Seeing it folded like this also explained the strange cutouts on the furniture - those on the back were there solely to accommodate the lower tube, and the one on the front grip was for the trigger guard. With a flick of her arm, the gunsmith caused the weapon’s front end to spring upward, seamlessly locking into place with a resounding CLACK....
2022-01-25 18:19:23 +0000 UTC View PostZefaris knew she should feel a cautious reverence for such dangerous things, but in truth, she only felt giddiness - a feeling that was only intensified when, before she even got around to putting all the stuff into the bag, Collier started up another line of conversation entirely.
“So, that out of the way, what about the real reason I c...
2022-01-24 18:32:41 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Hate to do this again within a short timespan, but I've got an allergy flareup going again, uncontrollable sneezing and everything. Probably no chapter tomorrow.
Also this is a reupload with text and scheduling fixes.
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There...
2022-01-22 19:40:57 +0000 UTC View PostIt had never come up, as while the Black Wall had been raised before, its function had always been permitted to run its course naturally. “To remove the wall altogether and so suddenly would be foolish, it would force too many hands. The war would start right back up all over again and who knows how many Exclusion Zone situations we'd have...
2022-01-21 19:15:26 +0000 UTC View PostEDIT A/N: I did a big dumb and got the two brothers mixed up, the Black-robed Brother is Hedan. It's fixed now.
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Subject ZN having developed some manner of direct communication between the Upper and Lower Cognitive Plane explains every inco...
External observations of the transformation line up with early stages of the Supreme Path of Blazing Fires, but the underlying principles are clearly different in operation, more akin to a new type of arkatek power generator known as a “reactor”, wherein two or more destabilized essentia are made to react with an azothic catalyst to prod...
2022-01-19 19:37:26 +0000 UTC View PostIt stretched on for minutes and hours, and Zel took the opportunity to for once play the part of spectator, quietly making her way about the yard and deriving great amusement from the would-be recruits’ reactions to her mere presence. Some shrunk from her, flinching merely at her gaze, while others grew noticeably tense as they - understandabl...
2022-01-18 18:32:21 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: No chapter tomorrow for family reasons.
They crossed through the gate at this point, and Zel confidently answered as they reached the base of the stairwell, striding towards the basement door instead of the stairs: “Right on this floor… I think.”
A few steps later, another question came to mind: “Blood-red walking tank?...
2022-01-16 17:47:36 +0000 UTC View PostReality came rushing back in, an all-consuming, wordless scream of “CANNOT BE” as the mundane reasserted itself over the arcane, the underground meadow uniformly, glaringly bright .
Zel blinked, her eyes painfully dry, and scales of metal slag fell from her eyelids. As she struggled to raise her hands and veritable curtains of brittle ...
2022-01-15 18:39:20 +0000 UTC View PostZel answered without dwelling on it, grasping the first mental thread that came into her grasp: “To possess true freedom through supremacy over the self. To acknowledge one’s flaws and move past them. To stand against insurmountable odds and arise not merely victorious, but to appear as if the feat were effortless. To inspire legends and liv...
2022-01-14 19:42:28 +0000 UTC View PostBlackness stretched out all around, but in the distance, she saw yet more iridescent flows like this one, like veins stretching out throughout a living thing, only… This particular river was disturbed, she felt something had driven it into this frothing rage, and she wagered she could guess what - or rather, who - was the culprit.
Whence...
2022-01-13 19:16:52 +0000 UTC View PostShe couldn’t quite tell how long it was, in the end, but the more complete the body paint became, the more bearable it was. The curious feeling could now be compared to her upper half being submerged in warm water that happened to also contain swarms of infinitesimally tiny creatures.
“Alright, turn back around and hold your arms out s...
2022-01-12 19:50:03 +0000 UTC View PostBefore she could even process the sensory overload of witnessing, hearing, and smelling the veritable palace of a kitchen, Ozmir had already whipped his head around to look at her, grinning expectantly as an even larger portion of food steamed upon a plate, just sat there on a counter within arm’s reach.
“Count yourself lucky, dear eld...
2022-01-11 18:35:13 +0000 UTC View Post“My Clear Sky Thundergod produces lightning strikes from a cloudless sky, instantaneous and nearly unpredictable, which, as you learned first-hand, informs my focus on speed and surprise attack, even if I restrained myself to the techniques I knew when I was a novice, as you are now.”
Again, she chained the smoke construct, reshaping t...
2022-01-10 22:18:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, first one. What are those rocks? I recall seeing the same glyphic script on the stones surrounding the Exclusion Zone,” Zel prodded, pointing with a knife at the ward generator. She proceeded to cut off a rib and strip the meat from it with her tongue, only to toss the bone into her mouth, and with horrendous crunching, she devoure...
