In many ways, it would have been kinder to let Analia proceed with her suicidal combat plan. The amount of pain breaking the multiple geases her father had laid on her was going to inflict was indescribable, and as much as he wanted to shield her from it, not even Nym had that kind of power. It was going to hurt, both physically and mentally.
Before they got to that, Nym needed to mold his copy to take her place. He took her back to one of his sanctums and opened a scrying window for he...
2023-04-03 14:33:37 +0000 UTC
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The spell wasn’t quite as good as the one he’d been under after he’d touched Niramyn’s memory cube, but it did have the advantage of being usable by Nym. An ascendant might notice a presence in the mortal timeline if they knew where to look, but they wouldn’t be able to tell who was there or what exactly they’d done. At least, that was the theory.
In practice, there were counter-spells and divinations that might pierce the obfuscation, but it gave Nym enough assurances that ...
2023-04-03 14:33:25 +0000 UTC
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“This place looks familiar,” Nym said.
They stood in front of a large four-story manor house. It was impressive, he supposed, but he’d seen far more spectacular-- not to mention physics-defying-- abodes in his short time as an immortal. But there was something about this particular building that tickled his brain. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.
Hozim glanced over at him and shrugged. “One of his many eccentricities. Erian has always been a strange ...
2023-04-03 14:33:12 +0000 UTC
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The bandit snarled and tried to punch the side of Luke’s knee, but he was too injured and at too awkward of an angle to take a serious swing. Luke smacked the fist away with his mace anyway, shattering the bones in the bandit’s hand in the process.
“Like I was saying, this camp seems kind of half-assed to me. I was thinking maybe you guys had some base farther away from the road where you keep all the shit you stole. I mean, it’s either that or you all suck ass as bandits, becau...
2023-03-31 14:39:59 +0000 UTC
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As his control over Transcendent arcana grew, Nym became more comfortable with using it to do actual magic. In many ways, it reminded him of the early days when he was still exploring first and second circle mortal magic. It wasn’t the spells themselves, of course. Those were hideously complex compared to anything he’d cast back when his existence had been limited to a single body in the core reality. But the feeling of always discovering something new, that there was more just around the...
2023-03-31 14:35:42 +0000 UTC
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The Abilanth of a hundred years ago looked a lot like the version Nym was familiar with. There were some superficial changes, sure, but the street layout was the same, and the walls limited the sprawling growth a city like Thrakus would undergo. The Academy still sat right where it always did, though the mages’ guildhall was in a different location. The spot Nym remembered it being was currently occupied by a runescribing business. It was the same building, so he assumed at some point in ti...
2023-03-30 13:35:27 +0000 UTC
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The bandits weren’t prepared for Luke in any way, shape, or form. They probably should have been, considering he’d already killed a few of them, but he caught them by surprise. Two of them died in the first second of combat, one of them without ever even so much as turning around and seeing Luke’s approach.
After that, the forest became a noisy place. Screams and curses filled the air, punctuated by the sound of crunching wood and bodies slamming into the ground. The bandits were ...
2023-03-29 15:01:45 +0000 UTC
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The ascendant Nym was meeting was named Hozim. Baracia had arranged the meeting, and Nym waited with her for the new ascendant to show up. “Anything I should know about him?” Nym asked.
“He is easy-going, and loves to teach. Truthfully, there probably isn’t anyone better to show you how to make new anchors and cast them through time. For the advanced stuff, you’ll need to seek out other ascendants or make your own path, but you’re still decades away from that point. Hozim wi...
2023-03-29 14:54:49 +0000 UTC
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“No, it’s impossible,” Nym said. “There’s no way.”
He could buy that he’d lost track of time, that maybe he’d been there for a day instead of twelve hours, but almost two months was stretching it past breaking. Even just a week was stretching it. If Baracia wasn’t lying to him, then he was missing something about how time worked in the outer layers.
“I assure you, I am able to keep track quite easily,” Baracia said.
“But… no. It’s just… how coul...
2023-03-28 15:04:24 +0000 UTC
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It only took a few hours of traveling before they left the grasslands behind and found themselves once again heading into the forests. Luke considered that to be good news, since they hadn’t found anything worth any real XP around the town, and they needed a lot of XP if they were going to execute their plan to turn Zea into a ritual master.
Zea was less than impressed with the idea, not only because it was hard to overcome a lifetime of conditioning that too much XP was bad, but also...
