OverXelous

57. Home Front

Bass-heavy music thumped through the gym's speakers, and Alex waited nervously for Olivia to get there. She was returning from her trip, and he was killing time by watching Mark and Sam spar and using the other half of his consciousness to listen to a podcast on the current state of affairs in the Safe Zone.

He lounged against a bench that he'd pulled over to the wall and watched Mark and Sam circle each other with one earbud in. The podcast painted a grim picture of life beyond their l...

56. Detained

Mark's SUV screeched to a halt in front of the checkpoint's concrete barriers. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the settled government installation. Its metal detectors and security cameras were a reminder of how much the world had changed to Alex.

What are those even going to do?

He was stepping out of the car before the engine was shut off, and several voices called over in alarm at their sudden arrival. "Val, stay in the car, buddy. We'll be back soon."

54. Shadow Bind

Gravity reasserted itself as the group stepped through the Rift and into the dark forest. It stretched endlessly in every direction, ancient trees reaching upward. The occasional gap in the dense foliage showed the starlit sky and a surprisingly bright night beyond.

Olivia's passive skill [Shadow Vision] allowed her to see clearly in the darkness. She immediately dismissed the blue screen that popped into her vision and continued to scan the surroundings as she and the team pressed forw...

53. The Night

Olivia shifted in her leather chair, studying the faces around the ornate conference table. The Brussels meeting room had a mix of modern tech and classical architecture. To her, it seemed like an apt metaphor for the difference between the old world and the new System-driven world that they found themselves in.

Representatives from various European organizations filled the seats around the table. There were tech innovators, private security contractors, and different advocacy groups fo...

55. Connecting the Dots

Alex drummed his fingers against the closed leather-bound book he had sitting on his desk. Edwin had asked him to review the financial accounts after he'd woken up from 11 hours of sleep. He'd grabbed the leather notebook to take notes and scribble any additional thoughts, though he'd yet to open it once. Edwin's neat and elegant handwriting was flawless, and his notes on expenditure and income were detailed.

He contemplated offering Edwin a raise. Alex felt that without his expert assi...

52. Sleep is a Waste of Time

Scorched and crumpled papers littered the worktable and many had spilled off onto the floor. Ritual diagrams and geometric shapes were hastily drawn around or even overtop of magical equations in Alex's increasingly messy handwriting. Winter air blew through the gaping hole in the eastern wall and beyond it could be seen the edges of splintered wood and a small crater in the ground. A line 20 meters into the woods showed trees that bore black scars where lightning had arced out of the buildin...

51. Just Make It Bigger

Alex traced the final lines of the lesser spark rune in the air with his [Mana Thread] and stepped back to examine his work. The simplified design, while different, flowed a lot easier than the standard spark rune. Beside him, Evan still hunched over his own attempt and notes. Alex found it funny to see his tongue sticking out between his teeth in concentration.

"All right, I think I'm ready."

"How are you so fast at this?" Evan asked in exasperation. "I literally started teaching...

50. Lesser Spark Rune

Alex stared at the scattered papers across his workshop table. Each of them was covered in variations of ritual circles that he'd drawn over the past several days. The failed attempts kept piling up but he knew that there was something nagging at the edge of his thoughts. He'd been running [Parallel Mind] almost nonstop for the last four days looking for a solution and he knew that he was close.

Valtherion, true to his nature, was curled protectively around an empty Oreo package with hi...

49. Workshop

The scent of fresh paint and new tiles filled Alex's senses as he stepped into the workshop for the first time. Just upon stepping in the door at the corner of the building, the rightmost wall went straight ahead, and to the left was a door that led him into the main workspace. Warm-colored light streamed through the windows, which had been tinted with bronze to prepare for a reinforcement enchantment. The main floor was bare concrete with divots that led toward a drainage system.

"Welc...

48. Trust

Alex sat in his office, one half focused on practicing the motions of mana for the spark rune while the other sketched different variations of a new ritual circle design. Several piles of paper covered his desk, neatly organized and separated by wild ideas, functional concepts, and mistakes. Most pages were filled with notes and diagrams meant to test and increase the stability of the ritual circle.

