“You good?” Clark asked, worry swinging in his voice. The other conversations at the table slowly came to a halt as they, one after another, noted what he had noted. Their mutual friend had turned pale – really pale. The kind of pale that no one healthy ever turned. “Hey? You hear me?”
“I…” John shivered head to toe. He was a pudgy man with an unfortunate figure: na...
2025-04-18 20:25:23 +0000 UTC View PostJohn sat on the shore.
Killing the primordial Lorylim had not changed anything about Izha’s suppression. The Gamer was entirely certain that the nihilist had hidden away a second blotch of mass somewhere on the island that he was using as his relay. Finding it had been the challenge of the past day. They had not resolved it yet.
‘Wonder if I was goaded into fighting that ...
2025-04-17 21:43:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe party progressed through the second ring of the Dungeon. It was appropriately challenging for them, Semi-Sphinxes and physical riddles blocking the path. Sometimes they would stop so Apexus and Aclysia could inspect another wall painting. Reysha and Korith had an eye on how long those stops were.
After several days, they found yet another bend in the road. A vast, open gate that would...
2025-04-16 23:14:02 +0000 UTC View PostLucifrena channelled the might of her soul into the aegis. The golden light rippled with every impact of the manifold tendrils. She clutched the symbol of HIS sacrifice tightly to her chest, as the barrage continued to find new angles to assail her and those she had sworn to herself to ward. “Support me as best you can,” that was the only request she could make, for she did not know ...
2025-04-15 19:33:15 +0000 UTC View Post
John had Gnome construct a fortress.
It was not a good looking thing. In fact, most of it was invisible. The entrance jutted out between beach and jungle, leading into a large underground complex that had been filled with berry bushes that would survive for a few days in the lightless space. Much of it was there purely for the psychological benefit of the people. The si...
Layla loved her life.
Layla loathed her life.
The duality of sensations pounding in her chest was more conflicting than ever. Oh, how joyful it was to be wanted by her sisters in bliss. How wonderful to know that she was finally out of the shadows and into the light of acknowledgment.
And how wretched the circumstances.
Layla kneeled on his bed. One of his beds, but his ...
2025-04-12 23:52:41 +0000 UTC View PostJohn checked his smartphone as he ran. The connection was dead, but the internal clock worked well enough still. “We’ve been away for three hours?” he said out loud. That didn’t sound right, but when following a voice through the dense jungle, time drifted by mercilessly. The position of the sun agreed with the reading.
They slowed down shortly before they reached the shoreline. J...
2025-04-11 22:09:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe descriptor ‘green hell’ was quite apt for many forests that John had been to before. Some of them had been described as such courtesy of what monsters the Abyss had spawned in it, others had been mundane and a hell simply because of the volume of the wildlife constantly fighting all around.
This jungle was neither.
Save for the noises created by their advance into the...
2025-04-10 17:19:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe Omniverse had been twisted into an ouroboros. The crown of the great tree gnawed at the roots, the maw like a flower pierced by thorns. In the middle of the depiction was a star, made up of four overlapping leaves of the many branches that came from the bent trunk. Around it was a halo, similarly made from the leaves, and beyond it, a white void.
The depiction was detailed down...
2025-04-09 21:27:48 +0000 UTC View PostHer inability to foresee this filled the oracle with great shame.
Lorelei had scried as she always did before any big moves. While she had foreseen their separation into various planes, she had failed to identify the subtler signs for what they were. Now the temporary separation into different vehicles had come to a catastrophic point.
Only about half of the harem was back no...
2025-04-08 19:37:19 +0000 UTC View PostJohn had been in many dangerous situations in his life before and yet this one felt surreal. There were still the soft sounds of films playing over headphones and the chuckle of those that were reacting to whatever comedic bits there were. At the same time, he could hear the growing commotion in the seats on this side of the plane. Bit by bit, people realized what was happening and unres...
2025-04-07 12:43:31 +0000 UTC View Post“…Of course, stuff goes wrong when I plan it,” Rave complained.
John laughed at the comment. He had the intense urge to smack her ass for it, but alas, there were children present and so he did not.
They were ‘stranded’ at the Los Angeles airport. The vacation that Rave had insisted on had already been put together before John had ever heard of it. His harem knew he would ...
2025-04-05 12:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostAs announced previously, I will now be adjusting prices. As I understand it, as the billing period is now through, you should still have the rewards for this month.
If I got that the wrong way around, I will roll it back and redo it at the end of the month.
2025-04-05 11:56:07 +0000 UTC View Post“It is said that, when the Omniverse first began, there was a race of formless beings that devoured to claim new shapes.”
Aclysia translated the pictographs on the wall calmly. The singular phrase took up the entirety of the wall that greeted them at the bottom of the staircase.
“That’s it?” Reysha asked. “That’s everything we get? A rumour?”
“We are talking ...
2025-04-02 22:23:15 +0000 UTC View PostApexus looked at a small mountain of food.
It smelled delicious. There were clams and fruit and many meats, all raw, all unspoiled. The food was presented on a bowl a meter across, standing on a small pedestal in an otherwise empty room.
“That’s a trap,” Reysha commented.
“When did you change to Scout?...
2025-03-26 22:12:54 +0000 UTC View PostY’ello!
A whole lot and fairly little happened this arc and I’m in a mood to keep things brief, so I shall.
