“So, how’s it going in here?” Leon asked as he reached the bottom of the pit where the Thunderbird had inscribed the transformation enchantment within his soul realm.
“Much progress has been made,” she replied as she transformed into her human body and touched down on the stone floor. “I’ve excised numerous redundancies, and managed to remove the biggest hurdle in the entire...
2021-06-25 15:01:05 +0000 UTC View PostFollowing Leon’s return to the capital, he spent a week relaxing at home. He didn’t go anywhere and didn’t do anything productive. He just needed to rest as much as he could. He didn’t even train with the Thunderbird or Nestor. He just enjoyed his time at home, reading during his free time and spending nearly every other waking moment with either Elise, Maia, Valeria, or some combinatio...
2021-06-23 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Look at all of this, how did you let it get this bad?” Elise exclaimed as she ran her hands through Leon’s hair. Next to her were a few glasses of water, a few combs, a razor, and a pair of scissors.
They were sitting around at a counter in their kitchen with Maia and Valeria, who were treating the sight before them almost like a play as they watched Elise slowly lose her mind over...
2021-06-21 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post“You think I’m a deserter?” Leon asked, the corners of his lips turning up in amusement. The King was staring at him with an expression of such seriousness that he almost took Julius’ words at face value and assumed hostility.
The King was silent for a long moment, and he took a few slow, ominous steps toward him.
Then, the older man smiled and exclaimed, “Absolutely not!...
2021-06-18 15:01:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe arrival of Leon’s retinue back in the Bull Kingdom came without any fanfare. They’d hitched a ride on a tribute ship, not with the Legion armada, so those who awaited them at the docks of one of the southern trade cities were not cheering throngs grateful that their task force returned home victorious, but rather a number of low-ranking Legion knights and a handful of dry, boring bureau...
2021-06-16 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe time for Leon’s retinue to leave came soon enough, and not a single member of the Legion came to stop them, not even when they brazenly marched through the docks like they were parade grounds. They took their places on the timber transport ship, and once everyone was on board, the ship departed.
The space they had was cramped and relatively uncomfortable, but Leon could see that the...
2021-06-14 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThere's some discussion of geography in this chapter, so here's the map of Aeterna I made last year for your reference.
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Finding a private space within the occupied town wasn’t easy, but after about fifteen minutes of wandering, Leon and Anshu found a fairly deserted cliffside platform ...
2021-06-11 15:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostIf you missed the recent announcements, I put the all of the revised chapters of the first half of the Knight Academy up on my website for anyone who wants to be a beta reader! You can read all of the chapters in one place there, if you want! If you do check it out, please be sure to let me know what you think, whether that's here in these comment sections, there on my website, or o...
2021-06-09 15:05:59 +0000 UTC View PostBasina and Theuderic stared at Leon in disbelief, Leon having just wrapped up an abbreviated report of what had happened after Sigebert’s fleet separated from the other two on the third island.
They were in the Earl’s manor on the fifth island. The town surrounding it had less than five thousand residents, and the manor itself wasn’t huge, so the Legion fleets were having some troub...
2021-06-09 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostCataloguing the items he’d found in the ‘transformation cave’, as Leon had taken to referring to it in his head, was only part of what he needed to do to put his soul realm in order. He also had a gigantic pile of gold that had once been the massive serpent colossus to deal with, as well as the two emeralds that had been set into its eye sockets. The emeralds were set aside for Gaius, but...
2021-06-07 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostDamn, this took far longer than it should've. I've felt pretty guilty about not getting this done sooner, so for that, I apologize.
Onto business, though! You might notice that this is pretty short for 2 chapters. That's because this is only 1 chapter - I wound up deleting chapter 92 in its entirety, because I didn't feel like it added anything at all. So, I wound ...
2021-06-07 04:21:16 +0000 UTC View PostXaphan was back in his soul realm, and his sword was back on his hip. He was with Maia, and his small group of followers were in good health. As far as Leon was concerned, the only thing his life truly lacked right now was Elise; everything else was just as it should be.
However, there was still business to deal with.
[So, demon,] Leon said as he leaned back in his chair, [what in t...
2021-06-04 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe first thing Leon noticed upon being shown into the room where the envoys were waiting was their auras: the weaker one was, startlingly, of the eighth-tier, while the stronger was powerful enough that Leon couldn’t identify his tier. He momentarily froze in the doorway, stunned by the level of power that had arrived.
The weaker of the two, almost paradoxically, looked like he should...
2021-06-02 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostLeon slept deeply, if briefly. The process of turning back into a human had a great deal of magic power and concentration between him and the Thunderbird, and the process had exacted its toll upon his body. Still, he was an eighth-tier mage, now, and sleep was hardly something he truly needed anymore. After only about two hours of sleep, he was stirring in the bed that Alix and Maia had brought...
2021-05-31 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHe rarely dreamed anymore. For him, sleep was a delightful void of thought and a much-needed relief from boredom.
When he did sleep, it was often for long periods of time—tens or hundreds of years would pass before he would wake. And it was always one of the most entertaining parts of his existence, waking up. Oftentimes, it was like stepping into a completely new world. The Empires aro...
