Elijah crested a hill, only to see the city of Rubibi stretched out below him. It was still a couple of miles distant, and the fading light of dusk cast the white buildings in shades of orange. They matched the much more vibrant coastline, which featured similarly hued sands that were made to look even brighter by the close proximity of the teal water. Unlike the open sea, the...
2025-07-26 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt took two days before Elijah had completed his preparations. In that time, his friends, along with the next wave of soldiers meant to conquer the troll Primal Realm, headed down to the Hollow Depths. The difference in Ironshore’s population probably wasn’t noticeable to most people, but Elijah only had to look at the city’s training facilities to recognize just how many peop...
2025-07-26 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostTime.
For the most part, it was a meaningless measure. To Zeke, that was even more true. He didn’t age. He barely felt its passage. The only factors anchoring him to everyone else’s perception of time were exterior to his existence. The constant check-ins with his tower were both frustrating and illuminating. It was easy to see a pattern forming, to...
2025-07-26 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostElijah threw his arms out wide, saying, “Good to see you!”
Ron, who’d just arrived at Mama Lou’s gave him a tight smile, accepting the hug like the old friend he was. The embrace was short and included a lot of masculine back-patting before they broke apart. “How long are you in town?” Ron asked.
Gesturing toward his favorite booth, Elijah answered, “A few ...
2025-07-25 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostElijah’s fingers danced along Sadie’s bare shoulder, but as distracting as she was, his attention fell squarely on external factors. Specifically, concerning his immediate future. He had spent the past few weeks mentally preparing to assault the troll Primal Realm, and now that eventuality had been denied him. His presence wasn’t just unnecessary. It would be detri...
2025-07-25 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostGunnar lagged far behind his target, his hands in his pockets as he tried to look as uninteresting as possible. He was dressed much like everyone else in the area, which meant that he’d been forced to visit a local Tailor and buy something expensive, fashionable, but casual.
He hated the result, which made him feel like he should be heading toward some country club to play a...
2025-07-24 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostI did a slight edit concerning yesterday's chapters. The first was to make it clearer why Elijah chose to endure the elves' teleportation system (basically that Sadie convinced him that they didn't have time for him to spend months traveling by foot everywhere; he agreed to swallow his instincts). The second was to make Sadie's motivations for bringing Elijah down to the Hollow De...
2025-07-24 15:00:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I'm moving today's and tomorrow's chapters for Death: Genesis back a couple of days. They'll be posting on Saturday and Sunday now (next week's chapters might not start until Tuesday, but the schedule should be back to normal by next Thursday). I apologize for the inconvenience, but I've been a bit swamped lately and I'm not happy with how they turned out. So, I need a couple of extra days t...
2025-07-24 08:44:15 +0000 UTC View PostA raging inferno swept across the settlement, engulfing the temple and burning a hundred trolls to ashes. Elijah never stopped moving. He couldn’t, because he was far from finished.
Even as the fire from Incinerate petered out, he dove to his right, hit the ground in a roll, and came to his feet just in time to separate a troll from its lower legs. The creature f...
2025-07-23 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostElijah bent double, trying his best to suppress the feeling of nausea twisting through his stomach. Hands on his knees, he muttered, “I really don’t like that.”
“I don’t either,” Sadie agreed through clenched teeth.
“It’s like swimming through sewage and accidentally opening your mouth,” Elijah complained. Then, he glanced at the nearby priestess....
2025-07-23 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostKneeling among the remnants of a ruined building, Elijah studied the city of Eldrathûn from afar. With Eyes of the Eagle, he could only just see over the formidable wall surrounding the massive settlement. It was a hive of activity, with hundreds of thousands of people going about the business of their daily life. It was like someone had kicked an anthill, though instead of a...
2025-07-22 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostGunnar knelt next to the wall, feeling for a seam in the stone. After a couple of seconds, he found the tiniest of gaps and jammed the blade of his survival knife between the blocks. He didn’t immediately pry it loose. Instead, he ran the edge of the weapon along the seam, leaving a trail of cascading mortar to pile on the floor. He traced a rough square, approximately...
2025-07-22 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThis time, Zeke let everyone know that he expected to be occupied for quite some time. Perhaps even longer than it took for him to learn how to manipulate the threads of reality. Their reactions were predictable.
Pudge took it stoically, trusting that Zeke knew what he was doing. That it was necessary. Still, he was obviously disappointed in the choice, thoug...
2025-07-22 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostElijah glanced at the cavern’s distant ceiling, and upon seeing a dense bank of dark clouds rolling in from the north, decided to take shelter in his tent. He only barely made it inside before a storm erupted into a fury, sending a cascade of rain to descend upon the parched desert.
It was fitting.
Even as Elijah listened to the steady drumbeat of heavy drops of rain o...
2025-07-21 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostElijah heaved the last stone block into place. Even as it slid into the hole, he let out a sigh of relief. He glanced from one to the next, appreciating the symmetry on display. Eighteen uprights, each one roughly the same size stood in a circle that would soon become his latest dolmen. However, to say he still had a long way to go was an understatement. He had bar...
