Vitaly S Alexius

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.3: The Night Revelations

A distant, eerie howl sounded from the woods, followed by another, then a chorus of them—deep, resonant calls that were neither wolf nor human, but something unsettlingly between. The sound raised the hair on the back of my neck.

The Sirin smirked, her golden eyes flashing. "The forest grows restless. Soon my absence will be noticed by creatures far worse than me."

I frowned, scanning the tree line. "What's making that sound?"

"Jotuns," she replied. "Beast-men of inverted ...

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.2 Radiation Therapy

My thoughts raced as I stared at the iron cage containing the pulsing emerald cocoon. The memory of the dragonfire's peculiar properties flashed through my mind—how it had selectively attacked organic matter, how it had lingered in the melted, warped structure of one of the village houses, how getting close to the melted wood peeled away the skin of my fingertips with just a brief touch.

Perhaps one extreme magical energy could counter another?

"I might have just the method for ...

Beware of Kittens. Day 4.1: Indestructible

The morning dawned with a sense of unease. Something felt wrong as I stepped outside the pub into the crisp winter air. Fresh snow had fallen overnight, but my eyes were drawn to a set of strange marks leading from the stone shed where I'd stored the Sirin's remains. The impressions were narrow and deep, with three distinct toe marks—more like bird tracks than human, but much larger than any normal avian.

My heart rate quickened as I rushed toward the shed. The wooden door hung askew,...

Beware of Kittens: 3.3: Microscopy

Previous chapter are at: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/112315/beware-of-kittens-scientific-sorcery

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Leaving the corpses in a snow-covered stone shed behind the pub, I shoved my domain sled through the doorway, scraping the edges slightly as I maneuvered it inside. 

The medieval pub with its low ceilings, wooden tables, benches, large fi...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [ch 33, 34]

33: Slime-capture team

Krysanthea paced the length of the RV, her claws clicking with agitation against the crystalline-infused aluminum floor. Every few steps, she'd pause to glare at the expanded tree within the cracked container and the newly formed root pathway spreading up the wall or across the ceiling, her scaled hands clenching and unclenching with barely contained frustration.

"This is absolutely, positively, one-hundred-percent unacceptable," she hissed, her feathers r...

Announcement: Beware of Kittens - Scientific Sorcery Rewrite!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/112315/beware-of-kittens-scientific-sorcery

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/112315/beware-of-kittens-scientific-sorcery

Somebody Stop Us: [Ch 13, 14]

Chapter 13: The Search for Thunder

The forest stirred around us as I finished the last edible bite of Spine Elk meat. My borrowed body, frail as it was, had accepted about as much sustenance as it could handle. A strange tingling sensation spread through my limbs—more than just the satisfaction of a meal.

"Stats," I murmured, curious about the effects of the monster meat.

The silvery text materialized before my eyes:

| Mana: 8/52 |

| XP: 12 |

"Well, loo...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [30, 31, 32]

30: Domain Quest

I emerged from the bathroom to the view of Krysanthea and Nessy. The raptor was processing the husky’s rant-tale of our Mini-Mart bulbee summoning. 

The raptor-girl’s scaled features were locked into an expression of bewildered stress mixed with barely held in horror that would have been comical if she wasn't so genuinely disturbed. Her feathers stood fully up,...

Somebody Stop Us: [ch 11, 12]

Chapter 11: The Copy-paster

"SPLIT!" I barked, focusing all my will on creating not just any duplicate, but specifically on one containing my own soul. It was perhaps a bit of a gamble, but then again, thanks to Vespera I knew that my four-fold soul could move from body to body. Duplication was the current core skill and I innately understood that during the moment of duplication the duplicated flesh was basically an extension of my own body.

As I visualized copying myself and m...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 29: Morning Entanglement

Morning light filtered through the Airstream's small windows, casting warm rectangles across the aluminum interior. I opened my eyes slowly, consciousness returning in gradual waves as I stared at the curved ceiling above me. For a blissful, disorienting moment, I thought I was back home—in my grandfather’s RV, in my own world, the horrors of cartel drowning, System resurrection and que...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [26-28]

26: Pack Power

"I don't recall inviting you to town, dog." Krysanthea added. “Hrmmmm. You look like you rolled in the dirt. Did you try to break into the restaurant?”

“I did,” Nessy growled. “Your damned sisters threw me out and threatened to slice me to bits if I came back. I’ve been pacing around the building, trying to sniff another way in.”

