In the middle of a lonely field, surrounded by tall grass bathed in moonlight, Leon glanced around. He didn’t see anyone, but he knew they were there thanks to the enchantments in his armor helping him to locate his retainers. They were all invisible, just waiting for the final word to begin their operation.
With his retainers, Leon had with him one hundred Tempest Knights and a handful...
2023-07-19 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“So… does it… you know… taste good?” Marcus asked.
“I wouldn’t say so,” the Jaguar replied.
“It’s bitter,” Singer added. “It still tastes like blood, that doesn’t change. It can be a bit weaker, but it’s still a recognizable taste.”
Marcus gagged in disgust. “There are many things to envy about your transformation powers, but I’m glad...
2023-07-17 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostCountless mages below were clashing, killing each other and doing their absolute best to fight off their enemy. The Imperials wanted the Sword back, and the Ten Tribes were unwilling to give it up, and now the ocean was being filled with blood from both sides. The air was thick with magic, and with the number of powerful mages in combat and enchanted pieces of military kit in the area, that thi...
2023-07-14 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostLeon admired the new ark that the Ravens had built. The new model ark that they had kept in reserve even while their forces on the Sword were fighting off the Sunlit Emperor was larger than he’d anticipated, being significantly larger than the last ark they’d given him. It had a permanent crew of about forty people and room for another sixty passengers. The addition of thunder wood to its d...
2023-07-12 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Leon awoke about a day after finishing off the remaining Hesperidic Apples, he felt immeasurably better. With the Iron Needle out of his soul realm for the time being, the power that flowed into his soul realm from the apples healed his soul realm almost completely. By his estimation, replacing all the sandstone he’d used to reinforce his soul realm following its spectacular growth would...
2023-07-10 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe return to consciousness was slow, and for a long time, he didn’t even want to return to awareness. He was warm, his head rested upon something soft, and he couldn’t feel any pain. His mind was a little foggy, but he definitely remembered feeling something like spectacular pain before he… fell asleep? Lost consciousness? He wasn’t quite sure…
Despite his reticence, h...
2023-07-07 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostTwenty Hesperidic Apples. Tikos had just brought them in and placed them before Leon, and he could still hardly believe his eyes. His soul realm had grown to the size of twenty-five hundred miles, so he wasn’t quite sure how many apples he’d need to reach the tenth. But twenty apples… he figured that just might do it.
With Leon were only his family members, Tikos having departed jus...
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With a disappointed sigh, Leon put away the charred remnants of his most recent attempt to create true Adamant. He swept the bits of lightning-blackened steel into a drawer in his temporary w...
2023-07-03 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn the days that followed the declaration of support for Leon’s intention to launch a punitive expedition against the Sunlit Empire, Kataigida was a flurry of activity. Securing logistic lines, increasing ‘tribute’ from the various Tribes—which were just taxes by a different name—and widespread recruitment for all the armies of the Kingdom. And all of this was being coordinated by Leo...
2023-06-30 15:04:56 +0000 UTC View Post“You look terrible,” the Keeper said once he and the Sunlit Emperor were alone.
They had met in the Sunlit Emperor’s palace, and while Sunlit hadn’t directly shown himself—he had obscured himself behind a privacy screen so that his servants wouldn’t see how reduced he’d been—Keeper could still see him quite easily with his magic senses.
It took all the self-control t...
2023-06-28 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostCarefully, hesitantly, though with much less than the first time he’d done so, Leon slid Nestor’s soul ruby into the core of the new golem frame before him.
He was in a large room in his temporary palace back in Stormhollow, having commandeered the room to be used as Nestor’s workshop until the new palace could be built. Upon arriving back in the city, he and his people immediately ...
2023-06-26 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostNestor was alive, but the mood in the crashed ark didn’t improve much by any stretch of the imagination. The body of Exallos lay on the table, with the bodies of all the others killed in the fighting nearby—potent reminders of what had just happened.
For a while, Nestor went quiet—likely out of some measure of fatigue rather than propriety, Leon guessed—so after taking a few deep,...
2023-06-23 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe shield protecting the crashed ark was dropped as the last of the Sunlit transport arks sped away. It took a few minutes since Leon and Xaphan’s defeat of the Sunlit Emperor, and in that time, Leon took stock as much as he could.
First and most obvious was his growing pain and exhaustion. Without Sunlit there to keep the pressure on, his adrenaline was decreasing and he was figuring ...
2023-06-21 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostSunlit swung his blade and the clouds around them exploded in lightning. Arcs of deadly golden bolts darted around them, and it was all Leon could do to ward them away. Sunlit then raised his blade and a bolt of lightning struck it, forming a fifty-foot-long blade of lightning. He swung that blade, and Leon darted and dodged through the air, keeping himself just barely out of range of the Emper...
2023-06-19 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the crashed Tribal ark fired upon Sunlit arks, the forces within it poured out. Leon’s retainers led the charge, followed by Sar and Exallos, then the Tempest Knights, and then those forces brought by the two ninth-tier elders. Elise, Cassandra, the Evergolden guards, Helen, and Tikos all remained within the ark, to varying degrees of reluctance.
