“This is history in the making! For merely the seventh time in Azure Flame Faction history, we’re about to witness the legendary Ten-Man Challenge. One Outer Faction disciple versus ten—all as merely an Ascendant! To even attempt this you must be a monster among men. What kind of man does it take to conquer it?”
The announcer pause...
2024-09-15 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Bonus chapter since I missed one during Dragoncon! Also, I changed the capacity to be millions rather than hundreds of thousands.
//
Two hours before the duel, and the betting was reaching a fever pitch. Thousands of bets were being placed by the minute—whether shouted out to busy bookies at the stalls, or bea...
2024-09-12 15:37:33 +0000 UTC View PostZane chomped down another chunk of yak leg and thought about it. He looked down at the lots of wide eyes staring up at him—they had all come to make something of a huddle around him, running around their Uncle Jawl's attempts to grab them like little fish through a net. Jawl gave up.
"Hmm," said Zane.
He looked over at the St...
2024-09-12 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostBecause Zane broke through in such a secret place, few were there to witness it. One of them happened to be a servant called Wang Lin.
Wang was a Chosen of an Azure Flame sub-Faction called the Verdant Flame, which ruled of a tribute planet near the Azure Flame frontier. He’d been sent up to the main Faction to experience the...
2024-09-11 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a CRACK!—a sensation that shook Zane's soul. And it felt like his head was splitting, and his body was splitting, down the seams of his very being—his ears screamed with white noise. He reeled, groaning…
He tasted iron and salt in his mouth.
Something had hit him just then—something he saw head-on, and h...
2024-09-10 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostNo one in recorded history had glimpsed a divine Concept so early. Noughtfire would never have even considered suggesting it before….
Then there was his new disciple.
The earth-man called Zane, scratching his head across the little tea table.
Noughtfire had never known anyone with that kind of intuition. It ...
2024-09-09 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostNone of the elves bothered Reina after that. The rest of the council went quite smoothly. When it was all done and she dismissed them, they bowed quite a bit deeper than they had at the beginning. A bunch even shuffled up to give her their congratulations, which she graciously accepted, greeting everyone by name. A few were surprised; they hadn'...
2024-09-08 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
“Are you ready to behave,” Zane asked him. He gave Val a moment to collect himself—gasp in a few lungfuls of air, blink most of the tears out of his eyes, and so on.
“I’ll kill you!” wailed Val. “I’ll carve out your entrails—she’s mine, you b-brute, mine—”
Za...
2024-09-05 16:06:56 +0000 UTC View PostIt might have been the longest teleport Zane had been on yet. Reina sent him some coordinates with her letter, which the portal easily ate up. Then the array-circles started streaming a pale light, shifting like cogs in some vast unseen machine, and Zane felt a pool of essence gathering under his feet—quickly broadening, swelling to a lake of ...
2024-09-04 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostEven the chains had gone totally still.
Then the rumbling began. A shattered continent made enough rockfall to fill up canyons. It looked like a fuzzy mountain range from a distance, but it all started to tremble then, shivered by some force deep within…
Then it burst with the fury of an erupting volcano.
A thousa...
2024-09-02 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Minor retcon--the Chaos Fruit is the reward rather than the Plasma Phoenix Core (swapped), and it grants him 30 extra Nascent Levels, not 40!
Also: It’s looking like I may miss Sunday or Monday release due to Dragoncon, whose impact on me I severely underestimated—I will do an extra chapter the ...
2024-09-01 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Minor retcon--the Chaos Fruit is the reward rather than the Plasma Phoenix Core (swapped), and it grants him 30 extra Nascent Levels, not 40, which is a bit much!
//
“Come in,” said Noughtfire.
Zane did, ducking to fit through the doorway.
“Hey there,” said Zane, waving. H...
2024-08-29 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostPlanet Gurkon
Galaxy of the Path of Core Magma
Gurkon was the meanest of the home planets for disciples on the Path of Core Magma. Three runty sputtering volcanoes on a hunk of molten rock hardly bigger than a moon. Only a handful made their homes here.
One of them was Prince Yarrow of Elistria...
2024-08-28 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostZane heard his own roar, proud and unrelenting, rolling into the far distance. There was triumph in it. And a challenge, too. The same one he'd posed to this world since he’d come.
It had not been able to answer him.
He stood there, feeling pleased. But also feeling the heat start to fade out of him, his breaths start to wind...
2024-08-27 01:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe Hypergolems poured over the cracks, a tsunami of livid steel, clambering over one another, squashing their brethren down in their eagerness to get at him.
Some of them were different, though you couldn’t see it on the surface. Zane could feel it.
They had pseudo-domains.
Blowing out from them in great invisible spheres, h...
