot more tiring than I had presumed, as the arrow often stopped pointing one way and started to spin wildly all over, not giving me a specific direction or jumping between two different points.

After several hours of roaming the empty, ...

Ch 94. Heart to heart

My answer was the deep silence of the catacombs.

“Nemendias isn’t conscious,” Agatha said, staring at the body of Saint Innocentai with a morose look. “This is just an old skeleton.”

"No, this is just a prop," I said, pointing at the dusty skull. "I've seen real skulls in countless abandoned places. Nobody dies like that. Why is he sitting perfectly upri...

Ch 93. Saint Innocentai

“Oh no, you got me,” I said sarcastically at Licor. “Guess I’ll have to go to detention or whatever it is that happens to students at Nemendias when they go below a hundred.”

I opened my mouth in a wide grin and started to laugh, while looking up at the number.

As I did, the Prince stared at me with increasing anger, his face turning red. With every passing second I was losing him, losing the future.

My hand wrapped my black cloak around Endy, fully covering the kn...

92. Subtracted

I excused myself and pretended to go to the bathroom. Instead of going into the stall, I stopped at the hall and tilted my chimera ears like little radar dishes focusing on the conversation of the four teenagers sitting behind the table.

“Licor,” Triss said. “Are you certain that we can trust this youthful-looking... archmage? This honestly feels like… an extremely elaborate prank.”

“Do I look like I’m laughing to you?” Agatha growled. “Did I smile once? I don’...

91. Illusion of Power

“You’re… really going to take over the Empire?” Agatha asked. “I thought that you didn’t want power for the sake of power.”

"I was going to take it nice and slow, but Georgia's bomb forced a far more ruthless side of me to come forward," I replied. 

"Fair enough," she said. "I suppose if I was blown up and tortured for more than a century I'd be very miffed too."

“Now, as for your other comment, what do you think power is, Princess?” I eyed the silver-...

90. Switcheroo

Lambert thrummed his fingers on his desk in the tower of Lomb when I was done retelling the story of my doomed life to my friends.

“So,” he said with a thoughtful look. “According to Infinity, we’re all bound on a track towards oblivion and steering away from it will be exceptionally difficult considering that we do not know the names of our enemies.”

“Y...

89. Beyond Time

Undertown was always a mess. The Undertown of the war-torn Illatius was simply a very… dead, desolate mess. I paid no attention to the bodies piling the streets covered in black mold and crumbling, silent favelas.

My destination waited for me. 

I did not remember where the Shogun gate was, so it took me a while to find it. Thankfully, my immortal body did not need any kind of sustenance, did not falter, simply kept going.

I reached the black, immovable gate and slid t...

88. Rejection

Amadea climbed atop of the table. 

Her hands gripped at and started to pull the metal frame that bound my ossified body to the wall. The metal groaned, warped under her fingers, twisted away. The awful construct that had constrained, bound me for so long finally came apart, broke as if it was made from butter!

When she was done, Amadea wrapped my body in a dirty, rotting table cloth, cradled me and carried me through the murky darkness out of the ruined laboratory. I didn’t...

Ch 87. Shattered

“This is Undertown, huh?” Voltara asked as we stood upon a basalt outcropping, looking down at the ocean of colorful, lopsided favelas. “The place we’re planning to fix?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “This is it.”

“Smells pretty, um, bad,” she commented, inhaling with a wince.

“It gets worse,” I sighed, rubbing my blue-tinted hand. “Do you need a mask or…?”

“I’ll manage,” she shook her head.

We descended down the wet, ancient stairwell...

86. Dealing with the Press

A sharp ruby gemstone glittered in my hand as I scratched deep, sparkling groves into the wooden table beneath me, focusing on keeping my lines on course and sticking my tongue out.

Voltara, who sat beside me, glanced over at me.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I'm planting Barries," I replied.

"Berries?" the maid blinked.

"No, Barries," I shook my head, scratching more lines into the table.

"I... see," Voltara stared at me, looking very confused.

"...

Ch 85. Tiny Investigation

Time passed quicker than I had anticipated, my days filled with organizing the chimera villagers, teaching them meditation, Basq language, human customs, rules and laws.

In the mornings I did basic excersizes with the Princesses, getting Grogtilda's body and my two besties into shape. Afterward, I switched to Juni's body and drilled my chimera hunters, organizing them into an effective strike unit based on my sword-fighting and crossbow-making experience at Renaissance fairs.

I wa...

Ch 84. Integration

I awoke to my father smiling down at me and shaking me by the shoulder.

"Come, my little arch-cendai," he said, looking over me with eyes like molten gold. "The tribe needs your guidance and blessings."

I stretched and followed him out of Galissi. The glider was parked inside one of the large caverns facing the chasm. Glowing clouds rolled behind me.

Hundreds of chimera greeted me in the cavern.

I greeted them back and sat on a large, moss-covered rock. One by one, the...

Ch 83. Personal ghosts

Having concluded my discussion with Agatha about my theoretical understanding of the life, the universe and my potential patron Infi, I leaned back on the seat and closed my eyes.

We were slowly flying back to Lomb with chimera hunters trailing behind us so there was plenty of time for me to level up more of my skills.

I reached into myself, imagining, visualizing the control room of Chernobyl. The desolate power plant grew around me out of dust and shadows, flickers of light eman...