2022-01-09 19:17:06 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry, no chapter tomorrow. I think I actually got a proper head cold for once instead of an allergic flareup, but whichever it is, I'm not getting more than some editing done today.
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On the other hand, Rebore - the more common variant by far - was...
2022-01-07 19:35:30 +0000 UTC View PostHer attention remained fixed on this chant, echoing in her mind even as she walked through the central hall, aware of the people surrounding her, but losing focus more and more with each step taken.
Makhus and Sigmund were present, although she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, only the congratulatory tone and their expressi...
2022-01-06 19:49:02 +0000 UTC View PostArnys not only saw it happen, she physically felt the pressurized deluge of mnemonically imprinted aether flood through her opponent’s body and blade.
Not one to suffer defeat by merely being outranged, Arnys repeated the trick she’d used earlier, flowing Fulgur along the edge of her own weapon and forming a blade of condensed lightnin...
2022-01-05 19:34:23 +0000 UTC View PostRather, she would’ve, had the Matriarch not skillfully loosened her grip for just long enough that the handle rotated in her hand, only to grab it once more before it could leave her grasp.
Even so, the sword was stuck for long enough that Zelsys could deliver a downward cut that would’ve bisected her diagonally from the collarbone to ...
2022-01-04 20:18:12 +0000 UTC View PostThat thing had returned. There, in the gap between lightning bolts, the outline of that humanoid monstrosity. And the antlers, they weren’t ephemeral anymore, they were full manifestations wrought of congealed essentia, solid enough for even the layman to see - the left pointy and made of nearly straight lines, while the other...
2022-01-03 20:05:47 +0000 UTC View PostBy the time Arnys ceased the curious blade-spinning routine, the charge disparity around her was visible. Yellow sparks flashed in a circling maelstrom about the woman, dust particles becoming magnetized and getting whipped up in the mess. By the time she raised her sword to the heavens and spoke, Zelsys had not only finished refining the compre...
2022-01-02 19:07:17 +0000 UTC View PostAt one point, Arnys found herself in a grapple and managed to reverse it, only for Newman to turn her upper body all the way around to deliver a palm-heel to her ear. The stretching of muscle, the sickening crunch of bone, and that ever-amused grin plastered over Newman’s face as the matriarch let go in favor ...
2022-01-01 18:27:29 +0000 UTC View PostIn order to keep herself safe, and more importantly, to manipulate the fight to her advantage, she switched to Slayer Style and began using Siphoning Pulse, liberally so, with this defense being the main consumer of the spare essentia output that she saved by attacking conservatively.
This strange style we...
2021-12-31 18:53:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe very next moment, the Butcher’s beak-like point slipped in under the Matriarch’s left arm, the dull-red glow of its edge soon overtaken by the red of spilling blood as it sunk a good few centimeters into a gap between ribs before her flesh was hardened beyond its ability to cut. After the right came the left, Zel’s arm snapping from a ...
2021-12-30 19:48:58 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the late post. I couldn't think of a title and then got distracted while trying to think of one.
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There was a glimmer in Zel’s eyes before Arnys felt the massive woman’s fingers dig into her skin, her weight scooped up as if she were ...
2021-12-29 22:03:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe same arcanist called out again, first in Kargarian, then in Ikesian.
“Cease all active magicks and shake hands!”
Zelsys nodded in acknowledgment and stopped pointlessly expelling huge amounts of essentia, sliding her hands into her pockets as she began to slowly walk towards Arnys.
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2021-12-28 18:29:49 +0000 UTC View PostZelsys was a folk hero for the new epoch, having stepped straight out of the pages, off the propaganda posters, and into reality, now facing a woman whose identity as a pirate queen and a scourge of Pateiria’s colonies was all but an open secret… In a friendly exhibition match.
The weeks leading up to this had served to change the mood...
2021-12-27 18:46:31 +0000 UTC View PostAs this went on Zel stockpiled Fulgur in her second stomach, though not in an effort to gain the upper hand in the opening clash. She waited and bided her time until the man with the aetherwave perked up, until she heard voices saying something in Kargarian in his headphones, until he raised a hand and gave her a thumbs-up. It was time.
Ze...
2021-12-23 20:09:48 +0000 UTC View PostThe match was scheduled at noon, ensuring that those few who did work on Sunday could conceivably come to see it, and see it they would, in no small part thanks to a campaign of word-of-mouth advertisement orchestrated by the Krishorns, not to mention natural rumor and the attention of local news publications.
With the courtyard off-limits...
2021-12-22 19:50:25 +0000 UTC View PostWhen it came down to specifics of their agreement, the Primordial Self proved to have a surprisingly strong grasp of explaining its own knowledge of bodily workings in exceedingly simple terms and abstractions.
It effectively came down to the thoughtform demanding: “Bone to build bone, meat to build meat, white-veins to build white-veins...
2021-12-21 17:29:31 +0000 UTC View Post