Leon and Anzu didn’t stay in Leon’s childhood home—or what was left of it—for long. By the morning of the next day, they were already preparing to leave, though not before Leon sat with his back against his father’s Heartwood tree once more. He figured it was probably just his imagination, but it almost felt like the tree, or the tree’s aura, was wrapping around him in a warm embrac...
2022-10-14 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostLeon couldn’t keep the grin off his face: the Iron Needle was his, and he hardly knew what to do now, such was his joy. His face hurt from how widely he was smiling, and he erratically paced about the chamber where the Needle had awaited him, unsure what he should do. The Thunderbird didn’t help that much, either, as she remained silent ever since he’d woken up, despite the enormous amoun...
2022-10-12 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostLaying eyes on the Iron Needle for the first time, there was a part of Leon that was profoundly underwhelmed. This was one of two artifacts upon which his Clan had been built, and yet it hardly looked the part taken all by itself. The Thunderbird had shown him a light projection of the thing before so Leon knew what he was looking at, but it still fell just a bit flat for him.
The Iron N...
Tusk roared again, and the weight of its furious aura caused many of the weaker banshees far above to simply drop from the sky, stone dead, the smoky darkness that covered their bodies dissipating to leave the childlike corpse behind.
Leon stood in front of Tusk’s monolith, surrounded by ice wraiths, knowing that he had to move now if he wanted to live. So that’s exactly what...
2022-10-07 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostLeon stared at the carved wall, frowning deeply as he pondered his problem. Eventually, he walked over to a boulder, cleared off the tiny remaining shards of ice from when he’d blown through the ice wraiths camping outside weeks earlier, and took a seat.
He needed the Iron Needle, he wasn’t leaving without it. He’d repeated that thought many times in the past few weeks, and it was a...
2022-10-05 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIt was easy enough to get Tusk back out into the open—‘Tusk’ being the name that Leon decided upon for the tusked beast, for at this point, three weeks into his expedition into the Iron Needle’s cave system, he knew that there was only one of the tusked beasts. He’d summoned it several times with offerings, never once showing himself. His foresight proved itself on the second attempt ...
2022-10-03 15:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post‘Shit, shit, shit,’ Leon repeatedly cursed, wondering just in the hells he’d been thinking.
The tusked beast above him, equivalent of tenth-tier, twisted about in the air and brought its massive head down closer to the offering of meat that Leon had left upon its altar. Leon heard it sniff a few times, and then the monster pulsed with magic in a manner reminiscent of a huma...
2022-09-30 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostTwo days after entering the caves beneath the Divine Scar, Leon found himself confounded by two big problems.
The first was the caves were extensive. Miles upon miles upon miles of stone tunnels, nearly all natural as far as he could tell, spider-webbing deeper and deeper into the plane.
His second problem exacerbated the problems of the first: his magic senses were almost ...
2022-09-28 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostPatreon's finally given creators the option of charging new patrons on the same day every month as the day they subscribed, instead of charging them immediately as soon as they sign up and then on the 1st of every month after that. Basically, this option has Patreon working like every other subscription service out there, and I jumped on the change immediately.
Now, for everyone who...
2022-09-26 19:14:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe abyssal pit that Leon found himself in was deep, so deep that he wondered how it compared to those he’d delved into in the Serpentine Isles. The serpent temple was deep and magically advanced, but the graveyard of the Primal Gods that Leon had discovered was even more so. From what little Leon could sense, this pit that the Iron Needle had cloven into the earth was tremendously deep.
<... 2022-09-26 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostLeon enjoyed his brief time in Vale Town. Torfinn was just as welcoming as he always was, despite the years that had passed and the strength that Leon had gathered for himself. Leon didn’t get too into the details of why he’d come and what he’d done in the past couple decades when he first walked in, as Torfinn’s thanes and more powerful warriors were busy feasting, but once everyone ha...
2022-09-23 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe capital of the Bull Kingdom had changed little in Leon’s time away. Most of the damage done by the civil war had been fixed, and he could see a few new monuments built in prominent places in the city, but other than that, it was essentially the same as it had always been.
Leon arrived with only Anzu to accompany him. When he left Ariminium, both Aquillius and Constantine had offere...
Leon stood in his back courtyard, most of his people around him ready to see him off. For the past few weeks, he’d been getting his affairs in order to ensure he could take as much time in the north as he needed. The Director and Penelope were aware, and Talal had his standing orders. Elise had his villa and Valeria, his retinue.
He’d been surprised to find that his ladies’ lack of ...
2022-09-19 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“… and the ark research is going fairly well, but it’s eating a ton of resources,” Talal said.
“How long can we keep it going by relying on reserves?” Leon asked.
“Six months, then we’re going to have to start restricting some projects if we don’t get more funding.”
“Hmm,” Leon hummed as he sat back to think.
He and Talal were in one of his ba...
Leon stared at the work he’d finished in front of him, the culmination of the past month of research, development, and manufacturing. Almost a ton of steel, and five million silvers in other rare materials had gone into the project, and since it was the first of its kind—and especially since Leon was mostly copying Nestor’s designs and lacked much of the specialist knowledge to g...