“Don’t think I won’t lock you up if you keep disobeying me,” Kristi said sharply at the husky. “Why must y...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [23-25]

23: RV cleaning 

The towering firs and pines stood like silent sentinels at the edge of the campsite, their needled branches weaving a fractured quilt of shadow and light across the recently relocated Airstream. Dusk was approaching, painting the clearing with the burnt orange and deep violet hues that had always made Ferguson's forests feel like something from a fairy tale – beautiful but carrying an undercurrent of something ancient and primal.

Krysanthea had arranged e...

Where the Dead Things Bloom [20-22]

20: Raptored

As we arrived at the station I noticed a detail that I missed last night—two flags flew from poles near the entrance gate—the familiar American flag, and another I didn't recognize with a stylized image of various animal silhouettes arranged in a circle.

"Wait in the vehicle," she instructed, parking in a reserved space marked 'Chief Ranger' and exiting with her usual fluid grace. "I need to prep the lab."

As soon as she disappeared inside, Nessy let out a...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [17, 18, 19]

17: Fort Bed 

I stepped into the loft apartment and paused, taking in the eclectic space before me. It was as if several designers with wildly different aesthetics had battled for dominance, each claiming territory in Nessy's home without a clear victor.

"Welcome to my abode!" she announced, spreading her arms wide and then shaking herself vigorously, sending water droplets flying everywhere. "Prepare to be amazed by my incredible interior design skills!"

The main liv...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. [15-16]

15: The Possum

Death wasn't darkness. It wasn't light either. It was... something in between. Like looking through a shattered mirror where each shard reflected a different, broken piece of reality, a piece of me. I was simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, adrift in a liminal space cobbled together from the echo of impact and the shadow of my oblivion. My sense of self was a frayed thread, stretched thin across the abyss, stretched to infinity to… elsewhere, the o...

Where the Dead Things Bloom 14: Unexpected girlfriend

 Her dino-beak filled with sharp teeth approached my face. I stepped back, not feeling like getting my face bit off.

“Girlfriend?!” Nessy growled. 

“Alec, what’s going on?” The raptor-girl demanded, hand on her gun belt.

“I–ummm–yeah, sorry, I have no idea who you are,” I addressed my unexpected ‘girlfriend’. 

Amber eyes fra...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 13: Escape

The building shuddered as something massive slammed against the outer wall. Dust and small fragments of ceiling tile rained down on us. The lights flickered, threatening to plunge us into darkness.

A wrench flew through the air, smashing against the wall. It too crawled upward, joined by dozens of other metal objects all scrambling toward some unseen point like insects to a flame.

Nessy stuffed one of the small sandwiches from the tree into my mouth. "Eat!"

"Wha—why?!" I s...

Where the Dead Things Bloom. 12: Celestorm

The back door opened onto what must have once been an employee smoking area—a wide concrete patio surrounded by a chain-link fence. But whatever mundane purpose it had served was now lost beneath Calvin's "garden"—though calling it a garden was like calling a hurricane a light breeze.

Plants—if they could even be called that—grew in chaotic profusion throughout the space. Vegetables that resembled office supplies sprouted from the cracked concrete, their leaves formed from what ...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 10, 11]

10: Bandaid for your soul

Calvin led us to a shelf stocked with a few medical supplies—gauze, bandages, and a bunch of random pills arranged in neat rows. My limbs trembled slightly, adrenaline ebbing away to reveal the true extent of my injuries. The nipper bites, though small, burned like acid beneath my skin.

"I'll leave you to patch yourselves up," Calvin said, tipping his tinfoil hat before retreating to his office. 

As his footsteps faded, I slumped against th...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 8, 9]

8 Basic Questing

Stepping from the storage room into the main shop, we discovered Calvin there standing by the counter. He wore an oversized forest-green backpack that made him look like a peculiar Santa Claus who'd wandered into the wrong holiday. His tinfoil hat gleamed under the flickering fluorescent lights, reflecting tiny fragments of silver across the room.

"Ah! Good tomorrow, sleepyheads!" he announced, his silver-blue eyes twinkling with genuine delight. "Just in time t...

Where the dead things Bloom [Chapters 6, 7]

6 The Vice

"So, uhm..." I began, searching for something to say to make the mutual washing process less awkward. “Doesn’t this mess with your… hrmm,” I tried to recall what I knew about huskies. “Hydrophobic coating?”

