The angel stepped forward, brushing past Jormun with about as much consideration as it held for everything else—which is to say, none at all. Its brilliant white eyes, shining within the black void beneath its hood like a pair of stars plucked from the night sky, were locked upon Xaphan.
...
2021-04-21 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWith murder in his heart and killing intent pouring from his body, Leon directed Anzu closer to the boxy structure in the center of the massive crater lake. There, he could see Jormun watching with an expression of mild amusement. The pirate made no moves to counter Leon’s obviously hostile adv...
2021-04-19 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostDidn't quite manage to get through Ch. 93 this week, I apologize for that. I did get through 91, though! =)
I think I'm finally getting to the parts of the Knight Academy arc that need much less attention. Coincidentally, they'd also the parts of the arc where Leon is interactin...
2021-04-19 01:53:49 +0000 UTC View PostAs Sigebert’s flagship sped up and his battlegroup spilled out into the channel surrounding the crater, Leon flew a little bit lower and pursued Jormun’s ship. The wind howled in his ears and the rain was so thick it was practically a solid wall at the speeds that Anzu was flying, but neither...
2021-04-16 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWith a dull thwack audible even above the howling winds and pouring rain, one last explosive shell was fired from a mangonel attached to the bow of a Legion war galley. It exploded upon the deck of one of the pirate’s long, thin ships, cracking the already-strained hull, and letting the ship’...
2021-04-14 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe seventh of the Serpentine Isles was largely the same as the sixth: ruined in just about every way, reduced by the forced eruptions of its volcanos into an archipelago of bare, lifeless black stone.
The Legion took little time to explore the place. Leon’s guess that Jormun had retreate...
2021-04-12 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHaven't done one of these in almost two months. This new word count has been kind of kicking my ass, not going to lie, but I think I've got a good handle on it now, and I knew that I needed to get back to doing these, if only to just get it over with and get rid of the much more embarrassin...
2021-04-12 02:36:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe remnants of the first shattered island struck Leon as surreal. The sixth island had certainly been destroyed when Penitent set off the volcanos in its interior, but what was left was a twisted warren of thin waterways and small saltwater lakes. Great spires and huge ridges of bare, blac...
2021-04-09 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLeon spent a great deal of time speaking with Anshu, and the man gave Leon exactly what he wanted: an explanation as detailed as he could give of Jormun’s specific plans. And they were exactly as ambitiously deranged as Leon had believed. Jormun had promised all of his followers that he was bri...
2021-04-07 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostWith the fourth of the Serpentine Isles at their back, Sigebert’s fleet made fairly good time. That didn’t quite make up for the late start, though, for it had taken the entire rest of the previous day following the battle to clean up. All of the krakens that Jormun had unleashed upon them ha...
2021-04-05 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostJormun walked over to Leon and the fire mage, now separated by a wall of water that no one else could’ve conjured.
“You’ve really caught me flat-footed here, haven’t you?” he said with a hateful smile on his face, an expression that Leon found quite unsettling, having until this d...
2021-04-02 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeon and Alix, mounted upon Anzu, pursued Jormun as quickly as they could without abandoning all caution. The ships Sigebert had sent into the narrows had been heavily damaged and disabled by the pirate, though Jormun had lost all the ships he’d deployed. From what Alix told Leon, the caves she...
2021-03-31 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostAll in all, about a dozen ships joined Jormun out in the straits, all long and sleek, with huge iron rams on the front. They were fairly small ships compared to Legion war galleys, but they were packed with powerful mages at least a tier or two above the average Legion marine by Leon’s estimati...
2021-03-29 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a beautiful day when Sigebert’s fleet finally came within five miles of the fourth island. The sun was shining, the seas were calm, and a light, pleasant sea breeze kept everything cool and comfortable.
For Leon, however, it was a good day for a whole other reason: the fleet was ab...
2021-03-26 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLeon stared at the third island as it slowly grew smaller in the distance. He’d only been there for about five days—practically an eternity in his mind, but the shortest amount of time he’d spent at any of the islands.
He stood on the main deck of Sigebert’s flagship. The Fleet Lega...