2021-05-28 15:01:04 +0000 UTC View PostLeon woke from his dream slowly. He was calm; he may not have spoken to Artorias himself, but even exchanging words with his father in a dream had soothed his soul more than he ever would’ve thought. He momentarily thought about Jormun and panicked, thinking the pirate was still out there somewhere, but before he could even sit up off the cool stone he was laying on, he remembered everything ...
2021-05-26 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe wind was in his feathers, his talons were raking across the hide of his serpentine enemy, and the clouds above bent themselves to his whim, all the energy they contained his to do with as he pleased. The power of the Heavens was at his command, requiring nothing more than a mere wisp of intent to manipulate.
This was joy to him. He’d rarely ever felt anything like it; only ...
2021-05-24 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostGaius could only scowl as the dreadnought pushed deeper into the storm, the sounds of battle growing steadily louder as they cut through the waves. He could feel an immense amount of power up ahead, so much that he was feeling quite queasy, but regardless, he stood at the bow of the dreadnought, guiding the ship forward.
Not that the ship needed a guide, for all the islets that had been h...
2021-05-21 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostXaphan watched as the Black Eagle descended into the maelstrom, each beat of its mighty wings hurling its magic into the air, seizing control of the storm around it. The serpent may have conjured the storm—or, perhaps more accurately, the powers that backed the serpent—but with every wingbeat, the Black Eagle was seizing control.
The demon of flame was a goodly distance from the surfa...
2021-05-19 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLeon’s soul realm was in turmoil. The normally stagnant air had been whipped up into a furious tempest, and lightning rained from the Mists of Chaos to strike the distant mountain peaks, shattering stone and sending Leon’s stored magic power into swirling chaos.
Nestor watched as much as he could from the ruby, but most of his attention was on Leon himself. The storm in Leon’s soul ...
2021-05-17 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostLeon twisted and turned through another teleportation tunnel until he landed on solid ground so suddenly that he immediately lost his balance and fell on his ass.
With a grunt of surprise, he quickly oriented himself with the dark place he now found himself in and pushed himself to his feet.
Once again, he found himself alone in a dark cave, but unlike after being pushed into the pi...
2021-05-14 15:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe Thunderbird was urging Leon to get up, but he ignored her for a moment. By his estimation, both his magic body and his physical body were fine, though his soul realm had been severely damaged at the edges—he’d have to repair that damage before continuing to gain any power. However, for all that he was physically all right, he felt like he had a foot in the grave. He knew that he had to ...
2021-05-12 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe centaur-figure exited the white portal and hovered there in the air as the portal dissipated into countless motes of white light, which then winked out of existence. Only then did it begin to descend, and as it did, its aura grew even more intense as its body twisted and bent out shape. Its hind legs snapped and shrank as the metallic sheen of its angular body dulled and its harder corners ...
2021-05-10 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post[All right, Nestor… Let’s figure this shit out.]
The dead man’s reply came after a long, pregnant pause. [I’ll be honest here, Leon… You’ve really kicked a hornet’s nest…] Nestor spoke calmly and carefully, but his voice was unmistakably tinged with a deep undercurrent of anxiety.
Leon glanced back at the obliterated staircase, and then at the angel that now mindless...
2021-05-07 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe angel rapidly advanced, taking relatively small and slow steps, yet its sheer size still allowing it to cover a great deal of ground. From what little he could sense of its aura, Leon did not want to fight it, especially without his family’s sword in hand.
So instead of fighting it, he channeled his magic power into the ring of invisibility on his finger and hoped that it w...
2021-05-05 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLeon froze at the top of the immense stairs, staring at the beam of light connecting the two great pyramids, a bright white halo around it almost making it seem like a small star that had been stolen from the sky and hidden down here. Something was in there, and it was staring at him with great expectation, and Leon couldn’t help but assume that it was the thing that had been speaking to him ...
2021-05-03 15:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostGentleness.
Calmness.
He was wrapped in something soft and light, in a place that was absent judgment. A place of rest, where he didn’t have to worry about anything else. A place where he didn’t have to face the world, where he didn’t have to own up to his mistakes, where he didn’t have to face the consequences of his own weakness, or to feel shame for his failures. It was a...
2021-04-30 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostMaia silently roared in frustration as this gargantuan horned serpent shrugged off everything she could throw at it. Every water dragon was torn apart by the serpent’s own water magic, one even having been completely stolen from her as it was invaded by the serpent’s magic power, then frozen in place in an insulting testament to her loss.
After less than a minute, it had become clear ...
2021-04-28 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe pit was impossibly deep. Down and down it went, for miles and miles, so far that it seemed like that if they dropped any further, then Leon and Jormun would fall right out of the underside of the plane and into the Void.
For Jormun, this was one of the most exhilarating and terrifying moments of his life. The culmination of everything he’d worked for over the past fifty years… to ...
2021-04-26 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostBlood pounded in his head like a hammer against an anvil, and the darkness that enveloped his mind was the oppressive sort; Leon had no idea where he was or what he was doing. He could barely even remember what it was he’d been doing last. All he could see or feel was the darkness, and the blood madly pumping in his veins.
Despite this, he felt rather calm. Whatever had been going on be...
2021-04-23 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post