“It kind of does,” she shrugged. “Normally, baths are unnecessary for me, unless I get engine oil all over my coat or something. The problem is–dust and dirt isn’t ordinary anymore. Some of this shit needs to come off asap, it’s REALLY screw...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 10: The Phoenix of Duskfall

"Hey Jundy, What’s the cloak color of the Firstborns?" I asked, looking at the colorful robes milling about on various levels above me.

“Shining gold,” Jundar said.

"So… they're the original humans?"

"So they say," he shrugged. "Founders who found the fallen god's spine and built the Citadel. The ones who imbued its walls with duplication-amplifying and defensive runework to survive when the Celestorms came and brought with them man-eating abominations."

“Are...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 9: Quantum Leap

The shimmering triangle hovered between us, casting eerie patterns across our faces and the silver fox wallpapered walls and white stone ceiling of our tower room. I stared at it in fascination at Vee’s construct, my Understanding gradually digesting her creation while Cinder's expression grew increasingly troubled.

"Hold up," Cinder said, raising a her hand. "Did you just create something that lets us possess other versions of ourselves across dimensions? Like... what Valor did to me...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 8: The Key to Everywhere

The setting sun blazed across the ocean horizon, sending rays of fiery amber and deep crimson through our stained glass windows. The fox-patterns in the glass transformed the fading daylight into a kaleidoscope of colors that danced across our expanded bed and our bodies.

Hexagonal privacy runes pulsed with gentle blue light in the columns, courtesy of Vespera, muting the rest of our tower loft.

I'd been watching Vespera for the past hour as she tinkered with a complex magitek art...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 7: Sanguinefeast

The empty space beside me suddenly erupted in shadow as Katherine burst from the Deep, a black railgun braced against her shoulder. Her emerald eyes blazed with fury.

"GET EFFED!" she roared, the weapon humming with a high-pitched whine as she pressed the trigger.

The marble-white man's head snapped toward my Knight.

The railgun unleashed a devastating magnetized slug traveling at hypersonic speed, the air around it igniting from friction. The man blurred—moving faster tha...

Somebody Stop Us. 6: Atomic Cafe

The day flew by, a whirlwind of classes, shenanigans, and adaptation to our new reality. 

During lunch, Vespera, in what she called "an absolutely necessary tactical maneuver," transferred herself into all of my and Cinder's classes.

"It's simply more efficient," she explained to the Undermaster's secretary, as she filled out the transfer forms with dramatic flourishes. "I mean, think about it—three brains are better than one! We can share notes, support each other's learni...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 5: Wings of Sunset

Cinder’s smile was wide and mischievous, a spark of wild energy dancing in her eyes as she grabbed my hand. “Come on,” she said.

Before I could protest, she pulled the stained glass window open and yanked me out of the room to the balcony.

“Where are we—” My words were cut off as she wrapped her arms around me, her wings unfurling slightly, teasing the air. Her embrace was possessive, and just a little too tight, like she was daring me to squirm out of it.

Then, ...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 4: Feelings

"Ah, sheet," I muttered under my breath as I braced myself for the inevitable explosion. It was like watching a slow-motion train wreck–you knew it was coming, you knew it was going to be messy, but you couldn't look away. 

Ember Stratos, my sister, a walking, talking, fire-breathing embodiment of 'Things That Could Go Horribly Wrong' stopped right in front of our table, her gold-orange eyes blazing with fury, crystalline mane smoking as wisps of dragonfire flashed between each r...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 3: Omniverse Dynamics

Dr. Greyfield paused, his gaze sweeping over the class, his expression serious now, all traces of his usual eccentric cheerfulness gone. “Now, These Numbers, aka Absolute Concepts are not gods or archangels in the traditional sense, even though many address them as such. They are more like forces. Principles. Immutable ideas, self-aware Laws woven into the very fabric of existence. And they are incredibly powerful and dangerous. More powerful than most Omnids can even comprehend.”

V...

Somebody Stop Us. Chapter 2: Metatron

Dr. Greyfield’s yell seemed to slightly dislodge me of my Cinder-wing caused stupor.

Digging deep into my soul, I reached for the tiny sliver of Stollwurm skill I’d absorbed, letting it seep into my being. The world around me seemed to dim, colors fading at the edges of my vision. I felt a strange pull downwards, a sensation of sinking, of reality becoming less… solid.

Using Umbramancy, I willed myself to dive halfway into the Deep. Then, in a blur of motion, I streaked forw...