They started into the depths. The tunnel made a ramp straight down.
Just ten feet in, Zane was already starting to feel it. The walls were scratched heavily with gravity runes. Nothing like the dwarves’ or the runes of man, but they were strong in their own blunt way.
They hammered gravity on him with each step. It just kept shooti...
2025-07-21 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Make that fist in the mind,” said the Sage. “That’s it. Now, you crush the damned thing!”
Zane did.
The twenty-foot-tall geode hurtling through the air got crushed to dust.
The geode troll that threw it blinked up, befuddled.
“Nice one!” cheered the Sage.
The other geode trolls looked just as befuddle...
2025-07-20 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Bonus chapter! Things are back on track
//
Late the next day…
Zane was bleeding from a thousand cuts, and more were coming yet.
Hundreds of spears of hardened blood sailed through the air.
A good chunk struck his body. He took plenty to the ...
2025-07-18 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt all came down to a brutal close-quarters struggle.
The mecha-dwarf had certain advantages. It had runetech pistons in those Divine Profound fists. It had that mech-core, putting the heft of planets behind every punch. The rockets boosting its fists could down half-step Empyreans by themselves.
But Zane had his heart.
It turn...
2025-07-17 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostHe chose one of the tunnels out of the arena, and without further ado, started smashing his way toward it.
Soon he’d smashed his way into the guts of the arena, deep beneath the stands. He started making steady progress again—steamrolling right on through. Waves of droids went flying with each blow.
He was back in the thick of th...
2025-07-16 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn’t that Zane minded a nose break now and again. It happened against these heavy hitters. He’d just been hoping it would hit a little later. The first exchange of the fight was a little embarrassing, he felt, even at his nose break rates.
He shook his head, trying to clear it—whirled, felt it lock onto him again, and just manag...
2025-07-15 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe old fellow landed, making a chunky crater. BOOM!
He looked like he’d just come back from a jog.
The blow looked pretty effortless, tearing through reality like paper. Zane could tell he’d barely scratched the surface of his strength.
He thought about the moment of impact, when the Sage cranked all the way back ...
2025-07-14 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“There you go!” roared the Sage.
Zane was wrestling with a dwarf in a mecha-suit. A brute of a half-step Empyrean—its gears ground violently as it tried to crush him into the dirt.
He growled, shoving back hard. He had to burn his Asura State near 200% just to keep it off. The thing was making him work for it.
Normally, Z...
2025-07-13 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 500 chapters! :D
//
His crew closed in on the vehicle. A few prodded it with their shadow-blades.
“Do you know who I am?” said the man.
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar,” said the dwarf, more stiffly this time.
“They call me Pretty Boy,” said the bandit. “Pretty Boy Kal.”
...
2025-07-10 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Fifth form?” said Zane.
The Sage made a noise through a mouthful of meat.
Zane took another thoughtful munch.
Sometimes he did wonder just how strong the old fellow was.
The Barbarian Sage never went much into it, but Zane hadn’t seen anything manage more than a passing scratch—outside that one Malzareth vision, ...
2025-07-09 01:35:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe Sage gave him a slap on the back that nearly tumbled him back down the crater. “How’s that for a damned warm-up!”
“I felt good,” Zane told him. He thought about it. “Bit rusty, but I’m getting there.”
He took a few more hits than he had to if he was in peak fighting shape. It was more a mindset thing than anything...
2025-07-08 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Hey folks—couldn’t get a chapter out Sunday, will be back tomorrow!
//
There was the crash of chains shattering.
Then lines of thick, rage-filled light burst into being, streaking for the center…
A heat began to build.
A build—and build—
It was something like a nuclear blast, bu...
2025-07-06 01:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the lateness, folks! Just managed to get this one out
//
They even managed to throw Zane off, making him stumble back.
“Tricky bastards,” said the Sage, frowning.
For a second, Zane looked a bit baffled.
Then the Sage saw the lad’s eyes narrow. He saw the moment the lad decided ...
2025-07-03 03:55:06 +0000 UTC View PostThat said—he was feeling pretty spent. Physically as well as essence-wise. The Sage passed him an iced drink, a bottle of ice blue streaked with lightning-whites.
“It’s the good stuff,” the Sage explained.
Zane inspected it a bit, then shrugged, and downed it in a single gulp.
It was quite sweet. The moment it wen...
2025-07-02 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: No chapter on Monday, see y'all Tues!
//
They thudded into the ground, making craters. He saw them when the dust plumes cleared—dwarf skeletons decked in heavy armor, hefting shields that looked like blast doors, forming lines. Then it was like Zane was facing down an army of extremely stocky knights.
T...
