Vitaly S Alexius

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 21: The Bucket List

"What, you're gonna disassemble her, shove the pieces into Lance's dimensional bags and reassemble her on Earth, is that it?" Cinder asked.

I opened my mouth.

"That won't work," Vee clicked, physically and conversationally inserting herself between me and Ci. "The Corpse Seeker is a single solid piece, her body is dimensionally bound into itself. It’s what allows her to cut through magisteel like butter. She will resist disassembly and will probably implode on herself and take o...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 20: Summer Rain

Cinder's wings finally slowed their wild dance through the clouds, her rapid spins gradually easing into a gentle glide. I cautiously opened my eyes, my stomach settling as we leveled out.

The view was... breathtaking. From this height, Arx revealed itself in all its impossible glory. The megastructure curved upward in every direction, an inside-out world that defied conventional physics. Oceans and continents stretched endlessly upward, their edges blending into misty infinity. The bla...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapters: 18-19

18: Miss Possible

Vespera stared at my flushed, grinning face and then started to laugh, splashing through the water.

“Wha-wha?” Cinder spun in the water, staring between me and the crackling Thunderbird.

“Change yourself and Ci back into humans now,” I commented. “Preferably before Ci realises what just happened and tries to murder me with her sharp chompers.”

"What. Just. Happened?" Cinder demanded, eyes narrowing dangerously as Vespera grabbed onto her...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 17: My Little Mayhem

As we approached the execution platform, the atmosphere was a thick soup spiced with anticipation and cruelty. Emerald, Solace, and Quint looked utterly defeated, their once-proud demeanors crushed under the weight of public humiliation.

Em's entire body was covered in rotten fruit pulp and the remnants of various food items hurled by gleeful citizens, gray robe stained. Her gold-orange eyes were red-rimmed from crying, her proud posture reduced to a hunched, broken form.

Solace a...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapters: 15-16.

Chapter 15: Reflections

“Ah," Cedez glanced behind herself, noticing that her companions were looking at her with concerned expressions. "Allow me to introduce my besties, I'm sure they'll appreciate ya as much as I do."

She waved her friends over.

The dragoness and the man in gray robes approached our table. 

"This is Lord David," Cedez gestured to the human. "And his... girlfriend, Remicra."

Up close, I could see that Remicra's scales slowly shifted th...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 14: Uptown Date

Katherine's emerald eyes gleamed in the darkness of the final tunnel leading to the surface of Shandria. Her massive form seemed to melt into the shadows, halfway sunk into the deep.

"I still think this is a terrible idea," she growled, her tail lashing behind her. "Going up there, right into their territory… into sunlight where I can't help.”

“Awww, so you do care about me, bestie,” I grinned at her.

Katherine exhaled.

"Relax. It'll be fine," I checked my fake...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 13: The Flavor of Destruction

"Shash," I addressed our resident Assassin. "Cancel the rescue operation, my friends already got forcibly deported it seems. If you already hired someone, change their Quests to get ready for an assault on the Arx Bank branches.”

"Yes, M'Lord," the Assassin nodded. “I shall notify our people upstairs via Voicecast about it.”

I waved him off and he bowed and vanished from sight.

"You're really going to try to break the Bank Rep’s blood contracts by exposing her to Dus...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 12: The Morning After

I woke up to the somewhat unnerving view of gray eyes spotted with gold flakes at the inner edges and lower half. Vee's face was inches from mine, her gaze studying me intently.

"Mornin'," I yawned. "How long was I out?"

"Six hours, twenty nine minutes, and thirty two seconds," she grinned, rolling over and up to sit on my chest with a smug expression, dark wings with white edges spread wide.

"Haven't gotten enough of me last night?" I asked her as she tilted her head at me....

Delving Team I love you!

Yes.

High res: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alexiussssss/romac/refs/heads/main/TEAM777777777-MEGAhd.jpg

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 11: Outsider

Cold waves crashed against the gray glass-pebble shore. Gargantuan, alien bones loomed in the distance. A supercell storm spun overhead. Cold gale struck her body. 

Cinder winced, shivering. There were no pancakes, no warmth in this pace.

She must have fallen asleep after their wild, absurd, mild-melting, delicious ship-venture.

