The next few days were an odd combination of relief and pain. The first was the most explicable. After all, the expedition into the Primal Realm had been through hell. They’d watched thousands of their comrades die, often in gruesome ways. Seeing a friend getting ripped apart by trolls was one thing, but seeing them slowly starve until they could scarcely lift their sp...
2025-09-24 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostElijah’s first batch of mead was an unmitigated disaster that tasted cloyingly sweet and a bit rancid. It didn’t take him long to pin the problem on unhealthy fermentation. The fix was thankfully simple, and it only required him to ensure that the next batches were properly fed so that the yeast could properly ferment.
The second batch was much more difficult to reco...
2025-09-23 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostHui Shui still thought of himself as a researcher, though it had been quite some time since he’d looked at the world through the eyes of a scientist. His keen sense of observation remained, even if the current situation didn’t truly call for any great insight. One look at Elijah Hart, and even a blind man could read the danger of his presence.
Even if Hui Shui hadn...
2025-09-22 15:00:16 +0000 UTC View Post“Ew.”
“Is it supposed to smell like that?”
“Gross.”
Elijah nearly rolled his eyes at the kids’ reactions to his yeast colony. Admittedly, it had grown a bit out of control over the past few days, but ultimately, the result was predictable. Still, he hadn’t been prepared for an entire cask of the stuff. And the children were similarly unprepare...
2025-09-21 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post“I want to do more,” Elijah admitted to Atticus.
It had been three days since he’d departed Seattle, but the aftermath of the war elf attack still stuck with him. In an effort to deal with those feelings, he’d gone to Argos, where he’d spent most of his time in the Temple of Virtue. He’d lost count of the number of people he’d healed, but even then, he knew that ...
2025-09-21 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostA massive troll took Sadie in a shoulder charge that, despite her abilities, sent her skidding backward into a thick-trunked tree. It shook with the impact, sending a cascade of moisture raining down upon her head. She barely felt it. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she was completely dry. Not since before she’d entered the forsaken swamp that had been h...
2025-09-20 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe trolls noticed him within moments.
And the swamp colossus’ attention soon followed.
Even as Miguel charged, Trevor’s hooves kicking up black dirt along the way, the colossus let out a gurgling roar that very nearly burst Miguel’s eardrums. He leaned forward, urging Trevor to speed as he drew his sword. They covered the ground in seconds, lancing into the ...
2025-09-19 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostZeke lay on the bed, his hands behind his head as he mentally toyed with the local threads. He didn’t make any changes. That would be far too dangerous, and it would risk destabilizing the entire world. He and Talia would doubtless survive such an event, but none of the people she’d given succor would make it through that sort of calamity.
Instead, he did the e...
2025-09-19 13:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostMiguel looked down at his armor – or what was left of it. After eight months of constant fighting in defense of the fortress, then another few weeks racing across the swamp, it had been torn to splinters. What’s more, it was covered in mud, blood, and other detritus, much of which smelled as horrible as it looked. The only relatively clean bit of his gear was his sword, wh...
2025-09-18 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostFor a while, Zeke just wandered the Ways, which had been entirely reconstituted by the Creator. It was a display of power Zeke could only barely understand, though he could at least recognize that it wasn’t all on that omnipotent being. Instead, he’d simply retraced the paths already set down by the Waymaster. Even dead, its power lingered to the point where it had left an...
2025-09-18 13:00:35 +0000 UTC View Post“How many?” Elijah asked, not bothering to look up from the blood-covered floor. People had already begun to clean the other parts of the hospital, but they’d not made it to Elijah’s area. Maybe because it was in one corner of the trauma center, but his presence might’ve been a more viable explanation.
Because even though he hadn’t really acknowledged it, Eli...
2025-09-17 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostElijah did not enjoy killing people.
Or that was what he kept telling himself. He almost believed it, too. Parts of it, at least. On the surface, it was true. He didn’t like the idea of killing sapient creatures. However, there was a part of him that very much reveled in the evidence of the power discrepancy. His might was undisputed, and despite thei...
2025-09-17 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostIsaiah watched from his seat of power as Seattle’s forces let loose on the invading army. A hundred screens, each one the size of a tablet, showed him exactly how thoroughly his people were outnumbered.
But while the war elves had Warcallers and Wardwrights, Tacticians and Healers, his people had him. His drones – thousands of them – buzzed through the air like a s...
2025-09-16 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOn the timescale of Zeke’s current existence, a month was not a long time. When measured against centuries, it was nothing. And yet, his time with Pudge somehow managed to feel even shorter than that comparison implied. So, when the day came to say goodbye, he found his resolve wavering.
Did he truly need to go?
It wasn’t as if reality would unravel in a few mo...
2025-09-16 13:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostHate had no place in war.
Certainly, there were some who managed to harness that all-encompassing emotion in an effort to push themselves further than they ever could have otherwise. In those instances, it was undeniably effective. However, in General Kinsax el’Turon’s experience, it was a sign of irrevocable weakness. Overcoming it was the height of self-contr...