We started the arc with the aftermath of the Aztec affair. The focal point here was the treatment of Nahoa’s depression, which, by and large, I am pretty happy with. I believe I have demonstrated the severity of what happened to her well enough and also given a go...
2025-03-21 18:37:42 +0000 UTC View PostJohn would have loved to leave all of that behind without another thought.
The fighting had been easy enough. It was just another showcase that he and his harem had long since outgrown even the status of effective demigods and ventured into the realm where they were untouchable by all but the most powerful people in the world. However, the safety of his and...
2025-03-21 18:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostBlows shook the earth.
Hypercrush’s and Nathalia’s fists met, knuckle to knuckle, repeatedly. Each was a living earthquake meeting the unshackled might of man. The landscape where they had begun their fight had long since ceased to exist. Earth had been disrupted by tremors, trees and structures toppled, and fire consumed what was flammable. 2025-03-20 19:31:50 +0000 UTC View Post
“GUYS!” Reysha shouted. “COME HERE!”
The excited shout made the party hurry over to her. Although the redhead could be accused of crying wolves for the fun of it at times, they had known her long enough to notice the particular cadence of genuine alarm or, in this case, amazement.
They manoeuvred through the sandstone mesa that they had decided to rest at. Apexus got ...
2025-03-19 18:11:09 +0000 UTC View PostA silver ray shot from the Gamer’s finger.
The projectile hit the cloud of smoke around Leslek, then slowed down to a crawl. The green-haired man had more than enough time to take a second hit of his blunt. Four more Blast Rays were launched from John’s fingers and the Companion Cube. The timing was precise, it had to be for one ray to meld with the next, then another, and then the fi...
2025-03-18 11:40:05 +0000 UTC View PostEvery good place of mischief and love required a groove.
The system of tunnels and retreats would have been lit with pink and red torches at better times. While there was red light, its source was altogether of a less innocent nature. The eyes of Claire’s Household were crimson dots in a darkness nearly complete. A stronger, intrusive glow came from the veins of her opponent.
Tabb...
2025-03-17 20:12:53 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s time for you to face the consequences of your actions!” Jake declared.
Nia tilted her head. Her field of view was an interesting affair, half the vision of a human and half a representation of the world created by tracking different mana flows. Impossibly or, rather, implausibly, her opponent’s soul remained connected to that of Hypercrush even after Lee had put her n...
2025-03-15 20:12:29 +0000 UTC View Post“In a strange way, I am thankful to you.”
The sentence caught Samantha off-guard enough that she stopped barking at the lake. She stared at Aclysia, blinking so quickly that one of her contact lenses shifted, giving a glimpse of the blue eyes behind. “What do you mean?!” she asked, a bit screechy.
Aclysia did not answer immediately. She reached behind her head, making...
2025-03-14 22:17:30 +0000 UTC View Post‘He is definitely monologuing right now,’ Momo thought.
The isolation of her mind felt strange. There was a dullness where her soul connected with John’s and she could not feel the others at all. It was a strange quiet, like moving from a gorgeous symphony to an empty theatre.
‘More like a noisy train station to a bathroom stall,’ she corrected herself mentally.
... 2025-03-13 22:34:52 +0000 UTC View PostWhat climate was more hospitable to life: a rainy plain with regular seasons or the desert?
The answer was obvious. Although it got chill in the winter and dry in the summer, the overall temperature of the planes was predictable. More important than that, plains held plenty of the most fundamental resource of all: water. Where there was no water, life had a very difficult time.
... 2025-03-12 21:58:26 +0000 UTC View PostJohn sat on a rock in the pine forest near his mansion.
He had been sitting there for several hours. Philosophy books played on the phone, keeping him company. He had done the same thing the day before. If Hypercrush was coming to him directly, as Lorelei thought he would, then he wanted to be as far away from any infrastructure as possible.
The air in front of him began to c...
2025-03-11 20:28:44 +0000 UTC View PostJohn hated not being part of events.
This was not born from any fear of being excluded nor was it because he thought he could do everything better. No, the problem with these things was that, when he did not have any fingers in the pie, he had no influence in whose face it was thrown.
Given the horrific events that had played out over the past hours, he refused to continue wi...
2025-03-10 15:50:53 +0000 UTC View PostLeslek took a drag from the cigarette.
He had only picked up smoking a few months ago. It had been a spontaneous decision, born from the wish to kill time with something. He had removed his lip piercing soon thereafter, as it got in the way of something he now liked doing more.
The cigarettes did little for him these days. Even the particular blend of enchanted herbs he had a...
2025-03-08 21:51:20 +0000 UTC View PostEveryone in the breakroom watched the news report with rapt interest.
Eugene was just one of them. He was older than some and younger than most, sitting comfortably in his early thirties. Like the rest of them, he wore a coverall of a bright red colour. It helped contrast them from the background while they were out collecting the scraps left behind in Natural Barriers by stronger ...
2025-03-07 17:56:35 +0000 UTC View PostHank’s every living moment was a struggle against entropy.
“Why should I ever care that there is a massive emergency on the mainland?” he barked into the microphone. “I have a bunch of small emergencies right here!”
The voice on the other side mumbled a half-serious apology, then hung up. Hank did not care. He sipped on his coffee, cursing when the freshly poured li...
2025-03-06 18:36:02 +0000 UTC View Post