2023-03-27 16:18:59 +0000 UTC
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Once the pleasantries were done, Nym and Baracia dove right into the meat of the conversation. “How much do you know about what’s happening in our society, about the fight between two of our Exarchs?” the councilwoman asked.
“More than I want to, less than I should,” Nym said dryly.
“Then you are aware of the Ascendant Council’s major concern.”
“That Myzalik is somehow killing ascendants, which should be impossible.”
“Exactly. We can’t ignore a ...
2023-03-27 16:11:32 +0000 UTC
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“What’s this place called?” Luke asked. They stood on a hill east of the town, big enough that he couldn’t easily count all the houses, never mind the dozens of farms dotting the landscape. The forest had thinned out considerably after a day of travel and had practically disappeared by the second. That was good for their travel speed, but bad for finding new monsters to kill.
They had found a few monsters, just barely enough to level them since they were both less than 1000 XP t...
2023-03-24 14:57:31 +0000 UTC
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Since he’d had the time anyway while he waited for his copy to absorb the information Baracia had sent him and confirm it wasn’t trapped in some way, Nym went ahead and set up four more sanctuaries in random locations. He also delivered a pouch of money to Ciana, mostly shields with a few crests, that would keep her for another year or two. He included a letter with it letting her know he was still alive and dealing with stuff, but didn’t go into specifics.
It was very possible th...
2023-03-24 14:52:31 +0000 UTC
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That was the problem with peepholes. It was impossible to look out without making himself vulnerable to others looking in. Whoever had sent him the letter was likely an ascendant, which meant it was probably set to appear at the first opportunity. If he’d waited a week to scry, it would have appeared then instead.
Other than the spell holding it aloft, there was nothing magical about it. With some trepidation, Nym snatched it out of the air and started reading.
To Our Newest...
2023-03-23 15:11:25 +0000 UTC
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“[XP Mask] is a unique bloodline skill,” System said.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that?”
“You never asked.”
“Aldrick,” Zea cut in. “You’ve got a vein in your forehead that’s looking like it’s about ready to burst.”
“I… it. Just sometimes, it. So. Mad.”
He was hardly intelligible, but that was as much as Luke cared to say on the subject. He took a deep, deep breath, counted to ten, counted to ten a second tim...
2023-03-22 15:25:43 +0000 UTC
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Nym stood there, awkwardly waiting for Rizin to say something. The fox didn’t oblige him, having chosen instead to lay on his oversized cushion and pretend to be napping. “I guess… we’re done then?” Nym asked. “Go our separate ways?”
“Indeed,” Rizin said, his eyes still closed. “You know how to get ahold of me if you need something.”
“What if you need something?” Nym asked. “The hidden presence spell will keep you from finding me.”
“It does no...
2023-03-22 15:20:30 +0000 UTC
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There were no less than a dozen assistant golems waiting for Nym when he finally opened the door. “Exarch! You’re alright,” Naera said, stepping forward from the crowd.
“Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be? Didn’t I ask you to go finish preparing the fox experiment?”
“Yes, Exarch. Everything is all set up and ready, as soon as the batteries are fully charged.”
Nym made a show of looking around. “And you needed twelve other golems with you to tell m...
2023-03-21 14:48:44 +0000 UTC
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Luke woke up a little bit stiff, sort of cold, and ravenously hungry. Zea was practically lying on top of him with both her own cloak and his pulled over top of her. Their legs were tangled up and she had one of his arms firmly anchored around her, his hand grasped with hers. Her hair tickled his nose with each breath she took.
It was a good way to wake up.
After a few minutes of just sort of existing and enjoying the moment, Luke disentangled himself and left Zea wrapped in both ...
2023-03-20 15:55:00 +0000 UTC
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The assistant golem regarded Nym steadily. It wasn’t one he’d ever spoken with before, but Naera was busy setting everything up to his specifications from the other day. At first, he thought that would be a good thing, since this golem wouldn’t know he’d asked all those questions about how the lab’s defensive array of spells worked.
As it turned out, the golem did know. All of them knew, because they all shared information through some sort of central hub in the data archive. ...
2023-03-20 15:36:41 +0000 UTC
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Hello, here is a sample of my dark fantasy novel about necromancers fighting other necromancers and undead in a world where everyone who dies rises back up as an undead all on their own.
Please be aware that the full novel is available on library tiers only. Library tiers are Archivist ($7/month), Scholar ($14/month), Sage ($21/month), and Book Wyrm ($25/month).
- - - -
Risen: a dark fantasy novel
Charlotte has wielded the power of necromanc...