Valeria was just about the first on...
2023-06-16 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLast chapter, I described the light shield as gold. This is incorrect, it should've been white and has been changed. Gold is the color associated with normal lightning magic and white is that of light magic. Minor detail but I thought I'd mention it.
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“Leon Raime!” Sunlit roared, an infuriatingly smug smile of triumph on his punchable face. “You ...
2023-06-14 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeon’s ark sped southward, putting ever more distance behind him and Occulara. They moved slowly since with the extra people on board, the ark was a little overloaded, but everyone made do as best as they could. Alongside them flew half a dozen Ilian arks escorting them out of the Empire. They’d peel off once Leon’s ark reached the border and began flying over the Kyron Steppes, but for n...
2023-06-12 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“You two had better not be about to fight in my fucking house,” Leon growled as the Grand Druid and Sunlit Emperor continued to stare at each other, the tension between the two getting thicker and thicker.
Sunlit chuckled. “Oh, you have nothing to fear from me, young Leon. I was not cursed with a woman’s fickleness.”
“You just don’t know when to shut your mouth, do you...
2023-06-09 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“You can’t be serious,” Anastasios growled after Sunlit’s demand for Leon to return with him to Thunderhaven.
“Oh, but I am,” Sunlit said. “Leon, while I must act in the best interests of my people, I must insist upon this. You will be safe and free to do as you wish once you reach Thunderhaven. You will be my guest, with some restrictions.”
“No,” Leon replied wi...
2023-06-07 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing Sunlit’s arrival in Occulara, Leon didn’t let Sar or Exallos leave his villa, a policy that was echoed by both Anastasios and the Grand Druid for their diplomats. They’d hardly even started truce negotiations and already they had to be put on hold because the risk of Sunlit discovering they were taking place was simply too great.
There were a few murmurings about continuin...
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Disbelief. Anger. Confusion. Wrath. Denial. Rage.
Such were just a few of the emotions that flowed like a surging river through Leon, though as he stared at the Direc...
2023-06-02 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSunlit inspected himself in the mirror, loving the way the light gleamed off his armor. His entire suit was made of enchanted gold, allowing him to shine like he was perpetually lit by the sun. The shoulders were broad and exaggerated, more padding than flesh, while the waist was slim and waspy. And, of course, between his legs was a codpiece large enough to be impossible to ignore.
His s...
2023-05-31 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Leon walked into Sid’s workshop, he found the place a hive of activity. Dozens of people were running around, moving large boxes of raw materials into the workshop while taking entire suits of armor and piles of weapons out. As far as Leon could tell, the suits were mostly intricate plate, though not quite as fancy as might be required for a unit of Imperial guards. The weapons, meanwhil...
2023-05-29 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Tikos!” Leon called out as he entered the copse, finding the tree sprite there already preparing a few oak trees for thunder wood production. “How have things been?” As he walked over, Leon spread his arms wide, but his face remained unchanged; he’d been unabashedly smiling since his ‘training session’ with Valeria ended.
“Things been have most productive,” Tikos replie...
2023-05-26 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Nestor!” Leon called out as he walked into the workshop, his good mood shining like the sun.
Nestor was busy feeding his massive cat some raw meat and barely turned as Leon entered.
“Oh,” the dead man said in an equally dead tone. “You’re back.”
“Indeed, I am! And I return a King!”
Nestor finished handing off the meal to his pet and finally turned to f...
2023-05-24 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Leon awoke, for a brief few minutes, he was happy. His mood was not tainted by worries, stresses, or any other weighty things that titles such as ‘King’ brought. The reasons for his mood were tucked under his arms: Maia and Elise with limbs entwined beneath his right arm, and Cassandra curled up with her back to him under his left. He missed Valeria but felt secure knowing that he was ...
2023-05-22 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe tension in the ark could be almost physically felt as they sped past the golden buildings of the Ilian Empire, and for many reasons.
The most weighty upon the nerves were the two Imperial arks that shadowed them as soon as they entered Ilian airspace. Leon’s ark may have been equipped with some stealth capabilities, but due to an agreement he made with the Lord Protector, he kept th...
2023-05-19 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLeon glanced around at his advisors, consisting largely of his family and the most powerful elders in each Tribe. None looked so happy, but at least no one looked angered by his proposal despite a few fairly disbelieving looks he received.
“This is…” Nikolaos whispered, trailing off before finishing his thought.
“… Certainly a proposition,” Iron-Striker finished...
2023-05-17 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIf you haven't yet, please be sure to visit Royal Road and leave a rating or review! Every one I get helps! =)
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Far from the great centers of power on Aeterna was not the Sunlit Emperor’s favorite place to be. He would’ve much rather been buried in nubile female fles...
2023-05-15 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostLeon was no stranger to horrific bodily damage, done both to him and to others. He’d burned men alive, shattered them with lightning, cut them apart with his sword, and shot them full of arrows. He’d had his arm burned so thoroughly that it had to be amputated, he’d had his bones broken more times than he could count; he’d been stabbed, cut, and ravaged even more times than that.
...
2023-05-12 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post