When she had first learned about the demons on Rosemount, Zae Zin Nim's greatest fear had been a demon stealing her cultivation. It was a terrible form of violation, stealing away everything she'd worked so hard for. When Lilaetiel howled and leapt at her, she very nearly quailed.
But she wasn't the cultivator she had been when she first set foot on the continent. Her opponent's wild stri...
2024-09-10 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostUsing elven cloaks or disguises would have been foolish in the capital, so they had few stealth options, but they still did their best to penetrate the First Crest defenses without conflict. As they moved deeper into the city on the lower streets, Kai even caught himself hoping it might work out easily. Of course it wouldn't: the best he would hope for was that they fought an intense but brief ...
2024-09-09 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostKai had hoped they would have at least a day to decompress and talk over everything, but the elves seemed to be impatient. They'd barely had time to eat before they were being called to the front and teleportation was being set up by that evening. Soon they were standing on the great Rosemount range between the Elven Wilds and the Commonwealth, overlooking the war as a sunset bled in the backgr...
2024-09-06 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Zae Zin Nim sensed three presences approaching the cave, she was on her feet in an instant. She had passed beyond the point of simple recovery and begun training with the Pure Yin Shroud, so she was confident that her cultivation was solid. Even if she was facing three demons, she wouldn't surrender.
She reached the mouth of the cavern first so as to have more options and identified ...
2024-09-05 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostFor a while they just lay there, catching their breath. Omilaena had always been skeptical of the idea that emotion was essential for sex, but she was glad to be wrong. She hadn't just exorcised this old demon, she felt connected to Kai in a way she hadn't before. It as hard to know what to do with all those emotions, so...
"And now you know why they call me the Maneater," Omilaena said w...
2024-09-04 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostKai's time with the Savage Creed followers had been frustrating in multiple senses.
There had been a part of him that had hoped he would show up, learn a few tricks about the Savage Heart, and instantly gain access to a full transformation. Instead, though everyone was impressed by how much he'd grown, it apparently just took a lot of time and practice.
And tapping into his savage d...
2024-09-03 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMost likely the world was going to hell in a handbasket outside, but so long as Kai was fine, Omilaena didn't really care. She was in the middle of a dozen different projects: refining new poisons, strengthening her Venomsteel, feeding that steel into Lethal Artisan. As every component of her soul synergized, she could feel her Azure Core strengthening, though it still needed another breakthrou...
2024-09-02 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDespite all the time he'd spent being chased by demons through the Commonwealth, Kai found that he needed to adapt his strategies again now. Anaelina had been aggressive and personal, always pursuing him in hopes of getting her revenge or draining him. By contrast Troulon was careful and methodical, which was proving to be worse.
What he'd painfully discovered was that Troulon was both br...
2024-08-30 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostZae Zin Nim fought against a green flood, flailing her limbs to try to make headway and yet somehow never getting any closer. Kai hovered in the distance, swept up in the acidic waters, and she knew with inexplicable certainty that he needed her help. The waves were too strong, they battered her from every side, she hadn't been breathing but suddenly she desperately needed to take a breath... 2024-08-29 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
This was the worst possible environment to test her mastery of the Prana Jewels, but Omilaena had no choice. Zae Zin Nim was in terrible condition, already unconscious in Kai's arms. Her soul had come off the Kama Altar strong, but she'd pushed her new ability far too hard too fast. That left her even more vulnerable to the poisons flowing through her body.
"Have her drink this," she said...
2024-08-28 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostZae Zin Nim crossed the distance between them so quickly that Kai couldn't take action to help. It also wasn't necessary: she struck Anaelina with such fury that she was sent flying backwards, nearly falling into the poison cloud.
The large warriors closed on her and Zae Zin Nim focused entirely on one of them, knocking aside his sword to hit him with a palm strike. It was strange for her...
2024-08-27 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostZae Zin Nim gradually woke up lying against the man she loved. For a while she just lingered there, happy and pleasantly sore and warm.
Thoughts returned after the sensations. Could the girl she had once been have ever imagined what her life would become? Married to a barbarian and also a woman somehow, using a chakra ritual on an altar in Rosemount while being pursued by demons. It would...
2024-08-26 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostKai's eyes were open and he honestly wasn't sure if he'd ever closed them. He didn't feel exhausted - he was burning with nervous energy. Despite the terrible night spent thinking, his feelings were still a tangled mess. After talking nonsense about being a real man and making a decision, he had no idea what he was going to say.
But he was out of time. The night sky was beginning to crack...
2024-08-16 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAfter so long skirting the wilder parts of the Commonwealth, Kai felt a bit uncomfortable moving back into civilization. Yes, the crowds on the roads gave them more cover, but it also risked the chance that they would be discovered. Their elven cloaks had hidden them for many days now, he just doubted they could last forever.
On several occasions he'd used Thunderbird's Wings to take them...
