Author's Note: Second of two chapters. Link to the first if you haven't read it yet!
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Grappling with the idea that I've caused the end of the world would be bad enough on...
2025-06-09 14:29:12 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: First of two chapters today (because these two chapters are two chapters, but really shouldn't be posted apart.)
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I don't let up even after the strike hits, because I know for a fact it won't be enough to take down Kauku. It's enough to widen...
2025-06-09 14:26:15 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Link to Chapter 1 if you haven't checked this out yet!
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It took a lot longer than Cale expected for Akkau to finish with his testing—enough that the awkward silence laps...
2025-06-08 12:28:22 +0000 UTC View PostThe title, apparently, is a significant one. Gheraa says it with reverence, almost with a sense of worship. I, on the other hand, shut down all his attempts to refer to me by that title.
"No," I say. "Absolutely not. We're not doing this. If I had to choose a title, it wouldn't be this one....
2025-06-07 15:41:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe fourth phase shift requires a practitioner's core to support a certain amount of physical reality. I've been looking for something that might fit almost as soon as I realized this, but there are very few things that actually fit my requirements—and there are requirements.
Any...
2025-06-05 14:18:38 +0000 UTC View Post"What do you mean, impossible?" I ask.
"A phase collapse is a traumatic thing," the Knight explains. "Without someone else to support your soul, it cannot be survived. You can use your soul to hold up his own, but that places you both in peril; it will mean your survival is con...
2025-06-04 15:41:13 +0000 UTC View PostAccording to Novi, we have exactly an hour to do this. How she knows all this is apparently a matter of her Path of Sight. She can see into the underlying truths of reality, she claims, in a way that's not dissimilar from how my Thread of Insight works. One of those truths, apparently, is the tru...
2025-06-03 14:53:53 +0000 UTC View PostDespite Akkau's apparent desire to take Cale... somewhere, the dragon seemed incredibly resistant to the idea of using a teleportation spell to do so. Cale didn't really get it, considering he'd already used one not so long ago. Maybe he was one of the rare few that suffered a form of te...
2025-06-01 13:24:18 +0000 UTC View PostThere's a fun little trick Guard and I have learned about our respective abilities—specifically, in my ability to Anchor and in the chains he likes to use. It's a sort of intrinsic synergy, something we encountered while we were sparring in the Grove. For one reason or another, his chains are a...
2025-05-31 15:12:00 +0000 UTC View PostVersa was starting to regret her decision to fight on Ethan's side.
She was, of course, sure that her past self was correct in her assessment of the newest Trialgoer's capabilities. That didn't change the fact that fighting Teluwat was terrifying, and it certainly didn't help that he was di...
2025-05-29 14:03:30 +0000 UTC View PostFilian was nervous. As far as his memories went, that wasn't particularly unusual for him. His "father" was volatile at the best of times, and while he remembered plenty of good moments with Teluwat, there were plenty among them that were... worrying.
He remembered being made to wa...
2025-05-27 15:23:49 +0000 UTC View PostSynopsis:
The more lives you've lived, the more mana you have, and Cale has lived too many lives to count.
At this point, his core is closer to the magical equivalent of a nuclear reactor. The downside to this is that conventional spells have become impossibly difficu...
2025-05-25 06:58:29 +0000 UTC View Post"Ethan," Ahkelios says quietly. I try to look at him, though my vision is blurry from Firmament use; I can't quite focus through it all. Not a lot of time has passed, but the strain of keeping Field of Immortality active has been increasing with every second that ticks by. "You need to stop. Let ...
2025-05-24 15:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostThis isn't the first time I've encountered Firmament like this. I've seen it once before in the Empty City, used to create an Abstraction for the express purpose of killing me. I'm not surprised the Integrators have somehow managed to build it directly into a trap meant for their Trialgoers.
<... 2025-05-22 14:12:27 +0000 UTC View PostAuthor's Note: Just a quick pre-chapter note! Chapter 39 was posted as an extra off-schedule chapter, in case anyone missed it!
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14 seconds left before the Ritual stage is ...
2025-05-20 14:56:56 +0000 UTC View PostThe first Compressive Pulse I throw against the other Ethan explodes with so much force it hurls him back down the tunnel he emerged from, obliterating half the chamber wall in the process.