2025-09-15 15:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe wall exploded.
Debris rocketed across the building, skipping across the floor before a wave of stone and steel swept over the soldiers. Elijah ducked his head, bracing himself to weather the shockwave, but there was nothing he could do to protect those around him. Massive hunks of the wall smashed into soldiers. Bones broke, and organs ruptured as dozens of men and w...
2025-09-14 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostElijah spread his wings and let out a rumbling roar that echoed throughout the Undercity. The sheer volume of it rustled his leaves and shook the surrounding buildings. If any of them had featured glass windows, they would have shattered under its rumbling volume.
Fortunately, most of the rioters took one look at him and sprinted away.
Could he have chased them dow...
2025-09-14 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostDesdemona finally let a broad smile spread across her face. It felt like it had been years since she’d allowed such an expression to touch her. Even longer since she’d felt true joy. But as a dense wave of ethera swept over her most hated enemies, how could she feel anything else?
The little ball that represented Isaiah Roberts sparked, then fell to the ground....
2025-09-13 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Stop!” came a voice from inside.
Elijah ignored the order, extending his Mantle of Authority to its full strength. He’d developed some control over its size, but the strength remained consistent no matter how he used it. He was committed to working on it, though.
As he continued toward the door, a series of gasps erupted behind him as the soldiers’ ethera ...
2025-09-12 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostPudge looked old.
Of course, that was because he was. Zeke had no idea how much time had passed since he’d last seen the former direbear who’d become his adopted brother, but he was certain that more than a few thousand years had passed. And the passage of time had affected Pudge. His fur had turned uniformly grey, and his single remaining horn had lost its luster.&n...
2025-09-12 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostElijah was disgusted.
Part of it came from the situation, and rightly so. The notion that someone from Argos, of all places, hated him enough to participate in an assassination attempt against him gutted Elijah in a way he couldn’t quite explain. For as long as he could remember, his relationship with that population had bordered on hero worship. They’d loved him alm...
2025-09-11 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostZeke watched, awestruck and terrified, as the cage of the Framework encapsulated him. The Creator, in a form almost as unknowable as the Abyss itself, descended from his perch and planted himself at the rift exposing reality to its opposite. Zeke’s mind struggled to comprehend what he saw, though he did manage to glean a few tiny bits of information here and there.
The threa...
2025-09-11 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostGunnar Lindstrom squatted a few feet from his prisoner, then slid a bowl across the concrete ground. It made it within a couple of feet, but the girl didn’t react. Sighing, he pushed himself upright and said, “You have to eat.”
She didn’t move.
In fact, he wasn’t certain that she was even breathing. Concerned, he stepped forward. He only took two st...
2025-09-10 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post“First things first,” Elijah said, leaning forward in his seat. Atticus’ assistant had already come by to offer them coffee, and despite Elijah’s attempt to get things moving, he’d waited until he had a steaming cup in front of him. “What have you heard about the meeting last week?”
As Atticus repositioned himself, he let out a small groan of displeasure. ...
2025-09-10 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAnxiety hung over the grove like a storm cloud, and to the point where everyone had begun to step lightly around him, lest they entice the tempest to the fore. Elijah tried to focus on rest and recovery, but his worry for his friends and family, most of whom were stuck in the Red Marsh, presumably fighting for their lives, continued to intrude on his every waking moment.
He’...
2025-09-09 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostElijah felt them coming.
The group of hunters had a few levels under their belts, with one – presumably the leader – having ascended. They also seemed to have taken a few steps forward regarding their cultivation, probably because of Elijah’s soap. All in all, there were six of them, and Elijah felt certain that their composition was a standardized group.
Mea...
2025-09-08 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“It’s been almost ten months,” Elijah said, pacing back and forth. “They should be back now.” He glanced up at Nara, asking, “Right?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, her patience clearly running thin. Not surprising, considering that Elijah had repeated the same concern – phrased on slightly differently – more than a few times over the past hour.&nbs...
2025-09-07 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostSitting on one of the gurneys, Elijah finally leaned back and let out a sigh of relief. After spending the past two days healing the people of New York, he had long since exhausted the sick and injured in the district. But once word got out, people had come from all across the city. There were even a few patients who’d taken the ferry from the mainland, just to be healed by ...
2025-09-07 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSolomon Thorne sat on the floor of the keep, his back against the wall as he picked at his fingernails with a small knife. The Explorer – a pretty woman with short, black hair – stood near the door, watching for the incoming messenger. Meanwhile, the young man paced back and forth, periodically glancing at the deceptively small treasure in the center of the room. Finally, ...
2025-09-06 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“Good question,” Elijah responded, thankful that Isaiah was willing to play his unwitting part. “The answer comes with two sides. The first follows from my explanation. Keeping the Primal Realms under control helps everyone on Earth and prepares us for the next crisis.” He leaned forward, his hands on the table. “In case everyone forgot, I live here too.&...
2025-09-05 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post