Sofia slid a hand in her helmet, scraping off some of the blood she had been forced to smell as she ran, and smeared it messily on her side. She then ran up to the knight guarding the shrine, and stopped just out of reach of his blade, huffing and puffing under her closed helmet.
The knight’s helmet turned to look in her direction, but he said nothing.
I can’t just enter, can I?
Sofia forced her throat to make her voice a bit deeper, “W- What are you waiting f...
2025-02-24 17:00:19 +0000 UTC
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Before throwing herself in the chimera’s maw, Sofia started with some intel gathering. People were quick to inform her that the Queen’s eternal mortal envelope was indeed laid to rest there, as the name suggested, and that it was completely forbidden to the public, the chancellor and guardian knights being the only ones allowed inside.
Thereafter, Sofia spent an entire day observing the enclosed shrine and its surroundings, at first by just walking around in the vicinity, and later ...
2025-02-21 17:00:18 +0000 UTC
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The nurse put down her things on the bedside table and came closer, putting a hand on Sofia’s forehead. “The fever is down. Don’t move, I’m fetching you some water!” she said, leaving as fast as she had come.
Sofia watched her walk away, saying nothing, many thoughts were rushing to her head, but the first thing she did was checking the inside of her shirt.
Oh thank the lords.
Pestle was hiding in there, still in one piece, and sleeping peacefully.
2025-02-20 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The short man walked out of the room, immediately calling out to a tall guard wearing fancy medals strapped on his chest who was listlessly signing papers in a corner.
“Surran! I am escorting this lady to meet with the chancellor. Leave the paperwork to Otto, you stand in for me until I’m back.”
“Yes, commander!” Surran answered with renewed spirit.
“And don’t stare at our guests like this. You knobhead!”
He yelled a few orders to the other guards stand...
2025-02-19 17:00:21 +0000 UTC
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Author note: Sorry for the lateness!
As expected, as I get closer to actually moving out of the country, more and more things come up that make my schedule a living hell. You can basically expect that chapters will keep randomly being late up until late next month when I should be fully settled in Malta. I'll try to keep up, though, and if I miss any chapter, I'll try to push it to Saturday like I did last week. I will keep you updated anyway. Happy reading :p
2025-02-18 17:47:31 +0000 UTC
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Sofia woke up some time later, the outside sunlight weakly filtering through the abandoned house’ closed curtains.
“Uegh, that hurts…” Sofia complained as she sat up. Sleeping on the floor was not much of an issue but it seemed her legs had suffered a bit more than could be fixed by simply repairing the bones. “It’s a bit swollen…”
Giving herself some time to think, Sofia grabbed the still humid cape she had thrown to the side before falling asleep. It was still in...
2025-02-17 17:00:23 +0000 UTC
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Sofia flew through the air, falling two floors and crashing feet first onto the roof of a nearby annex. She fell straight through the ceramic roof tiles and the interior ceiling, before painfully landing on a wooden crate that burst open, spreading its contents around.
Ugh. Not bad.
Sofia was in pain, and relatively sure she had at least a broken leg, though it was an internal injury, but she thanked her good luck for the relatively safe landing onto a crate of some unkno...
2025-02-15 16:35:24 +0000 UTC
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“Hear what?” the other guard asked, speaking softly but with wariness in his tone.
“Footsteps.”
“With this much wind and rain?”
“It was faint. Might’ve misheard…”
“Leda going to the bathroom, maybe?” the guard at the window suggested, “want me to go check downstairs?”
Oh fuck… If he comes this way…
“Ugh. Don’t bother, Dan, was probably just something outside, fucking storm.”
Sofia breathed a silent sigh o...
2025-02-13 17:28:49 +0000 UTC
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Sofia woke up in the middle of the night with a dry throat, almost in complete darkness.
That much sleep will have to do…
Pestle was sleeping on her chest like a dead log; Sofia held her with one hand and sat up. As she did, something cracked near her chest, making a sound similar to someone stepping on broken glass.
What was that?!
Feeling her torso with her other hand, Sofia found the source of the sound, a small patch of her robe had turned...
2025-02-12 17:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Sofia left the hospital’s care, paying five Orms for the treatment thus far, which the nurse took from her purse without really leaving her a choice. Sofia had hoped that she would find some of her things in ‘her belongings’ which the nurse had kept in a small lockbox she unlocked with an iron key, but sadly there was only a purse with a few coins and clothes that Sofia had never seen before, which weren’t in a great state.