Valtherion floated nearby, occasionally siphoning small amounts of Alex's mana before ch...

47. Grumpy Mentor

Alex slumped deeper into the extra reading chair in his office. Several times over the last hour, he had relocated within the small space to change the environment as much as he could. Now, though, the weight of the amulet hung heavy against his chest. Valtherion floated nearby, and his usually energetic attitude was dulled significantly from their constant channeling of mana through the early afternoon.

“Val hungry,” the little creature grumbled. His voice was barely above a whispe...

46. Spirit Item

Alex woke up slowly, his room dark from heavy curtains drawn across the windows. As consciousness returned, so did memories of the previous night.

Olivia had spent the evening with him, and her departure had felt bittersweet. She'd stayed late, making sure the System had truly healed him from his ordeal. Though he'd wanted her to stay, they knew she needed to return to her apartment and pack for her overseas trip.

It grated on his nerves to think of her working alongside Rylan. Wh...

45. The Ritual's End

Alex’s consciousness drifted into the black space, devoid of stars, weight, and any sort of breeze. He felt that his consciousness should be close to collapse and felt an urgent need to figure out what part of his memory was missing.

The memory of combining two of his skill uses was clear in his mind. Pushing through the loss of control and accomplishing the combination was a little hazier. However, things became clear again as he was pulled through the void and... then the System beg...

44. The Price of Knowledge

It was impossible for Alex to tell how long he had traveled. It could have been minutes or years, though his sanity remaining intact made him lean toward a shorter time span.

There were no stars. He had no body or source of mana. There had been no time in the last three months since he’d had his mana sight where his eyes had not at least seen something when open. Even at night or in the darkest of caves, his Heavenly Eye could see some mixture of mana.

In this dead space, howeve...

43. Weather the Storm

Alex’s fingers traced the pattern he’d drawn on the large sheet of paper in front of him. The ink had barely dried, and he thought through the process before him.

Mark and Sam talked quietly while seated on stools by the larger table to the side of the office, and Olivia paced back and forth on the other side of his desk.

“Shame Sarah couldn’t make it,” Mark said. “She’s been working a lot lately.”

Alex nodded but didn’t look up from the ritual schematic. �...

42. Training Wheels

Alex sat in his desk chair, leaning back and staring into the space over his hand. Several books lay open on the surface in front of him, their pages filled with a mix of runes, notes, and the occasional ritual sketch.

His eyebrows came together subconsciously as he concentrated on the thin strands of mana hovering above his hand. He guided them through the air with all of his Willpower and used slight twitching movements of his fingers to help nudge them into the correct positions with...

41. Trial Run

The front door of the large mansion swung open to reveal Edwin. The white-haired and mustachioed butler watched the weary group as they climbed the stairs. Alex walked in first, and despite the tiredness that had settled over him in the car home, he felt excited at the prospect of pushing forward.

“Alright, I think I’ve got it!” He spun around, nearly colliding with Mark.

Mark steadied Alex with a hand on his shoulder. “Woah there, buddy. Got what, exactly?”

Sarah ...

40. Tyrant's Challenge

The crowd’s excited chatter faded over time. Mark and Sarah played as bumpers for Alex and Olivia, helping to give them some space from the crowd. Even though the crowd had thinned by half, there were still a fair number of people keeping their distance and watching them with interest and casting glances at Alex.

Olivia caught his eye and gave him an apologetic smile. “Duty calls,” she said and leaned over to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Uh… aren’t you at work?...

39. Unexpected Fame

The three of them stopped and looked around when inside the large, high-ceilinged building.

Damn.

Alex was impressed. It looked more impressive than some professional sports stadiums he’d seen.

The gym floor was split into sections by temporary walls and banners. Some areas had chairs and podiums for award ceremonies, while others had training mats and equipment on the floor. A few spots even had screens showing highlights of news clips as Guild Members emerged fr...

38. Power Play

"...in what appears to be the work of the first superpowered serial killer. Over the past several days, bodies have been discovered in two Northeast Safe Zones, all bearing the same gruesome signature. Victims seem to have been burned from the inside out, leaving authorities baffled and residents terrified.”

Mark looked at Sarah. "This is pretty messed up, right? If someone can get in and out of two Safe Zones, they must be registered with the government somehow."