2025-07-21 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe ball of amorphous goo floating in the center of the room shimmered with mana, divine energy, and something Zeke couldn’t quite discern. Looking closer, he saw that the threads only made up a portion of the thing’s mass, and there was meaning in the space between. Mass, even. It was an oddity for which he had no real explanation, except that he wasn’t nearly as percep...
2025-07-21 13:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Stop it,” Elijah muttered, though he knew it would do no good. The little spider was adorable, but feeling it crawl around in his hair was more than a little off-putting. His mind kept telling him that those furry, little legs were smaller pests, and he wanted nothing more than to rake his fingers through his hair to dislodge them.
Thankfully, the spider understood ...
2025-07-20 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah ripped a blood beast from his chest, throwing it toward the ground with enough force to splatter it within its shell. Even as he did, he wheeled around, catching another with his scythe. The blade bit deep, but it didn’t slice through the thing. Not entirely.
It didn’t matter.
The creature burst from the impact, and Elijah paid it no more heed.&nbs...
2025-07-20 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostOnly a few feet from the cavern’s ceiling, Elijah circled the tree. The swarm of blood beasts, slithering and squelching disgustingly, surrounded the entire island upon which it stood. Their numbers reached well into the hundreds of thousands, and with every passing moment, more joined via two distinct streams of shelled lamprey-mouthed leeches.
As he glided, he consid...
2025-07-19 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah sank to his knees, exhausted by his efforts. He’d managed to cleanse one chamber, leaving a blanket of vitality behind, but the corruption continued through an adjacent tunnel. It grew much weaker, and to the point where he suspected it wouldn’t take much more effort to complete the job. But he’d pushed himself to his limits. Now, he needed rest.
With ...
2025-07-19 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA deep gloom hung over the skeletal forest, casting the barren trees in flickering shadow. Only the scarcest glimmer of light penetrated the darkness from above, which, rather than providing much-needed illumination, only served to create a more malevolent atmosphere.
Elijah stood at the edge of the forest, his heart beating wildly as he clutched a ridge of stone at the mouth ...
2025-07-18 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostElijah wanted to just swallow his instincts and use the dark elves’ teleportation network. Every rational thought in his head screamed at him to do just that. He ignored them, and not by choice. He suspected that if he submitted to their teleportation, something terrible would happen. Maybe by his hand. Maybe from some unforeseen circumstance that he could feel b...
2025-07-18 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe Ways were busy, and Zeke almost felt anonymous. Certainly, there were a few stray glances here and there. Most people could feel that he was fundamentally different than them. But they had no idea just how far above them he truly stood. That was freeing in a way that he should have but failed to predict.
“How far is it?” he asked, glancing toward the kobold...
2025-07-18 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning dawned cold and wet, and the damp had invaded Elijah’s room. Some of that was mitigated by climate control enchantments – common in many inn rooms he’d visited over the years – but they were clearly unequal to the task. Extending his senses, he could feel their sputtering supply of ethera, and he idly wondered whether that was the result of poor craftmanship...
2025-07-17 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostAs the spires activated, Elijah focused on the swirl of ethera. He could just make out the spell’s complex lattice of ethera before he was whisked away, only to reappear hundreds of miles away. He wasn’t entirely certain how far he’d traveled, but the change in the weather made it clear that Hafnarfjörður was practically a different world.
Sheets of freezing rain desce...
2025-07-17 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t know what matters anymore,” Zeke admitted. He glanced at the memorial urn containing Tucker’s ashes. It sat in a place of prominence, surrounded by a hundred other memorials. They all belonged to men and women who’d done some great service for Pudge’s people. Heroes, all.
Even Tucker.
Especially him, Zeke supposed. Over the pa...
2025-07-17 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post“You think it’ll work?” asked Elijah.
Nerthus nodded, answering, “Of course it will work. I only remember pieces of my old planet, but it uses similar architecture.”
Elijah frowned. “What is that like? The not remembering, I mean. You remember your parents, don’t you? And you know more about the system than I do, even now.”
Nerthus...
2025-07-16 15:10:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, Elijah awoke to the sound of birds chirping. He glanced at his open balcony, only to see a pair of robins perched on the branch-like banister. He contentedly watched them for a few minutes before they flew away. Only then did Elijah climb from his mossy bed and stretch his arms out wide.
It was the best he’d slept in a long, long time. May...
2025-07-16 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostRamik invited Elijah to breakfast, but he was forced by his full stomach to refuse. Instead, he left the goblin mayor to manage his city. For a while, he just wandered. Mostly, he stuck to the docks, where he spent almost half an hour admiring the huge ships and busy workers. Whatever anyone else had to say about the people of Ironshore, they were industrious. From...
2025-07-15 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostGunnar dwelled on his name.
Throughout his life, even going back to his childhood, when he’d established himself as a uniquely talented shot, he’d often thought it a fitting moniker. He’d even shortened it to Gun, as if to say he was an extension of the weapons he routinely used. And that had continued even after the world had changed, as he’d devoted his entire class ...
2025-07-15 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post