“Wait!” Kenva cried as Kaius took a step towards the entrance to their new Arachnacine Landyacht.
“What?” he said, looking back. Her face was aghast; what could possibly have her so frazzled?
“We can’t just enter! Every caravan needs a name, and this is a damned landyacht!”
Kaius cocked his brow. He didn’t get it.
“A name?” he questioned.
... 2025-12-11 22:04:49 +0000 UTC View PostBlinking away the System notification and shock, Kaius snatched up the orb. It was weighty, denser than he expected, with a fine texture and densely patterned runes engraved on its surface. The name of it hung in his mind — an Arachnacine Landyacht.
The description was clear, as was Castellan’s explanation: it was an autonomous vessel, some kind of carriage, he was sure. ...
2025-12-10 20:37:23 +0000 UTC View PostA single solid rap against the door announced the Castellan’s return.
It jolted Kaius from his contemplation. After he and his team had reviewed their gains, they’d taken the moment of quiet to cycle. He could still feel the fizz in his Aspects. The Castellan’s one-sided beatdown had inspired a mania in them, one that was fading the longer they waited.
Channelling that fervent...
2025-12-09 23:44:50 +0000 UTC View Post“Come on, you big lug. Let's get you to that chair.”
Kaius simply grunted, his arm thrown around Kenva's shoulder as he awkwardly hopped forwards. Kenva bore his weight without complaint. At their levels she was more than strong enough to do it, although he knew that with their height difference it must have been an awkward endeavour.
Supposedly the Head Researcher’s quarters ...
2025-12-08 21:23:42 +0000 UTC View PostKaius stared at the plain steel table that just moments before had held the image of the long-dead Duke Unterstern. The Castellan sat still and silent, like its life had fled in the same breath that his ancestor had vanished.
He had no eyes for the creature, consumed by what he had learnt.
A lost compound. An unknown mountain. A forgotten oath. And two questionable, potentially long...
2025-12-07 22:25:34 +0000 UTC View PostKaius stared at the image out of time, unsure how to process what he was looking at. The man named him successor; it had to be one of his ancestors. Some hidden condition met due to that very Sovereign Star the Castellan had mentioned earlier, perhaps?
Regardless of their relation, he was held transfixed. The projection wasn't an illusion; Truesight was clear in that. No, he coul...
2025-12-06 01:28:56 +0000 UTC View PostThat roiling pool of arcane in the centre of the room held him in a tight grip, claws of regret and horror sinking deep into his chest.
A library.
He didn't want to believe it. Not with any depth of his soul. Oh, he'd never been the most scholarly or studious of men. There wasn't much to be had in the way of reading material out in the Arboreal Sea, at least not count...
2025-12-04 20:41:17 +0000 UTC View PostKaius listened to the Castellan’s words numbly.
A duke. Him.
It was patently ridiculous, even before he considered the fact it was the duke of a long-dead Empire that had once ruled the continent. Every time he tried to wrap his head around it, he failed. Was he supposed to introduce himself as a lord now? Demand that simple commoners should not meet his eyes like the ...
2025-12-03 20:24:25 +0000 UTC View PostFor the first time since it had cut off his leg and hailed him, the Castellan moved. It was a slight thing, a mere tilt of its head so that it could meet his eyes. Yet the motion sent a spike of primal panic through him.
Bronze orbs burned in its sockets, skewering him in place.
Every single one of them tensed in an instinctive response, a burning urge to move and hide like th...
2025-12-02 20:30:04 +0000 UTC View PostIts form was perfect, a rendition of man cast from bronze that was almost entirely untouched from their previous assault.
From his position on the floor, Kaius ogled at the hard lines of its features. Its entire existence was a testament to craftsmanship. Yet it was also a terrifying monstrosity that had ripped off his leg with casual ease — one that could have slaughtered them to...
2025-12-01 20:33:17 +0000 UTC View PostBronwyn faced what he was certain would be his death stoically, with friends at his back. Swiftly as he could, he clambered down the side of the mountain spire, his eyes locked on the monstrosity that waited for them on an open field of battle.
A challenge in truth. There would be an audience of beasts arrayed in the many thousands, all watching with glassy eyes that were as vacant as the...
2025-11-30 20:50:58 +0000 UTC View PostAn icy chill shot through his veins as Bronwyn felt his stomach drop. The statue. The totem — It was alive, a thinking creature. And it was controlling the beasts.
He might have lacked an identification skill, but he knew it was strong. Too strong for them. He could see it in the way it moved, in the sheer weight of that strange energy that rolled off it. And, more than anythin...
2025-11-30 00:49:03 +0000 UTC View PostWithered rock crumbled under his fingertips as moss and dew made Bronwyn's grip slick. He adjusted his hold, paying it no mind as he calmly adjusted his weight and kept his footing steady on the treacherous path they followed.
The mountain spires of the Spine were an utter bastard to traverse. As beautiful as they would seem, they were drenched in mist and greenery. Each one was sheer eno...
2025-11-27 20:46:13 +0000 UTC View PostKaius didn’t know what was more terrifying: that the Castellan-executor was fucking Mythril, a middle Tier Three, or that the bastard had teleported right into the middle of the mana core’s domed room.
Regardless, the screams of warning were heeded and they exploded into motion. Even if his teammates hadn’t had the wherewithal to analyse the new threat like he had, he knew the panic...
2025-11-26 20:38:43 +0000 UTC View PostKaius left his team behind, watching his back anxiously as he waded deep into the fires of mana irradiated from the mana core. He licked his lips, feeling the energy prickle on his tongue. It was like walking through the deepest depths of a storm, a latent charge that threatened to strike at any moment.