The reporter c...

37. Extended Insight

“Okay,” Mark said as he dropped his pack on the floor of the foyer and held his hands up in the air. “As our own celebration for completing our final Rift of the Teams Event, I do hereby declare that a night out is in proper order!”

Alex scoffed but Sam was the first to speak up as he walked past Alex to the stairs. “I can come this time, right? You said I could!”

“Yes, you can come.”

“Alex asked Jasper specifically last time we were there. He said they’v...

36. Loot Pile Party

Alex stood in the center of his living room, surveying the transformation. After coming down the stairs, eating lunch at the kitchen counter, and swiping through social media on his phone for a bit, he heard Sarah come into the house and start talking loudly with Mark in the living room.

Curious, he walked through the house and into the changed space. Multiple tables had been arranged in a rough semicircle, each with a piece of paper on it. Each paper had a quickly scribbled a word on i...

Big Update (Please Read!)

Hey everyone!

I’ve got a bit of an update for you all—both some good news and a slight adjustment that I want to be upfront about.

The Bad News (Kinda)

Starting next week, I’m adjusting my posting schedule back down to three chapters per week instead of five.

This was always the original plan, but I pushed it up to five weekly because I wanted to give more to Patrons, and growth was really picking up thank...

35. Lessons in Runes

Alex led Evan into his office and gestured for him to set the books down on the large wooden desk. Recently, an extra table that would eventually be moved to the new workshop was added to the office, but the office room was spacious, giving both of them plenty of space to work and stand.

Evan looked with interest at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves lining both the left and right walls. The early afternoon light flooded into the space from the large window overlooking the estate grounds....

34. Small Steps Make the Big Changes

Alex stirred, his conscious split between the waking world and deep sleep. Half of his mind registered Edwin’s measured footsteps approaching, while the other half clung to the cozy dream his mind had conjured.

“Good morning, Master Moore,” Edwin’s crisp and formal tone cut through the last bits of his sleep and he let his eyes open. “How did your experiment go?”

Alex grunted, fumbling around for his phone to pause the text-to-speech that had been running. He paused th...

33. The Favored Son

Jake drummed his fingers against the steering wheel of the government-issued sedan. He was stuck in the unbelievably slow, crawling traffic through the Safe Zone as he made his way back to the office. Construction crews worked on yet another apartment complex expansion on the side of the road, and the large machinery caused all the passing vehicles to slow even further.

Ever since the president's announcement two months ago, the city had become crowded as people from nearby counties and...

Friday Gifts & Art Update

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be dropping a bit of a bonus for you all on Friday morning. 

I really appreciate the continued support and am so happy that people are enjoying the story.

Also, I got an update from Marco on the Christmas Commission. Pretty awesome to see something coming together and the characters in a visual medium.

Artist: Marco Defill...

32. The Mana Tap

The drive to New Platz had taken longer than Alex expected. Between Mark’s insistence on a pitstop and Sarah’s commentary on the changes to the world outside of the Safe Zone, they’d arrived well after sundown. But, as Mark pulled into the parking lot, Alex had to admit that the bar seemed to be worth the wait.

The converted warehouse looked awesome in the early night, with its bright blue neon sign and long line of activity. Weathered bright stretched up at least three stories an...

31. Hesitation

Alex stifled a yawn as he shuffled into the massive kitchen. Even with his [Sleep Resistance] passive, he felt tired after staying up late into the night with Olivia. He squinted against the light that streamed in through the glass windows of the courtyard and winced as Gabby greeted him with her normal early morning energy.

“Good morning, Boss!” She drug out the first part of the sentence.

“Coffee.”

Gabby paused and looked at him. “You don’t normally drink coffe...

30. Walk Under the Stars

The last rays of sunlight had recently faded, leaving Alex’s estate bathed in the soft glow of the setting sun. Rather than light spilling in through the windows, instead it spilled out from the dining-room window and into the early night. From his seat, Alex could see how the beams of light spread out across the front lawn.

Alex rose from his seat and told Sam and Mark he was going to find Olivia. His muscles were pleasantly tired from the workout he had done earlier in the day, and ...