2021-03-24 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostLeon glared at the underground river in the harbor of the temple, the memory of the ‘battle’ with Jormun running through his head again and again, the pirate’s shit-eating grin now practically locked in Leon’s mind’s eye. He just couldn’t believe that, after everything that they had e...
2021-03-22 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeon felt rather terrible, and for more reasons than the long list he already had from the hours he and his party had spent within the temple. No, as he stared at the grand stone doors leading to the inner chambers of the temple at the center of the maze, he felt terrible for something else entir...
2021-03-19 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLeon felt the cloth of his shirt start to stick to his back as he broke out into a cold sweat. The pools in this chamber had contained seven huge serpent-like monsters, each of different colors, and each with at least ninth-tier strength. They weren’t overtly hostile yet, but given just how far...
2021-03-17 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeon crouched down besides Gaius, a sense of anxiety in his chest that he would never have guessed would be there even just a few months ago. But anxious he was, for Gaius wasn’t moving, and the reason why was easy to guess: the bloody hole Leon had poked in his chest to help bait the shadow ca...
2021-03-15 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Why’s there a damn maze down here?” Gaius wondered aloud. His complaints were echoed in Leon and Maia’s heads.
“Because why wouldn’t there be?” Leon responded, his tone cynical and jaded. “Nothing can ever be simple, can it?”
“Simplicity is not for men like us, Le...
2021-03-12 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLeon stared at the ruined colossus before him, the humanoid half lying on the ground, damp and scorched, while its serpentine half lay at his feet, gouged and eyeless. Both of the emeralds that had been embedded in its eyes had been pulled into his soul realm, but the gold Leon hesitated to try a...
2021-03-10 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeon, Maia, and Gaius arrived in the colossus chamber ready for a long and protracted battle. What remained of Leon’s armor adorned his body, and his family’s blade was in his hands; Maia looked about ready to cleave a mountain in twain, and the water dragon she immediately conjured to her wa...
2021-03-08 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Finally!” the shade of Elise spat, her voice sending chills of dissonance through Leon. “Look at her! The bitch is as ugly on the outside as she is on the inside…”
Leon grimaced as he took in the sight of Maia down in the dry pit left behind by the pond. Her lower half had ...
2021-03-05 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostLeon and Gaius sped through the spatial tunnel they appeared in, Leon not allowing them to stop for even a moment. With Jormun’s attention on them, he didn’t want to give the pirate another opportunity to screw with the spatial tunnel like he did last time.
It seemed like Leon’s cauti...
2021-03-03 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeon stood there in the black void, staring at Gaius with a complex look on his face, and even more complex emotions running through his mind. The shock of the trial world conjuring the images of both Artorias and Valeria still hadn’t quite worn off, and it made him dread venturing into Maia’...
2021-03-01 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe room that Leon fought the shade of Artorias in swiftly reformed around him. In only a matter of seconds, all of the furniture had returned, the carpets had sprung back into being, and the room’s proportions had fixed themselves. There wasn’t so much as a single scorch mark on the floor to...
2021-02-26 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAgony became Leon’s world for just a moment as Artorias’ blade cleanly sliced through the metal of his cuirass, cut through the Skyflax padding beneath, slid between his ribs, and impaled one of Leon’s lungs. It was such a painful and debilitating strike that Leon could do nothing more than...
2021-02-24 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Ahh, there you are…” Jormun whispered in Leon’s ear as Leon took down some of the villa’s defensive wards.
Leon immediately swapped out his stolen servant’s attire for his armor and drew his sword. His eyes flitted from corner to corner in the small enchantment control room, bu...
2021-02-22 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeon gritted his teeth as he inched forward into the hallway. From what he could sense, his ring of invisibility was going to be greatly limited here, being disrupted every time he opened a door and leaving him unable to use it for at least five minutes after, and his magic senses would be even l...
2021-02-19 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeon was almost surprised when he made it over the villa’s low wall. He hadn’t sensed anything concerning within it, but it was still odd that a place like this villa, where its main buildings were obviously so heavily warded, would have an unenchanted outer wall—and Leon knew that it was u...
2021-02-17 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post