Yet for all its violence, he wasn’t worried. Not one bit. If there was anything he w...
2025-11-25 20:56:54 +0000 UTC View PostScintillating and tightly controlled, mana wormed through his flesh.
Kaius was focused and driven — finding a window of quiet between patrols where they could duck into a side room and he could reinscribe was difficult. He couldn’t waste this opportunity.
His last Stormlash was all he would need. Since their flight from the redoubt he had shifted his loadout to fa...
2025-11-24 20:43:41 +0000 UTC View PostKaius laid his hand flat on the slab of steel which had sealed them into the barracks that had been their home for several weeks now. Feeling the cool touch of the metal on his skin, he held his mana primed and ready, but did not inject it into the structure just yet.
In some senses he found it funny that they had been imprisoned so quickly upon their return to Deadacre, yet the differenc...
2025-11-23 21:57:01 +0000 UTC View PostSweat streamed from his brow in rivulets as Kaius clenched his jaw. The level was nice, but it was only a reflection of the inordinate effort he had undergone for closing in on two weeks now.
After the mess of stripping his first worker drone, he and his team had shifted most of the remains to a room that adjoined the main workshop that they had holed up in. It was covered in scrap —&nb...
2025-11-23 20:43:28 +0000 UTC View Post“Gods’ damn bastard of an artefact!” Kaius said, setting the cylinder down on the ground. He hurriedly drew a rag from his storage ring and wiped off a plastered layer of viscous oil that had covered his hands.
“Shattered axles. You’d think the damn thing cut your purse.” Kenva teased, a hint of a smile crossing her mouth, though she wasn’t watching his work too closely. She...
2025-11-20 20:43:39 +0000 UTC View PostWhile Ianmus watched on with curiosity, Kaius pawed over the slain remains of a worker drone. They were odd up close. Now that they were no longer charging at him, with their multi-jointed limbs whirling in a violent flail, it was much easier to take in the fine details of their construction.
Whoever had designed these things was either a madman, a genius, or both. They seemingly pulled i...
2025-11-19 20:26:26 +0000 UTC View PostMetal growled in distaste as Kaius dragged one of the limbless, still-living worker drones into the room they had chosen to make their base of operations for the foreseeable future.
Now that he was no longer being pursued by a horde of automata, and far less frantic for it, Kaius could see that the place was more than just a kitchen. It was an oddity of a space — part cooking area and p...
2025-11-18 20:49:45 +0000 UTC View PostThick hardened steel, built to withstand war and violence, slammed home with a basso thunk. Kaius felt the jolt in his marrow, despair welling within him like the door itself was a guillotine, and his fate had been just as sealed as he watched it close.
With the despair came frustration. How? Why? Their entire descent, the facility hadn’t reacted to their presence and now it sealed itse...
2025-11-18 00:29:19 +0000 UTC View PostGot to take the missus to an important appointment, and only half done with editing. Should be out in a couple hours -- only ten mins of work to do when I get back.
2025-11-17 20:40:39 +0000 UTC View PostA dense net of bush at his back, Bronwyn stood at the edge of a steep canyon that ripped its way deep into the earth. Before him lay Strangspine. It was as awe-inspiring as the first time he'd laid eyes on it.
Unfathomably long and multiple leagues across, it dominated this region of the Frontier. The difference between it and its surroundings was stark — almost impossible. While...
2025-11-17 00:57:41 +0000 UTC View PostTangled and dense, the vast wall of bush slowly dispersed before them. The trail they had been following was overgrown, poorly tended to, and had likely been untouched since Tyne’s Rest had fallen to the invasion of beasts. After a long night of stories and reminiscing, they had set off first thing in the morning, closing the last few leagues between them and the first of the fallen villages ...
2025-11-15 01:14:36 +0000 UTC View PostTongues of flame reached skyward, each one a crackling lash that threw off shadows in the deep dark of the brush.
Spectres lurked there — things of fang and claw from times long past. Bronwyn wasn’t scared of them. Not anymore. It would take more than the weight of old failures to unsteady his footing.
Still, he hadn’t taken off his armour. His blade lay naked in the dir...
2025-11-13 21:04:23 +0000 UTC View PostHardwood creaked and groaned as the wheels of their cart juddered over yet another rut. Deep in the bush, the roads were poor quality. They were paved to an extent, but rain had worn away at their foundations, and the ever‑encroaching growth of the bush made travel difficult.
This early in the morning, such a bumpy ride was particularly unpleasant. But there was nothing for it; ev...
2025-11-12 20:35:14 +0000 UTC View PostKaius ran through the wide-open halls of the imperial ruin, bay windows flashing past to reveal workstations and creations of unknown artifice alike.
Backtracking as they were, their path was littered with the detritus of their previous battles — twisted remnants of turrets hung from the ceiling while the shattered bodies of worker drones scattered the hall.
He revelled in t...
2025-11-11 20:47:36 +0000 UTC View PostKaius widened his eyes, slamming his blade home once more into the ragged hole he’d left in its chest as he unleashed a Bound Maelstrom. He didn’t know what was coming, but whatever it was had to be dangerous. The mana within the automaton was peaking, growing aggressively turbulent and unstable.
Yet rather than weaken, the Centurion only pulled him in tighter with its spiked...
2025-11-10 20:20:12 +0000 UTC View PostKaius wheezed, shoving down the burning agony of the hole in his chest. He didn’t know what the centurion's beam had been made of, but it was potent. It had scythed straight through all of his defences.
Hells, his second-tier scalemail had practically been melted into slag! There were drips of metal still glowing as they splattered to the ground at his feet.
Rotten ...
2025-11-09 21:41:54 +0000 UTC View Post