wardenraime

1086 - First Test II

Who were these people?  Why were they attacking his ark?  Was there a reason why they weren’t breaking off their attack after so long, or why they were refusing all communications?

Such questions died in Leon’s mind as he flew alongside Bolt in Shadow in Thunderbird form.  None of them mattered anymore.  The simple fact that their new enemy refused to...

1085 - First Test I

The fleet of attacking arks was still thousands of miles away, leaving Leon’s forces with ample time to assemble.  Despite that glut of time, Artorion was a hive of activity as everyone rushed to get ready.  The Wailing Dirge had been a problem, but this was going to be their first real test of whether or not they were strong enough to survive in the Nexus.

To co...

1084 - Doubt and Creation

Blades met, filling the air with the song of clashing steel.  The combatants grappled, exerting their strength against each other, trying to gain an advantage.

A grin spread across Leon’s face as he pushed against Valeria, his training blade locked against hers.  His expression was reflected on her face as her lips were turned up in a wild grin.

Neither was using much of...

1083 - Contact

“An old thing,” Nestor mused as his metal hands lightly brushed against the unblemished silver mask.  “A very archaic style.”

“Old enough that you know where it came from?” Leon asked.

“No,” Nestor disappointingly replied.

A sigh escaped Leon’s lips.  The gold robes were of fine make but devoid of any identifying marks.  The silve...

1082 - Autopsy

“What fine work…” Nestor murmured as he set about his grisly business.  “Whoever did this is a master without compare…”

“High praise coming from you,” Leon observed.

Following the defeat of the monster below Artorion, Leon’s orders were carried out swiftly, with all the teams exploring the tunnels recalled and the enormous cavern sealed off until a more coordi...

1081 - Wailing Dirge III

The creature moved quickly, but Leon was initially unable to do anything about it since the creature’s third wail tore through his Ulta suit and hit his ears like ice picks.  The magic in his body trembled and raced out of control.  Were he not already sitting down and strapped into his Ulta suit, he would’ve collapsed.

While what he experienced was painful, what was far mor...

1080 - Wailing Dirge II

Our Home, a Field of Aesus

Sought in dreams, Found in need

Tested and Pursued, We built our Home

Foundations of blood and bones, Cast aside were our chains of iron and fear

Ten free generations lived and loved here

But now for us comes a wailing dirge

The words on the monolith raced through Leon’s mind, ...

1079 - Wailing Dirge I

Nighttime in the Nexus was a surreal thing.  The sky darkened as it did on Aeterna, with the Origin Spark itself dimming from the luminescence of a sun to only that of a moon.  Leon thought that might’ve made it easier to see the other side of the Nexus millions of miles away, but the sky remained dark, only a few flickers here and there denoting from the brightest and most built-up...

1078 - A New Danger

After arriving in the new land that Leon named Artorion, Leon’s attention was taken almost entirely by coordinating clearance and construction efforts with scouting and mapping endeavors.  It was imperative that they establish shelter, security, and sources of food as soon as they could, but they also had to know what was around them to properly prepare for whatever they may face.  ...

1077 - Arrival II

No signs of life surrounded the ingress point.  Everywhere around it was wild and untamed, without so much as a shack to reveal the presence of human life.

To Leon’s eyes, it was perfect.  Hardly the dense forests of his childhood, but the grassy plains, rocky mountains, and sparse forests of stubby trees that he could sense around them brought such a feeling of serenity to hi...

1076 - Arrival I

I accidentally forgot to mention Justin and Clear Day over the past couple of chapters. I've since gone back to the previous few chapters and added a few mentions of both where it seemed appropriate. They did join Leon's expedition, with Justin in the city ark and Clear Day joining everyone else on the observation deck.

Sorry about that oversight!

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Three arks were...

1075 - Launching the Expedition

Gazing out into the Void left Leon speechless.  The sheer enormity of empty space could leave anyone feeling dizzy, but his focus wasn’t on the Void itself, but on his assembled fleet of Void-capable arks, all of which had finally assembled.

The city ark was in the center of the formation, where it could be most easily defended.  Surrounding the city ark were the four carriers...

1074 - Last of the Last Days

“When you called this a ‘city ark’, this wasn’t what I was expecting,” Anastasios stated good-naturedly as he stared at the enormous ark in front of him.

Beside him stood Leon, Eva—the Grand Druid—and the small number of attendants from their respective Empires who had agreed to follow them into the Nexus.  In total, their entourages together were less than fifty people...

1073 - One Month Remaining

A large grin spread across Leon’s face as he stared at his reflection.  As a King, he had a certain appearance to maintain in public, meaning that he often wore more elaborate costumes than he was typically comfortable with—and those elaborate outfits were often less ostentatious than Elise or his tailors wanted.

But the man staring back at him was dressed quite sim...

1072 - Reconciliations

The sun was out, the air was warm, and a gentle breeze blew through Leon’s hair.  By most standards, it was perfect weather, and being outside should’ve brought a smile to anyone’s lips.

Leon, however, wasn’t smiling; he was more annoyed than anything else.  The expedition to the Nexus would launch in a little over a month, and he had a lot of work to do to ensure that i...