She was waiting at the hospital’s entrance for the ra...
2025-02-11 17:00:23 +0000 UTC
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With all of their senses amplified to the extreme, the group could feel each other’s unease. Through the sounds of the sudden outside storm and rain as well as the singer’s voice and music, they could hear faint, distant laughter, muted conversations, the sounds of footsteps and the clinking of glasses. It was as if the city and the playhouse had suddenly come alive, yet there was nothing to see through Sofia’s mana senses. All there was were the countless creatures of the deep, stalker...
2025-02-10 17:00:17 +0000 UTC
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Sofia, in fact, had more than one plan, preparing a whole series of tests and possibilities as to how to get rid of the stalker on the roof, only to end up going for the very first one she had thought of. She had sent the fairy through a chimney vent to scout the outside. Using all of her stealth passives, the midenicite fairy was extremely hard to notice. If not for being able to sense the bones themselves with [Bone Dominus], and where all of Bookie’s skeletons were at al...
2025-02-04 17:00:14 +0000 UTC
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“Well it’s fine, not every skeleton can be Crowie. Let’s open the door, we’ll hear better,” Sofia told Bookie.
“Are we sure it’s safe on the other side?” Alith asked, her hands already on the door.
“I don’t feel anything weird directly behind the doors,” Sofia answered, “but my mana senses get all jumbled up when I try to push it further up the stairs. The result of the pockets of the light world overlaps, I imagine. The rat will scout ahead but we’ll hav...
2025-02-03 17:00:16 +0000 UTC
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The tunnel of the Kidjikkiks pierced through the walls of an underground facility long before they could reach the city.
Catacombs.
Everyone was on high alert. Sofia ordered a single Kidjikkik to step forward into the grim-looking subterranean gallery. The catacombs, or this section, at least, was in the real world.
No sign of a deep creature yet.
Sofia held a brittle bone flask full of rot dust. She had prepared dozens of them while the Kidjikkiks du...
2025-01-31 17:00:20 +0000 UTC
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Sofia’s staff flickered in her hand, her own appearance oscillating unstably between her light and dark world forms for a few seconds before stabilizing in the light world one, making the staff completely disappear.
Alith was going through something similar, her outfit and weapons changing randomly as she observed the lake and the city, her face blurring and becoming clear again in quick succession. “Even just crossing the lake might be dangerous,” she said after a long while, “...
2025-01-30 17:08:51 +0000 UTC
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Author note:
I’m going to be taking three days off next week to play Kingdom Come 2, so no chapters on the 5th, 6th and 7th (wednesday to friday). I didn’t want to take a full week off since my last vacations are quite recent, but I can’t not play a major RPG on release. Breaks on major game releases are what you signed up for when you started reading a game-addicted nerd’s litrpg :P.
Tangent to that, it also means I’ll not be taking a break for Monster hunter wilds, bec...
2025-01-29 17:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Note : As a comment pointed out yesterday, we have a small plot hole on our hands, where initially light-world sofia had wings and now she doesn’t. It makes more sense imo to keep her without them, considering none of the light world people seemed to care or notice the wings. Earlier chapters will be edited later to reflect that. That is all, happy reading and have a nice day :D
////////////
In the distance, a bright obelisk towered over the land.
We entered the light,...
2025-01-28 17:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Alith turned the lamp off right as Pareth jumped inside of the manor’s ruins. Sofia and Alith fell to the lower floor, as the upper one in the dark world had long crumbled. They were surrounded by the manor’s tethered, but that was the least of their worries.
The luminous creature in the distance was looking larger by the moment, Sofia caught a second glimpse of it as she landed, it was hard to tell from that far, but the thing seemed to have many long legs like a spider. Hurriedly,...
2025-01-27 17:00:19 +0000 UTC
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A marked one?
But taking the Regulator title is a bit presumptuous, isn’t it?
Could it be the genuine lord? But why? Especially Ormoncleth, why come and play around disguised as a mortal?
So probably actually a marked one? Both feel possible… But then she died.
Wait, was the hand…
“Gorgeous, isn’t she?” the count asked rhetorically, “I daresay this must be one of the best paintings remaining of her highne...
2025-01-24 17:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Sofia and Alith entered the manor as another tethered ‘servant’ led the horse away to the stables.
In the regular world, the manor was in such a bad state that there was almost nothing left of the entrance, which was why the tethered butler could easily go in and out without his tether catching onto anything.