The massive leviathan bones in the distance seemed to watch her, silent witnesses of eons of rise and fall of civilizations. Each vertebrae was...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 10: Pancakes

"Are we really going to risk our necks to rescue those three idiots?" Katherine asked.

"No," I said. "The public execution is obviously a trap, bait designed to draw us out from our mite-covered fortress."

"Then what are we going to do?" Cinder demanded.

"We'll need to hire an army of mooks help save our fellow students. Our Guild is filthy rich, remember?"

"Hrmmm... How many mooks can we hire?" Vee asked.

"All of them," I said. "Every single mercenary, informati...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 9: Against All of Shandria

After listening to Sol's brief explanation about all of the Shandrian scrut's accusations and his insistence that interdimensional gates didn't exist in the Arx Bank, I promised to rescue her and hung up on her, turning to my companions.

"Predator theory huh?" Kat asked, spiked tail lashing. "When'd you come up with that nonsense?"

"Yulia and I have been discussing the human experiment data that I stole from the Frontenachii Wendigos for a while now," I said. "We had some theories...

Somebody Stop Them. Chapter 8: Predator Theory.

I stared back at the Olgoi-Khorkhoi's flesh-maw face through Vespera's ID tag projection. Solace looked exhausted, broken, distraught.

"Sup Sol?" I asked her.

"A-alex," she stammered out finally, both of her mouths opening and closing. "Why do you have Vee's tag?"

"Mmmm, why wouldn't my human husbando not have my tag?" Vee's beak came to rest on my right shoulder. "Sup, dude? Why you callin' so late? We're just bout to head to bed."

"H-h-human h-h-hhusbando?" The Mongo...

Somebody Stop Them [Chapters 6, 7]

Chapter 6: Karma

Emerald Stratos was very annoyed this morning. No, annoyed was too small of a word for what she was feeling. She was absolutely perma-on-dragonfire livid.

Nothing was going her way.

Emerald glared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror of her Inn room. Her ruby scales were dull, lacking their usual luster despite an hour of polishing. Whatever bullshit potion had been spilled on her head from a mage tower's window made her look like a total knob...

Somebody Stop Them: [Chapters 2-5]

Chapter 2: Family

I shuddered as my mana hit zero.

"Hrmm," Katherine pulled me from the deep into physical reality, holding onto my side with her tail.

"Your mother's Echo is strong," she commented. "Very strong. Usually they're just half-empty things, shadows. But that one... that one had substance. She must have died thinking about you. If you wish to dive without my supervision, you will need to beat her."

"I don't think that I can," I collapsed into a corner, sha...

Somebody Stop Them - Chapter 1: The Hunt

I sprinted through the dark tunnel, my footsteps echoing off the ancient stone walls.

Beast-orb powered hexasuits amplified my speed, but I could still hear them behind me, inevitably catching up.

Predators. Deadly, dangerous predators. Claws clicking against stone, growls, distant panting.

The air was thick with the musty scent of dark brown and gray millennia-old stone and stagnant water. My breath came in ragged gasps, creating small white clouds in the rapidly cooling ai...

Somebody Stop Him [Ch 39-42]

Chapter 39: Rooftop Hot Tub

"Wha

Somebody Stop Him [Chapters 28-38]

Chapter 28: A Grave Insult

As we

Somebody Stop Him [Chapters 26-27]

Chapter 26: Cassiopea

I hadn't actually left.

Standing invisibly over Alex's backpack, I listened to what sounded like a lighter wheel turning. What the shit, was he... smoking in there? After pulling me away from trying to smoke too?

I gritted my teeth and scrolled through the messages flooding my phone.

The Moth was as chill as ever.

MothMayhem🦋: yo ci, u ok after yesterday? that entity was intense af

MothMayhem🦋: alex seems like a cool dud...

Somebody Stop Him [Chapters 17-25]

Chapter 17: Corpseworld Caretaker

As Ci

Somebody Stop Him [Chapters 11-16]

Technomagica 2 : 52 Dinner at the Gold Harpoon

As we sat onto the offered seats, the rays of the evening sun cast a golden glow through the restaurant's windows, bathing Agamemnon in a warm, ethereal light. The city's spires gleamed like molten gold against the orange sky.

