After my establishment of an accord, I awoke groggily, in a soft bed in the temple. Liam sat by my side, slightly hunched in a chair, but his piercing eyes trained on mine.
I blinked away the bleary remnants of sleep. Every part of me was sore. No, that was wrong. It wasn’t every part of me that was sore - it was one specific part that I couldn’t quite identify. A pulling kin...
2025-06-27 03:19:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 254: Forgiveness
“Hey Marcel!” Avery said, giving a bright smile. He was holding his left arm in his right hand, using the torn-off appendage to wave at his friend.
The receptionist, for his part, looked at the guild master with a less than excited expression. “You’re splattering blood all over the floor.”
“Ah, dang,” Avery said, pausing. He quickl...
2025-06-24 03:10:13 +0000 UTC View PostI sighed, took the others once they were finished, and walked to the training hall. It was an uneventful stroll through the quiet city. People recognized us, but no one approached. Anyone who did, got shadowstepped aside by Liam.
We didn’t talk much either. I was a little angry at those two morons for interrupting what was supposed to be a joyous moment. We returned to Eden to defend th...
2025-06-18 00:42:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 253: Baelzebuth
Bael leaned back in the wooden chair, which creaked slightly with the motion. The air in the room chilled a little, the friendly, calm atmosphere slowly growing colder. The demoness gave him a long look. “I was once the champion of gluttony,” she says, slowly.
“I escaped that realm when the ash fell. When the crimson sun fucked up, and drew the i...
2025-06-15 01:01:31 +0000 UTC View PostWhen spending my contribution, the thing I noticed was that there was a lot of it. Clearing the rifts counted for about twice, maybe three times as much as killing equivalent enemies on Eden, and we had cleared a lot of rifts. And then, there was the additional, tiny factor, that I hurt some of the keepers.
Now, ordinarily, that would be a bad thing. After all, they ferry Reflect...
2025-06-11 00:48:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 252: Quests and Guests and Blessed Artefacts
[Level Up!]
Mercury smiled at the small notification in the corner of his vision. He wanted to go home, so he did. His desire was fulfilled, and so, the system acknowledged it.
-
[Main Quest: “Wrath” completed!
Reward: <Veil> mastery increase, <Sever> mastery increase, <Combat Sens...
2025-06-10 00:24:42 +0000 UTC View PostI touched my hand to the altar of hir, the tombstone cold under my fingers. There was a faint wind that blew in the temple, feeling cool against my skin. I breathed, and then felt that touch of divinity.
‘Fio,’ Hir greeted me. The chorus of voices seemed strained, as if repressing their anger or disappointment.
‘Hir,’ I thought back at them. ‘I want to know why-’ 2025-06-05 00:20:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 251: Separation
There had once been a vast world of steel.
Trees made of needles. Grass shaped like blades. Filled with creatures more sword than living, filled with things meant for violence, competing for sharpness
It had been a land of brutality and savagery. Where beings butchered relentlessly. Where bodies were crumpled and carved apart. Where life was all ...
2025-06-04 00:36:23 +0000 UTC View PostMatt stared at Fio as she made another outrageous claim. Fighting the goddess and winning? Was that the surge of Qi he’d felt before?
He felt within himself, where that influx of power coursed through his newly advanced wellspring. It was like eating a natural treasure, and it had allowed him to easily reach the second step. That power increase, after his level-up, meant he was stronger...
2025-05-29 01:15:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 250: Bleeding Heart
Zyl’s heart beat and the entire mountain erupted into fire. Rock turned soft around him, glowing red with heat, and the human guise of Bael began to sizzle. Their skin cracked and turned even darker. Then, teeth grew from those cracks.
Maws began to open across the demon’s body. Zyl frowned in disgust, but still punched again, activating <St...
2025-05-28 02:30:56 +0000 UTC View PostI found myself standing in a world of pure white. The ground was covered in a thin sheen of milky water, and the sky was just as pale as the ground, too. There was a grayscale reflection of myself that distorted as my feet moved.
There were two other people. Reya, our Saintess, a web of golden lines across her, being held in someone else’s arm. The person cradling her was a beautiful wo...
2025-05-24 00:53:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 249: Inevitable
Fury poured from the sky like an unending torrent. There was so much of it. This whole realm was an embodiment of wrath, after all. It was never meant to be exhausted in its anger.
And yet.
More and more of that insidious, destructive emotion flowed into Mercury. He felt it roil through him, goad him into anger, coax him to give in to it al...
2025-05-21 00:14:55 +0000 UTC View PostStanding in front of the mirror, I took a long, deep breath. It wasn’t the same anymore. Not the one in my bathroom, the one that Zinnic had shattered. This was the one in our gateway hall, custom made, and blessed by the Gift.
Gently, I moved my fingers across its surface.
They didn’t smear or dirty the mirror. Instead, They just sent a gentle ripple across the glas...
2025-05-15 00:47:03 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 248: Anger Overflowing
Mercury, now a level 1 Lumyron, opened his eyes.
With the efficiency of his stats having doubled, he felt much stronger than he used to. Mercury could feel himself existing in the colosseum as well as in the steel forest of wrath itself. He wore a silver crown, and black, liquid metal was wreathed around his legs.
The Dream of Starvation h...
2025-05-13 22:14:24 +0000 UTC View PostThe day after the funeral, I went on a date with Ann. We got ice cream, walked around the city a little, bought some more clothes, the usual.
Now, technically, using magic in broad daylight was illegal. We aren’t generally supposed to use our supernatural powers in areas where they might inconvenience or hurt civilians. However, given the fact that the illusions Ann cast just stop...