A few door frames are still standing on the lower level… Does that mean they can’t enter those rooms in the light world?
Sofia had very little time to ...
2025-01-23 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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After just a few meters, Sofia stopped the horse. “Wait for me here and keep the lamp turned on, I want to try to figure out the range.”
“Just stay in sight,” Alith said, turning her lamp on.
Sofia gave a nod and flew away while staying close to the ground. She was out of the light world almost immediately. And abruptly stopped.
That’s about three hundred meters? Less than I expected.
Now to see whether I can still see through Pareth’s eyes fro...
2025-01-22 17:00:18 +0000 UTC
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“So I’m worried,” Sofia finished her explanation, “Either something followed me in and now has access to that weird hand, or something was already in and might have followed me out…”
“Hmm… I wonder,” Alith said after some reflection, maybe there was someone next to you in the ‘real’ world, and they somehow didn’t appear in the light?”
“Or maybe it was a ghost!” Bookie suggested.
“Come on Bookie, I’m a ghost. If that was it I would have notic...
2025-01-21 17:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Uncertain on how to continue, Sofia opted to just repeat a few words and hoped that it would naturally prompt the village chief to keep speaking.
“So early…” she repeated, faking a melancholic tone.
“It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years, isn’t it?”
“It feels like it was just yesterday,” Alith commented, trying to help Sofia out.
“Isn’t that right?” the village chief agreed, “if her Majesty were still here, she would have certain...
2025-01-20 17:00:19 +0000 UTC
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“We should go, and try to communicate,” Sofia decided, “It stands to reason that there are high chances for the Deep’s skill being somewhere in this ‘reality’, and they could also know about the dead god’s location. That would be a lot faster than exploring the entire moon hoping to stumble upon it.”
“I’m not against it,” Alith commented, “but let’s agree on a few basic rules for safety…”
“You were never this careful before,” Sofia remarked, which...
2025-01-17 17:00:18 +0000 UTC
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Sofia shared her findings with Alith, who seemed a lot less worried about the entire thing than Sofia was.
The short woman shrugged, “I’m already from a different world anyway, what’s one more? I do find the lack of faces disturbing, though.”
Sofia looked very hard at Pareth’s face, trying to discern any kind of facial feature, but it was impossible to see more than a skin-colored blur. “Orator looks like this too,” she told Alith, “you get used to it.”
“...
2025-01-16 17:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Everything changed as the Deep’s light engulfed everything in sight, the hard roots regained worldly shades of brown and green, colorful flowers in a myriad hues appeared out of nowhere all over them, growing in the holes and cracks, soft green moss covered the ground and Sofia could immediately smell the pleasant scents of flowers and fresh sap. It was the exact same flowery smell the air on the moon had from the start, but turned up to eleven.
No immediate danger?
“...
2025-01-15 17:00:17 +0000 UTC
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As the thing turned around abruptly, Alith appeared right in front of it, and started running away, in the opposite direction from Sofia and Pareth.
The squirming creature wasted no time chasing after Alith, floating a few centimeters above the ground as if held up by the tether linking it to the sky, and Sofia soon lost sight of them both.
“Lords…” Alith whispered, reappearing next to Sofia, “It’s good that my reaction time’s improved this much, because I did NOT want...
2025-01-14 17:00:20 +0000 UTC
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Having serious internet service provider issues, doing what I can but it's looking like I wont be able to post a chapter today.
Hopefully resolved by tommorow, if not I'll figure something out. Will keep you updated either way.
2025-01-13 16:16:45 +0000 UTC
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“You sure are making faces I don’t see you make often,” Alith told Sofia.
“Unpleasant memories. The last time I saw that color as light I lost my dog.”
“Right, that thing on a black spire, right? The lighthouse is pretty similar to how you described it, now that I think about it… Do you think there’s also a tentacular envoy up there operating the thing?” Alith asked.
Sofia was more used to spreading her mana senses far and wide rather than high up above her...
2025-01-10 17:00:18 +0000 UTC
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“Ahahah,” Alith nervously laughed, “let’s not jump to conclusions… But that would explain where the people went…”
“Let’s hope I’m wrong… Maybe it was just covered in the stuff. Either that or it's some kind of dead skin golem. I barely got a glimpse of it.”
“With how you described the parasites from before it wouldn’t surprise me if it really was what’s left of the people who used to live here… But that only makes me more curious about the things in...
2025-01-09 17:01:30 +0000 UTC
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