2023-03-20 15:33:12 +0000 UTC
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It might have been more merciful if the pain knocked Luke out, but he wasn’t that lucky. He got to see all four inquisitors approach him, or at least hear them and sense the XP that was infused into their bodies. He couldn’t sense Myla at all, but she obviously had some sort of skill that let her adjust how many levels she put on display. Right now that number was 0.
“All three darts hit,” one of the inquisitors reported.
“You doubted?” Myla said.
“No, ma’am....
2023-03-17 14:58:04 +0000 UTC
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There were actual spells that used sixth layer arcana, but Nym only knew one, the hidden presence spell Rizin had taught him. Anything else was just using the arcana to fiddle with reality. Technically, that was what all arcana did, but there was a big difference between mortal magic and ascendant magic.
Humans used magic by making connections to other layers of reality and bringing back some of the essence of that realm. The farther away from the core reality the essence, arcana, was, ...
2023-03-17 14:49:18 +0000 UTC
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Everything felt weird now, but Nym couldn’t quite figure out exactly how. It obviously had something to do with ascending., but it was indescribable, and he found it annoyingly distracting. “It’s like I’m breathing air that’s not quite right,” he told Rizin, “or, I don’t know, like the sun is the wrong color, nothing is the temperature I think it should be, and the corners don’t fit together quite right, even for things that don’t have corners!”
“That will clear ...
2023-03-16 17:02:43 +0000 UTC
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Author's Note: I have been saying this on Royal Road for about two weeks now, but forgot to ever mention it here. Now that the initial chapter push is done, and since I am still writing two projects at once, I am only committing to M-W-F updates for the God Machine. I may still do Tues/Thur updates, but they will be bonus chapters, not guaranteed. It will depend on how fast I write.
----
The inquisitor reacted quicker than Luke would have believed possible. It had to be some sort ...
2023-03-15 16:10:08 +0000 UTC
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The conduit lanced out past the edge of reality, where it was bolstered by Nym inside the first layer. It leapt ahead, through each consecutive layer, guided by the parts of himself that existed there, all the way through the fifth layer until it plunged into that mirrored surface far past the horizon, at the very ends of mortal existence.
The conduit struck that final membrane, and something struck back. Rather than give way to his conduit, or firmly rebuff it like other membranes had,...
2023-03-15 16:02:48 +0000 UTC
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The secret den of a magical fox that transcended the powers of a mere mortal did not, surprisingly, have a lot to eat. Nym had used magic to stave off the needs of his body, but for the time being, he was still a human. Eventually, he would need food, and that time was drawing close.
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to go on a supply run?” he asked Rizin.
The fox’s ear flicked in annoyance and he cracked an eye open from where he was napping on his enormous cushion. “...
2023-03-14 16:04:32 +0000 UTC
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Hello Everyone!
Without committing to any hard numbers or dates, I am expecting to be finished writing Ascendant within the next three months. The God Machine is going to keep running for at least another eight months, but I am always thinking up ideas for the next story. When Ascendant does finish, God Machine will become my primary focus and I'll be working on something else in my spare time, so I wanted to pitch a few ideas and get some feedback on what people are interested in.
<...
2023-03-13 20:20:07 +0000 UTC
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A break to catch his breath would have been fantastic right about then, but that third inquisitor, the woman who’s been practically invisible, had disentangled herself from Luke’s trap and was coming straight at him. He imagined there was probably a note of desperation there since both her companions were now wounded. Luke was surprised he hadn’t gotten the kill notification from the one whose chest he’d caved in yet, but he planned on fixing that soon.
The armored inquisitor wa...
2023-03-13 15:07:07 +0000 UTC
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It was a clever spell, one designed to take advantage of the unique terrain of the fifth layer of reality. The light was blinding, and it seared Nym’s body, but the true twist was the mirrored surface below them. The light flashed downward, there and gone in an instant, only to reflect back up and bathe the whole area in brilliant, burning heat.
That was nothing outside of Nym’s capabilities to handle. He could compensate for being blinded with scrying magic, and the heat wouldn’t...
2023-03-13 15:01:41 +0000 UTC
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“Nice,” Luke said as he looked at his handiwork.
[Survivalist] hadn’t seen much use lately, but it was a general-purpose skill that was extremely flexible. It gave him the knowledge he needed to make basic traps, and using some of the ones the goblins had tried against him as templates, Luke had gotten to work.
He’d started by making thin ropes out of wood fibers. It was three times thicker than twine should have been, but that was as tight as he could wea...
2023-03-10 16:53:20 +0000 UTC
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