2025-06-30 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, Zane thought the sky had cracked open. Then he realized that was all stone—a great sea of stone, far above, stretching endlessly, a continent of fissures and stalagmites.
That was a ceiling—a very distant one at that.
They had to be deep underground.
They’d landed on a road the length of a football field. All da...
2025-06-29 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostOnce they found a quieter stretch of void, the Barbarian Sage made a little fire on Fluffy’s back. He got out some yams and raw jerky and the like, and something that looked like green spam preserved in these big vats of oil—oil soaked in essence. They roasted it all and ate. Pretty salty stuff, but surprisingly rich.
Then they t...
2025-06-26 01:49:21 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Hey folks--no chapter again on Tuesday. I thought I could get back in rhythm faster than I could. Still not right fully in the head w/ personal life stuff, sorry about that--I'm just going to have to ask for your patience, this is on me. It's easier this week than last. I'm making progress, just slower than I'd like. ...
2025-06-24 01:26:45 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Hey folks--no chapter 6/22, sorry about that :/ Still getting back into the swing of things. Should be getting back to a normal schedule soon.
//
Noughtfire took a sip of tea.
“There was a time I sought Destruction,” he said. “A time I'd seen all there was to see of it in this Galaxy. So...
2025-06-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
We're back!
//
It was time for another picnic—a nice reunion after so many years away. Evan, Avery, and Reina all made it.
It didn’t feel like twenty years had passed. Twenty years would’ve been a big fraction of their old lifetimes, but it made for a tiny fraction now. It jus...
2025-06-19 01:34:18 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the late chapter, folks!
//
That universe came at him again—it was like a portal to another world, a great vastness of Earth and Grass and Stone Law. An avalanche of hostile might.
But this time, he charged straight into it.
Bore down with Overlord Annihilation Charge.
The collision...
2025-06-12 08:31:20 +0000 UTC View PostIt turned out Reina missed him too—
Level up!
Essence Level 563 -> 564
Afterward, he started telling her what had gone down the last couple of years—just catching her up. He went through Makos and Lam’s story. She figured it was Malzareth pretty fast and narrowed her eyes when she hear...
2025-06-10 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostHe’d never been hit like this. Not even by the Slayer, which had given him his worst beating yet.
He heard something in his arms crack with the force and gritted his teeth.
Then the punch kept going. It blasted him through the chest, sending him tumbling head over heels; he thudded, slamming into boulders and dirt. At last, he land...
2025-06-09 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“It all rests on this. One. Moment!” roared the announcer. Then, for the first time that fight, even he quieted down. So did the audience—although you could almost hear their hearts beating faster, feel millions of breaths held at once—sense the arena was thick with anticipation.
“Shall we begin?” said Salazar, amused....
2025-05-29 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostZane was actually starting to appreciate this announcer. He’d thought the guy a little unprofessional at the start of the tournament. But he warmed to him over time—he could respect a man who always went for it.
“The Way of Rock!” roared the announcer. “It shows you can never judge a man by the size of his rock! It proves greatne...
2025-05-28 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostDiseased limbs exploded out of the Blood Demon’s body, ballooning fast. Skin bursting open to show tattered wings, hands turning to claws, bulging—this giant, heavily diseased gargoyle unfurling in the middle of the arena…
***
“The Blood Demon Sage just started his transformation!” cried the announcer. “…Damn, that’s ...
2025-05-27 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostShe fired straight for Zane’s heart. No hesitation.
That arrow moved with the force that could’ve killed a minor god. It actually caught him a bit off guard.
The issue with his dodging was that he had to limit himself to Ascendant speeds. It was quite a hassle, twisting and jerking out of the way in time—he just barely managed ...
2025-05-26 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKira, Jun, and Ryu made their way through the hallways of the grand stadium, fresh off yet another Jack victory. This one had gone surprisingly fast.
“Guess it just played to his strengths,” said Jun cheerfully.
None of them were still in the running, so it was a pretty relaxed time, Ryu thought. They were just here spectating a ...
2025-05-25 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, folks!” said the announcer. “It’s the round of 16—it’s getting real low now. Every fighter left’s a threat to make the podium. Every name’ll go down in the history books!”
The stands were packed with cheering fans—quite a few were waving rocks, which Zane found pretty heartwarming. Minor Gods were there too—...
2025-05-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Welcome, folks, to the round of 32!”
By now, the arena was packed to near-bursting—every row and box. This late in the tourney, only the grandest of the arenas was in play—a spiderweb silver funneling to clear blue sky.
The audience thundered its approval.
“On the left—it’s just her first year of dueling, and she...
2025-05-21 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post