It's not enough to stop him, of course. It wouldn't be enough to stop me. By the time the Pu...
2025-05-17 14:41:41 +0000 UTC View PostEthan was using Temporal Link a lot, and it put a surprising amount of strain on Ghost, considering what he was trying to do.
He didn't mind it. Whatever Ethan was up to, he was fighting something incredibly dangerous; Ghost didn't want to distract him. He considered demanifesting ...
2025-05-16 15:39:27 +0000 UTC View PostPremonition as a skill has saved my life countless times. I've never seen it react like this—the thing is in near-panic, to the point where it's almost difficult for me to think through the level of danger it's pouring into my skull. I have to strangle the amount of Firmament I'm feeding to the...
2025-05-15 15:09:53 +0000 UTC View PostA clump of vines sporting distorted, screaming wings of crystal launches itself at me. I grit my teeth and summon a Force Construct to block it. The wings themselves can't get through my armor, but they resonate with a sound-based skill that I think belongs to Dhruv. Even without being able to hu...
2025-05-13 14:20:07 +0000 UTC View PostIt doesn't take us long to find the chamber where the Seed is kept. In fact, it almost feels like the Sewers are rearranging themselves to make it easier for us to get there. I can feel the rumbling beneath my feet; the movement of stone; even the limited reach of my Firmament sense tells me the ...
2025-05-10 14:43:29 +0000 UTC View PostGhost had no idea how he would feel when he saw his old friends again. A small part of him was worried about it, but a greater part of him was mostly excited. To think Bimar and He-Who-Wanders were still alive after all this time! Sure, they wouldn't remember him, but that was fine. That was how ...
2025-05-08 14:03:16 +0000 UTC View PostI'm met with a familiar scene when the Tear finishes materializing around me. A lizard points a blaster at another one of her species, someone that looks pretty much like he could be her brother. It trembles in her grip.
"I'm sorry," she says. The pain in her voice is real, but so is the de...
2025-05-06 14:39:33 +0000 UTC View PostI try to put that last revelation out of my mind. Adeya and the others, thankfully, understand the reason behind the delay once I explain what happened. "Just let us know next time," is all she asks.
"Will do," I agree.
They'd figured something had happened pretty quickly when I didn'...
2025-05-04 15:34:00 +0000 UTC View PostA spark blossoms in my mind and unfolds into a temporal map.
For the first time, I have a location. I know exactly where to find an echo of a Trialgoer in the moments before they end. According to the relic, though, I won't have much time to do it—the closest temporal crossover is going t...
2025-05-02 15:28:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe more Versa tells me about the Great City of Palus, the more I appreciate the effort she put into coming here to warn me about it. I've gotten an overview from Guard before, but not in this much detail—Teluwat keeps most things about his Great City under wraps.
Even then, what Guard
Kauku was, all things considered, relatively pleased with the way his plans were proceeding. Granted, the word relatively was doing a lot of work in that sentence.
The seal he'd put over himself was inconvenient, to say the least. He understood why he'd done it, of course....
2025-04-26 15:18:10 +0000 UTC View PostI decide to try starting with an explanation.
"I'm a Trialgoer like you are," I say.
She narrows her eyes at me. "Likely story."
Like before, a dagger made of Firmament materializes in her hand, and she flicks it toward me in a near-invisible movement. I don't bother reaching ou...
2025-04-24 14:00:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe Physical skills present a bit of an easier choice than the Astral one, thankfully. I prefer avoiding damage rather than tanking it, and while defending others is a good use of my Body skills, Eternal Moment by itself has defensive capabilities beyond just protecting me. There's an argument to...
2025-04-22 14:31:30 +0000 UTC View PostAdeya wasn't kidding about the Sewer's monsters mostly attacking in waves. I'm not sure what to make of it, but after we clear the Root Acolytes, we aren't bothered by monsters again for a while—long enough, in fact, that we have time to make it to the next valve chamber.
[All ene...
2025-04-20 14:20:17 +0000 UTC View PostThe worst part about the loops, Naru reflected, was the fact that he had no idea when a reset would happen. For all his desperation to get into them, now that he was actually here, he'd realized one painful truth:
Time loops were boring.
He'd made countless plans for what he'd do if h...
2025-04-17 14:22:07 +0000 UTC View Post