Salas was not polite enough to wait for Dorian to come up with a plan. The machine kept piling on shots, which was tremendously annoying, not only because it kept breaking up his thoughts, but also because each shot was aimed exactly where it’d be most uncomfortable for him to defend. Dorian was constantly making of his body a pretzel, crossin...
2023-06-10 20:57:26 +0000 UTC View Post“The Trial of the Fist,” said Coldheart. “That is next. And of the four hundred and sixty two who have made it past the third trial, all met their ends at the fourth. Dorian the Heartless, pass through the Fourth Door!”
As he stepped through, the door vanished behind him. A pocket dimension.
Dorian ...
2023-06-09 14:47:51 +0000 UTC View PostThe Door of the Heart led to a room much like the other two. All gold, with another pedestal at its center. But this time 10 vials sat atop it, ranged in a circle. They were filled with an elixir of murky white, like if forgetfulness was a color.
“Drink,” ordered Coldheart.
“What are they?”
“Draughts of Infinite Remem...
2023-06-08 07:45:23 +0000 UTC View Post“So,” said Dorian brightly. “About that Inheritance?”
“Ah,” stammered the Priest. “Ah….yes. This way.”
No ‘young one,’ this time, Dorian noted. Before they set off, a shadow stretched across them. Gerard, in Roc form, bore the dragon Dorian had just chucked. He gently dumped the creature at their feet.
“...
2023-06-07 12:56:22 +0000 UTC View Post“Who are we?!” squeaked Sun at the top of her lungs.
“The resistance!” shouted Dorian.
The two dragons flanking him did too. Then the dragons behind them in the V-formation, then those farther back, until the words rippled down their whole fleet, all the way to the clumps of Gods in the rear.
“What do we do?!...
2023-06-06 08:26:08 +0000 UTC View Post“What is this?” snapped Slickclaw. “You would mock me, little dragonoid?”
“Not at all!” Dorian smiled like the Buddha himself. He spread his arms.
“Go on. Have at it!”
Slickclaw stared at him for a few heartbeats, and Dorian got the sense the dragon was trying to decide whether Dorian had something up his sleeve...
2023-06-05 05:37:11 +0000 UTC View PostDorian stood atop the Glassy Mountains and squinted into the distance. The sun was peeking over the horizon, pinking a sea of fluffy clouds. Mountain peaks poked through them. There was a nub of a mountain peppered with tiny sakura trees. There was a mountain right out of a classical painting, dotted with bonsai trees, with a pretty blue stream ...
2023-06-04 04:35:07 +0000 UTC View PostSun chewed thoughtfully on her carrot. “So… heist? Again?”
“Not this time. I signed a pact with Fate, unfortunately.” Dorian sighed. “In return for his help we’re not only retrieving my bodies. We also have to destroy Jez’s Infinity Hearts on the planes along the way. And if his forces are headquartered at Mt. Tai...
2023-06-03 04:06:34 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been a while since he’d last visited the Dragonrealm. But despite the sour terms on which he’d left he found himself eager to visit again.
No-one did grand like the dragons. Their plane was the most mountainous in all the Multiverse, and they made the most of it—if you saw a peak you could bet a dragon had made it its home. Ca...
2023-06-02 03:17:28 +0000 UTC View Post2 days later…
“I’m not an invalid,” grumbled Dorian. Sure, he might’ve been halfway to a mummification and hog-tied to a sick bed, but Fate’s healing elixirs had worked wonders. At first after Yama’s Godking qi ran roughshod over his insides he would’ve put his odds of survival at a coin flip.
But now...
2023-06-01 04:35:23 +0000 UTC View PostRealm of Endless Seas
The Ever-Serpent floated peacefully in the midst of an empty expanse, as he had for ten thousand years.
Water, clear as you like, ran from horizon to horizon all about him. His massive form—even he wasn’t sure how long he’d gotten—trailed out behind him. Too many fathoms to count. He was...
2023-05-31 05:32:34 +0000 UTC View PostThere was a deep black smoldering scar carved into the hillside in the shape of a crescent moon. It went so deep you could see a glowing line of red at its furthest depths where it broke into the lava flows. And of Fate there was no sign. Not even a flicker of aura.
Jez breathed in, and breathed out, ash fluttering on his breath as his ves...
2023-05-29 18:17:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe Orc Chieftain’s axe bit into Yama’s meaty arm, splitting it at the seams. Howling, Yama swung for him—but not before an Empyrean Jiangshi stabbed at the tendons at his knees. Gods were crowding all about him now, firing with all they had, a circle of vicious light. Individually they were nothing. But stacked one atop the other...
2023-05-29 04:31:38 +0000 UTC View PostHey all! Think I'll do one of these every month or so. Feel free to leave feedback on how the story's going, questions, whatever in the comments below and I'll read and/or reply.
Writing Update:
So far, so good. Dailies are going pretty smoothly. Burnout-o-meter is at about a 5.5/10, which is solid. ...
2023-05-27 19:35:30 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Early chapter :D
//
Dorian flared his aura. He spread out his wings. He put on his toothiest grin. He made damned sure the poor sods in the valley below got a good eyeful of him. And indeed a good quarter, maybe half of the army was now turning to face this strange new threat! ...
2023-05-27 19:03:07 +0000 UTC View PostBreath of the Ashen Sky.