Ciaori sat across from us, her fox ears twitching slightly as she perused the menu. The fading sunlight caught in her orange fur, making it shimmer like fire. I couldn't...

Technomagica 2 : 51 Conspiracy

I tried to maintain my composure. "Dragons? I'm not sure what you mean..."

Ciaori ignored my feeble attempt at deflection, her keen eyes fixed on Kliss. "So, Elly. How would you like to join me for dinner at The Golden Harpoon? It's the finest seafood restaurant in Agamemnon. My treat, of course."

Kliss blinked, somewhat taken aback by the unexpected invitation. She glanced at me uncertainly.

[What do we do?] Kliss asked mentally. [I don't trust her, but... I want to claim h...

Technomagica 2 : 50 Vulfix Arcanicx

Kliss’s growl resounded in my head via our dragon-kobold connection.

[What?] I asked over our metal link.

[I don’t trust whatever she is,] Kliss said. 

[Whatever she is, is incredible,] I shot back. [I’ve never seen anything like her. She’s…]

[Not human,] Kliss stated. 

[Well, obviously,] I replied.

[Slava, what is this?] Kliss demanded. [First you give me a gold ring and now you’re obsessing over the first girl you…]

[Her uh-h...

Technomagica 2 : 49 Ciaori Sestii

“Is our plan going to work, Slava?” Kliss asked me, banking towards the blue ocean and the glittering, gold spires of the city of Agamemnon in the distance. "Weren't we going to lead the Inquisitor and the two legions into the Valley of Death?"

"Yes," I nodded. "That's the plan."

"I'm seeing a big problem here then," Kliss pointed out. "I am immune to the poison there but you... you're a human, Slava. You're going to get hurt if you go there with me."

"I have a solution ...

Scientific Sorcery : 74 Spaghettification

I smiled at Moonalia's direct question. "What am I? Well, that's quite the million-star question, isn't it? Maybe I'm just a very convincing statue. Let’s see if you can figure it out without any clues.”

“Hrm, hrm.” Moonalia didn’t seem deterred by my deflection.

Instead, her eyes lit up with renewed curiosity, and she began darting around the cave, looking at and touching everything in sight, going down on all fours to examine everything that caught her eye.

"Oh!...

Scientific Sorcery : 73 Disconnected

The week flew by with more northern pant-life experimentation. I was able to grow some more unique mosses and flowers in my cavernous domain and jog down their properties in the Codex based on what Stormy and Mooni were approximately guessing about them.

The luminescent blue moss I'd cultivated seemed to have mild analgesic properties when applied to skin, numbing it. A cluster of tiny white flowers that grew in the cracks between rocks produced a sweet nectar that, when consumed, heigh...

Scientific Sorcery : 72 The Barren Isle

I emerged from the icy waters of the North Sea, gasping as the frigid air hit my skin.

Pulling myself onto the rocky shore, I shook myself to get the water out of my armor and hair and took a moment to catch my breath and survey my surroundings. A barren island rose before me, a stark silhouette against the stormy sky.

Massive hexagonal basalt columns stretched upwards, reminiscent of the Giant's Causeway from Earth. The wind howled around me, carrying the scent of salt and ice. ...

Scientific Sorcery : 71 Foundation

"No, no, don't feel pity for me, shiny gem,” Moonalia dissected my expression. “I might not be as free or as sentient as Cali, but I'm she-who-understands whatever is needed to be understood. I understand my place in the world and I also understand that..."

Moonalia's words trailed off as she stared into the distance, her eyes unfocused. For a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of something deeper, more complex than the bubbly, chatter-prone Corvix I'd been talking to. But then she b...

Scientific Sorcery : 70 The Lesser of Two

As my torch and candle supply dwindled rapidly, I found myself facing a new challenge: navigating the pitch-black, damp basalt cavern without light. At first, I stumbled and fumbled, my hands outstretched, feeling my way along the damp, cold walls. But necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention.

Over the next few days, I forced myself to adapt. I listened intently to the echoes of my footsteps, the drip of water, the subtle changes in air currents. Slowly, painstakingly, I began...