Ch 82. Defining my Patron

"Must be nice to have a dad," Emerald commented, tears glittering in the corners of her green eyes. "Or any sort of parent who actually gives a damn..."

"C'mere, you," I smothered the silver-haired Princess in a hug. "Don't fret Emmy, you're my family now too!"

"Just like the rest of the Tokimorimïtul tribe?" Emerald sniffed.

"Closer! The rest of Tokimorimïtu...

Ch 81. The Face of Justice

Just a few moments ago I felt elated, felt that I could finally rest. Now I could hardly take a single breath without pain lacing through me.

All of the armored maids were standing upright now.

“Erase the last thirty minutes from the minds of the constables,” Amadea told them.

“Yes, Baroness,” the maids answered as one.

They went around the hall firing spells at the downed constables. I noted that they didn't have armaci... instead they were using some kind of....

Ch 80. Facing Amadea

"Do you think that the crystal hair of the entire chimera tribe will be enough to fix the dragonheart engine?" I asked Antoine who sat across me within the leather interior of Galissi Seven.

"Power-wise... maybe?" Antoine mulled. "The issue isn't just lack of power - too many hexagrams burned away to nothing."

"Sucks for us," I signed.

"Such is life," Antoine said. "Things break down and it's up to us to fix them and to make them better the second time around. I'm certain th...

Ch 79. The offer of timelessness

"That looks like an arcane... Astral-Phantom-Barrier hexagram," Agatha squinted at the sketch on the page. "Instructor Rozaline showed it to us during an excursion to the catacombs beneath Nemendias. It supposedly blocked Phantoms from reaching Illatius. Thousands of these were inscribed into the catacombs beneath the city. They were pretty popular back in the day before the Hex-beacon towers were built."

"It is indeed a Barrier hexagram," I nodded. "Do you think your mother knows about...

Ch 78. Level Seven

I tried to stay awake, but my body was failing me and my eyes were closing. My eyelids and hands felt like they were made from lead. Too much magical power had gone through me and far too much experience had been absorbed by my soul due to the explosive obliteration of the arch-cendai’s soul garden.

I momentarily considered relocating into Grogs, but then I remembered that it wasn’t my body that was magically exhausted - it was my soul. Changing bodies would not alleviate my unbeara...

Ch 77. The Spoils of Victory

I slammed into the top of the column that my workshop stood on with a yelp, nearly breaking one of my legs. The fight with Eunice took everything out of me, drained me like a sponge.

“H-help,” I groaned as I started to slide sideways across the rocky outcropping.

Isahcs rushed to grab me before I rolled off the edge.

I thanked him and glanced at the shimmering, smoking deathshawl. 

I took my backpack off and put it down on the flat ground, then I made Saccy op...

Ch 76. Eye for an eye

I stared at the gold sand beneath my feet and past it in the Astral, identifying everything about the structure of the cliff beneath me, identifying the boundary between the garden of the arch-cendai and the cliff's edge.

With every step taken, with every exhale, I was identifying the physical connection between the cliff and my Master's domain, marking a straight line.

[I am out of air,] my sister sent. [Don’t come. It’s a trap. Let the monster have me. I love you, Juni.]

Ch 75. The Undisclosed Power

I choked, nearly biting my tongue off. The nightmarish memory of my acid-burned flesh being converted into clouds of sparkling nanites shaped like snowflakes was pulsating in the forefront of my mind. 

The croissan'wich fell from my hands, bacon spilling across the fancy, Art Nouveau table of the cafe portraying the avatar of Nemendias blessing students with magic scrolls. I had full control of my body once again - I was no longer bound by Eunice into absolute obedience. My knuckle...

Ch 74. The Voice of Death

I entered into the ornate, massive skull as a metal-encrusted, circular door swung open for me. My father and the rest of the chimera hunters stayed outside. I felt their gazes digging into my back. I was far too hurt and tired to resist them, too weak and broken to fight against whatever was coming. The loss of Saccy and my anti-phantom armor that took years to craft had twisted me up, snapped something important inside me.

As I stepped into the opulent living room surrounded by booksh...

Ch 73. The Dastardly Shawl

I took about twenty minutes to redo the princesses’ faces and my own with makeup.

Using the back tunnels we relocated to a small, rooftop cafe that belonged to Nemendias. The cafe was mostly empty. I saw a few students in Nemendias uniforms sitting behind tables, drinking coffee and discussing things in hushed tones.

I relaxed and ordered lunch. Emerald excitedly babbled to me about our future in Nemendias. Voltara sent me happy smiles. Arouetta ate in silence. Agatha was intens...

72. The Barrier

I was moving towards the stairwell up to Diamondias when I noticed something odd shimmering in the corner of my eye.

I paused and turned, observing the strange, distinctive pattern present in the Astral.

There was a figure there, enshrouded in billowing flickers. It was impossible to make out any of its features. The thing was human-ish and also impossibly tall, lon...

71. The Diver's calling

“What's all this, then?” A bulky man in a gray constable’s uniform pushed himself through the crowd. “I was told there’s a debitor out and about in my…”

He suddenly spotted me and the reporters and his eyebrows furrowed. The constable’s metal-plated boots echoed on the white and gold marble floors as he approached me.

“You!” He barked. “Come with...