Dorian remembered the last time he’d encountered a wild Torchdragon. Ages ago, back when he was Salas Godhunter, tasked with tracking down a particularly ornery one that’d run wild over the countryside. Some Godking’s child had been playing with fireworks, and then hit a mountain which had been there...
2023-05-27 03:08:58 +0000 UTC View PostFate looked left and right, and then leaned in to whisper. “I may have a path to get your old bodies back.”
“Oh?!”
“It won’t be easy!” stressed Fate. “But when I moved to save Gerard from the Unstuck Space I pulled him from your hidden estate. I was forced to pull some strings—in a literal sense! And though...
2023-05-26 03:47:52 +0000 UTC View PostEveryone on Fate’s side seemed to harden, all at once. Bracing for impact.
Some creatures cringe at threats. Others rankle at them, and it was clear which kind the Phoenix were. They always were a proud sort. A great big one took a break from batting at a wraith’s hand to rear up, screeching at Jez.
“Do I have the honor of addr...
2023-05-25 02:20:43 +0000 UTC View PostFate bowed. “Sorry! Sorry,” he said, wincing under Gerard’s stare like he was some fresh serving-boy who’d made a silly mistake his first day on the job. “I’m here now. You’re safe—you have my word!”
It was poor timing that a bomb—maybe the loudest thus far—rocked the city at that moment. In the distance plumes of thi...
2023-05-24 04:04:20 +0000 UTC View Post“I’ll play up. You give support,” breathed Dorian. Gerard nodded grimly.
“What about me?” said Sun.
“You—I don’t know. Do something! Make yourself useful!”
“Okay!” She scurried off.
Dorian frowned. Godkings. The highest tier of cultivation truly stood apart. Even the highest-ranked Empyreans were onl...
2023-05-23 05:14:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt was unfair.
In open terrain things would’ve been more even. There would’ve been room to maneuver. To strike back with explosive Techniques. But here, trapped in such close quarters, there was no getting away. Especially not with Gerard on the other end, whipping up a literal storm.
His fists fell upon them the way a rockslide ...
2023-05-22 03:24:31 +0000 UTC View PostJez gave a sad chuckle. “It occurs to me we’ve never truly held a conversation. As ourselves, I mean, with all our pretenses stripped away. And yet our lives have so deeply affected each others’. Doesn’t that strike you as strange?”
“Not really! Frankly I’m happy keeping it this way.”
A sigh.
“You are about to...
2023-05-21 03:47:38 +0000 UTC View PostDorian bent down and inspected the mystery elixirs.
“Drink me!” was written in Sun’s distinctive scrawl. And there were exactly seven vials here—the same number of Kinzo’s elixirs on offer at the Auction. He picked one up and gave it a little swirl, saw the liquid flow slow. But it was subtly different from the way sludge or mud ...
2023-05-20 04:03:38 +0000 UTC View PostThe theater was silent, waiting, all eyes on Booth One Hundred and Twelve. The Auctioneer marinated in the tension, working his meatball fists around one another as though trying to congeal them into one giant meat club, smiling his oily little smile all the while.
But soon it was clear no response was forthcoming.
The Auctioneer gav...
2023-05-18 06:05:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Lot One Hundred and Twenty! This auction’s crowning items…. Godking Kinzo’s Millennium’s Elixirs!”
There was a chorus of creaks and shuffling fabric as the whole auditorium sat upright at once. All eyes were on the Auctioneer now, and by his oily smile he was soaking it all in, a sponge for attention. Each glance puffed him up...
2023-05-17 03:24:21 +0000 UTC View PostGerard tapped his conch as he strode a tight gait, felt it heating up under his palm. When he spoke, his voice came out tight too.
“Fate,” he said. “I need you.”
“What is it?” To his credit Fate did not bother with the ‘why’? Or the ‘how’? He heard the urgency in Gerard’s voice. He knew something had gone very w...
2023-05-16 05:47:26 +0000 UTC View PostDorian felt oddly calm as he was shunted into the void in chains, a small legion of Empyreans clustered about him. His body was brimming with energy but his mind was crisp and still. The world filtered in clear, sharp, bright. He felt in control, somehow. Despite the preponderance of evidence otherwise.
They emerged at a windowles...
2023-05-15 02:48:11 +0000 UTC View Post“I think I have a way to crack the vault,” breathed Dorian. “Well—not exactly. Indirectly. The way Sun describes it, going in straight-up is probably impossible—”
Gerard had a look of twitching horror, cracks tickling the edges of his mask of calm. It was a look Dorian was used to getting from him. But seldom in situat...
2023-05-14 05:05:19 +0000 UTC View PostWarding qi wrapped the cargo boat in giant cobwebs as it wound up the channel. Guards shuffled about on the deck, scowling at nothing and everything. Looking straight on. People seldom remembered to look up, even those paid to pay attention. And even if they looked, what’d they see? Specks of dust and smoke and ash floating about! Nothing to w...
2023-05-13 05:33:49 +0000 UTC View PostSun found herself bouncing a peach core off a wall, chucking it with her feet and catching it with her hands. Peach cores weren’t very elastic, as balls went, but you worked with what you had.
And she had Gerard. Reading, as he always seemed to be. Nice enough, but he didn’t seem the talking type. And there was his toad Gerard...
2023-05-12 00:17:20 +0000 UTC View Post