2024-08-26 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostZane made his way to the teleporter. A beam later he was off to Ragnos.
Ragnos was an angry star. Its solar flares looked like flesh wounds still bleeding over its surface, falling back into a mass the color of dried blood. It looked a little like Mars, back when that still existed—just shining.
Zane ended up standing on an outpost...
2024-08-25 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“That power ranking is called the Phoenix Scroll,” said Jawl. “It’s got five hundred-odd ranks in total—though it depends on the death counts during dungeon season, and if it's an Integration Year… the usual ups and downs.”
He produced a scroll out of thin air and started to unravel it. It went on and on—the more he unrolle...
2024-08-22 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostSo Zane was off to get Full Fusion.
It turned out you could teleport to Astra right from where he’d come up from—the little stone platform at the bottom of the steps. He went up to the middle of a circle of runes. And slowly they began to fire, dull purples brightening, charging up—he felt like he was standing in the middle of some o...
2024-08-21 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostSomeone was coming closer. A grizzled middle-aged man with a big fuzzy hat. He was built stocky, laden with muscle and a healthy layer of fat which he wore well. He took off his hat as he got close and kneaded it between his fingers.
Zane blinked at him for a bit. There was a pause, like the man was trying to figure out what to say.<...
2024-08-20 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostShe gestured to the last two stars in the cluster. “There’s the Tempering Star Volcanis, where you can train your physique—”
—A star that spat angry licks of red-white—
“And the Cultivation Star Pyronis, where you can submerge yourself in Stormfire essence to cultivate—”
—An immensity of deep-blu...
2024-08-19 01:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn't long before Zane's escort arrived. A crystal beam flared down the Beacon, a dazzling pillar racing from the sky, touching the earth gently, soundlessly. Then it was gone, and it left a girl in its place.
She was tall, leanly muscled, dressed in dragonscale leathers. She had long, wild hair in a ponytail and sharp, pretty features...
2024-08-18 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Noughtfire’s first,” said Reina, unfurling the red scroll. “His offer’s mostly the same. He'll take you as a Direct Disciple. You’ll keep your list of special incentives. You'll also have access to all seven of his Lightning Constellation stars and the training they give—but you won't be a Core Chosen anymore, since you're not exc...
2024-08-15 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe scroll unfurled. A list was carved out on the foil in bright blocky letters.
“First,” said the Sage. "Achieve Perfect Fusion of Stormfire—and your reward will be a Plasma Phoenix Core! A drop with a one-in-thousands chance which only comes from the corpse of the Godbeast Plasma Phoenix. It would grant your channels a supreme affi...
2024-08-14 01:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe letter shone brighter, streaming silver like moonlight. There was a drawing carved on the surface. A collection of clean lines that shifted the more Zane looked, gaining dimensions… He let his eyes unfocus. He quickly sank into the vision.
An old man solidified before him. A man with a big frame full of wiry muscle. Zane got the impr...
2024-08-13 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: No chapter on 8/11, sorry about that!
Despite my best efforts last week's injury has spiraled into this week a bit... It’s frustrating for me too >.>
Will be back tomorrow!
//
The Dragonspire Galaxy was called that because it was a cluster of star systems that swirled li...
2024-08-11 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThat was the bulk of his training done, Zane supposed. It was time to head home. He was looking forward to it.
When he left the dojo, he saw a spray of stars twinkling high above. It was nice and quiet this time of night.
He wondered just how long he’d been in there.
He strode across the little grassy courty...
2024-08-08 01:40:13 +0000 UTC View PostZane blinked at the Spirit.
“…How do I do that?”
Trial by fire, said the Spirit. Its face was as stern as always, but Zane got the sense it was enjoying seeing him a little stumped.
You must project your soul! But there's no guide to it. The only way to know is to find it yourself. It’s a ...
2024-08-07 01:29:38 +0000 UTC View PostZane hadn’t thought much about the Red Moon Pagoda. It was always in the background propping him up. But his soul held up just fine most of the time. It wasn’t much of a concern, he felt.
Only lately had it been tested. Only lately had it shown signs of cracking at all—when that False Ascendant had gotten its teeth deep into hi...
2024-08-06 01:30:32 +0000 UTC View PostThe image of a solar flare cut out bright against the void was seared in Zane's mind. A world-shaking power.
That kind of power lay ahead for him. Tier 6.
He’d thought about it a lot since he first saw it. It happened in idle moments. When he dazed off he would see those immense columns of flame floating by. Sometimes h...
2024-08-05 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Slightly edited System announcement—factions can’t claim Earth as a Safe Zone directly; Earth is in a fringe galactic sector, outside of their jurisdiction. However—
“Joining a Faction means that Faction offer resources to help fend off external threats.”
// 2024-08-04 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post