2024-08-15 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe artisan had been chained to her work desk for the past five years of her life, ever since she'd fallen into debt. She thought she was a skilled artisan, but materials were so expensive, and when two projects had fallen through in a row, she just hadn't been able to keep up. And now, as a slave, it was obvious that she would never be able to make up her debt and just keep working forever. 2024-08-14 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
After a day of intense flying over the Commonwealth, the three of them trading off to sleep, it became obvious that they would have to fight. Their opponents couldn't quite catch up, but also couldn't get ahead of them or herd them. As the dark ship grew larger behind them, they prepared to eliminate everyone tracking them.
The first attack came from soldiers flying on those incredibly fa...
2024-08-13 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post(One year ago today I began posting Depthless Hunger. In that time I have posted 334 chapters here (298 on Royalroad). I have taken a few days of hiatus, and I had to switch from seven chapters per week to five, but otherwise I think I have kept to my schedule.
I hope this has been worthwhile to someone.
As a reminder, what I promised readers is that I would finish the th...
2024-08-12 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe second journey down to the Primal Loom was much less ominous than the first, yet Kai still felt the weight of its presence. Insanity or not, the Loom represented an immense amount of power, the culmination of generations of work by the elves. He'd basically forgotten about it while on Deadwaste, but it had spent months preparing the essence they'd granted for some sort of new power.
W...
2024-08-09 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostOnce Kai was reunited with his allies and standing in Sandflower City, he felt much more truly relaxed. He didn't want to push and look suspicious, but as far as he could tell, Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena had been given an empowering bath with no strings attached. It was rare that anyone saw his potential compared to theirs... hopefully it wouldn't happen like that in the future.
It had been...
2024-08-08 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe Empress stood proudly, her human upper body upright and her tail coiled around her, despite the obvious injuries. She had been coughing earlier but now remained serene, Kai assumed with pure willpower. When Omilaena walked up to her, the lamia looked down with grim eyes.
"Empress Kormoullia, isn't that right?" Omilaena smiled and ambled closer, enjoying her advantage. "I confess, I di...
2024-08-07 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostTheir trio had been positioned close to the palanquin, but they couldn't stick too close or they would have been suspicious to anyone watching. Unfortunately, they'd been further away when the demons attacked, so they wouldn't be fast enough to intercept them even at top speed.
That gave Kai time to examine the demons as they attacked the caravan guards. There were three demonic arts user...
2024-08-06 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostTechnically Kai had been in the Coiled Empire before, but that had just been a stop on the way into the Commonwealth. This time they were landing on the end of the peninsula, in the largest city in the Empire. The large population potentially meant trouble, but it would also have an embassy for the Elven Wilds. The best plan they'd agreed upon was to catch up on Rosemount, contact old allies, a...
2024-08-05 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostLess than a week into their voyage, the ship was struck by a vicious storm. The Waterborn sailing the ship were able to keep them on track, so the storm wouldn't slow them down beyond the usual difficulties of ocean voyages, but it did make the trip miserably wet.
Zae Zin Nim viewed it as a vindication of her decision to keep everyone together and just push across the ocean, instead of at...
2024-08-02 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostInafay had been happy to have Kai back, and she'd been glad to meet Zae Zin Nim and Omilaena. But there had always been part of her that knew it couldn't last forever and that this massive advantage that had carried her so far had to disappear eventually. That day came sooner than she expected.
For once there was no emergency or disaster to call them away: they simply finished their train...
2024-08-01 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFor the most part, Omilaena found the phase training tedious. It wasn't the sort of thing that could be skipped or improved with a genius breakthrough, it simply required hard work. Even though it was spiritual and involved the fundamental laws of reality, it was as irritating as Physique training.
Normally she could entertain herself with her own thoughts, but the problem was opportunity...
2024-07-31 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThroughout his life, Kai had faced many obstacles and been rejected by fate many times. He'd managed to keep up with his peers only by dogged persistence, working harder and longer, always attempting more. Even through the struggles, that drive had always taken him higher and he'd pushed past his limits time and time again.
Now, for the first time, he faced failure.
Talndim and the ...
2024-07-30 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostZae Zin Nim made rapid progress each week, though all of that progress would have been impossible for her not so long ago. It wasn't simply that she'd grown stronger and mastered the compression exercises... the more important change had been the opening of her mind.
She still believed that Krysali cultivation was ultimately inadequate, but now she could accept that it had something to te...
2024-07-29 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDespite Gunjin's impatience, even he couldn't push them along that fast. Kai had time to say farewell to Tusquo, promising to return in time for the incursion and making the Irunian promise to actually introduce him to his wife next time. Technically there was nothing stopping them from visiting again while they were still on Deadwaste, but Kai wasn't sure they'd have time for that.
So, i...
2024-07-26 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post"How can there be an Insanity on Deadwaste?" Zae Zin Nim asked. She stared at the shard of metal as if she expected it to attack or explode at any moment.
"It's called the True Metal." Omilaena began walking around it, her eyes alight again. "It appears in some legends, supposedly a piece of metal that fell from the sky and inspired everyone else to create metals in imitation. I'd have di...
2024-07-25 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIf Kai had a year he could have accomplished more, but Irun didn't have that much patience and he probably didn't have that much time before consequences would find him again. So eventually, about two months after they'd started the training, he and Tusquo decided that the new Irunian raid group had completed their base training.
When Kai looked over the group he was satisfied with what h...
2024-07-24 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post