2025-05-08 15:51:51 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 247: Evolution part 4
Mercury faced a world of steel and flooded it with quicksilver.
Fire blossomed around him, radiant heat washing over the world. An ethereal, half-real citadel burning into the world, turning the metal soft and malleable. Mercury manifested a rijn with each of his 4 zeyjn, creating hammers.
The world was steel, and it ...
2025-05-06 00:38:41 +0000 UTC View PostI woke up. It was a long, dreamless night, and I overslept a bit. I stretched in bed for a long moment, taking my time to slowly open my eyes. I took a deep breath, letting the first moments of the day come to me.
Still in my pajamas, I went downstairs, grabbed some breakfast, drank some coffee, and stared out the window into our drab but changing world. It was still grey, too grey for my...
2025-05-02 02:44:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 246: Holding up the Sky, just for a Moment
Proving that he meant well was rather easy when he did and had a Skill to show people his sincerity. In the passing weeks, he once again took to just… solving people’s problems. He fixed roofs and broken doors, he listened to people’s problems and took away the pain of injured people, helping the healers.
... 2025-04-30 03:12:14 +0000 UTC View PostWe killed the boss of the gate and then left it.
Rae exited at the same time as us, relying on the flash of light from the opening of the gate to dart away. I’m pretty sure Lyra, the government’s maelstrom cultivator saw him, but that was fine. She kept quiet about it.
Instead, a dozen cameras flashed in my face. Reporters, cameras, the whole nine yards were there, and a thousan...
2025-04-24 02:03:09 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 245: Metallurgy
[<Apprentice Runecarving> has levelled up! <Apprentice Runecarving lv. 1 -> 5>]
Over just a few days, Mercury had improved his enchanting by a lot. With four separate streams of consciousness, it was easy to learn new runes, apply them, and also try out different methods of enchanting. He’d not yet seen a lot of succes...
2025-04-22 04:12:27 +0000 UTC View PostMatt stood in front of a corpse.
I say “a corpse” because the lady Black Swan was no longer recognizable at all. Matt’s powerset included razor sharp petals being blown into a raging storm of metal. There was no skin left on the body. I would be better served describing the remains as a meaty skeleton than anything else.
Rae was already off again, probably helping Olivia and C...
2025-04-18 03:50:11 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 244: Romance
“Okay, let’s do this,” Mercury said.
“Are you sure?” Zyl hesitated. “I… don’t know if I’m ready.”
“Don’t worry,” Mercury reassured him, “I can handle it.”
Zyl nodded, slowly. “Okay,” he said. Slowly, warmth started to spread, then envelop Mercury.
“Oh wow that’s hot,” Mercury said....
2025-04-17 00:46:10 +0000 UTC View PostAnn was having some trouble. A lot of trouble, even. There were three arrowholes through her, mostly in non-vital areas, but they still rather hurt. Blood flowed from her wounds in a steady trickle, well, more like a steady flood.
She grimaced. A pulse of Mana flowed from her heart, scanning through the area, touching upon every leaf, every piece of bark, every blade of grass.
Chapter 243: Absolute Power
When Zyl came back, Mercury was in the process of trying to cut a cake with his rijn.
This, of course, was difficult. He’d gotten good at making platforms from it, or blunt force, but hammers weren’t exactly useful for cutting things. The same went for <Force of the Hecatoncheires>, which was great at grabbing and moving ...
2025-04-07 22:54:09 +0000 UTC View PostI stood before the thing that had tormented me. The things that had taken my agency and taunted me with it. That had kept me from my world, that had tried to steal my soul, that were still trying to cut me to ribbons just for a shred more power.
An avatar of a keeper. Eyes. Perception. An infinite amount of blossoming pupils shoved into a body made of translucent glass. A gateway to a pla...
2025-04-01 02:02:44 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 242: Metal
More days passed. Enough for it to go from Blossom to Scorch. The days became hotter as the pages drifted by.
Mercury took care of the garden. He practiced smithing and runecarving, as well as his magic, nabbing a couple levels here and there. His <Ice Magic> improved from level 5 to 6, and his persistent plan of setting himself...
2025-04-01 00:56:53 +0000 UTC View PostRae took a deep breath of the fresh air.
He felt at ease.
Complete.
Life was long. Especially for an old man like Rae, life had been long. Thousands of little experiences played into it, a million, billion tiny decisions. What to eat for breakfast. What movie to watch. How many hours to dedicate to training.
Who to kill.
Another deep breath. His blood was rus...
2025-03-25 02:31:19 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 241: Entirely Average. Probably. Maybe. Surely.
Lucia was having a lovely, calm night. Much of it was spent cuddling Iris in bed or reading until she dozed off. She still did not often sleep well, per se, but she did sleep better these days, which was an obvious improvement from how things had been in the past.
She did not, however, get to sleep through the night. In ...
2025-03-25 01:22:49 +0000 UTC View PostWhite Tiger and the Avatar of Perception came crashing at me. Those were my enemies. Ann was fighting Eagleeye, Matt was duelling Black Swan, and Olivia and Chris were taking care of the small army Zinnic brought.
My world shifted and changed. Eyes blossomed. The avatar unravelled like a flower, petals of grotesque pupils unfolding in a myriad kaleidoscope around me. The entire worl...
2025-03-19 00:04:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 240: Idle Time, Barely Idling
Peace.
It was, in a lot of ways, a rather strange thing to adjust to after coming back from the fae realm.
Day after day, Mercury would wake up. And there would be nothing.
No threat to his life. No new event to attend to. No schemes being played to sabotage him. He just got to sleep, and experience a little bit of...
2025-03-18 22:40:27 +0000 UTC View Post