1071 - Rising Readiness

Silence.  Despite being separated from the Void only by relatively thin armor plating, all Leon could hear was silence.  Given the stresses of the Void, it spoke to his Kingdom’s fine degree of manufacturing that his new Ulta suit didn’t so much as creak once.

“How are we doing, Siddi?” Leon asked aloud.  His head was pressed against the cloud glass, but he simply f...

1070 - Thunderbird's Offered Strategy

“Keep it under control…” Nestor whispered, his artificial head pointed in at the blob of silver-blue lightning that Leon had summoned.  “Make it do what you want to do…”

If Leon had heard him, he would’ve rolled his eyes; he knew what he was doing at this point and didn’t need the reminder.  He may not have succeeded to Nestor’s exacting standards...

1069 - New Toy

After more than two months touring Aeterna, Leon returned to the Thunder Kingdom.  For the most part, he thought the tour went well, but it had filled him with melancholy and determination in equal measure.  However, what he brought back to Stormhollow promised to alleviate some of that melancholy and aid that determination.

To the former, one of the first things he did upon his...

1068 - Arranging Successions

On the journey north, Bolt in Shadow had struck a more leisurely pace, allowing Leon and his companions to take in the sights and reminisce about their journey together.

In stark contrast, the journey south was fast and direct.  They cut almost straight southeast, bound for Occulara, and made no stops of any kind.  Leon also demanded that they push the engines as h...

1067 - The Lion and the Bull's Parting

Processing his encounter with Fain took Leon some time.  His mother was now an actual person in his head, and her face and her voice had carved themselves into his mind from the moment he’d heard them.  Despite this, he wasn’t particularly happy.  The revelation that Serana hadn’t simply abandoned him and his father lifted his heart considerably, but now he had a better ide...

1066 - Motivation

When Artorias described Leon’s mother, there had been some part of Leon that thought that Artorias’ love was clouding his memories or perceptions, but now that he could see her with his own eyes, he had to admit that she was just as beautiful as Artorias had claimed.

Her hair was long and the darkest, deepest black.  Her skin was almost unnaturally pale, though Leon supposed if F...

1065 - Interrupted Tour

‘Who was here?’ Leon furiously wondered.  ‘Who trespassed here?  One of the Valemen?  No, they wouldn’t venture into this vale at all…’

Leon wracked his brain trying to figure out from the bootprints alone who would’ve been bold enough to come into the Forest of Black and White on their own.  He could only see one set of tracks, so ...

1064 - Last Tour VI

While he hadn’t planned on staying so long, Leon and his party wound up remaining in Vale Town for two weeks.  They feasted with the Valemen, visited their temples to the Sky Mother, Mountain Father, and the thunderbirds, and saw with their own eyes the fields of silkgrass that made up the majority of exports within the Northern Vales.

Torfinn and his thanes accompanied Leon’s pa...

1063 - Last Tour V

There was no recourse to the passage of time.  The Primal Gods and Devils were subject to it, the strongest Divine Beasts were slaves to time, and even the strongest humans who’d achieved the pinnacle of power in the universe could no more reverse the course of time than a mortal could.

Such were the thoughts that ran through Leon’s head as he and his party entered Vale Town.

1062 - Last Tour IV

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After returning to Ariminium, Leon and his people rested for the remainder of the day.  When the morning came, the Bull King formally invited him to retur...

1061 - Last Tour III

For two days Leon stayed in Ariminium, wandering around the city and visiting the sites that were important to him.  The guild district had long since been rebuilt, as had the square where he and Trajan had ambushed Bran, the vampire working with the Talfar Kingdom.  He also had to field audience requests from the aristocracy, though he refused most as politely as he could.  Stil...

1060 - Last Tour II

From Occulara, Bolt in Shadow bore Leon’s people westward, taking a more circuitous route than he usually took when undertaking this journey.  Normally, with an ark, he could make a fairly straight shot heading northwest, passing over the hilly boundary where the Ilumerian Wetlands met the Screeching Desert.  This time, however, Leon wanted some time to reminisce.

1059 - Last Tour I

So, on Monday, after a discrepancy was reported to me on Discord, I went back to the previous chapter and gave it a few short edits. They're not large edits by word count, but they're important reminders for Kamran's place in the Nexus. I also went back and gave 2024-04-24 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post

1058 - Justin's Advice

It was inevitable, Leon supposed, that this meeting would come.  If his Kingdom were to prepare to venture into the Nexus, then he’d have to consult with the only man in his Kingdom who had personal experience with the place.

Justin Isynos.

Leon met him in a small, private sitting room joined only by Valeria.  Justin was shown into the room only a few minutes later by on...

1057 - First of the Last Days

It took Leon several months to get the hang of making wisps.  Nestor was hardly impressed with what he’d made, but he at least conceded that the wisps were ‘workable’.  So, a considerable amount of Leon’s generated origin power went into creating wisps that could fulfill Nestor’s requirements.

During those few months, the Lord Protector and the Grand Druid, who had seq...