“You’re certain you’re not missing anything,” said the Ghoul Doctor. He gave Hreinn a flat look. “Hadn’t you mentioned that a local noticed your trap?”
“Noticed, yes,” humme...
2025-10-07 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for late chapter folks--just realized I scheduled it for the wrong day!
//
Gaoler’s Observation Chambers
The longtime...
2025-10-06 02:59:44 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m just saying, it might not be helpful to give yourself too hard a time about it,” said Zane. He took another bite of kebab. “If you want to feel better about it, maybe you could put you...
2025-10-05 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostOne day around the 5th season of his time in the Pure Yang Lands, just about 10 years in, Zane was eating kebabs and watching league with Kain.
Kain had fashioned some scrying glasses f...
2025-10-02 01:34:12 +0000 UTC View Post“Get a load of this,” said the Barbarian Sage proudly. He swept out an arm, gesturing at a vast swathe of space.
“Presenting: Boot Camp!”
At the very center of the space, ...
2025-10-01 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Hey folks! No chapter Monday, 9/29, sorry about that--got fried from traveling and couldn't recover
//
Before Zane knew it, yet another shard season had begun—h...
2025-09-29 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA full two years after Zane first arrived, meteors started filling the skies once more.
Construct wagons and carriages were coming in. And for the first time in what felt like ages, colorful ...
2025-09-28 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Bonus chapter!
The dragons did end up taking down the King Astrolith, by the looks of it, but not without leveling the valley below. It hardly even looked like a valley ...
2025-09-26 19:30:22 +0000 UTC View Post7-and-a-half hours in, and Zane found himself deep in a shard drought.
The past two hours had yielded nothing. He was stalled at 6 shards and pretty miffed about it.
He wasn’t sure wh...
2025-09-25 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostHe deposited the shards in an interspatial ring and kept moving. Astrolith beams razed the landscape behind him, but with his Great Sage Mind keeping track of things he had no trouble getting out o...
2025-09-24 02:28:43 +0000 UTC View PostZane had given some thought as to how he wanted to conduct this night. He wanted to make it as efficient as he could—only hunting Shard Bosses, stacking as many Destruction shards as possible in ...
2025-09-23 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, after they did their daily clean-up, Kain came up to him with a scroll in hand.
“What’s up?” said Zane.
Kain looked like he was about to say something. Then he p...
2025-09-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“They call it the ‘Vault of the Heavens’ opening,” said Kain. “Once a year, the stars align just so. The pull of the Pure Yang grows strongest, and all those shards return from whence the...
2025-09-21 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostHis third Star-crushing Slash made clearing the morning horde much faster. With that third slash taking out two Empyreans at a time, and Kain’s own thicker pillar of Destruction doing the same, t...
2025-09-18 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostHopefully not, if he could avoid it. Though it did seem the kind of thing Noughtfire would put him up to. The old guy would get a kick out of it.
Zane kind of expected this Kain to be surpris...
2025-09-17 01:02:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe next day, they both arrived around sunrise.
Kain gave him a look-over. “You're here again.”
“Yeah.”
“…Very well, then.”
That was that. At least this time, ...
2025-09-16 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostHe was just about to go to town on them when he heard a raspy—“Wait.”
There was Kain, holding up a hand. He was panting a little.
“If you wake them, we’ll have to fight them a...
2025-09-15 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostZane headed back to find the starfield overrun.
He was baffled to find no less than thirty Empyrean auras crowding that field. But they weren’t like any he’d felt. Their auras felt dampen...
2025-09-14 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostZane still got the sense that this Kain fellow was suspicious of him. Every so often, he’d send Zane a frown from across the Valley.
The fellow gave fewer frowns as the day progressed. They...
2025-09-11 01:34:40 +0000 UTC View PostThe draw of the star-crushing slashes was how they were meant to stack.
It’d be like his Red Giant Storm in that way—just much faster and more versatile. That was the theory, anyway. The ...
2025-09-10 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Hey there,” Zane said. He wasn’t sure what the proper greeting here was, but he figured you couldn’t go wrong with a friendly wave. “Have either of you fellows heard of Mount X? I’m Ja...
2025-09-09 01:26:39 +0000 UTC View PostHe fit the gear into the altar. It groaned into motion, cranking into a spin.
After a few seconds it seemed to reach some stable rate. Some fundamental machinery of the Galaxy had whirred to ...
2025-09-08 01:30:56 +0000 UTC View Post“I only mean to say that things have changed,” said the Ghoul Doctor. “That last duel should raise alarms, Master. It should make for a marked shift in our understanding of Zane.”
“The disguise amulet. The one you used for ‘Jack’—might I see it?”
Zane pulled it out. “You’re quite keen on this thing.”
“It’s a fine disguise,” said Noughtfire, ...
2025-09-05 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe man in the straw hat stopped. “You must be Zane.”
He had pale Destruction scars running down his cheeks, clawing down his throat. You got the sense that far greater scars ran beneath ...
2025-09-03 01:45:34 +0000 UTC View PostThere were no other clues than that.
He had no issues with his Red Moon Pagoda. The Spirit was a bit cranky, but he didn’t mind. It had held up to all of his soul defense needs so far and t...
2025-09-01 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostReina had also gotten news about Haxorax. The prince was seeking out soul experts in the various Factions.
“He’s doing a stint at the Constellation Order,” she told Zane. “They do hav...
2025-08-30 22:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“A reckoning!” Lyxandor had to laugh.
Then he turned on Sverrex. “That’s what you’re here for, is it?”
The little wyrm wouldn’t meet his eyes.
He went back to the Ph...
2025-08-28 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Sry for the lateness folks! On a plane and couldn’t get the WiFi working, plane is descending and just got 5g so it’s up now!
//
The moment he saw his son submit, the Pat...
2025-08-27 03:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostA wall of gold came at him.
It was like watching sunrise over the face of the star core, and as it passed, it drove a furrow a mile deep. The blast could’ve spanned a continent. It was a bl...
2025-08-26 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post