Cognosticon

Chapter 288: Old Enemies, New Friends

Before the worst revelation, Zae Zin Nim had been shocked for a moment when Omilaena had grabbed her. The other woman's touch had been so forceful, yet it didn't seem like she was reverting to her ...

Chapter 287: The Meeting of Continental Powers

During the several months Omilaena had been in the capital, she'd been contacted by the Council of Elders only twice. Both times surreptitiously, via elves traveling to the library on real business...

Chapter 286: Facing Down the Savage Heart

Kai had been concerned about finding the right timing, but he got an opportunity almost immediately after leaving the city. Krugbash was traveling off on his own, hunting some sort of sacred beast....

Chapter 285: Intersections in Traeton

"Where are all the transcriptions?" Troulon asked.

"Western office," Omilaena told him. "Why are the manuscripts I wanted being held by random merchants?"

"The Great Library can't conti...

Chapter 284: Yoni and Lingam

During his month of training, Kai had expected that the politics would be the hard part and actually awakening the Savage Heart would be easy. To his surprise, it was the first time he truly falter...

Chapter 283: Hunting Moon Scorpions

Kai's muscles screamed as he forced his hand upward, gripping the next protruding rock. The climb should have been easy, but the beast hides wrapped around his limbs choked off his spiritual streng...

Chapter 282: Deep Study of Dual Cultivation

Libraries had never been Zae Zin Nim's natural habitat. Of course the Brightwind Sect had a huge archive, including many techniques in addition to histories, volumes of poetry, and family records. ...

Chapter 281: Meeting the Savage Creed Elders

Now that he had a target, Kai made much faster progress. There wasn't much in this wilderness that could stop him outside of other people, since the greatest challenge seemed to be actually trackin...

Chapter 280: Chasing Down the Savage Creed

When Kai left the capital to head into the eastern wilderness, he was glad for multiple reasons. "Civilization" no longer felt so safe now that he'd met the demons on the prowl, he was impatient to...

Chapter 279: Demonic Terms of Entry

Even though they were standing in the halls of demonic power, most of the demons had left. What remained wasn't even a symbol, it was just an empty shell: the demons' rule over the Commonwealth had...

Chapter 278: Prey and Not Prey

Kai's instincts blazed and he nearly attacked in the moment he was isolated, but he restrained himself. He understood how the demons might think him weak, since half his strength was invisible to t...

Chapter 277: Demons and Their Prey

"Troulon." Omilaena regarded him with an icy expression. "I'm surprised you aren't dead."

"Demonic rule has actually been quite beneficial for me." The man called Troulon readjusted the cuff ...

Chapter 276: The Insane First Crest

After a week of travel Kai was beginning to wonder when they'd reach Traeton, but Omilaena just kept saying that he'd know. The Commonwealth looked basically the same so far, if a bit wealthier wit...

Chapter 275: Forward is the Easiest Direction

Technically there were still multiple deadlines looming over them. The demons were plotting war, Zae Zin Nim's father was hunting for her, and the monster incursion was less than five years away. T...

Chapter 274: The End of Intelligence Operations

For a time Kai's world was a blur of pain and shock. When his own teeth had bitten his foot he hadn't expected it to hurt so much, but it was as if he'd bitten his own soul. Only force of will kept...

Chapter 273: Infiltrating the Obelisk Facility

They'd made plans to wake him at the appropriate time, but Kai woke in the darkness, strangely alert. It wasn't yet time for their attack, so he had a moment to reflect.

Ideally he would have...

Chapter 272: Consuming for a Heist

Over the next day they rushed out of the city while Omilaena explained what she'd discovered. Kai didn't understand the details of the reagents and materials she'd used to come to her conclusion, w...

Chapter 271: Claw Against Claw

The match technically continued, but Kai was still trapped in that first moment, trying to understand what he had witnessed. There was no question that the man's arm had transformed into a monstrou...

Chapter 270: Investigations Great and Small

"It's been difficult." The elven couple sat morosely, the man with an arm wrapped around his wife but fearful himself. "A lot our family has moved west to Crescilor," she continued, "but we have ou...

Chapter 269: The Citizens of the Commonwealth

Kai knew that he didn't have much experience as a world traveler, so he thought he might be ignorant, but he couldn't help but compare the Commonwealth of Traebor to the Krysal city states. A week ...

Chapter 268: Through the Coiled Empire

Once the elves left them, Kai was again stranded in a completely unknown foreign land. He couldn't have called the Elven Wilds home, but the wastes were at least familiar. Now they were allegedly i...

Chapter 267: The Disaster at the Elven School

Elven healers eventually reached Ceryyn and tried to help her, but she was absolutely adamant that she wouldn't rest until she'd spoken with them. Eventually the Bludshard elves managed to get her ...

Chapter 266: Hunting New Opportunities

Kai wasn't ultimately clear on the fundamental limits on the elven hunt, other than it had something to do with migration patterns. Based on information the women gathered, the event seemed to pete...

Chapter 265: The Great Unicorn Hunt

After so long training and preparing, not to mention battling the Thunderbird, the unicorn hunt was a bit disappointing. Most of Kai's competitors weren't that much stronger than him, and their gra...

Chapter 264: A Different Sort of Earth Soul

In theory, all Zae Zin Nim needed to do was advance to Earth Soul and attain her full potential. But in theory, so many aspects of her life should have been simple. The chosen daughter of a powerfu...

Chapter 263: Choices, Limits, and Thresholds

At first Kai felt nothing but disorientation. All of his senses seemed to be missing... except for one. He could still feel the hunger surging within him, as ravenous as always. And yet it was part...

Chapter 262: One Final Gambit, One Final Hunt

Kai's first clash with the Thunderbird after his training very nearly ended the entire hunt: the monster assumed he was still sluggish in the air and attacked with too much confidence. He wasn't go...

Chapter 261: Hunting Pegasi

(Cognosticon here. Yesterday I was scheduling the next sets of chapters and I screwed up, clicking "post" instead of "schedule" on one chapter. I deleted it immediately, but patrons would have rece...

Chapter 260: Consuming Another Sort of Wings

Over the course of his life Kai had lost count of the number of times he'd fallen unconscious and woken up injured, so he wasn't surprised to feel pain in darkness. This time felt a little differen...

Chapter 259: Thunderous Plans and Schemes

Their first attempt failed, of course, because even Omilaena wasn't used to fighting a monster so insanely fast. On their second attempt she had planned a trap that launched a metal spear into the ...