2022-09-14 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe end of Leon’s birthday party came too slowly for his liking, though by the way many tried to keep it going, they were hoping it would last all night.
As the night had progressed, the party had transformed from a more dignified affair to something rowdier, fit more for a nightclub than a gathering of some of the wealthiest, most powerful, and influential people on the plane. Duels, ...
Ambrose, the Grave Warden of Aeterna, looked much the same as he did the last Leon had seen him: tanned skin tone; brown eyes as warm and inviting as Leon had ever seen; a lithe, though still quite muscular build; and generally average facial features. He was the sort of man who would go completely unnoticed in a crowd, but once one’s eyes landed upon him, they’d realize he was not a man to...
2022-09-09 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostLeon’s villa was alive with conversation and gentle music. Several hundred of the most important people on the plane were in his home, with guards and adjutants of their own, all technically gathered to celebrate Leon’s thirty-eighth birthday and his ascension to the ninth-tier, though in reality were mostly here to meet and talk with Leon and one another. Despite this, Leon was still a lit...
2022-09-07 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLeon steeled himself for his party the best way he knew how: by spending almost the entire day locked in a meditation chamber, with none for company his own thoughts. He sank his consciousness down into his soul realm, and once he woke up in his Mind Palace, he took to the sky and left it behind, choosing to spend his time out in the mountains that surrounded the vale of his Mind Palace.
...
2022-09-05 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post“… Sounds like a successful raid,” the Director said as Leon finished his report on what happened at Narses the Black’s castle. Speaking with the Director about his Eye had been the first thing on Leon’s to-do list once he and his people returned to Occulara, even with Elise needing him for planning his party. He and the Director met almost alone, with only Penelope there to hear the ...
2022-09-02 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostNarses the White, now that the fighting was over and Narses the Black was dead, quickly took control over the situation at the blood farm. He had his security officers, several dozen in total, secure the castle, establish a watch over the docks to the west of the castle, and then start providing aid for the rescued captives. It would take some doing to get them back to civilization, but Leon ha...
2022-08-31 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLeon walked out of the castle with a strange sense of calm. He breathed easily, despite the lives just taken by him and his, the smell of death hanging thickly in the air. As he inhaled, he removed his helmet, feeling the ping of darkness magic from his reinforcements echo through his mind.
Narses the Black waited for him in the castle’s bailey, standing between Leon and the gatehouse, ...
2022-08-29 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“Leon!” Narses the Black called out as Leon arrived at their prearranged staging point.
It was a fairly innocuous camp on the edge of the Ilumerian Wetlands, hidden by the thick canopy of the swampy forest. It largely consisted of a few hastily built stone huts, all of which were little more than single-story cubes with little in the way of decoration.
Narses now stood in the do...
2022-08-26 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post“That was exciting, wasn’t it?” Narses the Black said as he joined Leon’s retinue next to Leon’s carriage, the corpses of the slain vampires scattered all around them.
Leon thinly smiled at Narses and his five powerful followers. Anna was still obviously disturbed, and even took a few steps backward, away from Narses.
Fortunately, it seemed that Narses either didn’t no...
The manticore cub was brought to their box after the auction was over, fully secured and ready to hand off. Anna was particularly excited for its arrival, but her enthusiasm was mildly dampened when the cub was handed over by the host personally, accompanied by a few of his private attendants, rather than Eirene, who’d apparently been the primary caretaker of the cub since its capture.
Getting into the exclusive beast auction turned out to be quite easy—not that Leon had been particularly worried about it. One visit to Emilie the night that Anna had come to him was enough. She’d even told him that if he’d come to her a week before he did, before they’d even announced what beasts would be in the auction, she would’ve let him buy the beast right then at cost. Unfortun...
2022-08-19 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe hours and days after consuming Hesperidic Apples were always physically hard. Leon pushed his people to find their new limits and to grow comfortable with them, so as to know how to fight if they were to be attacked at any point. Fortunately, their caution hadn’t been all that needed in the past five years, but Leon wasn’t going to get complacent. He’d been attacked enough times in hi...
2022-08-17 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAnzu was taken to a room adjacent to the training hall where he was laid out on a sofa to rest. By Helen’s estimation, he’d probably wake in less than an hour. What might happen after that, though, was anyone’s guess. Leon, however, had a few ideas of his own, and knew where to find a few more.
He didn’t clearly remember his first time transforming. It had been far beneath the Ser...
2022-08-15 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostLeon, his family, and his retinue gathered in his training hall, all save for Anshu. Helen alone looked rather calm and serene, her sixth-tier aura balanced and still. Leon knew that training wasn’t her thing, but the power boost of a Hesperidic Apple wasn’t something even she could turn down. Gaius, Alix, Marcus, Alcander, Elise, Talal, and Anzu gathered around Tikos, all of them looking r...
2022-08-12 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe steel before him glowed a brilliant blue, the metal having heated up to a terrible temperature. So hot was it that if Leon’s enchantments weren’t so powerful, it would’ve liquified in a second, and then vaporized a second later. As far as most conventional forging techniques went, it was far and away an impractical amount of heat, but in this case, Leon needed it greatly.
The w...